These days, having a strong online presence is no longer optional for small businesses — it’s a necessity. Popular online marketing strategies can help you reach a wider audience, engage with your customers, and ultimately grow your business in ways that traditional marketing can’t match.
With that in mind, here are a few tips to consider when planning online marketing for your business:
1. Plan Your Online Marketing Strategically
As marketing is everything that leads to sales, it generally takes longer to develop. So marketing strategies need to go beyond day-to-day sales tactics. That means:
- Identifying your target audience
- Choosing the right channels and tactics
- Consistently tracking and analyzing your results
- Being patient
Beware this common catch: sales rely on traffic and trust, but building those takes time. Paid ads can be a fast alternative, and a typical Cost-Per-Click (CPC) of £1-£2 may seem cheap. However, paid traffic can quickly get addictive and expensive, as the average website needs over 100 such visitors to make a sale. Unless your profit margin on each sale can cover a Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) of £100 to £200, numbers like that can easily spiral into trouble.
2. Stay Flexible To Succeed
One of the greatest advantages of digital marketing is its flexibility. Unlike traditional marketing campaigns that are set in stone, digital strategies can be quickly adapted and refined based on real-time data and insights. This allows small businesses to stay agile and responsive in an ever-changing online landscape.
Everyone wants free (or cheap), easy and stable marketing. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. Anything cheap and easy soon becomes the new baseline for competition, and any channel that gets popular will try to monetise that. Remember — if you aren’t paying, you’re the product, not the customer. So you will need to adapt.
For instance, social media channels make money from content you write for free. So Facebook posts used to be a good way to promote your website. Now, those reach barely 0.5% of your audience unless you pay.
That doesn’t mean you have to chase every trend, but you do need to figure out which channels your target market prefers and how to stand out on those. It also makes sense to keep your valuable content on your own site (i.e. your blog), where you can link to it from other channels, rather than putting hours of work into a fleeting social media post.
3. Measure Your Online Marketing Success
Stats are essential for effective online marketing
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Digital marketing provides a wealth of data and metrics that can help you gauge the success of your efforts. By regularly monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) like website traffic, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost (CAC) and social media engagement, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy and maximize your ROI.
Here’s the secret to making stats work for you: trends are what really matter. Don’t obsess about short-term ups and downs that last less than a month. Very few such short-lived events can cause lasting damage to a business — unless stressing over them prompts you to make rash decisions. You can’t control your audience or your competitors, so just accept that and focus on the bigger picture and things you can control.
Most popular analytics systems rely on third-party cookies. So to use those on your own site, you’ll need Cookie and Privacy policies, and a compliant consent-tracking system. I recommend CookieYes for this, as it’s easy to manage and affordable even for the sole traders and micro businesses I serve.
4. Invest For Success
Markets tend to reward persistent investment in quality. While all investments involve risk, the less you invest in quality, the higher your risk of failure.
For instance, every business website has to compete with about two billion others to get visitors (aka traffic), who can then be converted into customers. Professional web design, SEO and copywriting attract more traffic, build more trust and persuade more visitors to buy. So many firms invest heavily in those, specifically to stay ahead of those who don’t — because it works.
Whilst every business varies, many invest at least 10% of their target turnover in such professional marketing strategies to grow, or half that to maintain their market position. Otherwise, they slowly lose out to competitors until they become a zombie business, unable to afford the marketing they need to recover.
5. Build Relationships
Ultimately, digital marketing is all about building relationships with your target audience. By providing valuable content, engaging with your followers, and delivering exceptional customer experiences, you can foster loyalty, trust, and advocacy that will help your small business thrive for years to come.
- 5.0 from 32 reviews
- 12-08-2024
Dr Prashant Murugkar
Pete is an amazing human and the ultimate expert. He does not sell for selling sake and gives honest advice all through. He has taken my website from strength to strength till it comes up high on the organic listings. I whole heartedly recommend Netcentrics for anyone wanting website related advice, thanks Pete :-) best wishes Dr Prashant Murugkar
- 08-03-2024
Alison Rider-Hill
Pete has been patience personified, helping me to navigate a website I inherited for an event I am responsible for. But for him I would probably have broken the back end repeatedly.
- 14-12-2023
Ivan Caric
Pete has been incredibly helpful and supportive, above and beyond what was required. We're a tiny business, and from helping with the initial web design to SEO advice and inevitable tweaks and changes as the business develops, Pete has been patient and full of sage advice. We cannot recommend him more highly!
- 24-05-2023
Dave M.
Thanks, Pete! Since you updated my site, business has gone crazy – I now have more work than I know what to do with!
- 04-04-2023
Mark R
I use Netcentrics for all my business needs. Always a professional, super-prompt and to date flawless service. Excellent.
- 02-03-2023
Ceri E
A fantastic service! We are a small business just starting out with a new venture. Pete at Netcentrics has gone above and beyond to provide us with not only a fantastic website, but also invaluable business and marketing advice. The whole process has been incredibly positive and beyond what we expected compared to previous experiences. He is incredibly knowledgeable and supportive. His support did not stop at the end of the website build, he has continued to make himself available ensuring that we know how to maximise use of the website for our start up. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Pete to anyone.
- 18-11-2022
Janet L
Thanks, Pete — your advice is like gold dust!
- 21-08-2022
Barbara H
Oh my goodness, thank you so much! In over 20 years of online retailing this is the best and most comprehensive bit of help I've ever had relating to the dreaded SEO. I really appreciate it - many thanks again
- 07-11-2021
Sam G.
You’re amazing — highly recommended!
- 16-06-2021
Abid Hussain
Amazing service. Professional and outstanding company to deal with. Pete has great understanding with online requirements and core issue's. Spent hours on the telephone explaining and working on the website to bring it up-to-date. Noting but gratitude and respect to Netcentric. Highly recommend to any one through my experience they have gone above and beyond.
- 15-05-2021
SakineO-1
Pete is the most professional and knowledgeable web developer I have experienced since 2016 as I have had many since. You won’t regret. I highly recommend him.
- 15-05-2021
Songul Yucel
Pete is a professional and very helpful. I needed an online booking system for my driving school. He completed the job as promised. He is very easy to work with. I can t be any happier. I will in touch again if I need help in the future. Thank you Pete!! It has been pleasure working with you !
- 05-10-2020
Paul Mercer
- 26-08-2020
Susan Baynham-Evans
Peter expertise is exactly what I needed . When I have ideas Pete makes them work. I could not run my website without him
- 09-07-2020
Emma Cunliffe
Can't recommend him highly enough. He was extremely professional, laid out exactly what we needed to do and his role within that, setting expectations all round very clearly, and working within our budgetary constraints to set clear boundaries. He was extremely prompt and punctual in his responses and work. He was also extremely patient with his recommendations and explanations, which were clear and simple to follow. Excellent value for us as a charity. We're very grateful to him - he was a real pleasure to work with.
- 05-06-2020
Graham Smith
knowledgeable and professional service designing and building a website for a local SME business.
- 05-06-2020
Keary Birch
Very helpful staff who really understood the problem and dealt with it.
- 05-06-2020
Ali van Dam
First rate! Knowledgeable, professional and creative. I would absolutely use Netcentrics again for future projects.
- 05-06-2020
Barbara Harris
Amazing, professional service and speedy communications. Very impressed and highly recommended.
- 05-06-2020
JWComp Sol
Netcentrics designed, implemented and have maintained our company website for many years.If you want a secure and reliable website I strongly recommend Netcentrics.
- 21-12-2019
Alison van Dam
I can’t say enough good things about Netcentrics.co.uk - thorough, knowledgeable, dedicated and innovative. Highly recommended.
- 05-12-2019
Helen Rich
Very pleased with my new e-commerce site from Netcentrics. Very professional, knowledgeable, and highly recommended.
- 05-06-2019
Mark Davies
I have been using Netcentrics' SEO service and they have impressively managed to get over 250 of my keywords onto the first page of the search results. A very friendly and thoroughly professional service. Highly recommended.
- 05-06-2018
andrew cocchiara
Many thank's Pete for all your advice and expertise over the years. A first class professional service and excellent value for money.
- 15-03-2018
Tim D
Just saw that my site is now in 2nd place on the first page of Google. I’m not sure what you have done, nor do I understand it, but it worked! Many thanks!
- 24-02-2018
Paul G
It is a pleasure dealing with a professional with a high degree of technical skill allied to a ‘can do’ positive attitude. Your ability to explain technical concepts in layman’s language is also a great advantage. I would have no hesitation in recommending your services.
- 03-01-2018
Lisa
Excellent and professional work from beginning to end. Pete was open to ideas and able to make suggestions on how to develop my site.
- 05-06-2017
Ian A
Fast, friendly, efficient service that exceeded the spec and made a complicated job hassle free for me. Five stars, would highly recommend and would happily employ again for all things web and internet based.
- 05-06-2017
Mo Rich
A flourishing web designer, who is thorough and meticulous in everything he does. Will create a great looking unique and professional website particular to your needs.
- 14-09-2016
Ian A
Pete is one of the most creative, reliable, competent and ingenious people it has ever been my very great pleasure to work with. There is no problem he can’t find an ingenious and unexpected way out of, and he has a work ethic you could bend horseshoes around. I cannot recommend him highly enough for his breadth and depth of knowledge and his total commitment to whichever project he is currently undertaking.
- 31-05-2015
Jayne H
DogLost is the UK’s largest community of pet owners and rescuers. Other developers have struggled to meet our needs, but since Peter rebuilt our site and support systems we have gone from strength to strength, winning major awards including the 2013 Innovation Award from the International Fund for Animal Welfare. We couldn’t have done that without him.
- 19-11-2013
Codyspetdeli
Cody's Pet Deli is an online business that sells pet food & accessories. Approaching Pete to set up a new website was the best move I have made. We wanted a system that was easy to navigate and look good when customers shop online.Pete made the whole process simple and dealing with him was a great pleasure. He can't do enough to help and solve any problem that may arise. I would highly recommend Pete for his experience and knowledge and total dedication to see the project through to final conclusion.Steve H.
Note: The small fee I may get if you buy from external links in this post doesn’t affect my recommendations.