Why You Need a Digital Marketing Agency for Small Businesses

Laying the foundation for sustained success in our extremely competitive marketplace can be incredibly challenging, regardless of which industry you operate within. 

Getting the word out about your products or services is particularly difficult when your company is in its infancy, as you must compete with established brands that already have a foothold with existing market share.

Fortunately, you can overcome this growth hurdle by partnering with a digital marketing agency for small businesses. These digital marketing firms specialize in meeting the needs of emerging organizations and helping them build a powerful brand image from the ground up.

In this article, we discuss why you should consider hiring a digital marketing agency for small businesses. We outline the tactics and strategies that a great digital marketing firm will use in order to fuel new growth. 

Our team even provides real-world data that demonstrates the value that a digital marketing agency for small businesses can provide to your company.

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the natural evolution of traditional marketing. The term “digital marketing” refers to any customer outreach and brand-building efforts that are deployed through electronic devices.

The overwhelming majority of all modern marketing efforts leverage digital mediums. Even physical signs are being replaced with digital alternatives. This evolution comes as no surprise as digital signage has a recall rate of 83%. 

The same study found that nearly three out of four consumers claim that digital signage catches their eye more effectively than online advertisements, but more on specific digital marketing efforts a bit later.

In order to compete in the modern marketplace, your business must leverage digital marketing. However, getting the most out of your digital marketing efforts can be difficult due to the sheer number of mediums available. 

Many companies partner with a digital marketing agency for small businesses so that they can maximize the efficacy of their advertising efforts.

What Is a Digital Marketing Agency for Small Businesses?

A digital marketing agency for small businesses is a firm that has experience serving local and regional entities. Generally speaking, a digital marketing agency is a firm that will manage your online outreach efforts. 

Most digital marketing agencies offer scalable services, which means that they can take point on a specific area or manage your entire digital strategy. The suite of services should be tailored to meet the unique needs of your company.

When seeking a brand-building partner, finding a digital marketing agency for small businesses is vital. Small businesses face unique challenges because they must connect with local audiences, not national markets. 

A digital marketing agency for small businesses will better understand the nuances of working with your growing company and produce stronger results.

Why Hire a Digital Marketing Agency for Small Businesses?

While engaging in digital marketing is vital for any business, managing paid search campaigns and other outreach efforts can be quite complicated. A poorly managed campaign can quickly become a money pit that costs you big bucks but produces underwhelming results. 

A disappointing return on investment (ROI) on ad spend can derail your growth aspirations and damage overall profitability.

Employing a digital marketing agency for small businesses will help you optimize your ROI. While no digital marketing firm can guarantee results, a quality partner can be invaluable to the success of your company. 

With that being said, it is vital that you properly screen a digital marketing agency for small businesses before partnering with them. Take the time to do your research so that you can find the right team for the needs of your company.

How a Digital Marketing Agency for Small Businesses Fuels Growth

A digital marketing agency for small businesses can help you break free from your marketing rut and overcome growth hurdles. Specifically, a digital marketing agency for small businesses can help you:

Drive New Leads

Lead generation is one of the most integral components of growing your business. The term “sales lead” refers to an individual or company (in business-to-business sales) that has the potential to become a paying client. The more leads you acquire, the more opportunities you have to close deals and generate revenue.

One of the primary functions of a digital marketing agency for small businesses is to drive new leads to your sales staff. However, you must remember that not all leads are created equal.

Leads vary in quality and should be classified accordingly. A few factors that impact a lead’s quality include the accuracy of the information on that individual, where they are in the purchasing journey, and how the lead was acquired.

For example, an individual who filled out a contact form on your website is likely a highly qualified lead far along in their purchasing journey. They voluntarily provided your company with contact information so that your sales team could reach out about your product or service. 

On the other hand, leads acquired from third-party services or other sources may have minimal interest in your product and require significant nurturing before they are ready to make a purchase.

When consulting with a digital marketing agency for small businesses, do not become fixated on the volume of leads that they provide. While you certainly want the number of leads that you receive to increase, quality should be prioritized over quantity. 

You should review previous work and find out what sort of lead generation results the company has produced in the past.

For instance, Insights ABM recently partnered with a local auto group. While the group was well established within its current area of operations, it had recently acquired four new dealerships. 

These acquisitions represented a great opportunity, but organizational leadership was facing significant pressure to generate leads for these new locations. Insights ABM provided the client with a dynamic digital strategy that was geared towards generating more leads and boosting sales volume. 

The auto group experienced a 38% increase in new car leads and a 23% rise in total sales volumes. Just five months after the launch of its campaign, the business was recognized as the #1 group in their state for new car sales.  

Build an Effective Digital Presence

If you want to grow your business, you must have a robust digital presence. Your digital presence includes your social media activity, website, visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs), and other components. A strong digital presence lays the framework for lead generation, conversions, and other brand-building efforts.

However, emerging businesses often struggle to build an effective digital presence, especially those operating in industries that typically rely on in-person transactions. Some prime examples include restaurants and brick-and-mortar retailers.  

In addition to helping with lead generation, a digital marketing agency for small businesses can provide you with a comprehensive strategy for expanding your online presence. 

A firm like Insights ABM will leverage a variety of channels in order to connect with your target audience. Our team has assisted countless businesses in building their brands with social media marketing, SEO strategies, and design services.

During one such partnership, Insights ABM had the opportunity to work with Willy’s Mexicana Grill. The Atlanta-based restaurant chain needed to expand its digital presence in order to overcome pandemic-related challenges. 

While the leadership is extremely passionate about their business, they had minimal experience managing a complex digital campaign.

The Insights ABM team provided them with a continuous digital strategy that would address both short and long-term needs. Our pros also worked to find the optimal mix of marketing strategies in order to help them accomplish their goals.

Insights ABM’s efforts led to a 54% increase in total sales when compared to the same timeframe year-over-year. Additionally, Insights ABM assisted with recruitment efforts, which resulted in Willy’s Mexicana Grill receiving nearly 700 applications in just 60 days.

Generate Meaningful Traffic with Paid Search

When used strategically, paid search and paid social marketing methods are some of the most powerful tools in your brand-building toolbox. Targeting the right audiences with the best keywords during ideal hours can yield significant results and drive massive amounts of traffic to your site.

A great digital marketing agency for small businesses will create a paid search strategy that fits your budget and goals. The agency will work tirelessly to deliver a strong ROI and ensure that your paid search investments generate meaningful traffic.

In addition to offering digital presence building services and lead generation solutions, Insights ABM’s digital marketing agency for small businesses is also skilled at leveraging paid search. 

When our team partnered with medical services provider Comprehensive OB/GYN, paid search was at the center of our traffic generation efforts.

When Comprehensive OB/GYN first connected with Insights ABM, the firm had a stable portfolio of patients and a steady revenue stream. However, stakeholders wanted to accelerate their growth trajectory by acquiring a wealth of new patients in a relatively condensed time frame.

Insights ABM created and managed several paid search campaigns, each of which targeted local patients by zip code. The marketing materials in these campaigns were geared towards individuals seeking OB/GYN services in order to minimize wasting any of the client’s advertising budget on non-qualified leads.

In only four months, the efforts of our digital marketing agency for small businesses helped Comprehensive OB/GYN acquire over 400 new patient requests. They also experienced a click-through rate of 13% and only spent $11 per conversion.

Take the Guesswork out of Digital Marketing

Without the guidance of a digital marketing agency for small businesses, brand-building initiatives may be overly dependent on guesswork and trial and error. 

While you may ultimately develop a winning strategy using these tactics, doing so will be incredibly costly. You will need to sink countless funds into paid search and content creation in hopes of producing measurable results.

A digital marketing agency for small businesses can help you avoid all of this headache and resource waste by providing you with an expertly crafted strategy designed specifically for your company. 

The best digital marketing firms do not rely on cookie-cutter models but instead tailor their services and tactics around the unique needs of each client.

By partnering with a digital marketing agency for small businesses, you can maximize the ROI of your advertising investments. In addition, a digital marketing team will provide you with regular updates on the performance of your campaign so that you are always in the loop.

What Services Does a Digital Marketing Agency for Small Businesses Offer?

Every digital marketing agency for small businesses may offer a slightly different suite of services. For example, some may specialize in only one or two components of digital marketing, such as search engine optimization or social media advertising. Others, like Insights ABM, offer a comprehensive lineup of services, including the following:

SEO

While there are many great ways to generate buzz about your small business, SEO is firmly positioned at the top of the digital marketing hierarchy. As you are probably aware, search engines like Google use a complex algorithm to rank websites.

Sites that rank highly for a particular keyword or key phrase will make it to page one of the SERPs when consumers include those words in their search query. 

Conversely, pages with a low ranking will be relegated to obscurity somewhere in the sea of search results. This positioning is a huge concern, as 90% of consumers never make it past page one of Google SERPs.

SEO services are designed to help you climb the search rankings and increase your online visibility. When providing SEO services, a digital marketing agency for small businesses will add quality, keyword-optimized content to your website. 

Additionally, they will engage in other rank-building efforts, such as obtaining quality backlinks. A backlink is a link on another reputable site that points to your webpage.

SEO is incredibly complicated because search engines frequently update their ranking algorithms. If you want to achieve and maintain a page one ranking, then you should strongly consider partnering with a digital marketing agency for small businesses.

Digital Strategy Creation

One of the most comprehensive services that a digital marketing agency for small businesses offers is digital strategy creation. Your digital strategy is a detailed plan that outlines the key tenets of your brand-building efforts. 

This digital strategy should include details about your target audience, what channels you plan to market on, how you intend to acquire new clients, etc.

Building a cohesive digital strategy is extremely challenging, but it is also necessary if you hope to succeed in the virtual marketplace. Your digital strategy must address both short-term and long-term brand-building aspirations.

By allocating these responsibilities to a digital marketing agency for small businesses, you can significantly reduce your own workload. An experienced digital marketing firm will be able to craft a custom strategy that addresses all of your most pressing pain points. 

This strategy will lay the framework for digital marketing success and improve the efficacy of your growth initiatives.

Performance Marketing

If you have not been obtaining an optimal ROI on your current marketing investments, then you should leverage performance marketing strategies. This advertising methodology can significantly reduce marketing waste and allow you to connect with clients more effectively.

When building your strategy, a digital marketing agency for small businesses will identify performance metrics that are most relevant to your goals. They will then analyze relevant data in order to create a plan that delivers measurable results.

While the exact scope of each performance marketing campaign will vary, they all have one key attribute in common: you only pay for ads when they meet the criteria that you select. 

For instance, you can set up a performance marketing campaign that only charges you for clicks. If a prospect views one of your ads but does not click the link, then this exposure costs you nothing.

Branding and Design

Branding and design have become more important than ever before. If consumers have a positive outlook toward your brand and company, then they are more likely to purchase your products or services. In fact, 81% of consumers polled stated that they must be able to trust a company in order to purchase their products.

A digital marketing agency for small businesses like Insights ABM leverages proven strategies and world-class artistry to provide you with exceptional branding services. From your logo design to the color scheme, every detail will be carefully addressed using our team’s abundance of industry experience.

A great logo can help you make a lasting first impression with your target audience. Custom branding will have customers thinking about your advertisement long after they have left your website.

Pay-Per-Click Campaign Management

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a specific type of performance-based marketing. When using this style of campaign, you pay every time a consumer clicks on your content. 

PPC ads are displayed at the top of SERPs, above organic results. While PPC content is no substitute for SEO marketing, it can effectively generate large volumes of traffic in a relatively short time span.

A digital marketing agency for small businesses will strategically use PPC ads to augment other efforts. When used in conjunction with social media marketing, SEO, email-based outreach, and other tactics, PPC can be a valuable component of your digital strategy.

Social Media Marketing

On average, consumers spend approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media platforms every single day. This trend makes social media platforms a great marketing channel that you can leverage to grow your business.

A digital marketing agency for small businesses will help you get the most out of your social media marketing efforts. It will determine which platforms are most popular among your target demographic and ensure that your brand is represented on these mediums.

The right digital partner will also make sure that you do not fall victim to the common social media marketing mistakes that plague many small business owners. 

Examples include posting too sporadically, attempting to be extremely active on too many platforms, or misidentifying which channels are favorites among your audience of consumers.  

Email Marketing

PPC campaigns, social media marketing, and SEO are all vital components of your digital strategy. However, you must be careful not to neglect one of the most effective tools at your disposal: email marketing. 

Great email drip campaigns can win the hearts, minds, and wallets of your target audience. You can use emails to nurture new clients, reconnect with past customers, and drive more sales.

A digital marketing agency for small businesses can oversee your entire email marketing campaign. The agency can craft email content, link these messages to high-quality marketing materials, and ensure that each communication is sent to your audience at ideal intervals.

Well-managed email marketing campaigns not only produce a strong ROI but also involve minimal overhead costs. You do not have to create robust new content or purchase potentially costly advertising space on SERPs. Instead, you simply need some well-written content and strategic links back to existing web pages.

Influencer Marketing

There is a common misconception making its rounds through small business owner circles. This outdated belief is that influencer marketing is only for big-name retailers and national enterprises. In actuality, influencer marketing can benefit small to medium-sized businesses that sell B2C products as well.

In case you are not familiar, influencer marketing involves partnering with a social media personality in order to create buzz about your product or service. In exchange, the influencer may receive free products, monetary compensation, or some combination of the two.

A digital marketing agency for small businesses can help you determine whether influencer marketing is a viable strategy for your company. If it is, the Insights ABM team can help you connect with an influencer who aligns with your core values, needs, and audience.

What to Look for When Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency for Small Businesses

You must be cautious when searching for a digital marketing agency for your small business. If you make the wrong decision, then you may inadvertently compound your existing digital marketing woes. However, the right partner can become a trusted ally in your quest to stand out.

When exploring your options, we recommend that you look for a digital marketing agency that exhibits the following attributes:

Relevant Experience

Experience should be at the top of your priority list when sifting your way through prospective digital marketing partners. You should find out how long the company has been in business, how many clients it has served, and why its team believes that it is a good fit for your needs.

Additionally, determine whether it has worked with businesses in your industry in the past. If it has, then ask for some details. Even if the digital marketing agency cannot name names, it should be able to outline what sort of services it provides and offer some general information about past clients.

The needs of your small business are starkly different from those of a large enterprise. 

As such, a digital marketing agency that specializes in assisting emerging companies will be able to better serve your business than a firm that only works with massive organizations. It will know how to connect with local audiences and precisely target prospects based on zip codes or other geographic criteria.

A Full Range of Services

If your small business only needs one or two specific digital marketing services, it may be tempting to partner with a niche provider that specializes in those fields. While this tactic may seem like a shrewd money-saving move at the time, it can also come back to haunt you.

Let’s say that you do take this approach by partnering with a digital marketing firm that exclusively manages your PPC and social media campaigns. What will you do if your business needs assistance with SEO, branding, email marketing, or affiliate advertising in the near future? The chances are that you will have to seek out a new partner.

By selecting a dynamic digital marketing firm from the outset, you can avoid the need to switch providers in the future. A digital marketing agency should be able to evolve its service offering as your company’s needs change.

Quality Work

You should never enter into a partnership with a digital marketing agency without reviewing its portfolio. Premier digital marketing agencies will proudly display their work on their websites for the world to see. This boosterism is easy because they are confident in the abilities of their teams and the content that they produce.

When reviewing work, pay particular attention to content that aligns with your brand image and style. Make sure to review projects that were completed for clients that operate in the same industry as you. This review will help you gauge if the digital marketing agency can adequately meet the needs of your business.

Stellar Client Reviews

Client reviews are one of the best indicators of a digital marketing agency’s abilities. If their website and third-party review forums are flooded with stellar client reviews, then that digital marketing firm probably produces exceptional work. 

Conversely, if you notice concerning trends in client reviews, then you may need to check out the next digital marketing agency on your list of prospective partners.

Great Communication

Great communication is key to any successful business partnership, including your relationship with a digital marketing agency. You are trusting your digital marketing firm with your company’s reputation. The best digital marketing agencies will honor this trust by maintaining clear and consistent communication from the outset of your partnership.

When consulting with prospective partners, find out what their typical communication protocols entail. Do they provide updates weekly, biweekly, or monthly? Will you have a designated point of contact with the company, or will you be routed to whoever is available when you have a concern about your marketing campaign?

By addressing these questions during the consultation, you can lay the foundation for a mutually beneficial partnership. While just about every digital marketing firm will have an established routine for communicating with clients, they should be willing to modify their approach in order to meet your unique needs.

An Established Method for Driving Growth

A digital marketing agency for small businesses will not be able to provide highly specific details about their tactics during an initial consultation. They must gather information about your company, conduct market research, and analyze relevant data in order to identify the biggest challenges that your company is currently facing.

However, an experienced digital marketing professional should be able to provide a general overview of their growth strategy during your initial consultation. When speaking with a prospective provider, make sure to ask plenty of questions and request that they outline how they plan to help your business achieve its goals.

Scalable Support

Finally, you should seek out a digital marketing agency that can offer scalable support. You want a partner that has the talent and resources necessary to manage large-scale campaigns, produce quality content under a tight deadline, and grow with your business.

When consulting with potential partners, make sure to inquire about their ability to scale with your company. Find out what their protocol is for expanding the scope of their marketing services. An ideal partner will provide agile, scalable support in order to help your business compete in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Insights ABM: The Leading Digital Marketing Agency for Small Businesses

If you want to partner with a digital marketing agency for small businesses that produces real results, Insights ABM is just the team for the job. 

Our diverse group of designers, branding specialists, SEO experts, campaign management pros, and consultants can provide you with timely guidance that will help you shatter growth barriers.

We specialize in meeting the needs of emerging companies but also have the capabilities and resources to be your lifelong digital marketing partner. In addition to helping local organizations reach their true potential, our digital marketing agency for small businesses has effectively met the needs of large-scale enterprises.

When companies want to stand out, they consistently turn to Insights ABM. Clients consistently praise our creative team for “over-delivering” while also providing them with incredible value. But don’t just take our word for it: explore some of our past work and see the results we produce for yourself.

We invite you to book a free consultation with our digital marketing agency for small businesses if you would like to learn more about this exciting opportunity.