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3C Digital

Digital Marketing for Small Business

digital marketing

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The realities of social media marketing

One of the first things we do for small-business owners during our free initial consultation, even if they don’t end up as our client, is to manage their expectations about social media marketing. Why? Because based on experience, small-business owners think it’s the messiah of marketing.

Social media marketing helps your small business join the digital age but it’s not the answer to all your needs. So when we sit with small-business owners, we make sure they know these three top things before we move forward.

Read the full post over at Inside Small Business.

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End of year digital marketing check up

End of year digital marketing check up

  1. Know your winning platforms
  2. Be realistic with your assessment
  3. Drop the ones that aren’t working
  4. Look at your analytics
  5. Create a new strategy

We are so close to the end of the year. If you’re like us, you’re probably scrambling to get things sorted before Christmas — both at home and at work. The To Do list is probably overwhelming (we know ours is!) but there is one aspect you need to look at, too. Now is the best time to go through your year and take a hard look at your digital marketing strategy. In this post, we will give you a guide on how to do a post mortem of your year.

The winning platforms

List the platforms you used for things like online advertising, marketing and social media. Go through the analytics of your platforms and look at which ones were hitting your targets. Remember that the targets are not always the same for each platform. It could be that your target was awareness of your brand. Or maybe education about a service you introduced this year. It could be to sell more of a certain product/service. Because your targets were different you need to measure the results differently as well. But be pragmatic about it. If you were on three or four social media platforms but only one or two are giving you the best results drop the others.

Assess the losing platforms

Yes, you should drop the platforms and the advertising avenues that aren’t working but before you do that, assess it first. Why were they not effective? Were the messages wrong for that platform? Were you posting during the wrong time? Or maybe you didn’t post enough. Did you target the right people? Maybe you didn’t put enough budget for the advertising campaign on platform X? Whatever the reasons are, you need to find out so you don’t make the same mistake. Make it a teachable moment for you and your staff.

The right messages

Finally, look at the messages that were winning this year. Which ones got a lot of engagements and shares? What format worked best? Was it video? Maybe a slideshow? Was it the carousel one? What kind of message moves your customers to make that click? Look at your analytics and find out so you can create a content strategy around that for the following year. Having said that, you also need to be on the lookout for what’s going to ‘trend’ next year. Plan as much as you can but also make room for flexibility when things change (yet again) next year.

To learn more about digital marketing and how it works, check out our Small Business Digital Marketing portal!

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Small Business Digital Marketing platform

We’ve been brewing something awesome here at 3C Digital. Introducing, the Small Business Digital Marketing portal! This new platform was born because of you — small business owners. We listened to your needs. We heard your questions and concerns. And we did something about it. In this post, we help you get to know the Small Business Digital Marketing portal.

Who is it for?

The Small Business Digital Marketing portal is for small business owners who:

  • want to learn about digital marketing
  • want to do digital marketing but find it confusing
  • don’t have a big budget for digital marketing
  • want access to digital marketing experts minus the giant cost
  • want to be updated with changes and how it affects them
  • have questions about digital marketing but don’t know who to ask
  • want to have access to tutorials on topics they want to learn.

What do I get out of it?

Some of the things we offer in the portal include:

  • Super-easy-to-understand video tutorials on various digital marketing and social media topics
  • Downloadable eBooks with checklists and templates that you get to keep
  • New tutorials each month
  • Learning about the ‘whys’ (because it helps if you know why you need it before you do it)
  • Access to 3C Digital’s expertise
  • Bespoke packages that are small business-friendly
  • Regular updates on digital marketing and social media changes (and how it affects you)
  • Webinars from experts
  • And so much more!

Can I afford it?

Of course you can! It’s like half the price of your everyday coffee! We made it that way because we really do want to help the small business owners who can’t afford the agency fees. The Small Business Digital Marketing portal was created with you guys in mind. We’ve met so many small business owners with the same concerns. We understand we can’t cater to all these businesses, that’s why we made the portal. It’s here to help YOU!

Ready for it? Check out our brand new site for more details!

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Why you need digital marketing for your small business

Small business owners ask all the time why they need to go into the digital marketing world. Can’t you just do what you were doing and leave it that way? Unfortunately, not because the old ways are not working anymore. We’ve met with small business owners who admitted that they barely got a reply to the 10,000 flyers they left in people’s mailboxes. All that money wasted. In this post, we will tell you why your small business needs digital marketing.

It’s a digital world

You can bury your head in the sand but the truth of the matter is that we are in a digital era. Although there are still some things that are the same (advertising messages still need to be compelling), the avenue has changed. And it’s changing constantly. But even though you are overwhelmed by the digital marketing world, you still need to be there. If you can’t do them all, just start small. Read up on our digital marketing for beginners tips to get you going. We make sure we lessen the jargon so that you understand what we’re talking about.

You need to be competitive

One thing to remember is that your competition is online. They are doing the digital marketing stuff. They are on social media and they are not afraid to use it. If you want to be competitive, you need to have a digital space, too. These days, when customers hear about your brand they check out your website and your Facebook page first. Then they look at your reviews online and the different ways they can contact you. Aside from that, they also look at what your posts have been on social media. If you’re not online, or your customers are having a hard time finding things out about your small business, you will miss out.

It’s not changing anytime soon

We’re sorry to say that the digital world isn’t budging. No matter how many times you hear issues surrounding social media platforms, it is still going strong. In fact, users for platforms like Facebook and Instagram are in the billions and increasing. If you don’t ride the tide now, it’ll be even more difficult to catch up later on. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t hesitate to hire a digital marketing agency. Read our tips on what to look for when looking for a digital marketing agency for your small business. Whether you are going to DIY digital marketing or hire an agency, it is best to start ASAP.

Wanna know more about digital marketing? Contact us for a FREE 30-minute content strategy.

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A beginner’s guide to your small business digital marketing strategy

A beginner’s guide to your small business digital marketing strategy

  1. Know what you need
  2. Start with three things first
  3. Educate yourself
  4. Pick a platform to learn
  5. Don’t do all of it in one go

We should have written this ages ago, like when we first started the blog. But we had no idea then just how many of you out there need to start from the very beginning. Don’t worry, if you are you’re not alone. According to the latest Yellow Digital Report, seven in 10 SMEs admit they don’t have a digital business strategy. In this post, we give you a beginner’s guide to small business digital marketing strategy.

Know what you need

How can you know what you need if you don’t know what you need? Right? To make things easy, here is a quick overview of what you should prioritise in your small business digital marketing strategy. These are the things that you need to research about first:

Start with these three things so you’re not too overwhelmed. And then take it from there.

Educate  yourself

There are plenty of courses online and offline that you can do to educate yourself on digital marketing and social media management. Companies like Google announce regular free sessions online. There are also apps like Udemy that offer really affordable classes that you can do during your own time. Be aware that there are many unreliable ones out there too so it is best to do some research beforehand. Here at 3C Digital, we are brewing up a super practical and easy to follow platform that will help small business owners wrap their heads around digital marketing. Follow us on Facebook to get regular updates before our launch.

Don’t do all of it in one go

One step at a time is a good tactic. Otherwise, you’ll get drowned in information. So what do we suggest you should do? If you’re not familiar with a lot of the digital stuff, then a workshop is the best next step for you. Even just two hours sitting down with a digital marketing expert like us will go a long way in starting your digital strategy. Trickling your strategy over a couple of months is good. It’ll give you time to learn things more, maybe do another workshop. Remember though, things in the digital world change a lot. Like all the time. So make sure you follow our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on these changes.

Need a digital marketing workshop? Contact us for more info!

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Mistakes small business owners make when using social media

We are over at Inside Small Business today talking about the most common social media mistakes that small business owners make online.

You know that social media is here to stay. If your small business is not on any social media platform, you are missing out on potential customers big time. We know it can be confusing to navigate the do’s and don’ts of using social media for your small business. But it is still important to know even just the basics. In this post, we will discuss five of the most common mistakes that small-business owners make when using social media. See you there!