Over the last year, we’ve written many articles about taking advantage of the digital sales revolution; these articles provided insight on how to exploit the various digital channels to maximize a company’s exposure to a worldwide customer base.
One strategy that we have found to be extremely successful for our clients is pinpointing the digital ad campaigns that are most beneficial to their selling efforts. Data shows that 60% of small businesses (SMBs) are currently using digital advertising.
But these numbers are also somewhat misleading since that figure means fully 40% of small businesses are not using any forms of digital advertising whatsoever; the channels that are used average out to 1.3 per business.
This lackluster utilization of digital advertising leaves a massive opportunity for SMBs to take the initiative to develop a multi-point approach to bringing more money in the door.
The pandemic and its related business challenges have highlighted the stark difference between companies taking advantage of opportunities and companies falling behind. For example, Amazon saw a 37% increase in earnings in the third quarter on $96 billion revenue, better than analysts expected. Meanwhile, others like J.C. Penney, Pier 1, Modell’s Sporting Goods, J. Crew and Neiman-Marcus entered bankruptcy during 2020.
According to The Rise Of SMB Digital Advertising In 2020, a study by ClickCease, there was a 670% increase in e-commerce ad clicks from March to October 2020 for small businesses. Other sectors like entertainment and sports/fitness instructors have also seen robust increases in ad clicks, which speaks to the things people find most important while locked down due to the pandemic.
The minuscule utilization of a multi-pronged digital method means that most businesses have plenty of opportunities to expand into the digital ad space, especially when you consider just how many channels are available to the seller: Facebook Shop, Google Shopping, Instagram Shops, company websites, eBay, Amazon, and many more.
Current SMB social media marketing spend can vary from a few dollars per day to $20,000 per month or more; it depends on business size, marketing goals, and many other factors. But unless a company is a significant brand banking massive funds every day, it most likely doesn’t need to be at that level of financial commitment when it comes to marketing through social media channels.
Research by MAGNA shows that SMBs represent nearly 75% of all search and social media spending on Google and Facebook, which are the two biggest channels at this time. This overwhelming allocation into those channels shows that advertisers follow the largest population of people around on the Web — which is to be expected. But the lack of advertising by so many businesses means there is still a massive opportunity for sales growth in these channels.
Also, don’t discount the possibilities on smaller channels such as Instagram. If a company has products that present well in vivid color, then allocating marketing budget to attract an audience on the image-heavy site can bring massive returns on investment.
Because of the database integration options offered by Facebook Shop, Amazon, eBay, and even Shopify, it is our belief that it doesn’t make much sense to create a new e-commerce site from scratch due to the cost and complexity involved in doing so. We detail this and much more in our Direct-To-Consumer Sales Checklist article, which outlines the tools businesses need to be successful with online sales. Using the article’s tips and combining them with a proven multi-channel strategy and carefully placed ads will deliver the best bang for the buck.
Our KM101: Optimizing The Digital Sales Funnel For Your Business article illustrates the multi-channel strategy with a case study to show how we assisted one client with a 199.2% increase in direct sales year-over-year when we compare 2020’s results to those of 2019.
A recent report from Google found that 69% of consumers planned to shop online for the 2020 holiday season. While the opportunity to capitalize on this seismic shift in shopping behavior is past, it’s never too late to get started with a plan to target these consumers as they continue to make purchases online.
We have a team of specialists who are well-versed in providing direct marketing results for our clients, so reach out to us if your business needs help.
