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Discover free and easy tools to succeed in less than 5 minutes.

Written by Alden HuiDigital Marketing Specialist, Olympia Benefits

Updated October 2017

The Simple Guide toDigital Marketing

for Your SmallBusiness

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Olympia Bene�ts Inc. is here

About Olympia

Back in 1997, Olympia Benefits started off with a team of less than 5. Fast forward to 2017, we are a growing company, still offering the same creative health and dental solutions for Canada’s small business community.As a result, we know a thing or two about marketing from a small business perspective. Throughout our growth, we’ve tried a number of different marketing methods. Hopefully, this knowledge can be helpful to you.

Learn how a Health Spending Account (HSA) can benefit your small business:

Click here if you are a Small with No Employees (owner and spouse only)

Click here if you are a Small Business with Employees

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What will we cover?

• Discover the hidden perks of marketing and their impor-tance

• Find out today’s most important marketing concepts• Apply these concepts• Learn the latest digital tools for applying these concepts

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What are the perks of marketing?

• Long term growth

• Creates consumer awareness

• Builds your brand image

• Greater opportunity

• Reach customers from across the world effortlessly

• Thousands of low cost resources and tools

• Ties in with other parts of the business

• From product packaging to employee values

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Today’s concepts

All marketing, whether traditional or digital, still starts with the same core principles (as a bonus, I’ve included search engine optimization, since it is so prevalent in today’s world)

• Customer Journey (AIDA)

• Target Market

• Competitive Advantage

• Positioning Map

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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Customer Journey (AIDA)

The customer journey is about understanding your customer, every step of the way.

Throughout this process, consumers go through many feelings and emotions.

Therefore, we should target using different forms of marketing

This is important because you don’t want to ask visitors to buy a product (ex. a car) on the first visit.

However, if it is their 5th visit and have finished test driving, it may be a good idea to let them know of any current promotions to encourage a purchase

Same principles applies to digital marketing

From A To B

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Customer Journey (AIDA)

Example Customer Goals Marketing Channel (Examples – provide pictures)

Attentionwhen customers

have a need for a category or product

Blog

Interest when customers compare brands Social Media Ad

Desirewhen customers develop a brand

preference Promotional Email

Actionwhen the customer

has purchase intention

PayPal, VISA, MasterCard

Post-Actionafter the customer

has used the product

Reviews

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Target Market

• The consumers who (based on research and intuition) are most likely to need/want your product

• A business can have more than one target market• In most small business’ case, the target market is fairly specific• Understanding a target market is key to survival and ultimately, success• No matter how niche (specific) or small your target market is, if you can target

the proper audience, it will succeed• Marketers often discover their target market through research, surveys, statistics,

and a general idea envisioned in their mind through experience

Car manufacturers usually offer several models. Each model is marketed differently, based on its unique feature and core offerings. Think about the 3 cars above, are they all going to appeal to the same person? Probably not.

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Target Market

Segmentation Example

Demographic

Age

Gender

Income Level

Education

Geographic

City

Suburban/Urban/Rural

Country

PsychographicValues

Lifestyle Preferences

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Business: Wong’s Eastern Chinese Cuisine

Target Market: 25-35 single college grads living in nearby apartments

• These millennials are looking for something quick, tasty, and relatively low budget

• They are quite busy, outside of their full time job, and look for something they can eat on the go

• Located in urban city centers, they bike or transit to work everyday

Target Market Example

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Competitive Advantage

A competitive advantage is a distinguishable factor your compa-ny has, that other companies don’t have, which makes customers choose you.

Every company has direct competitors, usually a local business which offers products that are very similar (if not providing the same function) to your own

Examples of competitive advantages are brand image, price, trust, customer service, and ease of use.

Netflix’s competitive advantage could be their exclusive licensing of certain popular movies or their unique original content. These are things that competitors cannot access.

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Positioning Map

Take two of the most important factors in your industry (ex. Cost, quality, speed, brand image) and place at the ends of two perpendicular lines. Companies are plotted along the chart based on consumer’s perception of those two values.

High Cost

Low Cost

A

CBE

F D

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is an increasingly important concept in the digital marketing world. It is the practice of efficient website design, which attracts organic (or unpaid) traffic. This involves several methods.

• Competing for keywords relevant to your company/product

• Placing keywords into your alt-text and header text

• Acquiring inbound links to your website pages

• Implementing strong website design which allows search engines (like Google) to easily access your site

Implementing these standards will help to improve your ranking on Google, which will direct more traffic to your website, without paying a single cent.

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What is a keyword in SEO?

SEO continued

A keyword is one or a set of words that you type into Google. By utilizing SEO practices, you are aiming to be the first organic search result after typing a certain keyword into Google search bar.

As a result, search engine optimization is a long term strategy and should be an ongoing mission for your company.

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Applying these concepts

Determine your objective – what is the outcome you wish to achieve

Market based on the customer

journey

Set goals – these are steps toward

your primary objective

Research your industry

(competitors, government,

suppliers, employees)

Identify your target market

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• Facebook Ads – target based on user segmentation (refer to target market)

• Google AdWords – target based on search keywords

• Google Analytics – the top platform for website analytics (all about your digital sales funnel), but requires some learning

• AdRoll – a leader in retargeting ads (targeting users who have previously visited your site) with over 35,000 advertisers

• Vimeo – similar to YouTube, Vimeo is the ad-free, high definition alternative

• Your Own Website – referring back to SEO, your website is a great tool for organic traffic. Consider using WIX, WordPress, or Shopify depending on your custom website needs

• Unbounce – quickly create and experiment with new landing pages (to bring traffic and get conversions )

• MailChimp – One of the top email platforms, with a variety of free and paid plans for all types of users

• SurveyMonkey – a popular online survey tool (great for marketing research)

• ZenDesk – integrate all customer service into one digital platform

• Moz – an add-on to SEO practices, allowing you to determine best keywords to compete with, etc.

Digital Marketing Tools

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1. Try 1-2 of these tools first

2. Experiment (most of these tools are free or have a free trial period)

3. Apply the concepts

4. Check results often

Remember: these tools offer different services and may not always be right for your business.

Marketing is all about trial and error, but that’s what makes the digital era so great. These resources have become accessible and efficient for any business to use.

Once you get familiar, consider adding another 2-3 tools to your repertoire.

Tip: a good place to start is Email marketing because it’s free with proven conversion rates.

Start small, grow big

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