When you think of digital marketing you think of a strong social media presence, Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns and SEO driven traffic to a top-tier website, and effective email campaigns to lists of 10,000+ subscribers generating orders for a new, dynamic, e-commerce business.What doesn’t spring to mind is a more traditional business, essentially local rather than digital, established for many years with a strong local customer base.
In reality, though, the same tactics that brought the traffic, leads, and sales to the e-commerce business will also help the local business in two traditional areas that increase profits (more on that in a minute).
A different approachThere are, however, a few differences in how a digital marketing agency could approach the two different types of businesses’ needs.
Clearly, the strategy for a large web-based business is well-known and will start with an initial response to a social media post or ad.Once some form of contact is established, via a follow, subscribe or submission of details, the contact is then exposed to a series of content resources in various targeted media to build a positive association and make a sale.More established businesses will usually have a customer base that they already have a relationship with, but probably only have limited contact with that base via digital means.
With the accelerated growth of online purchasing, a local business needs to increase that level of contact and then expand it to create new customers.Global or Local?Whereas an e-commerce business is designed to work countrywide or worldwide, a local business might have some restrictions based on the business type.
For instance, a company in Coventry that sells soap bars can easily transfer its business to a more global scale.However, the window cleaner or roofer in the next building would need a more local targeted approach and would have to be restricted to digital marketing in the Coventry area.