By Jeff Korhan
Digital marketing is nearing a point of critical mass, one that will take most small businesses by surprise.
Information wants to be shared, and that is readily accomplished when it is captured digitally.
Digital is universal, going all the way back to Einstein: E = MC2. Digital marketing involves the free exchange of valuable information in the form of interchangeable energy – and that is no doubt going to change forever how we all do business.
Knowing this, one wonders why more businesses are not creating digital content that amplifies their expertise for the communities they now serve – and new ones that have not yet discovered them.
Change and Digital Marketing Leadership
It was not long ago that all small business marketing was accomplished in a tangible, non-digital format. The earliest forms of digital marketing were television and radio. Of course, these mediums were both out of reach for most small businesses with limited marketing budgets.
Websites were the first affordable form of marketing for mainstream small businesses. They still serve a purpose, provided you can drive traffic to them. Paid search campaigns are one method of driving that traffic, and while still effective, they can easily become quite expensive.
One of the benefits of digital content marketing is that over time, a body of work is created that builds sustainable traffic. However, only a small percentage of small businesses have embraced digital content marketing, quite possibly because blogging is the predominant and often misunderstood means for distributing that content.
There are two reasons for this. Most companies are not even aware of why they should be creating digital content. And since few in their industry are practicing this discipline, they assume there is no reason to to adopt it – that the game is not changing.
Guess what? It is – and it’s impact will be both profound and sweeping. The truth is all of the capabilities for a digital marketing revolution are here now.
What will push digital marketing to critical mass is the ensuing mobile revolution, one that is not more than a year away.
That’s a promise.
If you are a small business, you should celebrate the fact that your business can be a digital marketing leader if you take action now.
Ignore the fact that your competitors are largely blind to how mobile marketing, content marketing, and social media can (and should be) applied to make your business the one that shows up at the top of search results for your desired keywords.
You have a choice – you can continue to blend in with the acknowledged leaders of your industry, or you can take the reins and go where where business is clearly trending.
Acknowledge What You Don’t Know
Everything you need to know for using digital marketing well is available online for free. While the examples may not be representative of your industry, you can adapt best practices that are already in use.
This will only require some innovation and application of your years of business experience
For starters, you can access a number of helpful articles on this site via the secondary navigation tabs – such as the aforementioned link to content marketing, social media, SEO, and small business.
To stay in touch and learn more, you should consider subscribing to our monthly newsletter for additional insights, where I will share links to recommended sites and resources. All of this information is now, and will forever be free. So take full advantage.
Nevertheless, the stakes are going up.
So, without delay, I will also use this site and our newsletter to keep you informed of the launch dates of some our upcoming projects that we are planning with our new partners.
As you know, time waits for no one. So, we’ve decided it’s time to help a few businesses to lead their industries, by capitalizing on what is sure to be an amazing period for small business marketers.
