If you’re a small business owner with a social media strategy already in place, you might think that you’ve got all your online marketing plans covered. But social media and online marketing are not the same things. In fact, social media is only one part of your overall online marketing strategy. So along with the reasons why you need a social media strategy for your small business, you also really need to think more broadly and make a plan for your online marketing strategy as well. Let’s take a look at the 5 reasons why you need an online marketing strategy for your small business.

Why you Need an Online Marketing Strategy for your Small Business

• As we touched on above, social media is only part of your online marketing Along with your social media profiles, your online marketing will also include content you create (videos, photos), blog posts, email marketing, your SEO strategy, social and search ads, reputation management and directory listings, your website, etc. As you can see, there are a lot of other components to your small business’ online marketing.
• An online marketing strategy leads to more consistency Everything works better when there’s a plan in place! From keeping you and your employees on track, to making sure content is not just being posted but created on a steady schedule, to incorporating your small business’ promotions and events, offline you might be doing, to ensuring that days, weeks, and months don’t pass by without your online marketing tasks getting done…developing an online marketing strategy will keep your work and online presence consistent.
• An online marketing strategy increases effectiveness Your online marketing strategy will incorporate all of your online marketing profiles and tools, so nothing will be missed or forgotten when you have a master plan. And when you have all of the tools in your online marketing toolbox working together? That’s when the magic happens.
• An online marketing strategy prevents you from recreating the wheel If you are writing a new blog post, for example, that should be part of your social media postings, social ads, email marketing, SEO strategy, etc. Having an online marketing strategy for your small business will help you make the most of each piece of content you create while helping you populate your online profiles, too. This will save you time as well because you don’t need to create completely original content for each social profile or marketing tactic you are using.
• An online marketing strategy creates a unified message across all of your marketing This would include any offline advertising or in-store promotions and events along with everything you plan to do online. People who follow you on Facebook, might not follow you on Twitter. People who subscribe to your email might not follow you on social media at all. You need to make sure the same message is going out on all channels you are using, and for anyone who is connected to you in more than one way, think of it as increased exposure to the same message. Remember: online marketing moves fast, but customers still need to move through the same (slow) process of Know, Like, and Trust before buying. Single-exposure to any given marketing message has never been the way to go.

Need help putting together your online marketing strategy? We’ve got you covered! Learn more about our online marketing strategy services.