These days, almost every customer journey starts online. Whether you run a store, offer services, or sell to businesses, your customers are looking for information online. If you don’t show up there, they’ll find your competitors instead.
The main elements of digital marketing
Digital marketing helps you get noticed, reach the right customers, and get more inquiries, which in turn leads to increased sales. And best of all, you don’t have to spend your entire budget on ads. There are many useful channels and tools available. Below we list the ones that work best for small and medium-sized businesses.
1. Web content
Articles, guides, or tips on your website show that you know your industry and get more potential customers to find you via search engines like Google. To get the most out of the content you create, it is also smart to link to it from your other channels, such as your social media.
Example: A painter wrote simple articles about “tips for repainting the house” and got new customers who found them via searches. The painter also shared the article on his social media to get the most out of the content created.
2. Social media
Many customers discover companies through Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Here you can show off your everyday life, satisfied customers, or current offers. They are also perfect channels to improve your “employer branding” (the work of building and strengthening the company’s reputation as an employer).
Example: A hair salon filled its calendar with bookings by posting pictures of treatments and booking links directly in its social media posts. They also published staff portraits with their employees who talked about how much they enjoy working at the company.
3. Email marketing
Email marketing is a simple but effective way to stay in touch with your customers and potential customers. Newsletters, offers, or tips build trust and make customers shop more frequently.
Example: An e-retailer increased the number of orders by 20% by sending email marketing with current offers.
4. Google (SEO and advertising)
When someone searches for “carpenter in Gothenburg” or “accounting for small business”, you want to be among the first results if you provide such services. You can achieve this by working with search engine optimization (SEO). To further strengthen your position, you can also advertise and try to get higher in the search results.
Example: A construction company that invested in local SEO received more jobs directly from Google, without paying for ads every month.
3 common mistakes you should avoid
- Doing a little bit of everything without a plan. It rarely works well. Instead, focus on starting with one of the tools we mentioned above and doing it really well before you spend time on more efforts.
- Relying entirely on one channel (for example, Facebook). Algorithms can change at any time, and your target audience can move to another channel.
- Not measuring and following up. Then you don’t know what you’re getting back for your efforts. All of the tools above have reporting and analysis tools that you should use to optimize your digital marketing.
How to get started step by step
- Decide what you want to achieve (e.g., more inquiries through your website).
- Choose 1–2 channels or tools to start with.
- Use platforms that make it easier to collect everything in one place (e.g., HubSpot).
- Follow up on the results every month and adjust what is not working.
- Be patient and think long-term. It can take time to get digital marketing really good, but it is based on being consistent.
Conclusion: Digital marketing brings growth
Digital marketing is not something small and medium-sized businesses should just glance at and try out. It is needed for you to be able to grow. By being visible in the right places, working smart with content, and building relationships online, you can get more customers as early as today.
Want to know more?
Contact us and we will help you!
Mikael Salquist Landin is Head of Content at Nittio Media and has written this article. Nittio Media empowers businesses of all sizes to achieve sustainable growth through innovative, automated, and integrated digital marketing solutions.
Want to know more?
Contact us and we will help you!
Mikael Salquist Landin is Head of Content at Nittio Media and has written this article. Nittio Media empowers businesses of all sizes to achieve sustainable growth through innovative, automated, and integrated digital marketing solutions.
