Are you an MSME or planning to register yourself as one?Setting up as an MSME is easy and packed full of several benefits.Now about digital marketing as an MSME. How do you go about it? Should you employ someone or do it yourself or maybe take some help on a freelance basis?
Whatever you do, the following tips for digital marketing will help you get started on the right foot. So how can you, as a small business, get set up with digital ,marketing?Don’t worry .I have got you covered.As a digital educator and an entrepreneur,I am working online since 2014.I create branded content for health,education ,finance and other categories both for small ,medium and large corporations.
The Government of India is helping micro,small and medium enterprises(MSME) set up their business,create jobs,have access to financial support easily through their dedicated website.But just starting an MSME is half the job .The difficult part is marketing with little or no budget.Thats where this post will help you.
What’s interesting about my journey ,even if I say so myself ,is I have no business background.Infact I had no clue that a digital education business is a small business too.
In case you are interested only in the digital marketing tips and not an MSME,I guarantee this post will help you too.
25 Digital Marketing Tips for your MSME
1. Your Brand website:
Your website is your calling card. So this one needs to be authentic with a custom domain name and not a free WordPress site. Get your website and domain. Use a service like Hostgator, which helps you set it up. Their customer care is fantastic, and you can get your website set up in one day.
2. Get your Google My Business page set and use the power of Google and local SEO to target your customers in the right geographical region. This is crucial if you are a service-based industry and want to appear in the search result as an X Road Shop.It’s now being called Google Business Profile.
3. Submit your site to search engines like Google, Bing at the least. This will happen automatically even if you don’t do it manually, but takes more time.
4. Local listings: Submit your site to local listings. Don’t forget to see the Domain Authority of the place where you are submitting your website. Avoid strictly spammy, low authority directories.
5 Claim your social media handles. Instagram and Facebook at a minimum and then Pinterest,Twitter and LinkedIn.This not only helps you with the brand building but is a wonderful way to start a conversation with your audience.
6 Ebook: Create a super helpful ebook download for your customers and use it as an optin for your website visitor. When people make a transaction with you online or offline, don’t forget to share the details about getting this valuable ebook. You can use CANVA to create a beautiful ebook or pay someone to make one for you.
7 Build an email list. Email marketing is still one of the best ways to make readers your fans and customers. But this needs an investment of time and energy. Revue is a newsletter subscription option through Twitter again free. This is crucial but will take time.
8 Use CANVA to create your social media graphics, ebook covers, and anything creative in bulk. It’s easy to use, and with my link, you can even get a thirty-day free use of Canva Pro.
9 Use Schedulers like Jetpack or CANVA pro to schedule all your social media posts and concentrate on building your business.
10 Have a Content calendar to leverage opportunities for special promo days. Think Independence Day, Diwali, Durga puja, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, to give special offers, freebies, etc.
11 Create a loyalty point digital card to create customer expectations. Don’t forget to fulfill your promise.
12 Create a Blog on your website: Content marketing and SEO are still among the best ways to spread the word. Think how-to articles, helpful resources, educational materials centered around your product’s services, and lateral keywords.Check out my free resource list of Blogging tools to get started .
Remember content marketing and list building are golden , when it comes to digital marketing.
13 Push notification like the one signal push notification is super helpful. Web push is free for up to 10000 subscribers currently.
14 Video: Video marketing is big. There are no two ways about it. Don’t forget CANVA is again an excellent tool for creating quick social animated videos. You also have platforms for Live Video too, like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram. Quickly survey where your audience is most engaged and start with one platform.
15. Podcast: Podcast through the Anchor app is free and easy to set up. Try Twitter spaces later when your followers increase. Nowadays Facebook allows podcast RSS feed submission, giving your followers an opportunity to listen to your podcast on the Facebook app itself.Check out my podcast here.
16. Giveaways: This is an excellent way to grow your social media followers and get reviews from users.
17. Challenges: This works well to have highly engaged fans. But the challenge needs to be well planned with concrete prizes which highlight your products or services. Terms and conditions need to be legally full proof to avoid controversy.
18. Guest blogging on an authority site in your niche will work well if the article is high quality and helpful. Guest post on sites in your niche and write an authentic, original, highly targeted post with a killer optin offer that readers can’t refuse. You can use that useful ebook, white paper .original, market research as a value-added offer.
19. YouTube Channel: This may not be possible immediately starting out, but it is a beautiful way to drive awareness about your business brand have engage users.
20. WhatsApp broadcasts: This is an option when people subscribe to your website and agree to receive the broadcasts.
21. Paid ads: This needs a whole other blog post but is a good option once you have the basics set up the right way.
22. Influencer marketing needs to be done carefully; use a site like Blogchatter to find authentic content creators. Try a mix of sponsored posts, interviews, writeups depending on your business.
23. Course: Take a course like the free Goldman Sach’s 10000 women to make the journey easier.You can also create your own course on Udemy or Coursera and give certification to help educate young people and provide job opportunities.These help in brand building in the long run.
24. Set up an affiliate dashboard to convert your customer to your marketing fairy. This can work well as long as you have a transparent and easy way of tracking affiliate sales.
25. Book me for a consultation if you want more help with finding digital marketing ideas.I also write brand-focused ebooks as optins .
The year 2021 and 2022 has been unreal. We were pushed headlong into science fiction horror stories. The unlikely result of the lockdown and pandemic is the digital explosion.
Everyone from Neil, Ratan, Mukesh, and my neighbor’s sabzi wala now have their own Google My Business profile, a Razorpay or phone pe link, and a promise of service at the doorstep. Start your digital marketing with what you have, and where you are. Then innovate. The world is your market and playground.
Growth Matters Forum is a community for business owners to explore ideas, streamline growth and create an impact. Join the community here to get more helpful resources. Read about tokenization in ecommerce. If you are a company of one, even then these are helpful ways to market.