Digital Marketing for small businesses is hard.

First of all, digital marketing isn’t easy for any size of business.  There is a lot of waffle going on in digital marketing these days, with large brands that have huge budgets often getting it wrong.

Take a leaf out of Gary Vaynerchuck’s book (or books as it happens). The main thing in digital marketing according to Gary is ‘content’ and 99% of content is bad that companies are putting up. So, even if Gary is half right, many businesses are failing dismally with their content. Gary is openly acknowledged as one of the top digital experts in the US.

Then there’s this preoccupation with programmatic advertising. You may have heard of it. Companies have been spending billions on it, and quite a few smart people in digital are saying its mainly a waste of time.

Then there’s search, paid and organic. Companies are spending a fortune on search and it’s getting harder for them to rig the results in their favour.

Then there’s mobile marketing, and guess what, very few companies are any good at it.
So if you’re a small business with a limited marketing resource, what are your chances?

Well, they’re probably a lot better than many of the larger companies who are so set in their ways that they are doing a great job in producing at best mediocre digital marketing.

Then there are agencies. Well, agencies are facing an uphill challenge keeping their clients happy, as many of them are operating as if they are doing digital marketing ten years ago. Guess what, if you are doing digital marketing that looks a year or two old, you are behind the times, so guess how bad you must be if your digital marketing is over ten years old.

Now I’m not saying that most agencies are bad at digital marketing, nor am I saying that most companies no matter how large are bad at it, but the reality is that it’s difficult to do well, and that’s for those with deep pockets who still manage to make as many mistakes as possible.

If you are looking at doing smarter digital marketing and you are limited in your budgets and time, you may have an advantage. You can cut through the bull and focus on what really works for you. The best advice is to work out what your customers want, where they are and how to really engage to them. Most importantly, stop selling to them, start engaging, and be interesting!