However, ignoring digital marketing when so many customers are researching and buying online is no longer an option and could mean you’re missing out on a huge number of opportunities to get in front of new customers.
- 81% of consumers use Google to evaluate local businesses
- 82% of shoppers have done a ‘near me’ search
- 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile device over the last six months
With stats like these, you just can’t ignore digital marketing any more. Yet, we speak to so many small business owners who want to get their businesses online, but they don’t know how to do it or where to even start.
Here are ten of the reasons we commonly hear from small businesses about why they’re not running any digital marketing activities (and what we have to say about it)…
1. It’s too expensive 🫰
“Digital marketing costs a fortune and I just don’t have the budget.”
Yes, without the right strategy, targeting the wrong audience and throwing money at digital marketing without measuring the results and effectiveness, digital marketing is expensive.
When it’s done well with a good strategy behind it, digital marketing is a good investment. If you think you can set your campaigns running and leave them, you will find that digital marketing will be expensive compared to the results it delivers.
Plan your budget and think about what you want to achieve before investing in any digital marketing activities. Think about how much you can afford to spend and make sure you’re measuring to make sure you’re achieving the results you want.
Choosing the activities that are right for your business and which are targeted towards the right audience is key to getting the best return on investment from your digital marketing activities.
If you invest in digital marketing but you don’t measure the results, how will you know whether it’s been effective? You’ll soon find that digital marketing is expensive.
Learn more about how much digital marketing costs for small businesses in our blog.
2. It doesn’t work for small businesses; it’s only for larger businesses 🏬
“Digital marketing doesn’t work for me, it’s only effective if you’re a big business with a large budget.”
Will big businesses with a large budget drive results through digital marketing faster than a small business on a shoestring budget? Yes, they will. Does that mean small businesses shouldn’t bother with digital marketing at all? No, it doesn’t.
There’s no doubt, if money is no object, you can achieve more through digital marketing. However, digital marketing works just as effectively for smaller businesses who don’t have a massive budget or time to manage and monitor activities. You’ll just need to be more focused with the activities you choose and ensure you’re targeting exactly the right people in the right places.
Just because you’re not a large business, it doesn’t mean you should steer clear of digital marketing. In fact, it can help to level the playing field slightly by allowing you to appear in the same places as your larger competitors. By running a well-executed strategy, as a smaller business, you can build a strong brand presence, engage with your audience and provide the best customer experience. If you can do all of this, it doesn’t matter how big or small your business is - you just need to provide the best experience to your customers.
Read our blog to find out more about how digital marketing works for small businesses: Does digital marketing even work for small businesses?
3. You don’t have the time and you don’t understand it ⏳
“I’m already juggling so many roles in my business, digital marketing is just another thing I don’t have time to do. I don’t really understand it either and getting to grips with it takes time I just haven’t got.”
Yes, digital marketing requires time. As a business owner, you’re wearing so many hats already so finding time to actually market your own business is difficult - trust us, we know!!
Plus, for most business owners, it’s a whole new skill to learn. And who has time for that? 🤷
Finding the time to launch, run and manage digital marketing campaigns on a regular basis is almost impossible. Plus, the time to actually understand what it is, how it works and how it’s going to benefit your business is a complete no-go!
Digital marketing is something you need to invest in. So, why not consider outsourcing the activity? It will require finding someone you can trust and someone who wants to help you deliver the results for your business.
If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, investing in help is hugely worthwhile. Plus, you only need to understand the basics - the experts will learn and understand everything for you!
4. You won’t know what the return on investment is 💰
“I’ve run marketing activities in the past but it’s impossible to see what the return on investment is so I don’t really trust it or think it’s worthwhile for me.”
You have no goals in mind, you’re just doing what your competitors are doing and you produce a piece of content every now and again for your website. Let’s face it, it’s all a bit ad hoc around everything else you’ve got to do.
Of course, you’ve got no idea what you’ve actually achieved with your investment!
If you don’t know what you want to achieve through digital marketing and you don’t measure your activities, how do you expect to know what the return is?
Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing allows you to measure your campaigns in real-time. You’ll be able to see exactly how customers are engaging with your website, content and which ads they’re interacting with.
As a small business just getting started with here are a few of the metrics you can look at to understand whether your activities are having any impact:
📈Website traffic
📈Sales or conversions
📈Engagement rates
All of these metrics will give you an idea of what’s working, what isn’t and what you might need to do to make improvements to your strategy. This is how you develop results over time and understand exactly how you’re going to drive the best results and the best returns for your business.
Find out more about measuring the ROI of your strategy in our blog: How do small businesses measure the ROI of digital marketing.
5. You want it to work instantly ⏲️
“I’ve been paying a marketing agency or freelancer for a month now and I haven’t seen any results.”
If you’re expecting your digital marketing activity to start generating results as soon as it’s switched on, it’s probably not right for you.
There is no definitive answer to this question but the answer definitely isn’t immediately. The speed of the results you achieve will depend on a number of factors including your budget, your industry, competition and resources.
The speed of results will also depend on the strategies you’re following. For example, it takes much longer to see results from SEO (search engine optimisation) than it does from paid search ads (pay per click).
In short, the time frame in which you’re likely to see results from your digital marketing depends on a wide range of factors. It takes patience and investing for a short time and then switching activities when you think it doesn’t work will mean you don’t see results or achieve your business goals.
Learn more about this in our blog: How long does it take for digital marketing to work for small businesses?
6. You don’t trust anyone else to do it for you 🤔
“I’ve worked with agencies or freelancers before but they didn’t communicate properly or deliver the results I wanted so now I don’t trust anyone enough to outsource it again.”
Many small businesses outsource marketing activities to third parties to save time and deliver the best results. However, they get their fingers burned by someone who promises them the earth but doesn’t deliver.
This is common and something we hear from a lot of our clients.
However, many clients haven’t given the activities any chance to work or they’re not clear on what the agency or freelancer is supposed to be delivering for them on a monthly basis. If someone promises to do digital marketing for you at a low rate, it might seem attractive but you might be better investing slightly more to find someone who is trustworthy and who is actually going to deliver results.
We know that, as a small business owner, you’re worried about where every penny is being spent and trusting someone else to deliver results for your business can be nervewracking.
That’s why we’ve developed our small business packages - you know exactly what you can expect every month and you’ll have your own dashboard and reports so you’ll be able to see exactly what’s being delivered.
AND
If we think something’s not going to work for your business or we think something else would work better, we’ll tell you!
To find out more about working with a digital marketing agency, read our blog: Top 8 benefits of working with a digital marketing agency for small businesses.
7. You’re stuck in your ways and you don’t want to try anything new 😬
“I’ve never invested in digital marketing before and I’ve always managed on word of mouth or referrals so why would I want to invest now?”
If you’re reading this blog, the chances are you’re a small business owner who has digital marketing on their agenda…
So, the chances are, you know that doing what you’ve always done isn’t really working and it might be time to invest in digital marketing. You can stop reading here if we’re wrong…
Every business needs visibility in their market. There’s no getting around it. However, for small businesses, visibility is critical.
There are a lot of businesses out there all competing for the same customers so, as a small business, you also need to fight to be heard above the noise. The only way you’re going to be able to do this is by getting your business into the places where your customers are browsing, interacting with friends and buying.
Digital marketing is becoming unavoidable if you want to grow your business and compete with larger businesses.
8. You don’t have a proper strategy in place or don’t know what you want to achieve 🎯
“I’ve asked someone to take care of my digital marketing strategy but I haven’t given them any guidance and I don’t really know what I want to achieve.”
We’ve already touched on this above but if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve or have a strategy in place, it’s going to be difficult to get the most from your investment in digital marketing.
Having just an idea of what you want to achieve or how digital marketing can support your wider business goals will help you to get the most from your activities. Make sure you communicate this with whoever is going to be running your strategy. They will be able to determine the best way forward for your business and understand the results you need to track to see whether anything’s working and what’s being driven as part of your investment
Having a clear understanding of what you want to get out of your digital marketing before you start will help you to get the most from it.
Learn more about getting your digital marketing strategy up and running in our blog: How to implement a digital marketing strategy for your small business.
Key takeaways
Now you know all the reasons you shouldn’t do digital marketing for your small business but you’re still here. Digital marketing doesn't have to be expensive, it's not just for small businesses
So, are you still looking for help with your digital marketing activities?
Take a look at our small business packages and let us deliver results for your business while you focus on growing your business.
