5 Dependable Digital Marketing Trends for Small Businesses

Discover small business marketing trends that are here to stay, including sending messages with a Gmail mass email service and content gamification.

In just the last few years, the small business digital marketing game has completely changed. With the audience’s interests and the algorithms constantly evolving, small business owners are searching for reliable ways to grow their business, entice new customers, and ultimately create conversions. That’s why we’re discussing the 5 digital marketing trends that small businesses can count on in 2022. If you are a small business owner and want to learn strategies that will increase your brand awareness and your revenue, then keep reading! We’re exploring how to send mass emails, manage customer reviews, and promote your business using social media. It doesn’t matter if this is your very first marketing campaign or if you are a well established small business searching for ways to refresh your current strategy—we have something for everyone! Are you ready to find out the most dependable digital marketing trends for this coming year? Then let’s get started!

Email Marketing is Here to Stay

Using a Gmail mass email service, small businesses can really “WOW!” their audience

While it is true that people are receiving more emails per day than ever before, there is still room in email marketing to impress your audience and create conversions. Not to mention, email marketing allows for comprehensive reporting capabilities so your team can gather the latest metrics to improve future campaigns.

These days Gmail mass email services are the key to a successful email marketing campaign. If you run a small business and are trying to start an email campaign without a mass email service—you won’t get very far. Email marketing requires a few features that can only be found in a mass email tool.

Personalization—for example—is absolutely necessary for any email marketing campaign. You have likely encountered personalization elements in your own inbox. You receive a message from a brand you have recently purchased from and the message includes your name, the product you purchased, and a suggestion for future purchase options discounts or some other incentive. By including your name in the message, you build trust in your recipient and you assure them that the message is intended for them. Mass emails without personalization are easily noticed by both recipients and the spam filter—meaning that sending out the exact same email thousands of times will definitely land you in the spam folder.

Luckily, with the help of a mass email tool, it is easy to personalize messages by executing a mail merge. A mail merge is a process where information from your address list is automatically input into hundreds, or even thousands of messages at once. In practice, that means that information collected for each recipient is input according to email address, creating effortless personalization for your next campaign.

One thing to remember about email personalization is that you shouldn’t 100% trust all of your messages are being sent out correctly. Just like any other kind of marketing material, it is important to test your messages before sending them. Your Gmail mass email service should have a test option that allows you to essentially preview each message on desktop and mobile before hitting send on the whole campaign. If you forget to test your message and there is an issue, you’ll have to send out a retraction message. For many small businesses, this is a worst-case scenario since it requires your audience to read yet another email and it can damage your brand.Overall, well-thought-out and personalized email marketing is an excellent way to reach your target audience. As long as you prioritize personalization and choose a Gmail mass email service that works for you, you will be well on your way to creating compelling email marketing campaigns.

Closely Monitor Your Reviews

More than ever, potential customers will consult your business reviews before making a purchase or entering a brick and mortar business

Before someone makes the decision to make a purchase from your ecommerce site or come into your business, there is a good chance they will be looking at your Google review page. In fact, it is probably a good idea to assume that every potential customer has seen your review page! If you neglect to monitor and reply to reviews, customers may feel more comfortable taking their business elsewhere. 

In order to properly monitor your customer reviews, there are a few steps you can take. The first step is to claim your Google Business listing so you are able to edit and manage your page. The second step is to identify negative reviews that could potentially hurt your brand. As inevitable lukewarm or negative reviews are posted, it is important that you reply to them as quickly and earnestly as possible. You might be thinking—“Why give the negative reviews extra attention?” Well, when you reply to negative reviews, you open a dialogue to find a solution. It also gives the opportunity to apologize for whatever caused the customer to write a negative review. By replying to negative reviews, you are showing potential customers that your business is solutions oriented and not afraid to engage with negative feedback.

Though we’ve only discussed negative feedback so far, it is also important to reply to positive reviews. Your reply to positive reviews doesn’t have to be as involved as a reply to a negative review. In most cases, a simple “Thank You” is enough to show your gratitude to the customer. When customers reach your Google Business listing, they’ll see that you care about feedback and are willing to engage with both positive and negative reviews.

Gamify Your Content

One of the hottest trends in marketing right now is gamification

Gamification has been a popular topic in marketing for several years now. But, only recently has gamification become available to small businesses via services like site builders and mass email tools. Gamification is the practice of turning a previously mundane offer into something that resembles a commonly understood game. For example, you might have an upcoming discount to offer your customers. Instead of simply offering a coupon code as a popup on your site, you can gamify the experience to further entice your audience to convert. In this case, you might want to incorporate a spinning wheel game or a lottery scratch-off game so your audience get’s that extra satisfaction from unlocking the discount. By integrating game elements into your marketing strategy, your customers will feel a sense of fun, chance, and accomplishment that will encourage them to use the coupon they uncovered. Without gamification, these promotions are much more likely to to be pushed aside as yet another site popup. That’s why small businesses are banking on gamification as a dependable strategy for future campaigns.

Ensure Every Element is Optimized for Mobile

The majority of your audience will be reading your content on their mobile devices—and mobile dominance isn’t slowing down anytime soon

Whether you are running social media ads, running email marketing campaigns, or putting the finishing touches on your website, it is important that everything works well on mobile devices. The majority of Americans—and most of the world—engage with digital content while on the go. So, if your content doesn’t work on mobile devices or has functionality issues, you are essentially neglecting the majority of your audience. Not to mention, a glitchy, difficult to use site will hurt your brand and give customers pause before converting. In some cases, poor mobile optimization may prevent a customer from being able to convert if they are unable to access checkout features on your site’s backend. 

Ultimately, testing all of your digital assets for mobile-friendly marketing is not just recommended—it is essential for small businesses looking to grow their audience. 

Use Data to Inform Future Campaign Strategies

By accessing reporting capabilities for marketing campaigns, small businesses can successfully pinpoint audience motivation and preferences

One of the most dependable parts of digital marketing is the fact that it is constantly changing. Digital marketing changes as the world changes—and in the last few years the world has changed quite a bit. To avoid getting left behind when it comes to marketing strategies, small businesses need to rely on data to inform their future campaigns. Marketing mediums like social media and email marketing are able to provide important insights on audience behavior. Using the data pulled from Google AdSense or your mass email tool, you can make adjustments and predictions for your next campaign.

Small businesses should also take advantage of A/B testing before launching major campaigns. A/B testing involves putting out two identical campaign materials with only one element changed. By testing out the email or social media post, you can narrow down the best types of captions, subject lines, calls to action, and more! By testing out these elements, you are using data to inform your marketing strategy—which leads to better campaign results over time. 

Small businesses have to work harder than ever to get their name out there in an increasingly crowded digital landscape. By using the strategies we’ve outlined, you can grow your target audience, strengthen your brand identity, and create conversions. While marketing trends are constantly changing, you can depend on the 5 strategies we’ve listed to guide you through future campaigns.