2020 will go down in history as the year businesses realized digital marketing is a necessity. The pandemic hit hard and movement was restricted. Online shopping was encouraged and businesses with no online presence had to race to create websites and be seen online.

There has never been a better time than the present to create a digital marketing strategy. However, it is not as simple as drawing up a plan on paper. Many business owners understand the importance of acquiring customers and retaining them. The challenge is in creating an integrated plan to draw an audience and engage them efficiently. This is where marketing gurus such as MediaGroup Worldwide come in. They are adept at creating effective strategies that will help to gain customers and retain them. 

Challenges That Hurt Small Businesses 
Businesses have shifted to internet marketing as that is where they will find potential customers. Many small businesses do not know how to create a strong online presence. As such, they end up missing out on a lot of opportunities. Here are some of the challenges that small businesses face:

1. Building a Stunning Website
If you want to take your enterprise online, you need a website. Not just any website but a beautiful one that will have people itching to visit. Many small businesses engage web designers to create websites that will deliver excellent user experience. 

User experience is a major factor in getting making your online presence count. A Poorly designed website is not good for your brand reputation. A large number of users will judge your business based on its appearance. Ultimately, image is everything. 

2. Figuring Out Your Target Audience
Identifying the right audience is another challenge that small businesses face. Professional marketers help you to create buyer personas (quasi-fictional portrayals of your ideal consumers). 

Marketers use real data about existing customers research the market to create your buyer personas. Small businesses assume that this takes too much time to do. However, there are tools that you can use to conduct surveys and gather feedback from your customers. 

3. Creating Relevant Content
A gorgeous website is one thing. However, without top-quality and relevant content, it will not attract the right audience. The best content is relevant to the target audience. As well as written content in the form of articles and blog posts, you should also include videos and images.

Content should also be regular. Also, make it shareable. Create a schedule for creating and posting content on your website. It requires a great deal of investment as well as resources to create great content. Many small businesses do not have access to these. 

This may require you to hire professionals to create content for you. It can be a load off your shoulders to have a marketing agency take care of content creation for you. 

Alternatively, you can hire an in-house content creator but this comes with added costs. They will require a salary and allowances just like any other employee. It is cheaper to outsource to agencies. 

Other small businesses hire an in-house content creator to oversee all content creation, including video, blog articles, and social media shares. 

4. Promoting Content
Promoting content takes a substantial amount of time. It involves distributing your content on:
Social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter et al)
Email (creating a newsletter, sharing content, and more)
Outreach (guest blogging, engaging influencers, start online discussions in your industry)

5. Converting Leads to Customers
You have a lot of traffic on your website. Many more visitors are browsing and checking your product out. However, how many of these visitors will convert to customers? How many are going to remain as faithful customers? 
Professional digital marketers help you to build your customer base and retain both new and current customers. They also help with customer support which is crucial to your success.

Conclusion
Remember that you are competing with larger businesses whose brands are more recognized than yours. You must engage your customers every step of the way. Creating a connection with your customers helps to create trust in you as well as your brand. 

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Arnov is a Marketing Manager at SqueezeCMM, a B2B content marketing and analytics start up. He is fascinated by the intersection of technology, marketing, and people in the development of awesome products. He’s into life-hacking, psychology, and data-science.