Does your digital marketing strategy rest on social media? You’re not alone. Many small business owners rely on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook to build their audience. Unfortunately, social media algorithms change quickly like sand shifting beneath our feet. It’s hard to build a business in those conditions. The possibilities for digital marketing are so much greater than social media. Regular blogging provides a solid foundation for your digital marketing strategy by improving your SEO and increasing the power of your passive marketing.

What is a digital marketing strategy?

Before we dive into the specifics of blogging, let’s back up a minute. A digital marketing strategy is a plan to utilize multiple online channels to promote your business. It can include but is not limited to:

• Ads and directories: There are plenty of companies out there that will either run ads for you or teach you how to run them yourself. For example, you can take courses on running Facebook ads. You can also pay to be listed in directories, such as The Knot.
• Email marketing: While some businesses owners find email marketing intimidating, it’s an incredibly powerful tool. In our experience, people are more likely to follow links from an email than an Instagram story. It makes sense. Instagram is designed to keep people from leaving the app. Everyone wants an excuse to get out of their inbox.
• Social media: Social media can be great for creating brand awareness, but the nuances of direct sales are trickier depending on the platform.
• SEO: Your website and blog fall under the umbrella of search engine optimization (SEO). By improving your SEO, you drastically increase your chances of connecting with your ideal clients through search engines like Google.

The internet is so big that there are endless ways to build a digital marketing strategy. It will be most effective, however, if all the pieces of your puzzle fit together to create a full picture. In other words, your email marketing, ads, and SEO should work together to send a clear message to potential clients.

How do I develop a strategy for digital marketing?

Few small business owners have formal training in digital marketing. The truth is that you don’t need to be an expert to figure out what works for your business. You just need to figure out which approaches align with your ideal clients, goals, and energy. 

Do you have a sense of how your ideal clients find their service providers? They might look for wedding photographers on TikTok, directories, or Google depending on a number of factors. You might get some sense of this by asking your favorite past clients how they found you, but remember that your strategy should be about where you’re going, not where you’ve been. If you want clients who are seeking higher end service providers on Google, you’ve got to get on that SEO. If you love your clients who found you on paid directories, don’t throw out the part of your strategy that’s working for you.

That being said, as a small business owner, you are a human being. You don’t have to include every possible channel in your digital marketing strategy. If the thought of making a Reel paralyzes you into inaction, scale back your social media schedule, and focus on something that feels less exhausting. You may find that running ads or writing blog posts make more sense for your personality. That’s ok! It’s more important that you pick a couple things you’ll actually stick to and create a cohesive digital marketing strategy around those. (We have a LOT more thoughts on this, and Tia covers it in their Disruptor program.)

Why is blogging so important?

Now that we’ve given you permission to be a C student when it comes to your marketing, we want to get real about how invaluable it is to have good SEO. For your dream clients to find you, you have to have good enough SEO to get ranked on Google. The easiest way to build your SEO is by publishing regular blog posts. Our blogging clients who publish weekly for several months see significant growth in visitors to their site. More importantly, more dream clients start inquiring with them. That is what it’s all about, after all. 

You might be wondering how blogging improves SEO so much. Firstly, Google’s algorithm, which includes over 200 factors, heavily prefers websites that publish regularly. Blogging is the easiest way to do that. Even updating old blogs helps here!

Additionally, blogging is the perfect way to target easy-to-rank-for keywords. Each blog post should be optimized for a different related keyword. If you’re trying to rank for “San Francisco wedding photographer,” your blog posts should be optimized for venues and other topics specific to the region. Think of it as having a web of keywords related to the big keyword for which your home page is optimized. (You can find more information on choosing keywords here.)

Do you want help with blogging? 

If you’re convinced that blogging is an important part of your digital marketing strategy but you don’t feel ready to take it on yourself, remember that you don’t have to do it alone. It might be time to outsource. Our blogging services combine SEO-driven copy with compelling storytelling to help you connect with your dream clients. Check out our Pricing Guide or reach out for more information on custom blogging packages.