Digital marketing is an umbrella term for using online technologies to promote your brand, reach the audience searching for your products and services, and convert them to leads and customers. The goal is to increase your sales using various techniques. What would happen if you started investing in small business digital marketing right now?

My daughter wants light-up “Frozen” shoes – what 3-year-old doesn’t? Toddler shoes in size 7 are apparently hard to come by in-store, so naturally I turned to Amazon. Now, every time I log onto Amazon, I’m inundated with Frozen shoes (see below), every kind of Frozen apparel you can imagine, and diaper ads. Amazon has always been an industry leader in doing one thing very well: personalizing your shopping experience. This doesn’t just work for e-commerce sites anymore. Online marketing has become sophisticated enough that any business can personalize the user experience for its customers. There are 3 key ways to do this. Learn what they are in the article excerpt below.

In honor of National Coffee Day, I’m drinking coffee and using words like “perks” in my blogging titles. I didn’t even know it was National Coffee Day until I opened my email this morning and saw subject lines with phrases like “Espresso Yourself” “15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee,” “6 Excuses to Drink Coffee Every Day of Your Life” and “Here’s Where to Score Free Coffee on National Coffee Day Today.” That got me thinking – the businesses that sent me emails know what they’re doing, or are working with an email marketing agency that knows what it's doing!

While I don’t have any free coffee for you I do have some free advice. Here are 4 P.E.R.Ks of working with an email marketing agency.

You know a thing or two about using search engine optimization (SEO) as part of your online marketing strategy to get more customers. With the help of an inbound marketing agency you’ve done keyword research and developed all kinds of materials to attract people to your small business – a good looking website, blog articles, eBooks, and social media posts – and you’re even getting people filling out the forms to actually get their hands on your material. But now that you have the SEO leads – people who have shown interest in what you’re offering - what should you do with them?

You might not care at all about the software used to provide inbound marketing services. You might care a lot because the budget you have to work with requires you to use the software yourself with an agency’s guidance. Either way, if you’re considering inbound marketing services for your business you need something that’s user friendly, can meet you wherever you are, and help your small business on the progression to get more customers.

The subject line of your email could make or break your entire email marketing strategy, and there’s proof. The words and phrases that appear in the subject line are the only touchpoint you get with your email subscriber before they decide to either open, forget, or delete your email. Email marketing can be a powerful tool for a small business, and the subject line for each email you send can be the difference between success and failure. Here’s why.

My coworker recently made a comment that she considers me to be her friend – not just a work friend – but a real, true friend. I feel the same way about her, and my other coworkers too. I know this is not the norm in the small business world, but I think people would like it to be and it would cause them to be better employees.

This just in: hiring online marketing consultants may cause significant changes in your health and well-being. A significant number of small business owners have reported less stress, fewer sleepless nights, heftier pocket books, better employee relationships, and actually looking forward to going to work. They credit it all to inbound marketing.

Does your business use social media? If it doesn’t, it’s a lost opportunity for you. In today’s society, people expect a business to have an online presence. People are looking for you online, whether it’s reading a review on Yelp, checking in on Foursquare, following you on Twitter or liking you on Facebook. Social media allows your business to make a touchpoint with your audience, build relationships, and give people a way to get to know you.

What if there was one simple way to create a whole bunch of original content? Your content marketing strategy for the month – that’s 31 days or less – would be set, you would be prepared to write, your customers would be satisfied with information, and your boss would be smiling. “What if” no more because there IS one simple way to get your content working for you to kick-off more relevant content.