Business is always competitive, but these days, the pressure is palpable. With economic issues around the world, people tightening their purse strings, and clients being more selective with their spending, it's more important than ever to stand out from the crowd. This means ensuring your digital marketing efforts are on-point.

In 2023, growing businesses need to be proactive in their digital marketing efforts to stay ahead of the curve. The right digital marketing strategy can help businesses increase their brand visibility, reach new customers and ultimately drive more revenue, but what practical tips can businesses follow to really harness the power of digital marketing?

Let's check out 10 digital marketing tips that can help growing businesses achieve their marketing goals - while blowing their competition out of the water.

1. Define your target audience

The first step in any successful digital marketing strategy is to define your target audience - this will guide all of your marketing decisions; from what social media platform to focus on to what language to use on your website.

Defining your target audience includes identifying your ideal customer's age, gender, location, interests and anything else that could possibly help you market to them, including what they read and where they spend their time. Defining your target audience and creating buyer personas will help you better understand your customers' needs, resulting in more effective messaging and a better customer experience - so it's best to do this right, and to do it early.

2. Be clever about keywords

Keywords are, of course, a key component when it comes to getting the right people to your website. Selecting the right, most relevant keywords will get your business in front of the correct audience, but how can you go about keyword research in a methodical, productive way?

First, to follow on from point one, you begin with your target audience and their search behaviour. You need to understand who is looking for you and why, and what words or phrases they might use when trying to find your products or services. Also consider what questions they might ask or problems they might need solved - such topics will come in handy when writing blog posts. You should also check out your competitors - what keywords are they ranking for and what might be valuable to you?

Once you have a good general grasp of what your target audience will be searching for, you need to use your favourite keyword research tool. SEMRush is a great tool, as are Ahrefs and Moz Keyword Explorer. Tools such as these can help you collect data on search volume, competition and difficulty of certain keywords. They can even provide suggestions for related keywords you may not have considered.

When doing your research, remember the importance of long-tail keywords. They might be less competitive, but they can be infinitely more effective when it comes to driving targeted traffic to your site and racing people who are more likely to convert. For example, rather than targeting ‘digital marketing', you might target ‘digital marketing services for SaaS businesses'.

3.Invest in SEO

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a critical component of any digital marketing strategy. By optimising your website for search engines, you can increase your organic search traffic, improve your search engine rankings, and attract more potential customers. This includes optimising your website's content and meta descriptions, as well as building quality backlinks to your site. Doing SEO right can be a trial for many business owners, particularly when you consider the fact that best practice changes with each algorithm update. Keeping on top of things can be a full-time job, which is why many businesses choose to hire an SEO agency to look after the health and efficiency of their websites.

4.Create compelling content

Content marketing is an effective way for growing businesses to establish their authority and build a loyal following. By creating valuable and informative content, businesses can attract new customers and retain existing ones. This can include blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics and more.

Businesses should focus on creating content that is relevant to their target audience and that helps them solve a problem or address a pain point. Never be afraid to give away some knowledge for free - this will create an element of trust and value that will work in your favour when the customer or client decides whether or not to invest in your products or services.

5. Use email marketing

Email marketing is a cost-effective way for growing businesses to reach their target audience and promote their products or services. By building an email list and sending regular newsletters, businesses can stay top of mind with their customers and encourage repeat business. Businesses should focus on creating engaging email content, including special promotions, new product announcements and other relevant updates.

6. Leverage Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for growing businesses to reach and engage with their target audience. By creating a social media strategy, you can build a loyal following, promote your products or services, and interact with your customers in a meaningful way. Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn, businesses should choose the social media platforms that are most relevant to their target audience and invest in creating compelling content that resonates with their followers.

When creating a social media strategy plan, consider your target audience, where they spend their time, what type of content they consume, and what they are likely to share. Your industry will also come into play; if you have a B2C eCommerce store, Instagram, Facebook and TiKTok might be the best platforms for you, whereas if you are a B2B company, LinkedIn is likely to be the place your target customer is spending their social time.

7. Incorporate video marketing

Video marketing is becoming increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes. By creating compelling video content, businesses can increase their engagement rates, drive traffic to their website, and improve their overall brand awareness. This can include product demonstrations, customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes footage and more. Remember: video content plays extremely well on social media, so keep this in mind when creating plans for your video content.

8. Build (quality) backlinks

Link building is pretty much king when it comes to building domain authority and boosting your rankings, but it needs to be done right. When executed well, link building can increase visibility, build brand credibility and signal relevancy to Google.

The problem is, link building is hard to do well. It requires a lot of time, experience and dedication. When building links, consider metrics and understand it's not all about the domain authority of the referring domain - other things are much more important, including the domain's Trust Flow (a Majestic metric), relevancy, ranking keywords and traffic.

Be sure to place a focus on quality over quantity - 2,000 low-quality, irrelevant links will serve you less than 10 high-quality links from well-known publications in your niche.

9. Analyse and optimise

Growing businesses should regularly analyse their digital marketing efforts and make adjustments based on their performance. This includes tracking website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates and other key metrics. By identifying areas for improvement and making data-driven decisions, businesses can continue to refine their digital marketing strategy and achieve their marketing goals.

10. Keep up to date with trends and algorithm updates

As mentioned, SEO best practice will change year after year. What worked in 2015 will not work in 2023. Google is becoming more and more sophisticated with every year that passes, and algorithm updates reflect this. In order to create and maintain an effective digital marketing strategy, it's essential to keep up with these changes and trends. It's time-consuming, but ultimately, it's well worth the effort.

Growing businesses need to be proactive in their digital marketing efforts to stay ahead of the curve. By following the advice above, you can build a strong digital marketing strategy that will strengthen your brand and keep your business going for years to come.

For more information on digital marketing, please visit The Brains, a digital marketing agency that delivers unbeatable SEO services.