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5 ways to help your small enterprise thrive in Canada’s evolving digital age
In today’s digital landscape, Canadian small businesses have a lot more to keep up with if they want to stand out. According to a study by Deloitte, 87% of companies think digital will disrupt their industry, but only 44% are prepared for potential digital disruption.
From writing email campaigns to keeping up with the latest social media trends, simply having an online presence is rarely enough. Businesses these days need to use digital resources to their advantage, regularly and strategically.
It can feel rather overwhelming and often leave little time to focus on why you started your business in the first place, but the benefits of being online do outweigh the negatives, and there are programs in place to help you get started on your digital journey.
Thankfully, the government of Canada has subsidies, like the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP), which can help you hire a CDAP-certified Digital Advisor to bolster your digital presence and help generate sales for your business.
One such company is Swipe Right Media, a one-stop, full-service innovation shop that has a proven track record of helping companies build a stronger foundation for their bright digital future. From Series A startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, the company offers digital consulting services, including marketing and content strategy, software platform selection, rapid prototyping and visual design, copywriting, product engineering, and analytics.
If you have a small- or medium-sized enterprise that’s already generating $500k or more per year, you can take advantage of the CDAP to help get your digital marketing efforts off the ground. We’ve partnered with Swipe Right Media to offer a few helpful tips to help boost your online presence.
Narrow your business’s online goals
While it might seem like a simple thing, outlining why your business needs digital marketing can help inform how you approach it.
Different businesses benefit from different digital marketing strategies, and what might work for a brick-and-mortar bakery in a small town will be different from a company selling an iPhone app that helps you count how many jellybeans are in a jar (this idea is now trademarked don’t steal it).
Narrowing your goals will also help you determine what digital marketing channels to focus on. Having a presence on every social media app is great, but strategically leveraging certain channels will help you capture the right audience for your business.
Plan your digital marketing campaigns
Once you’ve narrowed down your digital marketing goals, it’s time to start working on mapping out how you’re going to effectively market your business. Some of the more common goals for digital marketing include launching a new product, driving more online orders, or turning more guests into regulars by generating a loyal customer base.
Regardless of what you choose to do next, you should be setting goals that you can measure and achieve in a relatively short amount of time. Start with three goals and keep iterating. Your goals should be SMART (that is: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound). This way, you can track progress, pivot strategies when needed, and grow as you go.
This is where outsourcing your digital marketing can help alleviate a lot of this work for you.
Swipe Right Media has a team of expert marketing, advertising, copywriting, and design specialists who can help you understand who your customers are, where your revenue is coming from, and how you can improve your strategy to increase the likelihood of having successful interactions with your customers.
They’ll identify your sector-specific challenges and offer tailored solutions to help your business grow, in some cases, by over 200% year-over-year.
Make your website actually work for you
Your online presence is your prime digital real estate that attracts new customers. Nothing’s worse than hearing about an amazing product or service from friends, and then trying to sort through an outdated website that’s hard to navigate or find important information.
Having your website present everything that people should know and think about you doesn’t have to be complicated.
To get you started, it’s a good idea to have a strong mission statement, a story that sets you apart from your competitors, and a clear idea of how you want your customers to feel about your business. This is important whether they are ordering food, purchasing a ticket, or booking an online consultation.
Automate your processes whenever and wherever you can
Think about how retailers and e-commerce businesses work. When you interact with an item, they might send you an email with a discount to entice you to make a purchase. This quick response is possible because of automation — an email is triggered to send after you take a certain action.
Take the time to check out some of the options available to you when it comes to automation, and think about where it makes sense for your business.
A great place to start is welcoming new followers with an email as soon as they share their contact information through your website, but there are plenty of other opportunities to keep engaging with your customers. You can include a special offer or helpful information to make them feel valued and want to come back, collect their birthday information and send them a small gift to celebrate their special day, or send them a thank you when they give you feedback.
The best part? You don’t have to do anything — it’s all automated!
Apply for the CDAP
Figuring out where to invest resources can be tough when planning for your business’s digital transformation. Companies can lose millions of dollars or worse if they make small mistakes. Sometimes, businesses invest in tools and technology without considering the human needs that drive change.
Before starting any digital marketing or digital transformation projects, it’s crucial to ensure that what you’re doing is meaningful to the people you serve. Swipe Right Media can help you prioritize where to place bets and maximize investments in digital experience.
While that can add up to an additional cost, applying for the CDAP Boost Your Business Technology Grant can help you cover the costs associated with defining your digital ambition and executing it.
Because Swipe Right Media is a government-appointed CDAP-certified Digital Advisor, they can help you prepare your application if you qualify for a CDAP grant — which means you’ll get the support you need for your digital marketing strategy with a $15,000 grant from the government. And remarkably, Swipe Right Media currently has a 100% success rate across 100 CDAP applications and counting.
If you’re interested in learning more about how you can bring your business into the digital space, visit Swipe Right Media’s website.
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