So you want more enquiries from your website?
Hey, Nick here from Design Hero! 👋
A huge congrats on your completed website!
Some pro advice from a web designer and digital marketing expert: it’s not enough to launch a website and forget about it.
A good website is a bit like a sailing boat. ⛵ If ignored, your website will drift along slowly by itself. But if you want your business to go places, you need to set a destination.
Just because you’ve opened a fancy new restaurant, doesn’t guarantee anyone will walk in the door. 🚪 If you want to see traffic to your website, you need to make sure people know you’re open for business, and that’s where digital marketing comes in.
Left on its own, a great looking website with no marketing behind it just sits there. No enquiries, no bookings, no growth, and eventually the temptation is to assume the website “didn’t work” when really it was never given a fighting chance. This guide breaks that cycle down into simple, practical steps.
Digital marketing is the backbone of modern business growth. From SEO and social media to email campaigns and paid ads, it covers every online strategy that helps brands reach and engage their audience effectively. One advantage worth knowing early: unlike a billboard or a newspaper ad, almost everything in digital marketing can be tracked, so you can see exactly what is working and put your budget behind it.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or looking to sharpen your skills, this guide breaks down complex concepts into simple steps, showing you how to attract customers, boost visibility, and grow your business online.
Free ideas to boost online enquiries
Here are my suggestions for increasing your website traffic and boost your Google Rankings and how they benefit your business:
90% of my new business clients do all of the above within the first 6 months of launching a new website, because they want as many enquiries as they can get.
The effects are cumulative, so the earlier you do them, the more benefit you get from them!
Essential
Set up Google Analytics
This won’t boost leads directly, but will help your marketing strategy. Analytics gathers data about your website traffic, which is vital to form a strategy for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Most professional SEO services websites will tell you that it can take months to gather data, so it’s better to install Analytics even if you don’t plan on using it immediately.
It can take months to gather data so it’s better to install Analytics even if you don’t plan on using it, than to have no data available when you need it.
Essential
Create Google Maps Listings
Google maps listings are one of the easiest ways to get enquiries. Make sure you’ve set up a google maps listing through Google “MyBusiness” in every location you operate, and complete out your profile 100%.
Bonus tip: add a new photo every 2 weeks to refresh your listing.
Strongly recommend
Linkbuilding
One of the ways Google ranks sites on the search page is by the number and quality of links leading back to your website. If your website is on a new domain it will take years to build up domain ranking naturally. Linkbuilding speeds up this process by manually building links back to your website.
Strongly recommend
Local Citations
“Citations” are business directory listings for your business which lead back to your website. This helps Google to build a profile of your business, and improves your rankings on Google Search
recommend
Social Media Marketing
Google considers user engagement signals when ranking your website, so it’s a good idea to set up at least a Facebook or Instagram profile and link it back to your website. Post at least once a week with your recent products and services, or industry related news. If social media isn’t your thing and you don’t know where to start, take a look at our social media marketing services and give your business the headstart it deserves.
Also Worth Knowing: The Basics of On-Page SEO
A few small technical details make a real difference to how Google, and your visitors, understand your pages. Your page title, the blue link shown in search results, should sit between roughly 30 and 60 characters so it displays in full and includes your main keyword. Your meta description, the short summary underneath it, should stay under about 155 characters and include a clear reason to click. Every image should have alt text, a short description of what the image shows, which helps both accessibility for visually impaired visitors using screen readers and your SEO. And since more than half of all web traffic now happens on mobile devices, your site needs to work just as well on a phone as it does on a desktop, not as an afterthought but as the default. For a deeper dive into the technical side, our SEO services page covers the full picture.
4 more online marketing ideas to give your business a headstart
Are you struggling to make headway with your marketing? After the initial push after launch, many small business owners feel that they have plateaued and struggle to find new customers online. For some business owners the idea of marketing their business online is a new and daunting idea.
It is a challenge to juggle all aspects of your business, especially if you’re starting out. But the internet is granting you access to a catalogue of thousands of potential clients for free and what you do with that potential comes down to you. For your developing and growing business this is an opportunity that should be grabbed with both hands.
So let’s run through 4 really simple points to watch out for that businesses make when starting out with their digital marketing and how to grow your business using digital marketing…
Digital Marketing: modern-day marketing
Despite what a few dark corners of the internet says (note the irony of it)- technology and the internet is in fact our friend and a fabulous thing. In this day and age we are so accustomed to it being part of our daily lives and it seems like it is almost completely unavoidable. However that doesn’t mean that everyone- or every business is using it as effectively and powerfully as they could.
Many business still cling to traditional marketing methods with the expectation that it will deliver the same results as it used to. Or worse; don’t do any marketing at all!
People live, breath & work online now, so if you want to boost sales, reach new customers and grow your business online is the place to do it, and digital marketing is the tool you should be familiarising yourself with.
1. Utilise social media for brand awareness and leads
There are two main goals when we market a business on social media:
- Brand awareness
- More leads
Marketing your brand on social media
The first reason to promote your business on social media is simply to build up a buzz around your brand, make your audience aware of the work or service your business is doing, and generally improve your brand recognition. There may not be tangible returns from this form of social media marketing, however raising your brand awareness is never a bad idea, as the next time someone needs your services, it may be your business or brand name that sticks in their head!
Don’t try too hard, just stick to what your brand is about, and appeal to your target customer’s needs and desires.
Allure Beauty uses a mix of information posts, before and afters, reviews and inspirational quotes to connect with her audience
So we all know that having a clear idea of your target audience is important, you need to understand who you are selling to. However, when this thinking becomes rigid you can in fact end up hindering your growth.
Don’t stay away from facebook because you think your target audience is too young and equally don’t stay away from tiktok or instagram because you believe your target audience is older.
Social media is a free tool for reaching quite literally millions of people, so utilise it!
You are not too old, too young, too cool, too serious, or too anything for a specific social media platform! Use these platforms to creatively inform existing and potential customers of who you are and what you do.
Get them excited about your business and take advantage of having direct interaction with them. As you do this you will build awareness and strong brand identity. What’s not to like?!
If social media isn’t your thing and you don’t know where to start, have a look at our social media marketing packages and take the first step to give your business the headstart it deserves.
Getting more leads on social media for your business
This is a more direct approach where you serve ads to your audience and try to entice your customers into contact you for information, for a quote, or to request a meeting. These ads are more overt than simple brand awareness posts, and should contain some kind of offer, advantage or reason for the user to contact you.
Arkay Sales UK use targeted Facebook ads to directly drive sales for products
Social Media isn’t an instant win for every business
This is a more direct approach where you serve ads to your audience and try to entice them into contacting you for information, a quote, or a meeting. These ads are more overt than simple brand awareness posts, and should contain a clear offer, advantage or reason to act. A good rule here is to keep ad copy brief and scannable, use a headline of around five to ten words, and always include a clear call to action button such as “Enter Now,” “Get a Quote” or “Shop Now.”
Social media marketing won’t be a huge success for every business, some niches suit it better than others. Our social media experts can give you the best strategy for marketing your business on social, and if it’s not something you understand well, it’s usually best left to the experts. Even for the confident, letting us handle your social profiles can save you hours a day that are better spent running your business.
2. Target the customers you already have with digital marketing
Now a huge part of digital marketing is of course finding, attracting and convincing people that they need what you offer. But if you spend all your time focusing on new customers what happens to the potential customers who already found you? Are you putting the same amount of time and energy into converting their attention (the attention you already have!) into sales? If the answer is no then why not?
So be mindful of the fact that your audience will include a combination of previous clients and new ones.
Acknowledge them, continue to make them feel appreciated and encourage them to become repeat customers.
our email marketing packages help you retain old customers, and sell more to new ones
Our email marketing services help you retain old customers and sell more to new ones.
Don’t only push welcome deals, perhaps there’s a service that will need renewing, or a product that will need replacing after a certain amount of time. In whichever way your business can appear thoughtful and timely, do it. Your online marketing is key to this, and the more engagement and subscribers you build, the more you can reach out and nourish those relationships. One thing worth checking as your list grows: a meaningful share of marketing emails worldwide never actually land in the recipient’s inbox, so keeping your list clean and your sending reputation healthy matters just as much as what you write.
3. Provide rich and relevant content on your website blog
So on one hand we’re saying post regularly, engage with customers and build your online presence, and on the other hand we’re saying, quite simply, don’t be annoying. Overposting risks diluting the quality of your content and pushing customers away. Email marketing is a great example of this balance in action: it’s a fantastic tool for directly reaching people who signed up because they’re genuinely interested in what you offer, but firing out emails every other day just to flag up your name is a one way ticket to unsubscribe-ville.
Each time you contact your customers, make sure there’s content they’ll find informative, helpful or interesting.
That could be a discount code, your new opening hours, a new service, or a more detailed explanation of one aspect of your business. In fact, we’ve written a whole case study on the huge ROI email marketing delivered for Home Fresh Inverclyde, which is worth a read if you want to see the numbers behind this in practice.
huge ROI for email marketing for homefresh inverclyde
Don’t rely purely on clickbait headlines, subject lines and captions either. These are great, and you should definitely use them, just make sure to back them up with genuinely valuable content. In fact, the guide you’re reading right now is a good example of using free blog content to build an audience.
The same principle applies on social media, where there’s a little more room for fun and creative ideas, memes included. Just stay focused on increasing awareness of who you are and what you offer. Overall, be consistent and be patient, this form of digital marketing takes time to pay off. If you were lost at the word “meme,” take a look at our social media management services, we can help you speak the language of the internet.
Valuable Content means valuable customers
Each time you contact your customers, make sure that there is content that they will find informative, helpful or interesting. That could be a 15% off discount code, your new opening hours, or new service you offer or perhaps one aspect of your business needs a push and you could benefit from giving your customers a more detailed explanation of it.
Additionally, don’t rely on clickbait headlines, subject lines and captions. These are great and you should definitely include them- however, make sure to back it up with that valuable content.
In fact, the blog your reading right now, is a perfect example of someone using free blog content with valuable information to build an audience!
blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website
The same goes for social media. There definitely is a little more room for fun and creative content ideas for social media so memes are more than welcome! However, stay focused on increasing awareness of who you are and what you offer.
Overall, be consistent and be patient, this form of digital marketing takes a long time to pay off.
If you were lost at the word ‘meme’ then take a look at our social media management packages here, we can help you speak the language of the internet! We also offer email marketing packages so you can turn subscribers and one time buyers into repeat customers.
4. Pay attention to competitors
How many times have you been told “Stay in your lane, focus on you, you’re you and that is your superpower”? It may all have truth to it but don’t mistake that for ignoring your competitors. Pay attention to what your competition is doing, let them inspire you, challenge you and push you to develop- that is all positive.
If all your competitors are doing something that you’re not, there is probably a reason for that.
This doesn’t mean you have to copy everything that they do of course but by keeping your finger on the pulse of the industry you are in you will ensure that you are not left behind.
Finding the right keywords will help you rank on Google
There are good ways you can copy what your competition is doing, and use it to your advantage. If you choose to do things differently from them then great but you will be doing it in an informed way, with meaning behind it. You have to understand the game to be in with a chance of winning!
You can, of course, analyse and outmanouver your competition with SEO via SEO analysis tools like Ahrefs, Neil Patel or Moz, however I’d suggest to get meaningful insights from these tools you should speak with an SEO expert. If your interested in learning about SEO yourself we have a few blog articles about finding the right keywords to help your website rank better on Google.
Digital Marketing ideas to boost your business growth
If your business needs a bit of love and care to not just keep up with but to out run competitors then we can help, whether your branding needs to be updated or you need assistance with marketing.
Our digital marketing agency will help you transform your business and reach the right clients to help your business grow.
How do beginners start digital marketing?
Start with the free, foundational steps before spending anything: install Google Analytics, set up and fully complete a Google Business Profile, and create a presence on one or two social platforms where your customers actually spend time. From there, focus on one channel at a time rather than trying everything at once, most beginners get the best early return from local SEO and a consistent social media presence, then layer in email marketing and paid ads once those basics are working.
How can I teach myself digital marketing?
Free resources go a long way. Google’s own Analytics and Business Profile tools have built in guidance, and platforms like Meta and Google publish free documentation on running ads properly. Following a handful of reputable marketing blogs, and reading case studies of real campaigns rather than just theory, helps the concepts stick. That said, digital marketing has a lot of moving parts, and there’s a point where DIY learning starts costing more in wasted ad spend and missed opportunities than it saves, which is usually when it makes sense to bring in outside help for at least the technical pieces.
Can you explain digital marketing in a simple way?
Digital marketing is simply the practice of promoting your business online in a way you can measure. Instead of putting up a billboard and hoping the right people see it, you can show an ad specifically to people likely to want what you sell, and then see exactly how many of them clicked, enquired or bought something. It covers several channels working together: your website, search engine visibility, social media, email, and paid advertising, all aimed at getting the right people to find you and take action.
What are the 5 C's of digital marketing?
The most widely used version is Content, Context, Connection, Community and Conversion. Content is what you actually publish, Context is making sure it reaches people at the right time and place, Connection is building a genuine relationship rather than a one-off transaction, Community is the audience you build around your brand over time, and Conversion is turning that attention into enquiries or sales. You’ll see slightly different wording used by different agencies, sometimes Customer instead of Connection, but the underlying idea, that content alone isn’t enough without relationship and community behind it, stays consistent.
What are the 7 pillars of digital marketing?
Most modern breakdowns land on: your website, SEO, content marketing, social media, paid advertising, email marketing, and analytics. Each one supports the others, your content fuels your SEO and email campaigns, your social posts drive traffic to your SEO optimised pages, and your analytics tell you which of it is actually working. Trying to master all seven at once as a small business usually leads to average results across the board, so it’s often better to focus on two or three that suit your industry and budget, then build out from there.
What are the 5 D's of digital marketing?
The 5 D’s are Digital Devices, Digital Platforms, Digital Media, Digital Data and Digital Technology. In plain terms: the devices your customers use to reach you (phones, laptops, tablets), the platforms they use on those devices (Google, Facebook, Instagram), the media and content you create to reach them, the data you collect about how they behave, and the technology and tools that tie it all together. It’s a useful way to check you’ve thought about the full customer journey rather than just one piece of it.
Final Thoughts
Digital marketing can feel overwhelming when you’re starting out, but you don’t need to do everything at once. Start with the essentials, Analytics and your Google Business Profile, build outward into link building, citations and social media, and keep an eye on your existing customers as much as new ones.
Consistency beats intensity here. A steady, patient approach to content, email and social media will outperform a short burst of effort every time, and the businesses that treat their website as a living part of the business, not a one-off project, are the ones still generating enquiries a year from now.
About the author
Nicholas Robb, Founder
The original Design Hero founder, solopreneur and marketing expert; Nick will help you supercharge your business success with a broad skill-set spanning a range of digital marketing fields.
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