Generative Search Marketing (which uses AI in search results) is taking a bite out of the power of traditional organic and paid search traffic. That means small businesses that rely on search engine marketing need to diversify. In this guide, digital marketer Marcie Lord provides 3 strategies small businesses can use to diversify their digital marketing efforts in the face of AI.

At Digital Dynamo, we have seen over the past year how AI and Generative Search Marketing have impacted how much traffic websites get through paid and organic search. Where once traditional search channels (Google, Bing)  were the dominant traffic and lead generator for our clients and delivered upwards of 85% of their revenue, we’re now seeing that number dip below 60%.

If you rely on organic and paid search channels as a lead generator, don’t panic. Search engine marketing is still a powerful revenue driver, with ChatGPT Search starting to become the next big search engine. That said, SEO and paid search CANNOT be your only lead drivers anymore – you have to diversify your digital marketing tactics if you want your pipeline to grow.

In this article, I provide 3 ways small businesses can diversify their digital marketing strategies beyond just organic and paid search. All are manageable and affordable, and if you start doing them now, you’ll keep your customer pipeline full.

Jump to:

1. Capture Leads, then Segment & Personalize Email Campaigns

Email marketing has a bad reputation, and it has never been the sexy choice for digital marketing efforts. But it is relatively cheap, and it actually works if done right. 

The bad way to do email marketing is to spam your email list multiple times a week with correspondence that’s all about you, you, you, or offers zero value.

The right way to do email marketing is to segment your email list across demographics or characteristics, and send those segments valuable email content specific to them.

The first step in this is capturing emails through your website by offering something of value in exchange for the user’s email address. It should be specific to your audience, like our client Next Level Wardrobe who offers a style quiz. When users complete the quiz to find out what their style is, they can submit their email address to get the results. 

Other ideas for email capture include:

• Quizzes
• Downloadable guides 
• Free trial to access content or tools
• Access to informative webinars
• Free ebooks
• Discount codes

It’s all about your audience and what they want. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of capturing leads and sets the stage for effective follow-up engagement.

When you capture emails, try to capture additional data that will help you segment your list, because personalization is key. By segmenting your email lists and tailoring messages to meet the specific interests and behaviors of different groups, you can transform emails from ignored spam into valued content. 

When we build lead captures and email campaigns for our clients, we often use the StoryBrand Framework to create effective nurture campaigns. You can segment from the very first moment the user submits their email, or you can send all users through one standard nurture sequence, then move the user into segmented campaigns based on their demographics. Email platforms like Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign easily let you do this. 

Geography, gender, age, and industry are just a handful of the characteristics you can use to create tailored content that speaks more to people. A cardiologist in Rhode Island will respond better to an email about tort reform in Rhode Island than they will about new legislation around telemedicine in Utah. By serving people content they can really use – vs. content that just keeps you on their radar – you will see high profits from your email campaigns.

2. Use niche directories to amplify content & reach customers

An internet directory listing is like the online version of the phone book. These are sites that list your company’s business information (name, address, phone number), and serve as a way to verify the business to Google and other search engines. Your Google Business Profile, Facebook page, and Yelp page are like the top-tier of directory listings, but there are smaller ones like YellowPages, Hotfrog, and Brownbook that also serve as citations for your business. You can use a tool like BrightLocal to build these listings for you.

Depending on your industry and business type, there are also directories that are specific to what your business does, and they do more than list your business information – they will also publish your content on their site and their social profiles. 

Amplifying your content is crucial to increasing search rankings. It’s not enough to have your brand’s name and content published on your own digital collateral – you need other websites to do the same.

But you also want to take advantage of as many channels as you can to get in front of customers’ eyes. 

One fairly universal platform for this is your local chamber of commerce. Now, not all chambers of commerce will amplify content, so you need to ask before you invest in a directory listing with them. But some do. For example, my local chamber of commerce – the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce – will publish Digital Dynamo’s blog posts, events, and other announcements on their social platforms. 

And then there are the directories specific to industry. We work with a lot of financial advisors, and these clients use XYPlanning Network, a platform that serves as a directory for financial advisors and will also publish content to their socials and website.

Psychology Today is another example of an industry-specific platform that will let members of the platform publish and promote content. The content does have to meet a high-standard, requiring that authors submit a proposal outlining their article idea, its relevance, and their qualifications. But it is one of the few directories that encourage such engagement from its members.

Other examples of directories that will amplify content from members include:

• Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA)
• International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA)
• Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy
• National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM)

*Before signing up with any of the above-mentioned directories, contact them and get it in writing that they will share your content or allow you to create content that will be published on their platforms. 

These are just the tip of the iceberg. To find directories specific to your industry that will amplify your content, you can give ChatGPT a prompt like “what directories should a [insert profession] use if they also want to amplify content through that directory by submitting blog posts to it that the directory will then share to its own social media followers”. This should give you a good start on what directories to use for this purpose.

3. Start Doing Surrogate Marketing

NextDoor and Facebook are popular platforms for people seeking vendor recommendations. NextDoor is mostly people asking for advice on local service providers. Facebook groups are where you typically see people asking for local vendor recommendations.

But the key is that you don’t want to recommend your own business under the guise of the business. Users don’t respond well to self-promotion. What you want to instead do is have another person join these platforms and recommend your services. 

This is a tactic that Digital Dynamo offers for our clients. We go on NextDoor and Facebook under a user name and whenever someone asks for advice for a local HVAC company, or cleaning service, or another client who offers a local service, we drop in our clients’ business names and contact information. 

This has proven to be a fairly successful tactic that is simple in concept. Just remember that you don’t want to do self-promotion – you want a third-party doing it. 

You will get the most success if that third-party really speaks to the pain the person seeking the recommendation is trying to fix. No replies like “I love Acme Plumbing and highly recommend them, they are the best!” They should do replies like,

“Acme Plumbing came to my house and fixed my leaky sink in less than 30 minutes. Greg was the technician that fixed it and he was a great guy, very respectful of my home and easy to talk to. He explained the issue and showed me how to prevent the leak from happening again. You can contact Acme Plumbing at 555-555-5555.”

Future-Proof Your Digital Marketing

We are in the midst of an AI disruption and we don’t know how everything will shake-out. So far, I am on the side of “AI is good and can be leveraged for small business growth,” but I admit that I am unsure at times. What I do know is this: the days of solely relying on traditional search channels as a digital marketing channel are over. ChatGPT Search has been getting better and better, and I will soon provide guides on how to ensure your content shows up and is cited in ChatGPT search. That said, now is the time to spread your digital marketing efforts across more activities. The 3 listed in this article is a good place for small businesses to start.

If you are interested in developing a full-scale digital marketing strategy, contact us to learn how Digital Dynamo can help.