Optimizing Digital Marketing for Small Business Success

Standing out as a small business owner in today’s noisy digital world can feel like an impossible goal. For many, crafting a small business marketing strategy is an overwhelming task. You’ve probably tried a few digital marketing tactics, but are you really getting the most out of them?

In this post, I’m going to introduce you to the hub-and-spoke strategy. It’s a way of thinking about digital marketing that will transform your marketing efforts.

Picture your website as the hub of a wheel, with various channels—like social media marketing, email marketing, and PPC ads—acting as spokes, delivering your message to your customers and generating high-quality website traffic. Your messaging strategy is the rim that holds everything together.

Why does this matter?

It helps streamline your marketing and makes reaching and connecting with your audience easier. You don’t want marketing campaigns contributing to the digital noise. With the hub-and-spoke strategy, you will break through the noise, engage with your target audience where they are, and ultimately drive sales. The hub-and-spoke strategy is a straightforward way to connect what you are doing with your online marketing.

Ok, but why is it effective?

The success you’ll see when you adopt the hub-and-spoke strategy doesn’t come from the elements you choose to use. While these are important, and this post looks at many of them, this isn’t where the power comes from. The hub-and-spoke strategy is an effective small business marketing strategy because of the connections.

On my desk, I have a bicycle wheel hub and some spokes. A rim is leaning against my office wall. They are nice, but on their own, they don’t do much, and they don’t have much value. It’s only when you connect them together that their value is evident. When the pieces are connected, you have the wheel, arguably the most important invention in mankind’s history.

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Digital marketing campaigns that use the hub-and-spoke strategy are effective because the pieces are connected together in a meaningful way. There’s a connection with the target audience. Your business connects with customers via media channels and their favorite social platform, and your customers can use these same pathways to access your value via the website. The power comes from the connections.

In this post, we’ll explore how the hub-and-spoke strategy can maximize the benefits of digital marketing for small businesses. We’ll cover practical tips, budget considerations, and real-world examples that will resonate with your experience.

Get ready to unlock new growth opportunities and take control of your digital marketing success!

Understanding the Hub and Spoke Marketing Strategy

Defining the Hub and Spoke Strategy

Let’s dive deeper into what the hub-and-spoke marketing strategy means for your small business.

Think of your website as the heart of your digital presence. It’s your hub—the central point where all your online efforts converge. Your website is where your target audience goes to learn more about what you are offering and where you have the most control over your message.

Now, imagine the spokes. These are your various marketing channels. They include, but aren’t limited to, the following:

• Social media marketing campaigns
• Email marketing campaigns
• PPC ads
• Content marketing efforts
• Search engine optimization (SEO)

Each of these spokes plays a crucial role in your overall marketing strategy.

Now, consider your messaging. What are you saying to your customers? How are you supporting them on their journey? Are you talking to them like you know them, or are you shouting at them from the rooftops? The messaging strategy is the rim that holds it all together. What you say in marketing either brings value to your audience or it’s invisible. Pretty and clever isn’t a messaging strategy.

And here’s the thing—the hub-and-spoke strategy is effective because of the connections in the online marketing—everything emanates from and leads back to your website, your hub.

Why the Hub-and-Spoke Strategy Matters

The hub-and-spoke strategy gives your digital marketing strategy direction and purpose. Instead of scattering your energy across disconnected channels, you create a cohesive ecosystem that attracts your target audience and supports the customer journey.

The tactics used in your online marketing plan are connected to the customers and the website. Each has a purpose. Your marketing isn’t contributing to the digital noise; it’s breaking through because it delivers value to your target audience and gives them a way to answer their questions and concerns.

Let’s break it down with a real-world small business example.

Local Bakery Case Study

Say you’re a local bakery. How might you use the hub-and-spoke strategy to improve your online marketing?

• Your website (the hub) showcases your products, tells your story, and handles online orders.
• You use social media platforms like Instagram (a spoke) to deliver mouthwatering photos of your latest creations, driving your target audience to your site to place orders.
• You use email campaigns (another spoke) to add value by sharing ways your target audience can use your bakery products (relevant messaging) and announce seasonal specials.
• And everything links back to your business website.

The Power Comes from the Connections

See how it all connects?

This strategy isn’t just about driving website traffic. It’s about supporting the customer journey no matter where or how they find you. Use relevant messages to engage with them and to invite them back to your website—where they can learn more, engage further, and ultimately convert.

By implementing the hub-and-spoke strategy, you’re not just marketing; you’re building a connected digital marketing strategy that works 24/7 for your business.

Are you ready to see how this can work for you?

Let’s explore how to implement a small business marketing strategy.

Implementing the Hub-and-Spoke Small Business Marketing Strategy

Now that you understand the concept let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work. Here’s how you can implement the hub-and-spoke marketing strategy for your small business.

Improve Your Hub

Your website is the star of the show. Make sure it’s up to the task:

• Is it user-friendly?
• Does it clearly communicate your value proposition?
• Can visitors easily find what they’re looking for?
• Do you have a mobile-friendly website?

Invest time and resources here. Your website is the foundation for everything else.

Review our post for a more detailed review of website UX: Six Ways to Engage Website Visitors in Six Seconds or Less.

Identify Your Spokes

Which digital channels are most relevant to your audience? Don’t try to be everywhere. Focus on where your customers are.

Are they scrolling through a social media platform like Instagram, networking on LinkedIn, or using a search engine like Google?

Customer behavior is your guide. Choose your spokes wisely.

Create Consistent, Value-Driven Content

Your content marketing strategy is the rim that connects the spokes to each other and to your customers. Develop a content marketing strategy that:

• Addresses your customers’ pain points
• Showcases your expertise
• Supports the buyer’s journey

Remember, quality (relevance) trumps quantity every time.

Have a Content Marketing Strategy

The most common problem I see when I audit digital marketing programs and websites is an absence of strategy. Read our post about the simple marketing plan and download the plan template. Use the templates to create target audience avatars and journey maps. Then, you will have a content marketing strategy based on who your target audience is and what they are looking for. 

A customer-based content marketing strategy will help you select spokes that make sense.

The strategy will clarify website copy and navigation decisions. You will know who the customers are and why they came to your website, so you’ll know how to create pathways that support the customer’s journey.

You’ll also know what kind of content to create for your website. Blog posts, pages, products and services to feature, all this can be derived from a customer-based content marketing strategy.

Create a Destination

Content marketing, especially blogging, is an efficient way to connect with your audience. Carefully crafted blog posts will attract potential customers who are looking for information. By providing what they are looking for, you’ve started a relationship and established a degree of trust.

Search engine optimization (SEO) will help you attract new customers. The key to ranking on the first search engine results page is to use keyword research to identify useful topics and create relevant content that answers your customers’ questions. Write for people first and search engines second.

For a deeper dive into the search engine marketing how-tos, read our post on how to write blog content that ranks.

Use keyword research tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or Keywords Everywhere to understand what your target customer is searching for. Once you have a list of keywords, carefully consider search intent.

When search engines present results to actively searching consumers, they consider the underlying intent behind the search. You need to understand how the search engines view each keyword’s intent to create content that matches the intent. For example, if the search intent is transactional, creating an information post isn’t going to improve search engine ranking or help you attract your target customer.

With a keyword list and an understanding of search intent, create content that meets the needs of new customers, but write for readers first.

Leverage Social Media Marketing Strategically

Don’t just post for the sake of posting. Use social media channels to attract and engage potential customers with content that adds value.

• Drive traffic back to your website
• Engage with your target audience
• Stimulate customer interactions

Each post should have a purpose that’s aligned with what your potential customers are looking for. Use the content marketing strategy to assess each post you create. 

Measurement is key here. Use UTM codes to identify the traffic generated by social media posts in Google Analytics. Track the traffic back to the content that generated the visit and assess the quality by looking at the time on the page and bounce rate. See what’s working and what’s not landing.

Nurture Through Email Marketing

Email campaigns are a powerful spoke in your strategy. Email marketing is the ideal spoke for retaining customers. Use email to:

• Acknowledge your existing customers
• Keep them informed
• Provide value beyond functional benefits
• Guide subscribers back to your hub

Personalization is key here. Segment your list and tailor your messages. Relationships are earned. Email marketing is your best way to earn their trust.

We write about email marketing and MailChimp, an email marketing tool, a lot. You can review this content on the email marketing for small business category page.

For more about relationship marketing, visit our post about using relationship marketing for more effective, dare I say, non-icky marketing and sales funnels.

Monitor, Measure, and Adjust

The beauty of digital marketing? It’s all measurable.

Measurement is a vital tool for tracking the performance of a digital marketing campaign. We mention UTM codes above. A/B split testing is another useful way to determine what’s working and what’s not worth your time and treasure.

There are many other things to measure, but don’t overthink it; measure big things. Which social media platform is driving the most high-quality traffic? Which content resonates best with your audience? Big things.

Let the data guide your decisions.

Remember, implementing the hub-and-spoke strategy is not a one-time task. It’s a strategy, which is to say it’s an ongoing process of refinement and optimization.

Are you ready to take your digital marketing to the next level?

Digital Marketing Tips for Maximizing ROI

Now that you’ve got your hub-and-spoke strategy in place, let’s talk about getting more bang for your buck.

As a small business owner, every dollar counts. Here’s how to maximize your return on investment (ROI) in digital marketing:

Set Clear, Measurable Goals

What does success look like for your business? More website visitors? Higher conversion rates? Increased sales? Specific, measurable goals give you a clear target to aim for and a basis for measurement.

Start Small, Scale Smart

You don’t need to do everything at once. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Begin with one or two spokes, and when you think you have them figured out, look again.

This approach allows you to learn, adjust, and grow without overwhelming your resources.

Leverage Free and Low-Cost Tools

There’s a wealth of affordable tools out there. Some of my favorites:

• Google Analytics (free)
• Canva for design (free plan available)
• Mailchimp for email marketing (free up to 2,000 subscribers)
• Metricool to manage social media channels (affordable plans for small businesses)

These tools can help you punch above your weight without breaking the bank.

Watch out for expensive islands. One of the reasons I created Inn8ly was my frustration seeing small business owners spending money on marketing platforms (islands) when, in most cases, a well-built website is enough.

Focus First on Organic Growth

While PPC ads have their place, read our post about profitable Google Ads, organic growth often provides better long-term ROI. It’s also a good idea to test offers and ideas using organic traffic before you invest in advertising.

Organic traffic isn’t free. You will need to make some investments in:

• Quality content creation—pictures tell, words sell
• SEO optimization
• Engaging social media assets

These efforts compound over time, delivering ongoing returns.

Repurpose Your Content

Get more mileage out of your content by repurposing it across different channels:

• Turn a blog post into a series of social media posts
• Turn presentations into YouTube videos and Shorts
• Create an infographic and checklists from blog posts
• Transform a popular post into a YouTube video
• Turn listicle posts into carousels and Instagram stories
• Turn long, information-rich blog posts into email courses

There are so many ways to repurpose content. For a lot more about this, read our post Transforming Your Content Game with Smart Repurposing for Social Media Marketing.

Prioritize Customer Retention

It’s cheaper to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one.

Use your hub-and-spoke strategy to keep your audience engaged. Use the spokes, especially email, to deliver value to your customers and make it easy for them to return to the hub, your website, to receive more value.

Happy customers become brand advocates, one of the five ways loyal customers contribute to your business. Relationship marketing uses the hub-and-spoke strategy to amplify the impact of your marketing efforts.

Test, Learn, Iterate

At the risk of reporting myself, a risk I’m willing to take because this is really important; digital marketing isn’t set-it-and-forget-it. Continuously test different approaches:

• A/B test your email subject lines and offers
• Use Google Search Console (free) to assess what types of content on your blog are working best
• Experiment with posting times on social media

Use the insights you gain to refine your strategy.

Remember, ROI isn’t just about money in versus money out. Consider the long-term value of brand building, customer relationships, and market positioning.

Focusing on these areas will help you stretch your marketing budget further and see better results over time.

Are you ready to take action?

Hub-and-Spoke Marketing in Action

Let’s look at how a small business could use the hub-and-spoke strategy to boost its digital marketing efforts.

The overriding principle here is the direct marketing axiom: “Get the right message to the right person at the right time.”

Local Fitness Studio – FitLife Gym

Challenge

FitLife Gym struggled to stand out in a crowded market and attract new members.

Solution

They implemented a hub-and-spoke strategy, with their website as the hub, and developed marketing that resonated with their ideal customer.

Execution – The Plan

Customer Avatar

To craft marketing that resonates with your audience, you need to know who they are. The customer avatar is an effective way to describe your audience.

The FitLife Gym interviewed their existing customers to develop the following avatar.

Buyer’s Journey

The avatar helped FitLife Gym understand the right message and the right person, and the buyer’s journey map helped them determine the right time.

Based on the customer interviews, FitLife Gym developed the following journey map.

Aware:
Mindset: Realizes current lifestyle is unhealthy, feels sluggish
Questions: How can I improve my health without disrupting my schedule?
Obstacles: Time constraints, lack of knowledge about fitness options

Consideration:
Mindset: Exploring different fitness options, comparing gyms and home workouts
Questions: Which gym offers the best value? Can I commit to a regular routine?
Obstacles: Information overload, fear of commitment, budget concerns

Prospecting:
Mindset: Narrowing down options, looking for a gym that fits their needs
Questions: Does this gym offer flexible schedules? What kind of support do they provide?
Obstacles: Uncertainty about gym culture, fear of judgment, concerns about contract terms

Decision:
Mindset: Ready to make a change, excited about potential results
Questions: How quickly can I start? What’s the onboarding process like?
Obstacles: Last-minute doubts, concerns about maintaining motivation

This journey map reflects the avatar’s progression from realizing they have a need to choosing FitLife Gym.

The avatar and journey map were used to guide the executions that follow in this use case.

Execution – the Hub (Website)

• Added pathways so key subsegments could easily find the information they needed
• Streamlined the class booking and membership sign-ups
• Added a blog featuring fitness tips and success stories

Execution – the Spokes

1. Instagram: Daily workout videos and motivational content
2. Facebook: Community engagement and support
3. Email marketing: Personalized workout plans, nutrition tips and encouragement
4. YouTube: Long-form workout tutorials and entertaining shorts

Results

• 40% increase in website traffic
• 25% boost in new membership sign-ups
• 100% improvements in social media marketing performance—followers and engagement
• Improved customer retention through consistent email marketing efforts

Key Takeaway

By creating relevant content across multiple channels, measuring what was working and what wasn’t, and always directing prospects and customers back to its website, FitLife Gym created a cohesive digital presence that delivered value to its target audience and the business.

Artisanal Soap Company – Suds & Co.

Challenge

Suds & Co. wanted to expand its customer base beyond local farmers’ markets.

Solution

They embraced digital marketing and used the hub-and-spoke strategy to develop marketing designed to attract their ideal customer.

Execution – The Plan

The Avatar

Journey Map

Aware:
Mindset: Realizes current skincare products may contain harmful ingredients
Questions: Are there natural alternatives to mass-produced soaps? How can I improve my self-care routine?
Obstacles: Limited knowledge about natural skincare, skepticism about effectiveness

Consideration:
Mindset: Researching natural soap options, comparing different brands
Questions: Which ingredients are best for my skin type? Are handmade soaps worth the higher price?
Obstacles: Overwhelmed by choices, concerns about product longevity, budget considerations

Prospecting:
Mindset: Narrowing down options, looking for a brand that aligns with their values
Questions: Where can I find high-quality handmade soaps? What makes Suds & Co. different from other artisanal soap makers?
Obstacles: Limited availability in local stores, uncertainty about online purchasing, desire to smell/feel products before buying

Decision:
Mindset: Ready to try natural, handmade soaps, excited about supporting a small business
Questions: How do I use and care for these soaps to make them last? What other products does Suds & Co. offer?
Obstacles: Slight hesitation about price point, concerns about shipping and handling of delicate products

Execution – the Hub (E-commerce Website)

• Created subsegment pathways to address concerns
• Used high-quality photos to showcase their products
• Focused blog on natural skincare
• Optimized relevant content for SEO
• Connected the shop to Google Shopping and Facebook Marketplace

Execution – the Spokes

1. Pinterest: Visual boards featuring their natural soap-making process and ingredients, ‘how to’ and ‘why to’ lead magnets
2. Instagram: Behind-the-scenes content and customer testimonials
3. Email Campaigns: QR code counter signs at farmers’ markets to collect email addresses and weekly emails promoting their latest blog posts

Results

• 75% increase in online sales within six months
• Expanded customer base to the national level
• Social media platforms consistently delivered high-quality website traffic
• Increased average order value and customer lifetime value

Key Takeaway

By creating a strong online presence and leveraging visual platforms, Suds & Co. successfully transitioned from a local business to a brand with a national customer base.

As you can see in these two fictional examples, these strategies can be adapted to fit your unique business needs. The key is consistency, value-driven content, and always leading customers back to your website.

What aspects of these examples resonate with your business? How might you apply similar strategies?

Overcoming Common Challenges

Only my wife is perfect. You will experience some challenges as you adopt the hub-and-spoke strategy. I’ll address some common challenges and provide some ways to overcome them.

Limited Resources and Budget Constraints

Challenge

You wear multiple hats, and your marketing budget is tight.

Solution

• Focus on a single spoke and scale gradually
• Build your list—email marketing is highly efficient
• Leverage free or low-cost tools
• Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose—repurpose content across platforms to maximize efficiency

Remember, consistency trumps quantity. It’s better to excel on one platform than to spread yourself too thin across many.

Staying Consistent with Content Creation

Challenge

Regularly producing high-quality content can be time-consuming and challenging.

Solution

• Create a content calendar to plan ahead
• Use scheduling tools like Metricool to automagically post content
• Batch create content when you have time
• Consider outsourcing or delegating content creation
• Encourage user-generated content from your customers

Pro Tip

Use your phone’s voice memo utility to record content ideas. Inspiration can strike at any time!

We have a resource to help you with this. Follow the link to download the Batching Content Action Guide.

Keeping Up with Digital Trends

Challenge

The digital landscape evolves rapidly, making it hard to stay current.

Solution

• Subscribe to industry newsletters and blogs
• Attend summits and webinars and listen to podcasts
• Use YouTube video content to learn about trends
• Follow influencers on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Set aside time each week to learn and explore new trends

The goal here isn’t to embrace the next shiny thing. You don’t need to jump on every trend. Focus on what resonates with your audience and aligns with your business goals.

Measuring ROI Effectively

Challenge

Determining the true impact of your digital marketing efforts can be complex.

Solution

• Set clear, measurable goals from the start
• Use UTM codes to track performance
• Focus on metrics that directly impact your bottom line
• Use data to review and adjust your strategy

Don’t get overwhelmed by all the choices. Start with a few key metrics and expand as you become more comfortable.

Balancing Organic and Paid Strategies

Challenge

Deciding how to allocate resources between organic growth and paid advertising.

Solution

• Start with organic strategies to understand what’s getting traction with your audience
• Use paid advertising to boost your best-performing content
• Test different approaches and let data guide your decisions
• Remember that organic and paid strategies often work best in tandem

You’ll be better equipped to implement a successful hub-and-spoke strategy by addressing these challenges head-on. Remember, every business faces obstacles—it’s how you overcome them that sets you apart.

What’s your biggest challenge in implementing digital marketing strategies? How can you apply these solutions to your specific situation?

Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses

The hub-and-spoke marketing strategy is a powerful and easy-to-understand approach to digital marketing that transforms your business’s online presence through the power of connections.

By centralizing your efforts around your website, using appropriate digital channels to connect with your target audience, and using these same channels to provide pathways for your customers to communicate with you via the business website, you create a cohesive, effective marketing ecosystem that delivers value to your customers and to your business.

Let’s recap what we covered in this post about how small businesses can use the Hub and Spoke Strategy to improve their online marketing.

1. The hub-and-spoke concept: Your website is the hub, with various online channels as spokes, and the messaging strategy is the rim
2. Implementing the strategy: Strengthen your hub, identify relevant spokes, and create consistent content
3. Maximizing ROI: Set clear goals, leverage affordable tools, and make data-driven decisions
4. Real-world applications: Use cases that demonstrate implementations
5. Overcoming challenges: Addressing resource constraints, content creation concerns, and keeping up with trends

Remember, the hub-and-spoke strategy isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It must be tailored to your customers and business needs and continuously refined based on results.

I Can Help

Are you ready to take your small business digital marketing to the next level?

If you want to better understand how the hub-and-spoke strategy can benefit your business, I’m here to help. Use VIPChatwithJames.com to find a day and time to chat with me that works for you. Together, we’ll explore how this approach can drive growth for your small business by maximizing your digital marketing strategy’s impact.

Author: James Hipkin

Since 2010, James Hipkin has built his clients’ businesses with digital marketing. Today, James is passionate about websites and helping the rest of us understand online marketing. His customers value his jargon-free, common-sense approach. “James explains the ins and outs of digital marketing in ways that make sense.”

Use this link to book a meeting time with James.