Never before have such powerful marketing tools been so accessible and affordable for small and medium-sized retail businesses. Digital media is here to stay.

This also means a lot of people are doing it and there is a lot of marketing noise out there. Here are some tips on how you can stand out.

Take an integrated approach

The easiest way to fail your digital marketing campaign is only to do one thing. You must use multiple tools in your strategy in order to make yourselves heard. You can make it easy on yourself by preparing marketing material once but distributing it across a number of mediums.

Use social media

Recent statistics suggest that Victorians have amongst the highest number of Facebook connections in the world. Whether it be a casual approach to family and friends in Facebook or more business oriented tact via LinkedIn, use these different “ locations” to become part of the “conversations” that result in people making buying decisions.

Be creative

It's not just about boring giveaways, promotions and discounts. It's about being memorable, making an impact, making a brand impression. Think about the brands that you quickly call to mind;  what it is they do that gathers your attention. Have fun, stand out from the crowd. You can't expect a different result if you keep doing the same things. You will have greater regrets on what you didn't try than what you did.

Make it personal

More than ever is the ability to make an impression about the people in your organisation. I like doing business with people, how about you? Companies aren't quite as accessible, not quite as accountable as a real person with a real name with a real personality.

Understand your audience

People are busy, inundated with e-mail, text messages, instant chats…. Even the occasional phone call on a landline! So give them enough to keep them interested and just as importantly, make it easy for them to discard if they are not interested. It’s the age of being direct!