For small business owners who struggle to get to grips with digital marketing, my first recommendation is to seek out and attend digital marketing shows or events. Understanding the bigger picture and getting familiar with the world of digital marketing is quite critical to applying it successful to your own business.
I remember a talk I had with my daughter a few years ago. She came to me complaining that she was finding Physics subject difficult to deal with as the complexity increased. I told her to put aside the current topics that were being taught at school and that she was finding difficult and to read a book on advanced Physics. I told her it would make no sense to her and she would probably find it a nightmare to get through the pages.
This is counter-intuitive to what she expected me to say. But I told her that our brains are like muscles and when we use them to make sense of topics or concepts beyond our comprehension, they then tend to cope well with topics that are meant for the stage in life. So, she gave it a try and later on found that the topics at school were indeed easy.
I suggest the same to small business owners when it comes to digital marketing. If you are feeling overwhelmed with what digital marketing is all about or if you have no clue why you should be tweeting or how to go about messaging your brand value consistently or branding on Facebook or Google+, then the best course of action is to attend digital marketing events where you can meet with companies that offer these services and you can pick their brains on how digital marketing can be applied to your business.
I was at one such event today called the Digital Marketing Show at Excel in London. My objective was to see what other agencies were up to and to get inspired by them. The event was brilliantly organized and the best of the digital marketing companies that London has to offer had booths set up. There were a few talks on topics such as SEO, Social Media, Email Marketing and more.
I was however surprised that most of the attendees were businesses in the same market space and were providers themselves. I would have expected to see a lot of small business owners hungry for information on how to get started on digital marketing. Part of the reason I suspect was the very technical nature of the whole event. The visuals and the language used would be intimidating for small business owners.
Here are just a few of the exhibitors.
Sitecore: Sitecore is a global software development company committed to helping marketers own every customer experience. 
Oracle Eloqua: Eloqua is now a part of Oracle’s comprehensive Customer Experience Cloud designed to help companies transform the way they market, sell, support and serve their customers.
Bizcrowd: Bizcrowd helps businesses engage with online services and social networks that directly deliver results for them.
Weboptimiser: provides online and digital marketing services.
MajesticSEO: Majestic SEO surveys and maps the Internet and has created the largest commercial Link Intelligence database in the world.
LikeMinds: Like Minds is a global thought leadership platform delivering world class events on business development, knowledge and insight aimed at entrepreneurs and business leaders to engage, stimulate and empower them to become global businesses of the future.
Digital Innovation Group: The Digital Innovation Group (DIG) provides the full breadth of digital services, with the depth of specialist implementation.
Pancentric Digital: We work with some of the best-known global brands providing creative and strategy and the latest technologies to deliver great web experiences and effective online acquisition and retention campaigns.
MediaWorks: mediaworks deliver online marketing campaigns that drive leads, sales & brand visibility for their clients.
Great Guns: have fine-tuned the art of lead generation and taken telesales into the 21st century.
Animate & Create Studios: offer a bespoke, creative approach and produce animation for client specific needs.
TwistKey: Many great brands have used TwistKey to promote their products and services.
House Of Kaizen: With over 65 talented professionals in London, New York and Lagos Nigeria they are uniquely positioned to deliver on the promise of global performance marketing.
iStock By Getty: Getty Images bought iStockPhoto, a popular stock photography service.
