The Small Business Digital Marketing Business Model: Predictions For The New Normal

I originally began working on this report to help our AmpiFire user base adjust to the coming crises and make the changes they need to. However, it quickly expanded to something that would be very useful to a wider audience and I was told to ‘get it out there’ for everyone.

So hopefully this has given you some clear insight on what is coming, and what you might be able to do. But of course your business is very specific to you, and so how exactly you can make the best of the situation is unique to you.

So far we’ve looked at how bad things can get, the importance of understanding numbers and not over-reacting, and the industries that will suffer and the ones that will grow. This alone should spark some ideas of the direction you can go in.

Ultimately crisis or no crisis I use the 7 factors of a winning industry to decide the bigger picture direction of where I want to go. This is what led me to the digital marketing industry to begin with as it hits all 7 criteria. Especially if you are in the right sub-niche.

I’d like to share how we as a company have navigated this crisis, as well as our users who resell our marketing services into hundreds of different industries. To give you context I’ll explain a bit more about our industry, what our product does, and how we are reacting to the crisis to grow as a company, and help our user base too.

If you run a digital agency or already use AmpiFire you will find this incredibly useful and actionable, whereas if you have a different type of business this might not be 100% relevant. But you will likely find the story of how our community has approached this very enlightening.

Starting a digital agency is very easy too. You can simply start reselling someone else’s quality marketing service under your own brand while they do the work for you. You, in turn, make a large profit as a middle-man. As an example this is what most of our AmpiFire users do… they sell it for a large profit and we do the work.

Part of the reason it’s so successful is the sub-industry we are in… it’s a hyper growth industry.

Look, the internet is all about content. Without content there is no internet, and if you want to be seen online then you need to have content. The number of websites and businesses online is growing every year, and all these businesses need some form of content.

Generally it’s an area most businesses are not doing, small businesses especially. They are too busy to produce content like articles and videos and they are unfamiliar with the idea of how it all fits together to make sales…even though it gives the highest return on investment.

It’s hard for businesses to produce good content as it requires knowledge and skill to do it in the right way. The level of detail and quality of this content that is needed is increasing as well so businesses will need to spend more and more time producing a single piece of content.

And having content in the first place is not enough. The idea of ‘build it and they will come’ does not work because if nobody sees or shares your content, then guess what… nobody sees it and so you get no traffic and make no sales.

Unless you are already a big influencer this means you actually have to advertise or seed your content in some way so it gets seen.

At AmpiFire we did something nobody else had done before. We produced content in different media formats for any business and published it on major sites, allowing us to amplify any business. Quite simply now anyone can have content created by Ampifire and have it immediately published on major big brand sites.

Just like how major celebrities and big businesses are mentioned all across the web in articles, podcasts, blogs, videos and more, we do the same thing on a smaller scale for smaller businesses which in turn brings them more traffic and sales.

Our users sometimes are using this for their own businesses, but our customers are mainly small agencies that use AmpiFire to help local clients get more online exposure and the results have been phenomenal. We do all the fulfillment work on our side so the agency does not even do the work, and we even have a training course which shows complete beginners how to set it all up and sell to local businesses for a large profit.

It’s a great example of the local digital marketing working really well and this is a business model that is great anyway, but particularly powerful during a crisis.

The Power of the Local Marketing Business Model

Aside from being in a growing industry the business model of selling digital marketing services to local businesses hits all 7 of the criteria for a winning industry, and the sub-industry of content marketing is growing even faster.

According to manifest.com almost 90% of small businesses advertise, with a large proportion of that still being spent in traditional advertising which is typically less effective and more expensive than it’s online counterpart.

This is one reason why this industry is still growing so well because many small business owners have not made the full leap to online advertising that they need to. Especially among the older generation and more ‘traditional’ type businesses.

The pandemic has only intensified the need to advertise online. Since foot traffic has plummeted during lockdowns and online traffic increased, many businesses have realized just how important the internet is. This has actually made it easier to sell digital marketing to businesses, not harder, as I’ll discuss shortly.

But first let’s take a look at this business model from a higher level. On top of hitting all the 7 criteria for a winning industry this business model requires:

• No product – you resell someone else’s marketing service like AmpiFire
• No marketing fulfilment – you have another company like AmpiFire fulfill the service
• Recurring monthly payments – businesses pay you every month for ongoing campaigns
• Low maintenance – you just provide reporting on results to businesses
• No ad spend– you can get clients using free methods
• Paid upfront – you get paid upfront by businesses before delivering the service
• High Profit Margins – Most agencies mark-up the price and make 50-95% profit margins

Compare that to running a restaurant franchise for example which has a lot of logistics, stress, moving parts, and low profit margins. You can see how this hands-off digital agency model is far superior in many ways.

One way we look at this is that you are simply selling an eService to another business… a virtual digital marketing service that you don’t have to fulfill yourself. Much like how an eCommerce stores sells physical products that can be dropshipped by a third party, as an agency you are selling an ‘eService’ that can be fulfilled by a 3rd party.

Both Amazon and Google have seen the writing on the wall and are investing in the eServices and local services mega trend as well.

The Secret Multiplier…

By this point you might have realized that the industry you serve dictates the potential of your financial results. Pick the right growing niche and you’re in for bigger results.

What’s especially great about the local digital marketing model is you can choose to service any industry you want. You could help real estate agents get more exposure, or dentists, or online fitness stores, or any other type of business.

This means you can choose to serve the industries that are doing well. If things change you can pivot to a new industry.

• Real estate booming… provide digital marketing to real estate businesses
• Real estate tanking… start working with Medical Aesthetics instead

You can ride the wave of growth of any booming industry without taking the financial risk! You can help real estate agents while real estate is booming and if the industry tanks you can switch to another growing industry.

With digital marketing already growing, this is your secret hidden multiplier. You are in a growing industry, serving the growing customer base of another booming industry! You are riding two waves of growth at the same time!

So obviously one of the first things we did was identify which industries were growing and declining like I’ve shared in this report and channeled our energy into safe and growing industries while at the same time encouraging our users to do the same.

Being in a growing industry that sells into another growing industry is extremely powerful. It’s the one decision that makes everything else easier and many of the problems that most will be facing during a crisis just dissipate because the forces of growth are just so intense.

However, it’s worth noting that society has just undergone a massive shift, and we are experiencing a ‘new normal’. This means that the way we have sold before may no longer apply.