REASONS DIGITAL MARKETING IS NEEDED TO ADVANCE YOUR BUSINESS
Before we discuss the reasons digital marketing is needed to advance your business, let’s discuss what is digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the act of selling products and services through channels such as social media, SEO, email, and mobile apps. Basically, digital marketing is any form of marketing that involves electronic devices.
It can be done online and offline, and in fact, both kinds are important for a well-rounded marketing strategy.
Why Digital Marketing Matters.
Remember billboards? I do.
As a young kid, my experiences from the back seat of a car mostly alternated between: “Mom, when are we there?” and “Uh, look, Mr Biggs, can we go?” whenever one of those 10-foot billboards popped up on the side of the road.
Sometimes, big brands would even start a billboard war, like this one between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which got quite a few laughs.
Unfortunately or fortunately, billboard advertising isn’t much effective now as it was in the 90’s.
Just think of it this way: Google and Facebook generate more revenue than any traditional media company because they control more eyeballs. That’s why digital marketing matters; it’s where the attention is.
The reason for billboards is because the future of driving will look like this:
driverless cars – digital marketing
Although driverless cars already exist, drivers still have to pay attention; in the future, as the technology improves, not a single passenger will spend their time looking at the road.
Do me a favor, the next time you drive and are giving a friend a ride, take a peek at the passenger seat.
Just for a second.
Even now, chances are they’ll be looking at their phone.
If no one is looking at the road anymore, who’s supposed to see those advertisements?
What’s more: the share of people spending more time using electronic devices continues to rise, while print advertising continues to decline.
That means you don’t have much time to figure out this digital marketing stuff before you can power down your old school printing press and close up shop.
Online Digital Marketing Summary
The 2 main pillars of digital marketing are online marketing and offline marketing. That said, since I’ll talk about online marketing in a separate guide, I’ll only mention the different areas of online marketing here for the sake of completeness.
The 7 big categories of online marketing are:
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Content marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
Affiliate marketing
Email marketing
REASONS DIGITAL MARKETING IS NEEDED TO ADVANCE YOUR BUSINESS
With the change and evolution of modern technologies, small and medium businesses are doing everything they can to keep up, which can be said true for the rest of human society. Brick-and-mortar businesses are either changing their business models to an online one, or beefing up existing marketing efforts with digital marketing strategies – in an attempt to capture a growing and very lucrative online marketplace.
For it is the process of attracting targeted audiences online that will spell the difference between a successfully thriving business – and a failed one. Even if you receive tons of daily traffic to your website, they would not amount to anything unless they convert to leads or sales. In the digital arena where business and commerce are heading to, Digital Marketing tools and techniques provide business owners the best chances for competition, survival and even business growth.
The following reasons will show you why the use of digital marketing is not only investment-wise decision but also an effective marketing channel that can help you grow your business
1. Because Digital Marketing Levels the Online Playing Field
Gone are the days when business owners still welcome the notion that Digital Marketing is only for the likes of multinationals and large corporations that have the sufficient resources required to mount an online marketing campaign.
Digital Marketing actually levels the playing field, providing small and medium enterprises the chance to compete against the big boys and attract their share of targeted traffic.
With digital marketing, small companies now have the resources to perform sales and marketing processes that were previously available only to large corporations. Without a call center, small businesses can engage effectively with multiple customers, even to customers from any parts of the world even if they don’t have physical stores or branches in these locations.
2. Because Digital Marketing Is More Cost-Effective than Traditional Marketing
Small businesses have very little resources and even capitalization. This is why Digital Marketing provides them with a better and much more cost-effective marketing channel that delivers results. A general report highlighted that up to 40% of respondents claimed getting considerable savings by using digital marketing methods of promotion for their products and services.
That is why according to the above survey, 28% of business owners surveyed will shift marketing budget allocations from traditional media channels and invest them into digital online marketing tools and technique. A entreprise confirmed how digital marketers get better Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) compared to other marketing channels.
3. Because Digital Marketing Delivers Conversion
Businesses marketing products and services online measure success by the percentage rate of incoming traffic gets converted into leads, subscribers or sales, depending on the intended purposes of your website. Without conversion, all your traffic would mean nothing and all your marketing efforts will simply go to waste. That is why business owners are streamlining their digital marketing campaigns towards conversion optimization, making it a top priority above everything else.
There are several tools and techniques that you can use for your digital marketing campaign such as Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing and email marketing. As these three generate quick and effective communication and interaction with targeted audiences and will deliver better-than-average results in terms of higher conversion rates.
4. Because Digital Marketing Helps Generate Better Revenues
Higher conversion rates generated by effective digital marketing techniques will deliver loads of profitable benefits for you and your business in terms of better and higher revenues. Google confirms this in a study with IPSOS Hong Kong, claiming 2.8 times better revenue growth expectancy for companies using digital marketing strategies to those who do not.
With better revenue growth expectancy, small and medium enterprises using digital marketing techniques will have 3.3 times better chances of expanding their workforce and business – opening their doors to better, larger and farther reaching markets both locally and abroad. Google’s Asia-Pacific Head of SME Kevin O’Kane describes the Internet as rocket fuel for growth for small and medium enterprises.
5. Because Digital Marketing Facilitates Interaction with Targeted Audiences
One of the reasons why digital marketing is taking over traditional marketing channels is the ability of Internet marketing tools to interact with targeted audiences in real time. Engagement in any form is what your customers expect to receive when interacting with your brand or business. How your business handles such engagements and interactions will spell the difference between business success and failure
Interacting and providing your customers with proper engagement points can give you an insight of what your targeted audiences want. This vital information will steer you towards making the right set of next moves, provide your customers with an even better experience, develop good relationships with them – gaining their loyalty and trust that you will need when your business begins to grow.
6. Because Digital Marketing Caters to the Mobile Consumer
Undoubtedly, mobile internet will be the next wave of information dissemination and communication channel, brought about by the rapid proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices. These mobile devices have become a central part of life that 91% of adults in the world always have their devices within reaching distance.
Now would be the best time to have digital marketing campaigns intended towards mobile consumers, paving the way for them towards achieving better growth and faster expansion. Mobile gadgets have evolved from being mere alternatives for laptops and personal computers, into something that is influencing their purchasing decisions as confirmed by another report from eMarketer.
7. Because Digital Marketing Builds Brand Reputation
The power of digital marketing lies in its ability for attracting targeted traffic. These types of audiences for your content are most likely already ready to know more about your brand, products or services and may be interested enough to purchase what you have to offer. Delivering on what you promised will help you develop a better relationship with your targeted audiences, help them transition into paying customers that will go back and interact with your site some more – on a regular and continuous basis.
This will prove beneficial for your brand reputation, as satisfied customers will most likely tell other people about their experience with your brand, product or service. Your brand reputation will go viral as expected, further opening new doors of opportunities for reaching bigger markets and attain business growth.
SEE ALSO : HOW TO CHOOSE KEYWORDS FOR SEO
These above points drive the need to consider investing into digital marketing for your business/brand. The gains are more to your enterprise.