Marketing has evolved to adapt to an increasingly online world, and businesses must follow suit if they refuse to get left behind. Some business owners remain unconvinced about the benefits of digital marketing in today’s landscape, but such skeptics are only inviting failure. Keep reading to learn the true importance of digital marketing.
Understanding the Importance of Digital Marketing
As a business owner, you naturally want to make money and grow your business. But, the thought of venturing into digital marketing might scare you or cast doubt. After all, digital marketing costs time and money. And, you might want to focus more on managing your business right now than actually marketing it.
No matter what your reason is for putting off digital marketing, you will eventually regret not jumping on this opportunity sooner. There is no time to delay — simply waiting for customers to show up is never an effective strategy. Sure, your business might grow with the help of one or two forms of traditional advertising, but it will do so at a snail’s pace.
On the other hand, those who are making use of the digital platform are already benefiting from it. To them, it is clear why digital marketing is important to a business. If you also want to open your eyes, consider the following digital marketing benefits:
1. Adapt to a Predominantly Online World
The world today is hyperconnected. For many people, it is nearly impossible to let a day pass without going online. In fact, according to a Pew Research Center survey, 28 percent of American adults are “almost constantly” online, with 81 percent connecting to the online world at least once a day.
With such a large percentage of the adult population online, it almost seems foolish not to establish an online presence. Nowadays, the first thing consumers look for when they hear about a business is a company website. They equate having a professional-looking website with being trustworthy. Therefore, without an online presence, your business will fall by the wayside.
2. Create and Nurture Brand Loyalty
An online presence allows you to get to know your audience better and vice versa. A website, along with various social media pages, will let customers learn about your business on a more personal level.
It will help you foster authenticity, which is a deciding factor for many consumers nowadays. This, in turn, will allow you to cultivate brand awareness and nurture loyalty.
Brand loyalty plays an integral role in customer retention. If you want your customers to keep coming back, you must invest in an online presence and take advantage of digital marketing.
3. Reach a Wider Audience
Why is digital marketing important? Simple — your audience is online. In fact, 69 percent of American adults use Facebook, and 74 percent of those adults open their Facebook account at least once daily. Other social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, also boast incredible numbers.
Clearly, your customers spend a huge chunk of their time on various social media apps. They even prefer to interact with companies online, through social media, email, etc. Business owners like you should take advantage of such a lucrative opportunity to reach a broader audience. With the help of digital marketing, you can cast a wider net and get through to more people without much effort.
4. Compete with Established Companies
Aside from customers, your competitors are also online, and they aren’t afraid to make use of digital marketing. If you don’t want to lag behind, you should immediately follow in their footsteps.
Beyond that, digital marketing gives you a fighting chance against bigger names. Large, chain stores wipe out smaller, local businesses all the time. It might seem futile to challenge them, but with digital marketing, you can wield a weapon that can level the playing field.
With the right digital marketing strategy, your small business can compete with larger ones, outranking them on search results with the help of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Adwords.
5. Better Conversion Odds
A lot of businesses, especially newer ones, often have difficulty converting leads into customers. Email marketing, though, makes that process easier.
With email marketing, you stand to gain a huge return, even 3800% in ROI. Of course, it will take some time and effort to get your email marketing strategy up to par. You need to slowly fill your email list with good subscribers. Additionally, you need to have quality content and a good social media marketing tactic.
Automation in digital marketing also helps greatly. With this feature, you can send content or post ads at optimal times. This eliminates the repetitive quality of a lot of ads that many customers find annoying.
6. Easier Targeting
Targeting is a normal part of marketing. With digital marketing, though, targeting is made easier and more specific. You can segment your audience and divide them into groups. You can even tailor it to individuals.
With a more specific target audience, you can create a highly personalized marketing plan. You can build an ad that will resonate with your target demographic. After all, marketing is all about fostering connections and nurturing customer relationships. If you can manage to create an ad that connects with your target audience, then you have a likelier chance of converting them.
7. Grows With Your Business
One of the best attributes of digital marketing for business is that it is completely scalable. You don’t need to invest a huge sum of money to get started. Social media campaigns allow you to set a daily budget, so you can still market your business while staying within your means. As your business grows, you can adjust your digital marketing strategy, put in more money, and reap the benefits.
8. Access to Advanced Analytics
You won’t understand the importance of digital marketing without going into analytics. A computational analysis of marketing data and statistics will help you shape and alter your strategy to its most effective form.
With digital marketing, you can learn specific information about your audience and your ads. You can find out if your audience actually saw the ad, interacted with the ad, liked the ad, shared the ad, and more. You can also learn more about the people who interacted with your ad.
9. Go Global for Less
Digital marketing will also allow you to extend your reach from local to global for not much money. Some proven strategies include making use of Adwords and SEO. Search advertising, including Adwords, is highly lucrative. About 64 percent of internet traffic is search results. You can also take advantage of pay per click (PPC) to position your website at the top of the search results page.
Social media is also inherently global. With a strong social media presence, you can reach a more universal audience and establish your business as a worldwide brand. The best part is, it won’t cost you a ton of money to achieve it.
To Adapt Is to Survive
In the current business environment, it no longer makes sense to stick to traditional methods alone. Technology is ever-evolving and will continue to influence marketing in various ways. The importance of digital marketing is clear. If you want your business to survive and thrive, you must learn how to make use of digital marketing.
If you need help getting started with digital marketing, Tanner Grey can help. Give us a call at 844.500.1339 or contact us online to learn more about our services.
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