Reasons Why Digital Marketing Is Very Effective And Important For Your Business

Digital marketing or online marketing is advertising done through digital communication. It is the enabling of brands or businesses to connect with customers via the internet. Did you know that Google and Facebook generate more revenue than any traditional media company?

Digital marketing is not the future, it’s the present. As a business owner, you may think it’s better to rely on traditional methods like flyers, billboards, coupons, or good old-fashioned word of mouth. Unfortunately, in the 21st century, this strategy will bring in a trickle of business at best.

Here are reasons why digital marketing is what your business needs.

Accessibility

The internet has so changed consumers that a business that doesn’t have an online presence is suspected of being fraudulent and non-existent. One of the first things people do when they are in need of a product or a service is to search for it online on a search engine like Google. Then they choose from the businesses that pop up and go to spend their money there.

To be a successful business, you simply need to be accessible to your consumers by utilizing digital marketing. Digital marketing is not all about websites and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

These are other ways through which you can become more accessible to your customers:

• Email marketing where subscribers are sent customized newsletters, deals, or offers based on past shopping history.
• Social media marketing where brands connect with consumers through campaign posts on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
• Affiliate marketing where popular people or influencers create awareness about a business or brand.

Cost-Effective

Digital marketing is a lot more affordable than traditional marketing. You can literally start a blog or create a social media page for your business for free. Traditional advertising methods like flyers require you to design, print and distribute all at your own cost in a time-consuming process. As a business owner, you can significantly reduce your advertising budget and get a better ROI (return of investment) by hiring digital marketing experts instead of spending large sums of money going the traditional marketing route.

For example, a business can advertise on Instagram through its sponsored ads tool that costs between $2.50 to $3.50 per 1,000 impressions. On YouTube, a business channel pays between $0.10 to 0.30 whenever someone views your ad. On Twitter, automated ads cost a flat rate of $99.00 a month and reach an estimated average of 30,000 people.

Target Audience

One of the things that make digital marketing so effective is targeted advertisements. Did you create your product or service specifically for dog owners between the ages of 21 to 45? Digital marketing will give you the tools to advertise to that exact demographic. The digital marketing experts at Edge Marketing in Brisbane explain how this means that you can conduct surveys, read their comments, engage in conversations, etc, to better understand what your target audience needs and tweak your product or service to fulfill that need. Digital marketing techniques like email marketing and content marketing allow you to engage with your target consumers in ways that let you build a relationship with them.

Targeted advertising has the effect of boosting customer satisfaction because your efforts are focused, and a satisfied customer is a loyal one who will return to spend their money again and again.

Competition

The business world is full of competition. Every business model has several others providing a similar product or service. Consumers have a lot more options and your business is competing for their attention. A site like Google has a click-through rate of 67.80% for the top five searches. This means that the top five businesses that appear after a Google search get more than half of all the attention and are the ones that make profits.

Your business competitors are likely employing a team of digital marketing experts to optimize their search engine rankings and drive traffic to their website to boost sales. They are engaging with your potential clients on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, convincing them to choose them and not you. It doesn’t matter if your business has a superior product or service, if your competitors get the exposure because you don’t use digital marketing tools, they’ll get your customers.

Additionally, digital marketing gives you the means to study your competition and learn from both their successes and their mistakes. Are they using viral video content, creative graphics, or interesting blog posts that are working? Do the same thing but make it better. Did they launch a new social media campaign that was considered offensive? Now you know what not to do.

Analytics

When you use traditional advertising campaign methods it’s very difficult to gauge if it’s actually working. For example, if it’s a TV ad you’re running for your store that means you’ll have to ask everyone that comes in if it was the ad that led them there. You don’t have to worry about annoying your customers with trivial questions if you use a digital marketing campaign.

The beauty of digital marketing is social media analytics. Every social media campaign is trackable. You can know if your efforts are paying off right away. Depending on the medium you choose you can measure impressions, clicks, likes, views, shares, comments, conversions, and a lot more. All you have to do is set up your tracking system to monitor the specific metrics you want to know about. This means you can easily track any campaign’s ROI (return on investment) to see if your hard-earned money isn’t wasted.

Also, unlike with a traditional campaign, you don’t have to wait till it’s over and make changes to the next one. You can make changes immediately to your digital campaign. This will save you a ton of money because it cuts out the waiting period.

There is also the added mental satisfaction of seeing your advertising campaigns working in real-time and being translated into profits.

Digital marketing is a blessing from the internet that every business that wishes to be successful should accept and utilize. Surveys show that the average person spends at least 20 minutes a day on Facebook and 86% of women reach out to social media reviews before deciding on a purchase. Clearly, the place to find and connect with consumers is online.