A Digital Marketing strategy in simple terms makes use of the internet and other online-based technologies and platforms to promote products and services. The internet is used as a medium between the business and the consumer and creates a connection between the pair.
Having a digital marketing strategy is more important than ever, especially in today’s dynamic business world. Businesses that do not have any kind of digital marketing presence will find it extremely hard to compete with similar businesses in the industry that are reaping the benefits of a digital presence.
According to a recent study, 40% of businesses don’t have a defined digital marketing strategy which can be harmful to success.
There are many different forms of digital marketing for a business or individual to potentially choose from, such as search engine optimisation (SEO), email marketing, social media marketing (SMM), content marketing, and many more. Each of these forms of marketing has its own unique benefits and advantages depending on what a business wants to achieve.
However, the main benefits that a small business or SME can attain from a good digital marketing strategy include:
Leads to Better Brand Awareness
Implementing a digital marketing strategy allows your business to be in the same place as the consumer at the same time. This is crucial to increase awareness and therefore generate more leads and interest in the business and its product and service offerings.
Nowadays, all consumers are online with an estimated 2.14 billion people worldwide buying goods and services online. Consumers are no longer limited to the traditional forms of marketing and online marketing is becoming a far more effective strategy for businesses as consumers flock to the internet for nearly everything.
55% of Irish businesses claim to have spent money to improve their digital platform in the last year, highlighting the importance of a digital marketing strategy in the Irish market. Improve your digital marketing presence today and take a look at some of our digital marketing services.
Allows for More Effective Targeting
A digital marketing strategy also allows for far more effective consumer targeting. Through the use of ads, a business is able to optimise specific keywords for search queries, which improves the chance of the product/service appearing in front of the consumer at the right time. For example, a waste removal company would be able to optimise keywords or search terms such as, “where can I recycle in my area”, or “waste removal near me”.
Having content that is relevant to your target consumer will help when it comes to generating leads. From a digital marketing perspective, the use of hashtags and more personalised posts helps when it comes to the more effective targeting of consumers. Hashtags allow people to find content that is more relevant to them and create a point of interest.
Social media ads also allow for certain demographics to be targeted depending on the business’s preferences. A business is able to target consumers based on a wide range of factors such as age, location, interests, occupations, and more. 56% of consumers believe that a business should have a deep understanding of their needs and wants. Digital marketing allows you to segment your audience which helps to achieve more effective targeting.
Levels the Playing Field
Digital Marketing is an inexpensive tool for businesses that help smaller companies compete with larger competitors in their industry. A digital marketing strategy does not require large-scale expenditure for a business’s sales and awareness to grow.
While the larger companies may have some tools that are not accessible to smaller firms, a deep understanding of the target audience and product knowledge is a far more effective approach to digital marketing.
Employing a digital marketing strategy helps small businesses to ‘level the playing field’ by creating useful and informative content that their consumer is going to use.
Digital marketing also presents smaller businesses to interact with consumers they may not previously have been able to reach. Access to a larger pool of consumers further bridges the gap between small and large businesses.
Measurable Outcomes
As with all forms of business, it is important to measure how each aspect of your operations is performing. With a digital marketing strategy, almost everything can be measured with some type of metric which allows a business to see what is working for them and what is not from a digital marketing aspect.
Some of the main digital marketing metrics measured are:
Cost-Effective
Digital marketing is the most cost-effective way for a business to grow its brand. The use of digital marketing allows a business to reach its consumers on a wide-scale basis for a fraction of the cost of other traditional forms of marketing. Digital marketing can even be free of cost if a business is willing to invest the time to grow organically, in other words not paying for ads.
Using ads in your digital marketing campaign does offer a more targeted advertisement, which can be more effective and appealing to the target consumer. Digital marketing as previously mentioned allows you to measure all relevant metrics, which is not really achievable with traditional forms of advertisements, such as a newspaper ad.
Even the smallest and least expensive digital marketing strategy programs can have a lasting effect on the consumer if the project is useful and the correct audiences are targeted. Digital marketing techniques such as SEO, social media marketing (SMM) and content creation, and so on improve the visibility of businesses no matter the size of the campaign or amount of funds invested in them.
Allows You to Tell Your Story
A digital marketing strategy helps a business to tell its story and get its personality across to become more recognisable to its consumers. Therefore, digital marketing has a major effect on how a business is branded. Getting a business’s overall message or meaning across can be difficult, however, showcasing its content through digital media strategies can help a business build a meaningful connection with its consumers.
Building your brand and creating a story for your consumers to follow through content generation and promotion is key to building trust with the consumer. Creating consistent and useful content through a digital strategy is a great way for a business to generate leads and become more recognisable to consumers.
As with the golden rule of business, you don’t only need your consumers to know you but you want them to like you and trust you, which is essential in today’s competitive marketplace.
We hope that you have enjoyed our article and gained some insight into the ways digital marketing is important for small businesses and SMEs.
Now that you’ve read our digital marketing for small businesses article, why not read some more of our other articles, or view our client portfolio here.
Do you need help with your digital marketing strategy? Contact us today to get your project started.
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