Digital Marketing for Your Business: What to Know

Is your traditional marketing such as a banner ad or TV ad not getting the desired result? If so, it is time to switch to digital marketing that can drive promising results for your business.

It is fast, cost-effective, interactive, and gives you wider access to your audience. This form of marketing connects your business with people and turns them into your customer.

And there is a good reason why digital marketing can make your business successful.

According to one study, nearly 70-80% of customers search for products or services online and this also includes the research part. This fact might have given you an idea of the steep rise of online activities over the past few years. If you are not online, you are sure to miss out on thousands of potential customers over there.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to any online marketing that is done through the internet using equipment like a desktop computer, mobile phones, and other digital media to promote products and services. Simply put, it is a type of marketing to promote or sell products or services over the Internet. Some of the commonly used forms of digital marketing are SEO, PPC, social media marketing, and sharing content like blogs and videos. Or you can say that digital marketing is an umbrella term for all these forms.

The overall aim of digital marketing is to connect your business with the right audience at the right place and at the right time.

Why Digital Marketing is as Important as Your Business Itself?

Digital marketing is not just creating Facebook pages or sharing images on Instagram what most businesses believe. Rather, it is a powerful method you can promote your business to gain the attention of potential customers.

Forget for a while that you are a business. Instead, slip into the shoes of a customer. How would you search for a hotel nearby?

Obviously, you are likely to search it on the Internet using your smartphone. Right? Well, most customers do the same.

No wonder over 90% of people search online for the services or products they want. Based on this, here are some convincing facts to switch to digital marketing for your business.

Therefore, it is for sure that having an online presence is quite beneficial for your business.

THE CORE COMPONENTS OF ONLINE MARKETING

Website Designing:

Website is the face of your business over the Internet. While you can still run your business online by listing it on Yellow Page, a website will make your business look more credible, more professional. Its appearance, color, design, and even content can affect the way your customers perceive your brand. Therefore, make sure your website reflects your brand style and personality. It is a vital extension of your business.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

After creating a website, you need to make sure you appear in the searches of your user for the products or services you offer. When your potential customer is searching for a product or service online, they are likely to Google it first. To be found among millions of search results, your website should be optimized for the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This is where search engine optimization or SEO comes in.

SEO is the process of enhancing the visibility of a website and makes sure that it appears within the top search results whenever someone uses the targeted keyword or key phrases in the search bar.

Keywords:

Basically, keywords are the search terms used by customers to search over the Internet. If your website or content includes those search phrases, chances are you can appear in the search results for queries. Therefore, you need to choose the right keywords mostly used by your target audience.

These keywords can then be incorporated into metatags, listings, page descriptions, and blogs.

Optimization of On-Page and Off-Page:

On-page and off-page optimization are the two important components of digital marketing. An on-page optimization generally includes keywords optimization, content creation, sitemap creation, Google guidelines, and browser compatibility. Off-page optimization is done on the outer platforms to give back a link to the website.

Blogging:

You can write blogs about anything relevant to your target audience. If you are a healthcare business, you can write about healthy habits, disease prevention, and anything that can intrigue your audience. Having a dedicated section for blogs will not help you share information or educate people, but also let your audience share their views with you. Furthermore, these blogs can be incorporated with keywords, internal linking, and social media buttons, making them easily searchable.

Sending Promotional Emails: 

Newsletter marketing can help you deliver offers, promotions, and updates to your customers’ inboxes. However, you need to create a visually appealing newsletter with the strategic placement of the information. These newsletters are sent to your subscribers or potential customers.

Social Media Marketing: 

Everyone is on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can use these platforms to reach your potential customers to build your brand and increase sales. That’s why social media is an important part of online marketing. Social media marketing involves the activities like posting text and images, videos, and other content that can boost audience engagement.

Pay Per Click Advertising:

Pay Per Click or PPC refers to the online paid ad services where you only pay each time your ad is clicked, hence the name “pay per click”. It often appears on the top of the search results. It has become one of the fastest digital marketing strategies to drive traffic and conversion growth.

Content Marketing:

One of the core components of digital marketing is content marketing. It is a marketing approach focused on generating and sharing valuable and relevant content to drive customer engagement. The content can be articles, blog posts, email newsletters, case studies, videos, webinars, e-books, and much, much more.

HOW ONLINE MARKETING HELPS YOU GET AN EDGE

Engaging the Customer at Every Stage:

Before online marketing became a norm, not many businesses were focused on the customer journey, mainly because it was challenging to understand and analyze. Generally, a customer would visit a retail store after getting influenced by an ad on TV or in the newspaper, and buy the product. However, in digital marketing, it is easy to track every step that a customer takes, often from the moment when they exploring the products at your website.

Nowadays, it is common to see an ad online, search and compare prices on different websites, then visit a store or online store to buy the product. Mobile apps lure customers by giving special offers and coupons, comparison tools, and customer tools, which improves marketers’ understanding of the buying process. Digital marketing helps a marketer to track the entre buying journey of the customer.

Targeting the Right Audience:

The classification of the audiences has become easier as several digital marketing tools let you focus on particular audiences. These tools have the features to track online activities and demographic information. Digital marketers can utilize these insights to create specific products or services that can meet their (audience) interests. For example, once a user clicks on your online display ad, whether on Facebook or through Google, the brand can target that user with relevant ads. If a user receives content tailored to their requirements, they are likely to shop it.

With digital marketing, content and offers can be created according to the buying journey. For instance, email marketing can be utilized to nurture a lead unless they are ready to buy a product. Perhaps they subscribed to the blog and consistently explore your blog update emails. After some months, they check out about me and service pages. At this point, you can send them a targeted email with a luring offer. They click on the offer and ask for a quote. Advanced online marketing tools make this possible. When a user fills out a form, he or she provides information like age, occupation, etc. Most web pages have cookies to track the visitor’s behavior on the page. Based on this data, you can create the right strategies according to their needs.

Being Cost-Effective:

Digital marketing is less expensive compared to traditional marketing such as print and TV. It saves you money and earns more leads in the long run. With conventional marketing methods, it is challenging for small size businesses to compete with their larger counterparts. After all, large enterprises are likely to afford TV ads, radio spots, and banner advertising. That’s why it is not easy for small businesses to take on their bigger rivals.

Digital marketing, however, lets you compete in the same battleground. It is a cost-effective way to promote your businesses to the interested audience. Many digital marketing and advertising methods are cheaper. For instance, pay-per-click or PPC advertising lets you chose your budget. Whether you want to spend $100 or $500, you set the budget that can work for your business. This is a great benefit of digital marketing. Or it will cost nothing to list your business online on Google My Business.

To conclude, digital marketing costs you less while gaining more.

Getting You in the Local Searches:

Over 40% of all Google searches are local, meaning that more users are likely to search for the nearest shops or stores. Therefore, it is important to have a solid online presence to appear in your user searches. You can get started by listing your business on Google My Business.

Providing Better Customer Service:

Customer support is an important part of your business. You can have a certain form of customer support on your website. Apart from that, your social media accounts also act as a customer care cell where they can drop their queries online. While it ensures an ultimate convenience to the customers, you can give them a quick response. A win-win situation!

Helping Build Customer Loyalty:

With digital marketing, it is easier to build customer loyalty. For example, you can get little personal with people using social media platforms by running a certain campaign. You can invite them to send their experience with your product or services.

Creating Hype for Offer and Promotion:

Whether it’s a coupon or a seasonal sale, you can take your ongoing sale or promotion to more people using digital marketing. What about announcing it through social media?

Are You Ready to Maximise Your Business Success with Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is a wonderful opportunity for your business to gain more leads and sales. You can invest in different forms of online marketing such as PPC and SEO. You can talk to a marketing consultant now to choose the right digital marketing services for your business.

About the author(s):

Mark Blessington

Co-Founder at Consentric Marketing | Website

Mark Blessington has served many of the world's largest corporations as a sales and marketing consultant. He has published four books, over 50 articles, and hundreds of blog posts.