Digital marketing has continued to grow as a game-changer for businesses, offering a more affordable and effective way to reach a wider audience than several traditional marketing methods. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of digital marketing for businesses and provide insights on where they can start their digital journey. This blog will cover the following topics:
- Traditional Marketing
- Digital Marketing
- Benefits of Digital Marketing
- Getting started with Digital Marketing
Let’s dive in!
What is Traditional Marketing?
Traditional marketing are the conventional forms of marketing which involve offline methods to promote and advertise for products and services. This form of marketing is usually focused on physical forms of marketing in a particular area such as newspaper ads, direct mailers, tv or radio commercials, and billboards to name a few. So, if that covers (in a simplistic sense) what traditional marketing is, then what does the digital version entail?
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing refers to marketing done online that appears on computers, phones or other devices. Now you may say, no way… obviously it is called DIGITAL marketing after all. But to be more specific, this form of marketing allows businesses to leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email or other websites to connect with current as well as potential customers. Digital marketing is typically a more nurturing approach, that allows you to not only reach but also engage a more target audience.
What are the Benefits of Digital Marketing?
Cost-Effective
Traditional advertising methods often come with hefty price tags that can be daunting, especially for small businesses with limited budgets. Digital marketing, on the other hand, provides more cost-effective approaches. With this form of marketing, businesses can select a variety of tailored approaches which may include some organic avenues that only cost the business the time and effort producing the content themselves (or hiring out the job). Overall, businesses are able to strategically plan and allocate a budget for different cost-effective channels. Due to this, digital marketing is often the better option for a business with a limited budget because they are able to make their money go farther than they would with traditional marketing methods.
Enhanced Visibility and Reach
One of the primary advantages of digital marketing is its ability to amplify a small business’s visibility. With the rise of the digital world, businesses have been able to more easily connect with global audiences. From organic social media tactics to search engine marketing, having your business available online can now automatically open it up for global traffic and potentially even business. Digital marketing allows you to target a large variety of areas more easily than ever before. Wave goodbye to paying for several radio advertisement placements and multiple billboards to target different locations, and say hello to pay-per-click advertising where you can reach the globe from the comfort of your computer screen.
Targeted Advertising
Digital Marketing allows businesses to target more specifically in terms of demographics, interests, and behaviors, ensuring that marketing efforts are directed at the most relevant audience. The level of granularity you are able to target with digital advertising has changed slightly over the years as the topics of privacy and cookies have become more prevalent. However, there are still much better targeting capabilities within digital marketing than with other traditional methods. For example, for billboards while they have a large span for a local region, you cannot target anything beyond that for who sees it. Meanwhile, for digital advertising you can decide which age range, gender, location, and even some basic interests for who will see your ads. This targeted approach minimizes wasted resources and increases the likelihood of converting leads into customers. Brands are able to target high intent users, such as, those who are in the demographic rather than spending money on advertising to people who are not interested in what is being marketed.
Measurable Results and Analytics
Another incredibly useful benefit of digital marketing is the comprehensive analytics tools that assist in tracking campaign progress and setting benchmarks. In contrast, Traditional marketing is either dependent on how other companies make data available to you or does not even provide trackable data in some cases as it can be harder to track metrics like impressions and conversions for these methods of marketing. Digital Marketing’s data-driven approach allows for quick adjustments and optimizations, ensuring that marketing efforts align with business goals. Additionally, it makes it easy to find more areas of improvement in that you can see where traffic towards your website came from, how many clicks advertisements got compared to conversions etc. All of this data allows you to make more informed decisions for moving your business forward.
Engaging customers
While traditional marketing is a one-to-all communication approach, digital marketing fosters more direct communication between businesses and their audience. Within the realm of digital marketing, a multitude of online avenues present invaluable opportunities for fostering direct engagement with your audience. For example, email marketing can provide personalized experiences while also building communications. Similarly, social media provides a unique opportunity to involve your audience in your content and discussions. Digital marketing provides opportunities to build relationships, gather feedback and even address concerns promptly. This personalized interaction ultimately helps establish a loyal customer base and enhance brand loyalty. Now you may be saying, great this all sounds wonderful but I have no clue where to begin! – not to worry, just keep reading!
Getting Started with Digital Marketing:
Digital marketing can be as complex or as simple as you are ready for. Even if you aren’t ready to embark on the intricacies of digital marketing such as advertising, getting yourself set up and ready for it is a great way to start!
Define Your Goals
Even before you begin creating any content (website, advertisements etc.) it’s important to clearly outline your business objectives and what you aim to achieve. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or boosting sales, having defined goals is the first step to determining which digital marketing tactics will be the best avenue to help you achieve those goals. The goals should be what are known as SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. This will ensure that you can define if you’ve been successful in achieving them and also gives you a good benchmark to build off of.
Build an Online Presence
An online presence is the first step as it is what everything can be pointed back to. It’s important that you know what your SMART goal is that you’re trying to achieve so that the website and other online assets will be created in a way that helps you achieve these goals. Creating a professional and user-friendly website is a great step in getting set up for digital marketing – it doesn’t need to be fancy or lots of pages, even a simple landing page will do the trick. It should just at least highlight your business’s products/services, allow visitors to reach out to you and tell them a bit more about the business is a great start. Having a website helps give the business credibility. As so many searches begin online, the goal is to rank on Search Engine Results Page (SERP). For example, if you have a dog grooming business, when someone searches for “dog grooming” in your area, you want to ensure your website appears on the SERP. Having a website, with some basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) set up, is a great way to ensure this happens.
Another way to establish your online presence is by setting up social media accounts for your business. Social media is a free way for you to create brand awareness and boost customer engagement. It’s important to note that having a presence on social media does not mean that you need to be active on every single social media platform. Instead, see which platforms make the most sense for your business and begin there.
Content is Key
Once you have a place to communicate with your target audience, a website and/or social media platforms for example, developing high-quality relevant content that resonates with your audience is an important less expensive way to start in on digital marketing. Content can include blog posts, videos, infographics, and more.
Valuable content not only attracts potential customers but also positions your business as an industry authority. Having a good mix of content and posting it consistently is key. It’s important to note that this does not mean you should continually post promotional content. It is important to find a balance in the content being posted, so having a mix of content is the key to not only engaging consumers but providing value.
Invest in Paid Advertising (when you’re ready!)
Paid advertising, often referred to as Pay-per-click advertising, is a method of digital marketing where the advertiser pays each time someone clicks on one of their ads. Now, while this is a great way to gain traction and ultimately convert users, it’s important to have a few things set up before proceeding with this. One of those things is to ensure you have a good place for users to land from the advertisement that provides users with information that will help them make decisions to take a desired action. Paid advertising is a quick way to increase visibility and drive targeted traffic but needs to be done strategically to be effective and a good return on investment.
In Conclusion
Digital marketing is not a trend but an essential tool for businesses to thrive in the modern business landscape. By embracing the benefits of cost-effective strategies, increased visibility, targeted advertising, measurable results, and direct customer engagement, businesses can level the playing field and compete effectively with larger counterparts. If you aren’t sure what to do next, contact us for a 15 minute consultation or fill out a questionnaire with our team.
