12 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Can Help You Grow
Your Business
Because
Digital Marketing Levels the Online Playing Field
Gone are the days when business owners still welcome
the notion that Digital Marketing is only for the
likes of multinationals and large corporations that have the sufficient
resources required to mount an online marketing campaign. Digital Marketing
actually levels the playing field, providing small and medium enterprises the
chance to compete against the big boys and attract their share of targeted
traffic.
With digital marketing, small companies now have the
resources to perform sales and marketing processes that were previously
available only to large corporations. Without a call center, small businesses
can engage effectively with multiple customers, even to customers from any
parts of the world even if they don’t have physical stores or branches in these
locations.
Because Digital
Marketing Is More Cost-Effective than Traditional Marketing
Small businesses have very little resources and even
capitalization. This is why Digital Marketing provides them with a better and
much more cost-effective marketing channel that delivers results. Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spend Report highlighted that up to
40% of respondents claimed getting considerable savings by using digital
marketing methods of promotion for their products and services.
That is why according to the Gartner survey, 28% of business
owners surveyed will shift marketing budget allocations from traditional media
channels and invest them into digital online marketing tools and techniques. Hub Spot confirms this as shown in the chart below
that confirms how digital marketers get better Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) compared to
other marketing channels.
Because Digital Marketing Delivers
Conversion
Businesses marketing products and services online
measure success by the percentage rate of incoming traffic gets converted into
leads, subscribers or sales, depending on the intended purposes of your
website. Without conversion, all your traffic would mean nothing and all your
marketing efforts will simply go to waste. That is why business owners are
streamlining their digital marketing campaigns towards conversion optimization, making it a top priority above
everything else.
There are several tools and techniques that you can use for
your digital marketing campaign such as Search Engine Optimization, social
media marketing and email marketing. As seen from the chart below from
HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report, these three that
generate quick and effective communication and interaction with targeted
audiences will deliver better-than-average results in terms of higher
conversion rates.
Because Digital Marketing Helps Generate Better
Revenues
Higher conversion rates generated by effective digital
marketing techniques will deliver loads of profitable benefits for you and your
business in terms of better and higher revenues. Google confirms this
in a study with IPSOS Hong Kong, claiming 2.8 times better revenue growth
expectancy for companies using digital marketing strategies to those who do not.
With better revenue growth expectancy, small and medium
enterprises using digital marketing techniques will have 3.3 times better
chances of expanding their workforce and business – opening their doors to
better, larger and farther reaching markets both locally and abroad. Google’s
Asia-Pacific Head of SME Kevin Oaken describes the Internet as rocket fuel for
growth for small and medium enterprises.
Because Digital Marketing Facilitates Interaction with
Targeted Audiences
One of the reasons why digital marketing is taking over
traditional marketing channels is the ability of Internet marketing tools to
interact with targeted audiences in real time. Engagement in any form is what
your customers expect to receive when interacting with your brand or business.
How your business handles such engagements and interactions will spell the
difference between business success and failure – just like what e Marketer's report Key
Digital Trends for 2014 is saying as shown below.
Interacting and providing your customers with proper
engagement points can give you an insight of what your targeted audiences want.
This vital information will steer you towards making the right set of next
moves, provide your customers with an even better experience, develop good
relationships with them – gaining their loyalty and trust that you will need
when your business begins to grow.
Because Digital Marketing Caters to the Mobile Consumer
Undoubtedly, mobile internet will be the next wave of information
dissemination and communication channel, brought about by the rapid
proliferation of smart phones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices.
These mobile devices have become a central part of American life that 91% of adults in the United States always have their
devices within reaching distance.
Now would be the best time to have digital marketing campaigns
intended towards mobile consumers, paving the way for them towards achieving
better growth and faster expansion. Mobile gadgets have evolved from being mere
alternatives for laptops and personal computers, into something that is
influencing their purchasing decisions as confirmed by another report from remarketer.
Because Digital Marketing Builds Brand Reputation
The power of digital marketing lies in its ability for attracting
targeted traffic. These types of audiences for your content are most likely
already ready to know more about your brand, products or services and may be interested
enough to purchase what you have to offer. Delivering on what you promised will
help you develop a better relationship with your targeted audiences, help them
transition into paying customers that will go back and interact with your site
some more – on a regular and continuous basis.
This will prove beneficial for your brand reputation, as satisfied
customers will most likely tell other people about their experience with your
brand, product or service. Your brand reputation will go viral as expected,
further opening new doors of opportunities for reaching bigger markets and
attain business growth.
Because Digital Marketing provides better ROI for Your
Marketing Investments
With better revenues and better branding, Digital Marketing can
provide a better Return of Investments (ROI) than traditional media and
marketing channels. With traditional media, the cost is too exorbitant for
small and medium enterprises to leverage on, and the results received are
somewhat vague and difficult to measure.
Digital Marketing on the other hand can easily be tracked and
monitored, with results immediately realized and measured as soon as targeted
audiences provide contact information, subscribe to a newsletter or training
program, or make a purchase. The key to success in Digital marketing however is
to generate a steady flow of targeted traffic that converts into sales and
leads. The more your business generates this kind of traffic, the faster you
can realize your ROI.
Because Digital
Marketing Earns People’s Trust
Digital Marketing rides on the current online trend that focus
more on social media signals resulting from direct and more personalized
interaction between a brand or business and their targeted audiences. In the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey that involved 25
thousand consumers coming from at least 50 countries, 90 percent of respondents
claimed they would trust information about a particular brand, product or
service if the data comes from people they know.
Digital Marketing leverages on social media signals, social proof
and testimonials from actual consumers who have previously purchased, joined,
or availed of a product or service marketed by a particular brand or business.
The more reliable these social signals
are, the higher the trust rate it can generate from targeted audiences – most
of which can be potential customers.
Because Digital Marketing Entices People to Take
Favorable Action
While social signals and testimonials help earn trust from
targeted audiences, Digital Marketing makes use of effective strategies that
will entice people to take a favorable action your brand or business intends
them to take. Conversion to leads or sales is
still initiated and under full control by the website visitor. They are not
compelled to do so but digital marketers can make use of clever and innovative
ways to entice conversion using Calls-To-Action.
Calls-To-Action specifies what your web visitors should do next –
either to sign up, like, download something, call or buy – specific steps that
will entice them to perform a favorable action. Innovative forms, buttons and
texts are optimized according to copy, color scheme, graphics and even
positioning on the page to generate the best results in terms of generating
favorable action.
Because Digital
Marketing Makes You Ready for the Internet of Things
The “Internet of Things” is a global ecosystem of interconnected
devices – tablets, smart phones, gadgets, appliances and more – that can
interact with each other through the Internet. Sounds like something from a
Sci-Fi thriller, but this is what the projected 24 billion gadgets by
the year 2020 will actually head to. Digital Marketing will prepare your
business towards this eventuality, an interconnected ecosystem that will
permeate through every aspect of people’s lives. Survival for your business in
the era of the “Internet of Things” means inclusion in this interconnected grid
– giving you an access window to reach out to targeted audiences belonging to
this online grid.
Because Digital Marketing Ensures Business
Survival Online
It is a normal occurrence for brick-and-mortar business
establishments to encounter visitors entering their store, skimming through and
inspecting products, then leave without buying anything. Many kinds of people
like these come and go, but a targeted few will actually make a purchase and if
satisfied, will come back for more on a later date. If you get less of the
later and more of the few, sooner or later your brick-and-mortar business will
cease to exist.
Your business can be likened to this. Even if you have
tons of website visitors but none of them ever convert, your business
will also cease to exist. Digital Marketing helps you make use of proven
strategies and techniques that attract not necessarily more traffic – but highly targeted traffic that delivers results.
Targeting the right kind of people that delivers the right kind of results is
what Digital Marketing is all about – ensuring survival for your business.