What does Digital Marketing actually entail and is it important for ‘MY’ small business?
We get this question all the time from small business owners. Why is it important for ‘MY’ Business? Well the simple answer is that it is becoming important for nearly every business. You have the opportunity to evolve with modern marketing communications or be left behind using traditional marketing methods. The scale of your small business digital marketing activity can vary significantly, but the need for a strategy is always important. Although many small business owners are forced to do so many aspects of the business themselves (including marketing), there are great options available when outsourcing speciality services.
To be clear, Digital Marketing is an umbrella term that covers all your ‘ONLINE’ marketing efforts. It should be aligned in principle to your ‘OFFLINE’ activities and be carried out within an overall marketing strategy.
Businesses create a presence on digital channels such as Google search, social media, email and their websites, in an attempt to connect with and influence their current and prospective customers. Digital Marketing activities are carried out across your website while also leveraging other online assets like digital advertising, email marketing, online brochures and beyond. There’s a huge assortment of tactics to consider when aiming to develop an online marketing strategy. The best digital marketers have both creative and technical skills to develop a clear picture of how each digital activity can best support the overall company goals.
As a business owner approaching the year 2020, it is crucial that you examine if there is a need for your business to be using digital marketing. The presence of online activity is only increasing every year and plays a critical role within advertising. Your business needs to evaluate a few simple questions. Do my customers use the internet? Well I’m sure its quite clear, that nearly every business has a majority of customers who are active online. There is clearly a need for every business to have some sort of digital strategy in place. Whether its as simple as having an email list to communicate regularly with your clients or as complicated as having a comprehensive ecommerce website to sell your goods across the world, its important to at least have a plan in place.
What can my business actually achieve by using Digital Marketing?
Although there are so many incentives for using Digital Marketing, we find that the majority of business owners have the same goals. They want to attract, convert and build business connections with visitors to their website. There are ever increasing ways to do this through utilising online platforms. The metrics of digital marketing can also be monitored very efficiently. Interaction with your audience can be analysed in terms of website visits, online sales, social post views and email responses. Tactics can also be tested and rolled out accordingly to get your business the best financial return.
Using website content, social media platforms and blogs to push your marketing to potential viewers is simply not as powerful as it once was. Building connections and brand awareness through engagement with your customer base is essential. A wider focus on interacting with your audience creates results. Doing live videos, regular newsletters, customer polls, responses to reviews and social platform interactions are building trust between your brand and its audience. Regular marketing communication that is optimized for your customer engagement is a crucial element of modern digital strategies. Creation of content that gets the attention of your potential prospects is often a challenge for small business owners.
I’m a small business owner and don’t have the ability to use Digital Marketing
It really doesn’t have to be that complicated. Quite often, potential customers of small businesses like to learn about your business story and how your brand is different. Often making sure the basics are done right will suffice. Ensuring that you have an up to date website, contact information and business information is the simple basics. But there are so many more ways to generate business online.
Mobile phones have become powerful tools for small business owners. Taking product photo’s, capturing business video’s, recording video updates, creating an audio interview and managing all your online platforms can all be done by your device that you carry around throughout the day. It takes some time out of your day but can be a rewarding exercise if it’s carried out effectively. If you simply don’t have the time and would like to outsource this to a team of experts, there are so many advantages.
Is Digital Marketing expensive and can I actually expect a financial return?
Although there can be significant expenses for large campaigns, the majority of businesses still spend very little on digital marketing. Compared to television, newspaper, radio and magazines, your typical marketing campaign is a fraction of the cost. There are so many elements of online communication that are cost effective. Sending out regular emails, social media posts and publishing your business blog are clearly cost effective. Although SEO services and Online Advertising will require a marketing budget suitable for your business size, because they are digital it allows for greater strategic flexibility. The agility of digital platforms ensures that your budget can be monitored and effectively managed to get you the best return on investment.
At VIMAR Digital Marketing, our team have a wide-ranging skillset that covers the technical and creative elements of developing and executing a digital marketing campaign. We offer complete campaigns including several services or specialist skills for a particular niche marketing your business requires. Our services include Branding, Website Design and Development, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Production, Online Advertising Management (PPC) and Social Media Marketing (SMM).
Contact us today regarding any questions you may have about small business marketing.
