Are you looking for answers to “why digital marketing is important for your brand”? Why should you invest your resources in professional online marketing services? Then you have landed in the right place! Read this blog to find out why.
In the present time, the cumulative effect of technology and marketing techniques has changed the way people consume information (of any type) and make purchasing decisions.
As per WordStream’s report, 73% of customers are more willing to spend on a company’s resources if it has strong online visibility.
Moreover, with the immense user base and growing social media platforms as the primary source of acquiring education, the significance of digital marketing strategies has been amplified.
According to the report of Finances Online, out of the 7.83 billion total worldwide population, there are 4.66 billion active Internet users globally, of which 92.6% are mobile users.
Be it a startup, a medium-scale business, or an established brand, everyone is taking advantage of digital marketing and grabbing more customers’ attention towards their brand via all sources of marketing channels, including search engines, social media, and advertisements.
Not only that, but companies are now better managed to deploy their resources to the team while staying within the allocated budget and eventually leading to their final sales.
Having said that, it is a no-brainer that digital marketing holds the utmost potential for the future of brands (both emerging and established ones) with its array of alternatives.
But whatever we said earlier, it was just a glimpse!
Let’s dig deeper into the core benefits of digital marketing for any business.
Table of Contents
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing, also known as online marketing, is a type of practice in which a brand promotes its goods or services to a wider potential audience using different online marketing channels such as SEO, social media platforms, newsletters, PPC advertisements, and more.
Therefore, contrary to traditional marketing campaigns, digital marketing makes it easier for businesses to build a loyal customer base, meet their expectations, and generate revenue for themselves.
Types of Digital Marketing
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Marketing
SEO is an amalgamation of science and art that involves making pages of your website attractive in the eyes of search engines, resulting in a higher ranking of the site in the SERPs. It is not a direct form of digital marketing; rather, it provides an identifiable platform for users.
There are a plethora of factors that, if implemented strategically, contribute to great SEO marketing, such as:
- Optimizing the website content according to the readers’ perspective.
- Integrating the high-quality backlinks.
- Clear call-to-action buttons.
- Incorporate relevant keywords in the content.
- Website responsiveness and page loading speed.
- Additionally, invest in technical SEO, which would take care of all the back-end aspects responsible for the higher ranking of your site.
Click on this, if you are looking for search engine optimization services.
Content Marketing
According to the pipeline report, 92% of marketers consider content to be one of the most important assets of any business or brand.
Content marketing is the foundation of any digital marketing strategy, providing relevant written content to the target audience, attracting them, boosting engagement, and eventually converting them into paying customers.
Following are ways of providing value to their readers and acquiring prospects:
- Educational blog post
- Downloadable e-books
- White papers
- Media (audio and video transcripts in short or long format)
- Infographic templates
Social Media Marketing
With 4.9 billion social media users globally investing their time, it is a no-brainer that brands can use this form of digital marketing to raise brand awareness, thus driving more traffic to their websites and closing more deals.
The most popular social media platforms worldwide are Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. All these platforms support different content formats and thus bring audiences of vast interest to one platform.
The following are the key practices of social media marketing:
- Build engaging and relevant content.
- Run social media campaigns and raise awareness of your brand.
- Post when your followers are active at their peak and engage with them.
- Answer their queries in the appropriate professional position.
If these practices are implemented properly, you can get more loyal followers on Instagram, Facebook, or other widely used social media platforms.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Pay-per-click, or PPC, is another fruitful form of digital marketing that charges you on a pay-per-click basis for the ads that are running on different platforms. This means, unlike splurging money on those constantly running ads, you only pay when someone personally interacts with your ad.
In fact, according to a marketing survey, brands are getting double the ROI on Google Ads.
There are different types of PPC; for instance, there are Google Ads or Bing Ads for their respective search engines, and then there are promoted ads and follower ads on social media platforms. However, since the door of PPC is open for every business, the following are the key practices to make the most of this form of digital marketing:
- Use of relevant keywords in the advertisement.
- The quality of the ad: don’t make it so obvious or pushy; instead, create a sense of mystery.
- The quality of landing pages should ensure that when a user lands on the landing page, they get value from it.
- Bid value.
Know more about how to use social media for local businesses.
Affiliate Marketing
These days, one of the most well-known types of digital marketing is affiliate marketing, which operates on a revenue-sharing model. Every time someone purchases a brand they have encouraged, a promoter receives a reasonable share of the fee, according to this business model.
To start this affiliate program, you need to find a retailer and establish a connection with them, which you can do via different marketing channels. You can then take their goods to the audience and profit significantly.
Influencer Marketing
Similar to affiliate marketing, influencer marketing also works on a revenue-sharing model. The only difference is that here, brands or businesses of any scale work with influencers who share a large base of loyal followers. To reach a broader geographic region, influencer marketing works pretty well both in terms of B2B and B2C business models.
Aside from the aforementioned, marketing automation, mobile marketing, and email marketing can do a lot for businesses (small, medium, and large scale businesses) and are other popular and effective forms of digital marketing for brands.
Importance of digital marketing for brands or businesses (small, medium, or enterprises)
You will only target the right audience
With the ever-changing technologies and the growing spectrum of the internet, most people are spending their time online, be it for entertainment, casual checking of their social media handles, or buying a product.
As mentioned earlier, there are 4.66 billion active Internet users so far, and the number is still rising exponentially.
In the midst of it, employing digital marketing strategies will take your brand to a broader level of targeted audience. So, instead of roaming around here and there, you will only reach out to your prospects and thus buy yourself more time to engage with them.
Going the other way, which is lacking an online presence, will let you miss out on the potential chunks of your hand. Thus, to get the most ROI from your business, start putting efforts into a strong online presence and let your customers do the talking about your products or services organically.
Increased brand awareness
The whole concept of digital marketing was brought into existence to increase online visibility and improve brand awareness.
The traditional marketing tactics used to take more time to bring in new clients, and that too at a higher expense. And on top of that, the needle was constantly moving toward the prospects being available at the right time.
Thanks to the existing and emerging digital channels these days, people are connected to these platforms at any time of the day via the Internet. Thus, it makes it feasible for businesses to reach out to them whenever they are online and build brand awareness through effective digital marketing strategies.
Brand marketers can reach their audience with relevant information using any of the digital channels, including search engines, social media, podcasts, email newsletters, affiliate marketing, and many others, and make them engage with it.
Cost-effective
Did you know the cost of a single billboard used to be around $1200 to $1500 per month during the 19th century?
Shocking, right?
A few decades ago, close to the 1950s, traditional marketing (like newspaper ads, billboards, magazines, flyers, TV, or radio) was considered a symbol of luxury, and only a few businesses could afford it. Thanks to digital channels, brands of all sorts of budgets can promote their businesses on one uniform platform, contributing to one of many reasons why all brands should invest in digital marketing.
One can only learn the basics of DM and implement the tactics with zero investment. Surely, this is a common advantage for all businesses, but for small businesses, it’s music to their ears.
Moreover, with platforms like Google or Facebook, there is no minimum barrier to running advertisements. We mean, you can start at $4 to run a campaign; it’s totally up to you.
Reduced price of acquiring new leads
In marketing, there is a term called customer acquisition cost, or CAC. It is the total amount of money that has been spent to bring new clients to a business.
Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing provides a greater means to reach a broader targeted audience and also the tools to interact with them.
All this results in pouring more leads into your sales funnel, which eventually increases the likelihood of converting them into paying customers at a lower cost. Thus resulting in a lower CAC, i.e. saving money for your business, which can be utilized in other areas of marketing.
But how would you reduce the customer acquisition cost? Following are the ways to do that:
- Shortlist the niche markets and audiences.
- Create a brand-resonating message and deliver it to your customers.
- Optimize your site so that more quality traffic drives to it.
- Analyze all your campaigns and, if needed, retarget them.
- Monitor all the activities and mold your strategies accordingly.
- Automate all your marketing modules.
Your opponents are already taking advantage of it
Another crucial reason why digital marketing is so important for your brand is because your competitor has already reaped the benefits of online marketing platforms.
They have already optimized their website according to search engine guidelines, generated content as per different social media platforms, and run their marketing campaigns. Overall, they have already built a notable social presence as a brand.
By not taking advantage of digital marketing strategies, you are already running infinite steps behind your competitors, and if you don’t take a decision soon, chances are you won’t be able to fill this gap. Now, if that is not enough for you, we don’t know what would trigger you to do so.
Monitor your marketing campaigns and optimize them for greater ROI
The fact that you can keep an eye on every single movement throughout your campaign is another solid reason why digital marketing is important for brands.
When you invest your blood and sweat in marketing promotions, it is obvious that you want to know the ins and outs of the process. And digital marketing makes it seamless for you to do that. With effective marketing tools, you can monitor your campaign’s outcomes, analyze them, and rethink your strategy to generate a higher ROI.
However, this won’t be the same in the case of traditional marketing, where you would be required to go door-to-door to collect their input. Not only would it consume a lot of time, but the results wouldn’t be guaranteed.
Higher customer engagement and retention
Customer engagement and customer retention are two different metrics in the field of marketing that are used to measure how much of your customers engage with your content and how much of your customers become loyal over time.
For established businesses, engaging with their clientele is not an issue, but for the emerging ones, the small businesses, that could be a topic of discussion.
Also, check- How to Grow Your Startup – A Guide for Business Owners
Again, thanks to the different digital mediums, small business owners can engage with their customers’ feedback and in case of any doubt, resolve them on the same public forum.
This way, you won’t only help your client clear their doubts but also give outsiders a chance to see how calmly and beautifully you have handled them. All these will create a sense of reliability towards your brand and help you build a loyal community and retain them over some time. Thus, giving businesses a strong reason why digital marketing is important for their brands.
Personalization made easy
In the digital age, data gathered through various marketing tools is much more precise and accurate than in traditional marketing days, which is a crucial aspect from a campaign perspective.
For example, how many people have contacted you by phone? How many people have responded to your attached brochure within the email? How many potential users have visited your website? And more such questions. Now, since you have insights into real-time data, based on that, you can provide personalized content to your consumers and enhance their experience of being connected with your brand.
Easy and fast conversions
In old times, who would have the time to visit your office as soon as they saw your company’s ad on some TV commercial?
Nobody!
The maximum they could stretch themselves was to make a phone call. But that’s it. That’s the end of their journey!
However, in digital marketing, the case is the opposite. Even though there is not a 100% chance of turning your leads into immediate conversions, they are still connected through one of the phases of your sales funnel.
For instance, let’s say, through any of the digital mediums, a user lands on one of your educational posts, likes it, and has the curiosity to read more blogs but doesn’t have the time. They can save it for later, and thus, even if they are not yet your paying customers, they can in the future because they are still connected.
Measurable outcomes
You need to determine how many customers and how much profit your marketing approach finally brings in to determine if it is effective. But how would one go about doing that with a traditional marketing plan?
There is always the standard choice of asking “How did you locate us?” to every customer.
Unfortunately, not all industries can benefit from that. One-on-one interactions with clients are rare for many businesses, and polls frequently yield incomplete information.
Tracking results when using digital marketing is easy. Whether it’s rates of opening emails, web page viewers, or outright transactions, online marketing platforms automatically monitor the number of intended conversions that you obtain.
Wrapping-Up
So, that’s all about the importance of digital marketing for brands!
Today, the role of digital marketing in establishing businesses or brands is immense. There has never been such an amazing time or way to reach a mass audience, keep in consistent touch with the customers, and offer them personalized services in the long run.
This platform opens the door to endless opportunities to rise and shine in one’s niche market, as well as the ease of expanding business in the same field.
However, people get off track sometimes when they start comparing their digital journeys to others. Remember, your first day in the digital world might be the year for someone else, or vice versa.
So, don’t compare.
Be consistent in your journey and embrace it so that you can reap the maximum benefit from it.
Read Mastering E-Commerce Strategies if you already understand the essence of the importance of digital marketing and want to implement them for your e-commerce business and grow your startup.
