Why is Digital Marketing Important for Small Businesses?

The U.N. News recently verified what many of us were already contemplating. The global economic outlook is worsening, and the likelihood of a global recession is significant! In this kind of an economic environment it’s more than likely that businesses will need to become more frugal.

Some smaller businesses may be tempted to reduce their marketing budgets in an effort to curb their expenditure. Whereas there may be some cost savings to be considered, Digital Marketing is now becoming a mandatory element of a successful business strategy for small businesses.

Without leveraging digital mediums, brands cannot thrive in today's online world. As more and more customers become available online rather than in the physical world, businesses need to do the same. Without a strong online presence, customers won't be able to find you; or you may be less likely to stand out for what makes you unique, affecting your likelihood of making sales.

Digital Marketing allows businesses to reach and engage with a massive audience. Gone are the days when companies used to advertise on TV commercials or billboards. Now digital mediums have taken over from the traditional forms of Marketing. Digital Marketing has become crucial to running a successful business.

Let’s explore why small businesses need Digital Marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to all the online strategies and marketing efforts on the Internet. Brands utilize social media, email, websites, and other digital mediums to connect with their customers. Moreover, multimedia messages and text messages are also types of digital marketing.

Digital marketers need to develop strategies to attract and retain the right customers. By utilising all the digital mediums relevant to the business to identify their specific audience, target market, and customer pain points, they can ensures that their marketing efforts align with their business objectives.

Types of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing can take various shapes. As there are numerous digital mediums available, brands focus on marketing channels where they can find a relevant audience. Many business owners are probably aware of these examples of Digital Marketing, so here is a brief summary only :

• SEO: Search engine optimisation, or simply SEO, is a strategy that focuses on increasing website ranking. The higher your website ranks on the search engines, the more likely it becomes for it to attract visitors, engagement and potential customers.

• Content Marketing: In today's world, content is the king. Content marketing is a marketing strategy where businesses create valuable content to attract customers. Instead of pitching products, content marketing focuses on generating value for customers.

• Social Media: This marketing strategy utilises social media to promote business. Brands use social media platforms to build awareness, attract and communicate with their target audience. When used as part of a cohesive digital marketing strategy this enhances customer retention and increases the potential for new business.

• Blogging: Blogging allows digital marketers to generate fresh content on a website and provide a catalyst for social media marketing and email marketing, by driving search traffic to your website. Blogs allow you to share your expertise, opinions and advice, building credibility and a recognisable digital personality for your business. Once indexed by search engines, blogs continue to generate views over the long term. Done well, they can become the gift that keeps on giving.

• Video Marketing: With YouTube and TikTok marketing becoming more prevalent, this is rapidly becoming a widely adopted marketing technique available online. Video marketing offers one of the best choices for brand development due to its significance. It offers brands to share stories and reviews of their products and visually connect with them at a subliminal level.

• Email Marketing: Email may be one of the oldest marketing strategies ever. However, some people do consider it ineffective. But its importance has not all diminished. It involves marketing campaigns that are specific to your target audience.

• PPC or Pay per click: PPC is a marketing type that drives traffic to your website. In Pay per click campaigns, advertisers will have to pay the publisher each time someone clicks on the ad.

• Sales Funnels: Often used in conjunction with Social Media, Email and PPC marketing campaigns, sales funnels guide the audience through decision making and learning processes leading to eventual sales. Business challenges are diverse, so developing the right sales funnel for your business is crucial. There are many different types of sales funnel, but in general they have an enticing offer, a landing page and a follow-up. The ultimate goal is lead generation whether it’s a webinar sign-up, free trial, feedback survey, call booking, or a review.  

Why do businesses need to embrace Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is gaining importance with every passing day. It is rapidly replacing the traditional way of marketing. Here are some reasons why businesses need to transition toward digital marketing:

Lead Generation

One of the most significant drawbacks of traditional marketing is measuring your brand's performance. The conventional ways of advertising cannot count how effective they were in generating a lead, or if your advertising lead to sales.

Digital advertising campaigns provide you with comprehensive data regarding your potential customer. They provide you with the information on how many people engaged with your ad. Digital marketers use forms in digital marketing campaigns to capture email addresses and contact information. These contact details can be used to send follow-up emails, increasing the chance of generating a lead.

Brand-Awareness

Promoting brands using traditional advertising strategies require your ideal customers to recognise your efforts. With the increased likelihood of your ideal customers noticing your brand through daily Internet usage, it’s more important than ever to leverage digital marketing to develop your brand awareness effectively. When customers find your brand on various digital mediums, it becomes easier for them to remember your business, as they subliminally connect with your brand.

Reaching a Targeted Audience

Traditional marketing channels like newspapers, billboards, and TV do target an audience. But it’s very difficult for them to target a specific audience. 

Digital marketing, however, allows you to target customers with specific demographics. Using analytics tools, you can identify the age, gender, interest, location, and other information of your ideal customers. That way, you can create campaigns according to the interest of your specific customer; This ultimately enhances the chance of your potential customer purchasing from your brand.

Affordability

Digital marketing costs are low compared to some traditional methods of mass marketing. This has made it affordable for small and medium-scale businesses to enhance their marketing efforts. And now with the advent of reels and short videos on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok costing a tiny fraction of what a business owner would spend on a TV commercial, it’s become possible for small businesses to reach a potentially global audience.

Agility

Digital marketing provides businesses with the opportunity to reach their target audience quickly. A simple tweet or Facebook post can reach the masses in a short time. Compared to letters and flyers, emails and newsletters can reach the target audience in no time. In addition, these efforts don't require printing time, which enhances the marketing process.

Want help in planning the Digital Marketing Strategy for your small business?

Digital marketing has become a necessity to thrive in today's online world. If you’re going it alone you may already know that creating an effective digital marketing campaign is not an easy task. A business owner must consider numerous factors to create an effective campaign. Not every business owner has the time to go through every tiny detail or to learn all the strategies, platforms and pitfalls. One option is to employ in-house digital marketers, and for some businesses this may be a good strategy in the long-term. Aside from the additional costs of onboarding, training and retaining specialist talent businesses also need to ensure the return on their investment is there in terms of increased leads, sales and overall revenues to justify this strategy.

Alternatively, working with a Digital Marketing Agency can be a cost-effective, time-saving and relatively hands-off experience.

At Omni Communications, we have a team of experts that can plan and create an effective digital marketing strategy for you, beginning with a Free Audit of your website, SEO and social media activities, providing you with a detailed report of our findings.

Based upon our analysis we then recommend a blended approach with the aim of increasing organic growth. Customers can adopt some or all of our recommendations according to their choice. For some businesses we are effectively their Virtual Marketing Manager.

For more information on how we help with Digital Marketing Strategy, contact us using the Contact Form below, call us on 0161 507 7999