No matter how big your business might be today, there’s one thing that most likely occupied your mind when you were first starting out. How am I going to get customers in the door or people to want to buy my product?
This is something that all entrepreneurs think about. For some, it might be one of the only things they think about early on. It’s what will be the difference between your business being a success or your business failing.
There are a lot of different ways you can reach potential customers. For many businesses, none is more effective than digital marketing. By 2023, it’s expected that eCommerce will exceed $740 Billion in sales. That means it’s crucial to have a digital presence so you don’t miss out on opportunities to your competitors.
Let’s dig into some reasons why digital marketing is going to be important for your business to grow in the years to come.
Why Your Business Needs Digital Marketing
1. Targeting The Right Customer
Understanding who your customer is will be crucial for your success. One of the great things about digital marketing is that through certain channels like social media, you can target who is actually seeing your brand. If you’re running paid ads through Facebook, Instagram, or any of the other social media networks, you can get extremely granular with where your ads are shown.
As an example, let’s assume through focus groups and other research you’ve done, you know your ideal customer is a male, between the ages of 25 and 50, who have a yearly household income of more than $100,000, and enjoys skiing. By knowing this information, you can utilize social networks to create a custom audience so you’re only advertising to people who fit this profile.
So what’s the end result going to be? A significantly lower acquisition cost. Instead of casting a wide net and promoting your product or service to a lot of people, you’ll be getting in front of the people most likely to convert into sales.
2. Customers Can Easily Find You
Before social media and email, businesses had limited options for reaching potential customers. They could advertise on TV or the radio. Or, they could put something up on a billboard at the side of a highway. Or ,they could send a direct mailer through the postal service. There were a few other options, but you get the point. When a consumer saw the advertisement they had to physically go to the store or make a phone call to purchase an item.
Today, it’s much easier for customers to find you. Because of all the different digital channels available, businesses can easily reach their customers and give them a more direct path to the sale. Today a customer can click an ad, visit a landing page, and make a sale all within a matter of minutes.
3. Gain a Sense of Trust From Your Customer
When I’m looking to purchase a product or service, I do as much research as possible. I want to understand exactly what a business can offer me. I also want to know the experiences of others who have already used the product or service. If I do a Google search and don’t see much information, that’s a red flag. Having a robust digital presence will give potential buyers a sense of trust. They’re more likely to feel confident that spending their money with you is going to be a good idea.
That’s not where trust-building ends. Consumers want to feel like they can talk to you whenever they have a question or concern. While social media and email can be a great way to market your product or service, they’re also a great way to encourage your customers to feel comfortable doing business with you.
Have you ever reached out to a brand through social media to ask them a question and never received a response? It’s frustrating. Social media has become a direct line of communication between the business and customer. Being there to answer someone’s question or help them solve a problem goes a long way when creating trust.
4. Analytics Will Help Improve Performance and Your ROI
When businesses advertise through traditional media sources like TV and radio, it can be difficult to pinpoint where sales come from. This makes it hard to get a detailed understanding of the true ROI for a campaign. Through digital media channels, businesses have the ability to see where a user entered their website, where they traveled while they were visiting, and the page where they made a conversion or bounced off the site. Knowing the movements of a user will allow you to adapt your strategy to what’s working, and adjust what’s not.
5. Certain Digital Channels Help Eliminate Wasted Marketing Spend
When it comes to digital marketing, there are many different channels you can explore. Depending on the nature of your business some might work, but others might not. Unfortunately, for some, that will leave them open to lost marketing dollars until a working strategy is in place.
One channel that’s become extremely popular over the past decade is affiliate marketing. This channel allows you to only spend money when a conversion is made. With affiliate marketing, businesses use publishers and influencers to market their product or service to their loyal followers who trust their recommendations.
6. The Competition Will Push You Digital
Unless you’re in a niche that has little or no competition, you’re going to be competing with other companies to get noticed by consumers. If your competition has already adopted a digital marketing strategy, you’ve probably noticed them ranking well in Googe. That means they’re reaching customers you might not be. Launching a digital marketing campaign today will allow you to compete with other brands in your industry for the customers you want to reach.
The Bottom Line
Gone are the days when you can put together a commercial for TV or use a compelling voice to market your business on the radio. Digital marketing gives you the tools to reach more people in less time. It also will make sure you’re reaching the right person, optimizing the amount you spend to acquire each new customer.
