Written by :- Priyanka Lokras, International Business
Digital marketing is just another buzz word that has been around for a while. Every day, every moment we encounter some or the kind of digital marketing. For example, a push notification from an online marketplace telling you about the sales on your favorite item or the food delivery app stimulating your hunger with some discount coupon or when you hit a search query on a search engine or in your e-mail or anything else in the digital world.
But what actually is digital marketing?
Just like the traditional form of marketing, digital marketing is the process of taking all such activities over the internet. Traditionally, we define marketing as a process of creating, communicating and delivering value and to retain existing customers and acquire new ones. Digital Marketing, is simply the process of taking all these activities over the vast world of the internet.
But why should a business go digital? Well, there are enormous reasons for a business to go digital. Some of them are:
It is economical.
With the huge penetration of the internet, it is easy to reach out target audience, say through social media.
Marketing through E-mail, not only reduces cost but also significantly reduces the time of communicating the value.
It is easier to make long term relations with consumers.
one can easily measure the effectiveness of the ads or campaigns through analytics tools such as google analytics.
and yes, there’s no better time than today to enter into the digital world.
Why Digital Marketing is Important for Business?
When small businesses get started, their focus is often on how to get their first group of customers through the door. They may rely on traditional forms of advertising, such as print ads and coupon mailers or even big signs on the side of the road. They may trust that since they know they offer a good product or service, it’s only a matter of time until customers will find their way to them.
In terms of business the business should truly understand the pros and cons of the digital marketing as digital marketing is important for small or any business as it helps to generate more leads and selling process is a way faster as compared to the traditional marketing as it saves time too and also the data generated through digital marketing tools is useful to plan future as most of the businesses can be done through social media at this moment. In terms of small businesses it the quick and easiest way to approach a customer as compared to traditional marketing. Small businesses sometimes believe that they don’t have the time or the money to be competitive online. They think they can only face so many challenges all at once and they are still learning the ins and outs of business in general. Many of the business may prefer to take things slowly and to stick with one or two basic forms of advertising, assuming that their business will evolve as time passes.
They may even think the best strategy is simply to wait for customers to show up or react. Since they are a small business, they may think they only need a small number of customers then this is not an effective approach and not to be kept this in mind if the small businesses plans the higher strategy and plans to target more and more customers then the things will work.
There is never a guarantee that your business will attract customers just by existing and even if it does, you may not attract as many customers as you need to make your business become profitable
Your Competitors Are Online
For your business to be successful, you need to understand your customers first what actually the customers are looking for and pay attention to what your competitors are doing and learn from it. As in terms of small businesses it may be tough but it can be easy to as mainly you have to think of your competitors not just as someone that you are planning to beat, but as people who have something to teach you.
You should know about your competitor what they are actually doing and what are the strategies they are adopting so according to that you will get some idea of what is working and what isn’t working. Most likely, whatever type of business you are in, your competitors have established a web presence. So some questions may arise related to What kind of content are they using? Are they blogging, or are they using a lot of graphics and videos?
How do they communicate their brand and what makes them unique? How well do they engage with the audience? Do you think you can do better? You can’t if you don’t participate in competing in the digital world. You have to keep in mind all the things related to digital marketing so that you can try to understand the marketing strategies of your competitors.
If your prospects begin to search for a business similar to yours and are able to find your competitors’ website but not yours, your business is not even in the running. Your prospects can’t choose you if they don’t know about you. In this scenario, your competitors have just raced ahead of you regardless of whether they have an effective website or a clear message. Just keep in mind you mainly have to focus on your customers and what the strategies your competitors are applying so that you can also do the same or a way better than them as the main thing is make your business more and more profitable.
Be Accessible to Your Customers
The main purpose of any business is their customers and because of having more and more customers they can earn profit. It’s clear that in today’s digital world, the first place the average consumer looks for what they want is online because availability of products online makes for consumer easy as compared to traditional marketing so try to focus on more and more customers. Whatever product or service they are looking for, they will most likely start their search with Google which is a easy platform to start in today’s world. If you have no online presence at all, you won’t be found, and you can’t compete. So try to bring your presence online so that just by a click you can be available to a customer as well it will be benefited to your business as well.
If your business is online then it is easy for your customers to find you but there may be your competitors of yours all around it may not be easier that the customer can reach you. So, creating a website, learning search engine optimization is a strategy that can help you move ahead of your competitors just by being the first name that a prospect finds in a google search with keywords that can lead them to your business. In any business, it is essential to stay ahead of the competition so according to that you have to update your digital marketing and have to be unique as well.
Simple questions that your prospects may want quick answers to should be easily discoverable online, such as where you are located, what your hours are and what you specialize in. By looking at your website and your competitors’ websites side by side, your prospects should be able to compare hours, prices, special offers and more.
This is why it’s imperative for you to know what your competitors are up to. Your prospects are already checking both you and your competitors out. They are already comparing you against each other. What are they finding out?
Let Customers Come to You
As I mentioned in my above point customers are the main for any business so main objective of any business is to bring more and more customers. In today’s era most of the customers are thinking to get the things done online and is more and more better services are being provided to them then this will attract the customers. Now, think of digital marketing as a way to make yourself accessible to the people you are trying to reach in order to offer your products and services. The scope of your business can reach well beyond your walls. You are able to attract a much larger audience than you in terms of traditional marketing as no one wants to waste time and all the products and services are available at one platform.
By creating a web presence, your business is open for business even when it’s closed and if the customer is interested then he will come to you as your business already exists online. You can create an atmosphere in which your customers can come to you anytime day or night.
At their convenience, customers and prospects can send you an emails with questions, make purchases and browse your inventory as it makes for them easy as for the thing which is being purchased by them they do not have to come again and again for various queries . Potential customers who have no way to physically come to you can still do business with them, whether they are limited by disability, transportation or simply living too far away
Get to Know Your Target Audience
It is very important for any business to know its target audience and one of the reason why digital marketing is taking over traditional marketing as because of the internet marketing tools digital marketing facilitates interaction with target audiences. Digital marketing allows you to engage with your prospects. You can gradually get to know about the customers and what they are hoping to find. Through social media you can start a conversation and is the best way to start. You can also run a survey or try to get to know them. Pay attention to their comments or their responses to surveys so according to the surveys you can plan better strategies.
By interacting with people digitally, you can start to get to know what they are looking for or what are the demands of the customer. There can be many questions related to Where is their pain? What is keeping them up at night? What solutions can you offer to them? Instead of trying to guess, digital marketing allows you tools and methods for finding out who your customers really are.
In this way, you can build a healthy relationship with your customers. You become much more than a business. You become a trusted partner as the main thing for any customer is to trust and you are the only one who can build a trust in your customer. Interacting and providing proper information points can give you the insights what the audience actually wants. People are much more likely to buy from businesses that they have already bought from.
Few forms of advertising are as cost-effective as digital marketing. Small businesses frequently try to get as much as possible done on a small budget. Many forms of digital marketing allow you to communicate your brand and reach a wide target audience even when your budget is very tight.
Compared to any other advertising whether it is related to advertising on T.V or print advertising by using digital marketing to promote your small business will help you to have a much better chance of business success.
So what are you waiting for? Try using digital services, the best platform in today’s era. Senmorta Tehnologies help clients in Social Media Marketing, SEO, SCM, App Development, Web Development, Software Development, Lead Generation etc. We are an ambitious young company that wishes to change the world with the technology that we develop. We provide digital marketing services as per your business needs