Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 The COVID-19 pandemic has left an inevitable wound in our global economy. Every year, businesses have more competition, and more challenges. In 2020 alone, 4.35 million applications for new businesses were submitted in the US. Numbers have grown by 74% within the last ten years. It’s more important than ever to stay updated with digital trends. Nowadays, consumers connect with companies through social media platforms and online shops. This means that whenever technology advances, we should probably stroll in the same direction. Business VoIP is great but purely digital systems crash, occasionally. Faxing is still big in Japan. Digital marketing enables small business owners to fight equally against the industry giants. It helps businesses stay current with digital trends and appeal to a wider audience, all the while securing client loyalty. With over 70% of buyers preferring to learn about a product through online content rather than traditional advertising, an online presence has become a necessity. What is Digital Marketing? Digital marketing refers to the marketing strategies that take place online. It includes techniques such as SEO, social media marketing, or email marketing. By focusing on these areas you can increase traffic and boost your site ranking. Another technique used in digital marketing is SaaS content marketing. This strategy focuses on delivering useful content to customers. By becoming a respected institution in your field, companies can ensure faithful customers and secure a steady revenue. Brand Identity The biggest challenge for a small business is to earn people’s trust. Standing alongside thousands of competitors, there has to be something that persuades customers to choose you. A professional online strategy can help you build up brand personality through a website and social media content, all the while making you look fabulous. Source Only 64% of small businesses have a website. So, if you decide to create one, you are already ahead of the game. One of digital marketing’s potential is that it can help you showcase your values and identity through a well-defined brand image. You can also attract new clients through a professional social media presence. Let’s say your website appeals to a mainly female market or a post-binary demographic. “Women that changed the world” is an example of a strong blog post title that has cross-appeal and is relevant to your target market. Your website appearance can also be shaped to attract your target audience. When you discover who exactly your audience is, you can align your content, design, and tone of voice to their values and needs. This can help you strengthen your reputation and create opportunity growth. Smarter and Cheaper Investment The number of internet users has grown to over 3.6 billion users. This is more than half the world’s population. Being online should not be a matter of debate for new businesses. Rejecting this option means missing an opportunity to reach a massive global audience. We can now employ minimal resources to reach billions of users. A digital marketing campaign requires a much lower budget than a physical campaign, merely from a human resources perspective. You could also consider a stack for startups; a pack that offers the next generation of entrepreneurs resources to develop their business. Another option is to create social media accounts. This will provide you with a platform for relevant content and important information about your services. A blog can also be a great option, as 60% of consumers are inspired to search for a product after reading about it. Customer Interaction The average adult spends 5.9 hours using digital media every day. Society is moving closer to a digitized world, daily. Even the way we stay in touch with friends or go shopping is changing drastically. This also means that businesses need to adapt the way they communicate with their customers. Source One of the benefits of digital marketing is that client-company communication can become closer and more personalized. The internet offers near-infinite tools for consumers to interact with businesses. Engagement can be very beneficial for both parties and can increase conversions. Businesses can use interactivity to improve their users’ experience and gather loyal and trusting customers. If operators satisfy people’s needs, it’ll encourage growth and reduce customer churn. Ease of Measurement Another benefit of digital marketing is how easy it is to track traffic and monitor consumer behavior. Tools like Google Analytics help you view statistics as simple as click-through volume and bounce rate. It’s a useful way of finding out the areas you need to tackle to improve your site’s visibility. By measuring traffic and the factors that influence e-flow, you can prioritize SEO and draw people to your website. Small businesses now have a bunch of online tools to monitor activity and boost conversion rates, all with geographical data relating to visitor location, and more. You can also learn a lot about your target audience by implementing newsletter subscriptions and offer programs. This provides you with your client’s contact details so you can secure a relationship with them and receive feedback from their user experience. Revenue Targets Unlike physical stores, online businesses are not limited to only local customers. In 2020, more than two billion people bought products online and e-commerce sales surpassed 4.2 trillion dollars globally. If you want to meet your revenue goals, a digital marketing strategy may be your ideal solution. Choose the right digital channel for your company and start developing your online presence. You can multiply your traffic and increase your productivity. Source To reduce bounce rate, it’s important to test your website to its absolute limits. Checking for glitches and bugs is crucial to ensure a swift experience for our potential customers. Crowdsourced testing can be a great alternative for smaller businesses with a limited team. Don’t forget to keep images under 150kb as this also affects page loading time, especially on mobile devices. Transparency Digital marketing allows businesses to have a more open and honest relationship with customers. Business owners can create a space for feedback, creating a community-like environment. You can bring a sense of intimacy by including photos of your customers on social media or sharing their posts and feedback. Although, this can also be a double-edged sword. Having beneficial comments on your publications depends mostly on the experience you offer your customers. But if constructive criticism is used well, it can help your business push itself to achieve the best results. Open the Door to the Online World Online marketing is a powerful strategy that can help your small business grow. Global trends are leading us to a more digital business model. It’s important to keep up with the latest updates to make sure no one’s stopping them from succeeding. Keep your eye on the prize – the rest is easy. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Nick Brown.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Author: Nick BrownNick Brown is the founder & CEO of accelerate, a SaaS digital marketing agency who exclusively partners with enterprise tech companies to scale their SEO and content marketing. Nick has launched several successful online businesses, written and published a book and grown accelerate from a UK based agency that now… View full profile ›More by this author:12 Best Practices for Remote Team ManagementWhy Help Desks Are Proving to Be the Key to SaaS Customer SupportAn Introduction to SEO A/B Split Testing