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Running a business successfully in 2019 takes a lot of different things. While having a good product, great employees and solid customer service helps, it is often the marketing that is the most important aspect of a successful business. Marketing helps you reach potential customers and explain why your company or product is beneficial to them.
Marketing has been around for a long time, but the industry has gone through a lot of changes. Marketing used to be done in print, on radio, on TV and via a variety of other methods. However, traditional forms of marketing have largely given way to digital marketing and the many different benefits it can bring.
While other forms of marketing still exist and have their merit, you need to be using digital marketing in 2019. This article is going to go over 10 reasons why.
Table of Contents
To Help You Measure Your Success
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One of the most important parts of marketing is making sure it’s working. You want to know if your strategies have been successful or not. Unfortunately, measuring success of traditional marketing campaigns is not often easy. For example, if you have a billboard up next to a busy street, you can’t be sure how many people actually saw it or made a purchasing decision based off of it.
Your digital marketing campaigns and strategies, on the other hand, will provide metrics. These include things like your search rankings, bounce rate, how many people clicked a link and so much more. You will be able to dive deep into the analytics and see which marketing efforts were successful, which could use some work, and which should be scrapped.
To Learn About Your Target Market and Target Them Effectively
Every single company or business has an ideal or target customer in mind. Maybe you want to reach the soccer moms, or maybe you are aiming more for the sports fan. Instead of marketing to everyone, it makes sense to have a target. However, using traditional measures simply don’t allow you to hyperfocus on your targets. Thankfully, digital marketing does.
A digital marketing strategy can help you create a profile for your audience. Who they are, what they like, what they respond well to, and things like that. Based on this information about your target, you will be able to market to them directly in a way that will increase your chances of a conversion. This will ensure the people interested in your company or product know about it.
It Will Help You Focus and Create Goals
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Every company wants to get a larger audience and sell more product. They might have some general ideas for how to do this, but this isn’t enough. You will end up likely wasting a lot of time and resources, only to spin your tires and not really get anywhere. This is unfortunately where companies without digital marketing strategies or plans will find themselves.
A digital marketing strategy can help you focus and come up with real and tangible goals. Coming up with an actual strategy and having goals over time will certainly help your company succeed. Once you know what you want, coming up with a plan of attack to get there becomes much easier.
It is Flexible and Adaptable
One of the best things about digital marketing strategies and campaigns is just how flexible they are. They allow you to adapt in ways that other types of marketing simply don’t. For example, when you run a commercial on TV or in a newspaper, the campaign needs to end before you can see the results.
However, with digital marketing campaigns, you can see the results in real time. This will allow you to see what is working, and allow you to make adjustments or changes if need be. This type of thing will ensure that you are not wasting any time, resources or money. The last thing you want is to get stuck in a campaign that is doing nothing for your business.
Your Competitors Are Likely Using One
In the modern day, a good amount of companies are using a digital marketing strategy in some way. This could be social media marketing, running PPC ads or a number of different things. In fact, there is a good chance that many of your competitors are using it. If they are and you aren’t, there is a good chance they are reaching more people and having better results.
So instead of being okay with that and losing customers, you should look to start your own digital marketing strategy. Digital marketing is incredibly scalable so whether you are a big company or a small one, you will find a solution that works for your specific needs.
It is One of the Most Cost-Effective Kinds of Marketing
Because of this aforementioned scalability, digital marketing strategies are among the most cost-effective types of marketing. If a small company wants to purchase ad space on a billboard or put an ad on TV, the cost is simply too high. However, because of the nature of the digital marketing space, you can spend as much or as little as you like.
Some companies spend millions on digital advertising every year, while some only spend hundreds. Both can get good results based on how much they can afford. This type of thing simply wasn’t viable in the past, and has opened up proper marketing efforts to more companies. This low barrier to entry is incredibly important as it has increased the competition in most industries.
The World is More “Online” Than Ever Before
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More and more people are using the internet than ever before. Billions of people are using social media around the world and most people spend hours on the internet every day. As a result, if you market your product, service or company online, you are simply reaching a larger audience than traditional marketing.
Marketing in your city will only expose you to likely few thousand people (depending where you live), while marketing online can potentially expose you to millions. It is simply easier to reach larger audiences online. With the world shopping, browsing and essentially living online, it makes a ton of sense to market there.
Helps to Avoid any Confusion
If you are marketing without a set digital strategy, it can be a confusing thing. Communication between those working in your marketing department can be rampant and can lead to various content and initiatives being mismanaged.
Without a well thought out and written strategy, your marketing could be an unorganized mess. By having a digital marketing plan or strategy in place, you will ensure everyone is on the same page. This will prevent duplicate content from releasing, which will save your company money.
Most Potential Customers Begin Online
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In addition to using social media and browsing the internet for fun, it is also where most people start their journey towards a purchase. When most of us are interested in buying a service or product, we will do a quick internet search on it. Then, from the results, we will decide where to go and what to buy.
By having a digital marketing strategy, you will be able to reach these potential customers easier. This could be in the form of an ad, a highly ranked website or even a piece of useful or valuable content that could assist them.
Better Conversion Rates Than Traditional Types of Marketing
When you are marketing, the ultimate goal is to get conversions. Most of the time, a conversion is when you are able to convert someone from a site visitor or someone interested in your product, to a paying customer. One of the best ways to judge the viability or success of marketing is to look at conversion rates.
While conversion rates can vary greatly from industry to industry, generally, digital marketing bring about the highest conversion rates. One of the biggest reasons for this is just how easy it is to convert online. It only involves a couple of clicks, while converting in person likely means visiting a store.
In conclusion, we hope that this blog post has illustrated to you the importance of a digital marketing strategy in 2019.
Ashley Lipman is a super-connector with Linkio who helps businesses with building their audience online through outreach, partnerships, and networking. NAME frequently writes about the latest advancements in the SaaS world and digital marketing.