Digital marketing is more than a buzzword, a business trend, or a marketing channel. It represents the new normal in business marketing and promotion. And more than ever, your business needs digital marketing.
As the world operates more on the internet, businesses must shift to digital marketing before it’s too late. If you’re still on the fence about digital marketing or aren’t sure how it can help your brand, here is a quick rundown of the term, its benefits, and how you can begin investing in a digital marketing strategy for your business.
Why Does Your Business Needs Digital Marketing?
Although there are many forms of digital marketing, the term itself has a very basic definition at its core. TechTarget goes so far as to define digital marketing as “any steps a company takes to connect with customers through electronic technology.”
Of course, this simple definition hides an incredibly complex web of marketing strategies, platforms, tools, and techniques contributing to “connecting with customers through electronic technology.”
For example, digital marketing can occur in various ways across many different channels, including:
- Email marketing
- Social media platforms
- Affiliate and referral marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- E-commerce website and onsite content marketing
- PPC (pay-per-click) and other paid marketing
In addition, digital marketing manifests itself in various strategies. Some of these focus on increasing traffic and brand awareness. Others seek to build credibility or manage a brand’s reputation. Still, others aim to cultivate customer acquisition, retention, and other points along the customer journey.
Taken altogether, digital marketing is a vast, comprehensive world filled with platforms, tools, and endless opportunities for businesses to promote themselves and their products and services.
What Are the Benefits of Digital Marketing?
Several aspects of digital marketing make it an excellent option for marketing teams to consider. For instance, digital marketing is:
- Cost-effective
- Able to scale to any business’s needs
- Data-driven and hyper-targeted
- Flexible and able to adapt to marketing goals (brand awareness, demand generation, customer retention, etc.)
Investing in digital marketing lets you meet your target audience on their turf. You can engage with consumers and target your marketing messages to meet their interests — all at an affordable price compared to traditional marketing investments.
How to Start Digital Marketing
If your business needs digital marketing and you want to start but are unsure where to begin (or you’ve tried before and been unhappy with the results), start the process by assessing your marketing needs. Are you a startup looking for new customers? Are you a mid-sized company trying to jumpstart sustainable growth over the long term? Are you a large corporation seeking to enter a new market?
You can build a digital marketing strategy once you understand your OKRs (objectives and key results). It’s important to focus on more than just promoting products and services. Consider your customers and what you must do to meet their pain points. Use content marketing to establish your business as a credible authority and an industry leader with viable solutions to their problems.
If developing a digital marketing strategy leaves you with a case of analysis paralysis, you can outsource part or all of the activity. Freelancers can take on content creation. Fractional CMOs can help with digital marketing strategies.
If you want a more comprehensive solution to simplify things, Simpay Digital can help. The digital marketing tool is part of our one-stop shop suite of Total Business Solutions. It empowers you to benefit from digital marketing while making business simple along the way.
