With nearly 90% of North Americans using the Internet every day, it’s safe to say the Internet is permanently intertwined with everything we do. Naturally, business is no exception.
While digital marketing for your business used to be a good idea, it’s now a necessity. As consumers move more and more into the digital realm via social media, your marketing has to keep up.
If you’re still skeptical, you won’t be for long. Here are 10 points that illustrate the importance of digital marketing.
1. The Digital Market Is Still Growing
The good news for a small business that’s late to the game on digital marketing is that there’s still plenty of room for new contenders. The number of users who access social media is growing, with middle-aged folks comprising the fastest growing demographic.
No matter what your product or service, your target demographic is represented on social media. Often, that demographic is represented in huge numbers that continue to rise.
Take young adults, for example. Not only do the majority of young adults already use social media, but new users pop up every day as more kids become old enough to use the internet.
In a way, new users are like an endlessly renewable resource. Digital marketing is the only guaranteed way to access that resource.
2. It’s Where People Are
People are using the internet to shop in huge numbers, but it’s more than just that. They’re also leaving behind brick and mortar retailers altogether. This means that your target demographic not only exists online as consumers but they also likely only exist online as consumers.
There are few better reasons to undertake digital marketing than the fact that physical marketing just doesn’t work anymore. People can’t see ads in mediums they’re no longer consuming. With traditional cable, newspapers, and printed magazines on the decline, the internet has become the top place to advertise.
3. It’s the Great Equalizer
Massive retailers are hard to contend with, even in the digital sphere, but a well-managed digital marketing campaign can change all that. Through research and smart allocation of money, you can potentially rank higher in search results than even multi-billion dollar corporations.
When you make an effort to learn more about rising trends, keyword usage, and other techniques you give yourself an edge. Digital marketing allows you to compete in a way that would have been impossible even a decade ago.
4. Targeting
As stated above, digital marketing lets you control every aspect of your campaign. Not only can you stand toe to toe with bigger competitors, but you can also more directly target your demographic.
With the ability to look at massive collections of market data comes the ability to hone in on who your customer is. The internet gives you access to more data than you could ever imagine, which makes your job that much easier.
Instead of running an ad in a print magazine that might reach a portion of your demo, you can craft highly-targeted ads that appeal to a hyper-specific sort of person. That person is your customer.
5. Analytics
Data collection has been mentioned a few times. That’s because digital marketing allows you to compile more information than ever before.
Knowing exactly who you ad reached in the real world can be tough. There are many unknown factors that make hard and fast data difficult to come by. Digital marketing doesn’t have that pitfall.
With digital marketing, you can access every single detail. You’ll know how many people interacted with your ad, what kind of people they were, how many of those interactions led to revenue, and many more things.
All of this circles back around to a more complete understanding of your customers and a deeper understanding of what you could be doing to reach them.
6. Adaptability
If you want laser-precise marketing at the drop of a hat, going digital is the only way to get it. Unlike print or television ads, digital ads can be changed and adapted immediately.
For example, say your data shows that people are interacting with your ad more on particular days than others. With digital tools, you can immediately choose to pay to promote those ads only on those days, no questions asked.
If a traditional ad campaign doesn’t do well, you have to wait until it runs its course and try again. In the digital realm, you can manage it right down to your daily budget and the specific hours an ad will run. And you don’t have to wait for a second to do it.
7. Influencers
“Influencer” is the title given to people who hold vast amounts of influencing power on social media. These can be celebrities, politicians, artists, and other tastemakers.
Through social media, you have unprecedented access to these people. People listen when an influencer promotes something. A single endorsement from a prominent influencer can launch a previously unknown business to overnight success.
You’re also more likely to reach an influencer in the first place since your ad is just as likely to pop up in their feed as it is an average customer’s.
8. Convenience
Running a business is enough work as it is. Taking on the hassle of managing the advertising also can be a nightmare. Digital marketing reduces that hassle significantly.
With digital marketing, you can make adjustments and conduct business from your couch if you want to. You don’t need to make phone calls, have meetings, or distribute materials. Every resource you need is literally at your fingertips.
9. Interactivity
Your customers want to feel seen. They want to be able to give feedback and interact with your business in a meaningful way. Digital marketing makes that possible.
Social media creates an ease of access that runs both ways. While you can more easily reach your customers, they can also more easily reach you. By granting them that access, you create avenues to build real relationships with your customers and grow your business in the process.
10. Your Competitors Already Do It
To put it bluntly, if you’re not pursuing digital marketing, you’re late to the game. There’s a very high chance that all of your primary competitors have already entered the digital marketplace.
This trend has been on the rise for years, and many savvy folks hopped in on the ground floor. If you want to catch up, you need to jump into the race right away.
That’s the Importance of Digital Marketing
If you had any trouble seeing the importance of digital marketing before, you shouldn’t now. Simply put, it’s the way of the future, and the future is now. Don’t get left in the dust.
As helpful as all this info hopefully is, you’re not going to learn the ins and outs of digital marketing by reading one article. If you want to learn everything you need to know about digital marketing, keep reading.
