6 Impressive Benefits of Digital Marketing for Businesses | Worldwide digital marketing investment is surging past the $455 billion mark. Expect global spend to grow as more entrepreneurs establish online businesses, the most cost-effective business model.
What’s more, the cultural shift toward remote work is generating more opportunities for both eCommerce and traditional services. Thus, plumbers and HVAC technicians are relying on digital marketing like never before.
Are you making the most out of digital marketing?
Discover even more benefits of digital marketing to brainstorm a unique strategy for your business.
- The Benefits of Digital Marketing For Small Budgets
Did you ever operate a lemonade stand growing up?
Back then, your audience was limited to neighborhood foot traffic. You may have expanded your reach with paper flyers or your Mom’s Facebook page. After a few weeks, you probably made just enough to pay for the lemonade, pitchers, cups, and chairs.
Fast forward to your new hard (alcohol-infused) lemonade brand.
You can’t rely solely on friendly neighbors for business. Plus, you’re not the only lemonade stand on the market anymore. You have to compete with several top hard lemonade brands, like Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice.
What can you do to compete without exhausting your budget?
Thankfully, you don’t have to produce expensive TV commercials, billboards, and magazine ads to compete with top beverage brands. Instead, leverage cost-effective digital marketing strategies to grow your brand locally, culminating in nationwide awareness.
Digital marketing changed the game since its introduction in the late 1990s, taking off in the 2000s. Small businesses were no longer limited by tiny budgets. Finally, they could pay per action, not for a large marketing campaign at once.
Today’s digital marketing platforms go a step further, providing data insights to fine-tune campaigns, boosting conversion rates. Thus, small business owners don’t have to hire expensive data analysts as they grow.
Bookmark the following cost-effective strategies:
- Organic content creation
- Pay-per-click (PPC) digital ads
- Influencer marketing
- Video advertising
- Social media marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Email campaigns
- Webinars and Online courses
- Web Design
Let’s dig into these strategies to uncover more benefits of digital marketing!
- Find Your Voice
You’ve probably heard of the term “content marketing.” This digital marketing strategy leverages original content creation to generate interest and sales.
Content marketing is also an organic strategy, which means customers are gradually drawn to your business via content. You don’t even have to pay to create content, which is one reason why anyone can become a blogger with little (or no) capital.
Of course, if you want to generate more sales, you can pay copywriters, graphic designers, and strategists to craft content campaigns quickly and efficiently.
Content possibilities are endless, but here are the main content types driving the most engagement:
- Video content
- How-to tutorials
- Human interest stories
- Online learning courses
- Email newsletters
- Social media posts
- Landing pages
- Infographics
- eBooks
- Press releases
Storytelling is the link tying all content marketing strategies together. Studies reveal that 92% of customers prefer digital ads that feel like stories. Thus, human interest-style campaigns are extremely effective.
With so many marketing channels, you can tell a dynamic story through multiple mediums.
Blogging is also critical to point out.
Your company blog is a consistent source of outgoing content. Frequency is also a ranking factor, as Google rewards sites that update content.
Blogging is a communication tool. Blogs relay important news, product updates, and highlights to your audience.
- Stay Relevant with Social Media
You can also connect with your audience through social media.
Many small brands have struck gold on social media through viral campaigns.
Here are a few notable viral brands and products:
- The cronut
- Blendtec
- Pokemon Go
- The Purple Mattress
- Dollar Shave Club
- Popeye’s Chicken sandwich
- McDonald’s Travis Scott Meal
- Roman Original dresses
Customers also create viral moments for brands. For example, White Claw takes advantage of user-generated content to grow its brand. Gaming brands also benefit from social media unboxing videos, live streams, and giveaways.
Social media marketing campaigns are low-cost. If you have an innovative product, one demo video can go a long way. You can also send your product to influencers, expanding your reach.
Social media accounts are free to set up. Plus, all profiles come with built-in analytics. In fact, you can start with a personal profile, grow your account via analytics, then upgrade to a business account to take advantage of more features.
Even better, you don’t have to hire a social media manager!
Social media management tools monitor pages, post content, and engage with users. All you have to do is create content, input your posts, and automate instant responses.
Social media has even crossed over into the customer service realm, operating as tech support and chat agents.
- Tap Into New Online Communities
Social networks are community-driven. Not only do large influencers have an impact, but micro-influencers, as well.
A micro-influencer may have a little as 500 followers to over 10,000. Despite their small follower count, micro-influencers have better conversion ratios than large influencers.
This trend toward micro-influencers is due in part to the oversaturation of the influencer market. Digital media consumers are always looking for new content sources.
Try reaching out to smaller content creators on social media. For example, if you’re a jewelry designer, you could reach out to up-in-coming lifestyle influencers before they blow up.
You could also leverage newer platforms like TikTok.
Formerly Musical.ly, the app has evolved from lip-syncing videos to the following content:
- Cooking tutorials
- Investigative mini-documentaries
- Political commentary
- Celebrity impressions
- Live music sessions
- Comedy skits
- Pop culture history lessons
- Lifestyle content
Furthermore, small businesses can advertise through the platform’s ad service. You’ll need to upgrade to a TikTok business account to run digital ads.
TikTok Advertising
TikTok’s unique ad options include:
- A full brand takeover, giving advertising a full-page dynamic ad.
- In-feed advertising that appears within relevant users’ feeds.
- Cool branded TikTok effects that let you promote through app stickers, filters, and animated effects.
- Hashtag challenge packages that supercharge user engagement for up to six days straight.
- Top view advertising, occupying the platform’s highest converting placement spots.
TikTok is vital for reaching younger audiences. However, age demographics are changing, creating more opportunities to reach millennials.
For example, Facebook’s primary age demographic is shifting older each quarter, with baby boomers being the fastest-growing user demographic.
Online communities are highly influential on their members. Think of new ways to make inroads with communities, helping conversations grow like wildfire.
Exhibit A: tech startups use Reddit to spark conversations about new software, even troubleshooting issues directly in threads.
- Knowledge is Sales Power
Having a digital marketing strategy is vital for every business, but that doesn’t mean it has to scream “strategy.”
Consumer behavior is evolving. People aren’t limited to a handful of informational sources anymore. With WiFi and mobile devices, customers can find answers in seconds.
Since consumers can find information themselves, blasting commercials to broad audiences isn’t as effective anymore. Plus, advertising to wide demographics isn’t cost-effective, either.
Thus, inbound marketing was born.
This strategy attracts consumers to your brand through valuable content. Customers judge a content’s value by the impact it has on their lives. For example, a thorough 5,000-word guide on organic cleaning methods would have more value than a short promotional write-up.
Inbound content doesn’t sell. Instead, it educates readers, sparking their curiosity and solving problems. The goal is to keep readers coming back, cementing trust. Trust is a cornerstone of sales strategy and CLV.
- Embrace the Journey
Inbound content also follows the buyer’s journey, a series of steps users take on the way to checkout. Thus, you have a real opportunity to spark interest in your brand throughout each stage.
Customer journey sales funnels vary, but they typically follow the following structure:
Journey Stages
Awareness is the first step. During this stage, a user becomes aware of a problem. Coincidentally, this behavior gives you an opportunity to make that user aware of your brand.
Awareness content includes:
- Simple Q&A articles
- How-to articles
- Easy video tutorials
- General facts
- Listicles
As consumers learn more, they start to consider their buying choices, leading to the consideration stage.
Consideration content is more involved, going deeper into a subject or product features:
Good content examples include:
- Product demos
- Whitepapers and research
- Brand comparison articles
- Comprehensive product reviews
This behavior transitions to the purchasing stage. However, you may have to nudge consumers toward that checkout button.
Here are a few ways to score a sale:
- Email reminders for abandoned carts
- Personalized product pages based on activity
- Promo codes, discounts, and seasonal offers
- Free eBooks and downloads
You can also provide discounts and free gifts in exchange for newsletter subscriptions. Newsletters grow your contacts list, helping you stay connected and leverage email marketing.
Once a user makes a purchase, follow up with a thank-you email. Stay present in their life with periodic email discounts, member offers, and more. This stage is often called the delight stage.
Discover More Possibilities with Digital Marketing
The world is your marketing oyster online. Leverage the benefits of digital marketing to spread your message online. Merge both creative and analytical strategies to stay relevant and under budget.
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