As of 2018, Canada reported having roughly 1.2 million employer businesses. From this large number, a staggering 97.9%, or 1.18 million of them were listed as a small business.
Remaining relevant to your target audience while competing with larger, more established companies continues to be the most crucial variable for small business owners. Without it, you can expect to drop off your customer’s radar.
This guide outlines seven reasons why digital marketing is important and how your company can benefit from it.
1. Easier for Customers to Find Your Business
When looking for a business, customers tend to use Google as their main source of information. If your business is not listed online, chances are the customer will seek out one that is.
For this reason, it is important to set up a Google My Business account. This is the card that appears on Google Search Results with your company’s details and the platform you use to receive Google reviews from your customers.
A Google My Business account will help customers find your local business when searching for products or services near them. This listing provides customers with information such as store hours, address, and phone number.
Without this listing, you risk losing local business at a much higher rate.
2. Why Digital Marketing Is Important for Brand Reputation
Building trust and respect for your business is crucial for maintaining customer engagement. If customers don’t believe in your brand, it is less likely that they will remain interested in it.
To begin building this reputation you should focus on engaging with your audience through authentic customer service. This includes promptly responding to customer inquiries regarding your brand.
Customers develop an opinion of your brand based on social proof. For this reason, you can build your brand’s reputation by sharing testimonials or personal stories of the company.
Additionally, Google reviews and LinkedIn recommendations are also a great way to show prospective customers how others have valued your business in the past.
Finally, an ideal customer experience encourages customers to share their positive reviews with others. This promotion is typically done through social media platforms.
3. Reach Targeted Customers
Another reason why the importance of digital marketing should be emphasized is because of its incredible accuracy in reaching targeted customers. After getting to know your audience, you can begin targeting your business to customers who are most likely to invest in it.
Digital marketing also allows you to increase exposure based on your company’s goals. For example, if your goal is to increase conversions you can increase that likelihood through the use of remarketing.
Sending emails to customers who are already aware of your website reminds them of your services in a non-intrusive way. These customers already saw value in your service, and with remarketing, you are able to remind them why they were interested in the first place.
4. Provides Equal Opportunities
Every small business owner understands that when it comes to marketing, larger businesses usually have the upper hand. With more money and resources, large companies can monopolize marketing avenues such as signage and print advertisements.
This is where digital marketing really comes into play when benefiting your small business.
Knowing how to use your devices to market online will help you compete with larger companies that also market online. With the right audience targeting and advertisement appearance, your business can look just as impressive to customers as a larger company.
5. Appeal to Customers Where They Are
Regardless of your industry, there is no better way to appeal to your customers than online channels. In 2018, 85% of adults in Canada used social media accounts at least once a week. These rates have only increased and continue to rise.
Consumers are searching the web whether it is on social media, search engines or simply watching videos, to receive the information they need. With this in mind, using digital marketing for small business success is of the utmost importance.
By marketing your company online you can present yourself to the public in a way that is most convenient for them. In this respect, marketing on a variety of platforms will provide you with more opportunities to be discovered by potential future customers.
6. Easily Modify Your Strategy
Digital marketing platforms typically allow you to track data based on customer behavior. Website analytics provide information such as bounce rate, conversion statistics, and demographic information.
With these insights, you can adapt your digital marketing strategy depending on what the data indicates. Changing your marketing strategy helps you to stay ahead of the competition by appealing to your audience’s specific needs and changing behaviors.
As an example, if you notice many visitors coming to specific pages of your website without buying right away, you may want to provide detailed descriptions of your products or services on your website or even side-by-side comparisons to help prospects in their research. This could provide the information they needed during their “Consideration” purchase process so they can hopefully move to the “Decision” phase and purchase from your company.
7. Receive a Higher ROI
Receiving a higher Return On Investment (ROI) depends on a couple of factors. These factors include how much your business can invest in digital marketing as well as how you measure your campaigns.
By measuring your marketing campaigns, you can determine whether or not the initial investment is worthwhile. Also, tracking your ROI for different parts of your campaign will help indicate which areas you should allocate your budget to.
For example, when tracking the conversion rate, you may notice that a certain channel is not converting customers as well as others. To help improve your ROI you may want to invest more of your budget into this channel.
Additional important metrics to track ROI include cost per lead, cost per acquisition, customer lifetime value, and lead close rate.
Why Digital Marketing Is a Key Asset
After reviewing some of the reasons why digital marketing is important for small business success, it is clear that it cannot be neglected when developing a business strategy. With the right approach, your business can see highly favorable results in terms of customer retention.
To add, digital marketing is a science that takes time and effort to master. Each company will have a different path to success depending on the individual needs and goals of the company.
For more information on how you can develop a killer digital marketing strategy, feel free to contact us for a free online marketing consultation.
