Why Small Businesses should consider investing in Digital Marketing this financial year?
Small businesses, whether they have been operating for a while or whether they have just launched, often struggle to define what the best marketing strategy is for them. The difficulty in finding new customers and growing your audience is a difficult task and the journey is often strewn with pitfalls. It is common for small businesses, especially local businesses, to look towards traditional advertising (local newspapers, billboards, etc.) because it is less complex and something they may be more familiar with. But this type of campaign almost always turns out to be less effective than digital advertising.
Let's take the time to reflect and ask ourselves the following questions:
What if most of your customers were on the internet? (Answer: they are!)
What if the future of your business depended on successfully advertising online? (Answer: it most likely is)
In this article, we will explain why it is now essential for a small business to invest in digital marketing and to do it right.
Digital Marketing is....
A tool to reach a larger and more targeted audience compared to traditional advertising techniques
In concrete terms, the number of customers you can reach online is much greater than the number you can expect to reach locally. Indeed, with the exponential growth of various online communities, you have all the more opportunities to increase the visibility of your business to a wider audience.
So those who could not find you before, now can buy your products day or night, wherever they are.
An excellent tool to analyse and measure your digital performance
Today, there are various tools to analyse and obtain a lot of information about the results of marketing campaigns. The amount of data ad platforms collect is insane. In just a few clicks, you can access the performance of your campaigns to see if they are working or not. And it's not just at a top-level, you can drill down to a very granular level.
Once you know your way around the data, you can easily investigate and determine what is effective or not, which will guide your optimisation strategy.
These tools are certainly a considerable advantage over traditional marketing!
Digital marketing is more profitable than traditional marketing
Digital marketing can be more profitable than traditional marketing. So when your budget is limited (if not tight!), you want to make sure it is spent in the most efficient way.
Secondly, with traditional marketing, it is very difficult if not impossible for small businesses to compete with larger ones in the advertising space. No wonder you always see the same type of ads on television: car brands, fast food, insurance companies, etc. When's the last time you saw an ad from your local yoga studio, or florist, or pet grooming service? I bet the answer is "never"!
It is estimated that a small business can reach as many as 1,000 people for just $ 3 through social media and the digital space. For the same audience, a contact by mail or a television commercial would cost between $28 and $57! Likewise, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates 3 times as many leads.
A more effective tool to communicate with your customers
In addition, the increasing use of the Internet has dramatically transformed the way people consume content and information. Companies must follow their target audience's behavioural trends. When someone is interested in a product, the first thing they do is search the internet for more information (compare prices, customer reviews, address, phone number, etc.). A recent study showed that 86% of Internet users search the Internet to find a business in the city in which they are located. As a result, a company that does not have a website forgoes a considerable acquisition channel and greatly risks seeing the customer go to the competition.
Therefore, make the most of it and look at increasing your presence online. There will be some finetuning at first but once you everything is set up properly, you will begin to reap the benefits. And what better way to increase your visibility than Google ads? As Google is the most used search engine in the world (by far), ensuring your business is listed there means your business exists.
An effective marketing strategy will set a business apart from the competition. As we have seen, there are a lot of advantages to investing a little time and energy in digital marketing. With a few clicks, it is possible to reach a large audience that would have been difficult to reach with traditional methods. Behaviours are changing and companies must also learn to adapt. If you'd like to explore digital advertising or if you'd like to improve your performance, please reach out!