7 Benefits Of Digital Marketing

As a business, you might use word-of-mouth to connect with customers. However, with the COVID-19 outbreak, this approach has become limiting. Here’s a little secret, the sooner you connect with customers online, the easier it will be to reap the rewards of digital marketing.

Check out these 7 benefits of digital marketing for small business owners.

1. Increase the Top of Your Sales FunnelOkay, this one applies to all digital marketing benefits.Think of digital marketing as a funnel: your goal is to create a wide circle at the top to capture as many customers as possible, even if they’ll not all funnel down into a sale. Digital marketing boosts your visibility, which makes that funnel wider and wider. It is up to your marketing team to make sure—that once they’re captured at the top—you are persuading them with your great offering(s).
2. Keep Track of Your EffectivenessSpeaking of…With traditional marketing, you never know whether your methods are effective. It is hard to measure which input was successful. You leave business cards at a coffee shop, and days later, they’re gone. Does that mean your marketing was worked? Or that someone took your item down to make room for theirs? You will never know. 

   A huge advantage of digital marketing is that most platforms come with analytics. Take the following examples:

   1. You can use web analytics to see which search terms most often lead users to your website.
   2. Your newsletter analytics shows how many users are opening your emails and how many are clicking. Not getting the results you want? It is easy to shift your approach and experiment until you find email marketing strategies that work for you.
   3. Google Analytics can let you know how many people your PPC ad is reaching, and you can tailor the approach.

   In short, digital marketing provides opportunities to try out new methods and to course-correct when something goes wrong. Moreover, you will not waste money because it is easy to pause and edit PPC ads on the fly. Ready to start? Get a proposal here.

3. Show Up in Search EnginesDo you think you know more than the WikiHow article that shows up at the top of Google? We agree! Digital marketing can help make sure that your business shows up in local search results.After all, search engine results are the new Yellow Pages.

   However, to start showing up in search page results, you need to have an online presence. To lay the groundwork, we recommend these 3 easy steps:

   1. Claim your Google Business Page.
   2. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on your web pages.
   3. When you show up in search page results, it’ll be easy for customers to find your business in their quest for answers. From there, customers can browse your offerings, call you for more information, or choose to follow you on social media.
4. Boost Local Visibility on Relevant Listing SitesThese days, search engines are not the only place people use to connect with local businesses. Depending on your target market, your customers may get their recommendations from business listing platforms.For instance:
   • Angie’s List (most commonly used by plumbers and contractors)
   • Healthgrades (for doctors)
   • Foursquare
   • MapQuest
   • Apple Maps
5. Share Your ExpertiseIf you’re an expert in your industry and have something unique to share, digital marketing gives you a platform to showcase your knowledge.Have you considered the following marketing tactics?
   • A newsletter
   • A blog
   • A vlog

   Depending on whether you are more comfortable with words or video, any one of these channels is a great way to start promoting.

   Consider the following kinds of high-quality content:

   • Interviews with other industry experts
   • Personal journals about your industry
   • A summary of news highlights related to your industry
   • FAQs about one of your services or products

   Whatever the case, you are stepping into your role as a local business leader and establishing yourself with a voice that matters. This could even lead to speaking engagements and panel invitations down the line.

6. Connect with Your Neighbors After you create your Google My Business Page:
   1. Customize it to include your list of services, contact information, products, photos of your business, website link, and more.
   2. Start showing up in local search results once you have one recommendation—you probably have a customer who uses Google My Business already.
   3. Once you get started, it is easy to run sales and promotions that draw new customers.
7. Create Personal ConnectionsAdditionally, digital marketing makes it easy to create personal connections by building customer relationships.Consider the following kinds of tools:
   • Repost customers’ stories and posts that feature your products (or your business). These serve as testimonials and can also strengthen your connection with the poster.
   • When users interact with any of your business listing accounts, be sure to reply! Even if the feedback is negative, you can sometimes troubleshoot a customer issue before they write a negative review.

Start Making Connections With The Ad Firm

As a business owner, you must find ways to make your business resilient through seasonal changes (as well as global change). The more strategies you use to connect, the more swiftly you can adapt to the circumstances. Ready to begin, get a proposal here.

And of course, it is not just about you. It is also about your customer. When you stay active online, you can keep track of what is going on.