Nobody starts a business today without having a proper digital marketing strategy in place. This is because digital marketing now needs to be at the centre of any marketing strategy for all businesses, whatever the size. If you are in the initial stages of starting a business you probably have a tight budget and a small group of employees. You therefore need a proper plan in order for your startup to grow as fast as it should.
One of the main reasons why startups fail is because they do not have a proper digital marketing plan. You could have a great product that everybody wants to buy, but if you do not have a proper plan on how to get people to know about your product, few people will buy it. According to CB Insights, as many as 17% of startups that fail can trace their failure to poor marketing. Here are some major reasons given by Social Growr on why digital marketing is so crucial for startup growth:
Involves true engagement
Savvy marketers understand that they can use digital marketing to transform processes and products using technology. Digital marketing technologies give them a marketing edge that can push a startup above its competition.
Digital marketing, especially social media marketing, has the capacity to bring a startup closer to its target audience. For instance, practically all marketing tactics that the most experienced marketers on Instagram use include an Instagram follower’s hack that bridges the gap between a brand and those who consume its products or services. As the following of these brands on social media grows, so does the traffic that their websites receive. Flipkart reports that most of the traffic its website receives is as a result of its marketing strategies on social media.
Flipkart is one of the world’s top 10 e-commerce sites and it creates social media campaigns aimed at engaging its audience, in addition to giving them information about the company and its products. Digital marketing will not only help you record sales, it will also increase your potential customers’ engagement with your brand.
Better understanding of customers
Every business should seek to understand its customers. You should have an unrelenting commitment to delivering quality products and services to your customers when and where they want them. Digital marketing makes use of technology to improve your customer support by facilitating a better customer experience; it puts your business on the map.
You can also use digital marketing to track, monitor, and analyse the behaviour of your customers. This can lead to a better understanding of their needs and what you can do to satisfy them, making sure that you are optimising your messages and how they are delivered to your customers. Consequently, your company becomes the go-to business for people looking for solutions in your niche.
Cost-effective
Digital marketing is extremely cost-effective. This makes it a perfect marketing tool for startups and small businesses that may not have a big pool of resources or large injections of capital. Compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing tends to be cheaper and often records better results.
Boosts online conversions
Digital marketing makes it easy to measure whether your marketing strategies are working or not. You do this by looking at the incoming traffic as well as reviewing your rate of conversions. This information is readily available for any online business; information that is extremely important in understanding how you can boost your conversions.
Increases your visibility
Digital marketing not only brings you some new customers, it increases the visibility of your business on the web. As you run a digital marketing campaign, new people learn about your business. In the event that they share your content with people in their circles, they further help your business increase its visibility online. The more your business increases its visibility on the web, the greater the chances that it will grow into a big business with incredible returns on investment.
Created brand awareness
Digital marketing, especially social media marketing is big on brand awareness. Even in the event that you do not make money after a marketing campaign, you can be sure that the campaign has increased your brand awareness. Some people on the web may not be immediate customers, but with the growing brand awareness, they might consider your brand the next time they are buying something or are in need of a service that your business provides.
Increases customer engagement
A digital marketing campaign will increase the rate of engagement with your brand with its customers. This is especially helpful on social media where increased engagement often leads to higher rates of conversion.
Tracks ROI
Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing makes it extremely easy to track your return on investment. Instead of waiting for the campaign you had set up to end before you can review it, digital marketing makes it possible to review the campaign as it runs. This allows you to make adjustments towards better returns. If a digital marketing campaign is performing below par, you can stop it all together and avoid making more losses.
More on small business marketing and starting up.
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