Zuber Shaikh & Kunal Shah
January 10: We live in a world where not having a presence online is akin to being on another planet altogether! Even in our regular lives, we spend a considerable amount of time online – be it for learning, earning, enjoying or simply exploring. No wonder we expect the same from business organizations as well. As consumers, we want to be able to find everything we need in our offline and online worlds in a couple of clicks. And therefore, it is no surprise that most businesses the world over are following suit.
But it isn’t just enough for companies to be present online.
It is important to make this digital presence count. And digital marketing is the only way one can achieve this.
Put simply, digital marketing will help your business be found by the right people at the right time and will allow you to reach out and connect with an exponentially larger audience. As compared to traditional marketing, it is a lot more efficient, effective and impactful, not to forget measurable as well. So, without wasting any further time, let us get right down to the very specific ways in which digital marketing can help your business grow.
1 Brand Building
There is no doubt that digital is the best place to build a brand today. Whether you are a small, medium or large business, it is possible to make your presence felt on digital with the right strategy. Moreover, with the right tactics, you can make your brand message known to a large set of people within a very short span of time. Also, digital word of mouth is way faster than traditional word of mouth, and if you make the right moves, then your business might be the trending topic on digital before you even know it. It should not be forgotten that the converse is also possible, and one must, therefore, tread with caution.
2 Expanding Your Audience & Market
Digital Marketing is the best way to erase geographical limitations. With the right online visibility and digital marketing tactics, the world can be your playing ground. Search, Social Media, Email Marketing and VRcan allow you to reach and interact with prospects from all over the globe, even without having a physical presence there. You can attract leads from all over by simply marketing using the right channels. Moreover, the rise in digital products and services can allow you to serve customers from anywhere in real time, helping scale up business at a scale earlier unimaginable.
3 Real Time Feedback
Market and customer research can provide valuable insights to help plan the way ahead when it comes to major business decisions. Now, with tools such as Google Analytics and social media analytics, you don’t have to wait to do an intensive and expensive research activity to really gauge what the market is feeling. It is possible to see real time feedback and results for every digital action – including which channels are attracting traffic, which elements of your campaign are working for you, which page elements are a blind spot and so on. This rich minefield of real customer data on all aspects might throw up surprising insights that can completely transform your business.
4 Becoming Omnipresent for your customers
Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing empowers you to be there for your prospects and customers when they are looking for you. By having a robust presence across various digital touchpoints, and offering meaningful value at each of these, you can create an unparalleled customer experience, which is one of the cornerstones to business growth today. You could look at these multiple touchpoints not only as more opportunities to sell, but also more opportunities to serve. And being omnipresent in the online world is always a good thing. Of course, you would require good budgets, but the best part about this is that you could be present for the people who are looking for you, without really being intrusive for the ones who aren’t.
5 Maximizing marketing ROI
A simple rule of business profitability and growth is to maximize ROI at every step of the way. You need to be on top of your spending, and make sure you get the most from every penny that goes out.Digital marketing allows you to have complete control over where and how you spend your marketing monies. If your campaigns are not meeting KPIs even midway, you can just pause or change course at any point without the obligation to go all the way on a plan that isn’t working anymore. The increased relevant reach and engagement that online marketing offers far surpasses anything that you can gain with similar budgets via traditional marketing.
Digital Marketing can thus contribute to your business in a holistic manner. And while this might seem simple to do on one’s own or with in-house resources, it is always a good idea to partner with experienced digital marketing experts. This way, you would be able to take advantage of their rich domain knowledge, as well as gain access to the latest tools, technology and resources to amp up your digital game.
Author: Mr.Kunal Shah, Director, Rank My Business
