11 REASONS WHY DIGITAL MARKETING CAN HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Retail is a notoriously tough industry to be in. In recent years, it’s been getting tougher. More stores closed in the first few months of 2019?than all of 2018.

More brands are shifting online, but the margins there are sometimes even slimmer. As eCommerce takes over, competition is heating up between retailers.

One of the most important tools for any retailer today is digital marketing. From social media to PPC campaigns, digital marketing is everywhere. Brands that don’t use it risk being left behind.

These 11 reasons show the importance of digital marketing for growing your business.

#1 BRAND REPUTATION PROVES THE IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING

If you’re wondering why digital marketing is important, you don’t need to look any farther than what it can do for your brand.

Today’s hyper-competitive market is full of businesses trying to differentiate themselves. Take a look at any company’s website or social media feed, and you’ll see they’re trying to cultivate a brand identity. In turn, they communicate this identity to their audience.

A brand identity only works if it aligns with your reputation. Facebook, for example, can try to portray itself as a trustworthy business. Given data breaches and other issues, some wouldn’t agree Facebook is trustworthy.

Digital marketing can help manage the message and communicate what your business is all about. Better yet, digital marketing channels like social media and blogs give you a chance to “walk the walk.” With digital marketing, you can show your customers how committed you are to brand values.

Digital marketing also improves brand recognition. Recognition can enhance your reputation and the trust customers place in your business. Finally, good marketing can also translate into increased brand loyalty.

#2 DIGITAL MARKETING DELIVERS A BETTER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

One role of digital marketing can be to help deliver a better customer experience.

Some digital marketing channels make it easier to find your website. SEO and PPC campaigns, for example, help your audience discover you. In turn, it’s easier for them to find information about your products or services.

Some digital marketing efforts make it easier for customers to ask questions. Social media channels, for example, give you a chance to respond to customer inquiries. A blog allows you to share wisdom and insight.

The right digital marketing strategy can even help you personalize offers. What could be better than getting a discount coupon for a product you want delivered to your inbox? Digital marketing can make it happen.

#3 IMPROVE YOUR CONVERSION RATE WITH DIGITAL MARKETING

Given what we’ve already discussed, it should come as no surprise that digital marketing improves your conversion rate.

With the right digital marketing tools,?such as remarketing, you can entice website visitors to take advantage of a special deal. Email marketing can deliver personalized offers for existing customers.

More brand recognition, increased loyalty, and better customer experiences lead to higher conversion rates. More satisfied customers return to shop more often, and they’ll usually spend more money, too. They may even become brand evangelists.

Digital marketing delivers the right mix of information, support, and incentive. It keeps customers clicking through and checking out with their shopping carts.

#4 DIGITAL MARKETERS CAN SAVE MONEY

If you’re still asking about the importance of digital marketing, you should take a look at how much money it could save your business.

Traditional marketing techniques don’t work on today’s consumers. They’re far more skeptical, and they’re much more self-sufficient.

Today’s customers seek out information for themselves. As a result, older broadcasting techniques tend to get tuned out.

Those older techniques also tend to be much more expensive. Think about the cost of running a print ad in a magazine or the price of a TV spot. Now think about how customers can flip the page or change the channel.

Digital marketing techniques tend to be more effective and more affordable. The price of an ad spot on a website is much less than your average TV spot. If you bid on the right keywords, it can pay off big time.

Some forms of digital marketing can even be free. Making a post to your Facebook page or Twitter feed doesn’t have to cost much at all.

In short, a digital strategy for your marketing can put dollars back in your pocket. You can then use these savings to fund other initiatives for your business as you grow.

#5 UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE AND WHAT THEY WANT

on your ads? Where are the people searching for your products?

This kind of information can drive better decisions in your business. If you know your typical customer is a Millennial living on the west coast, you can tailor offers and campaigns to meet these needs.

You can also discover what information your audience searches for and what kinds of ads they want to see. You may even find that you’re able to tailor the products you carry or the services you offer.

Knowing about what your audience wants also helps you determine what they don’t want or need. Audience insights can even help you discover new groups of customers you weren’t aware of before. Maybe it’s not just Millennials who like to shop at your store.

With these new insights, you can better serve your customers and increase your conversions.

#6 IT ALIGNS WITH TODAY’S CONSUMER

Speaking of understanding today’s consumer, you should also be aware of how they shop. Digital marketing aligns with how people today want to receive information about products.

Most of today’s consumers are busy people, and they use mobile to conduct searches on the go. Most also?check their social media?while they’re on their phones.

Marketing on these platforms just makes good sense. It allows you to go where your customers are. You can reach Boomers on Facebook, business execs on LinkedIn, and Millennials on Instagram.

You can also leverage digital marketing to help them discover your products. Many people trust social media influencers to tell them about the best new products. Others will check reviews on Google MyBusiness.

Still other people will conduct research on products or services. They’ll watch how-to videos, read blogs, and more.

All of these are digital marketing channels! The right strategy can help you deliver exactly what your audience wants, how they want it, and when they want it.

#7 IT LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Another major advantage of digital marketing is that it can level the playing field. Small businesses and start-ups have an easier time buying the spots they need to get the word out.

Since the costs are lower, you can easily invest in social media marketing or on-page SEO for your website.

This allows you to go toe-to-toe with retail giants. You may not be able to outbid them on the most popular keywords. But you can still rank high or get an ad in front of search users.

This makes it much easier to get the word out about your brand. You don’t need to invest in pricey print ads or billboards to make sure customers discover you. In many cases, small businesses can win over larger ones by using digital marketing.

8. DIGITAL MARKETING BOOSTS REVENUES (AND ROI

Digital marketing can both increase conversions and customer loyalty. Given that, it only makes sense that it can also boost your revenue.

The point of most marketing is actually to increase sales. With digital channels, though, it’s easier to make the connections between your campaigns and increases in your sales and revenues. In essence, it’s easier to prove your return on investment.

Marketing through digital channels does more than make it easy to prove ROI though. It also increases ROI. Digital campaigns are often both more affordable and more successful than traditional campaigns.

You can scale your budget back and still expect to see results. You may be able to apply the same budget to your digital marketing. If so, you can expect to see even higher returns than you would with traditional techniques.

If you’re trying to grow a business, it only makes sense to use marketing techniques that are proven to grow both sales and revenue.

#9 DIGITAL MARKETING LETS YOU GO GLOBAL

The Internet and other technologies have made the world more interconnected than ever before. Your customers might be located in your hometown, but they might just as easily be living an ocean away from you.

How do you reach those potential customers in other markets? It used to be that you’d have to buy local media, such as radio spots or billboard ads.

Digital marketing has done away with that. You can tweet about your online sale and reach consumers living all around the world. A blog post can turn up in the search results for someone in the US, Australia, or even Japan.

With a digital marketing strategy, there’s no need to wait to enter this market or that one. So long as you have an online shop and worldwide shipping, you can sell to your customers wherever they may be. Marketing through digital channels lets them know you’re ready to do business with them.

#10 IT PREPARES YOU FOR TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

We live in a world where rapid technological change is the new norm. Just a decade ago, it was difficult to imagine streaming online movies into your living room. You weren't able to ask your smart speaker to conduct a Google search for you.

As a small retailer, you need to keep up with technology. Being an early adopter could be the difference between a successful sales year and being overtaken by competitors.

You may not think of it, but digital marketing can put you at the forefront of technological changes. Changes to the way people shop and surf the web mean making tweaks to your strategy. You need to keep tabs on which apps your customers are using, or tailor your content to suit voice search.

As the experts at?SEOExplode?note, even tweaks to Google’s algorithm can mean changes to how you do SEO. In turn, you may then incorporate new technologies into your website.

The long and short of it is that digital marketing is like a barometer for technological change. Strategies and techniques respond to changes in consumer behavior. New technology is often adopted quickly.

A good digital marketing strategy paves the way for the rest of your business to embrace change.

#11 DIGITAL MARKETING GROWS WITH YOU

Another thing to keep in mind as you grow your business with digital marketing is that digital marketing can also grow with you.

We already mentioned the international reach of digital marketing. As your?business grows,?you can increase your digital marketing presence around the world with the push of a button.

It’s also easy to scale. Want to reach more people in a particular niche? You can increase your bids on certain keywords or guest blog on sites they visit.

There’s also no shortage of channels you can add or adopt for a digital marketing strategy. You may not have the budget to do everything you want to do today. As your business grows, though, your digital marketing efforts can grow in kind.

MARKET THE RIGHT WAY FOR SUCCES

As you can see, the importance of digital marketing for your business shouldn’t be underestimated. These 11 reasons show just how the right strategy can support you as you build your business.

Retail is a tough industry to succeed in, and digital marketing is just one of the many puzzle pieces. Let our comprehensive guides help you as you discover how to build your brand, find your audience, and more.

With the right advice, retail success is close at hand.

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