Facts about digital marketing

Written by Olwethu Ndzimela

Mr O

BCom Business Management

University of Johannesburg

Abstract

It is mentally draining and time consuming to think about your business's online growth, without thinking small with a bigger picture.

Digital marketing continues to be a technological tool to be used by new and existing organizations to accelerate and flourish within their respective industries.

It consists of proven facts that assist organizations in achieving their business goals, of which, the most vital goal is to increase the company's annual profits and maintain constant growth.

Theme

Digital marketing, marketing, social media, search engine optimization, lead generation, lead conversion, online traffic, micro, small and medium businesses.

Introduction

It is mentally draining to think about your business's online growth, without thinking small with a bigger picture.

Micro, small, and medium businesses, with or without an online presence, often stress or neglect the gold mine of the internet due to a lack of market research, platform choice, marketing skills and knowledge, continuous monitoring of online traffic, and online management.

Some businesses burn out due to a fast growth mentality of growing their online presence quicker than the sound of light, is it realistic? Maybe in a realm of fantasies, not in reality.

Body

It is time to switch on, not off, and think more realistically. How? You ask me, by adopting the five baby steps technique and using the listed facts to leverage your business.

Five baby steps technique:

1. Create professional online platforms

• Every business has different products or services to satisfy customer preferences, as such, it is vital to determine which platforms to best use to reach your chosen customers, for example, let us say you are a fashion business, selling trending clothes, the best online platform to create a page may be Instagram and Facebook, rather than LinkedIn and Pinterest.

2. Serve and create value

• This is to create content that aligns with the pain and pain reliever of your customers, how? You ask, firstly, by using your chosen online platforms, you will have to serve for free, secondly, ask feedback from your purchasing customers to drive traction and use that information for your validated learning, thirdly, post articles or virtual content that relates with your business's products or services, fourthly, offer online courses or surveys to be completed by your customers, and lastly, post feedback or reviews given by your online customers. Sooner than later, your business will gradually grow its online presence and acquire new clients in due time. Then, repeat the cycle while being active online, either, commenting and reposting, rather than creating content that doesn't drive value!

3. Create a professional website

• Creating a website is no train and smash, in fact, do not create your business website at first encounter during your business online presence, but do this, first monitor your chosen online platforms, what are you monitoring? Online traffic and the desire customers have to make online purchases. This will give you an indication about your products or services need by potential online buyers, remember, the most advisable reasons to create a website for your business is, to drive potential customer traffic to either sign-up on your contact list or make an online purchase. If your business isn't taking these two alternatives, then remain using your social platforms until the need arise to create a website that will drive a client's desire to request or enquire about your business's products or services.

4. Experiment with search ads

• This baby step will mostly drain your pockets, so, be selective on where, what, when and how you share your content. For example, if you manage a property rental, your best search ad platform to advertise or market your property business will be through google ads, rather than using LinkedIn.

5. Develop marketing relationships

• This last baby step is all about building a relationship with other businesses that share similar values or influencers that have the audience you want to attract, for example, let us say you are a female hair brand business, you may opt to create a relationship with female social media influencers, to create video content recommending your products. A good example is Portia M beauty products, that feature female influencers to market their products online.

Facts to leverage your business:

1. Marketing strategy

Marketing strategy is a technique used to reach prospective consumers and turn them into customers of your business's products or services. It includes strategies to increase sales through building brand awareness, developing customer loyalty, increasing website traffic, and setting measurable objectives.

Facts about marketing strategy to leverage your business:

• Approximately 80% of online audiences prefer video marketing rather than writing marketing ads.
• Newsletters with image and writing linkage, attract more page views than those with only text blogs.
• Websites with more demonstration videos have a greater chance of attracting potential leads with a purchasing motive.
• It is believed more than 70% of customers are loyal to businesses that their founder or chief executive officer is active on social media.
• Email marketing has a low turnover of sign-ups compared to Facebook or billboard advertising.

2. Search engine optimization

SEO is a tool to improve traffic visibility to online websites. It includes, among others, market research, keyword research and customer research, that potential customers may search to find what they need.

Facts about search engine optimization to leverage your business:

• It is a great tool to attract, keep, and grow customers through lead generation by creating consumer interest in your products or services, especially for business-to-business transactions.
• It is said, more than 65% of online leads are generated through online blogging, either on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, by corporate businesses.
• Search engine optimization generates more website traffic than paid advertisements.
• The length of a web page's content can positively or negatively affect its search ranking.
• Social media signals, for example, reposts, impressions, and shares, do not impact search rankings.

3. Brand awareness

Brand awareness is a vital component for brand marketing. It is about how well customers relate with your business brand and its products or services.

Facts about brand awareness to leverage your business:

• 80% of online consumers make research online, from sites such as, social media, google page, websites and others.
• A company's negative page reviews, without spot-on responses, decreases about 60% online purchasing leads.
• Content marketing generates more than 70% leads than your traditional marketing leads.
• 70% of small, medium, and large corporations have a special personal, outsourcers or freelancer to oversee their content creation strategies.
• Online consumers spend less than 15 seconds on your website.
• 70% of email receivers filter email importance based on their subject line.
• The 10th largest social media platform has more than 400 million users globally.
• It is confirmed, through research, that more than 80% of users are women.
• The American giant has more than 335 million users, of which, more than 100 million users log in daily.
• Twitter is among the top social media platform for online marketing, after YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Conclusion

Digital marketing continues to be a technological tool to be used by new and existing organizations to accelerate and flourish within their respective industries.

Micro, small, and medium businesses, with or without an online presence, often stress or neglect the gold mine of the internet due to a lack of market research, platform choice, marketing skills and knowledge, continuous monitoring of online traffic, and online management.

Such online facts about digital marketing may give your organisation an idea on how to go about planning, leveraging, and growing your online presence with consistency.