Digital Marketing refers to any effort that helps to increase the online presence of a business.
But Why Digital Marketing?
In the recent past, printed media, television and radio were the places people used to spend most of their time. And to catch the eyeballs, marketing then was all about placing ads there. But things have changed for the better.
Nowadays people (who are potential clients/buyers) spend the majority of their time online. They could be looking for something on search engines (like Bing, Yahoo, Google, DuckDuckGo etc). At other times hang out on social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.
There could be people among them who might be interested to know about your product or service. Digital Marketing makes the way to connect such a potential user to your business online.
For example, say you own a badminton court in a nice locality. And someone in that locality searches on Google for “badminton court near me”. If your contact number, address and directions to court come up, it will help to grow your business.
Not just within a locality, but the digital world can connect your business to a user globally. And all you have to do is be visible in the places where he is online. And that is exactly what digital Marketing does! (Plus it is more cost-effective than printed and television ads.)
How is Digital Marketing done for a business?
Gone are the days when businesses happened by exchanging brochures. Having a website or a mobile app serves more than a brochure. They are tools to attract and hook potential users to your business. So are other digital assets like social media pages and channels.
“Businesses aren’t B2B or B2C, they’re Human To Human (H2H).” – Dominic Cummins, Founder of Right Mind, Inc.
Marketing is all about connecting users’ needs to the solution that your business provides. The digital assets should be able to connect with the user and help him navigate easily to take action.
Hence optimising digital assets for user-friendliness is the first step for any digital marketing effort. Next is to identify online avenues where potential clients spend most of their time. Be present there and attract their attention by providing value-added content or by displaying advertisements.
In digital marketing terms, these are known as
Social Media Marketing (SMM) –
A user usually finds it easy to connect to businesses via social media. And he is likely to give feedback and engage in conversations there. Having an engaging social media account, makes the user feel that he is always heard and valued. Social Media Marketing is hence an integral part of effective Digital Marketing for businesses.
Apart from managing social medial accounts, showing paid advertisements about your business to targeted audiences is another effective digital strategy. Social media ads are a highly cost-effective way to reach your clients based on geography and other features like age, interests etc. If you are running a pizza joint, you can run an ad about today’s offer exclusively to people in a 5km radius at a specific time of the day. Eg: Facebook & Instagram Ads
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) –
For any clarification or decision-making, people go to search engines and gather all information about that field. If you want those people looking for some information related to your business solutions on Google, Bing etc to visit your website, you have to do some work on your website.
Search Engine Optimisation is all about making your website user-friendly so that search engines will love sending visitors there. It includes
(1) Technical SEO – fine-tuning your website on the technical aspects like load speed, site structure, mobile navigation and security.
(2) On-page SEO – improving the page quality like relevant content, readability, etc.
(3) Off-page SEO – takes care of what other people on the internet talk about your website like online reviews, backlinks etc.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) –
Displaying ads about your business on search engines where the user is actively looking for something that you can provide. Say someone is looking to buy indoor badminton shoes on Google. If you show him the pricing, reviews and other features of the shoes – he is more likely to buy it then and there.
Search Ads provide the advantage for businesses to show up based on the user’s search intent in top results. And the good thing is that you have to pay only if a user clicks on the ad, making it good for the business. (Hence also known as Pay Per Click or PPC advertising too)
Content Marketing –
Well, that was about getting a new user on board. To help him stay longer, you can provide interesting content that is relevant to your business. Actively updating website blogs and social media pages with such visual or audio content achieve retaining the user. This is content marketing.
In a nutshell, an evolving digital presence is a must for any growing business. So where do you think you should start?
“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe. – Simon Sinek, Author of “Start with Why”
Get Started With Digital Marketing for your Business
Every business is unique. And often, copying exactly what your competitor is doing may not be the right digital marketing strategy for your business. It may give results, but it is just like scratching the surface.
To get a perfect mix of digital marketing strategies for your business, contact us.