It’s common to want to do some digital marketing activity because you’ve heard that you should, or you know another small business owner has done so and they are seeing great results. Maybe you like the look of a competitor’s Instagram or you’ve seen ads on Google when you search for your brand name, or related products and services. These are all valid reasons to explore digital marketing for your business and the good news is that there are many tangible digital marketing benefits for all brands, especially as part of a wider digital strategy or brand marketing strategy.

What is digital marketing?

“Digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with current and prospective customers.”

Digital marketing is a broad term. It’s no wonder that if you’re new to digital marketing you may feel overwhelmed. Digital marketing is a toolkit for growing your business: an effective digital presence will help your brand to find new customers and enable potential customers to find your brand online.

A digital marketing strategy delivers digital marketing benefits
Before you launch any digital marketing activity for your business you need clear goals and a focused strategy to help you achieve them. A digital marketing strategy will map out the most effective methodology (content, channels, targeting etc) to get you to your goals.

Whilst it’s wise to test activity and gather learnings on digital marketing channels, such as Facebook ads or a website blog, your digital marketing activity can only be as effective as your digital marketing strategy. Without a strategy to synchronise all activity towards the same goals, your business will not reach its full growth potential and any budget, resources etc will be used inefficiently.

Why is digital marketing so important?
It’s fairly obvious that without any digital marketing potential customers are going to struggle to find your brand online, especially if you don’t have a website or any presence on social media. However, having a static presence online isn’t going to be very effective and drive you towards your business goals. Digital marketing can leverage your brand amongst a whole new audience and what kind of small business owner doesn’t want that to happen! Below are five key digital marketing benefits that will help you decide if this form of promotion is the best next step for your brand:

1. Make your brand more discoverable
Our first and favourite digital marketing benefit is that it improves your brand’s discoverability online and makes it easy for customers to choose you over the competition. How? An effective digital presence enables customers to discover your brand when they actively seek your services or products online (E.g. via your webpage organic listing whilst they are searching on Google), or you can disrupt them with a standout ad whilst they are browsing Facebook and make them notice what a great choice you are for them. Digital marketing provides plenty of options you just need to know which activity is best for you and your business goals.

Your customers are more digitally engaged than ever before and want to discover brands wherever they are and whenever they find the time. Internet penetration in the UK is at 95%, we’re nearly at saturation and 67% of those online are using social media. Your UK customers are highly likely to be online and social media is a part of their everyday life.

2. Cost effective and accessible for all budgets
Many areas of digital marketing are free, all they need are your time and a little creativity which is why social media platforms such as Instagram are great for small businesses with a visual story to tell. When it comes to investing in paid digital advertising you can spend as little or as much as you like, however, before you launch define campaign KPIs such as CPA (cost per acquisition/customer), CPO (cost per order) or CPL (cost per lead).

Consider your business goals and decide how much you are willing to invest in digital marketing for the year. Be smart and invest it in the channel(s) most likely to help you reach your business goals. For example, if you want more quality leads via your website then a critique of your website to ensure its fit for purpose should be your top priority, followed by tactics to generate more relevant traffic. If you’re new to digital marketing or too busy to manage it yourself, we highly recommend consulting with a digital marketing expert or agency

3. Accurate data and measurable results
The digital world is rich in data and a digital marketer can track as little or as much data as necessary. From understanding the SEO performance of your website to the engagement of each social media channel, or from the ROI of your PPC advertising on Google to the volume of leads generated per campaign or website page. There is so much data available and it can be tracked in real-time or the following day, this means you can always react quickly and manage budgets tightly.

Tracking and understanding data links back to the goals of your digital marketing strategy. One of the reasons we love digital marketing is because it’s easy to understand success, identify growth opportunities and navigate through challenging areas. This benefit of digital marketing is hard to ignore when you compare it to traditional marketing.

4. Focus resources to target your ideal customers
In addition to capturing data on your digital marketing performance, paid digital advertising on social media and search engines enables you to focus your budget towards specific target audiences. The data these platforms collect on their users is sold to advertisers so that brands can run targeted digital marketing campaigns which are much more effective.

For example, you can target users who are physically local to your business or who fit your target customer demographic profile. Within your adverts you can tailor your messages to specific customers too. Today users only want to see messages and content that is relevant to them, especially online. When your brand messages are tailored you can expect higher engagement and higher conversion rates.

5. Connect with customers on any device
Fundamentally marketing is all about connecting with customers at the right time and in the right place. Today this also includes wherever they are on the Internet and on every type of device such as laptops, smartphones and tablets. For your brand this means you will need a responsive website and a digital marketing strategy which targets and engages potential customers well on any device. Your website and campaign ads need to look equally great on a laptop and smartphone too.

When should a business start digital marketing?
If you don’t have a digital presence online then the time to create a digital destination that attractively represents your brand is now! However, before you start launching advertising campaigns on Google and Facebook we recommend that you allocate time to define your goals and devise a digital marketing strategy to help you reach them. For example, is there a challenge or opportunity you’d like to solve or focus on? Below are a few common goals that digital marketing can help with:

– I want to attract and engage more high-value clients
– We need more reservations from tourists in our restaurant
– I have a surplus of stock to sell through quickly
– We want to rely less on partners and generate leads directly from customers

The role of a digital marketing agency
If your business goals are ambitious, or you’re excited for your brand’s next phase of growth or launch, then a digital marketing agency or consultant can be a valuable extension to your core team. Effective digital marketing strategies take creativity and skill, they are not learnt in a morning training session and digital channels do not work in silos. Outsourcing your digital marketing needs to an expert with a solid reputation is a cost and resource effective solution to help you to achieve the results you want efficiently, and for the long term.

Reach your business goals
A well thought out effective digital marketing strategy will help you reach your business goals, this is the key reason to invest in digital marketing. Are you ready to explore digital marketing for your brand? Hi Digital are a boutique, digital agency dedicated to growing small businesses with effective digital strategies and we’d love to help you reach your business goals. Please email us info@hidigital.co.uk or please get in touch with using the form below to book a free consultation with us.

Alternatively find out more about what we do or discover free digital marketing tips on our blog.