Though those who are still stuck entirely in the brick-and-mortar approach might not realize it, the internet has changed everything about how we do business. Perhaps, most impactfully of all, it has changed the whole fabric of the marketing and branding practice.
Here, we’re going to take a deeper look at just how important digital marketing truly is, how it impacts small businesses, startups, medium sized businesses and even more corporate level organizations.
How digital marketing affects small businesses/startups
Starting a business is easier than ever, thanks to how many can begin running the business at next to no cost on the internet. However, finding a secure foothold in the market and standing out amongst competitors is even harder than ever. That’s where digital marketing can help:
- Find your audience and target them: With targeted pay-per-click advertisements and other targeted marketing methods, you can make sure you’re winning new revenue without spending too much. This involves advertising only to those people in your target market that are most likely to convert, so you don’t waste money on ads that aren’t working.
- Bring customers to you organically: SEO, or search engine optimization, is a method of organic marketing. That means it’s based on bringing customers who are likely to be interested to you, rather than reaching out to them through advertising. It can involve creating content designed to appeal to the customers most likely to convert, so that when they use search engines, they’re more likely to find your site. Organic marketing also works well for small businesses as it costs less than advertising, helping you better manage your budget.
- Ensure brand awareness: SEO helps your website become more visible on search engines, but that’s not the only way to improve brand awareness and visibility. A digital marketing campaign can include social engagement and content creation strategy, all helping to raise the platform of your brand and to improve recognition across the board.
How digital marketing affects medium sized businesses
A medium sized business has passed the first hurdles of finding their audience, gaining brand awareness, and converting a steady stream of customers. At this stage, digital marketing is all about better understanding and optimizing the tools you already use to ensure better results:
- It helps you map out customer journeys: If you’re already using methods such as social media marketing and content marketing, a digital marketing team can help you understand your customer journey and at what point they’re most likely to engage with different types of content. This helps you write more insightful and targeted content at every level to speed your consumers through that journey.
- It helps you maintain your reputation: Since growing from a startup, you’ve had time to grow a reputation, as well, shaped by reviews and testimonials. You’ve likely lasted as long because a lot of it is good, but digital marketing can help you address and correct the bad, as well, but improving your press relationships, and offering better online feedback.
- Creating more professional content: It’s time to graduate from basic written and social content. At this stage, it’s time to better represent your business with excellent graphic design, high production value video content, and infographics that give your business the look of prestige and professionalism that can help it excel.
At this stage, digital marketing is here to boost your business to the next height. After initially scaling, it’s essential to find those steps towards new levels of growth, as well.
How digital marketing affects large/corporate sized businesses
For a large business that already has its established base of customers and clients, the rapid growth that digital marketing offers your business might not be as essential. However, the ever-changing nature of digital marketing means that there’s always a little more profit, a little more share of the market, to be gained, so long as you can keep up with it.
- Keep reaching new platforms: New platforms are always being developed and becoming more popular, with the rise of social media and the mobile digital device being two examples. If you want to keep growing, then you need to put more effort into finding those customers who aren’t already engaged. Increasing your engagement on new platforms and working with digital marketing specialists who can react on the fly to new evolutions in the market might be just what you need.
- Keep hold of your loyal customers: When you reach a certain size or level in business, you start to understand that your recurring customers can end up offering a lot more return on investment than brand new ones. It’s cheaper to retain someone than to convert someone brand new. As such, you can rely on recurring marketing strategies such as email marketing, to make sure that you’re not neglecting your most loyal customers to chase those who haven’t proven their value yet.
- Data is becoming more and more important: Digital marketing does more than reach out, it also draws in a lot of data. You can learn more about user preferences, geography, demographics, and how they engage with brands through analytics. This data, combined with other data your business captures or creates internally, gives you a much deeper insight and broader understanding of your customer, allowing for more effective decision making.
When your business has already reached such great heights, digital marketing is perfect for helping you find the customers you’re missing, and to maximize both the revenue and data you gain from those who have supported you throughout the years.
Whatever shape or size your business, you need digital marketing
It doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting out, just passed that first scaling challenge, or already established and long-running in your industry. Digital marketing can help your business reach new consumers, stand tall above your competitors, and give your brand a consistency and a dominance that will continue to pay off for years.
Whatever size your business, whatever industry you’re in, get in touch with Akby to find out what, precisely, digital marketing can do for you.
