Importance of A Digital Marketing Strategy
Without a doubt, digital marketing is essential in today’s world. Regardless of the size of your business and the industry that you are in, it is one of the best ways to increase your brands growth. A Digital Marketing Strategy is a plan that involves marketing goals and how they’ll be achieved through online channels (social media, SEO, paid search, etc.). Though this might sound overwhelmingly difficult, it’s the same as marketing strategy for offline channels. It generally includes search engines, mobile apps to social media. Follow along this article to understand why a digital marketing strategy is so important for your business right now.
- Broad Consumer Reach
There are well over 97% of adults under the age of 65 in the US are on social media at least once monthly. An example of a top social media platform is Facebook. 22% of the world’s population is on this platform and 76% of those users are active daily on Facebook. Though social media users connect with loved ones, they also discover and buy products and services that are advertised to them from these platforms. 37% of social media user time is spent on social media interacting with content that is branded. With just these few statistics, you can see how an effective digital marketing strategy will help you reach these new potential customers. A consumer may be hundreds of miles away from you, geographically speaking, but through social media, they’ll be exposed your products/services and possibly make a purchase.
- Target Audience Accuracy
Advertising contributes to both brand and product/service awareness. Since digital marketing runs online, targeting a specific part of an audience with precise accuracy has been made much easier. Before online advertising, offline advertising was limited to posters, newspapers, radio, TV, banner ads as well as billboards. Though many consumers would still come across these advertisements, the guarantee of your target audience coming across your advertisement was a 50-50 gamble. Don’t get me wrong these channels still important forms of advertising with benefits and serving their place is a marketing strategy. However, when it comes to targeting a specific group of consumers, digital marketing has changed the game. An innovative form of advertising known as search advertising or PPC (pay per click) enables you to target people who run particular searches in Google that are relevant to your service and product. This helps you to run ads that could more accurately reach your target audience. For example, if your brand produces fashion wear for women then a search for “latest fashion trends” performed on Google would help to reach a consumer that’s a part of your target audience much more efficiently. Digital advertising on social media can also be very targeted by age, gender, by income, location down to city and by likes and lifestyle. This means your advertising dollars are better spent on your target audience increasing your Return on Investment.
- Personalization
Statistical reports have revealed that 71% of consumers express some form of frustration when they feel their purchase or rather shopping experience is impersonal. On the other hand, about 44% of consumers are likely to become repeat buyers if they experience a personalized purchase experience with a brand.
A simple place to include personalization is through email which is an element of digital marketing strategies. Email personalization has been shown to have a 75% higher email click-through rate and a 58% increase in customer satisfaction. Personalized content is a great way to keep consumers engaged and interested in your promotional content and/or updates on your product/services. Maintaining interest in your brand and its products/service often leads to brand loyalty and repeat purchases.
Through email marketing, even with a list of 100 recipients, personalization can be achieved by segmenting specific emails (with client names) to new buyers, to loyal customers and others to referrals or potential clients. Other ways to segment is by age where you can send special personalized communication to different recipients. For example, one segment of recipients in your list could be women who are 17-65+ years old. Sending a “Happy Women’s Day” message on the 6th of March to this segment is a way of personalization that’ll resonate deeply with those consumers. They will feel valued and cared for and will be more likely to consider your Women’s Day offer.
- Advanced Analytics
With free analytics software like Google Analytics, you can see how an advertisement you placed performed. Getting insight(s) into an advertisement’s performance such as how many consumers saw your ads, if they liked it, interacted with it, or even shared it is very important. This information will give you a deeper insight into what type of consumer is more interested in your products/services as well as what terms (keywords) they used to find your brand. Take this scenario for example. You run a TV advertisement for your newly released product. Though you can select the best timing for your ad, information of your ad’s reach is limited to probably looking at whether your sales increased. However, you will not get to know how many consumers liked it, what their comments were nor if they shared it with their friends/family. Digital marketing’s analytics is a gold mine for research and improvement of your advertising expenditure.
In conclusion, the world is in a digital era. The importance of a digital marketing strategy cannot be underestimated. Interestingly digital marketing has made the work of marketers easier when advertising by knowing which social media platforms best serve their clients, targeting them with advertisements and analyzing the results for success. Most of all as a business owner, your advertising dollars have a higher return on investment when you pursue digital marketing unlike other marketing methods. Don’t hesitate anymore, take advantage of the digital wave and enjoy the growth.
