The Importance of Digital Marketing in 2020 to grow your business
Have you ever calculated the time you spend online? I’m not just talking about social media but otherwise also. Whether you are looking for a place for dinner, join a class on a personal hobby or simply booking tickets for an event, you always use online space to execute these tasks.
33% of the time of the customers is spent on social media. Around 16% is used for online TV & streaming, 16% music streaming, 13% online press and almost 22% for other sources. This shows that a business needs to crawl in this 33% and make best use of it.
So if people are relying so much on online space then it’s equally important for businesses to move online too. They need to have an online identity so that when their target customers are surfing they can discover the brands they love.
This is how important digital marketing has become. The only way brands are able to capture the attention of their prospects is by creating a strong digital presence so that their target customers are well informed.
As a business, you can inform your customer of any new updates whether there is a sale in stores, you are giving a free demo of a product, organizing an event or launching a campaign. Reaching to your target audience through digital means is much easier than offline means.
A brand is as good as customers recognizing it. If you are not making enough buzz in the market then you are working in vain away from practicality. Your efforts should get results in the form of new leads, conversions or downloads, subscribers, etc.
How Digital Marketing Can Transform Your Business?
- Before we state the benefits, let’s discuss some influential statistics of how digital marketing has impacted businesses in the last few years.
- 72% customers want their favourite brands to update information on discounts and promotions on social media.
- Out of 5, at least 4 businesses go for Google Ads for PPC campaigns.
- If a business spends $1 spent on Google Ads, the average revenue they make is $2.”
- The conversion rate from a smartphone has increased to 64%.
- The purchase of 64% of consumers is influenced after watching a Facebook video
- Globally, 3.03 billion people are active on social channels.
These numbers signify that most consumers have migrated online and are consuming new products and services online daily. Especially smartphones are playing a big role in bringing conversions and new leads. Social channels are helping brands reach out to their favourite brands and this calls business to be active on social networks too.
Digital marketing has taken over way too much in the last 5 years and the results-driven from it are strong when compared to traditional marketing efforts. So, let’s go ahead and discuss all the strengths of digital marketing:
- Get High-Rate Conversions
Why do businesses do marketing and advertising? It’s because the ultimate goal for any marketer is to get conversions. These conversions are the real results that business counts on and comes in the form of leads, subscribers, no. of sales, and traffic, etc.
With digital marketing activities, you can optimize your conversion rate by advertising and running campaigns online. When we say digital tools, it means email marketing, SEO, SMM, and SEM, etc. Thus, for high-conversion rates, most businesses in 2020 should work on their digital strategies.
- Interact With Target Audience
This is one of the core strengths of digital marketing i.e. reaching the target audience. A billboard or a normal piece of the pamphlet may reach only a small portion of the target audience and often gets unnoticed or blurred in the process but an ad does otherwise. An ad is targeted only to certain demographics, which makes it take control.
As a marketer, you always want to engage and interact only with people who are interested in your product or brand else you will be losing your dollars and would end up with no leads at all.
For instance, if you sell a luxury brand where each product costs around 5-10 lakhs then advertising it in an age group of 15-22 or people with jobs won’t help the brand. But, precise demographics targeting can do wonders. This is the power of digital.
- Build Brand Reputation
Being in touch with your customers on a regular basis is important especially after selling your product or introducing it in the market. Interacting with users gives you a chance to take feedback from the market of how your product or service is performing.
You can build a great brand reputation by caring about your customers. By immediately replying to their issues and paying attention to any discomfort your end-user is facing you can show you deliver what you guaranteed and anything out of line will be taken care of.
Since your competitors are online too they will woo your customers if you fail to be in contact with your target audience. A reputation is affected not because your brand didn’t nail the expectation in one go but because after selling you didn’t care about the people who bought your product.
Digital marketing gives you the opportunity to be in contact with your audience always.
4. Earn Trust from Your Audience
Though digital platforms open endless opportunities for businesses, they can equally harm a brand’s reputation if not handled well. With a strong website and social media channels, you can create a trust in the market.
A consumer should feel that they could reach out to a brand whenever they feel like. Also, if people get to see your ads, videos, social campaigns, and emails every single day, they will know that you are active and will appear in their feed all day and every day.
Collect feedback, surveys, testimonials, etc. on your Google My Business and social channels, as it will bring a sense of security for your customers.
- Generate Better Revenues
Businesses using campaigns and optimization of their brands generate better revenues than ones without any digital presence. Digital is game-changing for many reasons. Firstly, you are reaching out to your customers. Secondly, you are informing them about your brand or service. Lastly, you are prompting them to take action.
If you can continue this process, you will generate consistent leads and will start getting more conversions. One thing that digital marketing does is reaching out to prospects in any geography. So it’s a limitation that a business can take care of in minutes.
You don’t have to reach them personally instead interact and engage with your users globally through digital tools. Digital marketing is more like fuel for a business as it resolves many challenges and gives a head start to sales and marketing.
- Cost-Effective Strategies
Businesses who are working with limited capital and workforce can make use of digital strategies to get better leads. The promotion and launch of a product get easy with online advertising and feel light on pockets.
Also, small and mid-sized businesses can use automation for most of their marketing strategies rather than establishing an in-house team of experts.
- Reach Mobile Consumers
Around 51% smartphone consumers discover a new brand product online while surfing. Mobile marketing and ad optimization cannot be simply ignored given the number of mobile users increasing every day.
Thus, optimize your brand for social media, email marketing, ads, etc. Optimize your website and content and make it mobile-friendly so that people surfing on their smartphones can see your campaigns, videos, and blogs and discover or follow your brand regularly.
- Let Your Audience Take Desired Action
The best thing about using digital marketing is by introducing your users to your product and service and asking them to take action.
If you want your users to share your blog or video online you add a line at the end or mention it within your video. This is called prompting your users to take the desired action or an action that you want them to take
This is also called as CTA or Call-To-Action which is added in your ad campaigns, email campaigns, etc. so that you can specify what exactly you want your user to do. CTA’s can be to fill a form, buy a product or submit an email ID, subscribe to a channel, etc.
Conclusion
Businesses at small, medium or enterprise levels must focus on following best digital marketing practices. Go in-depth of who you are reaching out to for promoting your work/services? Digital marketing in 2020 will yield you results only if you are loud enough and active. Don’t for a second go back foot because your competitors have taken that space.
You need not try all digital mediums at once. Plan your content and campaigns based on your audience and their demographics. Discuss it with experts and rely on statistics to guide you. I know a team sounds fancy but outsourcing digital activities to experts are the right thing to do when you can’t afford a team.
