Finding the right marketing strategy can catapult your small business onto a pathway of lasting success, and missing a great marketing opportunity could have a lasting negative impact on your company.
That means that you don’t want to miss out on an important, affordable opportunity to reach your most likely potential customers.
As the following article looks at, digital marketing could be that opportunity.
Take a look at a few of the reasons why digital marketing is right for your business, then find out how to get started on your own digital marketing campaign.
Easy to Measure
One of the biggest benefits of digital marketing is that it’s easy to measure the benefits and make adjustments as needed.
If you put a billboard up on the highway, you don’t have any realistic way to measure how many potential customers saw it, whether they looked further into your services, or how many of the customers that do come to you or use your services did so because of that billboard.
With digital marketing tools ranging from banner ads to social media pages, you’ll have access to real-time, instant information about how your customers are receiving your marketing.
You’ll know how many customers clicked on an ad or followed a link to your website. You’ll also know how long they stayed on your website and what kinds of things they searched for.
With some tools, like a blog or a Facebook page, you can even get feedback directly from your customers.
If an ad is having a negative impact, a positive impact, or no impact, you’ll know right away, and you can adjust accordingly. No more wondering if what you’re doing is working.
Wider Audience
Not only will you have instant audience feedback, digital marketing allows you to reach a far wider audience than traditional advertising methods open to small businesses.
Signs and billboards reach only the most local potential customers. You can cast a wider net with television or radio ads, but neither is likely to give you the range of the internet.
With digital marketing, you can reach out to customers anywhere, making expansion and growth a lot easier.
Even the most reliable form of advertising, word of mouth recommendations, is enhanced when you take your marketing to digital platforms.
When a loyal customer shares your site, likes your page, or retweets your links, they’re sending a powerful message to all of their friends and contacts. That type of endorsement can be invaluable.
How to Get Started
If you’re ready to launch your digital marketing campaign, it’s important to figure out what you need and where to start.
A surprising amount of small businesses don’t have websites. If this applies to you, then that will be the most important place to start.
You’ll need a website that showcases your products and services, has a clean, intuitive design, contains searchable keywords, and is optimized for mobile use.
Next, consider an email marketing campaign.
This is a simple, inexpensive, and effective way to communicate with your customers. You should also work on building a social media presence.
And you’ll want to include an opt-in SMS marketing program that will help you keep your business in the forefront of your loyal customers’ minds.
If all of that sounds confusing, don’t worry. You don’t have to go it alone.
A digital marketing expert can walk you through your options and help you choose the strategies that will best suit your individual business.
You might be surprised by how easy it is to customize a digital marketing campaign to your needs.
About the Author: Cheryl Baer is an author who writes about business and marketing.