Marketing has always been a vital part of any business establishment because marketing offers a company the basic visibility it needs to thrive. Take it from one of the leading marketing agencies, Cleveland Every business needs to reduce the gap between potential customers and their products and services by creating some level of brand awareness through marketing.
However, with the level of globalization today, coupled with the impact of COVID-19 that has forced customers to rely on the internet to get whatever they want, a lot of businesses have gone online and hence, companies now prefer to market their products using digital means.
To cope with the fast-changing world, every business owner needs a good digital marketing strategy. Because that’s the only way they can stay ahead of their competitors.
In case you are still not sure how important digital strategies are to your business, you will surely find out by the time you read this article to the end. But first off, let’s understand what exactly digital marketing is all about.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the process of achieving marketing goals using digital technologies and media. Or simply put: it is a marketing strategy that promotes brand awareness using the internet.
Digital Marketing provides you with new ways to target your audience, gives you the required exposure, and ensures effective brand recognition.
This is unlike the traditional marketing strategies that involve the use of analog means (For instance, direct mailing, TV, Radio, newspaper, or magazine publications) in advertising a product or service to reach the target audience.
It’s very important to go beyond those areas of advertising in this globalized world, given that the online marketplace is booming at the moment. For instance, a survey by Digital Commerce 360 reports that consumers spent $861.12 billion online with US merchants in 2020 alone. Interestingly, that was a 44.0% growth, which was the highest in the last 2 decades and almost tripled the 2019 growth rate that stood at 15.1%.
With that said, the only way to stay afloat in the online market space today and increase your overall reach is through digital marketing.
Digital Marketing Strategy: Some Key Examples
Digital marketing goals are not achieved using one rigid idea. There are lots of tactics you can employ in digital marketing to reach your potential customers and stay ahead of your competitors.
Some of these digital marketing strategies include Search Engines Optimization (SEO), social media marketing, Email Marketing, Blog Content, and so on.
1. Search Engine Optimization
You simply can’t talk about digital marketing strategy without talking about search engine optimization (SEO). This is because, in recent years, SEO has become one of the most vital digital strategies when it comes to online marketing.
Matter of fact, more than 255 million United States consumers shop online (according to Statista). This figure represents approximately 88% of the adult population.
Out of this 88% adults, 31% (about one-third aged 18-29) are “mostly” online, and another 48% visit the internet “severally” — according to a Pew Research Center investigation conducted Jan. 25 to Feb. 8, 2021.
Most of these online customers heavily rely on the results they get on the search engines for any product or service they need. Of course, companies and businesses are aware of this, that’s why they optimize their websites to enable them to appear on the first page of the search engine, making it easier for online customers to patronize them over of their competitors.
Another reliable digital strategy that generates leads and enhances sales is social media marketing.
As of 2020, the number of social media users stood at 3.6 billion (over 49% of people on earth). And this figure is expected to grow to 4.41 billion users by 2025.
Out of this 3.6 billion people, 2.79 billion users are active on Facebook alone, making it the largest social media platform in the world.
Do you know what that means?
Well, it’s simple: the social media space is so wide that almost half of the world is actively engaged in it. Hence, social media offers you the opportunity to make half of the world your potential customers. And if you can leverage Facebook, for instance, you have the chance to connect with over one-fourth of the world.
Overall, the right social media campaign can keep you a step ahead of your competitors and help you secure a larger market share.
3. Email Marketing
This marketing strategy has successfully simplified things for most companies and businesses today.
Instead of relying on the old-fashioned direct mails and spending a couple of days or weeks to reach out to new customers or potential ones, they simply do it in a matter of seconds via emails!
Millions of B2B, P2P, P2B, and B2P emails are sent worldwide daily without any need for envelopes, photocopying, pen, or paper.
Thanks to Email Marketing, all you need to send your messages across and close those major deals are email addresses.
4. Blog Content
Blog content is one of the best digital marketing tactics that can be used to engage lots of audiences.
Remember, nowadays, most consumers search for whatever they need online before even thinking of visiting an offline retail shop. Matter of fact, 81% of consumers carry out online research before buying any product. And most of the pieces of information they gather online (via google search, for instance) are from the blog content of companies that offer the particular product or service they need.
That’s why most businesses now use blog posts to drag potential customers from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel, thereby building more engagement, trust, and consequently making conversion and sales easier.
Now that we’ve examined some key examples of digital marketing strategies, the next question is, why is it so important?
Why You Need A Digital Marketing Strategy in 2024?
As an entrepreneur or a wannabe business owner, you must have heard a lot about digital marketing strategies. And chances are you are asking “is it really worth it?”
Well, in truth, running a successful business in this post-pandemic world requires you to have a few reliable digital tactics. Marketing agencies, Cleveland are staying on top of the marketing game to help businesses leverage the situation. And we are on top of the food chain and we’ve been rated as one of the top Digital Marketing Agencies in Cleveland.
A 2024 business that operates without any digital marketing strategy is like an engine that works without oil: it will surely break down.
Here are 10 reasons you need a digital marketing strategy in 2024.
1. Digital Strategy Directs You Towards Success
Without any digital media marketing strategy, your company is not only missing out on business opportunities but is also without direction. A business without a direction is simply not planning for success and as such, no positive outcome should be expected.
Having a reliable digital marketing strategy for your business is like having a roadmap (a plan) for your business. It helps you to know what you want to achieve, set clear goals to achieve it, and keep track of your progress through analytics.
With a digital strategy, you can proffer a workable solution that can help your business navigate through a difficult situation by keeping your operations organized.
For instance, if for any reason, your company is experiencing low patronage, a digital marketing strategy will ensure that your customers or potential customers remain your top prioritizes. A strategy (eg. Email Marketing) helps you stay connected with both new and existing customers. And SEO Content Marketing helps you reach out to more potential customers, thereby increasing your chances of getting more patronage.
2. Digital Marketing Gives You An Idea Of What Your Audience Or Customer Base Looks Like
For your business to thrive online, you have to be acquainted with the marketplace. In the business world today, the competition for a market share is fierce. Other businesses and companies are simply putting in the hard work to take over your share of customers.
However, with the right strategy under your belt, you’ll have an idea of what your audiences look like. This will help you make well-informed and accurate decisions that you can implement across your business to boost your conversation rate.
Again, the online marketplace today is usually not predictable. The dynamic nature of online consumers’ behavior is so different from what is obtainable offline; hence, using the traditional marketing channels could be less significant.
That’s why you surely need to work with any of the available digital tools that can help you run a competitor analysis to determine the level of customer demand. Such tools will also help you find out whether you are in line with the search intent of forthcoming customers, thereby giving you insight into improving your customer base.
3. Your Competitors Are Already Leveraging On Digital Marketing Strategy
Okay! The funny thing is, while you are still stalling on integrating digital marketing into your business model, your competitors are already leveraging the strategy to take over your market share! Of course, you don’t want to be left behind, or do you?
It may interest you to know that as of 2019, a report has it that digital marketing software is projected to amount to more than $43.8 billion, and mobile ads are expected to rack up to $65.9 billion in revenue. Typical!
This should show you how serious your competitors are with digital marketing. So stop shying away from going digital. And stop relying on an ad-hoc approach with no well-defined strategy. Invest more in a dedicated and comprehensive digital strategy for better online marketing and sales results.
4. You Need To Enhance Your Customer Relationship By Understanding Them Better
Another important reason you need a digital marketing strategy is to maintain a close relationship with your new, existing, and prospective customers.
Running a successful online business is not all about having a well-optimized website. The most important thing is knowing how satisfied any customer who visits your website is whenever they come around.
Although a popular saying has it that “the most measurable medium” is digital, tools like Google Analytics will only tell how many visitors your website has attracted, and not the sentiments, thoughts, or emotions of such visitors.
That’s why you need to use some other advanced digital marketing tools to identify if your customers are satisfied with your website or not. With such knowledge, you will build on your strengths and improve where necessary.
5. Digital Marketing Strategy Gives You An Online Value Proposition
The most important thing a customer craves is what you can offer that your competitors can’t. The question now is, what difference does your brand make?
An outstanding digital value proposition built around the personas of your target audiences can go a long way to differentiate your brand from others. This strategy will consequently attract new customers and ensure that the old ones remain loyal to your brand.
Many companies that achieved this feat were only able to do so using a competitive content marketing strategy to engage their target audience. You can achieve yours on a different level by integrating your content marketing strategy with other marketing channels (like Email and social media marketing).
6. Digital Marketing Integrates All The Media Resources Needed To Run Your Brand Effectively
One of the important reasons why you need a digital marketing strategy for your brand is for proper integration and organization.
It’s pretty common to come across a company whose digital marketing operations are carried out in different silos where the departments can complete their tasks without much cohesion with each other. Such a marketing strategy might seem easier but is simply ineffective.
Most successful digital marketing campaigns, for instance, don’t rely solely on digital channels like social media ads to generate leads but work better by integrating with other traditional marketing channels.
An integrated digital marketing approach doesn’t only provide a template for the complete digital transformation of your brand but also ensures that your sales and marketing departments work together using a common platform (eg. Social media) to run ads, reach out to the targeted audiences, generate leads, and most importantly achieve your business target.
7. Digital Marketing Tactics Ensure You Assign Adequate Resources
As the world is moving to a digital marketplace, if you solely carry out your marketing operations based on the traditional marketing tactics (or based on a poor digital framework), your resource allocation will most likely be inaccurate. With just a traditional marketing approach, it will be more difficult to answer some vital questions like “what advertising channels do I invest in?” because only a digital approach provides you with the accurate metrics to answer such questions within the digital marketplace.
Of course, an inaccurate distribution of your marketing resources (including finances) is the primary cause of poor ads campaigns; hence, reaching your audience will be more difficult than ever.
Fortunately, with a comprehensive digital marketing approach, your company can be assured of an equitable distribution of digital resources. Moreover, such an effective strategy helps you to map out an adequate budget and to direct your finances to more productive marketing channels to reach the ideal audience.
8. A Digital Marketing Strategy Ensures You Don’t Waste Money Via Duplication
Another important reason you need a digital marketing strategy is that the traditional marketing approach does so little to prevent you from wasting your hard-earned money on duplicating your marketing efforts.
Without a well-defined digital approach, your company can waste a lot of resources on various tools or channels, or perhaps employ different agencies to carry out duplicate digital marketing operations.
The right digital strategy is all you need to avoid such unnecessary loss.
9. A Digital Marketing Strategy Gives You The Needed Agility In Today’s Digital Marketplace
Digital Marketing (in today’s digital marketplace) is the best lubrication your business needs to run without much friction.
Take a look at some of the top brands like Google or Amazon that boast high online dominance. One thing they all have in common is their constant innovation of new digital approaches to attract new consumers and keep them for the long term.
You can only match the pace of these top brands (or at least come close to) if you develop a dynamic digital marketing strategy that is open to growth. Not when you embrace a rigid system of marketing!
Search for the best digital marketing agency near me today and watch your sales grow like wildfire.
10. A Digital Marketing Strategy Guarantees High Optimization
It’s safe to say that companies can’t guarantee successful digital marketing campaigns if they don’t optimize their websites. The question now is, do they?
Well, most businesses with websites typically have analytics. However, most senior managers hardly allow their teams to review their analytics and act based on the data provided.
To set your business on the right track, you have to get the basics right by strategically relying on analytics to make data-driven decisions. Only then can you continuously boost your online visibility by improving key areas like your website user experience, search marketing, and so on.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Why do I need to focus on so many different digital marketing strategies?
Focusing on one channel of digital marketing will yield some positives, but for the best result, it’s important to integrate 2 or more channels. Because no single marketing media is comprehensively effective.
For instance, neither a traditional nor digitized approach can do it all: Combining your e-marketing strategies with traditional marketing will ensure you effectively track both online and offline audiences.
2. Why is it important to develop a digital marketing strategy first?
A digital marketing plan is a vital tool for your business, so long as marketing is generally concerned.
This is because a digitally inclined marketing plan will help you identify the uniqueness of your brand and ensure you use the right mix of channels in getting your message across to your audiences.
3. Is Digital Marketing Easy?
The major reason why people shy away from any digitized form of marketing is for the fear of the technicalities involved. Fortunately, a lot of useful pieces of information that are available online have simplified things for every serious learner. Although you have to be careful not to get overwhelmed by loads of information out there.
4. What Skills Are Required For Digital Marketing
The required skills are as follows:
- Data Analysis
- Social Media
- Pay-Per-Click and Social Media Ads
- Storytelling
- Basic Design Skills
- Creative Problem Solving
- Sales And Persuasion
- Strategic Planning, Etc.
Before You Go:
If you’ve read up to this point, chances are you’ve realized just how important a digitized marketing approach is to your business — especially in this modern post-pandemic world.
So what are you waiting for? Why not get started on the journey towards success by taking full advantage of the numerous e-marketing tools available today?
