Digital Marketing: Why Every Business Needs a Digital Marketing Strategy
Marketing...that nine-letter word sends a lot of business owners into a panic.
"Where can I find more leads and customers?"
"How do I find customers willing to pay the price my products/services offer?"
"How can I make more money on each sale or create more opportunities to sell?"
"How can I make my business/products/services more attractive so customers choose me over my competition?"
"How much do I need to spend on advertising?"
"How long will it take to get results?"
These questions and more are just a few of what instantly pops into a business owner’s head when trying to develop their marketing strategy. Some gurus even go so far as to tell you to figure out what their guilty pleasure is at the local Starbucks. No wonder that nine-letter word sends most over the edge!
But in the last decade, the face of marketing has changed drastically. We’ve gone from a more traditional type of marketing, such as radio, television, billboards, print, etc., to digital marketing, such as websites, social media, video, pay-per-click, chatbots, etc. Even with this evolution of marketing, one rule has managed to stay the same: develop a relationship with the consumer.
No matter where you fall on the spectrum of traditional or relational, marketing has always included connecting and developing relationships with your audience. With the constant development of new technologies and the expansion of the internet, the importance of digital marketing should be at the forefront of all businesses. Digital Marketing is not a short-term solution for attracting customers. Instead, it should become part of your daily business processes.
But what IS digital marketing? And why is it imperative to the overall success of a business?
Let’s take a deeper look…
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What Is Digital Marketing?
To get a firm grasp of what digital marketing is, we must first define it. Very simply… digital marketing promotes your business through various digital channels. Hubspot has informed us that “digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with current and prospective customers.” Lucy Alexander, Hubspot (Check out the Hubspot Blog Post here.)
What? Is that ALL? Yeah, I’m with you. That’s the straightforward, non-understandable Cliff’s Notes definition, in my opinion.
So here’s how I define digital marketing.
Digital marketing is promoting and advertising your business by utilizing online-based platforms and tactics that include, but are not limited to, your website, lead and sales funnels, search engines, social media platforms, video content, pay-per-click or display ads, email marketing, apps, mobile technologies, content marketing, and so much more.
See, now that one got it so right, you’re overwhelmed. #amiright
When you use digital marketing to create your marketing foundation, you can continue to scale your business over time without having to reinvent the wheel. Because when done RIGHT, digital marketing creates a clear and concise path that increases sales opportunities in a very natural, UNsalesy way by moving leads/prospects to a buying decision repeatedly without noticing where one offering ends and another begins.
I’m going to share a little bit more about what exactly each digital marketing method, technique, and platform is here in just a bit. But first, I want to define what digital marketing is not.
What Digital Marketing Is Not...
When a business outlines its marketing strategies, they genuinely need to understand what’s considered digital marketing and what digital marketing is not. And some companies must separate budget expense categories into online and offline marketing. So defining what digital marketing is and isn’t benefits them and almost everyone else.
Online marketing combines digital marketing methods, techniques, and platforms like a desktop, laptop, or mobile network. At the same time, offline marketing utilizes more traditional marketing avenues, such as television, radio, billboards, print/mailers, in-person marketing events, physical marketing materials, sales calls, newspapers, etc. Generally speaking, I refer to these items as traditional marketing.
How Digital Marketing Differs From Traditional Marketing
I had a conversation the other day with an individual of an older generation. Their thoughts on the matter…
“I wish they would bring back traditional advertising. I’m tired of getting on my Facebook app and seeing a post about my discussion with a friend. Whatever happened to a simple billboard or television advertisement?”
While traditional marketing & advertising efforts are still very relevant for certain businesses to reach a particular audience, digital marketing must remain at the forefront of all business growth strategies. Most people rarely watch regular television anymore. I know I don’t. I usually don't engage in it if it’s not DVR’d on Netflix or Amazon Prime. In reality, the next generation of customers will have different expectations and prefer to learn about products and services via social media rather than traditional marketing techniques.
With that being said, how is digital marketing different from traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing includes the following items:
Specific Area Targeted Audiences: Any paid radio broadcast or television advertising within a particular time slot in a geographical area. This also includes printed mailers delivered via the post office to a geographical location. Often, these audiences cannot be changed while the campaign is running. If you need to change audiences, you must run a whole new movement.
Physical Marketing Materials: These items include printed brochures, catalogs, postcards, flyers, mailers, business cards, discount cards, calendars, magnets, pens, etc. These marketing materials are often costly and cannot be changed once created. Instead, new materials would have to be made if changes are desired.
Traditional Channels: Traditional channels include television, radio, newspaper, magazines, mailers, and telephone sales calls.
In-Person Events: In-person events include seminars, conferences, conventions, marketing booths, and networking groups.
With the advancement of technology, every business now has the opportunity to develop a worldwide audience based on their niche and audience research by creating a digital marketing strategy that could include the following:
Worldwide Custom Audience: Any individual with internet access can be targeted with your marketing efforts, meaning I can fine-tune your audience by using demographics, interests, and specific activities to help you determine who your ideal client is for your marketing campaign/s. (Not only can you specify the geographical region, but you can also specify the target’s age and gender.) This audience can be refined and fine-tuned DURING the campaign to make the most of your marketing budget.
Multiple Platforms based on audience demographics and preferences: Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google, Bing, YouTube, etc; each platform has a unique set of users. By narrowing the audience and determining exactly what platform they are utilizing, a business can strengthen its marketing efforts on those platforms.
Creating Engagement and Interaction with Your Audience: By responding to comments and messages on social media posts, ads, blogs, videos, etc., you can interact directly with your audience, which builds a customer relationship with those individuals.
Online Marketing Events: Hosting online events such as live videos, webinars, virtual conferences, online workshops, online courses, launches, product demonstrations, etc., allows for an individual to either attend ‘live’ or view afterward on demand.
Video Marketing: By having engaging, entertaining, and easy-to-digest video content, you provide consumers with a real-life perspective on what’s happening with your business or the latest on a specific product. People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust; video marketing helps them see you as a PERSON they wish to do business with. This provides a real-life perspective on what’s happening with your business, the latest on certain products, etc.
Messenger Marketing: Messenger marketing is effective because consumers want a relationship with a business. By having a conversational chatbot, you are engaging high-quality leads for your business.
How Can Digital Marketing Help Your Business
Every business owner wants to scale their business and bring in more customers. No matter the business size, you strive to scale each year by becoming more successful and profitable. In today’s marketplace, digital marketing strategies should be a top marketing priority to continue scaling successfully.
There are five main reasons digital marketing should be a priority to scale your business.
1. Digital Marketing expands your market reach. With digital marketing, you can research your audience and get to know them. What are they interested in? Where do they shop? What are their demographics? Do you want to have a local audience or a global audience? Your reach can be as narrow or as broad as you want. Ensure you’re targeting those you wish to target and not just a quick ‘let’s get as many ‘likes’ as possible’ approach.
Please look at who you want to attract while creating your digital marketing strategy. - Tweet That
2. Digital Marketing builds stronger relationships with customers. Customers have become highly savvy when deciding when or what to purchase. They’re asking the hard questions of companies and are expecting answers. By being accessible to your customers, you can strengthen lasting relationships that create repeat customers. An educated customer will be your biggest asset, and they’ll share their experiences with others.
When building your digital marketing strategy, remember to consider the experience you want to provide your customers. Because be sure, whether it’s a great one or a not-so-great one, they’ll share it. - Tweet That
3. Digital Marketing creates publicity and visibility. You can capitalize on shareable content by using your website and social media to share your content; the latest news featured media, and videos with your audience. This lets others share your products, blogs, videos, etc.
Please create unique exposure opportunities when you create your digital marketing strategy. - Tweet That
4. Digital marketing allows you to create value-based content on multiple digital marketing platforms. Value-based content that’s entertaining, engaging, and educational will captivate your audience. This will also increase your brand awareness, visibility and help you connect with your target audience. Providing value-based content BEFORE making a sale creates anticipation for all the great value a potential customer will receive from your products and services. It also demonstrates that you’re interested in developing a reciprocal relationship...an ongoing value exchange for value.
Content will be your biggest asset when developing your digital marketing strategy. - Tweet That
5. Digital Marketing will increase sales. When you increase your visibility and build customer relationships, you’re nurturing those individuals to start investing in your products and services. Consider creating a value ladder when developing your digital marketing strategy. What upsell/downsell can you provide? Is there a product that compliments another product?
What Are Digital Marketing Platforms
The sea of digital marketing platforms is vast, so it's essential to understand each and how to best use the right platform for your business based on your audience data.
Many gurus will tell you that you must immediately incorporate each platform into your digital marketing strategy. I’d take a step back and look at your audience research. Based on that information alone, you can decide which platform to start with and add more as you develop your digital marketing strategy.
To know which platforms to use, I recommend you look over your audience's demographics, mainly the age of the individuals. This alone tells you exactly where someone spends most of their time online. Then, take a look at their family demographics. What’s their relationship status? Do they have children? These questions can provide valuable insight into who you’re trying to attract and on which platform.
Once you know the demographics, it’s time to understand your audience's interests. Where do they shop? What are they interested in? Fitness, sports, reading, photography, etc.? What are their hobbies? And the list could go on and on.
You can create engaging content geared toward your unique target audience by narrowing it down. You can discuss their pain points and why they need your product and service. You can engage them by connecting to their emotions through sharing your story or another customer’s testimonial.
All those items above and more are essential before you decide which digital marketing platform is right for your business.
So What Is A Digital Marketing Platform
A digital marketing platform is any online digital channel businesses can leverage to connect with prospective leads and customers. Here are a few digital marketing platforms to consider when creating your overall marketing strategy.
Social media marketing platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Snapchat, Twitter, Periscope, Tik Tok, and LinkedIn.
Content marketing platforms: Pinterest, Website blogs and vlogs, guest blogging, featured blogs, and podcasts.
Email marketing platforms: ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, ConstantContact, Mailchimp, Ontraport, and Infusionsoft.
Pay-per-click advertising platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Google, Bing, YouTube, Pinterest, Quora, and LinkedIn
Video marketing platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube.
Pay-per-listener platforms: Pandora and Spotify
Messenger (chatbot) marketing platforms: ManyChat, Chatfuel, Avio, Botsify, MobileMonkey, Flow XO, Imperson, and ItsAlive.
Can I Learn Digital Marketing On My Own
When I started my business many years ago, I started as a virtual assistant. I knew nothing about the digital marketing world until one evening when I was targeted in an ad on Facebook for a digital marketing course. At the time, I was searching for a way to create a business where I could work for myself and generate additional income for my family.
I consider myself a minority in that I take investing in myself seriously. “How bad do you want to succeed?” and “What are you willing to do to earn it?” are essential questions to ask yourself when considering going all in with digital marketing. Because I assure you, if you think you’ll dabble a little bit, you won’t be effective and will probably fail.
But not me. I dove in and absorbed every ounce of knowledge provided. I watched every webinar, read every blog and email, scanned the Facebook group for information, sought YouTube videos, listened to other influencers and experts, and then went looking for more so I would continue to grow and improve.
I invested in myself. And that’s allowed me to create the business I have now. A company that’s grown from $1k/month to having $10k months and scaling higher. I continue to invest in myself and my interaction with numerous opportunities as they fit into my overall business growth strategy.
So, when someone asks me, “Can I learn digital marketing alone?” The answer will always be yes! You have to be willing to invest in yourself and make it happen. You have to be willing to sacrifice long hours into the night and buy lots of pen and paper to take notes absorbing all the content has to offer. And you have to be willing to adapt because digital marketing requires new strategies each day.
Where Do You Find A Quality Program To Invest In If You Want To Learn Digital Marketing
Before investing in some guru’s program or falling down a rabbit hole whilst chasing down some shiny object, take a moment to research whatever a quality program that teaches what you want to learn, and that gets the students RESULTS! Are there testimonials from real people? Can you post in a group and see if anyone has a connection or a personal experience? Is there any social proof from someone achieving realistic results?
Digital marketing is here to stay and will be a prominent piece of every marketing strategy from here on out, no matter the size of the business. You need to learn how to develop your own digital marketing strategy from the RIGHT resources or hire a reputable agency to create a marketing strategy to get your business visibility and results.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the marketing world has significantly transformed in the last decade, moving from traditional methods to digital marketing. This shift has left many business owners overwhelmed and needing help navigating the ever-changing landscape. The key to success lies in developing a relationship with the consumer, regardless of whether the approach is traditional or digital.
Digital marketing promotes your business through various online channels like websites, social media, video content, email marketing, and more. It offers a wide range of platforms and tactics to reach a global audience and engage with them on a deeper level. Digital marketing enables businesses to create value-based content that resonates with their target audience, builds stronger customer relationships, and ultimately increases sales opportunities.
When comparing digital marketing to traditional marketing, the differences are evident. Digital marketing allows for highly targeted audience reach, providing the ability to refine and fine-tune campaigns in real time. It offers multiple platforms based on audience demographics and preferences, creating customer engagement and interaction and hosting online marketing events. On the other hand, traditional marketing relies on specific area targeted audiences, physical marketing materials, conventional channels like television and radio, and in-person events.
For businesses seeking to scale and succeed, digital marketing should be a top priority. It expands market reach, builds stronger customer relationships, creates publicity and visibility, provides value-based content on multiple platforms, and increases sales opportunities. However, mastering digital marketing requires dedication and investment in learning as the landscape constantly evolves. Finding a quality program or reputable agency to guide your digital marketing strategy is crucial to achieving results in today's competitive market. Embracing digital marketing and utilizing its various platforms will undoubtedly be essential for businesses of all sizes to thrive in the modern marketing landscape.