As a business owner, you want to see your business brainchild achieve its absolute potential. You carry out research and development and implement all kinds of short-term and long-term strategies. Digital marketing is one of them. It is a critical decision to whether or not to explore the realms of digital marketing. It has the potential of setting your business on the path to consistent growth.

Research by RetailDive revealed that buying journey of 87% of consumers starts online. It all starts by searching for the right products, exploring their benefits and attributes, and then finally making up mind to purchase them. Only 13% of people don’t start their journey in the digital world, which means every small, medium or big-sized business should pay heed to digital marketing. 

If the statistic mentioned above is not enough to convince you to invest in digital marketing as a small business, here is a list of a few more.

1. Build Lasting Relationships with Customers

According to a marketing trends report prepared by Keap, more than 1,190 American small businesses confessed customer retention and customer engagement as one of the major challenges in 2019. If these businesses are available online, it surely means they need to invest more resources in digital marketing to keep their customer base growing and in-tact. 

More than 500,000 new businesses become operative every month in the US alone. It is a big number indeed! It means the existing business always has this lurking fear of losing their customers to the new entrants. Investing in digital marketing makes sure that your business stays many steps ahead of the peers as well as the new entrants. It gives you the advantage to maintain your existing client base besides ballooning its size with every passing day. 

As a business, you must understand that digital marketing doesn’t end at check-out, rather this is where it starts building a strong connection between the brand and its customers. This is where your business has a chance of having a free-of-cost brand ambassador. Loyal customers are not only going to buy from you again and again, but they are also likely to spread the word and inviting more people to your products and services. Moreover, satisfied customers are more likely to welcome remarketing and retargeting campaigns from your business. So investing in digital marketing does give you an advantage that very few others enjoy. 

2. Digital Marketing and Technology Go Hand in Hand

One of the best aspects of relying on digital marketing is the fact that digital marketing and technology go hand in hand. If you keep an eye on the small business technology news, you would be amazed to see how the latest technology is helping global businesses to expand their reach via digital marketing. For example, Alibaba.com has become a global success, largely due to an emphatic use of digital marketing channels. Now you can order anything from any part of the world through this business venture, and technology has made it happen. 

You should use analytics data to learn about your audience’s habits. Start with an official landing page for your business, then notice how your audience engages with it. You can easily monitor the number of people visiting your landing page. You would also know who bounced and who showed more interest by engaging with the entire page. The next thing to note is how many of them converted into buyers of your products or services. These numbers are known as ROI metrics, which give you the power to design your future strategies according to the needs of your audience. 

They say technology will define the future of the world. If that is true, you should start unlocking the true potential of digital marketing today.

3. Enjoy a Multi-Channel Control

Digital marketing is a world of its own kind. It gives you a trans-channel control. Your potential customers could be online anywhere, on social media, search engines, blogs, etc. You are in charge of how you drive them to your products and influence their buying decisions. 

Some of the following stats should intrigue you more.

a) Around 41% of American buyers search and purchase on Amazon.

b) Around 28% of American buyers buy from Amazon after searching for products on Google.

c) According to Statista, approximately 3.78 billion people use social media in 2021 and the number is set to grow to 4.1 billion by 2025. 

d) The leading social media market leaders include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and LinkedIn. 

e) People spend 142 minutes on average on different social media platforms. Around 80% of them access their social media accounts on their smartphones. 

Apart from social media, you can also take advantage of several other digital marketing strategies, including Pay-Per-Click, email marketing, content marketing, backlinking, and influencer marketing. 

5. Digital Marketing is an Affordable Option

Gone are the days when brands used to dedicate huge resources to traditional marketing campaigns. The arrival of digital marketing has made life easier for small and medium businesses because it is far more affordable than the traditional one. 

We all understand that a new small business mostly has financial resources dedicated to business operations. It means they don’t have a huge financial space to allocate money for marketing their products on a TV, radio, or even a billboard campaign. 

One of the coolest benefits of embracing digital marketing is the fact that small businesses can spend a meagre amount and yet get instant results. In fact, small businesses can decide their digital marketing budget as per their needs. According to IntegratedMarketingResearch, an investment worth 1 USD on email resulted in gains worth 38 USD in 2015. In the year 2018, the average cost per lead of email marketing was calculated at 53 USD, second only to online retargeting (31 USD). On the other hand, traditional marketing strategies like tradeshows and events cost 811 USD per lead and TV/radio advertisements cost 611 USD per lead. Enough said!

5. Compete with Big Players

Your digital marketing efforts may place you in the company of biggies in the industry. That’s true! You can take a chunk out of these big players and grow your bottom line. The best part is that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get there. 

The judicious use of available resources and the efficient use of digital marketing channels can help you get there. Moreover, you can couple your digital marketing efforts with an awesome user experience, which would help you in keeping your existing clientele. 

You can compete with your competitors and big players simultaneously by taking advantage of digital marketing. In fact, this could be your best chance to challenge the bigwigs and make your place in the world of the elite. 

The Concluding Remarks

That’s no brainer that you need digital marketing to establish yourself as a growing small business in 2021 and beyond. Digital marketing gives you the options to decide your audience, plan your budget, compete with top brands, and engage your customers as brand ambassadors. None of the traditional marketing strategies offer you this kind of package. So, what are you waiting for? Invest in digital marketing today and give your business brainchild the best chance to become an inspirational success story.