Gone are the days when small businesses must subsist on word-of-mouth referrals. Digital marketing has considerably improved the chances of small businesses to reach an even bigger audience - especially now in the middle of a pandemic.
But COVID-19 aside, what are other equally important reasons why digital marketing is essential for today's small businesses? Below are a few of them.
It allows you to meet customers where they are
The proliferation of mobile devices is empowering more people to spend even more time in the digital space. Whether it's social media platforms, websites, or blogs, you'll continuously find different types of people surfing the internet.
For businesses, this presents a big opportunity. You can seek out and engage customers in the platforms they frequent.
You can address product or service concerns through these channels, and in turn, customers can give you valuable feedback. That is now the norm.
Just imagine what will happen if potential customers try to look up your business online, and they find nothing - no website, no Facebook profile, nothing. People may think that your business is not legitimate due to the lack of a good web presence.
It can give you key insights about the market
And in the process of engaging with customers, you could gain essential feedback that can give you a deeper insight into the target market.
Whether it is good or bad feedback, all that information can feed into how you improve your product or service.
Additionally, when you are conducting keyword research to make your online content more visible, you can learn what people are searching for online. That informs your outreach efforts and the material that you intend to share.
It enables you to compete with the big players
Larger businesses have a lot of resources they can allocate to their marketing efforts. Many of them can easily drown out the competition just by advertising their brand name.
But with digital marketing, small businesses can level the playing field and get more visibility. A small-time food stall or hair salon can outrank bigger competitors in Google search rankings by publishing more relevant and useful content.
Additionally, customers who can easily see verified and recent reviews on your website may be more likely to prefer your offerings over other businesses.
Of course, these are only possible if small business entrepreneurs do digital marketing the right way. With a well-managed campaign, any business can reach a bigger share of the market.
It can show you what your competitors are doing
Competitors are not only there for competition's sake. They are also there for you to learn from their strategies. And in this context, there is a lot that you can learn from the digital marketing tactics they employ. You can use these insights to your advantage.
For instance, if you see that one competitor is successfully implementing video content alongside blogs, you can take note of the things they are doing right. You can find areas where they are lacking and exploit these weaknesses to create a better strategy for your business.
And with a much better marketing strategy, you can potentially edge out the competition in terms of capturing more leads and conversions.
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