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Anyone with a business has no doubt heard the term “digital marketing.” And, while many folks have heeded the call – becoming experts in all its fancy acronyms like SEO and PPC – some are still a little late to the party. Fortunately, whether your business has a website with a dozen social media accounts or is still in the figurative stone age – running classified ads in your local newspaper – you can still benefit from digital marketing and all its forms. 

Why Digital Marketing Is Vital For Your Business

So what’s the big deal? Why exactly is digital marketing so important for your business? A few reasons:

  1. Your prospects are online

    When was the last time you looked for a car in a newspaper ad? Or decided what to watch on television by browsing the TV guide? Our guess is: it’s been a while. And, guess what? That’s as true for your prospects as it is for you. Very few people read the local newspaper anymore (at least not anyone under 40), and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who cares about your television ads or postcards, other than you. The truth is, if you want to reach people – and therefore your prospects – you have to market your services where they are, where they go to find out about what you offer. And that’s online.
  2. Your existing customers are online

    Want to engage with your existing customers? Unless your business has a dozen events lined up for every day of the week, it’s hard to regularly interact with your customers, let alone spread the word about the latest sale or the newest product. But it’s easy to do if you’re online! Whether you choose to update customers daily with social media posts, or weekly with a recurring newsletter, there are dozens of ways to engage with your most valuable prospects and customers with digital marketing.
  3. Your competition is online

    Still on the fence about digital marketing? Guess what! Your competitors aren’t. While you sit and wait, your competitors might be beating you to it. What’s going to stop them from taking your business when they start ranking in the search results, or reaching out to your customers (where they are) online? In a world where access to digital tools is so cheap and so ubiquitous, it’s not enough to simply claim your business on the latest crowd-sourced review site. To compete in a crowded, online world, you have to find ways to outmatch and outwit your competition online, as well. 

How Your Business Can Benefit From Digital Marketing

There are dozens of ways your business can benefit from digital marketing. Many of which are cheap to implement and, like any good investment, can provide exponential value for years to come. With that in mind, here are just a few digital marketing benefits to consider. 

Broach Reach & Better Messaging

man working on marketing campaign for small business

The thing about newspaper ads is this: the only folks who see it are those who subscribe to the daily paper. And television commercials? They’re only seen by those who watch TV. On the other hand, because everyone is online, and getting online is so incredibly easy – digital marketing can allow everyone to see you, to find you, and to learn about your service.

So, whether your clients are in Spokane, Washington, Spotsylvania, Virginia, or Shanghai, China (for that matter), they can reach you (and you can reach them) online. Indeed, with digital marketing, anyone with a phone in their pocket can find your site or social media page with a simple search. While there, you can say exactly what you want to say (and as much as you want to say) free of charge. No time limits. No ‘ad space.’ No interruptions. 

It’s Cost Effective

Did we mention that digital marketing is relatively cheap? That’s right. Compared to more ‘traditional’ marketing methods like television, radio, direct mail, and newspaper ads, content marketing costs almost nothing. You might hire a contractor to write your web content, a developer (or two) to code your site, or a marketer to track your metrics (and tell you what to do next), but that’s about it.

Digital marketing also pays for itself, since your online content can be seen by anyone, at any time of day, year-round. It can even be reused or repurposed, to broadcast your brand and your ideas on entirely new channels. Content writing, for example, can make for great brand-videos, social-media posts, and podcasts, as well, making it a fantastic low-cost investment for easy exponential returns.

Measurable Results

Here’s something else that’s different about digital marketing: everything is measurable. Unlike television and newspaper ads, highway billboards, postcards, posters, or pamphlets, digital marketing grants you the ability to accurately measure your marketing. Using web analytic tools, marketers can track all manner of things about your content, including: what’s been seen, by how many people, and for how long, for all of the types of content you might share online.

This can make it incredibly easy to find out when your content is working (when it’s doing what it was intended to do) and when it isn’t. Whether your goal is to drive more traffic to your site, grow your email list, or encourage people to buy your service, digital marketing can help you address what isn’t working and double-down on what is. 

Better Connections

business woman looking to enhance online presence for small business

Guess what happens when you start engaging with your customers where they are (online)? They start interacting with you. By interacting with your customers and prospects digitally—through digital marketing—you can get to know them: who they are, what they like, why they use your service. And—by knowing all these things—you can deliver an even better customer experience. 

Whether that experience looks like a ‘FAQ page,’ with your prospect’s most pressing questions or concerns, better content, or a more effective sales-team, digital marketing can allow you to develop relationships with your customers that last. And, like any great relationship, if you consistently listen, make time for, and engage with your customers, they will become a trusted partner in your success. 

Segmentation

Are all your customers or prospects the same? Odds are, they are different people with different needs, wants, goals, and attitudes. So why would you treat them the same?

While traditional forms of marketing force organizations to broadcast a one-size-fits-all message, digital marketing allows you to create marketing campaigns and messaging that are uniquely tailored to each of your customers.

By ‘segmenting your audience’—dividing your audience into smaller groups based on their specific needs, goals, and wants—you can create messaging and marketing funnels that cater to the specific people (or types of people) who use your product or services. This can lead to better-than-average messaging, and, you guessed it, above normal conversions. Talk about a win-win!

Other Digital Marketing Perks

There are many other reasons why digital marketing is important that few people consider. With a fully established online presence, for example, your business can ‘be open,’ at any time of day, and your customers and prospects’ can have their questions answered around the clock.

Moreover, you can also better learn to speak your customers language—to find out, through analytics, what resonates with them. This can be highly valuable information as your business scales, as delivering the right message to the right person at the right time is all that you need for a qualified prospect to turn into a lifetime customer. 

Contact a Digital Marketer Today

Are you sold on the benefits of digital marketing but not sure where or how to start?
We hear you.

The professional digital marketers at Hercules SEO have all the expertise and talent you need to get the ball rolling. From SEO and content strategy, to social media marketing, and segmentation, we can help create a digital marketing game-plan that achieves measurable results, and accomplishes all your marketing objectives, guaranteed.

Give us a call today to schedule a free consultation!