Ready for Smart Growth? It's Time to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy.

As you think about ways to grow your business, you could consider traditional options like print media, or simply hope that “word of mouth” will help promote your brand.

These methods certainly have their value, but there’s one marketing strategy that can dramatically increase your new prospects:

Digital Marketing

Think about it this way: what’s the first thing that you do when you want to learn more about a business? You research it online, right?

After doing your initial research, if you quickly find that the brand you’re looking for doesn’t have a strong web presence (or a web presence at all), there’s a good chance that you aren’t going to take that brand seriously, or want to do business with them.

Here we’re highlighting three, little-known brand benefits of digital marketing:

• Your brand appears current, engaged, relevant and connected.
• Your reach is broader, (yet more targeted).
• Digital marketing is less expensive than traditional marketing approaches.

Before we step into the above benefits, let’s take a moment to highlight what exactly digital marketing is.

In a nutshell, digital marketing means you are marketing to your clients through electronic means. Let’s highlight what the “5 D’s of Digital Marketing” are, as highlighted in “Business 2 Community:”

1. Digital Devices – You guessed it, computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, Smart TV’s, watches, and yes even gaming devices!
2. Digital Platform – Online platforms include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, among others.
3. Digital Media – These are the different types of media that you engage with your audience within, including web, mobile applications, even email.
4. Digital Data – research about your audience.
5. Digital Technology – the icing on the cake, you can think of this as the added digital element that further promotes your brand, like an in-store digital kiosk.

Digital Marketing Bonus #1: Brand Awareness

Now it’s time to step into the magic of digital marketing.

Let’s think about your brand purely from a first-impressions standpoint. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, and let’s say you’re looking for a local plant store. After a quick Google search, a shop called “Heavenly Houseplants” appears as one of the top search options near you, with lots of positive Google reviews. You click on the link, and instantly a streamlined website appears for “Heavenly Houseplants.” You easily navigate their site to search for a popular native plant that you’re on the hunt for. Bonus: they have it!

Plus, it looks like this plant is so popular, the shop has written a blog about it. Here, you learn even more about this beautiful plant and how to care for it. You share the blog with a friend, and say “yes” when their not-too-intrusive pop-up window appears, asking if you’d like to receive future blogs & communications.

Finally, you click on one of their social media buttons to view the beautiful photos of seasonal plants, and see the conversations that are happening within the Heavenly Houseplant community.

Your takeaway? In less than 5 minutes, “Heavenly Houseplants” promoted their brand in a clear, engaging, easily-searchable way. You’ve become a likely customer who is developing brand loyalty, plus you’ve shared it with your network.

Now that’s the power of digital marketing!

Digital Marketing Strategy Bonus #2: Broad Reach: Targeted Approach

One of the most beneficial aspects of a digital marketing strategy is your broad reach. Everyone’s on-line, and people are making purchases on the web. So how can you broaden your reach?

• Boost online sales through Google Shopping Ads
• Cast a wide net with a brand awareness campaign.

Additionally, you can target your audience and understand their interests, buying habits and preferences. Ways to get to know your audience better include:

• Start a conversation with them on social media around an industry or trending topic.
• Run a survey through a resource like Survey Monkey as a way to get to know them better. Their comments will be invaluable!
• Create blogs and open up the floor for comments. Their responses can help you understand how best to create business solutions for your customers.

Digital Marketing Strategy Bonus #3: A Less Expensive Option

Often marketing in general can be an overlooked opportunity for business growth. Clients may consider it to be an extra expense that they can’t afford without assurances of its impact.

However, as a business leader, your job is to stay ahead of the curve and stay ahead of the competition. Check out our recent blog about the beauty of the marketing funnel.

In a nutshell, in the digital marketing landscape, a marketing funnel allows you to connect with your audience from the moment of brand awareness all the way to the point of action, or purchase.

To recap, an investment in digital marketing translates to:

• Reaching a broader audience across multiple platforms.
• Engagement with your audience every step of the way, through to the point of purchase.
• Use metrics and tracking to see the direct impact of your investment throughout your marketing efforts.
• Bonus: digital marketing is less expensive than other forms of traditional marketing.

We hope these three tips about digital marketing can help you broaden your reach, connect more effectively with your customers, and understand more about this cost-effective marketing strategy for your business.