Digital marketing is not a luxury anymore in the fast-paced and technology-oriented world, but a necessity. It is an effective means of accessing customers, competing with bigger brands and growing without having a huge budget to spend, which is the case with small businesses. Regardless of whether you are a small local bakery, a boutique, or a small law firm, digital marketing can assist in building your brand and attracting new clients and keeping your business running.

Understanding Digital Marketing

However, it is important to first define what digital marketing is before getting into the reasons as to why it is important. Digital marketing incorporates all the online measures that are applied to market a business, product, or service. 

It covers activities such as:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) advertising
• Website optimization.

To put it in brief, it is about reaching out to your audience through the use of the internet and online resources where they are spending the majority of their time online.

The Shift to Online Behavior

In the past ten years, the online research and shopping trend has been excessively adopted by consumers. Recent research has shown that over 80 percent of consumers conduct research of a product or a service online before they make a purchase decision. This implies that your prospective customers are probably visiting your site, social media, and online reviews, even before they enter your store or make a call.

Without a presence on the internet, you are missing a giant opportunity with your small business. Digital marketing also assists in making sure that your business is visible in front of such customers at the appropriate time when they are already seeking what you are selling.

Leveling the Playing Field

Digital marketing offers one of the greatest benefits to small businesses by the fact that it puts the playing field on the same grounds. Digital marketing enables small businesses to compete well with much larger companies unlike traditional advertising methods, like TV, radio or print, which usually require huge budgets.

For example:

• Instagram advertisements can be used to reach local customers with a small coffee shop as well as a national chain.
• With the help of local search optimization, a local plumber can be listed among larger competitors on Google.
• Millions of dollars are not necessary to make a difference. Digital marketing enables any small business to shine through creativity, strategy and consistency.

Cost-Effective Marketing Solution

Conventional marketing may be costly, particularly to companies with low budgets. On the other hand, digital marketing is a cost-efficient strategy that has quantifiable outcomes.

For example:

• Thousands of potential customers can be reached using email marketing campaigns at only a fraction of the cost of direct mail.
• Social media advertisements enable you to determine your budget and only pay when a person clicks on them or takes action on your post.
• Content marketing and SEO will allow you to attract long-term traffic to your site without necessarily having to pay per click.

This cost effectiveness makes digital marketing the best option to small businesses that would want to make the most out of each dollar.

Targeting the Right Audience

One of the most powerful aspects of digital marketing is its precise targeting capabilities. Unlike traditional advertising, where your message reaches everyone.

Digital marketing allows you to target the right people based on:

• Age, gender, and location
• Interests and behaviors
• Online search patterns
• Buying intent.

For example, in case you have a local gym, you can display advertisements to individuals within a 10-mile radius that have demonstrated interest in fitness or health. Such a narrow strategy translates to fewer finances being used to target the wrong people and more time is spent engaging people who will most likely become your customers.

Developing Brand Recognition and Credibility

Digital marketing can assist small businesses to establish a familiar brand and gain the trust of customers. Once individuals keep seeing your business online, via social media or search engines, or even on review websites, they start to become familiar with your name and associate it with credibility.

Social Media Presence

Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn give you an opportunity to present your products, give testimonials of your customers, and directly communicate with your audience. This eventually creates a brand loyal community.

Online Reviews

As soon as you make a customer satisfied, it is best to encourage them to leave a review on Google or Yelp, as this will make you more visible and create trust among new customers. Online review is influential as most consumers will read online reviews before making a choice, positive feedback can or will break a small business.

Reaching Mobile Users

Over 85 percent of Americans have access to a smartphone, and plenty of them use it to find local companies, review them, and shop. With digital marketing, your business is mobile friendly – a mobile friendly site, Google Maps, and social media content.

This is vital to small businesses. Digital marketing can make sure that your business appears in the results when it counts whether a person is searching for the best pizza near me or an emergency plumber.

Measurable Results and Analytics

Trackability is another significant advantage of digital marketing. In contrast to the old approach when it is difficult to estimate the effectiveness of your campaign, digital marketing offers more precise statistics.

You can track:

• Visits and behavior of the visitors to the site
• Click-through rates on ads
• Conversion rates
• Email open rates.