Why Digital Marketing Is Important

Written by Shelby Stone

July 23, 2020

Digital marketing is a strategy that utilizes the Internet and web-based tools to reach prospective customers. It is a complex field involving a wide range of techniques and it has evolved considerably over the years.

Up until a few years ago, digital marketing was just a new strategy that only online businesses needed but it now has become an important tool for all kinds of industries. Whether you have an e-commerce website or a traditional brick-and-mortar store, digital marketing is essential. Here’s a look at why digital marketing is so important:

1. People Research Online Before Shopping

According to GE Capital Retail Bank’s study, approximately 81% of consumers research online before they visit a store. That’s a number no business can afford to ignore, which means everyone needs to have a strong online presence. You need to show up on a prospective customer’s online searches and establish your authority in the field.

Having an online presence is essential for both e-commercial and traditional businesses because people carry powerful search engines in their pockets. It’s common for customers to be in a store, find a product interesting, and then research it online through their smartphones. If you want to reach and impress these audiences, you need a good digital marketing strategy involving techniques like SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media marketing, etc.

2. Digital Marketing is Affordable

Most businesses have a small marketing budget. They can’t afford to take money away from essential production and maintenance activities just to promote their products or services. Fortunately, digital marketing is very accessible and even small businesses with a limited budget can find a large converting audience. An optimized approach can help you find customers without burning hole in your pocket.

Experienced marketers start by experimenting with different campaigns, studying the analytics results, and then refine active campaigns accordingly. They can remove all strategies that don’t work and just maintain those that do.

That helps save a lot of money while still generating good results. For example, you can compare the performance of different ad campaigns on different platforms like Google, Bing, Facebook, etc., and decide whether you want to keep investing in all platforms or focus on just one or two.

3. Tracking and Monitoring is Easy

You can track and monitor every single aspect of your digital marketing through powerful analytics tools. These tools will track different kinds of interactions with advertising or promotional content and provide detailed reports. You can study these reports and optimize campaigns accordingly.

Analytics tools make it easier to run a smarter and more effective campaign. You can take all of the information collected from interactions to optimize your products or services as well. For example, if a particular product page has a higher bounce rate than others, you can look into the product or the page and make the required adjustments. It is easier for businesses to get more out of their active campaigns because of these analytic tools.

4. Personalization and Direct Interactions with Target Audiences

Modern consumers like experiences more than anything else. They respond well if you show them they are valued. Personalizing and direct interaction is a great way to create a better user experience for everyone. You can send personalized email newsletters, interact with them directly on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and create tailored content that’s relevant to their interests.

Social media platforms offer ample opportunity for brands to establish a personal rapport with customers. They can help humanize the company, which can encourage a bond of trust between brand and customer. Few other marketing mediums offer this kind of opportunities and that’s why many marketers consider digital campaigns essential.

5. Digital Marketing is Faster

Traditional marketing is very slow. You can’t respond to trends or social concerns quickly, which can be detrimental in today’s fast-paced business environment. Brands need to capitalize on trends quickly to maintain their edge. Digital marketing is easier and faster. You can launch a new ad campaign within a day, publish a social media post in an hour, and create informative blog posts in a few days.

It is easier to keep up with customer preferences through an online platform. For example, brands with a strong online presence were able to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic faster than brands with no online assets. They were able to inform customers whether they were open or closed, what kind of safety precautions they’d take, etc, quickly. Digital marketing is uniquely suited for the modern business environment, which makes it an essential investment.

6. Increased Reach

You may be able to reach a few hundred thousand readers through a magazine ad but you can reach millions of people through a well-targeted Facebook promotional campaign. Digital marketing platforms have a larger and more accurate reach. You can target people precisely based on their age, gender, location, education, times of activity, interests, profession, and more.

It is easier for businesses with an online presence to penetrate new markets as well. Many small, local businesses have started shipping internationally because their products became viral on a global level at some point. If you want your venture to grow, it is important to invest in active digital marketing.

Unlike traditional techniques, digital marketing allows you to approach customers from different directions without being too intrusive. That can help create a better relationship with the customer and establish a strong base. All of these reasons showcase just how important this form of marketing is for modern businesses.