According to recent statistics, there are over 286 million active PayPal accounts in the world and 93% of Millennials have compared online deals using a mobile device. Marketing is an essential part of every business – and digital marketing is even more so.
Reports and stats like the ones I just mentioned are flowing every single day. So, the question to be asking is why? What makes those small to titanic businesses invest in online marketing? Today I’ll be sharing with you 6 reasons why you should invest in online marketing.
- Your clients browse online more than on foot
Some basic principles of creating an (online) marketing plan for your business to gain some brand exposure is making your business accessible; and that means bringing your business to wherever your customers are.
According to a recent study done in 2018 an estimated 1.8 billion people worldwide purchased goods online, while global retail sales hit $2.8 billion. If that wasn’t enough, projections indicate that by 2021 global retail sales should grow up to $4.8 trillion.
Let’s face it, online shopping has become the norms and businesses that don’t provide that option are missing out on a huge opportunity.
Let’s face it, online shopping has become the normal thing to do; and businesses that don’t offer an online option to buy are losing to the competitors who offer it.
- It won’t drain your pocket – and comes with a huge ROI
When you’re first starting your business, the last thing you want to do is adding more costs. You want to make the most profits with the least costs; with online marketing that’s never been easier.
Every dollar and every minute you spend on online marketing has a clear Return On Investment. Long gone are the days when businesses had to rely on guesswork to figure out which channel was successful in bringing new clients to their doors.
Because you can measure ROI (Return On Investment) by dividing your investment by sales, investing in a marketing strategy won’t have to be expensive to figure out the next step. Goals, however, are crucial when it comes to the evaluation of your strategies.
Using digital tools like Google Analytics or Bing Webmaster Tools will provide a platform where you accurately measure your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to help you, among many things, set up a budget, determine the sales you ought to make, and what it is that you want from your online marketing campaigns.
Online marketing is affordable for businesses because they can accurately measure in real-time whether a strategy is working, needs improvement, or is outright useless. This way, they can channel their resources towards projects and campaigns that have a high ROI.
- Increasing traffic that purchases
The number of visitors to your site and social media accounts – known as site traffic – should play a significant role in your business plan. because The number of visitors equals the number of opportunities you have; these opportunities will help you lead your potential clients through the buyer journey to become actual clients.
But it’s also more than that, your online presence is an opportunity to share your brand identity, create the impression you want your potential customers to have, and hopefully build a long-term relationship with them.
- Brand recognition and an exposure that you control
Investopedia defines brand recognition as the “ability of consumers to identify a specific brand by its attributes over another brand. Successful brand recognition takes place when people can recognize a brand through visual or auditory cues instead of being exposed to a company’s name.”
Brand recognition is often considered a prerequisite of any buying decision, because it may influence your buyers’ confidence and risk assessment as to whether or not buying your product is a good choice. This is especially important since accessing information is only one click away.
Effectively and intentionally engaging with your target audience online in the name of your brand will provide a better brand experience for your loyal customers and convert your prospective ones into loyal followers.
- Providing a better user experience
Thanks to the internet and technological advancements, businesses have forfeited their power to the consumers (Thanks to the new digital age, consumers have power over businesses now). A 4-star rating nowadays is the minimum rating a client would accept if they intend to purchase your product. Customers are being spoiled by businesses that are doing it right. It’s raining money out there in the virtual world, and if your business wants to get wet, then providing a better user experience has never been easier.
It takes 0.05 seconds for online users to form an opinion about your site, and nearly 57% say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website or mobile app (site). Consumers are extremely impatient, savvy, and need things on the go.
People access the internet for a variety of reasons – e.g. shopping, booking tickets, browsing, finding answers, checking product reviews, you name it. While executing these tasks, a positive user experience is critical if your business aspires to promote customer loyalty and strengthens its brand recognition.
- Boosting your business with customer engagement
Customer engagement touches upon the experiences your customer has with your business – digital or otherwise. Those experiences can either do good or harm to your business relationship with them.
It’s not easy to earn customer loyalty. In fact, the Customer Experience Trends Report of 2020 suggests that nearly 80% of customers switch to competitors after 2 or more bad experiences with a business; and 60% expect an improved experience from businesses they engage with. Clients demand a more personalized approach to dealing with them.
All of this means that customer engagement is simply another way to nurture customer loyalty. Every businessperson knows that treating loyal customers in a more personalized way is both important and urgent as it drives both customer satisfaction (hence better product reviews) and repeat purchases (hence more revenues.)
Investing in online marketing has never been more pressing, especially if you want to drive more traffic to your business and provide a better experience to your customers.
