Digital marketing is changing how businesses are operating. With the growth of internet technology, businesses are changing the way they used to do things so as to stay updated and never miss out. Not only in Tanzania but all over the world, businesses are venturing into the online model so as to reach more buyers.
This way digital marketing strategies are becoming more crucial parts of existing marketing efforts. Every business now at least has one or more digital marketing channels for their business. That’s how important it is becoming.
In this article, we will discuss how digital marketing can help grow your business. Here is what we will learn
I. What is a digital marketing
II. What are digital marketing channels
III. How to choose the right digital marketing channel for your business
IV. How digital marketing can help grow your business
What is digital marketing?
According to Wikipedia, Digital marketing is defined as the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services.
It is a form of marketing done through digital channels. Through these digital channels, businesses can introduce products or services to online users so as to convince them to buy.
Learn more about Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing
What are the digital marketing channels?
These are platforms used by businesses to reach out to their targeted audience. Using these channels, businesses can spread awareness about their products, services. Also, these channels help businesses to build relationships with their targeted audience and help their existing customers with challenges or questions they might have.
These channels include,
1. Social media marketing
ever since its introduction, social media has become a big part of our day-to-day routine. More people are joining social media platforms and well, we are getting more addicted to it. People are always up and down checking for notifications about favorite topics and celebrities they follow. Businesses also have not been left out. They have joined and are establishing connections with their targeted audience. As a business social media can help you build customer engagement with your followers and help your business reach a wider audience.
2. SEO (Search engine optimization)
on average google receives 63,000 searches per second on any given day. That’s how busy people are searching on the internet for products, services, information about people, and businesses. This is a huge opportunity for businesses if you can appear higher on the ranks of the Search engine results page. Ranking higher will help you drive relevant traffic to your business website. To achieve such results, your website has to adopt the best SEO practices which are keywords, title tags, content optimization, header tags, meta tags, and links.
3. Paid search (SEM)
Unlike SEO where searchers find you organically and for free, with paid search or Search engine marketing you pay for every click or impression you get. The good side of this is that your Ads are shown above organic results making them easily seen by searchers. Paid search has a high ROI. For example, for every 1$ spend you can get an average of 2$ in return. Through paid search like Google ads, your business can achieve brand awareness and lead generation.
4. Email marketing
Email marketing has come so far and still remains an effective digital marketing channel to promote your product or services, build relationships, and gain valuable reviews or feedbacks from your clients. If done well, email marketing can be so effective for your business. Here is how effective it can be; HubSpot even estimates that the average ROI for email marketing is $38 for every dollar you spend – a whopping 3,800% return for something as simple as email.
5. Influencer marketing
The term influencer refers to a content creator who has a huge following in a certain niche or community. Influencers may seem like a new thing but it’s something that has been done since before. Think of it as a collaboration between a business and someone with the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience
If done properly, Influencer marketing can help you as a business to reach the right audience following the influencer you partner up with, this reduces the risks of your campaign not reaching the right audience.
The above mention digital marketing channels work differently from one another and may give you different results. What may be working for a certain business may not work for your business, so you need to choose the right channel for your business. This brings us to How to choose the right digital marketing channel for your business
How to choose the right digital marketing channel for your business
Choosing the right digital marketing channel for your business can be a long process that may require deep thinking. This is because different businesses have different goals and work differently. To help you find the right channel, here are factors to consider when choosing a digital marketing channel,
· Goal
The channel you choose should align with what you want to achieve in your marketing campaign. Whether it's business awareness, leads, or conversion, knowing your goal will help you choose the right way to reach your targeted buyers.
· Budget
Different channels differ when it comes to advertising expenses. When choosing a digital marketing channel, keep in mind the budget you are willing to spend.
· Audience
The purpose of marketing is to reach out to the targeted audience and let them know our message. What makes targeting effective? It's knowing exactly where your audience hangs out. By creating personas, you can identify where your target audience is most active.
Keeping in mind these three factors will make your work easier when it comes to where you should invest your marketing efforts.
How digital marketing can help grow your business
Compared to traditional marketing, there is no doubt that digital marketing can give you way more benefits and help your business grow. With the ongoing evolution of technology, these benefits are getting easily noticeable. More people are buying and searching for services or products online, making digital marketing the only effective way to reach them.
Still, wondering if your business needs digital marketing? Here are 5 benefits to help you make up your mind.
· Cost-effective
Now with the right digital marketing tactics, small businesses with limited budgets can compete with big businesses for Ad space. All this, thanks to digital marketing because when it comes to traditional channels, it's very difficult for businesses with small budgets to achieve this.
· Measurable
While it's hard to track your campaign's success in traditional marketing channels like newspapers and radios. With digital marketing you can easily measure the success of your campaigns this takes the guesswork out helping you realize if your marketing efforts are working or not.
· Easily adjustable
By being measurable, digital marketing gives you a chance to easily adjust your tactics so that you can achieve your campaign goal. Let’s say you were initial targeting women of age 24 to 35 to buy your beauty products but during the ongoing campaign, you realized there are more buyers aged 19. Digital marketing gives you an opportunity to change your targeting. This way you have a chance of reaching your campaign goals.
· Targeting ideally buyer is easier with digital marketing
When you place your Ad on TV or newspaper, you are taking a shot without being clearly sure whether your Ad will reach the right audience. Though there are ways you can increase your targeting chances in traditional marketing but it doesn’t offer the targeting capabilities that digital marketing offers. With digital marketing, you can use keywords, demographic information, and interests to reach out to your target audience.
· Global reach
The world is going digital, so is Tanzania and other countries. Now more people are using social media, google, and other available online channels to search for information, services, and businesses. Most buyers start their buying journey online. Digital marketing offers you as a business the potential to reach out to these buyers before they make their buying decisions. You can reach more people globally and locally, something that would cost you a fortune if you were to use traditional marketing channels.
As you see, there are many benefits of using digital marketing that can help your business grow. Without a doubt, digital marketing is the best way to reach targeted audiences. With a good strategy in place, your business can reap the benefits and see itself booming. Would you like to get professional help with digital marketing? You can contact us and we will help you.
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