What is digital marketing and why do I need it for my business?

In short, digital marketing is simply any form of marketing that happens online.

Popular digital marketing tactics and channels include:

• Social media: Using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and more to promote your brand by publishing valuable and engaging content.
• Search engine optimisation (SEO): Enables you to increase your website’s organic ranking to increase traffic. The higher your website ranks in a Google search, the more people will find your website.
• Content marketing: Helps you to bring valuable content to customers. The focus is on value and creating content that will attract new customers.
• Pay-per-click (PPC): Drawing paid traffic to your website. As an advertiser, you pay the publisher every time your ad is clicked.
• Video marketing: Used to promote your brand or product, show behind the scenes of your business, share stories, and testimonials.
• Email marketing: One of the oldest forms of digital marketing that has one of the highest returns. It involves sending personalised emails to a database of prospects and existing customers.

Why does my business need digital marketing?

Digital marketing has the power to bring opportunities and growth to your business. There are loads of compelling reasons why you should use digital marketing. Here are our top six reasons why your SME business needs digital marketing:

Your customers are online

According to a report published by Datareportal.com, there were 22.82 million internet users in Australia in January 2021, which equates to 89 per cent of the Australian population using the internet. Nearly 80 per cent of internet users are active social media users, and the average time that users aged between 16 and 64 years spend on the internet is a whopping six hours and 13 minutes, every day.

Based on those figures alone, it should be quite clear that your business needs to be speaking to your customers and potential customers through online channels. Even if they hear about you through traditional channels like word-of-mouth or conventional marketing, they’ll head online to learn more. If potential customers can't find anything about you online, chances are you'll lose them.

Digital marketing is affordable

Digital marketing is generally more affordable than traditional marketing. Businesses can market through email, social media, and SEO-driven content marketing at a much lower cost than they might spend to produce and distribute print advertising or develop and place ads on radio or television.

Part of the reason why digital marketing is so affordable is that it is very targeted. With digital marketing, you can target your audience more precisely than traditional marketing methods. Once you’ve identified who your ideal customers are, you can input important information about them and use that information to target your digital marketing efforts. This makes it much easier to reach the right people with the right message.



It’s easy to track and monitor digital campaigns

Unlike traditional media, I digital marketing it is easier to monitor and measure your campaigns, which allows you to adapt and drive better results. Using simple online tools, you can easily track your campaign’s ROI and other indicators to see if it is delivering valuable results for your business. Metrics can include impressions, open rates (emails), clicks, likes, shares, comments, conversions, and more. The type of metrics you track will depend on the channel and what you want to measure.

With digital marketing, you can also monitor your campaigns as you go. If they need tweaking, you can make immediate changes on the fly and implement them straight away. This allows you to get more out of your campaign and spend your budget more wisely.

You can provide an interactive and personalised experience

You can take advantage of the wealth of data that digital marketing offers to provide personalised recommendations based on user behaviour. For example, through email and social ads, you can target your current customers and provide personalised recommendations based on past purchases or browsing behaviour.

Through digital marketing you can send reminder emails to customers who have visited your website, filled a shopping cart, and left without making the purchase. The same technique can be used with remarketing ads on social media, where you show customers what they left behind.

You can become part of the conversation about your brand

Social media marketing is an increasingly popular digital marketing tactic that allows you to be part of the online conversation about your brand. Nearly 80 per cent of Australian internet users are active social media users so you can’t afford not to be there.

Through consistent engagement and posting of valuable content, you can work to develop a stronger relationship with current customers while also starting a conversation with potential customers. By answering questions and concerns through social media, you can also improve customer service and contribute to a better overall online reputation for your brand.

Your competitors are doing it

And if for no other reason, you should be investing in digital marketing because we guarantee that your competitors are already doing it. The best part is, you can check what your competitors are doing and take note of it. But don’t just copy what they are doing. Instead, create a better strategy that drives more customers to your website, social channels, and more.

 
Digital marketing at Icon Visual Marketing

The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing and Icon Visual Marketing keeps up with those changes. We work with SMEs across Greater Sydney to develop and implement digital marketing strategies and techniques to grow their business. We also constantly monitor and analyse results and report on those results to our clients.

Read more about the work we do for our clients, or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.