The world of business has changed significantly over the past few years thanks to the advent of superfast broadband and the cloud, the boom in ecommerce and the rise of social media.
Today’s consumers are a savvy bunch. They rely on technology more than ever and expect 24/7 instant access to everything – from news, information and media content to their favourite brands, products and services.
Just think for a moment about what you can do with your mobile phone. In less than five minutes, you can book a holiday, arrange transport to get you there, order a takeaway, pay your energy bills and sort out your banking.
The opportunities this presents for businesses are almost limitless.
However, in today’s increasingly digitised – and global – economy, businesses of all sizes face a multitude of challenges.
One of the best ways to solve these business problems is through digital marketing. It can help your business reach more customers, create brand awareness, and boost sales.
In the online world, you must have a solid digital presence if you want to remain competitive.
By using digital marketing strategies correctly, your business can achieve its goals quickly and easily.
Here, we take a closer look at the different aspects of digital marketing and the business problems it can solve.
So, what is digital marketing, and why does it matter for your business?
By definition, digital marketing is the use of digital channels to promote or market products or services. It’s a term used often, but what does it actually mean for your business? And more importantly, how can you use it to solve specific problems you’re experiencing?
Digital marketing is essential for any business wanting to grow their customer base and make more money.
It’s a broad term that encompasses many different areas of marketing, using digital technologies and techniques to bring together the various aspects of your business.
It includes everything from your website, content, email marketing and social media to your lead generation, search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click activities.
Businesses of all sizes are taking advantage of digital marketing because it’s the most effective way to get their message out there in this day and age.
You can use it to attract new customers, retain existing clients and build trust and loyalty. It can also help with brand awareness and company reputation.
However, it’s not just about having an online presence. It’s about building relationships with your customers – existing and potential – and developing a more personal connection with them.
So, the first step in digital marketing is understanding what kind of customers you want to attract and building the right strategy around them.
Business problems that digital marketing can solve
When it comes to solving business problems, digital marketing can be an extremely effective tool.
By understanding the different aspects of digital marketing and how they can be used to address specific business issues, you can improve your overall marketing strategy and achieve better results.
To solve your business problems, you first need to understand what they are.
Once you know the problem, you can use digital marketing techniques to help solve them.
You can use many different techniques and activities, so it’s essential to find the right ones for your business.
This is where strategy and planning come in, so you can understand where your business currently is, where you want to be and what you need to do to get you there.
Once you understand these three key components, you can start to build a digital marketing strategy and plan the tactics and activities to help you achieve your objectives.
Some of the common business problems that digital marketing can help you overcome include:
Raising brand awareness
Digital marketing allows you to quickly, easily and affordably target a large audience. You can use a variety of channels to reach them, which means you can tailor your campaign to meet your specific needs. You can also track how well your campaigns are performing and adjust them if needed.
One of the most important goals of digital marketing is to raise brand awareness. When more people are aware of your company and its products or services, you’ll start to see real results in terms of sales and profits.
There are a lot of different ways to increase brand awareness through digital marketing, but some of the most common include:
- Creating a strong presence on social media platforms by building a following and sharing valuable content regularly.
- Optimising your website for search engines so that it appears higher in relevant searches
- Leveraging the power of email marketing to promote your brand consistently
- Using lead generation tools to capture more potential sales prospects
- Utilising paid search and social media advertising to promote your brand and generate customers
There are many different methods of increasing brand awareness through digital marketing. Still, it’s essential to remember that the right digital marketing strategy can help you build a strong brand that people know about and want to buy from.
Driving traffic to your website
Digital marketing can help your business increase traffic to your website in a variety of ways. Optimising your website and content for specific keywords makes your site more visible on search engine results pages (SERPs), which can drive more visitors to your site.
In addition, paid advertising options such as Google Ads can be used to target potential customers who are already searching for information about your products or services. And you can use social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to share links to your website content with a broader audience, potentially driving more traffic to your site.
Again, having a well-defined digital marketing strategy can help you reach more potential customers online and increase traffic to your website. The thing to remember here is digital marketing is a long-term activity. You’re unlikely to achieve the results you want if you pick at it, don’t fully commit or don’t give it sufficient time to work, so stick with it.
Generating and nurturing leads
Digital marketing is one of the most efficient ways to generate and nurture sales leads for your business. Various techniques can be used to target potential customers.
The first step is to ensure your business has a strong online presence. This includes having a website and social media profiles that are updated regularly with fresh content. Your website should be user-friendly and easy to navigate. Your social media profiles should also be optimised for search engines so that they appear in search results when potential customers are looking for related terms.
Targeted content, paid advertising and sales funnels can also help your business reach more potential customers and generate more leads.
Data capture is crucial here. Once you’ve got potential customers to your website or landing page, it’s vital to have have strong calls to action and data capture mechanisms to get their contact details.
Once you’ve captured these, it’s essential to ensure you have the right processes in place to nurture them through the sales journey until they convert from interested parties into paying customers.
Increasing sales
Digital marketing has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes to increase sales and profits. There are many ways it can help your business, but some of the most effective methods include using ecommerce platforms, creating targeted ads, and generating leads.
eCommerce websites allow you to sell your products or services online. This is a great way to reach new customers and increase sales.
Your business can generate more leads and sales through email marketing, by creating a targeted list of subscribers and sending them relevant, engaging content. Additionally, social media can be used to build connections with potential customers and drive traffic to your website.
And paid advertising (Pay Per Click) can help you reach more people interested in what you offer. It’s so useful because it can be heavily targeted to your ideal customers based on demographics including location, age, gender and interests. It can also be used to target lookalike audiences who share the same characteristics as your existing customers, and retarget people who have already visited your website with fresh content to keep them engaged.
When done correctly, digital marketing can help you increase sales by reaching more potential customers and driving them to your product or service.
Retaining existing customers
To keep your business thriving, you need to retain your current customers.
Digital marketing can help build brand loyalty and customer trust, which are vital ingredients for customer retention.
Customers who feel connected to your brand are more likely to stick around – even during tough times.
And when customers trust your brand, they’re more likely to recommend you to others and continue doing business with you even when cheaper (or seemingly better) alternatives are available.
Digital marketing can also help keep customers connected with your brand. By regularly providing fresh and exciting content, you can keep customers engaged and coming back for more.
Maximising your marketing budget
Cost is one of the biggest pressures businesses of all sizes face. There’s a constant need to cut spending, boost margins and achieve better results with fewer resources.
Marketing budgets are often the first ones to be cut when businesses are looking to make savings, which makes getting more from your investment in marketing a key challenge.
Unfortunately, most marketing costs money. TV and radio slots, events and exhibitions, press ads, leaflet drops and cold calling are all expensive – and resource-heavy – activities with a short shelf-life.
This is where digital marketing has the edge. It’s easy – and inexpensive – to create and publish content that will stick around online for as long as you want it to and, if optimised correctly, will show up in searches relevant to your target audience long after you’ve done the initial work. This holds true for blogs, social media posts, YouTube videos, infographics, funny memes or gifs, whitepapers or downloadable PDFs.
The great thing about digital content is, if you build and nurture your customer base in the right way, you’ll have a captive audience of highly engaged followers who have opted in to receive updates, information and sales messages from you. It’s an open goal!
How can QBD help?
Great digital marketing is built on the solid foundations of strategy, creativity and technical expertise. In an ever-changing digital landscape, staying on top of the latest trends is crucial to ensure your marketing appeals to your audience and achieves the best results.
As your partner in digital growth, our approach is simple. We listen. We create. You grow.
Whether you’re looking to sell more, generate more leads, reach more people or raise awareness of your brand, with QBD in your corner, we can help you reach more, attract more and achieve more.
From websites and SEO to strategic marketing, lead generation, branding & design and creative content, we’ve assembled an in-house team of creative and digital experts who love what they do and are passionate about solving our clients’ marketing challenges.
Give us a call for a free consultation to see how we can help your business grow.