When small companies commence their startup, their strategies are mainly focused on drawing the interest of customers towards their brand. They often depend on conventional ways of promoting their products (in the form of prints, coupons, billboards, etc.,) in a hope that their specific brand will reach out to the target audience. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with such traditional advertising approaches, but are these effective in recent times when technology is on the rise? Of course, not! After all, who would spend time reading magazine, mailers, and prints when they are getting exciting offers through online platforms? I personally cannot rely on brands which I don’t find on Google.
Regardless of the size and scale of your firm, you should always aim at introducing your brand to the audience via online media. Be it social media sites or your company website, the brands that are sold using digital marketing techniques have a relatively broader scope than the businesses that rely on the typical product advertisement method. This isn’t an era where customers will come to you and ask about the pros and cons of your product. Rather, they want the brand to reach out to them and present their best possible offer so they get a wide range of options to choose from.
Just because your customers exist doesn’t mean you can attract them by waiting for them to approach you and hit your store. Perhaps, you might get some customers but you’re missing out millions of folks by not presenting your brand online. Prior to jumping to the significance of digital marketing for SMEs and MSMEs, let’s have a look at what exactly digital marketing stands for?
What is Digital Marketing?
There are over 3 billion internet users in today’s era and with such a massive number of folks joining internet, creating your own website and promoting your brand through digital modes plays a vital role in helping your company achieve its target sales. Digital Marketing refers to advertising and trading your brand through online media. While a majority of the SMEs have already embraced digital marketing, there exist many organizations especially the MSMEs that still think these modern approaches aren’t sufficient to attract visitors. Is this opinion accurate? No, I don’t think you can reach out to a vast audience through conventional ways, and especially when the competition is fierce. Unless you don’t mind losing out your customers to your competitors, embrace digital marketing concept right away. I bet you’ll be amazed to see how quickly your customer, sales, and revenue increases.
Is Digital Marketing Helpful for Small and Medium Enterprises?
What will the website cost? How am I going to promote my brand digitally? Will it drive customers to buy my products? How will I assure them that my brand stands out from the crowd?
Well, these are just a few questions that I could think of right now. There might be a plethora of questions going on in your mind if you are an SMEs or MSMEs with a tight budget. But worry not! Without taking your time, I will quickly show you how digital marketing can enhance the outlook of your firm within a short period. Here we go:
Digital Marketing Targets Your Specific Audience
Let’s imagine you have just commenced your store that specially sells women clothes and accessories (middle-aged woman). You have designed a poster that promotes your company. The chances of a woman seeing such posters or any other traditional advertisements are just 50% because the other 50% of people who would be reading such posters are men. And, out of this 50% of women, there will be a few middle-aged ladies who’ll actually find your poster relevant to their requirements.
On the contrary, advertising your brand through digital media, specially social media, ensures that your brand reaches your target audience only (the ones who can actually benefit from your products). Using digital marketing tools, particularly on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn you can choose your target audience by selecting the gender, geographical location, age, and other factors.
Digital Marketing Brings in Organic Traffic
Unlike the traditional pen and paper approach where you have to wait for weeks and months to get your advertisement approved, the digital marketing approach is speedy and can bring your product in the online market in a split second. Yes, you read it right! With just a click of a few buttons, you can introduce your brands to your target audience and seek quick responses. Besides, you can also generate organic traffic without having to pay an arm and a leg. Wondering how? Well, creating your website is a budget-friendly task. In fact, some platform offers free website creating tools to create your website for free. It is super easy as all that you got to do is buy a domain name, purchase a hosting plan, create your website, advertise your brand with eye-catching content, and that’s it.
You can also make it SEO friendly by inserting the relevant keyword that your customers would probably type in the search bar. If you manage to get your website on the top of the search engine list, well done! And get ready to see a massive increase in your brand sales.
Fret not! Digital Marketing is Cost-Effective
We can understand how much pressure you might be going through. Financing your company, stocking up your outlet, making strategies and goals, promoting your brand, attracting customers, etc., can turn out to be very stressful. The main reason why a majority of the small and medium-sized enterprises prefer traditional marketing to digital marketing is there a misconception about the latter. They often think that digital marketing could break the bank, but actually, it is the traditional approaches which might compel you to seek frequent loans in order to advertise your brand.
Online platforms wouldn’t charge you thousands of dollars, not even a hundred bucks. In fact, you can boost your sales using some interesting online earning approaches such as PPC (pay per click advertisement), sponsored posts, promoting other companies through your websites, and more.
Having read this post, we assume that you have decided to embrace digital marketing approach to expand your SMEs, haven’t you? What are you waiting for? Don’t let your rival take over the competition. Bring your brand in the online realm now and expect to see a drastic change in your sales and profit. Good Luck!