The Relevance of Digital Marketing
- Digital Marketing refers to the marketing efforts that a business performs through the internet or online. As of January 2021, there were 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, this accounts for 59.5% of the global population.
- Nowadays the internet is a tool that can be used as a source of information, social networking, and most importantly to boost your business performance. Some of the benefits of having an online business presence are to boost your brand awareness, customer loyalty and consequently increase sales.
Why is Digital Marketing ideal for small businesses?
- Marketing is often associated with being of high cost and something that only big corporations can afford, but the internet has revolutionized our world and has given businesses the opportunity to perform cost-friendly marketing through the different social media platforms and e-commerce.
- As a small business owner, you may be wondering how you can engage with your customers through digital marketing? Is it a difficult process? How much would it cost? Is it effective? Is it time-consuming?
- These are perhaps some of the questions you may have in mind when starting your digital journey, and we will go through the main steps together to get you started and start building your online presence.
- A great way to start with Digital Marketing would be through social media because of the relevance and potential audience, you could also consider creating a website for e-commerce depending on your business industry and the demands of your market.
Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses
First Step: Research
- Research is the basis to start your online presence, you can start by researching your country and then narrow down the search to your specific city or area.
- Research your competitors to learn about what type of content is the most relevant, and to gain better insights about your industry overall.
- Research relevant hashtags and social media influencers for future collaborations.
- Identify relevant industry trends to create engaging and innovative content.
Second Step: Define your Target Audience
- Start by analyzing your customer base in order to define the most prevalent demographics or characteristics that the majority have in common.
- It is important that you define your target audience before creating your social media platforms because the content you create will be directed towards this group of people primarily.
Third Step: Create your Social Media platforms
- Based on your target audience and the research you have done, you will be able to determine which social media platforms are the ones that would be adequate for your business.
- Try to keep it simple for your target market if you are creating multiple social media platforms by using the same username for all of them.
- It is recommended that you include your business overview or bio to communicate with future followers about what your business stands for.
Fourth Step: Start building your audience
- After you have created your social media platforms then you can start building brand awareness by developing incentives to gain followers. Incentives can be giveaways or innovative content.
- Another alternative can be to invest by paying ads to promote your page/posts, by paying for this online advertisement you could reach a larger audience
Overall, go ahead and get started, the opportunities that the digital world has to offer for your business development are endless, you just have to get your business out in the digital world and work towards your goals.
About the Author
Gladys Diaz is a Digital Marketing Analyst at the International Institute of Digital Marketing.