Blog

Giovanni DiGregorio

Why Digital marketing is important

Digital marketing is a term used for marketing products and services through the use of technologies such as the Internet, mobile phones, display advertising and much more. In the industry of marketing you must be fast, and the digital evolution has changed the way brands and businesses utilize technology and digital marketing for their marketing. I work in a small family business and see first-hand how the digital age has revolutionized the reach of small businesses. Conversely, the digital age is more demanding for established corporations. The rise and prevalence of digital marketing and social media has changed everything about the way companies market themselves.

The digital age has changed marketing actions, concepts, and channels, forever. Three of the main ways the digital age has changed marketing is that customer service is always on, “traditional” advertising is dead, and Ads can no longer be Ads.

“Customer Service is always on”

In years past, a somewhat friendly store assistant or call line would be sufficient enough for customer service satisfaction. However, the digital age has obviously changed this and highlighted the importance of constant consumer engagement and swiftly addressing problems. Companies that emphasize customer service through the use of digital media create a bond between the company and its consumers, inevitably increasing customer loyalty, trust and overall company growth. To emphasize customer service through the use of digital media companies and make contacting and communicating with your company easy, answer frequently asked questions in timely matters, send emails that matter, and much more. Utilizing social media, your company’s website, and other digital marketing efforts, you are able to provide the customer service today’s consumers expect.

“Traditional” advertising is dead

Tradition advertising is dead, and this simply cannot be stressed enough. Quite frankly, this provides immense benefits for small businesses. Due to the way communication has changed, more marketing channels have been created than ever before, and the shift in consumer behavior, the digital age has created more of a level playing field. Small businesses can now compete with corporations to get their message to their target audience, because it is cheaper than traditional advertising and easier than ever to connect with your target market.

“Traditional” advertising such as television, newspapers/magazines, radio have become secondary to today’s digital marketing channels. With the rise in free social media sites and apps, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., it is cheaper than ever for company messages to reach consumers. Furthermore, the digital age has created advertising that is no longer traditional in the sense that you buy an advertising spot in a magazine or on television, typically at a price too high for small businesses, place your logo and a product there and that’s your advertising. In today’s climate, successful ad campaigns revolve around customer engagement and interaction. Getting consumers to spread the company message for you is the sign of successful digital marketing campaigns.

Ads can no longer be “Ads”

As stated above, “traditional advertising is dead”, one more time for good measure. Since traditional advertising is dead, that must mean traditional ads must be dead as well. This is why ads can no longer be ads. Advertisements have changed from simply pushing out a logo or a product to more content management and creating a conversation to pull in consumers. Engaging consumers and pulling them into the conversation to spread the company message for you is the sign of successful digital marketing campaigns. Conventional advertisements are no longer viable or sustainable. To grab today’s short attention span consumers you have to get creative. High impact ad formats, social media presence, and creative content management are designed to instantly capture consumer interests and imagination, and drive deep consumer engagement across platforms, devices and screen. The overall goal is to create a digital experience consumers won’t want to miss or share with others.

Companies, big or small starting up or established, that lag with their presence of digital marketing are becoming invisible. This is what has led to an even playing field for companies or all shapes and sizes because a high marketing budget is no longer the key to success. You can be a small company of say 10 employees, but by harnessing the power of social media, email marketing, and other digital media outlets, allow you to compete in a marketplace with say a large corporation.  As stated before I work in a small family business and see first-hand how digital marketing has revolutionized the reach of small businesses. Regardless of size effective digital marketing will improve your exposure to new customers and ensure that your company/brand/product remains relevant. Some of the most prevalent benefits from digital marketing for small business include:

• Lower costs to get your company messages out, delivering high ROI from your campaigns and generating higher revenues.
• It connects you with consumers in a more targeted way compared to traditional methods.
• Leads to higher conversion rates
• Enables real-time customer service and engagement
• Connects you company to mobile consumers
• Helps to compete with large corporations
• Allows you to easily connect with your target market’s influencers

Digital marketing connects you to customers through a wide range of devices using tools such as digital display advertising, pay per click advertising (PPC), social media marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), blogs, and much more. As it exists today digital marketing has made marketers focus efforts on building long-term brand commitment. The following are some techniques discussed in Professor Drake’s marketing class.

Search Engine Optimization ensures visibility of your company’s website on search results on engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. It is not enough to simply make and publish a website, you have to drive it into eyes of the consumers, and the best way to do that is through SEO. Blogging, backlinks, original content creation, are techniques that will allow your company’s website to appear among their top search results.

Original Content Marketing is the most emphasized aspect of our marketing where I work. Constantly creating attractive, relevant, valuable and original content allows us to stand out from our competitors. Working in the retail food industry, highlighting new products or new usage of a product through blogs and recipes are some of the ways we approach content marketing. We leverage our presence with content marketing through forums like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to

The entire world is now connected by a simple touch of the button or click of mouse. Google, Facebook, Amazon and many more companies at the forefront of this digital age have changed the way consumers behave, interact, and overall feel about companies. Not conversely, the digital evolution has changed the way brands and businesses utilize technology and market themselves to their consumers. The digital age has revolutionized the reach of small businesses.