THE IMPORTANCE DIGITAL MARKETING HOLDS FOR BUSINESSES

When a small business initially opens its doors, it's common for the focus to be on how to attract the first clients through the door. Traditional means of advertising, such as print ads, coupon mailers, and even outdoor advertising, may be used. Businesses may feel that because they provide an excellent product or service, customers would find their way to them eventually.

While this method may bring in a small amount of revenue, there is a better and more convenient way. Small businesses should think about the global marketplace of prospects online and how they may benefit from combining their traditional and digital marketing efforts. Digital channels should not be overlooked by any small business, regardless of how young it is, as a means of generating leads and converting curiosity into customers.

Let's take a look at the advantages of digital marketing and how you can use online platforms to help your company expand.

You'll be able to attract a lot broader range of potential clients online than you would be able to reach merely locally. You may reach a global audience with digital marketing tactics that are cost-effective, scalable, and quantifiable.

Enlisted below are some of the most important advantages of digital marketing:

• The chance to communicate with prospects and understand exactly what they want, i.e. getting to know your consumers better!

• Because there are no geographical restrictions with digital, you can reach out to anybody and anywhere.

• Personalization is easier with digital marketing since you can target the correct audience at the right moment.

• At each stage of the buying process, communicate with your prospects.

• Save money and reach out to more people for less.

• To build brand loyalty, get to know your audience and promote engagement. Take a cue from the efficacy of consumer loyalty programs.

• Easily and rapidly track and measure responses to your marketing initiatives.

With reference to digital marketing, let us take a look at how some large brands have achieved noteworthy results.

1. Airbnb

Social influencer marketing

Having built a huge community of renters and hosters – approximately 150 million active users – Airbnb is now one of the highest-flying names in the travel industry. The key to Airbnb’s success has been through building trust, which has primarily been achieved through social influencer marketing.

With 700 million active monthly users on Instagram, this social media platform is ideal for influencer marketing given the number of celebrities that use the platform themselves.

Airbnb has partnered with many famous names in order to generate a buzz and brand awareness. In 2015, Mariah Carey shared an Instagram post of herself in an Airbnb property that gained over 45,000 likes, which was the travel brand’s first of many influencer posts.

2. Netflix

Personalization marketing

There’s no chill when it comes to Netflix’s marketing strategy – this brand is always on the ball when it comes to the latest shows, trends, and memes. Netflix, with its ever-growing audience of 140 million worldwide subscribers, is the leader in customer retention.

How does Netflix keep customers interested? It gets personal.

Personalization marketing is an effective way of cutting through the noise. A 2019 study by Instapage found that personalized emails deliver six times higher transaction rates than generic messages. Not only does Netflix personalize to perfection, but it also makes it a point to not pressure its customers too much.

By this, we mean Netflix doesn’t bombard subscribers with suggestions. It knows that online consumers are more likely to respond to one, relatable email rather than a bucket-load of non-specific content. As a digital marketer, you should always stagger your emails to get staggering results.

3. Nike

Chatbots

Do the sportswear giants just do it when it comes to marketing? Definitely not – Nike takes great care and thought over its digital campaigns. It’s produced some brilliant adverts over the years, but one of our recent favorites involved an AI (artificial intelligence) bot.

In 2018, Nike partnered with Facebook Messenger’s chatbot platform, Snaps, in order to promote its Jordan brand. The bot’s purpose was to deliver content from the latest Jordan blog, newsletter, and website, to Nike’s Facebook followers via Messenger.

4. Innocent

Digital content marketing

Digital content marketing isn’t always smooth sailing, but Innocent has seen some fruitful results from its clever digital marketing strategies. Acquired by Coca-Cola in 2013, the smoothie brand has become well known for its highly interactive, quirky, and current content.

Innocent uses interactive media including quizzes, questions, and competitions to build awareness and foster customer engagement.

Innocent consistently creates clever content on social media.

5. ASOS

UGC (user-generated content)

Founded in 2000, ASOS has since become one of the trendiest names in online retail, shifting over 300,000 dresses and 85,000 men’s shirts every week, to 18.4 million active customers from around the world.

How has this British brand become such a pioneer for online fashion? It comes down to its digital marketing strategy – compared to its competitors, ASOS is cut from a different cloth when it comes to attracting visitors, sales, and brand awareness.

ASOS has been so successful because it knows its audience: millennials. And ASOS knows that 90.4% of millennials use social media and that the average person spends over two hours per day browsing social channels.

6. American Express (AMEX)

Plenty of companies talk a big game about “the communities” they’re creating online and the inherent value of the “online conversation.” However, very few actually create any community of value. Far from being all talk and no game, American Express puts its money where its mouth is by leveraging the value provided by industry experts on its Open Forum website.

Open Forum is a collaborative website, on which American Express invites guest authors from a variety of sectors to share their business knowledge and wisdom. The result is a content-rich mega-site that’s popular with the search engines, all created without American Express needing to shell out cash to content contributors.

Note: When it comes to building a digital marketing plan, it's critical that your company stays on top of the current trends, which should put you ahead of your competition.

- Manisha Mishra & Saumya Shruti