importance of digital marketing for small businesses and startups

To ensure your startup’s success, you need to be where your audience is, that is, the digital web. Most users are going online for their daily necessities as advancements in tech, and accessibility of the internet makes life more convenient.When someone needs to purchase a product or invest in a company, they’re likely to look up the business website and your social media presence before making a decision. Additionally, they will read client reviews and ratings to determine whether you are worthy of their time and money. On the other hand, if you’re not online, your audience is unlikely to consider you a legitimate business and may opt for your competitors instead.

1. Your Competitors are Online

With e-commerce growing increasingly competitive, startups and small-scale businesses need to learn from their competition. They are not only people you need to beat but also someone who can teach you marketing do’s and don’ts.
Digital marketing will level the playing field between you and your competitors, allowing you to learn from them. Observing their marketing tactics will give you an idea of what’s working and what isn’t, which can help you plan your strategy.
Ask yourself:

What type of content do they provide on their website?
Are they utilizing blogging? On-site and guest posts?
Are they using all types of media formats, including videos and graphics?
What is their unique selling point?
How do they communicate and engage with their audience?
What can you do better?

Online presence is the first step in digital marketing. If you don’t have a web address or your consumers can’t you find on the web, then not only are your competitors ahead, but you were not even in the race.

2. You Get to Know Your Target Market

One of the most significant perks of digital marketing is that you get to know your audience and build a connection. With constant engagement and interaction with your visitors, you can get a better understanding of what they need. Social media or blogging are two ways you can start a conversation with your target market.
It will help you understand your buyer personas and where they are in their buyer’s journey. Instead of guesswork, digital marketing provides you quantifiable evidence of who your audience is, their pain, and the solutions you can offer.
Furthermore, it helps you be more than just another business in the market, offering the same products with a different logo. You get to build a relationship with your audience and be a partner in their buyer’s journey.
In turn, it will boost your customer acquisition and retention as consumers are more likely to purchase from a company they trust.

3. Access to Advanced Analytics

Unlike traditional marketing practices, digital marketing provides various tools and platforms you can use to understand how your campaigns are performing. TV commercials and billboards advertise to a massive audience, but there is no definite source to know how effective they are in boosting your sales.
Contrarily, digital marketing lets you see the following:

With a TV advert, there is no guarantee your audience saw it; they could be elsewhere with the TV running. Advanced analytics can show if they did or not.
Whether they interacted with it
Shared it with their friends
If it led to a sale or not

Additionally, analytics tools also help you learn who’s interested in your business, what they do online, how they found you, and more. You can even understand what encourages visitors to take the next step.
Knowing which campaigns are bringing results will help you focus your time and money on them, instead of blindly marketing to a global audience. You can also learn where your efforts are lacking and optimize your strategy to reach your ROI.