Survive or Perish – Digital Marketing, a must for SMEs during uncertainties!
Uncertainties is the order of the day! We don’t know when the markets will open, how will we be able to meet our customer, discuss with them, even if the markets open today will it close again tomorrow. There is no clear-cut answer with anyone about these with anyone today.
When such situation arises, people changes their communication behaviour, marketing then has to follow suit and change its communication channels. Today all communication, business, education, commerce, personal, everything happens through the digital mode. Exploring digital mode of communication is the only option today for success of your business.
Today, thoughts and ideas move around the world instantly in the form of tweets and viral videos. We find ourselves amid a content revolution— where the internet has woven itself completely into our lives. There are already quite a few communication channels that enable a person to share content and I will not be surprised if many new ones find success soon in this content-hungry world. With most of a person’s activity moving online – Work, communication, shopping, banking, news and education are all increasingly becoming possible only over an internet. The Internet has also changed the way people do business. It has now become the primary medium of business transactions and not transacting over it is sure to lead a business to doom.
The advent of eCommerce resulted in the creation of many giants, like Amazon and Alibaba. The traditional SME businesses are fast losing business share to eCommerce giants as global internet penetration is increasing. These giants are slowly taking over many small business domains in education, grocery, health and many other areas of business. To make matters worse the global economy is currently in a downturn. For small business and SMEs to survive in such a scenario, how can a small or medium company get a share of the online market? Fortunately, the internet has features which enable small businesses to compete effectively with established giants, especially features like net neutrality.
Due to lack of awareness, many small businesses still rely on traditional forms of advertising, such as leaflets, print ads, mailers or even signboards on the side of the road. For the SME’s Offering a good product or service is no longer enough. In today’s market, companies don’t just shut down because their product is bad, but because they could not market and sell it. This holds not just for large enterprises, but also small business and SMEs. With the explosive rise of eCommerce which happened due to increasing internet penetration, marketing via digital channels would be the only cost-effective and safe bet for the SME segment. By 2021, It is estimated that there would be 700 million internet users globally, most of them primarily on mobile devices. The digital marketing is by nature inclusive in nature and very efficient, no small business, no matter how new, should overlook this vast online marketplace of prospects online.
Key Points SME’s should factor in about Digital Marketing are:
- Benefits of Online Marketing
Using Digital marketing, you can prospect potential customers from the 700 million internet users, from anywhere in the world, precisely and in a way cost-effective and measurable way. Using web analytics and online surveys, you can now interact with the prospects and learn exactly what they are looking for. Using relevant keywords companies, you can now target specifically those customers who are searching for a solution that they provide, this could not have been possible with traditional marketing. By reaching out to customers through social media and other platforms, you can create brand loyalty. The web analytics provides valuable feedbacks which can be used to fine-tune marketing campaigns and track marketing efforts.
- Consequences of a delayed decision
In this scenario, why would you postpone investing in digital marketing? It is a grave misconception among small businesses that they need a large amount of money to compete online and venturing online would mean facing an enormous number of challenges. Most of them are still in the learning stages about the ins and outs of digital business in general. This is not an effective approach and there is never a guarantee that the existing business will attract customers just by existing and even if do you may not attract new customers your business will remain profitable.
- You potential customers are already online.
At this moment there is a good chance that customers are already looking for a unique solution that your business can provide. However, if they fail to find you online, they will choose some other solution provider. In the days of Google, if a person is interested in a product or services your business provides, the first thing they are going to do is research online. Your prospective customers expect to find your website and other digital assets when they search online. Further to this, they will be looking for reviews about your business and also a significant social media presence to gauge the authenticity of your business.
If the prospective customers do not find you online, they will not take your business seriously and may conclude that your business doesn’t appear legitimate. Once they get this impression they probably may never come back.
- Is your competition online?
Successful businesses pay attention to what their competitors are doing and learn from it. One can find out what is working for them and what is not working. It is most likely that you searched and is reading this article because your competitor has an established web presence. Do some online research on them. Find out what kind of content are they using to drive their business performance? Are they using blogs? Social media? Infographics? Videos?
Find how they communicate their USP (unique selling point) to prospective customers online? How well do they engage their audience on social media? Your product or service is already out of the competition if you are not in the digital world. If your prospective customers search for your product online, and they find your competitor’s business first, your competitor has raced ahead of you regardless of where they have an effective website or a clear message.
- How to build an online presence for your business?
Billions of people search online for solutions, whatever product or service they are looking for, they will most likely start their search with Google. If you do not have a website that is Search Engine Optimized website, you will not be able to communicate your USP with prospective customers. The website need not only be modern looking, but it should also be user-friendly and fast at the same time. There are lots of techniques involved in making a website show up higher in Google searches. When a prospect finds your website on top of a Search engine result page for specific keywords, your business can move ahead of your competitors.
Search engine optimization is effective however, it takes time to show up on SERPs and the keywords are very competitive. Search Engine Marketing, which is mainly Google’s PPC (Pay per click) will give quick results. A most useful component of increasing SERP rankings is creating content for your product in the form of blogs and other media. The Blogs are other media are preferred by search engines and they contribute a lot to rankings.
Besides search engine, social media is another online platform to grow your business online and search for potential customers. Most popular social media platforms provide a means to promote your business in the form of paid ads. Creating content related to your business for social is a very cost-effective means to promote your business. When your product or service provides an effective solution, you can get feedback in the form of ratings and reviews. These review and rating are very effective in building trust in your business.
Conclusion
Digital marketing is more cost-effective form of marketing compared to traditional advertising, this makes it suitable for Small businesses. Digital Marketing will help make your business perform much better.
Categorised in: blog, featured-blog
