Each of the world’s most famous companies like— Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc. had a humble beginning as a startup. A...
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Each of the world’s most famous companies like— Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc. had a humble beginning as a startup. A few decades back, it was hard to establish a successful business without a huge fund to open a factory or get the required vessels and tools.
However, at present, groundbreaking startup ideas can be born in a garage, basement, or dorm. Consequently, new startups are born every day all over the world. Each of them hopes to get acquired by a famous company or make it to the business world on their own.
However, for each successful startup, you will find thousands of businesses that fall into oblivion. Over 50% of small businesses fail in its first four years. That is why a startup, from the very beginning, tries to get the word out and survive in the long run.
They face an especially difficult challenge of competing against already recognized businesses in the market. That's where digital marketing comes to the rescue.
These days, almost everything takes place online. Today's tech-savvy consumers prefer online shopping or doing everything online. This percentage goes over 88%. The Internet has become a hub for almost any type of consumer. Companies are always present where their customers are. And to catch their attention, digital marketing has become the most preferred method.
Having a website design isn't enough. Being a startup, you need to count on digital marketing to get the word out.
Digital marketing will enable startups and small enterprises an opportunity to compete with biggies. It helps your startup to draw its share of targeted traffic from various channels. Small businesses now have tools and resources to boost marketing processes as well as sales that were only accessible to large enterprises.
As compared to traditional marketing, online or digital marketing is more versatile. In the conventional way of advertising— television commercials, newspaper classifieds, etc. cost big bucks. Startups count every penny and also they have little or limited resources.
Digital marketing, on the other hand, is cost-effective and delivers results. That's why even college goers run a startup. That's all because of the cheap cost online marketing brings. It also helps entrepreneurs expand the scope of their advertising efforts across age-groups and other demographics.
The success of online marketing campaigns is measured by the percentage rate of traffic that converts into sales. Business owners get a chance to streamline and optimize their campaigns towards conversion.
Tools and techniques like search engine optimization; social media marketing and email marketing create quick and effective interactions with the target audience and deliver better results. Ultimately, it leads to higher conversion rates.
Did you know, businesses counting on digital marketing campaigns have 2.8 times better revenue that those who don’t? Higher conversion rates that online marketing techniques generate have many benefits for a startup. Higher revenue generation is one of them. Small companies implementing online marketing will have better chances of revenue generation and better return on investment.
In traditional marketing, there is no way by which you can calculate the overall ROI. You need to get information from every source manually, invest your time to analyze and then find out the results. However, there is no guarantee that the results that you get are correct.
However, in online marketing, you have a suite of tools to measure the performance of your ads in real-time. There are several metrics to track the ROI and conversion rate is one of them. This metric lets you know how well is your conversion goal.
It also tells you what you are lacking or what you are doing well. You can even distribute your resources to improve ROI and better results. Besides, there are a couple of other metrics too that you need to take care of.
One is to know the channel from where the traffic is coming. And, you need to know which channel is converting the best. Based on the findings, you can invest in channels that convert better than others.
You can have the most appealing website design with quality products, easy navigation and unmatched customer service with a big marketing budget. But none of these comes handy if you aren’t reaching as well as interacting with the right audience.
To attract the right audience, boost traffic and sales, you as a business first have to define the qualified audience for. You need to decide who they are, how they make use of each channel during their purchase journey and what value they can bring to your business. You need to scrutinize their interest, validation and buying decision.
Marketers, like you, have a tremendous amount of data mining which with the manual process is nearly impossible. Search Console and Google Analytics can let you know how customers find your online business and what they do when they visit your website. Facebook Insights along with Ad Manager can help you decipher the location, age, relationship status, behavior, and interests. Whereas, tools for social listening can let you know what your target audience thinks about your business or products.
Based on these you can devise strategies to reach them. Even, you can create content and set the tone of your marketing efforts in such a way that would appeal to them.
Analyzing each of the above metrics helps you understand what your target audience wants.
According to a study, a US adult spends about 3 hours 35 minutes every day on the mobile phone. 91% of adults in the US always have their smartphone within their reach. In traditional marketing, you can market your brand in just a specified location. But with digital marketing and targeting mobile consumers, the reach of your marketing campaign will expand.
Unlike a few decades ago, customers are using their smartphones at each stage of the purchase decision.
For every startup, getting exposure is crucial in today's competitive business sphere. There is a valid reason for that. And it's— no matter how better a business idea you have or how well your products are. If nobody knows about you, it's of no use.
Online marketing helps you get exposure in the virtual world and increase brand awareness. Posting on social media, running PPC or crafting an email with your company's logo helps you attract eyeballs. This way your target audience will know your brand and will show interest to engage with you.
The best example is to create a social profile with your business name. The sooner you work on this idea, the better. Spread the word as much as you can. The day won’t be far when people would find you and start buying your products.
Digital marketing isn’t just about getting your products to reach the audience. It’s about building relationships with the target audience too. As we said earlier, digital marketing is crowded as well as the competitive sphere. It means you need to nurture your relationship with your consumers t retain them and address their grievances. You can also inform them about new events, offers or product launch via social media. Digital marketing helps you do the same.
Digital marketing makes the most out of social listening and testimonials. It tracks everything an actual customer says, who have purchased or joined or availed your service. About 90% of people say they would trust information if it comes from someone whom they know.
With digital marketing tracking every social proof it's evident that whatever a customer buys or says is visible in his or her network. Gradually, it catches other people's attention, and they start trusting your brand.
Digital marketing involves call-to-action. It means if your ad or even a post is there on the web and it has an engaging content, customers would not mind clicking it and visiting your store. Call-to-action entices your prospects about what they should do next.
Forms, buttons, and texts are optimized in such a way that it prompts customers to take favorable actions.
As you can see, there are many reasons why startups should count on digital marketing. If you haven’t adopted this strategy, it’s the right time to do so. Get your brand’s logo or other promotional products created at Designhill or any other platform, and be ready to make a mark in the digital domain.
Anne Carton is a small business consultant, designer and an enthusiast blogger working with Designhill, one of the fastest-growing custom design marketplaces. She has authored several blogs, articles, and editorials on various topics related to interactive content, concerning the design, social media strategies, growth hack strategies, digital marketing, and e-commerce.
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Hi Anne,
Nice article! We are in the promotional advertising industry and couldn’t help but notice you mentioned “promotional products” in your article. Would you consider linking out to us in your article? This would really help us out. And of course please let us know if there is anything we can do for you.