From the world of print media to the world of digitization everything has changed a lot. Businesses are making more money and worth than they used to do earlier with the same sort of services/products, People and places are getting famous in the blink of an eye.
Career options have increased, Shopping has become easier now, and many more. We can say the overall structure of the market has changed, our perspectives have changed and methods have also changed. It has now become easier for us to reach our customers sitting in any part of the world within no time.
We will talk here about one of the most recent or say the hottest changes/developments we have seen these days and that is Digital marketing.
Let us first understand what actually is digital marketing and how the Importance of Digital Marketing for Startups:
Digital Marketing comprises of two words Digital means using electronic systems (eg: computer, internet), and Marketing means an act of showcasing and advertising a company’s products/services or even advertising about anything and everything in the best possible way.
When we combine these two words we can say advertising using the internet. There was a time when the only forms of advertisements available were hoardings, T.V, Newspaper and these were very time taking, expensive(not everybody could afford to advertise) also the outputs were not as expected.
But today with advancements in technology and media it has become much easier and cost-effective, with the help of social media(Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Pinterest, etc) almost every business person can afford to advertise and become a brand.
It will not be wrong if we say that today it is not even important to have a physical presence of your business to succeed. You can just start your business by promoting yourself on social media, youtube channels, and blogs. You can even sell your products/services directly to the customer through these portals.
Isn’t this magic?
Today there are thousands of businesses getting benefited using these platforms.
Let us now understand the problems faced by startups while trying to set up their business:
Lack of awareness:
When starting a business people mainly are in a dellima of mind be it about their target audience, their marketing strategies, their area of action, and all. Businesses are even heard saying that they are confused about where, how, and when to spend their time, money, and efforts. Hence it is very important for a businessman to have full clarity on his/her thoughts about their business’s future.
Competition:
It is well said that without a competitor you will never understand your worth but this actually becomes a problem for startups to stand undefeated amongst various other experienced fishes in the sea. A single mistake can lead them in a totally wrong direction bringing them huge losses, So it becomes essential to study one’s competitor use the correct marketing strategy, and come out like a winner.
Marketing:
Marketing is very important for a business to grow be it offline/online. Startups often are not sure about the kind of marketing they need and hence lose their money, They struggle with the growth of their business due to lack of marketing or due to poor marketing.
Poor marketing leads you nowhere but losses hence It is very important for anything/anyone to have a vision in mind, analyze the need, identify the audience and then go for the right marketing strategy to boom your business. If you have a vision you will work in the favor of it reaching miles and will grow like a fire.
Budget:
One of the most frequent challenges startups face is budget. They do not start with a high budget in mind and hence most of the time they stop before they start because of financial reasons. Which these days is not much of a barrier seeing so many free portals as well available for promotions.
It is just about what you choose and how you choose to go forward. Startups do take time and grow at a slower pace but if the right strategy is used they can grow in no time and with a lot fewer expenses.
As now we have understood the problems let’s jump on the solution to these problems :
Digital marketing as a one stop solution :
For all your worries, anxiety, and problems of one’s business, branding, reach, growth there is one solution and that is digital marketing. Digital marketing is the answer for all your business queries from setting up a store(having your own website, Instagram, Facebook shop)to selling it online everything is available without taking much of you.
Let’s talk about how-
Branding:
Branding means being identified uniquely, branding means defining one’s character and is very important for a company to grow in its initial days, Hence as we talked about above digital marketing is the one-stop solution it improves your brand value in no time if proper marketing strategies are used. Branding includes your logo designing, website making, Creating taglines, etc.
Digital marketing is basically creating your brand by communicating the soul idea of your business. It increases your brand visibility in the nick of time. Digital marketing has various types of its own like Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization(SEO), Pay-per-Click(PPC), Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, etc.
All these techniques work towards improving your visibility, improving your ranking on google, and enhancing the name of your brand locally first then throughout the world.
Budget-friendly:
Digital marketing is budget effective it gives you extraordinary results with even very little money in the pocket. You just need the right marketing tools and strategies depending upon your business.
Understand your business, understand your goals, understand your audience, and boom, here you are with huge returns with fewer investments.
Increases you Reach:
From being able to sell to only the customers in your area to be a household name is not that difficult these days and all thanks to social media through which not only we are able to connect with people throughout the world but also we are now able to show our brand worth throughout the world.
We can now promote our business on various channels like youtube, Pinterest, social media and directly earn huge profits from the wide/relevant range of audiences we get. It is not even important to have a website you can just start by selling on Facebook(gives an option of facebook shop), Instagram, and WhatsApp and receiving payments directly from your customers into your bank account.
It is very important for startups to gain their customer’s trust and this can be done by continuously getting engaged with them on social media, replying to their messages/replies, etc.
This sort of customer engagement helps you can retain your customers as well for the future. You can even draw your customer’s attention by offering them some coupons and discounts based on their stage of buying so as in order to build compatibility making your client happy and satisfied.
Targeting the right audience:
Identifying your audience is very important when starting a business. We should be clear about the audience we need to target and through digital marketing you can bifurcate and target the customers you want on the basis of age, gender, demography, etc, personalize them. It helps us know our audience, their interests, and their behaviors and then run campaigns to draw their attention. In this way, you can directly hit the eye of the customers.
And as we all know one happy customer gets you a thousand more Increasing your visibility and improving your returns.
Mobile friendly:
Gone are the days when managing a business was burdensome. Today you can manage your business, track your customers, run advertisements, get payments using your mobile-only you don’t even need a computer or laptop you can build, promote and grow your business using your fingertips.
You can receive notifications whenever any business inquiry/order comes hence It is not necessary for you to give an entire day worrying about your business.
Visibility:
Digital marketing improves your visibility at a very grand level. It basically communicates to your audience the unique features of your brand and encourages them to know more about it. Brand visibility is one of the key prerequisites of a business to grow and digital marketing has the techniques to run campaigns using unique keywords for your brand to be differently visible.
Improved Conversions:
Trust of your customer is very important when it comes to business and Digital marketing gives you a beautiful engagement and interaction with your customers and helps you gain their trust which in turn helps you retain them for a longer period of time and as we know more the customers more will be the profit.
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Final words
Currently, digital marketing is the heart, soul, and mind of the market it can give you from nothing to everything and as startups have to deal with a huge competition it can give them a sudden yet proper boost by increasing your visibility and giving you great outcomes in the form of sales, inquiries, leads, etc.
But before going for a digital marketing strategy you need to fully analyze the market and your target audience as this will help you lead in the right direction. Marketers need to understand and dig deep to analyze the type of market by engaging the right customers. Digital marketing gives you a wide view of the market to look through and adopt suitable methods to create an impacting engagement.
Running the right campaigns, SEO, good content and the correct audience can give you a good return.
