Digital marketing is one of the most efficient and effective ways for businesses of any size to further extend their reach and significantly grow their customer base.

 

What is Digital Marketing?

 

Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services with the help of digital channels or mediums, mainly on the internet. It encompasses everything from websites to search engines; from emails to social media; and from blogs to online ad purchases.

 

Digital marketing has been around for about as long as today’s version of the internet has been around but has become increasingly popular in the 2010’s. In 2019 alone, it is expected that Canadians will spend $8.80 billion on digital advertising, or 53.5% of their total spending.(eMarketer)

 

How Can Digital Marketing Help Grow Your Business?

 

Whether you plan to focus solely on digital or use it in combination with your traditional marketing strategies, digital marketing can help your business reach new heights – here’s how!

 

It Will Make It Easier for Customers to Find You

 

Think about it, when you need a product or service, what do you do? Chances are you either A) open Google and do a search, or B) open your favourite social media network and ask connections for recommendations. More and more people are using search engines and social media to find what they need and by developing both a search engine marketing and social media strategy, your business can be the result they find.

 

Target the Right Audience at the Right Time

 

One of the best aspects of digital marketing is how precise businesses can be when it comes to choosing a target audience. While traditional marketing strategies such as: magazines, radio and billboards are about volume, digital marketing strategies are all about specificity. Ad purchases on social media networks allow businesses to specifically choose who their ads target based on demographics like age and gender and interests like “sports” or “electronics”, and that’s just the start.

You can also choose what time your ads are displayed, including what day of the week or even which hour of the day. Imagine your 9am-5pm electronics store was holding a sale on a Saturday and you wanted to get the word out. You could use social media to create an ad that targets males aged 24-44 who are electronics enthusiasts and show them the ad from 8am on Friday until 3pm on Saturday excluding the hours of 12am-8am on Saturday when they’d likely be sleeping. Now that’s targeting!

 

Easily Keep in Touch with Customers

 

What better way to stay top of mind with customers than to update them by sending a notification where they’re most likely to see it – in their inbox or on social media. According to a report by the Social Media Lab at Ryerson University, about 94% of Canadians are on at least one social media network, and according to CIRA about 92% use email.

Both email and social media are the perfect way to stay in touch with clients regarding everything from sales to events to new products or services and much more. As we all know, it’s far less expensive to keep a current customer than to attract a new one, so staying engaged with customers on a regular basis is a must.

 

Get Real Feedback on What’s Working and What’s Not

 

Free analytical tools like Google Analytics allow your business to easily and efficiently track the success of your digital marketing campaigns. Google Analytics’ robust tool provides data on which pages a customer visited on your website, where they came from (e.g. search engine, social media) and where they were located (e.g. city, province). On top of that, with some additional setup, you will also be able to track conversions on e-commerce websites and contact form submissions. This information will help you adjust your campaign on the fly to push website traffic to services or products which are selling better than others and increase your return on investment.

Whether your business is in its infancy or has been around for a while, adding digital marketing to the mix can help it grow in ways you may have never imagined.

 


 

About the author

Sebastian is a digital marketer, web developer and WordPress wizard who partners with small to large sized businesses to grow their online presence through inventive digital marketing strategies. Sebastian has over 12 years of experience working as a digital marketer in Windsor, Ontario and is a graduate of the Computer Programmer Analyst Program at St. Clair College.

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