Insights On Digital Marketing And Its Challenges
In a constantly evolving digital world, the way we live our personal and professional lives is being permeated and transformed. This is evident in the way we relate to businesses and how we purchase products and services. Therefore, success for business owners can be measured in what they do in terms of their company’s digital marketing strategy and the way they integrate its different forms to their formula: Social media, SEO, content marketing, etc.
Digital Marketing Basics
Digital and social media give business owners the opportunity to promote products or brands via electronic media. By using digital marketing strategies and methods a business owner is able to check if the implemented strategy is working or not. Its most acknowledged advantages are measurable results, viral power, cost effectiveness and flexible budget.
Digital media has no physical boundaries and consumers can access information wherever they are, whenever they want to, and operating any electronic device they wish to use. Moreover, people are no longer deciding where to buy, based exclusively on whatever a brand says about itself. Thanks to their “digital peer support”, consumers are most likely to be influenced by what others say about a particular brand.
Understanding how necessary it is to develop a digital marketing plan is a good place to start. You will be surprised to find that there are organizations using digital marketing but with no defined strategies. In order to do digital marketing effectively, a prioritized plan of activities must be integrated to the marketing activity.
Some challenges to overcome
In an attempt to build a strong digital presence, small businesses might encounter some challenges. Understanding and facing them can lead to the way of success. We will mention 3 of them.
Keeping up with multiple channels: your business might be present in multiple social media channels. This represents different access protocols, interfaces, specifications and procedures. This situation makes it hard to manage digital marketing efforts. How can a company handle so many platforms?
Suggestion: Jack of all trades… Instead of having little presence and few updates on too many channels, it is better to maintain optimal presence and content on one or two primary channels. If clientele interaction and sales increase and if your company considers feasible hiring a person or using the services of a digital marketing firm to be in charge of the media management would be a great accomplishment.
Targeting content and anticipating people’s needs: People prefer dealing with brands that they can trust, that are personalized and that can anticipate their needs and preferences. How can businesses deal with their customers effectively?
Suggestion: knowing and understanding potential clients and their needs is essential. Your company does not only need to know them well, but better than any competitor. Dynamic interactions with clients are important especially when they are most receptive to receive the message. Using Big Data is a great tool to gain better insights on consumers’ preferences and expectations and offer the best customer experience. Big data can be found in six categories: Web Mining, Search information, Social Media, Crowd Sourcing, Transactional and Mobile. With this information your business can market to consumers ready to purchase your product, and thus, anticipate their needs.
Demanding vs. meaningful consumer interaction: Nowadays, people are having great expectations from companies if not great demands. They want to have great user experiences, quick responses and constant interaction. Keeping up with people’s expectations can become difficult.
Suggestion: Building meaningful relationships with consumers will result in loyalty and brand value. Solving their problems on a timely manner, apologizing when a product is bad and sharing with the users what they want to see is necessary. You can also involve your audience in discussions that take place in your social media pages. All of these interactions can make a difference between customer conversion, or losing a client to the competitor’s offer. There is a great need to enhance the brand awareness and the positive impact of the brand’s identity that would lead to a long lasting meaningful customer relationship. Do not overwhelm them with spam or excessive advertising on their personal profiles. Excess can be counterproductive for the initial purpose, engaging potential clients.
There are other challenges that your company might be facing. Analyzing your marketing strategy and its performance will help you understand where your greatest opportunities and your weaknesses are. This realization will allow your business to focus on correcting and readjusting the areas that are struggling, making your marketing more efficient.
Digital marketing keeps growing each year and dominating the portion of the market that was before exclusive for traditional marketing. It is opening great doors of opportunity in the market that would not exist without internet. Tackle the challenges your company faces and turn your marketing strategy into a revenue generator.
