Image Source Small businesses should leverage digital advertising at the onset of their budding ventures. In a time where the world is besieged by health and economic crisis, it is crucial to preserve resources and investments to optimize revenues.
Amid trying times, growing a small businessonline is a much needed self-preserving measure. Also, more and more businesses are moving online and utilizing touchless, cloud-basedsolutions to thrive.
Digital advertising is another self-preservation strategy that businesses can use. In the past, acquiring customers involved massive advertising campaigns that do not come cheap at all. Traditional forms of advertising were print ads, TV and radio ad placements, and billboards. Small businesses that did not have funds for these kinds of advertising were at a disadvantage from the start.
But nowadays, digital advertising has leveled that playing field for businesses both big and small.
Small businesses should recognize the massive opportunities in digital advertising. There is a vast market just waiting to be tapped by this modern-day marketing strategy.
What is Digital Advertising?
Digital advertising, also dubbed as internet marketing, is the process of businesses leveraging internet technologies to promote their products and services to consumers. Ads can have different delivery or distribution, like email, PPC campaigns on search engines, banner ads on mobile apps and websites, and the most viable of all, social media ads.
Let us see the key benefits of digital advertising for your business.
Benefits of Digital Advertising
1. Digital Advertising Saves on Costs
Billboards will break your budget if you are starting in business. That is why startups and small businesses cannot even begin to advertise on billboards until after their businesses start profiting.
In digital advertising, that does not have to be the case. Advertising campaigns can start right away, even just by using free avenues of promotion through the web. If you decide to throw in a bit more money for digital ads, the investments can be relatively minimal.
For instance, inserting a PPC advertisement for search engines is free. It will not cost you to set up an account. You only begin to pay everytime somebody clicks on your ad (Pay-per-Click).
The cost of social media ads is also very minimal. Depending on your budget, you can boost your posts for at least a day. You can pay more only if you want to advertise longer or reach more people with your post.
2. You don’t have to dive into the advertising pool fully.
With traditional ads, you cannot just try doing a billboard or try a commercial. It’s either you do it, or you do not. You cannot pay a little at a time too. To start with, you probably need to hire an advertising agency, which will demand a huge down payment before the campaign even kicks in.
With digital advertising, you can test different advertising methods, see which ones work best to target your niche before focusing your time, money, and efforts on the most effective strategies.
3. There is equal footing between small businesses and big companies.
As mentioned, the playing field is significantly leveled for businesses big and small when it comes to digital advertising. Startups and small businesses can compete immediately with big companies and reach the 4.4 billion users of the internet, 3.8 million of which are active social media users.
It means that even if you only start with social media promotions and advertising, you still have the opportunity of tapping 49% of the world’s population. That is intense and holds great promise for marketing.
You can pre-qualify traffic for your website by creating engaging campaigns that get leads and drive conversions.
4. There is instant gratification with digital advertising.
Results in digital advertising come in quickly. For instance, PPC ads that work will cause good SERP (Search Engine Results Page) ranking right away.
An effective social media ad will generate clickthroughs that you can immediately monitor through analytics and metrics tools. Conversions can be measured right away as customers increase.
That is why digital marketing strategies are also easily adjusted. A/B testing, for instance, is strategy that allows you to release two versions of an ad, a landing page, or an email campaign.
5. Digital advertising efforts and results can be tracked in real-time.
Digital marketing campaigns can remain effective and efficient by tracking keyword and phrase performance on a regular basis, in terms of bringing in traffic, engagements, and conversions, among others.
Monitoring your ad campaigns in real-time helps you check if your campaigns are running efficiently and profitably. Changes can be made immediately if you are diligent in ad campaign tracking. Compared to other modes of marketing that give results after months, digital advertising gives quicker feedback and metrics.
6. Digital advertisingenables you to reach prospects at the start of the buying journey.
Majority of purchases start with online searches. Therefore, digital advertising is crucial to small businesses. Because of the level playing field, you get as much chance as the big players to capture potential customers in the beginning of their buying journey. You can outrank the competition with long-tail keywords and get more chances of landing on the first page of SERP.
Your audience is looking to educate themselves about products or services. You can direct those users to your page by using digital advertising with the best SEO strategies. Be the one to provide that information, be it through your blog and other content, so you also get to convert them into leads, and eventually, customers.
7. Digital advertising helps small businesses creating lasting customer relationships.
Retention and re-engaging customers are one of the biggest challenges of small businesses. Digital advertising helps small businesses to keep customers coming back to them and not to the competition.
Digital marketing does not stop at checkout, as opposed to many in-store buying experiences. It goes beyond ensuring a buying client becomes an ambassador for the brand. Digital advertising keeps your connection with your customers and followers dynamic and not static. Dynamic means they are not just receiving your email newsletters, they are reading them and clicking through your site. It means that customers and subscribers are engaging with your social media posts. It means clients are not going to be stingy with positive feedback. You do not have to pay loyal customers to give you great feedback and refer you the others via word of mouth.
Conclusion: Get Ahead with Digital Advertising
If you are a small business owner and you are reading this, will you not invest in the best of resources and assets you can afford if you knew that you will profit in the end? Sure, you will. In digital advertising, the investment will not cut a hole in your marketing budget. Digital ads are actually a very wise and efficient way to make the most profits out of a campaign without shedding too much on cost. Digital ads can bring massive growth to your business.
If your digital marketing strategy is not yet in place, set it up today, because you could lose a significant potential to build your brand, get more leads that turn into sales.
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AUTHOR’S BIO
MayleenMeñez
MayleenMeñez worked for seven years in TV and Radio production, and also as a Graphic Artist/Editor. Finding her true passion, she devoted 15 years in NGO and community development work, where she experienced being a coordinator and teacher, travelling both in the Philippines and countries in Asia. She homeschools her three kids and reinvents Filipino dishes in her spare time. Writing has always been a hobby and pursuit, and she recently added content writing with Softvire Australia and Softvire New Zealand up her sleeve, while preparing for her next adventure in the nations.
