Do you make any decision without typing a few keywords on your phone, reading reviews before making the final call? No, I assume! Similarly, your customers also heavily rely on the information available online to decide on which brand to choose, which product to buy, etc.
We live in a world inundated with technology and all things digital. If you aren’t on the digital bandwagon yet, your business is missing out on the moolah. As a brand, having a digital presence is essential owing to the benefits it offers.
Digital presence is inclusive of content that you have control over – such as website, social media handles, etc. It also involves content that you may have no control over such as online reviews and feedback. This holds true for both web and mobile presence.
Statistics suggest over 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product while searching on their smartphone. With stats as high as this, getting your business online is the next logical and practical step to scale your business.
The usual misconception, that digital presence is for B2C only, stands false. B2B can profit just as much as B2C by exploring digital marketing avenues the right way.
Let us walk you through the 5 core reasons why your business should have a digital presence on mobile and web
1. Be present, be visible –
Did you know over 91% of users used Content marketing as a part of their brand marketing strategy? Stay visible.
When you are starting a business, the first step is to make yourself known. Gone are the days where your brick and mortar store needed someone with a loudspeaker to announce SALE SALE SALE! You need to create a brand and name for your business, and this requires a strong online presence.
The fact that such a high volume of your target audience is dependent on their mobile devices should work in your favor. Create an interactive app or a fun website portal and find ways to lure in your users to this portal. Social media handles are an intelligent way to scale your business using various digital marketing strategies.
2. Customer engagement level max –
Did you know that the post engagement rate is as high as 75% during the first 5 hours of the day? Enhance your customer engagement.
One of the key perks of going online is that you get the pulse of the customer first-hand. You no longer need to buy heavily paid random data about who your customers are. When digital marketing is done well, it gives you great insight into all your tier one queries about your customer.
How you use this customer feedback is the crux of your success.
Consistent engagement with your customers has become much easier thanks to digital marketing. You are consistently having the opportunity to speak to your customers directly. If you are careful enough you can study the trends they prefer.
For instance, if most customers prefer making a purchase using an e-wallet, having better e-wallet offers will reel in customer loyalty. In a nutshell, digital marketing allows a good flow of conversation between your brand and the customer without the involvement of any external factors.
3. An impactful first impression –
People form first impressions in about 17 milliseconds – Angie Schottmuller author of ‘Three Deep Marketing’. Make sure your website makes a lasting one
First impressions last! This is a universal fact. If a customer is looking to buy a phone, irrespective of how good the phone is, if the brand has little to no information online, it’s likely the phone sales are going to dip.
People read about the brand/product way before the actual purchase. If you have a strong and impressionable online presence, the is making a positive judgment of you.
It enhances the credibility of your brand even if you are a 4 people staff/start-up.
The beauty of going digital is that no one really knows the headcount behind a certain brand. You could be a one-man army or a business hiring 1000 employees, everyone gets a fair playing ground when it comes to digital presence.
4. Direct marketing, wait for what? –
Statistics suggest that the ROI for direct mail campaigns is between 18 and 20 percent. Why lose out?
Tired of paying distributors and relying on them for driving revenues? Why cut your margins on multi-level marketing when you can directly sell your product to your customers.
This is the big ripe golden fruit that a strong digital presence reaps. Direct marketing is profitable for both your brand and your customer. Your business had an exponential scope of growth when there aren’t mid-level distributions eating in on your profits like Pacman.
5. Enhanced customer service levels –
A study revealed that 71% of consumers who experienced good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.
When there are multiple tiers involved between you and your customer, the quality of service levels is severely impacted. You could be a diligent business person with a complete inclination towards good business practices.
However, if your distributors or retailers aren’t trustworthy, it speaks about your brand too. Controlling every distributor and supplier is a nightmare and not feasible. When you are your own distributor and retailer all thanks to a good online presence your customer service levels can skyrocket.
When the service levels are high, people do not mind paying a premium for the product. You not only build trust with your customers but you also enhance the overall profits your business makes.
6. Show off your product and services –
It is said that approx. 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online.
Gone are the days when you needed to buy posters, banners, and standees worth millions just to get your product name out there. Digital marketing makes all of this so much simpler with a strong online presence.
Your digital presence is a great way to consistently show off your products and services. And unlike offline marketing, this isn’t an investment that you need to keep making every time you launch a product.
Once online, forever online.
Your entire brand, product, and services will always be online for your customers to see. Work on creating an impactful digital presence online to showcase your products and services consistently.
7. Pull marketing instead of push sales –
Almost 90% of traffic will be generated via Video marketing by 2020, this is the right time to pull in more customers thanks to digital media marketing.
When you are out there, it’s only a matter of time that the customer will come to you and make a purchase. Traditional marketing methods involve a lot of push sales that are not very customer-centric. Digital marketing is all about putting your information out there to a large audience and what click clicks.
Customers that are looking out for your product will eventually come in thanks to the strong online presence that you have created for your business/ brand.
Change your business strategy and get your product up and running in the digital foray. Deliver the brand message you want to, reel in the kind of customers you want to. A solid digital presence helps you with all of this and more. Try digital marketing on your web and mobile and witness your brand scale to new heights.
