The Importance of Digital Marketing in 2020 to grow your business

Have you ever calculated the time you spend online? I’m not just talking about social media but otherwise also. Whether you are looking for a place for dinner, join a class on a personal hobby or simply booking tickets for an event, you always use online space to execute these tasks.

33% of the time of the customers is spent on social media. Around 16% is used for online TV & streaming, 16% music streaming, 13% online press and almost 22% for other sources. This shows that a business needs to crawl in this 33% and make best use of it.

So if people are relying so much on online space then it’s equally important for businesses to move online too. They need to have an online identity so that when their target customers are surfing they can discover the brands they love.

This is how important digital marketing has become. The only way brands are able to capture the attention of their prospects is by creating a strong digital presence so that their target customers are well informed.

As a business, you can inform your customer of any new updates whether there is a sale in stores, you are giving a free demo of a product, organizing an event or launching a campaign. Reaching to your target audience through digital means is much easier than offline means.

A brand is as good as customers recognizing it. If you are not making enough buzz in the market then you are working in vain away from practicality. Your efforts should get results in the form of new leads, conversions or downloads, subscribers, etc. 

How Digital Marketing Can Transform Your Business?

Before we state the benefits, let’s discuss some influential statistics of how digital marketing has impacted businesses in the last few years.

(Source: Lyfe Marketing)

• 72% customers want their favourite brands to update information on discounts and promotions on social media.
• Out of 5, at least 4 businesses go for Google Ads for PPC campaigns.
• If a business spends $1 spent on Google Ads, the average revenue they make is $2.” 
• The conversion rate from a smartphone has increased to 64%.
• The purchase of 64% of consumers is influenced after watching a Facebook video 
• Globally, 3.03 billion people are active on social channels. 

These numbers signify that most consumers have migrated online and are consuming new products and services online daily. Especially smartphones are playing a big role in bringing conversions and new leads. Social channels are helping brands reach out to their favourite brands and this calls business to be active on social networks too.

Digital marketing has taken over way too much in the last 5 years and the results-driven from it are strong when compared to traditional marketing efforts. So, let's go ahead and discuss all the strengths of digital marketing:

1. Get High-Rate Conversions

Why do businesses do marketing and advertising? It’s because the ultimate goal for any marketer is to get conversions. These conversions are the real results that business counts on and comes in the form of leads, subscribers, no. of sales, and traffic, etc.

With digital marketing activities, you can optimize your conversion rate by advertising and running campaigns online. When we say digital tools, it means email marketing, SEO, SMM, and SEM, etc. Thus, for high-conversion rates, most businesses in 2020 should work on their digital strategies.

2.Interact With Target Audience

This is one of the core strengths of digital marketing i.e. reaching the target audience. A billboard or a normal piece of the pamphlet may reach only a small portion of the target audience and often gets unnoticed or blurred in the process but an ad does otherwise. An ad is targeted only to certain demographics, which makes it take control.

As a marketer, you always want to engage and interact only with people who are interested in your product or brand else you will be losing your dollars and would end up with no leads at all.

For instance, if you sell a luxury brand where each product costs around 5-10 lakhs then advertising it in an age group of 15-22 or people with jobs won’t help the brand. But, precise demographics targeting can do wonders. This is the power of digital.

3. Build Brand Reputation

Being in touch with your customers on a regular basis is important especially after selling your product or introducing it in the market. Interacting with users gives you a chance to take feedback from the market of how your product or service is performing. 

You can build a great brand reputation by caring about your customers. By immediately replying to their issues and paying attention to any discomfort your end-user is facing you can show you deliver what you guaranteed and anything out of line will be taken care of.

Since your competitors are online too they will woo your customers if you fail to be in contact with your target audience. A reputation is affected not because your brand didn’t nail the expectation in one go but because after selling you didn’t care about the people who bought your product. 

Digital marketing gives you the opportunity to be in contact with your audience always.

4.Earn Trust From Your Audience

Though digital platforms open endless opportunities for businesses, they can equally harm a brand’s reputation if not handled well. With a strong website and social media channels, you can create a trust in the market. 

A consumer should feel that they could reach out to a brand whenever they feel like. Also, if people get to see your ads, videos, social campaigns, and emails every single day, they will know that you are active and will appear in their feed all day and every day. 

Collect feedback, surveys, testimonials, etc. on your Google My Business and social channels, as it will bring a sense of security for your customers.

5.Generate Better Revenues

Businesses using campaigns and optimization of their brands generate better revenues than ones without any digital presence. Digital is game-changing for many reasons. Firstly, you are reaching out to your customers. Secondly, you are informing them about your brand or service. Lastly, you are prompting them to take action. 

If you can continue this process, you will generate consistent leads and will start getting more conversions. One thing that digital marketing does is reaching out to prospects in any geography. So it’s a limitation that a business can take care of in minutes. 

You don’t have to reach them personally instead interact and engage with your users globally through digital tools. Digital marketing is more like fuel for a business as it resolves many challenges and gives a head start to sales and marketing.

6.Cost-Effective Strategies

Businesses who are working with limited capital and workforce can make use of digital strategies to get better leads. The promotion and launch of a product get easy with online advertising and feel light on pockets. 

Also, small and mid-sized businesses can use automation for most of their marketing strategies rather than establishing an in-house team of experts. 

7. Reach Mobile Consumers

Around 51% smartphone consumers discover a new brand product online while surfing.

Mobile marketing and ad optimization cannot be simply ignored given the number of mobile users increasing every day.

Thus, optimize your brand for social media, email marketing, ads, etc. Optimize your website and content and make it mobile-friendly so that people surfing on their smartphones can see your campaigns, videos, and blogs and discover or follow your brand regularly.

8.Let Your Audience Take Desired Action

The best thing about using digital marketing is by introducing your users to your product and service and asking them to take action.

If you want your users to share your blog or video online you add a line at the end or mention it within your video. This is called prompting your users to take the desired action or an action that you want them to take.

This is also called as CTA or Call-To-Action which is added in your ad campaigns, email campaigns, etc. so that you can specify what exactly you want your user to do. CTA’s can be to fill a form, buy a product or submit an email ID, subscribe to a channel, etc.

Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2020 That Businesses Should Implement

I think 2019 was a lot about videos and influencers and we believe some trends would follow in 2020 too. Here is a list of trends that would do great in 2020.

-Influencer Marketing rocked in 2019 and will continue to bring results in 2020. If you are not convinced then check out hundreds of influencers on Instagram and YouTube working for renowned brands. 

-Content Marketing is going to rule the roost for this year. Customized content in different content forms is creating a great impact and we can’t deny it.

-Social Media Marketing: Social networks will continue to thrive in 2020. Especially platforms like TikTok and Instagram will do exceptionally well. Even messenger marketing will be mainstream this year. Whatsapp’s new catalog management for small businesses will be revolutionary. 

-Video Marketing- Videos are gaining more and more traction and the fewer audience is relying on written content. A great and optimized video can get a higher reach and therefore video ads will do much better in 2020 on all platforms i.e. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.

-Consumer Engagement Strategy: By creating campaigns around sensitive subjects, brands not get a chance to market their product or service but also spread awareness about a sensitive matter. Ads revolving around topics like breast cancer, dyslexia (coco-cola), etc. are creating an emotional pull.

-Mobile marketing like SMS marketing is still effective for a few business models.

-Email Marketing through newsletters helps in connecting with the audience on a regular basis.  

-PPC Advertising is here to stay for long. With paid advertisement, it is difficult to reach a humungous audience. Paid ads on social networks and Google are effective and should be run by a company to attract new audiences every now and then. 

Things Businesses Should Pay Attention To

If businesses are looking to switch to digital and turn to online marketing strategies then they should pay attention to the following things:

• Maintain an online presence on channels best for brand
• Optimize all their channels for devices and browsers
• Interact & engage with their audience regularly
• Stay up-to-date on digital trends
• Do Search Engine Optimization
• Update Website for sales and offers
• Develop landing pages with CTA’s to get more conversions
• Work on 3-4 campaigns a quarter to get instant results
• Try automation to avoid any gaps
• Build an email list of loyal customers

If you are using digital strategies work on your buyer persona and collect data from analytics to find the perfect demographics to target. Only a targeted approach will get maximum conversions and high-revenues. It’s best to work with experts or outsource the digital marketing process to agencies that perform the activities on a daily basis and have far more experience to optimize the campaigns.

When compared to traditional marketing, digital campaigns can fetch quick results.

Conclusion

Businesses at small, medium or enterprise levels must focus on following best digital marketing practices. Go in-depth of who you are reaching out to for promoting your work/services? Digital marketing in 2020 will yield you results only if you are loud enough and active. Don’t for a second go back foot because your competitors have taken that space.

You need not try all digital mediums at once. Plan your content and campaigns based on your audience and their demographics. Discuss it with experts and rely on statistics to guide you. I know a team sounds fancy but outsourcing digital activities to experts are the right thing to do when you can’t afford a team.

Hope 2020 will prove beneficial for your brand and business. Go digital. Be Strong.