Why Digital Marketing Should Be a Top Priority

The digital world is constantly in flux. 

The digital world is constantly in flux. New technologies are changing the way people interact with digital media, and as a result, your customers are expecting more from your brand. The role of digital marketing continues to evolve, and it requires a long-term investment. Digital marketing is not something that you can do once and expect results in perpetuity; it’s an ongoing activity that must be factored into your overall marketing budget.

Your audience spends most of its time online , on mobile phones, and using social media. 

It’s becoming an increasingly digital world out there. In fact, your audience spends the overwhelming majority of its time on the internet and using its mobile phone. It’s easy to see why digital marketing is critical.

In 2019, people spent an average of 6 hours and 42 minutes online per day. That’s a total of 25 hours a week! No wonder most companies are investing in digital marketing strategies to reach their customers where they spend so much time: online.

Digital marketing facilitates relationship building with your target audience. 

Why build relationships with your audience? Isn’t it a good enough reason that you want to sell your product or service?

Well, not only are you more likely to sell your products and services through building relationships, but you can also gain a better understanding of the people you serve. You can get to know them better, understand their challenges and help them solve those problems.

Relationships are built on trust, which is why it’s important you don’t immediately turn around and ask for the sale. Instead, provide value first by showing that you care about what they have to say and what they have to offer. By being helpful and providing solutions for their issues, they’ll be more likely to think of you when they need what you have to offer.

Consumers are becoming increasingly web savvy and can easily identify when brands are untruthful or otherwise disingenuous. 

You may have heard the saying, “The customer is king”—or rather, queen. Everyone wants to be treated like royalty these days—and thanks to the internet, they can tell when a brand doesn’t live up to its standards.

Today’s consumers are becoming increasingly more proactive and demanding in their expectations. They no longer want to simply be advertised to (or worse, tricked) by brands that have little interest in them beyond making a sale. Instead, they want brands that add value and create real experiences for them as individuals. Digital marketing enables you to do exactly this without spending billions of dollars on TV ads that are easily skipped over or ignored altogether.

Managing your brand’s reputation and standing out from the competition has never been more important. 

Brand reputation, in the simplest terms, is how others view your business. It’s a combination of factors including what people say about you online and your industry standing, as well as things like your Net Promoter Score (NPS), brand awareness, and market share.

What makes brand reputation so important? There are hundreds of reasons that could be listed here, but let’s focus on the most important:

  • The reputation of a brand can affect whether or not people buy from them. A study by BrightLocal found that 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations when making purchases. Your reputation can also drive sales. This is the primary reason why websites such as Amazon require reviewers to show proof of purchase before writing a review for an item or service.

With digital technologies offering an unprecedented opportunity to expand your business, you have no choice but to keep up with these trends or risk losing market share to competitors who do. 

What does digital marketing mean for your business? 

The key takeaways are: 

  • With digital technologies offering an unprecedented opportunity to expand your business, you have no choice but to keep up with these trends or risk losing market share to competitors who do.
  • Digital marketing is a smart investment. As ROI becomes more important than ever, digital marketing tools offer measurable value and you can tell exactly what works and what doesn’t.
  • Competition is fierce, and digital marketing helps you stay ahead of the curve by giving you a solid idea of where the market is shifting and the direction that which it’s headeds