Why Digital Marketing is Important for Small Business?

When small businesses get started, they often focus on how to get the first customers through the door and rely on traditional advertising, such as brochures, print ads, or even outdoor advertising. 

While this strategy may bring in a trickle of business, there’s a better and easier way. Small businesses should consider the global online marketplace and benefit from using a combination of traditional and digital marketing to leverage every avenue available.  

After all, 76% of consumers look for a company online before visiting a store, while 45% are likely to visit after finding a strong online presence on a local search page, according to research by Visual Objects.

Every small business, no matter how new or established, should look at digital channels as a way to generate leads and convert interest into customers.

In this blog, we’ll look at 6 ways you can use online channels to promote and grow your business (along with 3 great examples from small brands for inspiration). 

1. Conduct competitor research
2. Leverage SEO
3. Be proactive and reactive on social media
4. Target existing customers
5. Reach out to influencers
6. Focus your marketing budget

What are the benefits of digital marketing?

The potential customers you can find online are  a much larger group than you’ll ever be able to attract only locally. By using digital marketing techniques, you can reach a massive audience in a way that’s cost-effective, scalable, and measurable.

Some of the key benefits of using digital channels include:

• Increase your interaction with prospects and learn exactly what they are looking for i.e. get to know your customers better!
• Reach out to anyone in any location and at any timezone as there are no geographical boundaries with digital 
• Target the right audience at the right time through hyper-personalization
• Communicate with your prospects and customers at every stage of the buying process
• Save money and reach more people for less 
• Understand your audience and drive engagement to boost customer loyalty
• Track and monitor campaigns in real time so you can optimize or tweak content or targeting
• Offer better customer service using social media platforms like Facebook or X

Getting started on digital marketing for small businesses

With endless opportunities, digital marketing can seem intimidating if you’ve never used it before. There are a variety of platforms and strategies that may make it seem like a bigger project than it is.  

But the online marketplace is competitive and while word of mouth marketing and customer recommendations can help drive traffic, customers will struggle to find your business unless you show up in the places they spend time.

That’s because online shopping has exploded in recent years as people flock online to research and purchase. This has resulted in the global ecommerce share of retail sales going from just 18% in 2021 to an estimated 23% in 2027.  

This makes building a presence online crucial to any small business that wants to survive especially when 20% of businesses fail in the first year, 30% in the second year and 50% by year five according to Forbes Advisor.