Digital marketing is the best way to reach consumers easily and businesses big or small know this fact. Big businesses have their digital marketing team and they know how to chalk out a digital marketing strategy. Small businesses also know the importance of digital marketing but I think not many are aware of the full potential. I recently received a call from a company in Small and Medium Enterprises sector who wanted to execute digital marketing for his business. When asked about objectives the organisation wanted to achieve,  I was informed that they wanted to have social media ads. So, let us first understand what is digital marketing and what are common misconceptions about digital marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing encompasses all marketing activities that use and electronic device and the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email and other websites to connect with current and prospective customers.

Common misconceptions about digital marketing

Digital marketing is just another way of describing “Social Media Marketing’’

Marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram etc is called Social Medi Marketing. Social media marketing is a highly important aspect of digital marketing. Digital marketing is far broader than social media marketing. Digital marketing also includes other modes of electronic marketing like search engines, websites, emails marketing etc.

Digital marketing is not relevant to small businesses

Digital marketing gives you the chance to communicate with customers (without a call centre), to sell directly (without the expense of a shop) and to engage and research customers’ preferences (without employing a market research company). Digital marketing gives small businesses the tools which, in the past, were only available to businesses with big budgets. As a small company, you can react on social media in minutes and tailor messages for local customers that will engage them. This is something that large businesses often struggle with when even a tweet has to go through numerous approval processes and are often written centrally.

Digital marketing should be a separate part of the company’s strategy

Like all marketing, digital marketing has to be fully integrated with the business strategy. Most companies now recognise that their website is their ‘shop window’ and few companies would put out a press release without giving careful consideration to the messages that it contained and the impression it gives of the company. However, social media is part of that shop window and it too is  public communication. With most people now using social media, it is more likely that a company’s personality will be judged on their presence and interaction (or lack of interaction) there than anywhere else.

It is too difficult to stand out from the crowd in digital marketing

Finding a way to stand out from the crowd applies to all marketing. You need a strategy and you need to research what competitors and others are doing. Learn from their mistakes and successes. Respect your customers’ time and try to engage with them in a way that they will value. Appealing to the customer with exclusive offers, competitions or any chance to feel important and valued are all good ways of getting attention.

Digital marketing takes up too much time

All marketing takes time but digital marketing is one of the least time-consuming tools. Social media will alert you to interactions and tools can be set up to monitor who, when and why consumers are accessing your media. Same is the case with email marketing, you know how many opened your email and how many clicked a particular link on your email which brought them to your website. You don’t have to spend your time online to make it a success.