The way both of these words are different so are they in the very same way pretty much connected. What is marketing? In early days people exchange their assets for needs and now they buy the essentials after the introduction of money system. This could be done physically and thanks to our technology, it is done virtually too nowadays and quite trending too. Digital Marketing is a part of marketing which involves internet and other devices like mobile phones, desktop, laptop etc. for the commerce. During the late 90s, the way it has evolved has changed the way brands and business use technology for marketing. Several other digital marketing campaigns are budding now like search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–books, and optical disks and games since people now started to prefer virtual visits to shop and also the use of electronic devices increased. Digital marketing not only stops here. It also extends to non-Internet channels that offer digital media, such as television, mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones.
Now let us see what small businesses around us are. Small businesses are privately owned firms which consist of fifteen to fifty employees. While small businesses can also be classified according to other methods, such as annual revenues, shipments, sales, assets, or by annual gross or net revenue or net profits, the number of employees is one of the most widely used measures. Small businesses in many countries may include service or retail operations such as convenience stores, small grocery stores, bakeries, salons/parlors or carpenters and electricians, restaurants, guest houses, photographers, very small-scale manufacturing like hand looms or weaving and Internet-related businesses such as web design and computer programming. Some professionals run as small businesses, such as lawyers, accountants, dentists, and medical doctors; they can also work under lager firms and even individually. Several small businesses only require a license, mostly the one done independently or are home based. While others like day cares, retirement homes, and restaurants serving liquor or liquor shops are more heavily regulated and may require inspection and certification from various government authorities. Small business may be a sole proprietorship like web designing, lawyer, doctor or partnership like restaurants or a small firm managed by a group of people particularly its employee like retirement homes.
But small businesses often face challenges with each passing day; small business owners become more cautious amid economic and financial uncertainty. These places are also struggling to keep up with technology, lacking the tools to improve efficiency. Let us see what the major issues are.
- Limited Money
Since the business is small, we don’t expect large sum of investment. Companies usually with greater funds don’t need to care about small things but here it’s not the case. We can’t afford wasting money or utilizing it somewhere barely fruitful. Often lack of money management leads to debt and fall of business. Therefore we really need to be careful where to invest the money and where not to.
- Less People to Consult
A small business doesn’t comprise of many people. Thus it often leads to lack of opinions.
Lager companies have an entire group of professional consultants but here few number of people with different sets of talent and fewer resources and experience try drawing a solution to the problem which may not always be correct. And when it comes to merely a handful people, this problem is quite serious. Several wrong decisions may be bad for business.
- Marketing Issues
As these businesses are not on very broader scale and don’t even have an ample amount of money to invest in marketing often leads to downfall. Only a few bunch of people with lack of marketing knowledge trying to run the business. A perfect marketing is what that sells the business. Marketing your business is a full-time job, full of focused management of different mediums and developing a range of exposure. When a small business attempts to carry out a plan without a clear objective, the entire process ends up a huge waste of time and energy. Whether you hire someone in house to handle this role, or outsource your marketing to an external source, it is important that your business allocates the appropriate time behind your marketing strategy.
And this is where we need digital marketing- easy and quick. As a small business, it is very necessary to ensure a right marketing strategy which saves money as well as labor. This is a tech-savvy world and everything is nowadays over internet. It is very important now for small business to accept the technology and increase their market digitally. Avoiding digital market due to lack of trust or knowledge may only lead them to lose their position in this world of brands. Here are some benefits why small business needs digital marketing.
- Profitable
In comparison to other marketing methods, digital marketing is usually a fixed price service provided by an agency. And because of this, this method is very profitable as you will only pay once a month irrespective of all the profits. Digital marketing method can easily be set up for small business and record all the business goals, budget and profits.
- Proven
Businesses all over the globe have recognized digital marketing as something that they need to invest in order to make the most of their website. One could have the most visually appealing website of them all, but if your digital marketing is poor or non-existent then no one will even see it.
- Easy to Handle
Digital marketing is all about internet and devices to reach are right away in everyone’s pocket. Everything’s just over the phone or laptop. People can handle the digital marketing from anywhere.
- Larger Number of Opinions
Where small businesses lack employees and opinions, digital marketing solves this issue too. Companies can engage with customers directly, allowing them to obtain feedback and resolve issues almost immediately. Digital marketing helps in directly contact with the customer and that too quickly and on larger platform.
So in the last, digital marketing is the key to the growth of small businesses. They not only save them by providing a cheap marketing strategy but also many other ways such as mentioned above. From banners to big data, digital marketing has continuously adapting to meet the needs of customers and brands. They are becoming popular day by day and very promising too. It is very apparent that the demand for digital marketing will only increase in the time coming.