Digital Marketing is now the most important aspect of marketing that every smart marketer pays attention to. Internet usage continues to grow geometrically every year as more and more people come online. The lastest statistics say 71 million Nigerians now use the Internet.
If marketing includes reaching out to people who need your services, and the reason we erect billboards on the highways is because we hope that those driving by would see it, how much more the information highway? Any organisation ignoring digital marketing in this increasingly connected world is digging its own grave already. It is a digital world and that trend looks like it can never be reversed.
Smart companies now place digital marketing at the very center of all their efforts. Digital marketing activities are not the things you do after you have set up the other marketing channels, digital marketing should form the core of what you do and you should then build on top of it.
The digital world has made a lot of things possible, it has really helped us to amplify our reach seemingly effortlessly. If you can really deploy digital solutions into your business, you can grow your business this year by over 500% and I am not joking.
Digital marketing solutions allows you to do so much more with very little resources. There are a lot of businesses out there that are doing very well, yet having very few staff strength because they have deployed digital solutions that has made things very easy for them to handle.
Digital Marketing includes various activities like Internet marketing, social media marketing, email marketing and SMS marketing. In a very practical manner, let me describe how you can put digital marketing to use in your own business, TODAY.
I think digital marketing is much easier than it sounds and the mobile device in your pocket is a great place to start.
I would start from social media websites, the big two: Facebook and Twitter, create profiles for your businesses there, it is completely free. Up next, you should look for a good website designer that you can work with to create a useful website for you.
I am emphasizing usefulness here because a lot of the websites on the Internet are actually useless. That is why they fail to add any real value to the business and after running the website for a while, they are tempted to give up on their website. But a well developed website will always move mountains for your business, your website can completely replace your physical office if well developed.
If you are able to build a solid web presence for your business, whether people come to your physical office or stumble upon your website, there should be no difference.
Now the hard part; growing an audience. You have to look at various ways of engaging your target audience and making them connect with you. You have to craft content: blog posts, tweets, Whatsapp and BBM broadcasts, SMS, and others. The content should not be just promotional, only used to nag people about your goods and services, they also have to be educational, informing people about what they need to know.
For example, a makeover artist can share tips about make up and beauty to her audience. Anybody who cares about looking beautiful everyday is definitely the target audience of the makeover artist and by continuous engagement with them, you are building an asset for your business.
Connect with people across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Nairaland.com, BBM, Whatsapp, 2go and any other platform your audience uses.
Do you realise what it means when you have a list of 1,000 people who you regularly engage? Even if only 10% of them patronise you, that is 100 customers! You would smile all the way to the bank!
I write content for my business everyday at The Morebise Post, but you do not have to. The best advice I can give you is to probably pick a schedule you are sure you can handle and be consistent with it, you can increase how often you send out content over time. You can send content once a day, once a week, twice a week or every 2 weeks. There is no wrong answer, just ensure you have the capacity to handle it.
Then finally, but just as important, create a list of your customers, people who have patronised you before and also talk to them regularly. Most businesses realise that you get more repeat business from people who have used your services before.
So, create a special list for them and send them special messages. Ask them for feedback on your services, did they enjoy it? Would they recommend you to others in future? Could they give you one or two people who might need your services soon? Give them special offers if they patronise you repeatedly, hold them close to your chest.
If you would love to talk to me about crafting a digital marketing strategy for your business, kindly get in touch by clicking here.
