The short answer to this question is – of course it does!
“In the world of business, you have to run fast simply to remain where you are. If you want to get ahead, you must run twice as fast.”
Whether you choose to DIY your way into the world of digital marketing or partner with a professional digital marketing agency, most businesses – small, medium, or large – can benefit from including digital marketing in their marketing strategy.
So, if you want the long answer to whether your company needs digital marketing or if you’re still wondering whether your company should go down this road, read on to see if any of the circumstances described below are relevant to your business.
Your competitors have a solid digital marketing presence.
If most of your company’s direct competitors have established a strong virtual presence, you need to be in the game simply to remain relevant. We won’t quote statistics and numbers to show you that more people are spending time on social media, websites, and other digital platforms when we can see it happening around (and often with) ourselves almost every day. How often have we heard recommendations from our friends and family about a product or service they “saw on Instagram”?
The attention span of a customer, especially in this age of overwhelming information, is short-lived. If your existing customers decide to switch brands, they’re going to find your competitors in some of the first few places they look. A strong, persuasive strategy from your competitors coupled with an absence of communication from your company might cost you in the long run.
In case most of your direct competitors have a strong digital marketing presence and you feel like you’re lagging behind before you’ve even started, don’t panic yet! A comprehensive marketing strategy, intelligent targeting, and close monitoring of results will have your company on par with anybody in the industry in due time.
Your competitors have very minimal representation digitally.
If your company is among the first in your industry to scratch the surface of digital marketing, you are truly standing on the brink of a gold mine of opportunities. Imagine getting in on the ground floor of an act that will revolutionize the way your industry operates.
Your company is among the first to set the tone of digital marketing in the industry. When customers of competing companies look up your industry or anything related to it online, you have the opportunity to present yourself – in your words, with your product, to people who are actually looking for you. While sales may not be our forte as marketers, we know that is definitely not a bad place to be.
Original content, first-of-its-kind marketing, and a fresh target audience that is not already saturated with content for similar products – why wouldn’t you want that advantage for your company?
Your company is merely a start-up; marketing is for the next phase.
So your company is still in the nascent stage. You haven’t defined your goals, mission, vision, or even brand voice. You are still setting up operations, processes, and human resources. You simply don’t have the bandwidth to focus on digital marketing just yet, so you slot it for the next phase of growth. But if a prospective client wants to look up your company, product, or service, guess where they’re going to go? The internet! Imagine if they don’t find you there.
One of the best offerings of digital marketing is that, in its basic stage, most collaterals are editable almost instantaneously. So if you decide to change the logo of your company in just a few weeks of launching, it’s just a few clicks away!
Of course, until your company is comfortable with its day-to-day operations and has a fairly clear marketing plan at hand, we would not recommend going all guns blazing on social media. However, basic virtual communication – your company’s website, an introductory mailer, and an in-depth analysis of your competitors and target audience are just some aspects of digital marketing you cannot start soon enough.
Your company does not have the budget for marketing right now.
If your company is smaller than small businesses or if you’re working on a shoestring budget, you may conclude that digital marketing is not for you – at least not right now. But, as history has proven, that would paradoxically limit your income sources even further.
The good news is that digital marketing doesn’t require heavy investments of capital – merely an understanding of what to say, to whom, and where. Professional digital marketing agencies charge a wide range of fees – from a few thousand rupees a month to tens of lakhs of rupees – so you can rest assured that you will find a plan that fits your budget. Even if that cost is not something you can bear, an investment of time and a few technical skills will be enough to get you started virtually.
Traditional marketing works just fine for your company.
Sure, your company does just as well as you’d want it to with traditional marketing mediums. Sales are stronger than ever, teams and employees are in harmony with each other and the company, and you don’t have something new to say every single day. So why fix something that isn’t broken?
The answer is simple – if you don’t, someone else will. The world of digital marketing, which began with a few obscure websites, is now an ever-evolving, intimidating field, even for the best agencies in the business. Fresh content ideas, new platforms, and original ways of communicating are being thought of and utilized every day. You don’t want to wake up one morning and realize that your company has been lagging behind for far too long while your competition has snagged almost all the virtual market.
Your company is in the B2B business
So your clientele is a niche, select group of individuals or companies. You don’t need to communicate with the masses for the company to survive or maintain a healthy balance sheet. So why invest resources in something that is not really going to increase your profitability?
If your company caters to a niche market, then digital marketing is probably the best source of marketing that you can utilize. No other form of marketing offers a choice of platforms as diverse, targeting of the audience as defined, or a variety of communication as varied as digital marketing.
While you may not necessarily need to post stories every other day, your company will benefit from direct communication with select audiences, a presence in the relevant industries, or a feeling of belonging for your employees, team, and vendors that digital marketing can bring.
No business left behind!
In conclusion, digital marketing has proven to benefit all types of businesses – from boutique clothing stores to social media thrift shops (businesses that wouldn’t even exist without the digital platforms); from Michelin-starred restaurants to streetside food stalls; from start-ups to unicorns; from retail shops to the biggest brands in the world (hello, Coca-Cola) – and there is no real reason for why you should hold out on your plans for digital marketing any further.
Nikita Rathi
Creative Director
Ink Media | World Web Solutions
Leave A Comment