What Is Digital Marketing?

What is digital marketing? It’s something that every business in the modern marketplace needs to be doing. Here’s some information to help you understand what it is and why you need to do it.

What Is Digital Marketing

In a nutshell, digital marketing is what ensures that people looking online for the products and services you offer can find you. Here are some of the most important types of digital marketing for your business.

• Website - This is your digital storefront and online representation of your brand. It’s a highly efficient, cost-effective tool that lets you:
  • Establish your presence
  • Build trust
  • Gets listed on search engines
  • Provide a point of contact
  • Leverage social media
  • Make sales
  • Share news and demonstrate expertise
  • Learn about customers
  • Provide convenience   
• SEO - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your website rank higher in search results, bring organic (non-paid) traffic to your website, and increase the exposure of your business.
• Social Media - Social Media Marketing (SMM) uses social media to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and increase website traffic, by publishing content, listening to and engaging with followers, analyzing results, and running ads.
• Email - Email can be used to raise awareness of your products or offers, generate leads, create brand awareness, build relationships, and engage with customers.
• Google Ads - This lets you advertise and promote your products and services when people search for relevant keywords to increase your leads and sales.
• SMS - Short Message Service (SMS) marketing, or text message marketing, is great for sending out specials, coupons, promotions, alerts, and more using highly targeted, permission-based, opt-in messages. 

Why Digital Marketing Is Important

Now that you know what digital marketing is, let’s look at some of the reasons why it matters to your business.

• Customers - Your customers are online. They’re on social media websites, using search engines to find information, playing games, and watching videos. If you want to reach them you need to be there too, no matter who your target audience is. 
• Visibility - Most consumers look online for local businesses “near me” when they need to find products or services. If you’re not online, they won’t find you and will go somewhere else. Digital marketing lets you reach consumers to make them aware of your business. A Google My Business listing has your vital information (phone number, hours, address, etc.) and makes it possible for you to be found online.
• Online Presence - Even if people know about you, they’ll probably look online to learn more, such as your hours. If you don’t have a web presence, they’re not going to find the information they need and you may lose the business. Consumers today expect you to have an online presence, such as a Google My Business listing with photos, store hours, a phone number, address, and more. They also expect you to have a website to see what you offer and get more information. Not having a website may signal consumers that you’re not worth their time.
• Trust - Having an online presence and a website makes you seem more trustworthy. It allows you to engage with people online and reach out to them to make sales. If someone has a question about your business, a quick and relevant answer could turn them into a customer. People appreciate the attention and will trust you more when they get fast, honest answers to their questions.
• Analysis And Strategy - Analytics makes a huge difference in marketing and in reaching your target audience. Digital marketing makes it easier to determine how effective your efforts are and what needs adjusting. It lets you do more tracking and in greater detail so that you’ll be more effective. You can see who visited your website, what they spent time doing, and what they’re interested in purchasing. 
• ROI - Digital marketing offers a higher ROI (return on investment) than other types of marketing. It’s easily scalable, so you can do it on any budget and see good returns for the time and money spent. Not only is it highly effective, but it also allows you to find and reach out to more consumers. 

No matter what the size of your marketing budget is, digital marketing will make it easier for you to reach your potential customers. Whether you put up a website, create a Google My Business listing, or get active on social media, the impact and results for your business can be amazing!

Digital marketing is what Ellipsis does best, let us help put it to work for you!

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