While more and more businesses are slowly shifting their efforts to digital marketing, many are still wary on why they should—particularly small and medium businesses who have limited resources as compared to bigger companies and organizations. Not to mention with digital marketing offering relatively new types of media, it’s hard for many traditional thinkers to grasp its meaning and value. Here below are eight reasons why digital marketing is helpful and useful, especially to small and medium businesses who are still trying to establish themselves in the playing field of digital marketing.
The infographic (click to zoom):
1. Building an online property is easier and more affordable than building an actual one.
There are many factors to consider for businesses who wish to open physical offices or stores. Building this online saves you a lot more time, effort, and money. With the growth of e-commerce websites, investment costs are exponentially lower and having your own property online is much easier to manage.
To give you a rough estimate of what you initially need to spend on for an e-commerce website, these are the figures:
| Domain Name | Php700 – Php1,500 |
| Hosting | Php5,000 – Php10,000 |
| Website Development with Content Management System | Php50,000 – Php150,000 |
The numbers above range between what type of domain name extension you’ll be purchasing (.ph is actually more expensive than .com), who your hosting service provider is and how much bandwidth your website may need (the heavier the content of your website and the bigger your traffic gets, the more bandwidth you’ll need). These are yearly costs you’ll need to pay for. On the other hand, the website development with a content management system will depend on whether you hire a freelance web developer or a web agency.
Fortunately, thanks to the continuous expansion of technologies online, you can get free content management systems such as WordPress or Drupal, and e-commerce add-ons like Woocommerce, Magento, and Zen Cart. These help cut the costs in having your own property online.
2. You have the potential to reach 37.6 million Filipinos who are Internet users.
Our population is close to 106 million and of these, 37.6% are Internet users. 71% of the online population are under the age of 35. These people spend an average of six hours on their desktops or laptops, four hours on social media alone, and two hours on their smartphones. In 2013, the Internet became the fastest growing media—even surpassing newspapers and magazines. Imagine the potential you could reach when you execute a successful digital marketing campaign.
3. Filipinos are the 3rd heaviest searchers in Asia.
There are about 788 million searches done by Filipinos each month. 84% of these searches are done on Google against all other search engines. Quoting Vince Vaughn in one of his latest movies, The Intern, “Everybody is searching for something,” it’s important to be seen on the first page of Google, because these websites and blogs are the ones that get the highest click-through rates. For your business to stand out, it’s crucial to invest in Search Engine Optimization to be ranked on the first page. Though this is a long-term investment and the results only take place six months to two years after, it’s a worthwhile venture. Those who want immediate business results can invest in Search Engine Marketing instead.
To give a quick overview of Search Engine Marketing, these are the ads you see on Google’s search engine—either on the top part of the results page, or on the right-hand side. You can use specific keywords related to your product or business to trigger these search ads and redirect customers to your website.
4. The beauty of digital marketing is that you can track everything.
Everything is measurable—from the number of people who saw your ad, to the number of people who clicked it, to the number of conversions or sales actually made because of the ad. Moreover, you can customize these ads to really fit your budget at the same time, target your market. This proves to be more cost-effective than traditional marketing, where it’s harder to gauge the numbers. With digital marketing, it’s easier to adjust your campaign based on the results, trends, or effects of your strategies. Return of Investment is more often than not guaranteed, so as long as your ad designs can wow your audience and your landing page is relevant to them.
5. It’s anybody’s game.
The Internet serves as a fair playground for all types of businesses, whether big or small. Small businesses can go up against big corporations and still win, due to friendlier costs they offer for the same quality.
6. Plenty of room for different types of ads.
If the objective of your campaign is to increase awareness, you have several Facebook ads that can be optimized to reach your audience and even build your brand’s page. Lead generations and conversions can be acquired through Pay-Per-Click and Google Display Network ads. These are the ads you see in Google’s search engine and the placements you see on high-traffic websites, respectively. You can even play around with YouTube TrueView ads, and opt for In-Stream, In-Search, or Videos We Recommend.
7. Social Media humanizes your brand.
The rise of social media has proven many things, including giving your brand a personality that will stand out online. This certainly helps pique the interest of your market and allow them to grow more loyal to you. The more loyal they are, the more they’ll vouch for you and even go as far as defending your brand against those who speak negatively about it.
8. The New Mental Model
Proctor and Gamble first came out with a marketing concept called the First Moment of Truth, where shoppers make up their mind about a product in an average of five seconds—just enough time to note a product on a store shelf. This is considered the most crucial marketing opportunity for a brand. But recently, Google came out with a new mental model called the Zero Moment of Truth. This simply means that even before a consumer interacts or comes across your brand, he or she is already made aware of it through the Internet. Before the consumer enters a store, he or she already has an idea of what your brand is about.
This new mental model makes it very important to manage your online properties. If people discover you through the Internet and see bad reviews about your product or service, not to mention no reviews about your product or service, chances are you’ll lose your credibility as a brand, and even a potential customer.
The growth and strength of the Internet has definitely proven that marketing a product or service online can be anyone’s game, so as long as you develop good strategies and content. With the rising numbers of the digital landscape here in the Philippines, going digital is really the way to go.