Today’s buying public hasn’t abandoned brick-and-mortar stores yet, but the number of customers buying products and services online continues to grow every year. To profit from that shift in buying habits, business owners are taking steps to develop a Digital Marketing Strategy to get their share of the profit from those transactions. The issue facing businesses is no longer if an online presence is necessary, but how to develop one that actually works. There are ten reasons every business needs a digital strategy to be competitive not only now, but in the future as well.
1. Developing a strategy defines a business’s overall direction.
Most businesses have some type of plans in place, but even those with planning often fail to develop a comprehensive strategy. In other words, each part of a business plan must mesh with other parts to achieve success. Product development, shipping, receiving, and office operations budgets and needs must be addressed, not just online marketing.
2. Get to know who visits your website.
Even when a website is in use, many businesses do not know who is really visiting their websites. Modern digital marketing includes techniques to identify visitors, giving website designers knowledge needed to improve the site.
3. Old customers are just as important as new ones.
Traditionally, companies know it’s harder to garner new customers than it is to keep old ones, but websites without added value do little to retain previous clients. A quality marketing strategy recognizes the need to include elements attractive to prior clients as well as new ones.
4. Digital marketing strategies demand businesses take a close look at budgets.
While budgets are important, assigning an arbitrary amount to online marketing without exploring potential improvements is counterproductive. With the growing need to expand online markets, narrowly focused budgets can be a hindrance to expanding the company’s market share.
5. A digital strategy makes sure everyone is focused on the same goals.
It’s easy for departmentalized companies to suffer from a lack of vision. While individual departments may be aware of the departmental goals, they may not understand how each department fits into the overall picture. With a solid strategy in place, everyone is aware of the company’s goals and what it will take to achieve them.
6. Comprehensive strategies prevent duplications.
As part of an overall strategy, compartmentalization can be minimized. Buying supplies, for example, can be assigned to one group to prevent overbuying of materials or duplications of services.
7. Payments and collections can be simplified.
SEO experts work with clients to determine the best options for payment methods. E-commerce strategies require flexibility to stay competitive, and convenient payment options are vital, as consumers want easy ways to purchase online.
8. Take advantage of consumers’ switching to mobile devices.
This is, arguably, one of the most difficult issues for companies to grasp. The number of mobile devices in use is rapidly increasing while the use of desktop devices is, at best, stagnant. That means company websites must be visible and easy to access on those mobile devices. Digital strategies incorporate the need for updating older websites or creating new ones to take advantage of the shift to mobile devices.
9. Keeping up with Google is still vitally important.
Because Google still gets the lion’s share of search requests, company websites must stay abreast of the organization’s rapidly evolving algorithms. SEO experts are well-versed in Google’s demands and keep companies from falling victim to the search engine’s rapid-fire changes.
10. Be ready for what comes next.
As powerful as Google is today, everything changes. Digital strategy experts understand change is inevitable and work with clients to make sure they are ready to take advantage of change when it happens.
Because long-term profits are directly related with online marketing, working with an SEO professional is almost a forgone conclusion. There are many Los Angeles SEO Companies that will provide a free website audit to asses where you are in your rankings and how to improve. If your company is one of the many that still hasn’t contacted an SEO professional about adopting a comprehensive digital marketing plan, now would be great time to do so. Contact an expert today and start seeing increased profits once a plan is put in place.