What is digital marketing and why do I need it for my business?

In short, digital marketing is simply any form of marketing that happens online.

Popular digital marketing tactics and channels include:

• Social media: Using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and more to promote your brand by publishing valuable and engaging content.
• Search engine optimisation (SEO): Enables you to increase your website’s organic ranking to increase traffic. The higher your website ranks in a Google search, the more people will find your website.
• Content marketing: Helps you to bring valuable content to customers. The focus is on value and creating content that will attract new customers.
• Pay-per-click (PPC): Drawing paid traffic to your website. As an advertiser, you pay the publisher every time your ad is clicked.
• Video marketing: Used to promote your brand or product, show behind the scenes of your business, share stories, and testimonials.
• Email marketing: One of the oldest forms of digital marketing that has one of the highest returns. It involves sending personalised emails to a database of prospects and existing customers.

Why does my business need digital marketing?

Digital marketing has the power to bring opportunities and growth to your business. There are loads of compelling reasons why you should use digital marketing. Here are our top six reasons why your SME business needs digital marketing:

Your customers are online

According to a report published by Datareportal.com, there were 22.82 million internet users in Australia in January 2021, which equates to 89 per cent of the Australian population using the internet. Nearly 80 per cent of internet users are active social media users, and the average time that users aged between 16 and 64 years spend on the internet is a whopping six hours and 13 minutes, every day.

Based on those figures alone, it should be quite clear that your business needs to be speaking to your customers and potential customers through online channels. Even if they hear about you through traditional channels like word-of-mouth or conventional marketing, they’ll head online to learn more. If potential customers can't find anything about you online, chances are you'll lose them.