How to develop a digital growth strategy for your business
When it comes to turning a small business into a large one, it is never so easy. But if you feel it’s not good enough for you or your business, or if you believe that staying small doesn’t really guarantee the survival of your business, there are a couple of real life examples that companies have successfully used to transition from that small start-up business to a full fledged business. As you embark on creating your digital growth strategy, the first thing you should consider are the fundamentals of an intensive digital growth strategy. Each fundamental brings more opportunities for an unprecedented growth, but also a little risk. They are: WE RECOMMEND: How outsourcing can help your start up business Online Market Penetration: This particular growth strategy is less risky for any business, because the idea is to understand how your product will reach more customers through various mediums online. You can find out how to sell more of your current products to current customers, while analyzing the possibility of expanding to other online territories. Online Market Development: The next fundamental you’d come across on this growth ladder is to come up with a way of selling more of your current products to a growing market – offering your product or services to customers in other cities, states or countries. For example, as your business grows, your product or services may be in demand in other locations, but you may never know if you do not devise a way of expanding your business. Alternative Digital Platforms: This digital growth strategy involves pursuing customers in a different way such as, for example, selling your products through media platforms, apps etc. The customer behavior is drastically shifting and in order to stay on course, you need to match the shift by being visible on these digital platforms that your customers are moving to. Product Development: This is one strategy that is very key. It involves developing new and exciting products to sell to your existing customers as well as to the new ones. If you have a choice, you would ideally like to sell your new products to existing customers and market your products to new customers to increase your sales force. If you decide to follow one of the Intensive Digital Growth Strategies, you should ideally take only one step up at a time, since each step may take a longer while than the other, and of course the effort it would take to achieve each step. The cue is that sometimes, the market changes without warning, and it forces you to take immediate action. Sometimes, you have no choice but to take more steps.
REVEALED: 5 Digital Marketing Trends for Your Business in 2020
We have watched the rise of internet users over the past decade, Google playing a huge role across major continents of the world to connect millions to the internet for the first time. While you may find yourself in a position to maintain the pace of digital revolution, there is a lot to suggest an optimistic outlook for your business in 2020, but this will depend increasingly on your willingness to adapt and compete with industry players, innovators and tech leaders. Below are 5 digital marketing trends you should watch out for in 2020: User Generated Content: While you may be aware that this isn’t new, user-generated content is transforming everything from reviews to information research and discovery. Amateur created content is massive, real and will continue to grow not only in size but also in importance across online platforms and content type. Everyone has an opinion and wants it to be heard! Review sites will also become more important in the marketer’s armory. Many businesses would leverage on UGC to drive brand perception. Mobile Apps to replace website: With smartphone rapidly in use, more companies will take heed and employ mobile enterprise applications to effectively mobilize their sales force. Mobile apps will allow many companies manage resources such as inventory and their supply chain using mobile phones, either through SMS or Web-enabled applications. The steady increase in the number of mobile users will continue to fuel this trend. ALSO READ: How to boost conversion rate of your website. Increase in Vlogging: The ever-rising of vloggers and the popularity of video content sharing has changed the dynamics of consumer/brand interaction online. According to a recent survey, over 75% of users on social media say that they are likely to patronize a business if they promote video contents. Sites like YouTube have introduced innovative ways that people can watch and share video content. Facebook has already released the concept of video images for profiles, and many people are already using video as a profile instead of a picture. The Rise of TikTok: A new contender has entered the arena, most especially for young people, that contender is TikTok. A social media app that allows users to post short lip-synced, music, talent or comedy skits. In 2019, TikTok hit 524 million active users worldwide, while in China, it hit over 150 million daily users and counting – a strong platform for social media marketing. To leverage on this trend, business would now have TikTok accounts to target the right millennial audience with funny and exciting short video contents. Focus on AI in Marketing: In 2020, a lot of emphasis would be placed on the implementation of Artificial Intelligence to promote business. For example, the existence of voice search will greatly increase relevance in the online development of search. Online services will now create voice query analysis and rework their content to reflect this development. This would impact user experience when it comes to google searching as voice makes it more easy to communicate what a user is searching for. ALSO READ: Four reason why digital marketing matters
Four Reasons why Digital Marketing Matters
Why does digital marketing matter so much that everyone has it on blogs, social media, online stores, online ads, emails and more? The truth is consumers are turning ever more to the online marketplace. Below are four important reasons you should digitally promote your small business. When it comes to making decisions for your business or services, customers now use online research to aid their choices. Did you know 75% of consumers now research businesses online? Five out of every ten will depend on social media or review sites to conduct their research. When prospective clients are looking for you online and your business is not visible, they won’t see you; however, they will see your competitors the possibility of your customers going for your competitors could be high. So endeavor to create a very strong online presence for your business. Creating SEO related contents is one important tactic that you can adopt for your business. It needs a more flexible approach that can adapt to the constant landscape change, while ensuring that your business methods are data driven and targeted to your key audience. Over 62% of small businesses use digital marketing, which means that you may be in the minority if you do not have a digital marketing strategy for your business. As long as you are not visible to potential customers, they are finding out about your competition, giving them sales instead of you, which becomes a challenge for you by the time you start to notice this. More than ever before, people now have more access to the online world. Online search is already a big part of the customer experience. It looks unlikely that it is going to change; but in fact, it is almost certain the importance of the online market is going to continue to increase tremendously. In summary, any business that doesn’t tap into the digital marketing space is going to end up losing out on all the awareness, branding and potential return.
