How to grow your business with the help of digital marketing

By Nikki Carlson, Co-Founder/Co-Chair of ChicExecs Retail and Strategy Firm.

There’s nothing wrong with a strategically placed newspaper article or billboard, but if you really want to grow your business, you need the help of digital marketing.

Traditional marketing strategies have their place, but digital marketing should be every business’ priority because it’s:

• Affordable: Digital marketing offers a number of strategies based on each company’s goals and budget. Whether you’re interested in online ads or creating an organic video, you can tailor your digital marketing strategy to suit your business budget.

• Fast: Speaking of time, you can set up an email campaign in less than an hour. It’s much faster than traditional channels, where a campaign can take weeks to come to fruition.

• High Volume: If you’re looking to reach consumers outside of your local area, blogs and digital content have the potential to reach millions of viewers.

I recommend following these four trends to grow your business through digital marketing through 2022 and beyond.

fifty-four percent of users want to see more video content from the brands they buy from. So why are so many companies focusing solely on social posts and blogs?

YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok should have a place in your digital marketing mix. As long as it makes sense to your audience, you can engage with followers on a different level through engaging video content.

Your smartphone is already equipped with a high-quality camera, so shoot! The more you showcase yourself, the more confident you will become in creating promotional videos for your website, social media, and search engines like YouTube.

Third-party cookies disappear, which means that digital marketing tactics like paid ads won’t be as effective as they once were. This is why owned media, like email, is so important.

With email marketing, you fully own your subscriber data and don’t have to rely on Google or Facebook to access it. It is something powerful!

If you haven’t already, grow your mailing list. Ask shoppers to subscribe while they’re checking their cart online or add an in-store kiosk to encourage sign-ups. You can even offer a free gift to entice more people to subscribe.

Platforms like Mailchimp allow you to send hundreds of emails to subscribers in seconds. But instead of sending generic emails, use your email service provider’s personalization and automation features to really meet your customers where they are.

Thirty-six percent of Americans say they are lonely – a number that has only increased since the pandemic. In an age of growing disconnect, it’s more important for brands to bring people together.

This is why online communities are so powerful. With the right approach, you can build a following for your business while giving consumers the connection they crave.

Big brands like Sephora have created entire websites dedicated to their communities, but you can start small. Create an exclusive Facebook group or Discord server to bring your buyers together.

But give them a reason to be excited! Engage the group by:

• Reply to comments
• Ask them to vote on new features, products or colors
• To ask questions
• with members

This is your chance to get to know your customers on a more personal level, so use this free digital marketing tool to build your own online community.

Are your website and email marketing designed for mobile users first? You may not realize it, but there may be issues with spacing, formatting, and rendering.

This happens because business owners typically design their marketing promotions on a desktop computer, but consumers receive them on a mobile device. Strange things happen when you try to translate desktop designs to mobile, and that’s why companies need to design for mobile first.

You don’t need to be a developer to do this either! You can use mobile-friendly templates or mobile-optimized templates for your site.