While digital marketing makes it possible to communicate more directly and efficiently with consumers on a limited budget, it is still little used in French SMEs. What is the definition of digital marketing? What means does it require? How can a small or medium business benefit from its benefits?
What is digital marketing?
The term "digital marketing" encompasses all practices to promote a business or brand through digital media or data. It can be:
- The optimization of sites and applications on fixed and mobile terminals with the improvement of their ergonomics and their natural referencing.
- The online communication through a website and/or social networks to engage with existing and potential customers and encourage the passage of the act (purchase of a product, subscription warrants).
- The creation of traffic to the domain names of the company through the dissemination of advertisements, the purchase of links on third-party sites or the production of quality content: newsletters or explanatory guides, for example.
- The use of big data to anticipate customers' consumption habits and to better personalize the messages intended for them.
Digital marketing includes sub-categories such as mobile marketing for smartphones and tablets, viral marketing for social networks, or local marketing for geolocated offers that are sometimes grouped under the acronym SOLOMO (social, local, mobile).
The benefits of digital marketing for an SME
The main advantage offered by digital marketing is the ability to accurately measure performance by analyzing the number and duration of visits to a site and the conversion rate of these visits to purchases.
It also allows the company to develop the customer relationship to a level never before achieved: close ties with consumers stimulate their sympathy for the brand and strengthen their loyalty. In addition, digital marketing far surpasses other forms of marketing in targeting buyers for a higher return on investment.
The use of digital marketing is also a concrete way for SMEs to match the big brands, knowing that the scope of an online action depends more on its creativity than on the budget available to design it, particularly in the context of 'a local advertising that is greedy for resources. And by exclusively using social networks, it is even possible to run campaigns without a budget.
To hire a digital marketing consultant?
Digital marketing is a new and changing territory for companies and its uses are changing rapidly from year to year. Its control remains fragmented at this stage in SMEs, which still rely on traditional methods of communication, despite increasingly significant investments in this area.
Therefore, it may be useful to use the services of an external provider - the digital marketing consultant - to keep pace with your competitors. A choice probably cheaper than hiring a dedicated full-time person. This experienced specialist will be able to identify the most relevant media and guide the company towards the most profitable actions while taking a fresh look at the company's activities.