The key to any business and its success is undoubtedly marketing. Once upon a time, this probably meant something like placing an advert in your local paper to display your products and services, or perhaps relying on word of mouth recommendations. This was enough to get you all the customers you needed to survive and thrive as a business. However, times have changed, and digital marketing seems to be the new norm, across practically all industries. In fact, more methods of digital marketing seem to crop up every day, from shiny new social media platforms you’re encouraged to advertise on before the market gets too saturated, to the virtual webinars and events that most of us are now all too familiar with thanks to the events that 2020 threw our way. In fact, it seems like everyone is jumping on the digital marketing bandwagon and focusing their marketing strategies on the digital world, and there are plenty of agencies specialising in this to help them do it.

Because it’s so popular, you should probably be investing in it too, right? Well, the answer to this question is unfortunately not that straightforward! It’s natural to have a ‘fear of missing out’ when you see what’s popular, and you’re not yet getting involved. This goes for digital marketing, as well as many other things in life. But digital marketing is not necessarily for everyone, and if you look hard enough, you will find those business owners who solidly refuse to get on board. This could be either because they don’t fully understand it, or they simply feel that it’s not that relevant to what they do.

So, should you be investing your marketing budget into all things digital? In truth, it’s completely up to you. There’s no one right or wrong way to run your business, and what works well for your competition might not be your ideal solution. In this post, we’ll be running you through some key marketing questions to ask yourself before you decide if digital marketing is right for your business, to help you decide if the digital marketing realm is the right path to go down for the benefit of yourself and your business.

So, what are the key marketing questions to ask before you decide on digital marketing?

These questions are simply aimed to be a rough guide, to give you some pointers to prompt you to think about your current marketing strategy and whether it could benefit from an injection of all things digital. Whether you’re completely new to the concept of digital marketing for your business, or you already do some but are looking to up the ante, these questions should help.

1. Will digital marketing help me meet my goals?

Every good business owner has a set of goals that they’re working towards at any given time. Usually, these goals encompass a range of short and long term items, that you can use to shape the future of your business. Of course, your marketing activity should be geared towards helping you reach those goals. So, first up on our list of key marketing questions to ask yourself when it comes to digital marketing is, will it help you reach your goals? Once your goals are in place, you need to ask yourself whether you are currently growing? Where are you getting your leads from? Do your current marketing activities deliver a good return on investment? How quickly are your goals being reached? Answering these questions will give you a good idea about whether your current marketing activities are actually working for you. Either they are driving enough leads to produce growth, provide a good ROI, and reach your goals, or they’re not.

If the first option is the case, then what you’re currently doing is probably working fine for you. You may not actually need to think about upping your digital marketing, unless you particularly want to try something new, or you think that there’s even more potential for growth. But, if you’re faced with a case of the second option, your marketing efforts probably need some re-evaluation. Digital marketing could be a part of this. For example, are you utilising your social media presence effectively? Is your website set up well to make it easy for leads to contact you? How’s your SEO strategy? Do you do any online advertising? If you are looking at changing up your marketing and making it more digital, it’s a good idea to approach some marketing experts for help. But, if your current marketing strategy is working just fine, there’s probably no need to shake things up and spend more money on marketing just for the sake of it!

2. What does my customer want?

The rise of digital marketing has led to many people seeing digital vs traditional marketing as two entirely different things. As a result, some businesses feel that they need to choose one or the other, and that the two approaches don’t work too well together. In reality, this is not the case, and the vast majority of businesses can benefit from some form of amalgamation between the two to create the best possible strategy! After all, marketing is all about enticing customers in to buy your products or services. But how is this done? By communicating with them in the way that’s most engaging to them! And, no matter who your customers may be, there’s a high chance that they’ll have daily exposure to both digital and traditional ways of marketing.

This is true of even the elderly generation, who are getting online at a rate never seen before. For example, more than half of people aged 65+ now shop online– a statistic that has probably grown even further in the last year, due to various lockdowns and Coronavirus restrictions, moving more of our world online than ever before. And on the other side, even the younger generations are still involved in the traditional media world. They still watch TV advertisements, read magazines, check their post, and drive past advertisements on billboards, buses, and posters out there in the ‘real world’. As a result, practically nobody is completely alienated from either one or the other when it comes to digital vs traditional marketing.

So, what are we trying to say here? Well, essentially that if you want to communicate with your customers in the best way possible, it’s probably a good idea to use a mixture of both digital and traditional marketing methods! When it comes to key marketing questions to ask yourself before you decide if digital marketing is right for you, remember this. Often, the best marketing strategies wholeheartedly embrace both traditional and digital methods, to communicate with their customers in exciting and engaging ways, and make the most of all the marketing avenues open to them.

3. What can digital marketing do for you?

Finally on this list of key marketing questions to ask yourself, it’s important to establish whether digital marketing will bring tangible benefits to you and your business. And this doesn’t necessarily mean more customers straight away! Some business owners write digital marketing off because they see it as purely a lead generation tool, and often one that costs money to run (such as is the case with social media or search engine advertising). And, if they’re getting the leads they need elsewhere in the traditional marketing world, why would they need to bother with digital marketing? However, it’s also important to look at it from a different angle. Many digital marketing tools, such as social media posts, videos, and blogs can actually be used to raise brand awareness in your target audience, and position you as a knowledgeable voice in your field. All of this is important for many types of businesses, but it’s difficult to do with traditional marketing methods.

So, ask yourself what digital marketing can do for you beyond simple lead generation. Do you want to educate people? Generally increase your brand awareness online? Provide great customer service utilising the power of social media? By integrating digital marketing tactics into your wide marketing strategy, you will often find that lead generation actually comes naturally, as a consequence of increasing your brand awareness and providing something genuinely useful to your prospective customers.

Key Marketing Questions To Ask Before You Decide If Digital Marketing Is Right For You: Conclusion

As you can hopefully see from the points raised in this article, digital marketing often goes beyond people’s preconceptions of what it’s all about. While there are some businesses out there for whom it genuinely wouldn’t add much value, for the majority, this isn’t the case. While completely moving your marketing activities online is probably not the way to go for most, the large majority of businesses can benefit from an injection of digital marketing strategy. It can help you target more customers, position yourself as an industry expert, educate and entertain, and more. It goes far beyond simple lead generation!

Having said this, every business is, of course, different. And, you know your business better than anyone. If you think that digital marketing isn’t going to bring value to you, then don’t feel like you have to get on board just because everyone else is. At the end of the day, effective marketing strategies look different for everyone. Once you’ve found what really works best for you, you’ll soon reap the benefits of increased leads and growth, if this is what you are looking for in business.

Looking to develop your business but not sure where to begin? Contact me today at graham@grahamgarman.com or complete the contact form here and I’ll get back to your shortly to discuss your individual requirements.