1. Because Digital Marketing Levels the Online Playing Field

Gone are the days when business owners still welcome the notion that Digital Marketing business is only for the likes of multinationals and large corporations that have the sufficient resources required to mount an online marketing campaign. Digital Marketing actually levels the playing field, providing small and medium enterprises the chance to compete against the big boys and attract their share of targeted traffic.

With digital marketing, small companies now have the resources to perform sales and marketing processes that were previously available only to large corporations. Without a call center, small businesses can engage effectively with multiple customers, even to customers from any parts of the world even if they don’t have physical stores or branches in these locations.

2. Because Digital Marketing Is More Cost-Effective than Traditional Marketing

Small businesses have very little resources and even capitalization. This is why Digital Marketing provides them with a better and much more cost-effective marketing channel that delivers results. Digital Marketing Spend Report highlighted that up to 40% of respondents claimed getting considerable savings by using digital marketing methods of promotion for their products and services.

That is why 28% of business owners surveyed will shift marketing budget allocations from traditional media channels and invest them into digital online marketing tools and techniques. HubSpot confirms this as shown in the chart below that confirms how digital marketers get better Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) compared to other marketing channels.

3. Because Digital Marketing Delivers Conversion

Businesses marketing products and services online measure success by the percentage rate of incoming traffic gets converted into leads, subscribers or sales, depending on the intended purposes of your website. Without conversion, all your traffic would mean nothing and all your marketing efforts will simply go to waste. That is why business owners are streamlining their digital marketing campaigns towards conversion optimization, making it a top priority above everything else.

There are several tools and techniques that you can use for your digital marketing campaign such as Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing and email marketing. As seen from the chart below from HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report, these three that generate quick and effective communication and interaction with targeted audiences will deliver better-than-average results in terms of higher conversion rates.

4. Because Digital Marketing Helps Generate Better Revenues

Higher conversion rates generated by effective digital marketing techniques will deliver loads of profitable benefits for you and your business in terms of better and higher revenues. Google confirms this in a study with IPSOS Hong Kong, claiming 2.8 times better revenue growth expectancy for companies using digital marketing strategies to those who do not.

With better revenue growth expectancy, small and medium enterprises using digital marketing techniques will have 3.3 times better chances of expanding their workforce and business – opening their doors to better, larger and farther reaching markets both locally and abroad. Google’s Asia-Pacific Head of SME Kevin O’Kane describes the Internet as rocket fuel for growth for small and medium enterprises.

5. Because Digital Marketing Facilitates Interaction with Targeted Audiences

One of the reasons why digital marketing is taking over traditional marketing channels is the ability of Internet marketing tools to interact with targeted audiences in real time. Engagement in any form is what your customers expect to receive when interacting with your brand or business. How your business handles such engagements and interactions will spell the difference between business success and failure.

Interacting and providing your customers with proper engagement points can give you an insight of what your targeted audiences want. This vital information will steer you towards making the right set of next moves, provide your customers with an even better experience, develop good relationships with them – gaining their loyalty and trust that you will need when your business begins to grow.

6. Because Digital Marketing Caters to the Mobile Consumer

Undoubtedly, mobile internet will be the next wave of information dissemination and communication channel, brought about by the rapid proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices. These mobile devices have become a central part of American life that 91% of adults in the United States always have their devices within reaching distance.

Now would be the best time to have digital marketing campaigns intended towards mobile consumers, paving the way for them towards achieving better growth and faster expansion. Mobile gadgets have evolved from being mere alternatives for laptops and personal computers, into something that is influencing their purchasing decisions as confirmed by another report from eMarketer.

7. Because Digital Marketing Builds Brand Reputation

The power of digital marketing lies in its ability for attracting targeted traffic. These types of audiences for your content are most likely already ready to know more about your brand, products or services and may be interested enough to purchase what you have to offer. Delivering on what you promised will help you develop a better relationship with your targeted audiences, help them transition into paying customers that will go back and interact with your site some more – on a regular and continuous basis.

This will prove beneficial for your brand reputation, as satisfied customers will most likely tell other people about their experience with your brand, product or service. Your brand reputation will go viral as expected, further opening new doors of opportunities for reaching bigger markets and attain business growth.

8. Because Digital Marketing Provides better ROI for Your Marketing Investments

With better revenues and better branding, Digital Marketing can provide a better Return of Investments (ROI) than traditional media and marketing channels. With traditional media, the cost is too exorbitant for small and medium enterprises to leverage on, and the results received are somewhat vague and difficult to measure.

Digital Marketing on the other hand can easily be tracked and monitored, with results immediately realized and measured as soon as targeted audiences provide contact information, subscribe to a newsletter or training program, or make a purchase. The key to success in Digital marketing however, is to generate a steady flow of targeted traffic that converts into sales and leads. The more your business generates this kind of traffic, the faster you can realize your ROI.

9. Because Digital Marketing Earns People’s Trust

Digital Marketing rides on the current online trend that focus more on social media signals resulting from direct and more personalized interaction between a brand or business and their targeted audiences. In the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey that involved 25 thousand consumers coming from at least 50 countries, 90 percent of respondents claimed they would trust information about a particular brand, product or service if the data comes from people they know.

Digital Marketing leverages on social media signals, social proof and testimonials from actual consumers who have previously purchased, joined, or availed of a product or service marketed by a particular brand or business. The more reliable these social signals are, the higher the trust rate it can generate from targeted audiences – most of which can be potential customers.

10. Because Digital Marketing Entices People to Take Favorable Action

While social signals and testimonials help earn trust from targeted audiences, Digital Marketing makes use of effective strategies that will entice people to take a favorable action your brand or business intends them to take. Conversion to leads or sales is still initiated and under full control by the website visitor. They are not compelled to do so but digital marketers can make use of clever and innovative ways to entice conversion using Calls-To-Action.

Calls-To-Action specifies what your web visitors should do next – either to sign up, like, download something, call or buy – specific steps that will entice them to perform a favorable action. Innovative forms, buttons and texts are optimized according to copy, color scheme, graphics and even positioning on the page to generate the best results in terms of generating favorable action.

11. Because Digital Marketing Makes You Ready for the Internet of Things

The “Internet of Things” is a global ecosystem of interconnected devices – tablets, smartphones, gadgets, appliances and more – that can interact with each other through the Internet. Sounds like something from a Sci-Fi thriller, but this is what the projected 24 billion gadgets by the year 2020 will actually head to. Digital Marketing will prepare your business towards this eventuality, an interconnected ecosystem that will permeate through every aspect of people’s lives. Survival for your business in the era of the “Internet of Things” means inclusion in this interconnected grid – giving you an access window to reach out to targeted audiences belonging to this online grid.

12. Because Digital Marketing Ensures Business Survival Online

It is a normal occurrence for brick-and-mortar business establishments to encounter visitors entering their store, skimming through and inspecting products, then leave without buying anything. Many kinds of people like these come and go, but a targeted few will actually make a purchase and if satisfied, will come back for more on a later date. If you get less of the later and more of the few, sooner or later your brick-and-mortar business will cease to exist.

Your business can be likened to this. Even if you have tons of website visitors but none of them ever convert, your  business will also cease to exist. Digital Marketing helps you make use of proven strategies and techniques that attract not necessarily more traffic – but highly targeted traffic that delivers results. Targeting the right kind of people that delivers the right kind of results is what Digital Marketing is all about – ensuring survival for your business.

A business needs to have a strong online presence these days if its leaders want to be competitive — there is no way around that rule. Yet, not every startup and small business can afford to hire a digital marketing agency. So, how can business owners compete with little to no budget?

The answer is self-education.

Multiple online courses are available to teach and explain the many different components of digital marketing, and some of them are completely free. Here are six free courses from the online education marketplace ISDMMT that can help beginners understand online marketing.

1. Creating a website using WordPress

To have an online presence, a business must have a website. WordPress is one of the easiest blogging and content management systems to learn, and this course, within a couple of hours, will teach you the fundamentals for publishing a fully functional website.

Interestingly, this course doesn’t touch on HTML or other coding programs, but that’s the beauty of WordPress — it’s so simple to use and doesn’t require coding or other technical knowledge to create a website for your business.

For your new business with a limited budget, this tutorial can help you launch a website that fills the void until your budget allows for a fully customized, professional website to be developed.

2. SEO training course

What is SEO? That’s a question many business owners have, and this SEO training course by ISDMMT is perfect for those who need a very basic introduction to the world of search engine optimization.

There are several on-page and off-page components of SEO, and this course does a good job of breaking them down into very easy-to-digest explanations. If you already have a basic understanding of SEO, this course might seem a little watered down — it’s designed specifically for those with no prior knowledge or experience.

3. Social media marketing for beginners

Social media is the driving force today behind many businesses, small to large, and it’s a digital marketing component that you need to be deeply invested in if you want to thrive online.

This course is perfect for those new to online marketing who want to learn what makes up a successful social media marketing effort. Students will learn why social media is such an important piece of the marketing puzzle, and how to avoid the most common mistakes that tend to plague beginners.

4. A Google Analytics course for beginners

Google Analytics is one of the most insightful tools, providing valuable feedback about your online marketing efforts which can help you eliminate wasted spend and scale winning campaigns. At first look, this tool can seem overwhelming, but this Google Analytics course is a great way for beginners to become acquainted with its ins and outs.

Someone with no prior Google Analytics knowledge can learn how to set it up on his or her website, read and analyze the many reporting options available and learn how to set up and understand conversion goals. Google Analytics is a must-use tool for any online business, making this course a must-have for anyone new to online marketing.

5. Creating high-quality blog content

Having a blog alone doesn’t guarantee that a business will enjoy marketing success. After all, everyone has a blog these days. That makes it all the more important that you create quality content. You have to provide value to your readers if you expect to convert them into brand supporters and customers.

This free course dives into what it takes to create quality content that generates organic website traffic, email list subscribers and customers. It also lays out what makes content thrive on social media and how to create successful content on a consistent basis. Other tips, like how to source free images for your blog posts, are valuable tidbits that provide value to beginners.

6. Use Google to search like a professional

In order to fully understand how online marketing works, you need to know how Google’s search engine works. This course explains how to use Google to find the most relevant information pertaining to your search queries.

Many small business owners aren’t up to speed with Google, and this is the perfect soft introduction for those that aren’t yet proficient or are even computer illiterate. With little to no computer or Internet experience, owners learn how Google works — a must before they attempt to use it in their marketing endeavors.