by 3 Reasons Your Brick and Mortar Business Should Embrace Digital Marketing
Are you pondering whether to start using digital marketing for your brick and mortar business?
It’s understandable if you aren’t entirely sold yet. After all, whether your business is a coffee shop, grocery store, bookstore, medical office, or beauty spa, you rely on walk-in customers from your community. Why go digital when your target customers can easily find your local store down the street?
Well, the consumption habits of most of your customers are evolving. As technology advances, more people are using the internet to search for local businesses.
Continue reading to learn why digital marketing should form the core of your marketing strategy.
- Your Customers Are Online
Over 90 percent of consumers in the U.S. use the internet regularly. And they’re not just using it to watch videos on social media. They’re using it to shop for products and services from both local and foreign companies.
A rule of thumb in business is to be where your customers are. Although you’re a local business and your customers are in your community, they’re now relying on the internet to find local businesses instead of walking around and looking for the neighborhood grocery store.
Digital marketing will put your business where your customers are. By setting up a business website and optimizing it for local search, for example, there’s a good chance your business will show up in local search engine results. This local SEO resource has everything you need to know about search optimization.
- Digital Marketing Is Cost-Effective
Making newsletters and brochures might not hurt your pocket too much, but try putting an ad on a local newspaper or television and you will quickly feel the pinch. Yet, newspapers and TV ads are the ones that will give your business great exposure.
The good news is you no longer have to pay big money for traditional marketing. At a cheaper cost, digital marketing gives your business an even better reach.
Take an example of social media ads. Almost all your target customers are using social media, so by running ads on various social media platforms, you’ll reach them easily. Plus, in many cases, you only get to pay when somebody clicks on your social media ad.
- Fire Up Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is the process of creating lasting relationships with your customers. Engaged customers are more likely to make repeat purchases and refer your products/services to their friends.
One of the most effective ways to build customer engagement is to maintain contact with your customers. Online marketing makes this effortless.
There are several digital methods you can use to build customer engagement. These include blogging, vlogging, and social media. Customers will easily engage with your content by commenting, liking, and sharing – depending on the platform.
Digital Marketing Is Good for Your Brick and Mortar Business
Local sales are the bread and butter of any brick and mortar business. While traditional marketing might be delivering the customers, it’s time to embrace digital marketing. It’s not only more cost-friendly, but also enables you to keep up with your customers’ changing shopping preferences.
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