Digital Marketing Springfield MO

Broadly, digital marketing refers to any form of advertising efforts realized through electronic devices and digital channels. Using websites, social media, email marketing, and mobile applications through electronic devices such as phones, computers, tablets, or any other devices to convey promotional messaging and analyze its performance can be defined as digital marketing.

Even though television is an electronic device – promotion, and marketing through TV ads is categorized as traditional marketing. Companies use digital marketing methods to reach out to a broader audience and promote their brand, goods, and services as well as educate and inform. As per available data, around 70 percent of consumers today learn about products and services through online content rather than through traditional means.

As more and more consumers prefer searching for products, brands, or services on their mobile or through other digital devices, traditional marketing’s importance and reach continues to diminish. Let us briefly cover the importance of digital marketing in today’s business environment –

• Digital marketing allows businesses, entrepreneurs, freelancers, etc., to reach out easily to a global audience.
• Ability to interact with potential customers while analyzing and learning what prospects are looking for.
• Digital marketing’s impact and footprint last much longer than traditional marketing measures while costing a mere fraction of the expense.
• One can increase brand awareness, brand visibility, and brand loyalty by enhancing online visibility while bridging the gap between the company and the consumers. 
• Digital marketing is scalable, and its impact/performance is measurable. 
• Digital marketing allows businesses to get an edge over the competition. It has become a necessary means to not only compete but to even be able to stay in business.
• Digital marketing campaigns can be optimized for targeted reach and achieving better results.
• Digital marketing offers far better ROI than traditional marketing.
• Done right, it establishes you as an authority in your niche and enhances brand reputation.

Undoubtedly! Digital marketing is the future primarily because of advancements in mobile technology in the last few years. As more and more consumers access information through mobile phones, companies are shifting their marketing focus to mobile. As per 2019 data, half of all web traffic came from mobile phones. And it continues to grow rapidly. Around 60 percent of all smartphone users contact a company directly from search results. The switch in consumers’ behavior and consumer trends has led to companies focusing more on digital marketing than other marketing means. 

Digital marketing is penetrating our lives more deeply than ever before today by using voice-powered devices, AI-based applications, technologies, devices and programs, social media platforms, and the increasing popularity of micro-influencers. These trends lean towards digital marketing and indicate the future trends to look out for.

A digital marketing strategy can be defined as the course of action planned and executed using online marketing channels to achieve set marketing and business goals. A digital marketing strategy is a blueprint to achieving long-term marketing goals and must not be confused with the digital marketing campaign. A digital marketing campaign is part of a digital marketing strategy focused on achieving short-term and micro-business goals and objectives. The four primary steps involved with digital marketing includes –

• Defining Your Target Audience
• Setting Long-Term and Short-Term Goals
• Audit, Modify and Improve Existing Online Marketing Strategies
• Ascertaining and Establishing Marketing Budget

As much as so-called digital marketing “Gurus” say that it is easy – it is not. That said, it doesn’t mean digital marketing cannot be mastered. But it needs laser focus and the ability to keep up with the fast-changing internet market, consumer trends, and ever-evolving search engine algorithms. 

Digital marketing is not easy simply because there is no right answer to how to rank on top of the search engine or what needs to be done to get desired results – every single time. What used to work six years, six months, or even six days back may not work today. And, what worked for a “roofing website” will not work for a “photography website.” So, what makes digital marketing highly challenging, yet interesting and rewarding, so much so that it’s worth investing your time, money, and effort in? 

• Competition. You’re competing with other businesses from across the globe. 
• Trust is not easily earned online, and it needs consistency and persistent efforts to gain market reputation and trust of end-users.
• The attention span of online users is dropping with every passing day, and as per the last study, it was only 8 seconds. So, in al practicality you have approximately 8 seconds to convince your visitor online to buy, enroll, subscribe, etc., or whatever your call-to-action might be.
• The results are not always guaranteed or achieved overnight. It is a time-consuming process that needs patience.
• Digital marketing requires the ability to constantly learn new techniques, update the strategy, experiment with new and innovative ideas, tweak the strategy when required, measure performance continually, optimize digital marketing campaigns, and invest a lot of time and effort to get results. It is the job best left to SEO/digital marketing professionals.