Digital marketing is now past the infancy stage in the Philippines. With 80 million internet users (estimated to reach about 100 million by 2023) in the country, enterprises and startups alike are quick to capitalize on the availability of digital platforms.

But, what makes businesses dive into the digital marketing ecosystem goes beyond convenience—it’s all about growth.

What is Digital Marketing?

You may find different definitions of digital marketing, but let’s stick with the simplest:

Digital marketing involves marketing efforts that take place online. It’s the umbrella term for different types of strategies that allow you to promote your brand and connect to your audience on different online platforms or other electronic media. SEO services, social media marketing, content marketing, paid ads, and email marketing fall under digital marketing services.

As the internet evolved, digital marketing became essential to how businesses navigate the online landscape. Combined with the development of mobile technology, the digital space has provided today’s businesses with the capacity to scale their marketing efforts more cost-effectively.

How Does Digital Marketing Help Businesses Grow?

But, why digital marketing? Two reasons:

It’s convenient
It’s cost-effective

While traditional forms of marketing have not waned and brands still defer to these methods for promotion, the rise in digital consumption is too big for businesses to ignore. Even if you’re a small business owner running a mom-and-pop store in your neighborhood, internet marketing strategies for businesses can provide the exposure you need to get customers.

Let’s explore how digital marketing help businesses grow:

1. Digital Marketing Helps Build Authority

Think back to when you’re doing a search on Google.

Do you click on websites appearing on the third or fourth page of search results? The majority of users rarely go past the first page.

Most of the traffic goes to responsive websites on the first or second pages of search results, which make it all the more important to be in the top positions. The higher the position of your website and the stronger its online presence, the more it appears to users.

Being in the top position comes with perks. In digital marketing, staying on the first page helps businesses build authority and establish reliable branding.

Start by developing an SEO and content marketing strategy with the following:

Content that addresses their needs
Content that fuels their curiosity and makes them come back to your site
Content that establishes your subject matter expertise and pegs you as an authority within your niche.

Whether you’re a startup or an enterprise owner, your online presence provides your business with an anchor to stay connected with your customers.

2. Digital Marketing Helps Attract Targeted Audience

The more people see your brand, the better. But, not in all cases.

If you want your efforts to pay off, you need to narrow down your marketing to the right audience.

Unlike traditional marketing, you can get as granular as you want with your audience in digital marketing. This helps you stay in front of those who are likely to become your customers.

You can achieve this in different ways:

Paid ads: Make your business appear to customers who have high purchasing intent whenever they search online. An engaging ad copy, target keywords, and a budget to run ads on Google are all you need.
Remarketing banners: Visitor didn’t convert? You can still make them come back with remarketing ads that appear on websites they visit.
Content marketing: Use the power of content to drive the right message to the right audience based on their stage in the buyer’s journey.
Social media marketing: Build your brand’s following and engage with people who can become your brand advocates later on.

With the right planning and execution by a digital marketing agency, these activities can help your business capture a more laser-focused audience that’s likely to drive more returns.

3. Digital Marketing Helps Businesses Develop Measurable, Scalable Strategies

Marketing is all about data. You can’t rely on guesswork to develop your strategies.

While traditional marketing gets eyes on your business, how do you translate that to ROI? You may end up with baseless assumptions and have difficulty in adjusting your marketing initiatives to maximize returns.

Digital marketing is different. Results are measured and tracked, so you can adjust your strategy as needed until you’ve achieved your goals.

When you start an online marketing campaign, you can define metrics to measure the success of your strategies: clicks, bounce rate, and conversions.

This type of performance marketing provides you with insights that you can base your next move on.

In digital marketing, you can see the performance of your campaigns in real-time, unlike traditional marketing. ou have access to a myriad of internet marketing tools that provide you data on different aspects of your marketing campaigns:

Google Search Console
Google Analytics
Ahrefs
Semrush

With performance-based marketing data, you can scale your next strategies to provide better ROI for your business.

4. Digital Marketing Helps in Driving More Leads for Less

In the Philippines, you’ll have to spend hundreds of thousands of pesos for a 30-second television commercial.

But, let’s face it. Not all businesses have the financial resources to spend that significant amount of money for brand promotions.

The good news is they don’t have to.

Digital marketing provides businesses with lead generation initiatives minus the high price tag that comes with traditional advertising.

Through inbound and outbound marketing methods, you can maximize lead generation and implement a more holistic approach to win more customers.

Here are a few ways you can incorporate inbound and outbound strategies into your digital marketing strategy:

Content Marketing and Email Marketing: Get started with email marketing 101 and learn how to distribute your best content to your leads and nurture them to be your customers.
SEO and PPC: Supplement your strategy with SEO and PPC to get as much online real estate.
Video Marketing and Remarketing: Use video marketing and remarketing to engage your audience until they’re ready to purchase from you.

With digital marketing, you don’t need a huge budget to hit it off. So, all the money that you can save from your marketing spend can go to growing other aspects of your business.

5. Digital Marketing Helps with Online Reputation Management

What do customers say about your business?

Digital marketing helps your business uncover customer insights and develop a strategy that appeals to their sentiments. More importantly, you have control over your online reputation.

You can leverage multiple digital channels to earn the trust of your customers and display that for others to see. Appearing on review sites with a high rating, for instance, gives you the edge to prompt customers to make a buying decision.

Pro-tip: Use social monitoring or reputation management tools to collect data on brand mentions and reviews. Hootsuite and Brandwatch are some of the most recommended tools to use for brand monitoring and management.

6. Digital Marketing Breaks Geographical Boundaries

Digital marketing isn’t as limiting as traditional marketing practices when it comes to location targeting. It blurs the geographical boundaries and allows businesses to expand their reach to locations outside their area.

With the right strategy, an improved online presence can help your business compete in both the local and global marketplace.

Unlike in traditional marketing in which posters or billboard ads only remain visible among those who happen to see them, digital marketing gives you free rein to a worldwide audience.

This lack of geographical boundary presents opportunities for growing alongside household brands within your niche.

7. Digital Marketing Helps Drive More Revenue for Your Business

Any business owner would ask about the revenue they’ll get from digital marketing. After all, if an activity doesn’t generate revenue, why invest in it?

Businesses that use digital channels can generate 2.8 times more revenue. As your authority improves and online presence develops, you have more opportunities to drive business. This increases the qualified traffic that goes to your website or other digital assets, which, in turn, boosts your conversion rate.

The added revenue provides you with more fuel to expand your operations, attract more customers, and ultimately expand your business.

Is Now the Best Time to Go Digital?

Here’s a question for you: If your competitors and customers are online, why aren’t you?

As the digital landscape evolves and customer behavior changes, you can’t remain complacent with your marketing strategies. If you want to help your business stay one step ahead, go digital and consider booking a call with a digital marketing strategy consultant.

Digital marketing levels the playing field and provides your business with the ammo to go head-to-head with the competition – from startups to more established brands.