Whether you are aware of it or not, shifting your business online has tremendous advantages.
Of course, with the recent events of the coronavirus, some of those advantages have come to light a little more, but those same advantages and other ones existed before too.
That’s why in this article we are going to be covering the 3 reasons you should be shifting your business online if you haven’t yet.
1. Security
The first and most obvious reason is security.
No matter what your business is, you will have more security if you’re business is operating online.
For example, if you’re a fitness coach or own a gym, you can help your customers achieve their fitness goals through online lessons.
But even if you’re business does something which really cannot be done online, just being online will give you some added security. How?
You have the ability to stay connected with your customers. If the world is on lockdown, the chances of your customers driving past your business and remembering it are much lower than usual.
On the flip side, the chances of your customer seeing your social media posts are much more likely. This will help your customers, keep your business, and the brand in mind.
If they don’t keep you in mind, you can quickly lose them, despite you being great at what you do.
This is why it’s so important to stay connected with your customers, whether that be through email or social media, as this can help you retain a lot of customers in the long term.
2. Effective Marketing
This reason is a pretty big one, as every business wants to grow, right?
Online marketing is much more targeted than traditional marketing methods, while also being more scalable as it’s all digital.
You can use SEO and search ads to position yourself in front of customers while they are already looking for what you have to offer. I think we’d both agree that this is extremely powerful as you’re in the right place at the right time.
Social Media Marketing can be extremely powerful too, as everyone has a social media profile, including your target audience.
Now, it’s just another case of positioning yourself in front of them which is fairly easy with the advanced targeting opportunities Facebook & co have to offer.
Take these examples of ways you can target on Facebook ads:
- Demographics
- Interests
- If Visited Page
The “Visited Page” refers to retargeting ads. Retargeting ads are ads that you run to people who have already visited your site.
This has the advantage that you know they are already interested, so a little reminder can often convert them and they also usually have a lower cost too.
Plus, we haven’t even mentioned email marketing yet, which by the way boasts an average 42:1 ROI ($42 for every $1 spent).
Digital marketing just makes it much easier for your customer to buy from you or contact you whenever they are in need of what you have to offer.
It does not matter what type of business you own, shifting your marketing efforts online will help your business grow.
Related: About Your Online Presence
Better Sales Funnel Processes
Online marketing also provides most businesses with a better sales funnel process.
In case you are unsure what a sales funnel is, it’s the steps your leads have to take in order to become a customer, outlined in an illustration that looks like a funnel which is why it’s called the sales funnel.
Every business has a sales funnel process even if they’re not aware of it.
The thing is that online sales funnels are much more efficient.
You can make the first contact with your customer via an ad or maybe a Google search result and only turn them into a soft conversion such as an email opt-in.
Now, you have the ability to remarket to them via email marketing or maybe even retargeting ads as we covered earlier. You can include special offers, trial periods, or maybe some sort of free gift to increase the chances of them converting.
With an offline sales funnel the process doesn’t quite have as many chances to convert the visitor.
For example, let’s say you own a local business.
Often, somebody will visit without being quite sure about what they are looking for, they will take a look and then say they will check out some other stores first.
The problem is that quite often this person will never return and you have just lost out on a sale.
Even if you are selling high-value items and the person did seem really interested so they gave you their email which is great, the whole sending of the emails could have been automated online.
By marketing online, you have the ability to increase conversions with less effort and time involved, as there are online systems that engage with your customer for you.
3. Affordable Marketing
We spoke about how effective online marketing is, but what we didn’t mention was how affordable it is.
Of course, the different advertising and marketing methods have different costs attached to them, but they are all extremely low compared to traditional advertising methods.
Keep in mind that the costs also depend on the competition, so we can’t give you any exact figures.
That being said, the average CPC (Cost per click) of Google is between $1-$2, while the average on Facebook is around $0.97.
We already spoke about how targeted these marketing channels are earlier on, so you will have an idea of how powerful the targeting combined with the low cost is.
Plus, marketing organically usually has an even smaller cost as there is no need to pay for ads.
Whether that be through organic search or organic social media, they can be just as effective for a smaller price.
The only difference is that usually organic methods usually will take a little longer to see results.
Final Thoughts
While shifting your business online may seem overwhelming at first, it’s something that you should consider.
The added security and marketing benefits are just too big to miss out on them.
At the end of the day, your business is there to reach as many people as possible and impact their lives in a positive way.
Shifting your business online lets you do exactly that.
