Social media and digital marketing are powerful.

They connect organizations with qualified potential customers and take business development to a much higher level than traditional marketing and advertising:

• Low costs: Large audiences are reachable at a fraction of traditional advertising budgets.
• Demographic targeting: Consumers can be demographically targeted much more effectively.
• Connect and engage: One-on-one direct communication with current and potential clients.
• Analytics: Efficient statistical results are available.
• Return on Investment (ROI): Easily track and measure results to see what’s working.

Consumers are Digital and Online!

1. Consumers are on social media

2. Consumers are searching the internet

3. Consumers are on mobile

 

1. Consumers Are On Social Media

• 65% of American adults now use social networking sites – a nearly tenfold jump in the past decade. (Pew Research)
• Young adults (ages 18 to 29) are the most likely to use social media – fully 90% do, compared to 12% in 2005. (Pew Research)
• At the same time, there has been a 69-point bump among those ages 30-49, from 8% in 2005 to 77% today. (Pew Research)
• Usage among those 65 and older has more than tripled since 2010 when 11% used social media. Today, 35% of all those 65 and older report using social media. (Pew Research)
• Internet users have average of 5.54 social media accounts. (GlobalWebIndex)

And…Google has integrated social media data into its organic search engine algorithm and to date, organic rankings may now rely on up to 70 percent on social media.

Social media pages are being found more frequently in search results. And social media profiles are often amongst the top results in search listings.

A business should post updates regularly and respond to social channels promptly.  Google considers activities such as social engagement, comments, and website visits to be ranking factors.

2. Consumers Are Searching The Internet!

Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second! See LIVE stats here.

This translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.

More than half of Google searches now come from mobile.

NOTE: Google My Business:  This is a key part of Google’s strategy to simplify the process of harnessing the power of the Google suite of tools to drive more traffic to a business.

This means that Google Search, Maps, AdWords, Insights, and Google+ are all closely tied into My Business, making it easier for a business to use and very powerful.

Due to the unparalleled reach of Google and their services, plugging into the Google My Business network means your customers and clients can now find a business more easily through Search, Maps, and the recently revamped Google+.

Google My Business doesn’t just serve traditional businesses with a storefront. A business can also sign up and instead of listing its business address, add the area it serves or just details of its brand.

Make sure your business is registered with Google My Business and set up your Google My Business Brand Page.

3. Consumers Are On Mobile!

According to Statista.com the forecasted number of mobile users in the U.S. for 2016 is estimated to reach 198.5 million unique users.

In 2015, nearly 52% of users spent a majority of their time using mobile apps like Facebook, Twitter, and social media based as well as business based mobile apps. These numbers will only increase in 2016.

NOTE: A responsive website – ensures users have a consistent experience on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices – is a must for a business. This past summer, Google announced that, for the first time mobile searches surpassed desktop searches. Add to this the fact that, in 2015, Google’s algorithm started to penalize sites that were not optimized for mobile devices.

Benefits of social and digital media marketing:

• Increased exposure
• Increased traffic to website
• Develop loyal fans
• Generate leads
• Increase sales
• Improved search engine ranking
• Grow business partnerships
• Reduced marketing expenses
• Interact with customers
• Receive valuable customer feedback
• Free advertising with online “word-of-mouth-marketing”
• Build a community

So, what are the top challenges businesses have in adopting digital and social media?

• Limited knowledge and experience
• Lack of time
• Inability to measure value
• Difficulty integrating with other marketing activities
• Lack of budget and internal resources to execute

How to achieve success with digital and social media?

•  Planning
• Strategy
• Content
• Consistency
• Engagement
• Advertising

Businesses have no choice but to seriously adopt digital and online marketing to gain exposure and new customers – exponentially.

Doing digital and online marketing is a MUST if businesses want to expand their customer reach.