Do you know what is the benefit of digital marketing for SMEs? The advent of digital has altered the basic fabric of marketing. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in particular saw their pool of prospective clients grow enormously, and their reach expanded much beyond what it was in the analogue days. They didn’t need a business on every corner or a classified ad in every newspaper.

This is not to imply that digital marketing is without its own set of difficulties. Getting someone’s attention online, especially the correct person’s attention, is difficult. There are many competing voices battling for clicks and conversions. Finding your online identity and specialisation, especially as a small business, can be crucial to real-world success.

What is Digital Marketing and the benefit of digital marketing for SME?

When a company promotes their services, brands, or goods on online platforms in order to interact with potential customers or target audiences, this is known as digital marketing, sometimes known as online marketing. This rule applies to all Malaysian businesses.

Here are some examples of digital technologies and media:

• Websites of businesses
• Apps for smartphones
• Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are examples of social media.
• Collaborations with other digital businesses

Why is it important?

Malaysia has a high rate of internet and smartphone adoption. The widespread use of the Internet and the availability of devices such as personal computers and smartphones make it simple to reach the online market, particularly during a pandemic.

Since digital operations play such an important part in management, including the ability to manage and modify large amounts of data, productivity rises. The digital production approach would make controlling and managing production aspects like material and labour easier, resulting in increased output volume.

Despite the fact that few SMEs in Malaysia have used digital marketing in their businesses, approximately 80% of SMEs have begun to recognise the benefits of going online. Among the advantages are:

Low Cost

What makes digital marketing so appealing is its low cost. To put it another way, they are less expensive than traditional marketing. Digital marketing can save your company money while increasing revenue.

Small-medium businesses in Malaysia cannot compete with larger corporations if they rely on traditional marketing tactics. Traditional marketing methods such as TV advertisements, radio ads, newspaper ads, magazine ads, and more are frequently funded by large brands. When it comes to traditional marketing, SMEs find it difficult to compete with huge corporations.

As a result, digital marketing equalises the playing field for businesses of all sizes. It is simple and inexpensive to market your company and reach out to potential clients. The majority of the most effective digital marketing strategies are cost-effective. For instance, Google Advertising allows you to select the budget that best suits your needs. You have the option of spending RM500 or RM10,000. Simply decide how much you can spend.

However, you should be aware that the amount you spend will have a significant impact on the success of your digital marketing strategy. This is only one digital marketing plan example. When you engage a professional digital marketer or a digital marketing agency, they will assist you in sticking to your budget. However, exercise caution when working with others.

Are you aware that time is the true cost of digital marketing? It will take time for successful digital marketing techniques to bear fruit. To come up with the most appropriate tactics that function effectively with your firm, you must do constant trials and testing. But rest certain that the benefits of digital marketing will outweigh the costs.

Measurable Results

Marketing expenditures should yield measurable outcomes. You must monitor the outcomes of your marketing activities. The capacity to measure digital marketing results and determine whether they are moving in the right direction is the best feature of digital marketing.

Traditional marketing approaches are great, but it’s difficult to assess results and decide whether the strategy used is the most effective. You may accurately track the effects of your digital marketing efforts using digital marketing approaches and the right analytical tools.

Each digital marketing channel has its own built-in analytics to make your job easier. You’ll be able to track the performance of your campaigns whether you’re using Facebook Advertising or working on SEO for your website. Google Analytics, for example, can be used to track overall website traffic.

Depending on your campaign, you can track a variety of KPIs. Some of the most frequent metrics tracked in marketing initiatives are clicks, impressions, conversions, comments, and shares. These elements, on the other hand, we consider vanity metrics. They may appear attractive to you, but the conversion and income generated by marketing initiatives are what matters most.

Keeping track of the performance of your digital marketing efforts as they run will allow you to make the required adjustments to improve their performance. You want to get the most out of your money when it comes to marketing. You’ll be able to run the most effective and result-oriented campaigns for your business if you can measure the efficacy of your marketing activities.

Reach the Right Audience

Only when you reach the right audience will your digital marketing strategies be successful. You must get in front of people who are interested in your product or service. One of the most significant benefits of digital marketing is the ability to target people who are interested in your products or services.

Traditional marketing will make it tough to reach the proper people. With traditional marketing, you send your marketing message to everyone in the mass market in the hopes of reaching the proper people. With the amount of money you’ll be spending on marketing, it’ll be difficult to justify your outcomes.

Apart from that, digital marketing allows you to reach people that have interest in your business. For example, Facebook allows you to filter your audience using geographic, demographic, and interest to specifically target people that are interested in your products and services. This is not achievable with traditional marketing.

Flexible to Changes

One of the most important benefits of digital marketing is the freedom it provides. Changes to your digital marketing initiatives can be made quickly. This is something that standard marketing tactics cannot accomplish.

For instance, once your billboard is up, you won’t be able to make any modifications unless you take it down and replace it with a new one. This will be really expensive. You won’t be able to improve the results of your marketing campaign by optimising its performance.

When you invest in digital marketing, you have complete control over your campaigns. You can alter your ad copy, change the amount of bidding, and add more relevant keywords that people use to search for your business when you run a Google Ads campaign. This means you may make modifications to your campaign on the fly to get the best results for your company. It certainly aids you in getting the most out of your marketing money.

Good Return on Investment (ROI)

Many small businesses claim that by utilising the digital marketing platform, they may increase their return on investment. Because the target audience is online, it is also likely to have a greater conversion rate. This will directly result in increased income for SMEs. They both save money and make more money, if that makes sense.

Traditional marketing activities will help you create your brand reputation if you want to improve your brand awareness and have people identify your brand. The ROI is not decided by sales and revenue in this scenario. Traditional marketing efforts are all about exposure and reach. However, SMEs in Malaysia do not have sufficient marketing budgets to invest in large-scale traditional marketing efforts such as television commercials and billboards. Furthermore, some small-medium firms cater to an ultra-niche audience, making typical marketing tactics obsolete.

When you employ digital marketing, you can prioritise sales and revenue, which tells you the impact on your target audience’s brand awareness indirectly. Your sales and revenue should be increasing if you’re addressing the proper target demographic.

However, never imagine that digital marketing is a magic button that will propel your company to new heights and provide the finest return on investment. It only happens when you do everything correctly. If you employ digital marketing methods without the proper strategy and tools, your marketing budget will quickly be depleted. So, proceed with caution!

Gathers Valuable Insights

Everything in your marketing initiatives is under the hands of your customers. However, the most crucial component of marketing is determining who is buying your products or services and who your target audience is.

Stop thinking about yourself and your business. It’s all about the clients. Customer personas have come a long way, as previously said. However, creating consumer personas isn’t a one-time task. To deliver the greatest solution to your clients’ problems, you must constantly analyse and better understand them.

Determine the types of data you’ll need to boost your digital marketing efforts. The following sources should be used to get information:

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Data from social media (in-built social media analytics)
• Email Marketing Information
• Data on lead generation (Google Analytics)
• Content Creation and Blogging (Google Analytics)

You’ll be able to determine the ROI each source generates and how effective your marketing efforts are if you dig deep into the analytics. If something isn’t working, you can look into it to see what’s wrong and fix it.

Furthermore, the information you obtain from these sources will assist you in realigning your marketing objectives and moving in the appropriate direction.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, digital marketing not only helps the company generate more income at a lower cost, but it also allows them to enhance their products and services by obtaining immediate feedback from customers. It’s what we refer to as a win-win situation for both the consumer and the provider.

You now understand why is it important to have digital marketing for SME. You simply cannot overlook the advantages it provides for your company’s continued growth in the years ahead.