Digital marketing: why does your business need it?

Why should you implement a digital marketing strategy for your business?

If you’ve opened this article, you’re probably wondering why your business needs a digital marketing strategy.

What benefits can be derived from it? When you already have a good traditional marketing strategy, is it essential to replicate it on the web?

The answer to these questions is very simple: traditional offline marketing is no longer enough.

This obviously does not imply an abandonment of all marketing strategies that are not digital! Rather, it requires a change in perspective, as well as the realization that, to do good marketing, both approaches (digital and non-digital) are necessary.

Today, a promotional campaign that takes advantage of the full potential of digital can make the difference

When we talk about digital marketing, we refer to an approach that acts on several levels and with different tools, using digital technologies.

A respectable digital marketing strategy is based on the creation of valuable content for your target audience and on the positioning activities of the company in order to make it more visible on the web: from the copy on your e-commerce, to the sponsorship activities on social networks.

After defining the short- and long-term goals of the strategy, you will outline the activities needed to achieve them, which span several areas, each of which is essential.

Whatever the goal, from Brand awareness to site conversion, you will rely on these practices:

  1. Search engine optimization (SEO) to increase organic traffic and rankings for the keywords your site needs;
  2. Search engine marketing (SEM): paid promotion activities that are based on the user’s search intent;
  3. Content marketing: creation of valuable persuasive content that draws interest, attracts and drives the customer to the desired action;
  4. Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Social Pay-per-click advertising (PPC): online content promotion activities via social media and paid advertising.

These macro activities will be complemented by ad hoc strategies of affiliate marketing, email marketing (DEM and Newsletter), influencer marketing, digital PR, community management, digital customer care.

Your customer-centric marketing strategy

The terrain of digital marketing is considerably more complex than that of traditional marketing.

Nowadays being present on the web is everything. This is not only because much of your marketing efforts have moved online, but because your competitors have too!

Yes, in spite of all your efforts and commitment to make your product as good as possible, some other product, maybe with a lower quality than yours, got the better of you just because it was sponsored on the web!

Did I guess right? If the answer is yes, fear not, the solution you are looking for is much closer than you imagine, but more importantly, it may not be the one you imagine! By this I mean not that the quality of the product is not important, but that it is not the only factor to consider.

Product is not everything!

Digital marketing allows for the formation of a network of contacts with two-way communication flows. What makes your potential customer become real is the way you make them feel.

Instead of focusing exclusively on the product, a digital marketing strategy also focuses on another element that is as important as it is often overlooked: people.

This approach, which is based on listening to the needs and desires of the customer, allows companies and their target audience to establish a dialogue resulting in full satisfaction for both.

The benefits are many: tapping into customer desires can help you create a targeted campaign with a high probability of achieving your goal. People appreciate a type of offer that seems tailor-made for them, and they respond to this interest with their brand loyalty.

Having gained loyalty, the customer will be inclined not only to rely on you in the future, but also to become a testimonial for your products, even going so far as to influence those in their closest circle.

Is digital marketing the future for SMEs?

The answer to this question is absolutely to be found in Big Data!

Every user constantly produces a large amount of behavioral data that should not be overlooked: analyzing the flow of data coming from those who buy a product, in fact, can tell us a lot about people, building models that predict their behavior.

  • What are your user’s preferences?
  • How old is he/she?
  • How does he/she like to spend his/her free time?
  • What are his/her values?
  • What is his/her job?
  • What are his/her goals?
  • What worries him/her the most?

A digital marketing strategy allows for immediate feedback and monitoring of an ongoing campaign.

There are many aspects to consider, as there are many skills needed.

What’s the first step in starting your digital marketing strategy?

Relying on an agency to take care of your marketing strategy can bring countless benefits.

Not all agencies guarantee the same results. How do you choose the one that best suits your needs, without neglecting any aspect?

A multi-disciplinary approach that ensures growth from a variety of perspectives is critical. In short, what you really need is a specialist who has an overview. Someone who can manage a digital promotional campaign from every aspect.

The right professional for you, therefore, has a wide variety of skills, ranging from SEO to social media management, online digital PR to SEM, direct email marketing, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), funneling, data analytics and more. These are just a few of the fundamental skills for a digital marketing specialist.

To all this knowledge will be added those necessary to coordinate the marketing department with all the others that make up the company, in order to develop a marketing strategy that is as complete as possible and that, above all, combines perfectly with the work of each area.

How to choose the right Web Agency for you?

Choosing the best option is not always so simple and obvious, unfortunately. It often happens, in fact, to rely on marketers with a sectoral knowledge, not able to cope with the complexity of factors in a company.

A Growth Agency is right for you because while it creates the right digital marketing strategy, it monitors and takes care of the overall health of your business.

The approach adopted by a self-respecting Growth Agency is Data Driven: it is based on the analysis of the data flow, elaborating, depending on the results obtained, a strategy based on concrete facts rather than mere opinions that may have no connection with the real state of things.

A Growth Agency, moreover, while identifying any critical issues of your company, develops and implements a growth strategy aimed at eliminating problems and highlighting the strengths of your business. Before developing it, however, offers support in the analysis of your target market, intercepting the best strategy to be implemented to reach it and optimize the result.

Your business needs a digital marketing strategy, but it also needs experienced hands that know how to best implement it.

Are you still pondering? Contact us, let’s write the recipe for your success together!

Growth Agency: what is it and how to choose it?

Does a Growth Agency really need your business?

In previous articles we talked about digital transformation and the three components of digital transformation. Today we’re going to talk about what a Growth Agency is, or more specifically, what a Growth Consulting is, why we made the choice to orient BiscuitWay‘s business in this direction and what are the tools in favor of the client in order to avoid big mistakes in the choice.

Let’s start right away with a premise. We are not a simple Web Agency!

Calling ourselves Growth Agency and Growth Consulting, deciding to structure a company to provide this kind of services, was a brave choice.

Here are the reasons why:

  • The term Growth has been laboriously cleared by Growth Hacking and is still hardly juxtaposed with a consulting agency.
  • Google search volumes on the Growth Agency keyword are still low.
  • Today it’s much more complicated to explain what kind of mindset we apply, unlike digital agencies.

It sounds like we’re crazy but….

…It was already clear to us in 2018 what the next step of the real needs of startups, SMEs and Corporates would be. Why?

  1. We knew full well that the digitization process could not remain as it was and would make a necessary level up.
  2. We knew that our experience in the field, having in the past built, worked and struggled on “our” startups, would come in very handy in having a 360° view of all the components of success or failure.

Unlike digital agencies, a Growth Agency is no longer a classic service provider. It is an external piece of your company and acts with a holistic approach.

But what is a holistic approach?

Holism (from greek ὅλος hòlos, ie “total”, “global”) is a theoretical position according to which the properties of a system can not be explained exclusively by its individual components, since the functional sum of the parts is always greater, or otherwise different, the same parts taken individually.

The typical example found in the literature is that of the biological organism: a living being, as such, must always be considered as a complex unit-totality, not reducible to a simple assembly of its constituent parts. Thus, each business and each company have unique characteristics that must be analyzed before any action is taken.

It is absolutely obvious that a growth agency invests a lot more time and resources on its clients, therefore, you tend to specialize on two or three areas that you know particularly well and for which you can guarantee a minimum of results.

What does a Growth Agency do?

A true Growth Agency helps you grow your business in every way possible. This includes – but is not limited to – support in the following areas:

  • It helps you analyze your critical business issues
  • It drives to analyze your target market
  • It teaches you to make choices not only based on your feelings but with a data driven approach
  • It helps align marketing and sales
  • It supports the construction of a social media strategy
  • It drives to focus on brand identity and market positioning
  • It allows you to digitize your internal processes
  • It designs, develops and optimizes your website, e-commerce, blog, etc.

In a nutshell, it’s a Growth Agency’s job to work with all business departments to cut costs, improve efficiency, generate more qualified leads, and increase revenue and EBITDA.

How can you choose the right Growth Agency?

Again, a premise is necessary – there aren’t a lot of them around. It’s not easy to find an agency totally dedicated to your business growth. Just like it’s not easy to find an agency that says NO if you ask them to create a website that doesn’t make sense for your business growth.

If you are considering locating a Growth Agency here are some things to consider during your search:

Find a team that specializes in your field

As I mentioned earlier, the job of a Growth Agency is really challenging. You have to focus on growing an entire company that you don’t know. There is a lot to analyze and a lot to remember. You need someone who understands your industry, your target buyers and the details of your processes.

Search numbers and metrics

Growth agencies should work primarily on numbers. Once they have analyzed your business, they should be able to offer together real and specific goals for your future. They should set goals such as:

  • What impact will business efficiencies have and how quickly will the investment cost be recovered?
  • How soon will the interventions be implemented and made operational?
  • What are the costs and ROI of creating a digital sales channel?
  • How effective will be the company’s brand reputation and brand awareness in the medium/long term?
  • How many more leads will they indicatively generate, outlined a target budget?
  • How many of those leads will convert into sales opportunities?
  • And how many of those sales prospects will close as customers?

Find a Growth Agency with a solid strategy

Every agency will say that their strategy is the best. First, you need to make sure that the agencies you’re reviewing have actual, specific strategies that drive growth. Second, as much as possible, you need to make sure they work.

For example start with their website, analyze if they do what they propose for your company on their business card.

Schedule a meeting

I’ve talked before about how a Growth Agency is a kind of branch, even if external to your company. That’s because this innovative approach makes them more of a partner than a service provider. You will be working closely with them, realistically for a long time. You need to feel positive vibes or at least feel that you can work with them on a regular basis.

Do you want to know more? Have coffee with me by booking from the button below!