Why Your Business Needs To Embrace The Digital Age

We are now all familiar with the term ‘digital age’. In the last decade, the advancements in the digitalization of technology have impacted various elements of our day to day lives in society. Through effectively utilizing the tools available for your business, you can equally ensure you are maximizing outreach, impact and success through digital means.

Your Website

An interactive, aesthetically pleasing, and memorable website is the first way you can implement a digital marketing strategy to aid your business. A few years back, having a basic website wasn’t as much of an issue. However, as customers and users of smartphones can now access websites faster and easier than ever before, often your website will be the first insight a potential customer or client has about your business and what it offers. Therefore, having a website that fails to meet the mark and is lacking in terms of effective visuals, usable interface and memorable content could mean potential clients and customers go elsewhere. First impressions count, especially with statistics now stating that it takes 2.6 seconds for a user’s eyes to pinpoint an area of a website that most influences their first thoughts. For a clear, concise structure and effective website design, it may be worth investing in a graphic designer for your website, as they will be able to use their knowledge to improve your website and tailor it to the demographic you are trying to reach. Mobile-friendly websites that load quickly are also absolutely paramount for your website, especially as Google’s algorithm uses how responsive your site is to influence your position in the search engine results pages.

Social Media

Social media strategy is also a vital part of an effective digital marketing campaign. Regardless of what services you provide, and whether or not your particular niche audience uses social media frequently, setting up a LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter page is expected of most businesses. Visitors to your website will expect to see links to your social media pages, as this provides ways for them to contact you and further find out more about your business. It is effectively free marketing. If you are running a catering business, for example, set up an Instagram to showcase the services you can provide. Putting time and effort into a visually aesthetic and informative Instagram or Twitter gives customers and clients a solid idea of your company and brand identity with minimal effort on their part, and on this basis, they may decide to use your services. Some ideas to utilize social media include regular, relevant and informative updates, looking out for trends you can incorporate into your brand image, and further using calendar events throughout the year to help promote your services. Hashtags can immediately give your services a particularly focused clientele, and through clever, original and creative thinking, you can create posts that will gain popularity and traffic. This will, in turn, give your company more exposure, all through a few simple tweets or posts. There are many examples of companies creating memorable and highly successful social media marketing campaigns, so get inspired and think about how you can develop your own marketing strategy.

Move Online

If you are yet to shift all of your services, information, and data online, now is the time to do so. There are many reasons why this can benefit your business. Not only will it save you an incredible amount of time, but it will also further save you money, and physical space if you reside in an office. In terms of efficiency and speed, locating, saving and sorting data can be done in seconds and minutes, with vast amounts of data and information which would have previously have to have been manually sorted and processed. Some companies may not like the idea of completely moving their data online, and this is understandable; a physical copy can be stored forever, whereas there is always the fear of losing files to the ‘stratosphere’ and never finding them again. However, with data backup more advanced than ever before, investing in a simple hard drive can put your mind at rest about making the move online. If you need to move your company files and documents online, expert companies such as Cleardata can provide document scanning services for your business.

Recruitment

Recruitment can be a particularly time-consuming process. You can digitalize this process further through email services and social media, that can ensure your business is getting maximum exposure in terms of potential employees. LinkedIn is a particularly useful resource for posting available roles. Potential candidates could find your job post through social media as opposed to other websites. Recruitment can also be an expensive process if you are using recruitment companies, therefore by advertising a job role yourself, at no additional cost, you may find the perfect candidate with minimal effort and expense on your part.

Business Analytics

Although some say that the digital age has been damaging regarding the way in which society consume information at a rapid rate, by embracing the facilities available, you can ensure you are reaping the positive rewards of digitalization. Business analytics enable companies to measure performance and get stats on how successful their online website is, through a number of different methods and techniques. Information such as overall traffic and website numbers can help you to work out what is working and what may not be so effective. Specific features show whether your visitors are actively engaging with the content you have provided and whether aspects of your strategy need to change. Google Analytics is an example of a service that could help you gain insight into the performance of your company.

The digital age can be daunting for some businesses. However, by realizing how effective and far-reaching the positives can be, you may see the relationship your business has with your clients, and customers grow and evolve for the better. Through utilizing social media for your marketing campaign and recruitment, improving your website, moving your data online, and embracing business analytics, you will ensure your business is ahead of the game, with far-reaching results.