Remember back in the day when people owned small businesses? Not only would business owners distribute flyers and promotional swag, they’d also invest in radio and television commercials to attract customers. 

Today, small business promotion has evolved in many ways. One of the ways promotion has evolved is it’s gone digital. With nearly four billion people on social media worldwide, it’s smart to invest in digital marketing. Millennials understand this concept. Many of them either shop online or use digital marketing for their businesses. 

If you want to increase your consumer base, consider digital marketing as an investment rather than another cost. Here’s a list of reasons why you should give digital marketing a try. 

You Can Expand Your Consumer Base.  

Nowadays, people get most of their information electronically. Whether they’re browsing their smartphones, working on a laptop, or watching television, people are more likely to view advertisements on an electric device than traditional methods. 

Also as a business owner, you want your potential customers to have easy access to you. Traditional marketing tools like radio ads and newspapers can be expensive and will only reach a small percentage of the customers. The internet is constantly expanding, so you can reach a vast number of people with a click of a button. 

You Have More Control Over Your Marketing Budget.  

When you create digital ads, you have more control over your spending. For example, if you create a website, you’re investing in the content on your website that people can visit. You can also post on social media and direct more traffic to your website for free, increasing your earning potential. 

You can also invest depending on your traffic flow. You may choose to post a blog twice a week. If you notice you’re gaining more traffic, you can increase your blog post frequency. 

Even if you have to pay someone who’s more tech-savvy than you, you can still save money. Hiring someone who is an expert at promoting your business will appeal to a larger audience and bring in more revenue. Even if it’s hiring someone to routinely post on social media, quality always beats quantity. 

 You Can Keep Up With Trends.  

If you want to be successful, you have to keep up with the trends. This is especially important if you’re marketing to millennials. One of the most common ways businesses gain customers is through consumer reviews. In fact, nearly 70 percent of customers visit a business based on the feedback of other customers. 

Digitally marketing your business allows more people to view, test, and review your product or service. Once you build an online presence, you’ll have very little trouble attracting customers. 

 You Can Easily Find Your Target Audience. 

Depending on the technology you use to market your services, there are ways to actually track whose spending the most time viewing and purchasing your products. This saves you both time and resources in the long run and increases your return on investment. 

For example, your small business may be selling custom jewelry. When you market your business online, you can track the amount of traffic your social media pages receive. This allows you to create more efficient advertisements. On the other hand, posting in newspapers or creating radio ads has to be broader because you don’t know which audience to cater to.

 Customers Have 24/7 Access. 

The internet, as you might be aware, does not sleep. When you choose to use digital marketing strategies, your current and potential customers have unlimited access. When you use old-school marketing strategies like newspapers or promotional swag, you can only draw in customers during business hours. 

Even if you post on social media and your followers don’t get a notification, they can scroll through their timeline, click your page, and see every promotion and message you sent. This is better than traditional advertising because a prime-time advertisement spot can be expensive and posing an ad at the wrong time can be a missed opportunity. 

 Digital Ads Help Level The Playing Field.  

As a small business, you obviously don’t have the same reach as a major corporation in your same field. When you market your business online, you have a better chance of leveling the playing field, even if it’s only a little. 

Say you work in the spa industry. You can compete with larger brands by getting someone with influence to endorse your product. Collaborating with similar companies also reaps similar benefits. 

Digital marketing is the present and future. By jumping on board, you have an opportunity to get ahead of your business and make wiser business decisions that can increase your return on investment.