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Digital-Challenges | ETRAFFIC

As an SME owner, the odds are already stacked against you.

According to the Business Employment Dynamics by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 50% of small businesses survive after their first five years and only 33% go well beyond a decade. There are lots of factors leading to their demise. Therefore, as an SME owner, you must find ways for your business to overcome the odds and turn it into a success story.

The digital space is an avenue that you need to capitalise on. The movement to a more digital approach to marketing your business helps you reach out to your target audience more effectively than ever before.

However, just like any other marketing channel, promoting your business online is not without its challenges. Below are five of the most crucial digital challenges your business need to leapfrog for it to succeed.

1. Attracting traffic and leads

Attract More Leads

According to the Hubspot’s State of Inbound Report in 2018, building traffic to your website is a company’s top marketing challenge with 54%. By generating more site traffic, you have better chances of converting them into clients.

To help you achieve this, you need to understand what makes your audience tick. You need to consider not only the quality and topic of your content but also its format. For instance, video content is on the rise as 53% of consumers want to see more videos while only 13% would settle for blog pots according to another research at Hubspot. However, the content you should create on your site depends on the audience that you are targeting. Unless you have an in-house team, it is key to have a digital marketing agency assist you in determining which content types resonate the most with your core audience.

2. Converting leads into clients

Convert Leads to Clients

Traffic and leads are ultimately an empty metric. While they are important in increasing your online visibility, they don’t matter much if you can’t convert them into paying customers. 69% of businesses consider this an issue, the biggest challenge according to the State of InbounfdReport 2018.

You have to understand that not all your visitors are ready to purchase from you. They stumble upon your site for different reasons. Therefore, you need to develop a content marketing strategy that allows you to create content with the purpose of getting them onboard to your business until they become buyers. In fact, Marketo states that 93% of B2B companies attest to the effectiveness of content marketing in drawing leads to their business. It’s just a matter of coordinating your content with your sales funnel so you can convert them more effectively.

3. Hiring the right staff

Right Staff

Your business can’t succeed if you can’t find the right people to do the job for you which are a big issue for most businesses. According to statistics gathered by TalentNow, most employers can’t find the right employees for their business. Also, 86% of the most qualified professionals are already employed and are not seeking a new job.

The difficulty of finding talented people for the job may have to do with your interview process. One of the biggest failures of businesses is their inability to determine an employee’s soft skills. Asking the right questions that put their problem solving, teamwork, and other soft skills to the test as well as using effective platforms to organise and select the best candidates for the job is of utmost importance.

4. Increasing sales from current customers

Increase Sales

If you have existing customers, you need to do whatever it takes to get them to purchase again. On average according to the award-winning book Marketing Metrics, 5-20% of first-time buyers make another purchase. Once they do, it will be much easier to make them buy for you as many times as you want.

Therefore, your goal is to increase the percentage of second-time buyers to lock them as a customer forever!

It only makes sense that, instead of focusing on customer acquisition, you need to set your sights on customer retention. The latter lowers your marketing spend and yields better results for your business. According to Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company (the creator of the net promoter score), it costs 6-7x less to get existing customers to buy again compared to getting new customers on board. Developing a strategy that revolves around engaging and warming up first-time buyers into another sale should be your priority.

5. Proving ROI of marketing activities

Proving ROI

You must know which marketing tactics work the best. By measuring your campaigns, you can determine the techniques that work best so you can commit to them even more.

The idea is to improve your marketing efforts so you can get the best performance out of your website. More importantly, you can scale the budget accordingly and get even better results by allotting more money to techniques that work the best.

Two of the most effective marketing channels are inbound marketing and email marketing. The State of Inbound Report 2018 says that 82% of marketers see positive results for their inbound marketing campaigns. Over half of marketers increased their spend on emails due to its 2,500% ROI rate. Using both figures, developing your digital strategy using these tactics should help you see the difference.

Are you ready to overcome these crucial digital challenges?

While going digital will help your business attract more customers in the long run, you still need to put in the work to make that happen. We have identified the most important digital challenges that you need to use. Now, it’s a matter of taking action and overcoming the challenges by referring to the tips shared in the post above.

 

 

More Articles:

Factors To Consider When Choosing A Marketing Campaign

What Does Digital Marketing Entail In Today’s World?

What Challenges Are You Facing With Online Lead Generation?

 

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