Operating a business nowadays requires an online presence. Without it, you’d have little chance of increasing brand awareness and attracting customers. The pandemic reiterated that fact, making us realize that it’s either we go fully digital or kill our businesses.
If you successfully went digital and survived 2020, that change may have to be permanent. Teddy Heidt, the founder of The Gauge Collective, predicted that digital business pivots may be here to stay in 2021. That means even work-from-home employees may not be going back to their offices anytime soon, and e-commerce will continue to boom.
For those reasons, information technology plays a critical role in your marketing strategy. Not only because of the pandemic-related trends but also because of our increasing dependence on the internet. These days, you’d rarely see print ads, especially for small businesses. Instead, social media has become their marketing playground. You may not realize it, but social media is likely the reason you’ve discovered so many brands during the past five years or so.
Information Technology Helps You Shift into Full Digital Mode
Brick-and-mortars suffered the brunt of the pandemic. Not only were they forced to shut down, but they also had to lay off many of their employees. Luckily, some of them managed to continue operating, but not as a physical store. Rather, they had to adopt an online model.
But that shift hadn’t been easy. Social media alone isn’t enough to keep a business running. Even if the market is there, it doesn’t automatically mean they’d use social media to order products from a business. If solely relying on social media doesn’t align with a particular brand’s strategy, consumers will get confused.
For example, let’s say you own a small-town fashion boutique. You don’t have a website, but only social media accounts that help spread the word about your business. All of your transactions occur in-store and nowhere else.
Then the pandemic hit, and in a blink of an eye, your shop has become useless. You can’t accept online orders because you haven’t started such a service yet, and your customers know it. What’s more, you thought you’d only wait for two weeks to reopen, but those two weeks turned into several months. At this point, your customers probably moved on to other brands already.
But with the help of an experienced IT solutions provider, you can reestablish your small-town boutique as an e-commerce fashion brand, and get your customers back. Having a dedicated website is crucial because it’s truer to your branding than just selling on social media. Furthermore, a dedicated website lets you design your store with the same vibes as your brick-and-mortar. As a result, your customers can feel transported back into your boutique when they visit your website, encouraging them to buy clothes.
IT Professionals are Experts in Internet Marketing
Internet or digital marketing is the lifeline of most small businesses. It allows them to reach their audience in several ways, including:
- A website. Websites establish a brand’s identity. They use typefaces, colors, images, audio, and other types of media that convey a company’s message. It also communicates the brand’s story and values to its audience, as well as the benefits of the products or services they offer.
- Search engine marketing (SEM). Many internet users find brands through Google, and SEM helps brands rank high in search engine results pages. Search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) ads, or purchasing-for-inclusion (PFI) listings are the exact tools brands use to improve their website rankings.
- Email marketing. Many brands offer a newsletter subscription to their web visitors. Newsletters and other email marketing strategies are effective lead magnets.
- Digital advertisements. Brands can buy ad spaces from other websites including blogs and news portals. If most of their audience is on the website, their ad can call their attention there.
- Social media. This is probably the most important internet marketing tool for brands. Without social media, a brand can be perceived as outdated.
- Content marketing. This includes blogs or articles related to your business but posted on another website. Its goal is to attract web traffic through backlinks.
IT professionals are best suited for implementing digital marketing tactics. They’re the masters of algorithm manipulation, SEO, and web design. They also help you save money on the wrong digital marketing strategy.
IT Professionals Understand the Intricacies of Site Optimization
Last but not the least, IT pros can make a website compatible with any device, which is important for internet users primarily using their phones for browsing. With a website that’s mobile-friendly, your brand’s search engine ranking will improve even further. Moreover, IT pros can play with the complicated technicalities of site optimization. They can tell you the exact keywords users are typing in search engines, helping you create content that’ll be relevant in their searches.
The information age has really put IT in a vital position across all industries. Thankfully, they’re widely available at affordable costs for small businesses. So don’t forego their services, and watch your brand boom in turn.
