It has become a very popular topic, however not everyone is clear about what Digital Marketing is. It is also true that many people believe that Marketing only refers to high-cost advertising actions to which only large corporations have access to publicize their products or services, and this is false.

It is common for small family businesses, local businesses or those that have just started, to believe that they do not have access to marketing actions, however, and perhaps without knowing it, many small businesses perform marketing actions.

As we have previously published, Marketing is all those actions that organizations or companies carry out to create, communicate and deliver a value offer to current and potential consumers regarding a product or service. Therefore, digital marketing refers to those same actions but “online”, that is, on the Internet or digital media.

Currently, 60% of the world’s population has access to the Internet, and 55% of the world’s population is a user of social networks, according to the latest Digital 2021 report from Hootsuite and We Are Social. This represents 4.7 billion people with Internet access. The general uses of the Internet are, in addition to maintaining communication, the search for information and the use of social networks.

So what are the advantages of Digital Marketing? The most important aspect of running an online business is to have visibility. If searching for information on the Internet is one of the main activities of Internet users, this represents a great opportunity to have a presence in social networks, local business directories, websites, etc., since these platforms become a showcase for the business.

An example of how it helps to have a presence on the Internet is when we go on a trip, if we do not know what restaurants are on site, self-service stores, hotels, the most common thing to do is to search on the Internet using a search engine. Even when we find several options, we review the comments the business has received to decide whether to eat at one restaurant or another. And in the same way, it can be useful to have this visibility if we have a hairdresser, a nail salon, a dry cleaner, etc., as these internet searches are also useful to discover newly opened businesses that may be close to the area we frequent and that perhaps we were not aware of.

Having a business page on Facebook or instagram, has no cost, and organically (this means at no cost) you can build an audience interested in our business, which can comment on their experience in buying our products or services, recommend us, we can make publications of our products, report on our services.

Paid campaigns can also be carried out to expand the audience, and it is possible to control the cost of these campaigns, obviously depending on what you intend to invest in these campaigns may have greater reach and always having clear what is the goal we want to achieve.

Another option is a web page, this may require a little more time and dedication, however there are already platforms where you can build web pages without programming or web development knowledge because they are very intuitive and accessible. The cost of having a web page is no longer inaccessible, since in many cases the acquisition of the domain can be free with the purchase of the hosting, and the cost can be found for up to $3 dollars a month with annual contracts or up to $6 dollars a month with monthly renewal. With a website, in addition to being able to present our products or services to our current and potential customers, we have a blank canvas to offer our value proposition, to obtain contact information from interested customers, or even to create an online store.

An important option are the local directories, these will depend on the area where your business or company is located. Profiles generally ask for basic data (name, address, telephone, email and website if you have one), opening and closing hours, and in some cases may also have the option to upload photos of the products. In order to locate these local directories you can search for a business similar to yours in your area using a search engine such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing. Also in social networks you will surely be able to find some that also include reviews and their pages.

Other possible actions are email marketing, search engine advertising, etc., there are many options, depending on the target market and the budget available, the ways to get our message to potential customers can be diverse, so it is important to analyze how we will carry it out.

In any of the options we point out in this article it is very important to keep the information of our business updated, both in social networks, as in the directories and website.

In summary, these actions and many more that can be performed on the Internet can help local businesses to have presence, visibility and build their brand. In addition, and no less important, the quality and detail of the information that can be obtained is essential for strategy and decision making.

The purpose of Marketing is to create a bond with consumers, customers or patients (depending on the industry), by creating a positive experience that exceeds their expectations, so any action we take must have the customer at the center.