Digital marketing is one of the best things that has happened to businesses in a long time. It has provided companies of all sizes – from corporations to small businesses and startups – with equal opportunities to grow and expand globally.
The founder and CEO of Aleph Gastón Taratuta believes that the power of digital media to drive economic growth should be experienced ubiquitously – everywhere around the globe. Thus, the company’s first-ever GoGlobal event took place on 29 September 2021, gathering the world’s best performance marketers, strategists, and founders in one place to discuss the latest trends and challenges in marketing strategy.
According to eMarketer, global digital advertising spending is expected to reach $455 billion in 2021. Such popularity of online advertising is understandable – it has enabled businesses to reach their customers more accurately, quickly, and efficiently than ever before, resulting in unprecedented growth opportunities.
”There are more than 4 billion reasons to leverage social media audiences to grow your business in 2021,’‘ believes Maris Naglis, VP of Customer Success at Httpool, an Aleph Holding company.
And there are many ways you can use social media advertising in your global growth strategy.
Online ads are a good way to test product-market fit
Online ads can be a low-risk and cost-effective way to test your product-market fit without actually launching in the market. In other words, you can use online ads for gathering data about whether the market you’re aiming for is interested in your product, instead of only relying on your gut feeling.
Do people interact with your ads? Do they click on your ads? Do they spend some time on your website to find out more about your brand and products? Do they add products to their cart? And most importantly – do they buy them? Money doesn’t lie, so this is the surest way to learn whether people are interested.
Such insight is crucial before making the decision to officially launch your brand in the chosen market, which may require significant investments in things like website localization, opening an office, or hiring an employee in the chosen country, to name a few.
Social media unlocks new opportunities to go global
Facebook and YouTube might be dominating the world of social media both in terms of user count and ad spend, but there are other platforms that can help you expand your global reach just as effectively. TikTok and Snapchat, for example.
In 2021, TikTok had 732 million active users and Snapchat had 514 million, making these apps the 7th and 11th most popular social media platforms in the world. They might look small next to Facebook with its 2.85 billion active users, but TikTok and Snapchat represent 18.3% and 12.9% of the total count of social media users, respectively.
”There are [untapped] opportunities available to advertisers on TikTok and Snapchat, commonly undervalued platforms with significant reach in North America, Europe, and the Middle East,” points out Stanislav Rybachuk, Snapchat & TikTok Performance Lead at Httpool.
So, if your business is aiming for regions with wide adoption of social media platforms other than Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram, you have the chance to enter the market through the door that many other businesses are overlooking.
Embrace digital marketing and grow 4x faster
A study by Hinge Research Institute found that brands that embrace digital marketing can grow as much as 4x faster and be 2x more profitable than brands that stick to traditional marketing methods.
Digital marketing methods, such as online advertising, allow businesses to reach an almost unlimited number of people. Once you’ve found something that works – the most effective targeting, the perfect ad messaging, or products that sell like hotcakes – you can always increase your ad budget to reach even more people, either within or beyond the borders of your existing market.
Not only do online ads help you reach more people, they also allow you to reach a larger proportion of the right people. The targeting options social media platforms offer let you pinpoint, with surprising accuracy, the exact users you want to reach. This ability to attract not only more traffic, but more relevant traffic, hugely increases your chances of successfully entering a new market.
Continuously learn to outshine the competition
With all the benefits digital advertising offers to businesses, it is surprising that many companies are still hesitant to explore its potential.
In a report by SDL, 80% of companies said they have global expansion plans over the next 2-3 years. However, the majority – two-thirds of respondents – plan to prioritize hiring local sales people instead of employing a digital-first growth strategy.
One of the reasons why so many entrepreneurs prefer the old-fashioned approach might be that they lack the knowledge and support to successfully make use of digital platforms for global growth.
Access to such education and support is important because it helps to create a solid foundation for economic development across markets, leading to prosperity for all.
More details about this topic were presented at our latest GoGlobal event. Watch on demand now.