Can You Thrive In Business Without Digital Marketing? If Not, Which Strategy Should Take Priority?

A common question that small business owners ask is whether or not they can be successful without worrying about digital marketing. Is it possible to thrive without SEO? Can you get by without a social media account? Is email marketing essential to make a living?

Read on and we’ll tell you everything you need to know…

Can you thrive in business without digital marketing?

It’s difficult to say definitively that it is impossible to thrive without digital marketing. Some businesses have been known to succeed without it. However, for the most part, digital marketing is considered an essentiality for modern businesses.

Sure, your local corner shop likely doesn’t pay thousands of dollars each month for SEO, and I doubt they have much of a social media presence either. However, most business types do rely heavily on digital marketing to outperform their competitors.

So, is digital marketing crucial? It all comes down to the industry that you are in. Either way, which strategy should take priority?

Which digital marketing strategy should take priority?

If you are a small business and you rely on your local community to survive, if you’d rather not get too mixed up in digital marketing, focus on your local SEO at the very least…

With local SEO you can claim your GMB profile and ensure that your business has as good a chance as possible to appear in the Map Pack on a Google SERP (search engine results page) which can be very lucrative indeed.

Not convinced? Some of these local SEO and mobile search statistics from HubSpot may change your mind:

• 46% of all Google searches have local intent.
• 72% of consumers who conduct a local search visit a store within 5 miles.
• 88% of local searches conducted on a mobile device visit the business within 24-hours.

For all other business types, particularly if you are looking into eCommerce or expanding your online awareness – search engine optimization should be your primary focus.

Yes, there are many valuable digital marketing strategies – all of which can yield amazing results when done properly. However, as a foundation, SEO should always take priority.

Can you do well without SEO?

Perhaps you don’t want to work on your SEO and would perhaps prefer to operate using social media only. Is it possible to ‘do well’? Again, this all comes down to your circumstances.

For example, if you earn money online via an Etsy store and you don’t actually have a website of your own, you can indeed run ads through social media, direct them to your Etsy store, and experience genuine success.

It is possible.

The question is, when having your own website and owning your own traffic can bring so much value to your business, why wouldn’t you want to?

Using the same Etsy store example above: while it is entirely plausible, one wrong move and Etsy can suspend your store indefinitely which would render you completely out of pocket. As such, it’s always worth investing in your own SEO, building your online presence up organically, and owning your traffic – then you can start looking at paid advertising and the many other valuable forms of digital marketing at your disposal.

Having a website and working on your SEO safeguards your business for the future.

Conclusion: Just because you can avoid digital marketing it doesn’t mean you should

Again, there are some instances in which a business may be able to survive without any form of digital marketing. However, when there are so many amazing benefits to a well-strategized digital marketing campaign coupled with a beautiful and user-friendly website, it begs the question: why would you want to go without?

If it’s a case of time and effort, rest assured that this digital marketing agency in Singapore can make light work of all your digital marketing needs.