In 2017, over half of the world's population is now online, with 3.77 billion internet users, this grew at arate of 10% year on year (source: Hootsuite). If you are serious about growingyour business there really is no escape from digital.

So, what will happen if you chose to ignore this trend? Yourcustomer's are already carrying out online research before almost every purchase decision. Ifthey can't find you, you are risking yourgrowth potential, and at serious risk of losing marketing share to yourcompetitors, or new disrupters entering the market.

It's not all doom and gloom, in a recent survey by Blackdot consultingonly a small percentage of companies surveyed felt they had a fully optimiseddigital strategy, whilst most at least felt they had an online digitalpresence and were getting started with this strategy.

‍Top five reasons you need a digital marketing strategy:

‍1. Your organisation needs a clear strategy to succeed, with measurabletargets to ensure you are dedicating the right resources to grow yourbusiness. Without this you are directionless and your chances ofsuccess much reduced.

2. It is imperative that we understand our customers and theopportunity online channels have to offer. If we understand ourcustomers, we can engage new customers and give existing customers areason to love us, increasing loyalty.

3. Through an integrated approach where we optimise a variety ofchannels and mediums and analyse results, we are better placed to giveour customers what they need at every stage of the buyer journey.This results in more qualified leads and conversions for our business.Check out tools like Hubspotand Marketo, which can make thisintegration simple for you.

4. If you want to stay ahead in today's ever evolving marketplace weneed to be agile, constantly learning and adapting to changes intechnology and consumers behaviours. If you look to leading brandslike Amazon and Google they are always adapting and reinventingthemselves.

5. If we stand still we run a serious risk of becoming obsolete, wehave seen so many cases in recent years where business's failed tolook to the future and adapt, Blockbuster, Kodak and the Borders groupto name a few.

If you are thinking about getting started on your digital marketingstrategy download our free step by step guide to inbound marketing‍here.