Introduction
The advent of the Internet and its associated technologies have revolutionally affected the business world. Amid the distinct sectors significantly impacted by the digital age, small businesses have strived to adapt, in particular within their marketing strategies, both to thrive and survive. A standard approach includes the creation and adoption of a virtual marketing plan to leverage digital platforms for business publicity and customer engagement. This essay dives into the small business virtual marketing plan while shedding light on the percentage of success and failure.
Virtual Marketing Plans and their Relevance to Small Businesses
A virtual marketing plan holds a foundational spot in an enterprise’s overall business strategy (Kumar and Mirchandani, 2012). It encompasses the systematic planning, execution, and evaluation of product promotion through digital channels. Small businesses particularly leverage virtual marketing to escalate their reach and visibility, given the worldwide Internet coverage (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014). Web pages, social media platforms, email, and mobile applications are popularly used to promote businesses, engage audiences, connect and convert leads, and yield revenues.
Percentage of Success with Virtual Marketing Plans
The success percentage of application of these marketing plans is significantly high especially as over 75% of small businesses consider online marketing as very effective (Townsend, 2020). A compilation of case studies by DuckDuckGo (2018) pinpointed that small businesses using SEO recorded a 13% increase in web traffic, 60% of small enterprises using email marketing have improved their sales, while others implementing social media advertising exhibited a return on ad spend of over 300%. Therefore, a considerable number of small businesses enjoy success from the application of virtual marketing efforts.
Percentage of Failure
Despite the predominant success cases, approximately 17% of small businesses fail to yield the desired results from their virtual marketing efforts (Forbes, 2021). This failure can be ascribed to numerous factors including poor understanding of the digital market landscape, sub-optimal implementation, and inadequate monitoring and evaluation (Chaffey, 2015).
Conclusion
In conclusion, small businesses’ leap from traditional marketing to virtual marketing paradigms has engendered tremendous value. However, a significant percentage still grapples with pitfalls associated with this transition. Therefore, businesses should invest in an effective virtual marketing plan that emphasizes proper understanding, planning, implementation, and continuous evaluation to bridge the gap between the harvesting benefits and the underlying failures.
References
- Kumar, V., & Mirchandani, R. (2012). Increasing the ROI of social media marketing. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/increasing-the-roi-of-social-media-marketing/
- Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0007681314001369
- Townsend, M. (2020). Do small business owners find digital marketing effective?. Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/690150/small-businesses-and-digital-marketing/
- DuckDuckGo. (2018). Successful Small Businesses Use Digital Marketing. DuckDuckGo.com. Retrieved from https://spreadprivacy.com/successful-small-business-digital-marketing/
- Forbes. (2021). Why Do So Many Digital Marketing Strategies Fail?. Forbes.com. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/01/25/why-do-so-many-digital-marketing-strategies-fail/
- Chaffey, D. (2015). Digital business and E-commerce management. Pearson Education Limited. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275410125_Digital_Business_and_E-commerce_Management
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