The Benefits of Digital Marketing For a Traditional Business

To highlight the benefits of digital marketing I wanted to give a real example of how digital marketing strategies can seriously boost an offline business. Hopefully this will also give you an idea of the sheer scaleability an online business offers when you compare it to a traditional business – particularly in a one man (or woman business)

In this example I’m only talking about a couple of basic strategies used to increase business for a solo driving instructor. If the aim was to scale that business to the stage where we wanted to build a driving school and take on additional instructors there are lots more digital marketing strategies we could use.

As I’ve mentioned before my partner Mo is a driving instructor. She was lucky in that she works with a friend so they have no heavy franchise fees to pay. We bought her car for cash as well so again no monthly loan payments to worry about.

That said, there annual fees to be paid as an instructor and of course the car needs to be serviced, insured, mot’t, kept fuelled and at times repaired or replaced. It’s the usual balancing act between competitive pricing and profitability.

At first getting new pupils took some time. It’s an extremely competitive profession  – just look at how many instructors you see every day. You start with word of mouth, adverts in local papers etc and gradually the reputation starts to build. One of the benefits of digital marketing is that this process can be drastically shortened as you’ll see.

With the traditional approach you get some referrals from satisfied customers, if you have a catchy name people take your number when they see the car. It’s a long process.

The Benefits of Digital Marketing – Speed

Here is the digital marketing strategy I used to get her more work than she can handle. I think it’s a good example of the benefits of digital marketing even though so far we’ve barely scratched the surface of what is possible.

I got her to take pics of pupils when they passed tests. The pupil would usually be grinning from ear to ear and would be holding up the pass certificate while standing in front of the car.

I posted the pics to Mo’s Facebook page as soon as they came in with a big message of congratulations. The pupils friends see this ……Another of the advantages of digital marketing is that it’s social!

I set up a simple web page where pupils could leave comments and testimonials. I added the comments to the photos in Photoshop (any simple photo editor will do – there is now one in the SFM back office)

I used those images with testimonials on them along with some other shots of the car and of my partner to make a short video with a catchy little tune and some captions (all done with iMovie – full training in the SFM back office)  I created a YouTube Chanel for Mo’s business and uploaded the video to it. I used relevant keywords in the description section – driving lessons Glasgow, female driving instructor Glasgow etc: Obviously she limits how far she can travel so this is important.

So far all I’ve done is post ads on a single platform – Gumtree – using the pictures with testimonials and a link to the video. This has made her stand out from all the competition and only needs reposting now and then to keep her diary full – too full right now ! This ability to create content once and continually reuse or repurpose it is another of the benefits of digital marketing.

If the gumtree ads weren’t producing results my next move would be to run some cheap Facebook ads. With Facebook ads the options for targeting are nothing short of amazing: I could put the ads in front of exactly the right people by age group, area, interests and a raft of other criteria. Starting with a small budget I would track and test the results and tweak the ads for best results.

We could also look at promoting the video on YouTube itself, or on Google, Yahoo, Bing and a load of other search engines.

The Benefits of Digital Marketing – Scaleability

Another of the benefits of digital marketing is that it gives you the ability to create additional products that don’t need you to be physically present: We could for example also produce and sell videos and Ebooks about learning to drive. We could write helpful blog posts about parallel parking, reference points etc. Once these are created they are effectively digital assets that can be marketed in a host of ways – some of which we’ve touched on above.

When you know how to do digital marketing and have all the tools and resources at your disposal ( as you do with SFM) it’s very easy bring in business. I’ve given the driving lessons example but really you can apply this to anything.

When you use it to promote online products, services and information though things get really exciting.

A driving instructor, hairdresser, local business can only operate in a limited area – a sole trader in a traditional business can only do so much. It’s a completely different matter with an online business. You don’t personally need to deliver anything or do the training and your customers can be anywhere in the world.

Seriously – take a minute and think about this.

If you knew for example just how many people are aware of the benefits of digital marketing and want to know how to use it in both online and offline businesses, you would get some idea of the potential there is with a product suite like the SFM and DEA. It’s a bit like sitting on a gold mine.

I can tell you from experience how long it can take and how expensive it can be to qualify as a driving instructor. Im sure it’s similar for any traditional trade or profession. I’m also here to tell you that with the SFM training and system you could be an expert digital marketer with a fraction of both.

 With the second option your income potential would be completely uncapped, you could do it from anywhere and I probably don’t need to tell you about the difference in stress levels….

If this has given you some idea about the benefits of digital marketing and inspired you to learn more you should look into the SFM training platform. SFM ask you for a $29.95 application fee to make sure you are serious. You get 30 days to check things out and speak to a business consultant. If you don’t like what you see you get your money back. No questions asked. No bullshit. It’s the safest way to look at a business combined with a life changing modern education  I’ve ever seen. Check it out by clicking the link below.