Can you recall how the marketing was working before we got to use the smartphones and computers? All we used to see are advertisements that used to pop up during a show or program. Or when our favorite TV host used to say, “See you after a short break.” We all knew that a quick break meant a few advertisements that were not interesting enough to make us buy that product. Even if we somehow were interested in buying. We must have our ambiguities about trying a product for the first time.
If we ask you to state a difference between advertisements before and after digital interventions, you answer that you can get to read the reviews now if you want to buy something. Ever since we have become familiar with digital technologies, every aspect of life turned towards it. From our education to our treatments, we all have specific applications that can fulfill the need of our phones. This digitization affected the businesses in a way that they were lagging while relying on the traditional method. Since people were moving away from print and electronic media, the companies were facing troubles to convey or promote their products to masses.
Read also: What to Look for When Hiring a Marketing Agency?
Besides hiring managers and marketing experts, traditional ways of marketing cost a lot for small businesses as they already have fewer resources and low capital to spend. Small and medium enterprises are trying hard to sustain their businesses with the continuous evolution of modern technologies.
Previously only multinational firms were competing to gather more customers, but with digital marketing and implementation of technology, the competition has got tough for even a small business to supersede.
With the increasing trend and jobs in digital marketing, people are enrolling in higher education in marketing services to help struggling business owners with their marketing strategies.
Are you still using traditional marketing methods for your business? Here are the reasons you need to shift your ways.
1. Levels the opportunity
A few years back, many business owners were assuming that digital marketing is only for multinational companies and large businesses to ace their progress. There used to be a competition among these entities to gather more traffic and up their SEO rankings. With advancements in technology, digital marketing has opened ways for small businesses by providing equal opportunities to compete and market for their products on the same ground as that of multinational companies. Small businesses can now effectively use their marketing strategies to let people know of their existence and spread their words to more masses without using a call center approach.
2. Cost-effective
Imagine the resources you were spending on a call center as a traditional marketing measure for your product. You had to hire customer care representatives, accommodate their salaries and shifts, and hire people to monitor the data and sales sheets. That was involving more of your budget with a minimal outcome on the positive side. Ever since digital marketing has spread its roots, businesses are now adapting to more cost-effective techniques than spending a considerable chunk of the budget. According to a survey, 40% of business owners were happy with the savings through marketing digitally. 28% of the businesses will shift their marketing to the digital realm than spending money on traditional mediums of marketing.
3. Easy tracking
With the conventional medium of marketing, it was often difficult to keep a proper check of success rate, to get the number of views or reach, and return on investments. Digital marketing provides the facility of tracking anytime, anywhere. All you have to do is use some analytics tools to assess your reach, return on investment with few clicks. Tracking your marketing campaigns give you an insight into the return on investments, success rate, and the areas that you can improve.
4. Large audience reach
Approximately 97% of people in the US own smartphones. 22% of the world population has access to social media like Facebook. People are more into gadgets than watching TV or reading newspapers. Because every news or latest information is now just a click away, even if you are using the traditional marketing methods, it will not yield the estimated outcome as compared to the digital ways. Social media has made it easy for businesses to reach as many people as they want by boosting their ads with minimal payments.
It is a rough estimate that people spend 37% of social media time out of 2 hours interacting with branded content. Still, looking for why you shall shift? Well, we just gave you one.
5. Targets more
Even a magazine has an ad that targets specific kinds of people based on who is buying it more. A printed fashion ad in a magazine may cross one million reaches, but that will mostly include women of age group 35-55 years old. One of the benefits of digital marketing is that it does not limit your demographic reach. You can conduct online surveys to know about their preferences and age groups to target them more effectively than ever.
Aiming at this level leads your ad to reach the specific group that might have an interest in it and yields a more robust outcome. Targeted ads help you build a connection with your buyers, in which general advertising cannot grow. It is essential to create a relationship while marketing your product because people make decisions according to their emotional connectivity to a product or brand.
6. Segmented approach
You cannot personalize an ad on the print or electronic media, but digital marketing allows you to have a segmented approach towards your audience. Many consumers will prefer businesses that are using email as their means of communication with their customers. Emails are useful when it comes to marketing; they make buyers feel responsible for their subscription. Sending relevant content via emails will make your customers connected to your brand. Many programs make it easy for the customer to sign up as forms are pre-filled with information, and the person has to click on the submit button.
7. Authority
Traditional marketing did not provide the facility of responding to complaints and queries on the spot. If you are marketing digitally, you will have the authority to communicate with your customers online, reading their comments, replying to their complaints, and answering their queries directly. This way, you can lead readers to trust you and your brand, and there will be a feeling of authentication about the content a reader will read related to your business.
8. Influential engagement
The ads that we see on TV often have celebrities vouching or reading the scripted words. We already know that whatever the personality is saying is just a statement that he or she has not tried. There are many influential bloggers in the digital realm that are producing real-time content and have a huge fan base. If you want to market your product, you can send it to any potential influence to try and post a testimonial. The followers will believe them, and you will have more people interested in your brand.
Conclusion
Marketing is the key to running a business. We cannot sustain our business for long if we only have limited customers that will not even buy your whole stock. To maintain healthy cash flow, we need to spread the word to more people to get our sales to funnel running and become popular among the masses. Digital marketing is not only budget-friendly but also lets business owners get a real picture of what is happening with their marketing strategies and campaigns.
Photos courtesy of gettyimages.com
