Marketing is everywhere. No matter what channel or medium you use for marketing, the purpose of marketing remains the same, i.e., to build awareness. In a nutshell, marketing is the process of promoting and selling products or services. It is basically the activities the company undertakes in order to promote the buying or selling or a product or service.
Marketing is of different types, and businesses utilize various marketing channels for promoting their products/services. The success or failure of your marketing plan will be based on the channel or platform you select. Over time, the concept of marketing has been changed.
Earlier, businesses and brands used to utilize television, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc. for marketing their product/service. The presence of the internet and the increase in internet users increased the craze of marketing online. Internet presence gave birth to digital/online marketing. First, let’s talk about the basic meaning of digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing or online marketing is the process of marketing products/services/brand digitally, using different digital channels. It includes digital channels like mobile applications, social media, web applications, email, search engines, websites, etc.
In a nutshell, digital marketing is any form of marketing products or services that involves electronic devices.
Using different digital channels, you can build the online presence of your business. One of the primary reasons why your business needs an online presence is because of a massive audience. With the rise in users on various online platforms/channels, it has been an excellent opportunity for businesses nowadays.
Traditional marketing methods are not as effective as digital marketing methods. The problem with conventional/old school marketing methods is it isn’t flexible, like digital marketing methods.
Types of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is of different types.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- Content Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Native Advertising
- Email Marketing
- Inbound Marketing
- Sponsored Content
Benefits of Digital Marketing
If you are still spending the majority of the marketing budget on traditional marketing techniques, then you need to know the benefits of online/digital marketing. Here are some benefits of using digital marketing methods:
Cost-effective
Businesses and brands nowadays are focusing more on digital marketing than other types of marketing strategies for one main reason, i.e., it is really cost-effective. Unlike traditional marketing techniques, digital/online marketing does not require to spend a huge amount of money.
As old school marketing methods are quite expensive, small and medium businesses may not afford to use them. For example, television advertisements, small businesses do not have such a big marketing budget. Talking about digital marketing, it can be implemented with very little budget. The main cost involved in digital marketing is time. Depending on the platform, it can take time to apply and get results from digital marketing strategies.
Measurable
You can improve your marketing strategy when you have enough data and analytics for your marketing campaign. Digital marketing is not just cost-effective; it is also easily trackable.
Talking about traditional marketing strategies like TV, radio, billboards,etc., it is not possible to track and measure the results. For example, when you advertise your product/service via billboard marketing, you can’t know how many people have viewed the ad, the age group of people who viewed the ad, gender, etc.
This is when the importance of digital marketing comes in. Whether you implement PPC, SEO, SMM, or any other online marketing strategy, it is possible to track results.
Detailed targeting
The best way to get a better conversion rate is by targeting the right audience. When it comes to marketing, you want to target people who will be actually interested in your product or service.
Targeting the wrong audience will lead to wastage of time, money, and effort. In the case of various traditional marketing strategies like TV, radio, billboards, etc., you can’t show your ad to a well-targeted audience. It is possible with digital marketing.
Digital marketing techniques like SEO and PPC allow you to make your business visible to a specific targeted audience. Talking about SEO, you can do it by targeting the right keywords.
Improved conversion rates
No matter which marketing strategy you implement for your business, in the end, what matters the most is the conversion rate you are getting. Through digital marketing, you can’t just target the right audience, but you can also improve the conversion rates.
There’s a direct relationship between the audience you are targeting and the conversion rate. By targeting the right audience as per your business type, you can boost the conversion rate. On the flip side, by targeting the wrong audience, your conversion rate will suffer.
If you choose conventional advertising methods like radio or TV, the amount you will be spending will be high, and conversion you will get will be quite low. The reason is conventional advertising targets the general audience rather than the targeted audience.
Build trust and brand reputation
If you want your customers to make a repeat purchase from you, it is essential to build the trust factor. Using various digital channels like social media and search engines, building the brand reputation and trust becomes easy.
As compared to traditional marketing methods, it won’t be just easy; it will also be cost-effective. The amount of money you need to spend for brand building on traditional methods like television will be much higher as compared to modern marketing methods like social media or SEO.
Real-time results
Another advantage of digital marketing is it provides real-time results. Unlike traditional marketing methods, it delivers real-time data for what’s working and what’s not working.
For example, you can know about the number of visitors on your site, peak trading times, conversion rates, increase in site traffic, the decline in site traffic, bounce rate, page views, and much more.
Final Thoughts
Digital marketing has become a buzzword. Various benefits of digital marketing are the reasons why businesses and brands nowadays are spending the majority of their marketing budget on different online methods such as SEO (search engine optimization), social media, search engine, email marketing, etc.
