As you know digital marketing, in its various forms, should be a key part of any modern business approach, you wouldn’t be on this site right now if you didn’t. In times of crisis digital marketing is more important than ever before. We live in a world where the web is arguably the most valuable channel for reaching customers with your key messages.
As meetings, conferences and other close communications have been postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19, we are now left with our digital network of contacts. With new working conditions in place up and down the country, more people are staying at home, on their computer or with a smartphone in hand. Digital marketing is the key to getting out of the pandemic, even stronger than before.
We might be unable to shake a potential client’s hand yet, but with digital marketing booming we have the advantage of promoting social distancing, but at the same time allowing your company to be visible and sell to your target audience.
There are various ways in which digital marketing can benefit your company. Consumers now rely on social media, SEO and other tools to make their product discoveries and purchase decisions.
We believe digital marketing has four key advantages over the traditional way of marketing:
- Speed
- Engagement
- Measurability
- Affordability
Speed
In the virtual world, you can get your message out there much faster. A lot of breaking news today is read online before you can read it in a newspaper. Printed materials take longer to print and distribute, digital marketing means companies can be much more responsive with their messaging. Social media posts and website updates take a few minutes compared to days for the development and printing of a flyer. Email marketing can be written and controlled when it gets sent out and you can monitor who has opened it, whereas an advert can take a week to place in a newspaper and you never quite know what your readership is.
Engagement
One of the biggest reasons digital marketing has become so important is the engagement it brings – you can converse with your prospective and current customers, answer questions and resolve issues within a matter of minutes. If done correctly, you can increase your customer services ratings from average to excellent, if done correctly. You’re able to interact with a wider audience so you can do more than just sell.
Engagement can be achieved via other avenues too such as competitions, blogs, PR, events and other marketing activities.
Using real-time online marketing you can comment on issues and update or inform your customers immediately after significant events that may impact your sector. You can also quickly match, or better competitors’ offers with your own, keeping you at the sharp end of the marketplace.
Measurability
A website is arguably the single most important marketing tool and it is an insight into what people are interested in, how they find your website and use it. How many people have visited your site? Where are they coming from, natural search, through pay-per-click (PPC), social media or email campaigns? You can monitor the change in your figures over time, giving you real information about whether your marketing message is getting through to the correct people.
Affordability
Digital marketing has opened the arena of marketing to smaller and medium-sized firms the world over, putting them onto a level playing field with bigger corporate companies, through its affordability. For example, Facebook advertising through ad campaign tools such as ‘boost posts’ costs a fraction of the cost of printing leaflets and can be directed at a specific group of people.
At the same time, you get much greater reach with a wider audience that potentially spans the entire world, and less paper goes to landfill. Similarly, online banner adverts on websites generally cost less than adverts placed in more traditional outlets like daily newspapers or magazines. With the data that is generated by these online advertising techniques you also get feedback on how efficient your ad spend.
So, digital marketing is more than important to your business – it is indispensable.
