The world is slowly but surely moving away from the traditional marketing efforts and focusing on digital advertising. This comes as a no surprise, as people consume digital content on a daily basis, whether it’s by using their desktops, laptops and particularly smartphones. The average person uses a search engine for literally anything, ranging from finding the best price for a product, looking for directions or researching a brand before making a purchase. And ranking high in the search engine results page is just one of the many benefits digital marketing has over traditional advertising.
1.It levels the playing fields
Digital marketing used to be available only for large corporations which had enough resources to finance a proper online advertising campaign. These days, the playing field is leveled when it comes to advertising online, as small business owners now have the opportunity to compete with big companies for the share or much-needed traffic. With digital marketing, small businesses finally have the necessary resources to perform various marketing tasks effectively and engage customers which normally wouldn’t have access to their physical stores.
2.It’s cheaper than traditional marketing
Traditional marketing involves paid TV spots, large billboards and banners and similar types of advertising that are rather expensive for small businesses. Digital marketing, on the other hand, is far cheaper when compared to traditional practices. For just a fraction of the price of traditional marketing, small businesses now have efficient marketing channels which not only deliver results but also lead to considerable savings. Whether it’s using social media, e-mail, SEO, blogs or even pay-per-click advertising, it is still far more reasonable to go digital than it is to stick with traditional efforts.
3.Conversion optimization
One of the key goals of digital advertising isn’t an increase in traffic, but rather an increase in traffic converted into leads. Depending on the purpose of your website, these leads can either be subscribers, or customers. This explains why many small business owners have started restructuring their digital advertising campaigns towards optimizing conversion rates, as traffic is basically meaningless without conversions. The top three most efficient techniques used in conversion optimization are email marketing, social media marketing, and search engine optimization.
4.It generates more revenue
Digital advertising techniques and practices lead to higher conversion rates, and in turn, deliver greater profits. These profits aren’t only measured by quantity, but also by quality. Even Google has confirmed this, claiming that companies which use digital marketing have almost three times better growth expectancy when compared to the companies which use traditional advertising efforts. With higher revenue growth, small companies now have a far better chance to expand their business and reach new markets both internationally and locally.
5.It has better ROI
With good interaction with the customers, as well as better revenues, digital marketing provides a far better return on investments when compared to traditional marketing and media channels. Traditional media cost way too much when you take into account the results they offer. On the contrary, digital advertising can be monitored and tracked easily, with the results being available the instant a customer provides information, subscribes or makes a purchase. This allows small businesses to produce a steady stream of narrowly-targeted traffic which will get converted into leads and sales.
6.It gains people’s trust
Digital marketing relies on SEO and social media testimonials and commentary from the people who have actually purchased the product in order to develop and maintain a certain level of trust with the consumers. A potential customer is more likely to purchase a product if there’s a review written by an average person. Not only are they likely to purchase, but they are likely to put their trust into a brand when the information about that brand, as well as any product and services being offered come from an average Joe, or even better, someone they know.
7.You can interact with targeted audiences
One of the main reasons why digital marketing has taken over traditional advertising channels is the capability to use advanced online marketing tools in order to interact in real time with a target audience. Today, customers expect to be engaged with when they interact with a brand or a company. According to many web developers, customer engagement and interaction allows for a greater insight into what people really want. This is a crucial piece of information which can be used to plan the next move and provide the customers with a better user experience than ever before.
Final Words
Digital marketing is no longer an option a business can choose, but rather a practical necessity. Without a proper digital advertising strategy and the distribution process used to grow the marketing channels, small businesses are risking falling behind their competitors and lose their hold in this rapidly shifting digital playing field. Using digital marketing in this day and age is the only way for a business to become and remain successful. Considering the price efficiency, as well as all the other benefits that come with digital marketing, it’s becoming apparent that digital marketing and businesses of all sizes have become practically inseparable in today’s digitally oriented world.
