The Benefits of Digital Marketing

Modern technology has made the benefits of digital marketing virtually limitless – from widespread reach to low cost to high conversion rates. First off, let’s answer one simple question:

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing can be executed in a number of ways:

• Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). The goal of these methods is to appear at the top of search engine results so your website attracts more traffic. The difference, however, is that SEO increases traffic organically, whereas you pay to be in front of your target audience with SEM.
• Social media marketing (SMM). According to We Are Social, there were 3.196 active social media users in the world in 2018 alone. This makes SMM a great way to get in front of potential leads and customers if you can find out which social networks your target audience uses.
• Smartphone marketing. According to Pew Research Center, 94% of Americans aged 18-29 own a smartphone. This makes smartphone marketing a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy, especially if you’re targeting a younger audience.
• Email marketing. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the digital marketing book, but it’s still one of the most valuable ways to reconnect with customers and increase brand loyalty.

These are just a few examples of digital marketing, but there are several others you can include in your strategy, such as forum marketing and influencer marketing.

What are the benefits of digital marketing over traditional marketing?

In contrast to digital marketing, traditional methods mostly include radio and TV commercials, cold calling, billboards, and basically anything print.

The problem with traditional marketing methods is that for decades, they have fallen short in a number of key marketing areas. Coincidentally, these same areas are where digital marketing excels. Let’s talk about them.

SPECIFICITY

With traditional marketing, you push whatever it is you’re selling to whomever and your ads are the same regardless of who’s watching.

The problem is, although people see your product, very few are actually interested or at a point where they’re ready to buy.

Digital marketing, on the other hand, takes a sniper rifle approach.

Through data analysis from your websites, blogs, and social networks, you can target specific buyer personas who ARE INTERESTED and modify your ads to cater to the different stages of the buyer’s journey.

REACH

Let’s be real. The number of people that pay attention to newspapers, flyers, and billboards is dwindling, whereas the amount of people who are using the internet increases each year.

A few examples of what you can do with digital marketing include:

• Publish high SEO-ranking content to increase website traffic.
• Leverage specific features on different social media platforms to connect with people who are interested.
• Put out catchy ads on social networks and websites that direct your target audience to your products and services.

COST TO IMPLEMENT

The cost of running billboard or print ads typically starts off at a baseline of $250/month and can skyrocket to nearly $18,000 depending on where you place them.

If you have a strategic digital marketing strategy in place, you can literally grow your business online for $0. Of course, there are advantages to paid advertising as well but generally speaking, going the digital route costs significantly less money.

CONVERSION RATES

One of the major advantages of using digital marketing over traditional methods is the ease with which you can collect and analyze data.

Through this data, you can optimize your strategies to fit the needs of your target audience. This allows people to trust your brand and significantly increases the chances of leads converting into paying customers.

As a matter of fact, Demand Metric says that content marketing (another popular type of digital marketing) costs 62% less but generates 3x more leads than traditional marketing.

How can digital marketing help a small business grow?

The benefits of digital marketing essentially make it a low-risk, high-reward type of strategy that small, growing businesses can take advantage of.

However, it’s not as simple as posting your products on Facebook. It takes some elbow grease and a little bit of pizzaz, but the rewards can be astonishing.

Here is the most basic action plans to get you started:

• Build a well-designed website that’s easy for your visitors to navigate.
• Fill your website with relevant, engaging blog posts that are optimized for search results.
• Share that content on the social networks where your target audience hangs out.
• Run social media ads and target a specific group of people who are most likely to convert and become customers for life.

There are so many webs and avenues connected to the digital marketing spectrum, so the possibilities are ENDLESS. To truly put its advantages on full display, a much more detailed strategy should be decided from the get-go.

If you’re having trouble transitioning from traditional advertising to digital marketing, Next Level Studio can help! We would love to be your marketing agency. Simply fill out the contact form or call us at 251-206-6991 for a consultation.