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Web & App DevTop 10 Benefits of Online Marketing 2013
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Reach consumers worldwide.
You can target consumers anywhere in the world with digital marketing tactics. By utilizing popular digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, you can reach over 1.5 billion consumers worldwide. This is equivalent to 1/7 of the world population! Moreover, you can share compelling content, push products and services, and promote upcoming events to thousands or even millions of consumers with a mere tweet or Facebook update. You can also use social media management services such as HootSuite to schedule Facebook content or tweets to reach consumers around the world all the time!
Before: Limited to local markets unless you have a large advertising budget.Now: Open up a Google AdWords account and you’ll be able to advertise to consumers all over the seven continents. (Even if you don't know how to run or manage these accounts, there are plenty of local digital marketing agencies that you can work with to get help.) -
Create personalized messages from “Big Data”.
You can gain insights regarding your consumers using digital marketing tools and target them with personalized messages. For instance, you can send an email to a customer who purchased a printer four months ago to promote ink cartridges. This will help you target consumers with products and services your consumers truly need. Additionally, with the advent of wearable devices, you’ll be able to further connect with prospects using customized messages based on time, location, and personal preferences. Wearable gadgets such as Google Glass allow you to can track exactly where your consumers are and in turn, help you showcase ads that best suit their current situation. For instance, if you’re a brick-and-mortar store, you can show your promotions on your shoppers’ wearable gears as they enter the store. This will make your content significantly more relevant and compelling to your audience.
Before: Displayed generic ads that didn’t resonate with specific consumers.Now: Use CRM or analytic tools and you can find out exactly what kind of advertisements will entice your consumers. -
Measure marketing performance.
You can easily measure your digital marketing performance using digital products and services. With analytics tools such as Google Analytics, you can attain valuable data such as time duration and bounce rate, helping you improve your digital marketing campaigns going forward. Moreover, you can use email marketing platforms such as MailChimp to determine your email campaigns’ open rates and click-through rates, further bolstering your marketing initiatives. (If you want learn how to use Google Analytics effectively, attend our 2-day Google Analytics Success Training Workshop.)
Before: Difficult to determine your ads’ readership and effectiveness.Now: You can precisely identify the power of your ad copy by analyzing marketing data with Google AdWords and Google Analytics. -
Reduce marketing costs.
Online marketing is very cost-effective compared to many traditional offline mediums. By using digital tools such as Google AdWords and Facebook, you can reach hundreds or even thousands of consumers for just a couple of dollars. This is particularly useful for smaller companies that are trying gain recognition with limited resources. With these advertising platforms, smaller companies can put a cap on their daily advertising budgets so they can generate maximum results with no paperwork and without heavy marketing investments.
Before: Had to invest heavily on magazine, billboard, and TV ads to broadcast your brand.Now: Spend as minimal as $1 a day and you can advertise your products and services across the globe. -
Schedule marketing initiatives.
You can create an advertising calendar that centers your consumers’ activities. With digital tools such as Google AdWords, you can create an advertising schedule that helps you reach qualified prospects at optimal times. For example, if you’re a B2C company targeting female consumers aged between 20 and 25, you can specifically schedule your AdWords ads to appear between 8pm and 10pm as that’s when they’re generally online.
Before: Advertisements were stationary and passive and would only been seen if people walked by.Now: Optimize your ad schedule based on your consumers’ activities so that your ad copy can be seen at optimal times. -
Communicate with consumers conveniently.
Twitter is the new telephone. By using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, you can request customer feedback, promote sales events, and broadcast product launches with a single tweet or Facebook status. You can also use these social networks as customer service channels by responding to inquiries. While Facebook and Twitter are useful for communicating with existing customers, you can also use them to find new prospects. You can use the Twitter Search tool to find conversations pertinent to your business or industry and attract these prospects by interacting with them. For instance, if you’re a hotel and looking for new customers, you can use the tool to find conversations regarding travelling or hospitality and join in the conversations by offering useful information.
Before: Could only communicate with consumers in your geographic location due to time zone differences and the inadequacy of communication tools.Now: Create a Facebook or Twitter page and you can interact with consumers anywhere in the world. -
Optimize your marketing performance in real-time.
You can examine your marketing results in real-time with digital marketing platforms. (See what Peter Reek of Smart + Savvy has to say about measuring marketing ROI.) By using digital tools such as Bit.ly and Google Analytics, you can track how many people have clicked on your shared link, determine your traffic source, and identify the number of conversions you’ve received immediately after you’ve shared the content. This enables you to quickly modify your marketing initiative if you discover that your marketing approach is inadequate.
Before: Could only track your marketing performance months after the marketing campaign.Now: Determine your marketing results immediately with tools such as Bit.ly and Google Analytics. -
Target consumers proactively.
You can engage with your consumers more proactively with digital marketing platforms. By coming up with digital marketing tactics such as interactive video campaigns, you can make your consumers more involved with your brand by giving them choices to select from part of the plots. This will make your audience more emotionally-attached and fond of your brand. In addition to video campaigns, you can also use remarketing ads to target your consumers. For instance, if a shopper has dropped out of the shopping cart process, you can display an ad on a content website that he’s currently on to promote your products and services. This will hopefully help you encourage the customer to go back to the shopping cart and complete the transaction.
Before: Advertisements were very passive where the audience could only sit back and receive the information.Now: Ads allow consumers to interact with brands by giving them options to select from as part of the marketing initiatives. -
Share your content effortlessly.
You can share your content more easily with digital marketing tactics. By producing video content and sharing them online, you can distribute them to millions of people worldwide. A perfect example of a successful, viral video campaign is the “Gangnam Style” video. The K-Pop video reached 805 million YouTube views last November just after 21 months of its release, breaking YouTube’s all-time record. Although it’s uncommon for brands to produce such an influential video, you can certainly see the power and shareability of today’s web content.
Before: Extremely difficult for content to go viral due to numerous communication barriers.Now: Post content on social networks today and you can have your content shared by millions of people worldwide. -
Control your advertising campaigns.
You can control the frequency of your advertisements with digital advertising. For instance, if you discover that certain ad copy have low conversion rates or low click-through rates, you have the power to immediately pause or delete them. This allows you to constantly display the most compelling, powerful ads to your consumers so you can always generate maximum results.
Before: Could only change your advertising campaign months after its initiative, by which may be too late to boost its performance.Now: You can remove or pause your advertisements immediately if they’re underperforming.
