3 Compelling Reasons To Switch From Traditional To Digital Marketing
Marketing is one of the core activities of a business, no matter the size. In the past, traditional marketing was done through television, radio, and print—being that these were only media channels available.
With the advent of the digital age, businesses have slowly shifted to online marketing, which provides numerous benefits to enterprises of all sizes and shapes.
If your business is still on the fence about shifting from traditional to digital marketing, read this article to find out about the latter’s advantages to your enterprise.
- Digital Marketing Is Cost-Friendly
There’s no one-size-fits-all advice for marketing expenditures, but most go by the rule of thumb. This rule of thumb dictates setting aside up to 20% of the revenues for marketing. Comparing cost of digital and traditional advertising is the first step in determining which of the two strategies is more cost-effective.
Current offline advertising costs USD$22 on average for every one thousand customers reached. But this can vary wildly depending on where you are and which medium you want to advertise with. Inversely, the median cost for online advertising is up to USD$10, while an average cost per click is up to USD$3, according to the digital branding firm Top Draw.
If you don’t want to spend on digital marketing, study search engine optimization (SEO), placing your business high on the search engine ranking page (SERP). Consumers these days often go to search engines before buying a specific product. Companies exploit this to increase online visibility alongside other online marketing methods.
- It Draws In High Returns
Because of lower costs needed to reach different customers, digital marketing can also draw a high return of investment (ROI). One of the significant issues of offline marketing is that it’s challenging to measure effectivity, more so the ROI. With online marketing, everything is recorded and reflected in data analytics, allowing businesses to know how their campaign is stacking up.
SEO and email marketing are two of the most common strategies that yield the highest returns among the many tools. For example, a well-executed SEO marketing technique can reportedly produce a 2,200% ROI. Besides higher search rankings, this online marketing tool can also help drive more traffic to a company’s website, increasing brand awareness and helping build brand reputation and authority.
Email marketing, on the other hand, is another digital tool that helps your business achieve its goals and objectives, including increased customer base and, eventually, earnings. Like SEO, creating successful marketing requires careful consideration. Processes fundamental to email marketing include clear goal-setting, identification of target audience, and building a list of leads and email addresses.
Email marketing can yield up to a whopping 4,200% return on investment when done by marketing-savvy specialists. Some brands have reported as high as 49% ROI from video marketing and 200% returns from a search engine’s ads service.
Apart from email marketing and SEO, there are other content marketing, lead enrichment, and marketing strategies focusing on social media and mobile devices. If you want to know more about these methods, consider reading this article discussing digital marketing tips.
- The Digital Space Is Where Your Buyers Are
Online presence has revolutionized the world in unimaginable ways. Individuals of any age, race, body size, preference, background, and socioeconomic status, likely have one online account used for online searches, digital shopping and selling, booking appointments, and connecting with family members and friends.
There were over 4.6 billion internet users globally, according to Statista. This figure represents about 59.5% of the world’s population. The Asian continent has the highest number of users, estimated at more than 2.5 billion in 2020, likely because of the densely-populated nations of China and India.
Besides billions-strong users, more people are spending extended hours using the internet—a phenomenon encouraged by the 2020 pandemic. Because of movement restrictions and store closures, businesses relied on e-commerce platforms to sell products.
In 2020, more than 2 billion people shopped online generating sales worth over USD$4.2 trillion. Last year also saw a 25% hike in e-commerce sales value. Besides online selling channels, businesses large and small have also maintained at least one social media account to reach more customers. Hence, if your business doesn’t have one, you’re missing out on brand awareness and customer engagement opportunities.
Digital marketing’s global reach trump’s that of traditional marketing, especially if costs are involved. At the same time, online advertising also allows for a more targeted strategy using different tools.
Final Thoughts
When done correctly, digital marketing levels the playing field among small start-ups and large corporations in that it provides the same levels of online presence and exposure. This was almost impossible to achieve in the past because traditional marketing takes too much money and time to execute. So, if you’re just starting, make your presence felt in the digital realm while improving your products and services.
