We live in the digital age, a time when people are more likely to have a smartphone than clean water. Nobody knows how or when the digital revolution started. All that is known is the impact it has had on our lives.
In addition to changing how we communicate with each other, the digital age has also had an impact on how we conduct our businesses. Overnight, the old ways of doing things became redundant and buzzwords like “machine learning,” “Artificial intelligence,” and “Big Data” became common.
If there was one industry that has been particularly affected by the digital revolution then it has to be marketing.
Digital Marketing
Remember that time when businesses used to advertise their products on billboards, television, radio, and print media? It feels like eons ago and rightly so because the dynamics of the marketing industry have drastically shifted with the emergence of digital mediums.
The emergence of e-commerce has led to a change in how customers engage with businesses and products in the online world. Statistics suggest that by 2021 more than 230 million people will engage in e-commerce and this will result in the United States becoming the biggest market for online consumers in the world.
The situation caused by the Coronavirus pandemic will only speed up this process as people have no other choice but to practice social distancing. Hence, the need for digital mediums has increased. After all, at the end of the day, it’s all about convenience.
Marketers understand all of these factors. They know that with digital tools like social media and platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, they can reach a wider audience and more importantly, people who are actually interested in their products.
Of course, that’s just scratching the surface. There are a lot of other ways in which digital marketing can have an impact on businesses. Let’s take a look:
Focus on Data
‘Above the line’ marketing strategies are at best ‘shots in the dark’. You try and create an effective marketing strategy with a big idea that is based on customer insights and develop the creatives accordingly. These creatives are then displayed over conventional mediums like television and print media etc.
The catch is that you can never actually predict whether your message is reaching out to the right kind of audience. In such cases, keeping track of conversions Is quite challenging.
Digital marketing works differently. This is because it places the utmost importance on data. Digital marketers use data in different ways. Some of these include:
Customer Segmentation: Data analytics tools like Google Analytics and WordPress analytics provide you with various details about people who visit your website. This information includes the country of a customer, their city, the device they use, the pages they visit, and the products they show interest in.
In addition to demographics, marketers can also use the data to dissect their customer’s behavior patterns and track every step in the customer journey.
You can find out which pages have the highest bounce rate, which product is selling the most, and how much time a customer is spending on your website.
With all the information at your disposal, you can identify flaws in your marketing strategies and convert visitors into customers.
Affinity Audiences: Affinity audiences refer to the process of developing your target audiences based on their habits, interests, and preferences. These are the people who have previously interacted with your website and have shown interest in similar products.
With Affinity audiences, your ads are displayed to the relevant audiences. When your products are marketed to the right people, chances of your campaign succeeding increase exponentially.
Success Rates: Suppose you launched a new campaign. The purpose of that campaign was to measure new customer acquisitions. How would you measure the success of such a campaign? With data of course!
The first thing you will need to determine is how much money you had to spend to acquire that customer. This is referred to as the ‘cost of customer acquisition’. It’s an important metric to assess because it tells you how much money you had to spend in order to turn someone into a customer.
Then you will need to assess the amount of money that customer has spent on your products. If that amount of money is lower than the cost of customer acquisition then technically your company has made a loss instead of a profit.
Similarly, suppose you were launching a rewards-based program and wanted to find out whether it helped retain customers or not. In this case, you will use data to measure the churn rate. Churn rate refers to the percentage of people who stopped using or subscribing to your services.
If the data tells you that the churn rate has lowered then congratulations, your rewards-based program is a success.
Website Optimization: When it comes to digital marketing, your most important asset is your website. A smooth and user-friendly experience can go a long way into converting a visitor into a customer. This is why optimization is so important.
Through data analytics, you can keep track of visitor activity on your website. You can identify which pages are not popular among visitors and work on optimizing such pages so that next time when visitors come on your website, they are not driven away.
Social Media
Social media is where you are likely to find a major chunk of your audiences. Customers on social media like to engage with the brand and find out everything about services being offered before they decide to make a purchase.
Let is illustrate that with an example. Suppose you put up an ad on social media regarding an internet service provider like AT&T. Customers would first prefer to get information about that provider. They would like to know why they should opt for AT&T high-speed internet instead of going for another option.
In such cases, the brand’s social media content will play a huge role. A customer is more likely to purchase the product if they feel that the content is informative and engaging. Good design and creative copies can go a long way in getting customer’s attention and generating sales.
Community management also plays a key role in social media strategy. How do the brand address customer’s queries, complaints, and feedback? Keep in mind that modern-day customers need instant gratification so there can be no lags when it comes to community management.
Reduced Costs
Digital marketing helps brands create an even playing field because it does not require a large budget. In fact, through content marketing and search engine optimization, you can organically market your business.
A small business has as much chance of reaching target customers in the digital landscape as a large business.
Reputation and Branding
The success of a business depends on customer satisfaction. If your customer is happy with your products, they are more likely to recommend it to others as well.
At the same time, a business is just one bad review away from having its reputation tarnished. This is unacceptable for brands and this is why they need to be on their toes at all times. It also reiterates the importance of community management.
Digital Marketing is the Future
The beauty of digital marketing is that it allows you to keep track of data in real-time and develop a smooth and effective customer experience.
It puts customers at the forefront and this is how digital marketing has managed to change business completely. We can safely say that digital marketing is here to stay.
Baldwin Jackson is a successful digital marketer with expertise in search engine optimization and content marketing. The perfect balance of his analytical ability and creative thinking is what sets him apart from other practitioners in the digital marketing realm. He has helped a lot of small and medium-sized businesses in crafting their digital marketing strategies that are not only cost-effective but delivers results as well.
Baldwin is also a proud father of two kids and a Sports enthusiast. When he is not working, you will find him watching ESPN and NFL network. He has been able to get an amazing package on his favorite channels from Buytvinternetphone.com.
