What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing groups together all the marketing activities that use the web channels to convey the company's promotional messages or any brand and stimulate the sale of their products/services. A few different and complementary activities are part of Digital Marketing, also called Web Marketing:
- SEO
- Social Media Marketing
- Google Ads
- Email Marketing
Why Is It Critical to Invest in Digital Advertising and Marketing?
The web channel has finally acquired the same relevance and appeal of "traditional" media, which include TV, print media, billboards, and radio. 2017 is considered the year of the overtaking, in the US communication market, of digital investments compared to traditional channels. In my country the Republic of the Philippines, the digital marketing landscape is constantly growing due to the increasing number of Filipinos who are choosing digital channels over traditional media for their digital marketing strategies.
Most likely, moreover, your competitors are already present on the web and are communicating, with targeted strategies, to your customers. So do not miss competitive advantage and business opportunities: activate, strengthen, and optimize your Web Marketing strategy.
What Are the Benefits of a Virtual Advertising and Marketing Strategy?
Digital Marketing offers your company significant opportunities for business development and contact with the specific target. I have summarized for you the 27 advantages that a correct Digital Marketing strategy can offer for your company.
Reach Specific Market Targets
Some user targets are only reachable through digital media. Just think of millennials, for example, who are massive users of mobile devices at the expense of TV and newspapers.
Cross-device Communication
Research indicates that users are active (and therefore reachable) on 5 different devices. Thus, each of them represents an opportunity to present and talk about your company to strengthen its brand awareness and conversion opportunities.
Measurement and Analysis
Digital channels has the ability to measure performance and analyze results that other channels do not offer. You can accurately track the budget invested in online communication activities and accurately calculate the ROI to maximize profit.
Global Business Opportunity
Web Marketing represents an essential prerequisite for conveying your business abroad by limiting the initial costs of the internationalization project.
Consolidation of the Brand Identity
The activation and application of a Digital Marketing strategy allow you to create a more complete, defined and memorable brand perception and experience with your target audience.
Extension of the Services Offered
Thanks to the web and its flexibility, you can offer new services to your customers. For example, if you manage an accommodation facility you can provide an online booking system capable of bypassing traditional reservations and requests for information via telephone.
Audience Maximization
Digital communication is easily scalable: it allows you to potentially reach millions of people around the world at virtually any time.
Engagement and Interaction
Thanks to digital media, you can interact directly with your target consumers without intermediaries. Engagement is the basis of any successful Digital Marketing strategy today
Business Growth
A correct Digital Marketing strategy is able to make you reach the set business goals. According to research, in fact, 81% of companies say that Web Marketing, if managed correctly, works and has brought benefits to the business.
Innovative Communication
The media channels are able to support new digital communication paradigms such as 3D graphics, virtual reality, and augmented reality to offer new interaction experiences to users.
Constantly Updated
Unlike what happens in other degrees, studying marketing will imply that the person has to be constantly updating himself/herself. International markets are constantly evolving and constantly changing. Therefore, if you want to train in marketing you will have to be constantly updating yourself.
Wide Range of Perspectives
Perhaps one of the reasons to study essential marketing is related to prospects. It will not be about exclusively understanding the consumer or what s(he) wants, s(he) will also have to be interested in approaching cultures, other ways of thinking and having enough ability to approach other horizons.
Creativity Development
Although there are many professional profiles, people interested in marketing will have to have some creativity. Thus, this creativity will be an extremely useful tool for the daily performance of its functions.
High Professional Remuneration
High pay for marketers is often related to achieving goals. As you progress through your proposed goals, you will begin to earn more income from your effort and planning.
Specialization in One Area
Studying marketing is not possible without adequate specialization today. If you are looking to be a successful professional, you will have to specialize in areas such as international marketing or digital marketing, among other possibilities.
Improve Society
Another reason why you should study marketing has to do with improving your environment. Through the development of campaigns and strategies, changes can be generated with which to improve people's lives, which is possible thanks to marketing.
Relevance in the Company
Currently, companies are very interested in professional profiles linked to marketing. Although it is true that competition increases, it is still an option of enormous relevance to the public and very necessary.
Professional Outings
The wide variety of career opportunities available to marketing, from teaching, market analysis, consulting and business advice, distribution and logistics, market research or advertising, and communication, make it a career in high demand.
Personal Satisfaction
Traditionally, marketing students are often more satisfied with their profession than students from other careers. Marketing professionals understand what customers' needs are, know how to take care of them, and understand them, making other people happy and increasing their own.
Tracking Services or Products
It will not matter if a certain service or product is already on the market. A very important reason to study marketing comes precisely from the adequate monitoring of both products and services before and after.
It Is Measurable
In digital campaigns, all the actions carried out are measurable in real-time, so it is much easier to identify what is working and what needs to be optimized to improve the performance of your campaign much faster than in a traditional medium.
Are You Worried About the Content?
Just relax! It is much simpler: on the internet, there is a universe of content in which you can easily be inspired and create from scratch. Contrary to traditional marketing, whose actions are complex and expensive (for example, to make a commercial you need a much larger and more expensive technical deployment), to write a post you just have to know who you are talking to, what you want to say and sit down write.
Allows You to Calculate the Return on Investment
ROI is a metric that indicates the economic value or benefit generated by the digital marketing actions you implement. How does this translate? That you can really know how much is the profit obtained from the money invested in your digital strategies.
It Offers the Instantaneous Possibility of Knowing the Perceptions of the Public
With Digital Marketing, you can measure the impressions, clicks, and visits that your digital assets have had. And if you lean towards Inbound Marketing, you will also be able to meet those who are just interested in your products or services, who are about to buy, who is missing an extra push. Therefore, you can allocate offers and specific content in each case.
It Is Much Cheaper Than Traditional Marketing
One of the advantages of digital marketing over traditional marketing is its cost, giving small and medium-sized companies the possibility of developing marketing strategies for a lower cost than in conventional platforms.
You Gain Greater Visibility and Credibility
Today having a digital presence offers more credibility than having a presence in other traditional mass media. Marketers say: while television is exposed, the Internet is persuasion.
The Internet Is Synonymous With Customers Looking for Solutions
Right now, millions of people are looking for information, solving their problems and needs. Your SME can be their solution. So, if the buyers are on the web, what is your company doing that is not there?
Conclusion
The online market evolves rapidly and requires real-time answers from its protagonists. B2B companies that want to implement an effective digital strategy must consider updating, training and above all the flexibility of new tools and technologies as part of their daily lives, to better grab the next opportunities and challenges.