In the battle for your marketing dollar, online is fast gaining the upper hand. This is why… When’s the last time you decided to buy something, like a new barbecue? Or needed the services of a professional, such as a panel beater? Chances are, the first thing you did was check out barbecues or panel beaters online. In fact, 81%
Published on November 1, 2018
In the battle for your marketing dollar, online is fast gaining the upper hand. This is why…
When’s the last time you decided to buy something, like a new barbecue?
Or needed the services of a professional, such as a panel beater?
Chances are, the first thing you did was check out barbecues or panel beaters online.
In fact, 81% of consumers research online in the first stage of their purchasing journey, while a reported 79% buy online.
These impressive stats are why more businesses are employing digital strategies to reach and engage with their ideal customer online. Some popular strategies include SEO, search and social advertising, and content and email marketing.
Here’s why savvy businesses are focusing their marketing dollar on digital…
1Online trumps offline in cost-effectiveness and ROI
Traditional marketing or print advertising?
Direct mail and TV?
Or maybe radio commercials?
Whichever your choice, each one costs an eye-watering amount compared to a Google or Facebook campaign starting from just $5 a day.
Where digital slams traditional marketing is in its high return on invest (ROI). Online marketing gets results. Not just ‘brand awareness’, but solid leads converting to sales.
At the end of the day, this is the bottom line:
Digital marketing is both cost-effective and produces tangible sales results for your marketing dollar.
2Digital reaches the mobile and social consumer
Mobile internet usage in New Zealand is increasing at a rate of 80 percent a year. Fifty-four percent of all Kiwis now own a smartphone and 63 percent of those access the internet via their phone every day, mostly searching for product information.
What’s more…
…over two million New Zealanders use Facebook each day, over 14 times a day, with some belonging to over seven social networks.
Your target consumer is probably mobile and they’re likely to use a social platform, so it makes sense to have a digital presence on the platform where they hang out.
3It builds trust
Traditional media is very one-sided.
Think of a print advert or TV commercial where the brand’s message is blasted out.
Digital content, on the other hand, is much more interactive. Potential customers can ask a question on your sponsored ad on Facebook, comment on a social media post, or they could ask your chatbot for help on your website as well as email your business with a query.
Even the traditional word-of-mouth is replaced digitally by online reviews where a business’s customer performance is available for everyone to see.
Being online?
It makes it easy for people to engage with your brand, and that transparency builds trust.
Trust is one of the critical factors in the purchasing decision. Trust increases feelings of positive emotions about your brand, making a consumer more likely to buy from your business. Those emotive feelings can even override other factors, like pricing.
I.e. “I trust this brand so I’m prepared to pay more”.
4Digital tools enhance the customer experience
Automation – which is only going to increase with the advances of AI – allows your business to interact with a customer throughout the sales enquiry, process, and other follow-up stages without any high labour input from your team.
Take search and social advertising…
…these channels offer automated follow-ups – remarketing – to convert ’warm’ leads.
Utilising a range of digital marketing tools improves your customer’s purchasing experience and leverages your marketing dollar even further while making savings in labour and resources.
Even utilising simple digital tools like Google Alerts to monitor mentions of your brand, or Uptime Robot to monitor the status of your website’s downtime, all increase your business’s efficiencies.
5Digital is nimble
Making a change to a print advertising campaign is virtually impossible.
It can take days and weeks to work through the print and distribution process.
Altering an online advertising campaign, however?
That takes just seconds.
This flexibility allows a business to perform split-test campaigns. Run the same Google ad but with two different headings, or different colours and calls to action, and analyse the results. Based on the instant feedback you can run with the highest performing advert or tailor your offer for the best results.
6Digital marketing is measurable
In the late 1800’s John Wanamaker, a successful merchant in America famously said:
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”.
Fast forward to our digital world, and Wanamaker would certainly be able to figure out where his advertising was most effective.
Online advertising offers comprehensive analytics on a range of statistics. From Google’s traffic analytics on your website, to click-through stats on Google advertising, and comprehensive dashboard reports on social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
Digital marketing gives you a clear picture of what’s working, and not working, so you can focus on strategies that increase your ROI.
As management guru Peter Drucker was quoted as saying:
“You can’t manage (or improve) what you can’t measure.”
7It perfectly targets your preferred audience
Traditional advertising has been compared to shooting in the dark.
Who knows if your print advert or TV commercial will get in front of your ideal customer amongst the masses?
Digital marketing, on the other hand, can be highly targeted to your ideal customer.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, (like Google search advertising) and social media advertising, (like Facebook ads) allow you to target your advertising based on demographics, buying behaviours and other attributes to get in front of the people most likely to be interested in your product or services.
Likewise, SEO strategies help you reach consumers who are searching online for content and issues relevant to your business. Optimising your site content with keywords helps attract more targeted traffic to your website, increasing your conversion rate.
With 93% of people’s online experience starting at Google, SEO is a crucial marketing strategy.
Why digital should win your dollar
Focusing your marketing spend on digital is a winning strategy that will increase your leads and sales more cost effectively than traditional marketing.
If you’re ready to ramp up your digital marketing to increase your bottom line and need help from online experts, book an obligation free strategy session with the team at Found.
