collageThere are many advantages of Internet marketing to both the consumer and the company. Let’s take a look at a few of the benefits your audience will experience because of Internet marketing and how those benefits help your business.
Ever since humans learned how to trade, marketing has been in place. Marketing is all about connecting with your audience at the right place and time. With the rise of the Internet, this means that you can connect with your audience easily on the internet through digital marketing. But what exactly are the advantages of digital marketing? Let’s discuss all of them in this article on advantages of digital marketing.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing comprises all marketing efforts that use the internet. These include digital channels such as search engines, email, websites, social media, etc., that can be used to connect with current and prospective customers.
Unlike traditional methods, digital marketing helps you reach a larger audience and target prospects who are most likely to buy your products and services. Additionally, it is more cost-effective than traditional marketing. Plus, it enables you to measure success and make marketing changes as you see fi
The key to successful marketing has always been about connecting with the target audience in the right place, at the right time. Today – when screen-time of consumers is at an all-time high – the best place to meet them is: on the Internet. Businesses worldwide are taking advantage of this reality. They are using effective digital marketing strategies to ensure their marketing efforts are more likely to reach customers and will, in turn, lead to significant commercial benefits.
What is online marketing?
Online marketing is the use of a diverse and evolving set of Internet based digital techniques to reach targeted audiences. These techniques include (but are not limited to) content marketing, social media, websites, search engine optimization, online video, email marketing, paid search, and more.
Many of these tools work best together: for example, publishing educational content on your firm’s blog and then sharing it to start a conversation on social media. Perhaps your blog post uses a YouTube video to illustrate a key point. If it’s successful, this piece might help drive up your website’s ranking for Google searches on the topic.
As you can see, effective online marketing is really a complex ecosystem of techniques that can help your firm achieve greater visibility and credibility. But let’s get even more specific. What are some of the most important advantages of online marketing for professional services firms today?
What is Internet marketing?
Internet marketing includes advertising and sales efforts conducted over the Internet, including:
- Search engine optimization (SEO). Techniques and strategies used to achieve a high ranking in the search engines results.
- Pay per click (PPC). Search engine-based advertising that directs web traffic to a website. Websites pay the search engines each time a user clicks your ad.
- Email marketing. Manual or automated messaging that targets specific groups of people who want to stay in touch with your business.
- Blogs. Writing about industry-specific information to keep your customers informed.
- Social media. Reaching out to customer profiles via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and more.
- Content marketing. Publishing unique, compelling, and engaging content like infographics to capture the attention of customers.
- Video marketing. Creating short, informational videos to benefit an audience and uploading them to popular video sites like YouTube.
- Location-based marketing. Establishing a local presence via Google Places and including relevant, local information on your website, like a phone number or address.
Benefits Of Online Marketing To Customers
Online marketing is growing in popularity – and importance. As we explored in our book, Online Marketing for Professional Services, changes in the demographics of the professional services marketplace are leading to the adoption of new strategies for building reputations, networking, and generating leads.
For a sign of the times, just look at the explosive growth of LinkedIn. To date, there are over 849 million LinkedIn members, compared to 467 million users in October of 2016. More and more of professional life is moving online – and the professional services world is no exception. Increasingly, the firms that succeed are the ones that learn to leverage online marketing effectively.
1. It keeps consumers current
The world is constantly changing. New trends, products, issues, and needs emerge every day. In a rapidly changing world, consumers need a way to stay on top of everything that is changing.
The Internet is a great place for keeping consumers current. They can seek out information and consume it quickly. It’s a great way for consumers to access relevant and engaging content with information that’s important to them.
This helps them keep tabs on businesses, too. If there are changes with your business or your industry, consumers expect to be able to find it immediately. They want to know relevant information as it emerges.
The Internet allows you to keep your audience up-to-date with your business’s latest trends and changes. They can see when you launch new products or offer new services. It’s a great way to keep your audience informed.
You will generate growth by keeping your audience up-to-date with the latest trends and changes. It’s easy for them to find your site and learn about what’s new or upcoming with your business. They can find information about new products, services, special deals, and upcoming events.
When consumers have access to relevant information, it helps them with purchasing decisions. They are armed with the latest information, which makes them feel more informed when making a decision.
How this benefits your business: Keeping your audience up-to-date encourages engagement and interaction with your business. One of the benefits of Internet marketing is that you build brand recognition with your audience by keeping them engaged and interested in your page. Increased brand recognition leads these consumers to choose your brand over the competition because they are more familiar with your business.
2. It offers convenience and quick service
The world operates at a fast-moving pace. People want access to information quickly and efficiently. Time is precious and people don’t want to waste it.
People can access information and purchase items quickly through the web. This is one of the benefits of Internet marketing to consumers. Your audience can get quick and convenient service when they need it.
When you market your products to them, they see the marketed material on their own time. Whether it’s in their social media feed or an email, they access your ad when it’s convenient for them.
Your website is constantly marketing your business. One of the advantages of Internet marketing is that your consumers can access your site when they have time.
If someone needs a product, they can easily order it online. Checkout processes have developed to allow for quick transactions that last a few minutes at most. It’s quicker than someone driving to a store, finding the product, checking out, and driving home.
This is a convenient way for your audience to purchase products. They can purchase products quickly and efficiently on their own time.
In addition, the Internet gives your audience more access to your business’s customer service. Many companies offer online chats or email services that allow people to contact your business when they need help. It’s one of the benefits of Internet marketing for consumers because it allows users to contact your company when it’s convenient for them.
How this benefits your business: The Internet allows for constant marketing of your business. People can access marketing materials like your website and your social media profiles at a time that works for them. Your business will still gain brand exposure and conversions while giving people a more comfortable shopping experience.
3. It helps build a better relationship
With the growth of the Internet, consumers grow more critical about brands. They have more access to information about companies, which leads to them forming opinions about certain brands. This opens the door to building a relationship with companies they trust.
Internet marketing helps you build trust with your audience. They see your marketed materials and learn about your business. As they get more familiar with your business, they begin to trust your company and feel comfortable with choosing your business.
They have many opportunities to connect with your business and learn more. They can sign up to receive emails or follow your social media profiles. It’s a great opportunity for them to learn more about your business and provides you with the chance to market directly to them.
Internet marketing benefits consumers because they build a relationship with companies. They get better customer experience and feel more valued as consumers.
How this helps your business: When you can market directly to your audience, you provide them with a better experience, but you also help your business obtain more valuable leads. You gain new followers on social media or you earn new email subscribers. It creates greater opportunities for you to market to leads to get them to convert while also helping you create repeat customers.
4. It provides 24/7 access
Your business may close, but the Internet stays open 24/7. People have constant access to information on the Internet regardless of the time of day or day of the week. This means that people always have access to information about your business, products, or services.
They can learn about your business at any time of the day. If they decide they need a product at 3 a.m., they can go online and purchase the product easily. It makes it easy for them to get what they need, when they need it.
This also means your audience has access to information whenever they need it. If they need questions answered or are looking for general information, they can search online for the information and come across your website.
How this benefits your business: You can market your business when you’re not in the office, which means you’re getting more out of your budget. It allows you to reach all types of people. For instance, if you were targeting people who were in law enforcement or nursing, you could reach them with your marketing materials, regardless of whether they work first, second, or third shift.
5. It creates a personalized experience
If there are two things you should know about your audience, it’s that they don’t like wasting time and they want to be valued as a customer. One of the advantages of Internet advertising is the ability to create a personalized marketing experience for each member of your audience. Not only does it make them feel valued, but it also allows them to get marketing material relevant to their interests.
Businesses can target people based on their demographics, interests, and shopping behaviors. This means that people see more products that align with their interests. It creates a better experience for your audience and gets them to engage with your business.
People don’t want to see irrelevant marketing material. Their time is valuable, so they only want to see marketing content that is relevant to their interests. When users receive irrelevant content, they’re less likely to engage with it.
Personalization creates a better experience for your audience. They get information about products and services that interest them. If you run an advertising campaign, you can advertise products or services that your audience wants, needs, or researched previously.
You create a better experience by giving your audience exactly what they want. Your audience is more likely to engage and take interest in your business.
How this helps your business: Personalized marketing creates an environment that makes your audience more likely to convert. When they have a marketing experience that is tailored to their interests, they’re more likely to engage. This leads to building better brand recognition, increasing engagement, and ultimately, earning more conversions.
Disadvantages Of Online Advertising
Disadvantage: It’s Complicated
There are lots of choices when it comes to advertising on the internet. You can choose search advertising, so your ads show up when a target audience is looking for just what you offer or display ads that appear where your most likely prospects roam on the internet. There are even native ads that show up on publisher sites and blend in so well that they appear not to be ads at all. Then there are remarketing ads that target someone who’s visited your website with a customized message that appears in front of them somewhere else on the internet.
Add to those choices the way you pay. With pay-per-click ads, you pay when someone clicks, but how much are you willing to pay? For those search ads, you’ll need to identify key search terms and decide how much to bid on each word. There are lots of levers to pull.
Disadvantage: Mistakes Can Be Costly
Because digital advertising is complicated, it’s not uncommon for businesses to make mistakes. Choose the wrong keywords, neglect a bidding cap, target ineffectively, or leave a campaign running when you thought it was off, and you can spend a fortune without turning a single lead into a sale. For example, if you run a campaign on Facebook but your customers are more likely to be LinkedIn users, you’re unlikely to convert a lead. If you don’t cap your bids, you could blow through the money you thought would last months in a matter of days.
Disadvantage: Competition Is Fierce
It depends on your products and market, but internet advertising competition can make ads prohibitively expensive. Those keyword bids? If you can only afford 10 cents a word, but your competitor can pay $10, you don’t stand much of a chance. For some businesses, it makes sense to build a good website and then rely on traditional advertising methods that have always worked in the past.
Disadvantage: Ad Fatigue Is Common
Have you ever been on a site and seen an ad for a product on which you recently ran a search? That’s internet advertising at its most typical, but have you also noticed that after a while, those ads don’t even register on your radar? It’s like they’re invisible. It’s a common and pervasive problem with running ads on the internet. If the campaigns aren’t run correctly, your brand and its products suffer from ad fatigue.
You have lots of marketing choices, and the internet should probably be one of them. Do your research to ensure that you reap all the benefits and avoid the pitfalls.
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