Clearly, the age of technology has brought a lot of change in the way things are done. It is safe to say that technology has also replaced several traditional methods in all walks of life –even the traditional ways of marketing have gone down by nearly 160 percent, while the digital methods have gone up by 14 percent. Digital marketing and social media also have a great impact on how consumers and businesses behave. If there has been such a shift from traditional marketing to internet marketing, the latter must have some huge advantages compared to the former. Let us see what are the factors that make internet marketing a better option; but before that, let us first look at the basic difference between the two.
About Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing methods include ads on TV, billboards, newspapers, flyers etc., while internet marketing includes ads on social media, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, banner ads and the likes of it.
Why Include Internet Marketing in your Business?
- Lower Cost: First off, internet marketing is way less expensive as compared to traditional methods. For example, a full-page black and white ad in the Wall Street Journal’s National Edition can amount up to $164,000. Of course, for smaller newspapers, it may cost you around $1,000/day. But that too is a lot. And when you invest in a marketing media, you certainly want to get you ad in the best media possible so that it will have a good reach. Internet marketing ads, on the other hand, will cost you about $260 a month. Some internet marketing strategies are even free.
- Audience Targeting: The precision that internet marketing offers is not found in the traditional marketing methods. No matter how many flyers you circulate, you never know how many of them are actually received with enthusiasm – most of them end up getting trashed the moment they are handed over. Internet marketing, on the on the hand, comes across as very subtle and non-intrusive and reaches the exact kind of audience who has been looking for that kind of offering. Moreover, it has a global reach. Imagine how much you will need to shell out on the traditional marketing methods to get them to cross borders. Internet marketing can be targeted at the exact demographic that are your potential customers.
- Engagement: Let’s face it – when someone looks at a billboard, they don’t go ahead and invite someone else to look at it. Ask yourself – how many times do flyers get passed around. Internet Marketing mostly comes with the share buttons making it easy and quick for your message to spread around. It also gives you the opportunity to interact and engage with your customer – something that can offer more productivity. You can build direct relationships with customers. Internet marketing allows customers to provide ratings and feedback which is visible to the market and can be a good publicity.
- Measurable Outcomes: Earlier, you could never track the effectiveness of your campaign, but with powerful analytics tools, you can always track the performance of your ads. You can see the insights on how many people follow you and measure the effectiveness through indexation, backlinks, rankings and traffic. You can easily figure out if a certain strategy is not effective and refine it. It offers you real-time results and you don’t have to wait for weeks to refine and boost your strategy.
- Brand Development: If you maintain your webpage well with quality content focussed on the needs of the consumers, you can add a lot of value and generate leads.
- Level Playing Field: The sharks in the niche may be able to afford the higher cost involved in the traditional marketing strategies, but that isn’t possible for small businesses and they miss out on the exposure. But in the digital arena, even the small investor can gain ground using the right marketing strategy. It is accessible to any business size.
- Timing: Internet marketing ad campaigns can be timed for relevance and launched immediately as important events take place.
Internet marketing is something that your company cannot afford to skip. With such advances in technology and with the advantages it presents and the opportunities it opens up for your business, there is no doubt that internet marketing is an indispensable part of your marketing strategy and is certainly the best option to enrich your business.
Author Bio: Nikhil Aggarwal currently works as Content Manager with SEO Experts India. He has a keen interest in Entrepreneurship, Online Reputation Management, pay-per-click marketing, Quality Link Building Tech Consultancy, etc.
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