igital marketing is the leading marketing strategy of the 21st century — in fact, the industry will be worth $786.2 billion worldwide by 2026. But not every business has bought into this marketing strategy. Despite the ubiquity of digital marketing, some organisations are still doubling down on traditional marketing strategies, or dipping their toes into digital marketing without investing enough time or resources to make a lasting impact.
Failing to understand the benefits of digital marketing could lessen its impact on your business — and ultimately, that can result in missed opportunities for growth. When you understand the most common advantages of digital marketing, you’ll be well-positioned to develop a winning strategy and invest strategically in effective digital marketing campaigns.
In this article, we’ll explain the most common benefits of digital marketing for businesses today and why creating a thoughtful strategy is so important. Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining your existing strategy, it’s a good time to review your plan and make sure it’s designed to maximize the key benefits.
This post will discuss nine of the most common benefits of digital marketing, including:
- Global reach
- Cost efficiency
- Measurable results
- Effective targeting
- Increased engagement
- Flexibility
- Improved conversion rate
- Social currency
- Greater ROI
1. Global reach
While traditional marketing like billboards, TV ads, and cold calls limits outreach to particular areas, digital marketing empowers businesses to connect with a worldwide audience across different regions and time zones. In contrast to traditional approaches, digital platforms enable targeting potential customers on a local, national, or global scale, going beyond local demographics.
Conventional marketing often requires significant investments to expand into multiple markets. Conversely, digital strategies like social media, content marketing, and email campaigns offer cost-effective ways to connect with potential customers worldwide. By leveraging digital channels to broaden their reach, companies can amplify their branding efforts and foster sales growth on a global level.
2. Cost efficiency
Digital marketing provides marketers with opportunities to maximise even modest budgets through wise management of funds.
Think about it: a solitary print ad can exceed £2,000, yet gauging its impact on sales is complex, even with methods like unique tracking links or QR codes. Conversely, contemporary approaches like email marketing deliver a remarkable return on investment, averaging $42 for every $1 spent.
With minimal initial investment, you can implement many effective digital marketing strategies to promote your business online, including search engine optimisation (SEO), social media engagement, and content marketing. More important than money is dedicating your time and expertise.
Moreover, digital marketing platforms usually do not mandate a minimum budget for initiatives such as social media ads or search engine marketing campaigns. No matter your budget, you can precisely customise campaigns to engage your target audience and establish spending caps to guarantee you remain within your financial limits.
3. Measurable results
Digital marketing not only offers a more cost-effective alternative to offline marketing methods but also boasts exceptional measurability. Traditional advertising avenues like print, television, and radio ads may be impactful, yet they pose challenges in tracking audience response.
Conversely, digital marketing provides comprehensive tracking of user interactions with your brand. Every facet of digital marketing is meticulously traceable, from social media impressions and ad clicks to email opens and organic page views. Consequently, demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of your digital marketing endeavours becomes significantly easier, enabling a clearer understanding of achieved results and informed decisions regarding future investments.
On the contrary, digital marketing enables precise audience targeting through comprehensive online data and insights. Leveraging this information, you can fine-tune your messaging to resonate with specific customer segments. Moreover, data collected from digital campaigns offers valuable insights into content performance, allowing for ongoing refinement and optimisation of marketing strategies.
4. Effective targeting
Controlling content visibility in traditional marketing poses challenges, as even targeted ads in niche magazines may not reach your ideal customer base. In contrast, digital marketing offers precise audience targeting through online insights. Analysing data from digital campaigns provides valuable insights into content resonance among specific customer segments, aiding in campaign refinement over time.
5. Increased engagement
Traditional marketing often relies on one-way interactions, where businesses convey messages to their audience without a clear path for direct response or interaction. This lack of engagement can impede connections between brands and their target audience.
Digital marketing enables businesses to engage in genuine conversations with customers. Whether through email, SMS, social media, or blog comments, businesses can actively interact with their audience, receiving feedback and insights at every touch point. This ongoing dialogue enhances customer satisfaction, allows for prompt responses to inquiries, and enables campaign refinement based on customer feedback. Additionally, these interactive exchanges create multiple touch points with customers, potentially leading to increased conversions and sales.
6. Flexibility
Digital marketing provides the flexibility to select from various channels and strategies. Moreover, it offers the adaptability to refine your approach over time as you gain insights into what resonates best with your audience and aligns with your business goals.
As we know, marketing is essential for any business to succeed. There are several ways to market your products or services, including:
1. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): This technique involves using paid search strategies, such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, to display ads to relevant audiences who search for popular terms on search engines like Google. The goal is to direct them to specific web pages, increasing the chances of conversion.
2. Social Paid Ads: Utilise paid advertisements on major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok to reach millions of potential customers. Social media platforms often prioritise paid ads over organic content, making it an effective way to increase brand visibility and engagement.
3. Video Marketing: Engage your audience with compelling video content that delivers substantial information in a concise visual format. Platforms like YouTube or TikTok offer targeted content delivery at a lower cost than traditional TV ads, making them an affordable way to reach a broad audience.
4. Forum Engagement: Actively participate in forums such as Quora or industry-specific boards to establish authority while subtly promoting products or services by offering valuable answers to user inquiries. This approach can help build trust and credibility with potential customers.
5. Social Media Marketing: Establish a presence on social channels frequented by your target audience and consistently share high-quality content. Engage with user comments and nurture relationships to enhance brand engagement, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
6. Email Marketing: Send regular updates to subscribers and provide personalised experiences based on audience behaviour or demographics. Leverage email marketing platforms to automate scheduled messages, making it a cost-effective way to keep in touch with potential and existing customers.
7. Local Search Optimisation: Optimise your website and business listings for local search to attract nearby customers seeking products or services. This approach is particularly beneficial for brick-and-mortar businesses as it can help drive foot traffic to physical locations.
8. Remarketing: Target past leads or customers to encourage re-engagement with the brand through paid social, display ads, email, and SMS. This approach can help increase customer retention and loyalty.
9. Influencer Marketing: Collaborate with influencers to leverage their audience and promote products or services. Influencers endorse offerings to their followers across digital platforms like social media, personal websites, and podcasts, making it an effective way to reach a large audience.
Once you've picked out a few online marketing strategies, it's crucial to determine the types of content you'll generate.
Here are some effective methods to broaden your audience reach and enhance your brand's credibility:
Articles: Share your expertise by publishing blog posts on your website or contributing as a guest on other platforms. This establishes trust with your audience and bolsters your brand's reputation.
Podcasts: With a vast audience of over 464 million listeners worldwide, podcasts offer an excellent opportunity to connect with a broader audience through audio-centric content.
Emails: Maintain regular communication with your most engaged followers through email marketing. Send newsletters, exclusive content, or special offers to nurture relationships with your customers.
Ebooks: Highly valued in B2B marketing, ebooks enable you to delve deeply into industry insights, tips, or informative content, while also expanding your email subscriber base.
Visual Content: Stand out on social media platforms and improve your brand's visibility in image search results by creating engaging visual content such as infographics or memes.
Guides: Establish industry authority by providing educational and data-driven content to support purchasing decisions, particularly relevant in B2B marketing.
Quizzes: Capture online attention with interactive quizzes that aid product selection or engage social media followers with entertaining personality quizzes.
Social Media Posts: Regularly share content on popular platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to expose your brand to a wide range of potential customers.
Webinars: Utilise webinars in B2B campaigns to maintain ongoing conversations throughout the extended buying process. Cover topics such as industry trends, tutorials, expert interviews, or product demonstrations to engage your audience effectively.
7. Improved conversion rate
A conversion occurs when a potential customer completes a desired action, such as signing up for your email newsletter or making a purchase. Your conversion rate represents the percentage of potential customers who take that desired action. Typically, a higher conversion rate indicates more effective marketing efforts.
Traditional marketing methods typically have a lead-to-close rate of just 1.7%, meaning less than 2% of leads ultimately become customers. In contrast, digital marketing boasts a lead-to-close rate of 9.9%, nearly six times higher than traditional marketing. If your goal is to convert more prospects into customers, digital marketing is the optimal choice.
8. Social currency
Social currency refers to the phenomenon where content circulates among users, eventually going viral and enhancing your brand's reputation. Traditionally, social currency relied heavily on word-of-mouth recommendations. However, with the advent of digital tactics such as social media marketing, businesses can now cultivate social currency by crafting content that is relevant, engaging, and timely. This currency ensures that conversations persist even after your brand's posts are published, helping to maintain your business's presence in consumers' minds.
9. Greater ROI
Digital marketing offers businesses increased value for their investment, with the added benefit of easier ROI measurement. This is due to the ability to directly attribute sales and conversions to specific campaigns and touchpoints. In an era where marketers are required to achieve more with fewer resources, digital channels provide businesses with the means to market themselves in the most cost-effective manner possible.
Digital marketing that makes an impact
Recognising the benefits of digital marketing can assist your business in prioritising digital initiatives and refining marketing strategies to maximize successful approaches.
When you're prepared to delve into digital marketing, selecting the appropriate platform can aid in executing an efficient strategy. VIRTRIO specialises in assisting businesses in mastering account-based marketing, lead management, and multi-touch attribution to enhance every aspect of their digital marketing strategy.
