Your company should be using online marketing.
I don’t care what your business is, it can benefit from online marketing. That might sound a bit harsh, but it’s true. Most of the world’s most successful and innovative businesses are using the internet to reach a wider audience than ever before. Online marketing is an entirely new style of marketing, though, and you might not understand what the big deal is.
That’s okay. That’s what we’re here for! Here are some of the best reasons why online marketing is perfect for your business.
1: It’s cost-effective
The amount of money a business can spend on print, radio and television marketing can add up quickly. It’s based on an old model of advertising, which I like to call the machine gun approach.
Rather than actually knowing about your audience and targeting them, the machine gun approach sprays information into the public hoping that some of it will hit its mark and convert.
This is inefficient. Really inefficient.
If you measure the number of people who see a billboard, for example, and compare it with the number of people who are swayed by it, you can see it for yourself.
When you market yourself online, though, your audience is specifically targeted. The only people who see your advertisements are people who are looking for someone like you.
This means teenagers don’t have to read advertisements about adult diapers, and seniors don’t have to read ones about tattoo parlours or nightclubs. These can be paid for on a per-click basis, which means you only have to pay when someone is actually interested enough in your ad to check it out.
With the explosion of information on the internet, it’s become more important than ever to pierce through the wall of noise and find ways to reach your audience. This has created one of the most efficient and cost-effective means of marketing to ever exist.
2: It’s more eco-friendly
Traditional marketing methods are cumbersome.
Once an ad is designed, you need to acquire the materials to make it.
Then you need to print it.
Then you need to deliver it to where it needs to go.
Then you need to display it properly.
Then, once it has run its course, you need to take it down and put up a new one. Rinse, repeat.
Ink, dye, paper, and plastic to actually make the ad, power to mass produce it, fuel to transport it where it needs to go, and the infrastructure to dispose of it are all drains on the environment. Online marketing, on the other hand, is about as close to carbon-neutral as you can get in terms of advertising. Much better!
3: Your audience is made up of people who are actually interested in you
And then, after all that work, you aren’t even sure who will see the ad. Chances are a large portion of the people who see it won’t even be interested in what it says!
When you publish something on your website, though, it reaches only the people who have volunteered to visit your website, which means they must have had an interest in your brand in the first place.
This means that your conversion rate is likely going to be higher when compared with other methods of advertising.
And when buying pay-per-click ads, you can pinpoint exactly the people to whom you market. So if your business is geared toward married female college graduates age 30-35 living in Montreal, for example, you can market only to that demographic. It virtually eliminates waste and allows you to see just how effective your business really is.
4: It allows you to keep a better eye on what your competition is up to.
When your competition is posting their latest news and promotions on their social media, you can know exactly what it is that they’re planning. That way, you can position yourself to be able to properly counter their offers with something better.
If you don’t know what your competition is doing, how can you possibly back up your claim to offer a better product or service than them? This one is really a no-brainer. Keeping tabs on your competition’s progress is one of the most important elements of business, and social media offers you a tool with which you can do just that efficiently and instantly.
Of course, it’s possible that your competition isn’t taking advantages of social media the way they could be. In that case…
5: It allows you to stay ahead of your competition.
If your competition isn’t taking advantage of all of today’s marketing tools, that’s their problem, and your advantage!
Jumping into the powerful world of online marketing will give you a distinct advantage over the competition. You’ll be able to communicate with your fans, keep them up to date with what’s new with your company, offer them exclusive discounts, and keep your brand fresh in their mind.
If your competition is using social media and you aren’t, they’re poised to corner the market, at your expense. But if you’re on it, and they’re not, you’re in a much stronger position!
6: You can build a more personal relationship with your audience.
Online marketing is about more than just what you say. It’s about what’s said back to you as well. One of the most important features of online marketing is your interaction with your audience, for a number of reasons. This includes posts on your social media pages, comments on your blog, and responses from your contact form, among others.
When you communicate regularly with your audience, you can build a personal relationship with them. You can better gauge your audience, and deliver them goods and services based on what they are looking for.
You can get to know the elements of your business that they don’t like, and tailor things appropriately. You can also respond much more quickly and effectively to a PR disaster or some bad press. Try doing that with traditional media!
So Why Aren’t You Using Online Marketing?
With these facts, it’s easy to see why social media marketing is essential for the success of a modern business. If you haven’t yet embraced the new way of marketing, the time to do so is now! Holding off will only end up harming your business and put your competition one step ahead.
What are your reasons for using social media? Why do you think it’s important? Leave us a comment and let us know!
