Benefits of Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing

#1. Leveling the playing field with digital marketing

Big business may have the advantage in some arenas in the offline world, like elaborate storefronts, big budget marketing initiatives to attract customers etc. But in the online world, it is not the size that matters, it is the strategy. A well thought through online experience for the customer can beat many elaborate storefronts any day. And none of it costs too much. In fact, the costs will be similar to what big business will have to incur to build a superior online customer experience. The only advantage they will have will be the economy of size.

#2. Measurable results with digital marketing

It allows the marketers to measure results at each step of the way. As a result, they can adjust their approach on the go, as against traditional marketing methods that become too dependent on finances for even the slightest of changes in approach. With digital marketing channels, each conversion can be tracked and lessons incorporated in the consecutive campaigns. Results are real time, so you don't have to wait for even a day to understand the performance of your campaign.

#3. Engaging the audience in real conversations

Lately, brands have understood the need for meaningful conversation with the consumers. While the costs of doing that in traditional methods will be prohibitive, even for big businesses, it is not so in the digital ecosystem. It lays a lot of emphasis on real conversations with the consumers to make them feel connected with the brands they consume. These conversations not only help the consumers form a positive opinion about the brand, it also helps brand learn from their experience and deliver services that the consumers truly desire.

#4. Non intrusive messaging

Everyone dislikes getting phone calls or promotional mails at inconvenient times. With digital marketing, consumers have the option to refuse to receive promotional material. It is also highly relevant and targeted as they are already searching for products and services to buy in the first place. As a result, the pressure of conversion on the marketing team is much lesser than in traditional marketing channels.

#5. Global reach of every campaign

Every campaign has a global reach, regardless whether it is targeted to a specific area or target audience or not. This helps the brand to build a reputation beyond its geographical reach in a far more effective manner. Needless to say, the costs of doing the same will also be beyond prohibitive in traditional methods.

Brand building is important. Without it, a business will fail to grow beyond a point. Building a brand is basically about marketing it through various channels on the internet. It's about enhancing the visibility and taking it to more users online. After all, users should first know that your business exists as only then they can benefit from it. More so, brand building is a broad term that encompasses a series of activities carried out by experts to meet the specific requirements of the business. It's about making a business more popular and more visible on the internet.

In a sense, digital marketing exists for the very purpose of helping businesses or individuals build or boost their brand or enhance their reputation on the internet. It involves unique approaches and different methods of promotion so that a business can reach to more people and achieve its goals. Without digital marketing, it'd not be possible for any business to catch the attention of their target audience and get their branding ideas through. This is the major reason why only experts are hired to market and promote brands online. After all, the digital space brims with prospects and only being there can help a business grow.

It's quite clear that businesses need digital marketing to grow their base and reach to more users. They will need to benefit from different marketing methods such as SEO, PPC, social media optimization, display ads and reputation management. All this will start with a feature-rich and user-friendly website and after that, experts will devise a suitable digital marketing strategy to suit specific requirements of the business. Steps will be taken to optimize every element of the website, be it images, products, infographics, links, services etc. so that their visibility gets a boost. A business' social presence will also be enhanced in the process.

More so, a team of creative designers or graphic designers will create awesome banner ads which will be displayed across channels to covey brand ideas in an effective manner. A mix of paid and organic advertising will be used to increase the traffic to the site and bolster its chances of success. Furthermore, the right keywords are used to rank products and services of the business and quality content is used to make them rank better in search engines. Marketers keep an eye on all activities and use analytics to provide a detailed report to the business. This way, businesses get measurable results to know where they stand in terms of marketing.

In a way, digital marketing experts play a major role in promoting businesses on the internet and let them realize their true potential. Without their expertise, it'd not be possible to get better rankings and superior visibility in search engines as quickly and timely as required. Without them, no business will be able to leverage the internet in the best possible manner https://www.anthonysagency.com/. This is why these experts command such a huge respect in the market. So, you should hire them with great care.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is an extremely effective marketing medium in B2B business scenarios. Unlike consumer marketing where customers are innumerable, customers are easily identified and limited in any B2B. Since the number of people to be addressed is limited, and contact details obtained relatively easily, Email marketing can be leveraged with potent benefits to the organization.

In B2B Email marketing the fundamental principles of marketing continue to be relevant. It definitely pays to spend some time thinking,formulating and documenting an Email marketing strategy prior to initiating any customer communication.

Who is the customer?

The first step is to map the customer purchase process. Mapping reveals the user, influencers, opinion leaders, decision makers and likely decision breakers too. They are likely to come from different departments of the organization: Users department, Procurement, Finance, Senior management (depending on deal size). Each of them has a role to play in making the purchase, and each of them needs to be marketed to.

Email Marketing campaigns sometime need to be customized for each of the participants of the purchase process. Not every person in the decision making process would be a potential recipient for the same email marketing campaign. For example, while the CEO of an organization could be one making the final sign-off on a high value sale, it's unlikely that the CEO would like to receive periodical product catalogues from you (indispensable for procurement). However the CEO needs to be aware of your business. Depending on the nature of your business and the size of the customer organization, you could definitely get the attention of the CEO with a specially addressed email annually or semi-annually.

Messaging Senior Management:

Launch of a new product/service

Invites to special events that you could be hosting Seasonal greetings

Any Industry news that you possess and could be of business interest to the CEO/Top management

Messaging Users, Procurement, and Technical evaluators:

You must look at addressing Procurement, Users and technical personnel at frequent time intervals. These people initiate the purchase, are present through all the critical decision points of the purchase process, and quite often have veto power to negative a supplier. They are very important people and Email marketing needs to ensure that your business is top of mind and viewed favorably in their minds.

Regular communications addressing details of new products or services added to your business, technical features, special promotions, discounts could be your subjects - staying top of mind, and at the same time educating.

Subjects for addressing procurement professionals could be:

Your product/Services catalogue (at the same frequency that you update it)

Deals and promotions that you may be offering

Advance information about price hikes that you anticipate

Technical information about your products or services (If you are a dealer/distributor, this may not be of much interest since this information may be funneled directly by the manufacturer)

Invitations to any special events (Seminars/Product launches) that you are organizing

Information about any training programs on your products

New products or services launches

Intimation of price changes (advance and/or post increase)

Season greetings

Birthday/Anniversary greetings

Designing the communication

Much has been written about the structure and design of email communications - so much that it looks a science by itself and a highly complex subject. I however would like to take a simple approach. Lets consider a few pertinent points

You must have a communication message that is of interest and relevance to your customer. Do not generate content at random without first considering whether your customer would be interested in the content. If interest is in doubt - do not send the email. Always keep the interest of the customer in mind.

Keep the message short and simple. If there is a lot that you need to communicate, redirect them to a webpage with additional content

Call for Action

Let your message always have a call for action. Possible action triggers could be:

Meeting with a sales rep - or asking for a telephone call from your business

Request for additional information

Place an order with you

Request of a demonstration (in person or on the web)

Subscribe to a newsletter

Confirm participation in an event or seminar

Or one of many actions depending on the nature of your email communication

Evaluate your campaign

At the end of each email campaign measure the effectiveness of the campaign. Important parameters could be:

Value of sales made

Number of leads generated

No. Seminar participation confirmed/Sales appointments generated etc

Email opened stats

Calculate cost per lead/sale generated - and any other ROI calculations you would like to make

You must calculate direct and indirect sales/brand building on account of the campaign (not every email campaign can be translated into direct sales. Some of the communications could be just a brand-building exercise, while others could be with the specific purpose of building sales). There could be many who didn't respond to you by email - but called you up instead, or just landed up at your business to purchase. An email promo-code could build a better measurement of the direct benefits of your campaign.

Clean-up your contact database:

Remove all email id's that bounced on account of wrong email id

Remove all email id's that have unsubscribe requests

Remove all email id's that have been blocked by spam filters

Database maintenance is an ongoing exercise and ensures a clean email database. Maintenance is often skipped if it is not an assigned responsibility. Set up update schedules and mechanisms. Assign responsibility for List creation, updating and management.

Avoid being labeled as SPAM

There are some simple steps you can take to prevent being labeled as spam and stay within the anti-spam law. In all your email marketing communications:

Provide your business address and telephone numbers

Offer an unsubscribe option that actually works

When an unsubscribe request is received - remove the contact from your mailing database and also acknowledge that you have received the unsubscribe request and acted upon it

Email marketing is not very complex if you develop sharp objectives and clear expectations of what the medium can do for you, and more importantly what it can't. In the hands of experienced marketers, Email marketing can be a very potent weapon in building brands, generating leads and supporting conventional media marketing campaigns https://emailproleads.com/. There is no magic bullet or campaign style that works for everyone. Each business will need to work and set up their own objectives, Email marketing strategies and execute their campaigns. What works for one business may not work for another.

Prasad Satya Aryasomayajula is a Management Graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, India. He is the CEO of Stride Business Consulting and has over 25 years of cross industry experience across marketing, sales and senior management functions. His company: Stride Business Consulting offers professional Email marketing services, SEO services and other Internet marketing services.