Five Benefits of Digital Marketing to your business

Online advertising will account for more than half of global advertising expenditure by 2021, according to recent research from Zenith.

The report was based on global ad spend forecasts made by Zenith researchers for 2019 through 2021.

Internet advertising is forecast to account for 52% of global advertising expenditure in 2021, exceeding the 50% mark for the first time. That’s up from 47% of global ad spend in 2019 and 44% in 2018.

Among traditional channels, the share of global ad spend going toward newspapers, magazines, television, and radio is forecast to shrink between now and 2021. The share of spend going to out-of-home is expected to remain steady, and the share going to cinema is expected to increase slightly thanks to a boom in the popularity of films in China.

This ad forecast gives us a sweet glimpse of why every business should stick with Digital Marketing to increase revenue and improve brands.  At one point online marketing was just a new and different way to market. It opened up a new form of media on which to peddle goods and services. But within just the past few years, the importance of digital marketing has become something else.

It’s become an integral part of what a business is to its customers.

It’s no longer enough to have a website or run some un-focused AdWords campaign. Don’t have integrated digital marketing strategies working for your business? Time is working against you because of it.

As the Internet becomes entwined with everything we do, the importance of digital marketing is becoming crystal clear.

Let’s take a look at five key reasons why your business needs digital marketing to grow and thrive;

1. Best Return on Investment (ROI): Digital Marketing gives you the best return on investment and this are most often accomplished through a combination of social media marketing, content marketing , search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, email, marketing, marketing automation, online PR, inbound marketing, etc. These Digital Marketing methods if deliver highly and with the necessary skill have an impressive ROI of their own. A Forbes study found that companies using social media outsell 78% of businesses who don’t use social media. If you don’t know how to use social media marketing tactics to attracts leads and converts leads into customers, you are losing substantial market share to your competitors.
2. It is cost effective– it is cost effective to use digital marketing compared to conventional/traditional marketing. For instance, a one minute jingle on major TV stations in Nigeria cost more than a million naira. If you put a million naira into digital marketing and decided to focus, let’s say on Facebook ads alone, you will probably use that amount for the whole year if well managed and you are guaranteed of a better return on investment in comparison to putting such money into traditional media. IBM found that a lead that comes in through social media is 7 times more likely to become a paying customer. More likely to convert also means you’re spending less money trying to convert people who will never become paying customers. As a small business, cost-effectiveness is your ultimate priority. You have to be able to stretch those nairas as you grow your business. Every naira you spend matters. You need to know it’s going to provide you an ROI. That’s the importance of digital marketing to small business.
3. Aligns with how people today shop: 88% of people consider online reviews an important part of the buying decision while 23% of people visit your website after reading review. The average Nigeria spends over 24 hours a week online. For millenials and gen Z, 10 hours a day is the norm. This includes Internet time at work and school. I can’t remember the last time, I sat down to watch TV for more than 2hrs stretch but I can be on the internet for more than that time. This should give you an idea of why magazine and newspaper sales continue to decline at a rate of about 16% a year. Over 1 trillion online searches are performed each year. Google holds the monster share with 3.5 billion of these queries. 8 billion videos are watched on Facebook each day, most of them from businesses. From restaurants to doctors to hoteliers to commodities, the modern sales process starts online. Whether it’s something a friend shared on social media, the result of a search query, or an email newsletter that they received in their inbox, it all starts here. The more integrated your business is with the customer’s online experience; the most easily you grow your business.
4. Integrate Marketing with mobile technology: According to research by IBM, mobile transactions are increasing at the lightning fast speed of 35% year over year. But it’s not just the actual buying and selling happening on mobile. People are increasingly using their mobile phones as a kind of augmented reality layered over a business. They’re looking at reviews and product information while in your store. They may be ordering online or communicating with customer care en route. A selfie they take in your store becomes a promotional opportunity for you. They may write a review for you before they even leave your office. Integrate the mobile experience with the physical experience. As you do, the better your business will take advantage of these opportunities. Send an alert to let someone know something they were interested in is now on sale.
5. Bridge builder for SMEs: we’ve seen it before; a new company like Shoprite comes to town and wipes out 100’s of local specialty shops. Digital marketing allows small businesses to compete with a much smaller advertising budget. When managed effectively, it gives them laser-focused control over where and how they spend their money. When you have this kind of control and the data to support decisions, you make smarter ones.