Ask the CMO of any top-tier company about their tips for reaching business goals, and a robust digital marketing strategy will undoubtedly be slotted as number one. Digital marketing is more affordable, flexible, and engaging than traditional marketing methods. Even top-performing small and mid-sized companies are finding better competition, improved best practices, and increased engagement through digital marketing.
The digital marketing stream is not reserved for large corporations. Regardless of size, industry or geography, digital is a necessity for growth and business innovation today and beyond.
Here are 13 reasons that marketers can use to defend their digital marketing case.
1. Digital Marketing Costs Less
Traditional marketing campaigns, including print and television, are more costly because of pricey resources and the difficulty of tracking ROI. Digital marketing uses targeted research and analytics to quickly determine which approaches are working well and which aren’t worth the cost or resources. So, most digital marketing channels tend to be less costly from the start and prevent overspending on underperforming campaigns.
2. Small Businesses are More Competitive
Digital marketing closes much of the gap between large, medium, and small companies because it avails each level with many of the same resources. While big companies with larger budgets will be able to spend more on paid ads and advanced software, digital marketing gives SMBs more opportunities to compete, improve brand awareness, and build an audience.
3. ROI Measures Program Results
ROI asks the question, “What kind of results do my programs deliver?” While it’s not the easiest marketing measurement to calculate, the finished product is hugely valuable to measuring success. Single attribution (first touch/last touch) is the method of measurement used by nearly half of marketing teams. This method acknowledges the theory that it takes an average of seven touches to convert a cold lead to a sale, and puts the highest value on the first or last touch. When it comes to traditional marketing, it is much more difficult to measure the ROI of a print ad than it is to measure that of a digital ad, because the audience of a print ad is so much broader. With digital marketing, which can target specific audiences, it is easier to determine which ad led to which sale. Other methods of measuring ROI are attribution across multiple programs and people, test and control groups, and market mix modeling.
4. Online Market Share Clarifies Sales Figures
Online market share is the percentage of total market sales a company accounts for. This figure is determined by dividing the company’s total sales by online sales and multiplying that number by 100. The benefit? Market share gives sales figures context, allowing the company to view their sales regarding market size. Companies see precisely how they measure up to the competition, which better informs business innovation.
5. Easier A/B Testing Hones Communications
One of digital marketing’s best allowances is the ability for a company to experiment with almost every aspect of a marketing campaign. A/B testing the location of an email sign-up CTA, the color of a promotional banner, a subject line, etc., is much easier—and results are available much faster—on digital channels. With some diligence, simple changes can be tracked and used to target customers more effectively. For example, testing can be used to better engage a target audience, improve CTRs, help drive buyers through their journey and more. The results of A/B testing can be used to improve targeting of print ads as well. For example, if a company is targeting the same audience on Google as it is in a print magazine ad, the same language will be effective for both.
6. Mobile Marketing Increases Engagement
Did you know many people don’t even own desktop computers anymore? Mobile marketing opens up a whole world of opportunities for increased engagement, from creating a more personalized user experience to reaching new users. According to Global Web Index, more than 80% of internet users own a smartphone, and 90% of the time spent on their smartphone is devoted to apps. Mobile marketing—from email and social ad design to SEO to branded apps—allows you to reach users in their most native environment.
7. Analytics Improve Business Models
Measuring digital analytics helps companies make informed decisions about where to invest their resources, improving efficiency. Gathering numbers for traditional marketing channels is a manual process, while most digital platforms, including social media and marketing automation, have built-in analytics dashboards with all of the data automatically available. View reports on dashboards for easy visuals, and map the customer journey, measuring performance metrics at each step.
8. Digital Delivers Personalized Attention
Tech-savvy marketplaces have led customers and buyers to expect individual, personalized attention. Digital marketing eliminates the old “one size fits all” approach to marketing by giving companies better insight into segmentation. Using results from customer behavior tracking to personalize outreach creates the ideal customer experience. A better customer experience means increased trustworthiness and loyalty, more closed accounts, and a growing team of brand advocates.
9. Account-Based Marketing Closes Bigger B2B Accounts
Digital channels and tools have enabled a new strategy, account-based marketing, which uses highly personalized messaging to communicate with individual prospect accounts as markets of one. Account-based marketing is extremely targeted, which results in a more efficient use of resources and more significant B2B accounts.
10. Marketing Automation Lets You Grow Bigger Than Ever
Many simple, routine marketing tasks—including reporting—can be automated when they’re done digitally, by a robust marketing automation platform. This allows managers and marketing teams to focus on creating effective strategies and measuring meaningful analytics. These systems let marketing and sales teams focus on their expertise, and optimizing strategies, without wasting resources on smaller tasks.
11. Email Marketing Still Communicates Best
A good digital marketing strategy should cater to the audience’s preferences. Most people, 72%, in fact, prefer to hear from brands via email, making a strong case for an engaging email marketing strategy. Email marketing puts targeted messaging right in front of customers and potential customers. When automated, trigger emails can even be sent automatically based on customer activity, further personalizing interactions.
12. Social Media Builds Trust
A referral from a friend instantly makes a company seem more trustworthy to potential customers. Digital advertising leverages social media to make “likes” and other online reviews visible to friends of customers. Recommendations make a company stand out from the competition, automatically building trust.
13. SEO Puts Your Brand Where The Audience Can Find It
Everyone uses Google. In fact, 81% of B2B purchase cycles begin with a web search. That may be why search engine optimization (SEO) has the best ROI of any digital marketing channel. For a company to be seen on Google, it must show up on the search engine’s first page. A solid SEO strategy is used to improve a company’s Google ranking.
Meet Business Goals with Digital Marketing
The path to reaching business goals and finding success is through a strong digital marketing strategy. Better cost efficiency, more data to inform better decisions, and building on customer trust are just a few of the advantages to be gained from digital marketing. Start by investigating an email marketing solution. There are a lot of platforms available to help you get started very quickly. If you’re already doing email marketing, consider whether you’re ready to upgrade to a complete automation system.
What are your “reasons why” for digital? Do they differ from mine? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments!