In this day and age, the opportunities for businesses to advertise their brand seems pretty endless. The advertising platforms that can be instantaneously utilized ranges from digital to television, billboards, radio, and magazines, and much more.
With a plethora of options available, the real question is, should you go digital to advertise your products and services? Should your business be on digital platforms such as search engines, social media, email, and mobile?
The answer is simple: Yes. The straightforward reasoning behind that answer is that everyone these days spend more time online. In fact, the new 2018 reports from We Are Social, and Hootsuite reveals that there are now more than 4 billion people around the world using the internet – up 7% year-on-year.
Not only the number of internet users have increased, but the amount of time that people spend on the internet has significantly increased as well. The latest data from GlobalWebIndex shows that the average internet user now spends roughly 6 hours per day using internet-connected devices.
On the contrary, TV viewership saw its biggest decline yet in 2017 with the 4 major networks reporting an average of 8% drop in their ratings. It is also reported that in 2017, the number of people who unsubscribed from their cable, direct broadcast satellite, and telco subscriptions reached 94 million.
If you need further convincing, we have detailed in this infographic how digital advertising can help your business grow, and why you should start investing in this strategy today.
1. It Drives Offline Sales
Regardless of whether the advertising is paid or free, the digital space can deliver a global audience to your business doorsteps. Identify your Unique Selling Points (USPs), refine your branding and, write a killer copy, then you can really unlock your true potential.
This is supported by the study titled “When Less is More: Data and Power in Advertising Experiments” authored by Garret Johnson, Randall Lewis, and David Reiley. The researchers concluded that 84% of online advertising is on offline sales, further strengthening the idea that digital advertising can increase both online and offline sales.
2. It Amplifies the Effectiveness of Your Offline Marketing Efforts
Digital advertising does not just deliver high ROI by itself; it can also improve the effectiveness of other non-digital channels you are using.
In fact, a study from BrandScience and Microsoft revealed that even just a single online channel added to a media mix has a positive impact on the ROI of the overall campaign. According to the study, the online element added to the mix was able to improve the ROI of radio (+4%), outdoor ads (+51%), and television (+70%).
3. It Intensifies Word-of-Mouth About Your Brand
According to Nielsen, 92% of individuals trust word-of-mouth recommendations, making it one of the most trust-rich forms of advertising. But unknown to many marketers, word-of-mouth can be taken to the next level through digital advertising.
For instance, if you received tons of positive feedback from your customers, you can spread them like wildfire on various advertising platforms, such as in Facebook or LinkedIn. In doing, you are not amplifying the effects of your word-of-mouth marketing but building your brand reputation as well in the process.
4. It Can Drive Customer Engagement and Interaction
While many people perceive digital advertising as annoying and intrusive, it does not mean that the whole concept alone is rubbish in terms of attracting customer engagement. In fact, HubSpot states that there are digital advertising tactics that can be used to create a more positive experience for customers.
Native advertising on social media, for instance, is said to be much more effective as they are less disruptive than sponsored ads, and also allows you to add value by offering something that is relevant to your target audience.
Maximizing the targeting options that most digital advertising platforms have is also an effective way to ensure higher engagement rate of your campaigns. Compared to traditional channels, digital advertising will allow you to create laser-focused campaigns that target a specific segment of the market who are most likely to find your ad useful.
5. It Keeps Your Business Agile
Market preferences and trends change quickly nowadays, which means your ad campaigns must be agile as well.
Compared to traditional advertising methods, digital campaigns can be executed much more quickly, and they can be modified on the go if needed. This ability to adjust comes handy not only when adapting to changing audience’s tastes, but also when your marketing budget gets tight.
When you unexpectedly have a low cash flow, you can cut back your ad spend without incurring cancellation fees. And when your cash flow goes back to normal, you can easily bump up your ad spending without much hassle.
6. It Helps You Keep Up with the Competition
Despite the challenges facing the industry for years, more and more marketers dedicate a significant portion of their budget to digital advertising. This is confirmed by a projection from advertising giant Dentsu:
“Digital media channels will continue to be the catalyst for the disruption in ad spend … growing globally by 12.6% in 2018, versus 15% in 2017, to reach $220 billion.”
This means that digital advertising industry just keeps getting bigger each year and failing to keep up with trend will most likely leave your business in the dust as your competitors move further down the digital paradigm.
With the right digital channels, reasonable budget, and a dash of creativity, digital advertising can help reach out more targeted audiences, engage potential customers, improve your sales, and in the long-run keep your business more agile and competitive.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.