Let’s face it, gaining customers from a brick-and-mortar store is no longer cost-effective or fruitful. Many brick-and-mortar stores saw significant losses during COVID-19. On the other hand, e-commerce stores and other online websites were profitable during the lockdown. This shift shows that physical stores are at a significant disadvantage and that leveraging online marketing and e-commerce platforms has become necessary. In this blog post, we will share the benefits of online marketing for new and established businesses. So keep reading to learn why your business should go online.
What is Online Marketing?
Online marketing, better known as Digital marketing, is tapping into social media and other online channels for brand awareness and sales-oriented marketing campaigns. Online marketing is an effective tool for targetting niche-specific customers. Many businesses are taking advantage of online marketing because it enables them to target a customer segment they never knew existed.
The Internet has created tremendous opportunities for new business and opened global markets to established ones. For instance, if you have an export business, gaining new clients can be costly adding travel expenses and meetings. Through online marketing, you can attract clients without moving an inch from your seat. Such is the power of the Internet.
Benefits of Online Marketing
Time and again, online marketing has triumphed where most conventional marketing strategies have failed. For instance, you cannot track the ROI of a billboard advertisement. However, online marketing has data analytics that shows how much money you made from one client. Besides data, online marketing has several benefits.
- Demographic Targeting
If your business is bound in a specific location, targeting nearby customers can be costly. You’ll have to schedule events in your area, distribute pamphlets and maybe book a billboard. However, you can target your customers demographically from social media pages or a website through online marketing. Demographic targeting connects you with your target audience. Your sales increase because you are gaining brand awareness and traffic at your store.
- Global Marketing
Before social media and search engines, global marketing was only a dream. Only the top 1% of companies had the budget to take their brand across borders. However, online marketing has removed these barriers, allowing small and medium-scale businesses to market their products globally. If your product has a high demand in a specific country, you can promote your brand there. It creates value for your business, and you can channel the revenue into other countries. Online marketing is a holistic approach that connects your physical and online with international customers. With the help of a reliable courier service, you can sell your products across borders and earn foreign currency.
- Cost-Effective
What’s the cost of a 30-second TV advertisement? What’s the cost of a billboard in Florida? Compare these costs with online marketing, and you’ll know the difference. Despite expanding your business to foreign countries, online marketing is comparatively cheaper. You can share your advertisement video on YouTube or Facebook, and you won’t have to pay thousands of dollars (unless that’s your online marketing budget).
- Edit Creatives
Marketing creatives get your message across a large customers base. But can you change your brand message on a billboard without facing any additional cost? With online marketing, things are a lot different. You can change your ad creative in the middle of a campaign if you think you aren’t getting the desired result. This flexibility allows you to run better-targeted ads with greater ROI. Moreover, you can change your brand messaging in the middle of a campaign without paying anything extra. Social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube have changed the way marketers used to work, and online marketing is at the heart of all the action.
- Hire an Influencer
Hiring an industry professional to endorse your product can eat up your entire marketing budget. However, you can hire social media influencers for online marketing. Influencers are people with thousands of followers. They are recognized as industry leaders, and you can schedule a PR collaboration with an influencer to market your product.
Ending Thoughts
Online marketing has changed the way we promote our products or services. Global marketing and hiring industry professionals for product endorsement aren’t limited to big-budget companies. Small and medium enterprises have taken full advantage of this cost-effective marketing platform and increased their customer base. Many home-based businesses have developed into proper workplaces. All of these changes have been made possible due to online marketing.