Online marketing is essential in any business strategy to stand out on the internet, attract customers, increase sales and create a community around the brand. In order to attract customers online and increase sales, it is not enough to be on the internet, you have to be visible to your potential customers. Therefore, today we will know some advantages of online marketing.
Companies that do not have an active presence on the Internet lose the opportunity to:
- Position yourself in the current market,
- Facing the competition,
- Being closer to your customers.
In addition, the fact of not having an active and professional presence generates distrust in the consumer.
What is online marketing and what is it for?
Online marketing (or digital marketing) is the adaptation of traditional marketing (radio, press, TV…), to new channels and digital media.
They are a set of techniques, strategies and actions that are carried out on the internet, to position a business or mark and increase conversions.
What are the main channels or media in Online Marketing?
Online marketing can be applied to the different media and channels existing on the internet, the main online media are:
- Corporate websites, online stores and blogs.
- Websites, blogs and external news portals.
- Social networks.
- Video platforms, (YouTube).
- Sales platforms, (Amazon).
- Podcast and digital radio platforms.
- Social, content or news aggregators.
- Applications and application markets.
- Emails (email marketing).
- Discussion forums.
Main techniques, tools and strategies in online marketing
In reality, online marketing uses a combination of techniques and strategies applied to different channels and online media. The goal is for companies to reach their target audience to attract customers and increase sales.
Some of the main techniques and strategies are: CRO (conversion rate optimization), SEO positioning, SEM or online advertising, content marketing and inbound marketing, Social Media Marketing, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, digital analytics, email marketing, Big Data Marketing and marketing automation.
These online marketing techniques and strategies are complemented by other specialties such as web development and design, or graphic design.
Advantages of online marketing for your company
If you still have any questions, here I show you the main advantages of investing in online marketing.
1.- It is global
Online marketing allows you to:
- Have a presence anywhere in the world,
- Position your brand
- Sell your products or services without being limited to a local location.
2.- Facilitates internationalization and expansion at the national level
By requiring a much lower investment than what would be necessary to create new offices or local points of sale, it is accessible to companies of any size. You can sell anywhere in a country or reach new markets internationally.
3.- It is cheaper
It requires much less investment than traditional marketing. Campaigns in traditional media such as TV, press or radio have higher costs. This is a handicap for many SMEs and professionals who do not have large budgets.
The ideal would be to combine both types of marketing (offline and online), to see the ROI that each action brings us and thus optimize the budget. But not all companies or professionals can afford it.
Another of the advantages of online marketing is that with a smaller budget, you can obtain a good return on investment, focusing on the channels and strategies that report the most benefits.
There are a large number of online tools, media and channels (both free and paid), which allow us to adjust the budget to the capacity of each company.
Eye! Online marketing is cheaper but it is not free. If we want to see results we have to invest time and/or money.
4.- It can be measured
There are multiple tools that allow us to measure the impact and results obtained with our online marketing campaigns.
The possibilities to measure and manage any campaign are immense and for all budgets. In this way we can know the ROI (return on investment), consult the data at any time during the campaign and adjust or stop it if it does not have the expected results.
5.- It is adaptable and flexible
The information we obtain allows us to modify and reorient the strategy as many times as necessary in real time.
An active campaign can be modified to improve and optimize it even if it has not finished. Likewise, if the results are not good, we can stop the campaign without spending the entire budget.
6.- Allows you to test any online marketing campaign
With A/B or trial/error tests, we have the opportunity to carry out several versions of a campaign to:
- Compare the results.
- Know which images, texts, colors or calls to action work best.
- Which versions have better ROI (return on investment).
In this way, we will make them more effective, increase conversions, and optimize the available budget.
7.- Obtain valuable information to get to know our customers
Thanks to analysis, active listening, and online research, you can get to know your competition and your customers better. With all this information it will be easier for you to define your ideal client, know how to attract him, make him fall in love, convert him into a client and retain him.
Information is power, and the Internet provides us with multiple sources, from the company’s own sources to other external sources that help us improve our products or services, creating unique value propositions.
8.- You can segment the campaigns to reach your target audience
All strategies and actions can be segmented to reach our target. With a good definition of our Customer Persona (ideal client), campaigns are oriented to the population segments that interest us the most.
For example, we can segment campaigns by:
- Sex, age, location, language, cultural level, studies, economic level, consumption habits, hobbies, preferences, marital status, employment situation, among others.
- Or establish strategies adapted to each phase of the sales funnel, behavior or relationship with the client.
9.- It helps to position the brand
Digital marketing helps you promote and position your brand in the mind of the consumer. With a good job of branding and online marketing, we get our brand to be recognized, stand out from the competition, and customers remember us when purchasing a product or service.
10. Allows you to create a community
If we create an audience around our brand, we will achieve:
- Large amount of information that will help us to know our audience, their interests, and their relationship with the brand.
- We will create ties with our community, to generate a relationship of trust.
- We will increase the perceived value of our brand, products and/or services.
- We will win prescribers who will help us spread the brand, sharing our publications, or recommending us to their contacts and followers. In this way we will increase the reach and visibility of our company.
- The support of our followers will help us deal with a reputational crisis.
What if your digital marketing isn’t working? What are the signs?
Now that you know what the benefits of digital marketing are, you may be wondering when you know if you need to implement a powerful digital strategy.
This checklist can give you a clue of objectives that digital marketing would help you achieve, if you apply it and it is well focused:
- Interact directly with customers and users, in an authentic and honest way.
- Provide reliable information on the internet.
- Keep track of the opinions that are poured online about the brand.
- Have an updated web page and be present in the media of choice of the target audience.
- Provide value in communications, through all channels.
- Ensure that the tone and message are unified and consistent.
Do you meet all these requirements?
If the answer is negative, there you have the confirmation that something is wrong.
We briefly name some signs that may indicate the need to change your demand generation strategy.
- You are not achieving conversion or sales goals or you are not maximizing ROI.
- Your social media accounts are not working, creating very little engagement with your community.
- You are receiving traffic to your website, but not conversion.
- You are not getting traffic to your website.
- Your digital advertising campaigns are not working.
- You are not following a content strategy.
- You do not have a multi-channel strategy, focusing your efforts on a single channel.