A few decades ago, a chicken was about the cross the road, when someone stopped him and said, “Don’t do it, you’ll never hear the end of it!”; as we know, he didn’t listen. Recently, a businessperson was about to cut online advertising from their marketing budget, when one trusty firm stopped him and said, “Don’t do it, this will be the last they’ll ever hear of you!”
Let’s hope they listened.
Growing Internet Usage
Over the past few years, information distribution has become more fast-paced. This information is compounded by the variety and volume of the content being shared online and offline. For marketers, it has gotten more difficult to reach and engage audiences. Today we only have 7 seconds to capture the interest of our prospect. Television commercials just don’t cut it anymore; they provide little data, and ROI is often hard to account for.
The internet has changed how we mobilize, socialise and monetize, so it is only natural for it to affect how we advertise. According to Hootsuite (our friendly owl mascot-clad friends), the number of internet users as of January 2018 is 4.021 billion, up 7 percent within a year! If your business hasn’t started investing in digital advertising, it is already falling behind. Gaps on the internet are harder to close because of the nexus of SEO and the fact that those with the most consistently engaging content capture the most mind share, and naturally, sales and hopefully profits. In short, it is costing you to not advertise online. In short order, our domain names will be more valuable than our addresses because naturally this is where we will be ‘found’ in an increasingly digital world.
Take it from us, digital advertising is a must for your business. Here’s how it can help you achieve your online and offline marketing goals.
Meet Your Audience
The average user spends around six hours each day on the internet. If we were to combine the average online time for all the world’s users, that’d total one billion years using 2018’s statistics only!
Online search and social media have collectively reinvented ownership of consumer and brand relationships. According to Sprout Social, over 74% of consumers are influenced by advertisements they’ve seen on the internet, wouldn’t you love to “ad” to that statistic?
One great benefit of digital ads is that they are mobile-friendly and can blend seamlessly into various platforms. Technology advancements have exponentially increased mobile device usage in recent years. This means that as a marketer, your pressing need for ad placements to meet your audience in a non-invasive way can be easily met on the internet. This is essentially where your audience resides — online.
Why Pay to Play
Thanks to constantly-changing algorithms, most online publications are lost amidst an ocean of information streams, making them much less likely to connect with a sizeable audience without a financial nudge. On average, the organic reach of a business’ post will be delivered to less than 10% of their online audience. Think about it this way, if your business has 10,000 online subscribers, without sponsored ads, each post is likely to be seen by an average of 1,000 persons or less!
Targeted Advertising
While quality organic online publications do have the potential to reach millions of users, that isn’t often the case, and there is little control over who the content is delivered to. You already know that a great advertisement is pretty much useless when presented to an unspecified audience. This is where precise targeting offered by online advertising tools comes in extra handy! Whether you leverage programmatic, pay-per-click (PPC), Adwords or social media ads, they allow you to drill down into who will see your brand message tied to your audience base understanding.
You can deliver your content to several demographics and behaviours, which is a key contributor to the increased conversion rates that digital advertising boast. When the right combination of content marketing + lead generation is used, this can equal an exponential increase in ROI for businesses of all sizes. Sounds like a formula of success….right? Give yourself a pat on the back for staying with us this far…just a few more paragraphs to go :).
Get More Visibility and Insights
Naturally, increased online visibility leads to more conversion opportunities. When an ad appears to a user, even when it hasn’t been clicked or engaged with, guess what? An impression has been logged. Think about it, if you decide to apply for insurance for the very first time, you’re more likely to first consider insurance brands whose ads you’ve previously noticed and “happened to” remember, especially if their content was optimized based on their insight about you and your lifestyle.
Another great advantage of online advertising is the ability to gain market insights from your target audience and community. Result measurement tools offered by digital advertising are fast and effective ways to monitor and gauge audience feedback. Not only can this help to improve customer service and brand affinity, but it can also guide the development of campaign strategies!
Convinced Now?
Well… if you aren’t you may need to call us for a consultation ;). Online advertising has proven to be a more targeted and beneficial promotion approach when compared to traditional advertising (and is also more cost-effective! Ca-ching!). In 2017, global online ad spend surpassed that of television, according to Smart Insights. Based on current trends, the global online marketing spend is expected to continue growing over the next few years, while traditional advertising spend is expected to decline.
We want you to leverage the power of the Internet to reach your business goals in an innovative, impactful way. It’s evident that the marketing landscape is changing, don’t be left behind. Contact #TeamDigita to craft an online marketing strategy to fit your unique brand. Unlocking digital identities is our specialty after all!
About The Author
Jhunelle is a Digital Media Executive at Digita Global Marketing Ltd. Certified in Computer Science, her skill set also extends to blogging, photography and videography. If not creating awesomeness around a computer, she can most likely be found enjoying nature, food, or music, but ideally all 3.
