Marketing is the art of attracting potential customers’ attention, then, once you have it, persuading them to buy a product or service. It is essential for all businesses which want to expand to serve customers beyond their local area.
Like so many other things, the field of marketing underwent a significant transformation with the advent of the Internet. Marketing through technologies such as the World Wide Web, email, and mobile devices has become its own speciality known as digital marketing.
This article will explain why digital marketing is essential for modern businesses to grow as well as why you might want to outsource your digital marketing to a professional agency.
Digital marketing vs traditional marketing
Modern marketing is divided into two approaches which try to achieve the same aim – more sales. Traditional marketing refers to the long-established ways of doing this, such as television or radio broadcasts, or print advertisements in magazines and newspapers.
Meanwhile, digital marketing uses online channels such as search engines, social media, emails, and blogs to reach people that they think might be interested in a product or service.
Generally speaking, traditional marketing relies on forms of mass media to communicate with potential customers. This has two main drawbacks. One is that it is less efficient because it is harder to target key demographics. Many people who see a traditional advertisement will not be the kind of person that the ad was made for. But, and this is the second drawback, companies still have to pay for that ineffective airtime or ad space.
Digital marketing, on the other hand, can be highly targeted and is often cheaper. A blog centred around a niche interest will not charge as much as a widely read newspaper, yet it can be just as trusted by its audience and have just as many readers belonging to the demographic being targeted.
The benefits of digital marketing
Besides cost and targeting, other benefits of digital marketing include:
- Two-way communication: It is easy to garner feedback about your product, service, or marketing materials.
- Quick to use: Many forms of digital marketing can be put to use immediately. You don’t need to wait for the next episode of a certain TV show to air or for the next edition of a magazine to be published. This also makes it highly versatile. Changes or tweaks can be made at short notice.
- Quantifiable results: One of the most appealing aspects for digital marketing is that the results can be easily measured and broken down. You can know things such as how many people saw an ad, the channel through which they saw it, when they saw it, how many clicked on it, how many followed through with a purchase, and so on.
This is not to say that digital marketing has totally surpassed traditional methods. Most businesses use a mixture of the two approaches that they find works best for them.
One reason that companies continue to use traditional methods is that the online space is fiercely competitive. Low costs mean that a lot more companies can afford to use digital marketing, there are an almost infinite number of websites and other digital channels for you to choose to use, and search engines and social media can change what their users see at any time.
This can all result in wasting a lot of money on marketing campaigns that nobody sees. This is why many companies turn to a specialist digital marketing agency, such as King Kong, to help grow their business.
Why hire a digital marketing agency?
Few companies have in-house digital marketing specialists. This is especially the case in smaller businesses. Many turn to agencies which offer:
- Expertise and specialisation: Digital marketing is itself broken down into further specialities, such as SEO and content marketing. Agencies employ experts in each of these areas who not only craft effective campaigns but keep on top of any changes in their area and adapt your campaign when necessary.
- Advanced analytics: The technology and expertise needed to collect and interpret the results of digital marketing are themselves expensive. In-house, your company would have to bear this entire cost, but with an agency, it is effectively shared among their customers.
- Timeliness: Agencies typically work on campaigns for many customers simultaneously. This means they have to be able to put together campaigns and materials quickly. It also means they have a wealth of experience from a variety of industries to draw on when they encounter a new problem. An in-house team working on sequential campaigns for a single company would take years to build the same experience and will not encounter so many different scenarios.
Digital marketing is essential for modern businesses that wish to grow, and getting it right can be truly transformative. For many businesses, agencies offer the most reliable and cost-effective way to tap into online opportunities to expand their business.
