To understand Digital Marketing (aka internet marketing) first, understand – what is “Marketing.” Marketing is a broader term inclusive of activities such as promotion, advertisement, and all aspects of sales.
Because of the gradual changes in Technology, everything around us has changed (for good). As a result, businesses, as well as day to day scenario of how products/services are marketed, has completely changed.
Be it email, social media promotion, or search engine marketing – every aspect of marketing includes – A Digital Platform powered by the Internet.
We are dependent on our digital devices (fueled by the Internet) to help us market our products/services effectively.
In layman language, Digital marketing is a new form of marketing which is driven by marketing and powered by electronic media-based devices (digital) on the Internet.
My Teething Troubles with Digital Marketing:
Change is hard.
I vividly remember opposing the PCs when they replaced our good old pen and paper.
We thought that the automation provided by the machine would take away our jobs.
I saw the same emotions make a comeback when we were introduced to a young lad, aka Digital marketer by our boss.
The guy was the opposite of what we the “older generation marketers” looked.
He had unkempt hair, wore a loose T-shirt and jeans for attire.
I, along with my colleagues with little or no knowledge of Digital marketing, got wary of the new kid.
We had no clue about Digital marketing, and this kid was talking things like SEO, SMO, and Email Marketing.
Our lives were going to change for good.
Impact of Digital Marketing on Marketing:
The Biggest Benefit of Digital Marketing is how it has helped change the way marketing was done.
Today, because of Digital marketing, Companies have been able to optimize their marketing budgets.
Such has been the popularity of Digital Marketing that every company has hired a digital marketing agency to promote their business on the web.
The impact has been visible in the new verticals of businesses formed because of Digital marking.
Today, the business world has started introducing positions in “Digital Marketing” for their organizations.
As soon as I realized, the world of marketing is changing. I jumped on the bandwagon and joined the new breed of internet marketers who live & breathe digital marketing.
I can write with confidence, “Digital marketing has arrived.”
Impact of Digital Marketing on Marketing on Businesses:
Today, the Internet has become an indispensable part of our lives.
This indispensability has changed the way – businesses market themselves or position their products in the market.
Take, for example, the telecom sector. Every telecom service provider today talks about data. Earlier the only language they spoke was “talk time.”
The paradigm shift from “talk time” to “data” did not happen overnight.
It is the usage of the Internet, which has made the businesses stand up and take notice. (Did you know the number of internet users today amount to almost 51% of the world’s population?).
To reach these users, you require forms of marketing that can tap the population on the Internet.
Internet, my friends, is tapped by something called digital marketing.
As such, there is no difference between digital marketing and online marketing (as they say, don’t go into the technicalities of the words, always run after the gist).
So what makes Digital Marketing such a popular topic? Why is everyone talking about digital marketing?
Here is the list of benefits and advantages of Digital marketing:
- Targeted Campaigns:
Digital Marketing helps us reach the end-user or target segment through tailor-made campaigns.
It is the only form of marketing where campaigns can be drilled down to the last level of segregation of the target audience.
For example, you can run PPC campaigns based on age, gender, area, interest, and then spend your money wisely.
This Correct information or data is quite helpful in growing a business.
You can always use it as a productive marketing tool to spend your money wisely.
- The cost-effective medium of advertising:
There is a saying, “Every penny saved is a penny earned.”
This theory aptly applies to digital marketing.
It’s a cost-effective medium of advertising where Result oriented budgeted campaign is set up to reach the target audience.
- Flexible Campaigns:
The most crucial aspect of running a Marketing Campaign is flexibility. Advertisement and marketing campaigns are unpredictable.
What works today might not work tomorrow, but can we stop the campaign mid-way and fine-tune it to re-run with more effectiveness?
That’s something traditional methods of marketing cannot do because they are bulky.
They run on old-fashioned methods where once the horse is out of stable, it does not stop until and unless it has crossed the finish line.
Digital marketing is real-time and gives us the flexibility to select tools, content, timings to approach target customers.
All these aspects are next to impossible in other media like print, Outdoor advertising, etc.
- Higher ROI:
Let me do a comparative analysis to show you how small businesses can benefit from digital marketing. We recently ran a campaign which costs us USD 2000 and got us an ample number of leads. If I were to run a similar campaign using traditional methods, it would cost me a bomb to get the same amount of leads.
Also, the rate of conversions was much higher in digital or online marketing.
From the customer point of view, a customer gets all the details variations and info about the products online as he/she is looking for it.
Digital marketing provides you with economic tools and methods to get higher ROI.
Furthermore, the results are easy to understand and measurable in digital marketing.
You have reports which give you comprehensive insights into where the end customer dropped or converted.
With the help of different tools like google analytics, you can find the smallest of detail about your customer and design a strategy accordingly.
- Wider reach and power to Compete with Global Brands:
Digital marketing helps you compete with the Global Brands who have full pockets when it comes to promoting conventional methods, but on the Internet, they are competing with you. There are very high chances of your viral content, beating them in the game of marketing.
The concept is simple; Digital marketing brings a bad full of information to your end customer in the form of market development, trends, creation, and taste of the customers, etc.
If your content is better than your competitor, you can strategically convert the prospective customer to a paying client.
And Digital marketing gives you a broader reach to reach the end-user, as soon as possible.
I earlier thought the advent of Technology is making human life complex. But with time, I realized I was unnecessarily panicking.
The simplest and easiest way to handle this complexity is to change yourself with time.
I am learning digital marketing. And the more I learn, the better I understand “how the latest development in technology is for our good.”
Digital Marketing is one of the simplest and easiest methods to handle the complexity of the business.
Conclusion:
The benefits of Digital Marketing outweigh the negatives. Small businesses with the right strategy can use digital marketing to their advantage and promote their business with “out of box” thinking using digital marketing.
About Author:
Jasmeet is a founder of Lessons at Startup – A blog where he shares entrepreneurial stories. He specialises in Digital Marketing and Content Writing. He is addicted to Google News, Netflix, Good Coffee and Quora ☺.
