Digital Marketing in 2015

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Despite the Internet being around for 20+ years, the digital marketing sphere is still relatively new to companies. Many are unaware of the impact it can have on their business and are therefore unclear about the potential return on investment (ROI). These same companies often invest up to 60 percent of their marketing budget in television advertising despite only seeing an 18 percent ROI. In the meantime, forward thinking brands like Cadbury are reporting that their?digital marketing efforts are seeing an ROI that is four times higher than traditional ads despite investing less money. The best part is that even small businesses can take advantage of the digital marketing sphere as it is?incredibly affordable.

What is Digital Marketing?

Are banner ads the first things that pop into your mind when you think about digital marketing? While it is certainly a component, digital marketing covers a much broader spectrum than just ads. It also includes:

Blogs
Email marketing
Social media
Website SEO
Mobile marketing

The important point here is that a well laid digital marketing strategy integrates all of the different aspects together into one seamless experience. This provides much better brand recognition across ALL channels.

Why Use Digital Marketing?

It’s no exaggeration that the world is becoming increasingly digital. People are spending more time connected to the Internet than ever before thanks to mobile technology , and this trend is only expected to continue.

Besides staying relevant there are plenty of other reasons you should focus your attention on digital marketing efforts.

It’s cheaper ? If you want to reach the biggest audience on TV or newspapers, you need to spend several thousand dollars for the cheaper spots. Email marketing, or using paid social ads, can reach almost the same amount of people for only a fraction of the cost.

It’s better targeted ?Traditional ads gives you a certain level of control over who you market to, but it is nowhere near as powerful as digital. Depending on what online medium you use, you can find and reach your ideal audience right down to their implicit interests and psychographics. Since you’ll be reaching only the people who are interested in your business, you’ll see a much higher ROI.

It’s easier to track results ? Thanks to a wide range of different analytics tools you can easily see exactly where you are getting most of your traffic, whether it’s through your paid ads, social referrals, organic search or emails. While there, you can collect this data for traditional marketing campaigns, and digital allows you to track everything in real-time, giving you the opportunity to make necessary changes immediately. Ultimately, digital marketing gives you more up-to-date and relevant information to improve the performance of your campaigns.

How to Use Digital Marketing to Improve ROI

If you’re new to the digital landscape, all the different marketing options can be daunting and time consuming. After all, the digital world has transformed the world of marketing where communication is now a two-way

street and consumers can choose not to listen. Before, it was much easier to capture an audience’s attention with a flashy commercial or appealing photo spread. While visuals are still a powerful tool, consumers do not

want their Internet experience interrupted with advertisements. Instead, successful digital marketing concentrates on building relationships by:

Providing quality content ? Content marketing has become the Holy Grail of digital marketing and for good reason. When done well, it adds value to the customer’s experience and positions your company as an expert in your particular niche. The more useful your content, the more likely people will be to share your site with friends and family. Considering that 90 percent of consumers trust recommendations from personal acquaintances, these social recommendations can go a long way in conversions.

Knowing your customer ? In order to deliver the best content on all different digital fronts, you need to know your customer. It’s a good idea to create an ideal buyer persona and then follow them around the Internet. Where do they go to get information? Who do they look up to? Do they prefer visual or written content? These questions can help you pinpoint where and how you reach out to your customers as well as mold the type of content your create.

Creating goals ? You should know what you want to accomplish with your digital marketing strategy before you start. Depending on what you want ? ROI, conversions, brand visibility, engagement ? your strategy and tone will change.

Implementing Digital Marketing

If you’re looking to implement digital marketing, it doesn’t mean you should separate digital media from traditional. In fact, the best approach is to fully integrate the two so your audience will have the same experience

whether they are online or offline. If you want the best ROI, you need to approach your marketing campaign as a way to start a conversation with your audience.

This post was guest written by Ivan Serrano.

Ivan Serrano is a social media, marketing and business journalist living in Northern California.

To connect with Ivan please contact him through his Google+ Page

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