Successful marketing campaigns begin with the consumer. You should provide customers with affordable products and services, make your offerings available, and regularly communicate with them about your brand.
In the digital age, you will most likely find consumers online. One of the advantages of online marketing is one of its most challenging aspects — most marketers now use the internet to reach out to the ideal customer.
In the United States, 87% of the population are active internet users. Meanwhile, 96% of the United Kingdom’s population are active internet users. These potential customers are exposed to thousands of ads daily. If you use internet marketing correctly, you can stand out from the competition and enjoy the many benefits of digital marketing for customers.
Digital Marketing Definition
Before we proceed with the benefits, let’s first answer the question: what is digital marketing? Digital marketing uses internet-based technologies — such as desktop computers, laptops, and mobile phones — to promote products and services. This marketing component refers to all your online marketing efforts.
If you compare digital marketing vs traditional marketing, you will see that access to real-time data provides online marketing with an edge over the latter. Here are some digital marketing tactics, all of which can provide you with data and analytics capabilities. Let’s quickly discuss the benefits of using digital marketing techniques.
- Content marketing is a powerful tool that deals with creating share-worthy online materials such as videos, blogs, and social media posts. This technique can make you stand out in the digital world. Learn more about creating valuable online content from our Post-Pandemic Digital Marketing Playbook.
- Display advertising aims to use high-traffic areas to help advertisers connect with site visitors. You’ll find brands using display advertising in websites, apps, and social media sites.
- Social media marketing uses sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to build awareness, drive site traffic, and increase sales. Find out how iOS 14 affects Facebook ads here.
- Email marketing is sending commercial messages to a group of people using electronic mail. A study shows that email marketing can be up to 40 times more effective than social media marketing if you create useful content and know when to send emails. Get practical email tips here.
- Influencer marketing involves creating partnerships with authoritative individuals or groups to endorse products or services.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improves the quantity and quality of site visitors from internet browsers.
- Paid search provides businesses the opportunity to advertise in search engines, typically using a pay-per-click (PPC) payment scheme.
- Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between online retailers and websites, where the former pays a commission for referrals.
Now that you have a better understanding of digital marketing techniques, let’s discuss how internet marketing benefits customers.
Reach Your Target Market
We can’t reiterate how important the target market is in reaping the advantages of digital marketing. If you don’t segment clients, you might end up wasting time and money reaching out to people who are not interested in your products and services. Similarly, using the wrong content and platforms will prove futile in converting your potential clients into actual customers. You have to find the perfect mix of content and strategy to create groundbreaking digital campaigns.
Many digital marketing platforms have made it more convenient for brands to reach their target markets. Nowadays, we have access to customers’ demographic information and online activities. You can target potential clients based on their location, age, interests, and preferred social media sites.
Additionally, you can now create customized campaigns for potential clients in the different sales funnel stages. Google and Facebook Custom Audience allow advertisers to select specific subsections of the market, such as:
- Clients who recently visited your website
- Potential customers who actively engage with your Facebook posts
- People who have signed up for your email marketing list but have not made a purchase
- Audiences who added items to their cart but did not push through with their purchase
- Customers who previously purchased your products or services
These digital marketing tools allow us to create targeted offers for different client groups. If you haven’t spent any portion of your marketing budget on retargeting campaigns, you should start now. Retargeting campaigns can increase ad engagement by 400% and clickthrough rates by 10%.
Customers benefit from the use of carefully constructed target audiences as much as marketers do. You can solve potential customers’ problems by steering them to products and services that can benefit them. Don’t waste their time by showing them content that doesn’t matter to them. Pay attention to what customers want, and deliver solutions at the right moments.
Cost-Effective Strategies
Hundreds of thousands of B2B and B2C companies find that one of the best benefits of digital marketing is its cost-effective strategies. Big corporations have the budget for TV, radio, newspaper, and outdoor advertising, but small to mid-sized companies might not. Digital marketing puts companies on the same playing field by providing businesses cost-effective strategies that match their objectives and budgets.
Except for SEO strategies — which take time, money, and effort to build and measure — digital marketing strategies typically provide advertisers with cost-effective options. Social media marketing and email marketing are two of the most affordable options for companies who can’t afford SEO or PPC efforts yet.
Many companies enjoy a high return on investment (ROI) rate that is two to four times their spend on Facebook ads. According to an eMarketer study, the average email marketing ROI is 122%. You will generally enjoy higher ROI from digital marketing campaigns than traditional ones.
Many chief marketing officers (CMOs) are now using more of their marketing budget on digital marketing instead of expensive TV, radio, newspaper, and outdoor advertising. As a digital advertising solutions company, we can help you create customized digital campaigns that will match your objectives and marketing budget.
For customers, the benefit of cost-effective strategies is more budget for creating content they actually enjoy. This could be videos or interactive campaigns that are fun to participate in. The more engaging your content is, the better it will convert.
Reduce Customer Acquisition Costs
The marketing industry classifies customer acquisition into two main categories — offline and online. Trade shows, speaking engagements, networking activities, and direct mail marketing are examples of offline customer acquisition strategies. On the other hand, influencer marketing, email marketing, PPC campaigns, and content marketing are online customer acquisition techniques.
Generally, you will spend less money to acquire one customer with online campaigns than offline efforts. While offline leads cost between $300–$500, online ones only cost between $25–$30.
Here are other customer acquisition facts that can help you determine your preferred strategy:
- Offline efforts typically convert 40% of prospects, while online campaigns convert an average of 18.5% of potential clients.
- We found out that 17% of offline leads experience pressure during the follow-up period while 23% of online customers do. Be careful in creating content for any technique you use. Make sure to lure the client further into becoming a client and not turn him away.
- An immediate follow-up with a potential online client can increase conversion rates by as much as 34%. Those who receive vital brand information within the first hour are 60 times more likely to convert.
- Online customers are seven times more likely to convert if you call them within the first hour. Waiting 20 hours to get in touch is a terrible idea — you have likely lost your lead by this time.
Online clients are cheaper to acquire, but most companies lose them at the interest and engagement stage. Do not let this stop you from engaging with online clients. In fact, engaging with your clients online is often better for them. Creating a free online webinar, for example, is a great way to allow participation while asking very little of your customers. Using online platforms makes it easy for all types of customers to engage no matter where they are in the sales funnel. We can help you create a detailed action plan that can help you acquire potential clients and convert them into actual customers.
Dependable Lead Generation
Digital marketing can help you consistently create a sales funnel with quality leads. With personalized strategies that help your customers find the right products when they are the most helpful to them, you can improve your brand’s customer journey and turn potential shoppers into brand loyalists. Here are the sales funnel stages and the types of content we recommend for them.
Awareness and Discovery: Top of the Funnel
During this stage, your site visitors may or may not have heard about your brand. They have a specific problem and go online to research potential solutions. From a marketing standpoint, you want to provide clients in this phase valuable information through videos, blog posts, or eBooks.
Customers in this stage are looking to learn more about your brand and find out if it offers what they need. Filling this part of your funnel with the information they need and collecting their information to connect with them and answer their questions helps customers quickly decide if your brand is right for them. This saves time and energy for you both.
Interest and Engagement: Middle of the Funnel
In this sales funnel phase, you’re no longer dealing with nameless site visitors; they are now potential clients with real problems that you can solve. They are interested in products and services that offer solutions.
Customers at this phase might not be looking to buy products and services yet; they are likely looking for available options. These customers need to know your unique selling propositions (USP) and why they should trust your offers. These customers will want to see case studies, newsletters, checklists, and other insightful content.
This phase of the funnel helps to guide customers toward the right solution for their needs.
Decision and Purchase: Bottom of the Funnel
Clients at this stage of the sales funnel believe they have all the information they need to make a purchase decision.
The best types of content that can turn potential clients into actual customers are frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) pages, live demos, and testimonials. Free signups or samples can also convert leads without any financial commitment on the potential customer’s part.
Being able to effortlessly navigate this part of the funnel leaves customers feeling good about their interaction. Satisfied clients end up making purchases and recommend your products and services to other people.
Improve Conversion Rates
Many digital marketing beginners focus too much on generating leads and not enough on improving conversion rates. They spend a lot of time and effort increasing site traffic, forgetting digital marketing campaigns should turn visitors into leads or sales.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the process of improving the conversion rates of your online marketing efforts. Many marketing professionals often overlook this critical aspect of digital marketing, failing to collect consumer data, increase subscriptions through valuable content, and push sales. Failing in these areas does not help your potential customers solve their problems. If anything, not being able to convert them when they arrive at your website leads to them feeling like visiting your site was a waste of time.
Here are some ways we can help you improve your website’s conversion rates:
Redefine Business Goals
Just like with any campaign, you should set goals for your website. What do you want site visitors to do that can help you achieve your goals? Create simple, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound objectives for your website. Without one, there’s no logical way to improve your site.
Create Compelling Value Proposition
The value proposition is a statement that summarizes why consumers should choose your products or services. Site visitors should see it right away, and it should be captivating enough to make them stay.
For example, Lyft’s value proposition is Rides in Minutes. It’s straight to the point, clear, and compelling. It discusses immediate response and nothing else. Lyft focuses on providing commuters with localized services without any delays.
Do A/B Testing
A/B testing, or split testing, is a technique digital marketers use to increase a website’s conversion rates. With A/B testing, you create two alternative versions of your page with different headlines, call-to-action statements, layouts, or offers.
There’s no such thing as a perfect website. Continuously improving your content will help you drastically improve your conversion rates.
Establish Brand Credibility
For smaller businesses to stand out in the digital world, they have to observe content marketing and focus on being a consumer-centric brand.
Why do people choose established brands like Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and Apple? They are not always necessarily the best option. But we trust them. Over the years, they used marketing techniques to establish their brand credibility. Doing this helps customers feel safe in their transactions, whether they be monetary or informational. Creating consumer trust is tied to customer loyalty. Customers feel good about working with brands they feel they know, and they’re usually happy to tell others about them, too.
We suggest observing these practical tips to help you establish brand credibility.
Create Captivating Content
Content marketing studies show that brands that are active online can quickly establish brand credibility. Through powerful content marketing, a brand can increase its visibility, develop lasting relationships with the audience, and build authority on specific topics.
Valuable content can help a brand gain the trust of its clientele and that of notable industry experts. Additionally, valuable content presented interestingly can earn companies external links and improve their Google ranking for specific keywords.
Provide Excellent Customer Service
Nowadays, excellent customer service is not a differentiator — all businesses must observe it! One of the fastest ways to gain your clients’ trust is to provide excellent customer service. Over 50% of clients claim that they will stop doing business with a brand after one negative experience.
Here are practical tips to improve your customer support system:
- Update the contact information on all your pages.
- Track your brand mentions and interact with your clients on your social media pages. Use the feedback from these pages to gain insights into your strengths and weaknesses as a brand.
- Consider using AI-powered chatbots to learn more about your customers and provide them with 24/7 services.
Generate Word-of-Mouth Opinions
New clients trust online reviews almost as much as personal recommendations. Ask your loyal customers to leave reviews and make testimonials on your website and online pages.
Also, you can encourage user-generated content. Share creative photos and videos from your clients. Clients trust pages that use user content more than those that do not.
Drive Sales and Increase Revenues
Many aspects make up digital marketing. Over time, SEO, brand building, and content marketing efforts can improve site traffic and conversion rates, leading to more sales and happy, loyal customers.
However, some methods can quickly drive sales and increase revenue. We recommend using the following techniques for seasonal campaigns. These techniques help customers find the best deals by putting sales and special deals right in front of them at key moments.
PPC Ads
With excellent copywriting, PPC ads have many benefits. Many of our clients treat PPC ads like unnecessary expenses, but we showed them results that changed their minds. Here are some reasons why you should consider running PPC ads.
- PPC ads can help you achieve business goals ranging from brand awareness, lead generation, or increased revenues from an e-commerce sale. PPC campaigns are especially advantageous for middle-of-the-funnel efforts.
- PPC efforts can get you instant results, unlike SEO and brand-building strategies. You can use techniques to target people who are likely to purchase your products or services.
- It takes time and effort to master the PPC campaign settings, but they are worth learning. You are in control of targeting, keywords, and budgets. Each campaign is customizable, and you can revise each one to match your goals. You also have the option to spend more on an effective campaign and stop ineffective ones.
Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are one of the most cost-effective advertising methods we can recommend for small businesses. With its powerful targeting tools, you can reach a wide variety of potential clients or select niches that are likely to convert.
You can also install Facebook Pixel on your website to gain access to relevant insights that can help you make informed business decisions.
Instagram Shoppable Posts
Instagram Shoppable posts make it easy for buyers to shop from sellers’ organic posts. This feature is available in the US and UK, but it’s not accessible globally yet.
Encourage Brand Loyalty
Some marketers tend to bypass the chance to encourage brand loyalty because of their quest to acquire new customers and increase sales. Your communication with your customers should not end once they make a purchase. On the contrary, a first-time purchase should serve as an inspiration to create a long-term relationship with your clients.
We’ve collected some numbers to show you the importance of brand loyalty.
- Returning customers spend more than guest shoppers. In the apparel industry, a shopper’s fifth purchase is typically 40% more than the first one.
- Increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits by 125%.
- Loyalty programs allow you to gain powerful insight into your clients’ shopping habits. Such information enables you to create personalized shopping experiences for your customers.
- You are likely to sell a new product to an existing customer by 60–70%, compared to only 5–20% with new customers.
- If you apply the Pareto Principle in marketing, you can estimate that 80% of your revenue comes from only 20% of your clients. These loyal clients spend more in your shop, leave positive reviews and testimonials, and recommend your brand to their family and friends. Show them how much you value them through loyalty programs.
There are many cost-effective ways to increase brand loyalty that help your loyal customers feel valued and appreciated. Create valuable content for them, send them unique discount codes on their birthday, or treat them to exclusive seasonal events. Additionally, you should include them in your email and SMS marketing campaigns to keep them up to date on new products and sales.
Measurable Marketing Tool
As with any investment you make, it is crucial to know how helpful it is in achieving your business goals.
It is laborious to measure the effectiveness of traditional marketing campaigns. Having to count the number of people who saw your TV commercial, heard your radio plug, read your newspaper article, or stared at your billboard is quite tedious and sometimes impossible. It would be difficult to choose the most cost-efficient platform from this data.
The scenario is different with digital marketing. One of the most significant benefits of internet marketing is its measurability. You can typically track any factor in real-time. You can quickly determine how many people saw your ads, clicked on them, and purchased your products or services after.
We also recommend generating reports for these key performance indicators (KPIs) for your CMO: Cost-per-click (CPC), ROI, customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (CLTV).
Google and Facebook have impressive data and analytics capabilities. Use them to help you determine the effectiveness of any campaign. Using these tools effectively can ensure that customers see your ads only when it makes sense and not in ways that they perceive annoying or intrusive.
Create a Customized Digital Marketing Campaign
We are Pico Digital, a digital advertising solutions company. We specialize in helping small and mid-sized businesses take their brands to the next level using advanced digital marketing techniques. We wrote this article in response to questions about the benefits of digital marketing for customers.
No matter what your budget is, digital marketing can help you grow your business. With a committed digital marketing partner like Pico Digital, you can create a customized digital marketing campaign that will match your objectives and budget.
If you’re ready to take your business to new heights, you may reach us at info@choose.pico.com. You may also call our US number +1 720-943-8616 or UK number +44(0)1294-507623.
