By Online marketing is also known as digital marketing has become a major force in the world of advertising. This is one of the very first segments to experience the disruption that the internet has brought to practically every aspect of our way of life.
There was a time when marketing or advertising meant going from door to door to knock in an attempt to sell your wares. It moved on to include mails posted randomly, fliers distributed widely, posters placed every and anywhere, and then phone calls placed to total strangers.
We thought we had arrived when we progressed to radio and television adverts supported by huge billboards advertising. But then the internet arrived and turned everything on its head.
While a lot of traditional methods are still very much in place, online marketing has continued to grow in importance and now matches if not surpasses traditional marketing ineffectiveness. It most certainly offers a much better return on investment.
Understanding the Difference Between Tradition Marketing and Online Marketing
Being effective at online marketing requires that you have a good understanding of the underlying principles guiding it which is largely different from the traditional marketing philosophy.
There is a major world of difference between these two approaches and we will explain this major difference with a fishing analogy.
Traditional marketing is like a fisherman who gets a huge fishing trawler (at great expense) and gets a huge net attached to it then drags it across the sea hoping to catch a particular species of fish.
At the end of the day, he ends up with all sorts including objects. If he is lucky, he may find enough of what he was looking for to make the venture profitable.
On the converse side, another fisherman gets a trawler, a net, and a high-res fish finder.
He locates the exact location of the kind of fish he wants, lays his net and then uses different things to attract the school of fish into his net. They gladly swim into the net and even call on their mates to hurry in.
Still, on this, another fisherman who cannot afford a trawler simply stands on the riverside with a rod, line, and hook. Attaches a bait, let’s the line into the water, and then waits.
A fish swims to the bait, swallows it, and is hooked for life. He gets it out and repeats the process over and over again.
There are two critical differences here. One is the fact that while traditional methods require a lot of starting capital, their digital variation does not.
The second is that while the traditional approach relies more on chance and goes to the target audience, the digital method is precise in its targeting and draws the target audience to it.
Key Values to Adopt for Efficient Online Marketing
To market effectively online, there is a mindset you must adopt to ensure success. We will list a couple of these here.
Create Value
Usually, people talk about creating value with respect to a product and service. While this is still important here, more important is the creation of valuable content.
Remember that in the world of online marketing the target audience is attracted to the hook by the bait. The bait, in this case, is the helpful and informative content that you consistently put out.
As people read what you put out, you gain a position of trust as an expert on that subject so buying from you becomes easy if not a given.
Spread Your Value
It’s not just enough to create valuable content. You must ensure your content is widely shared. This is where social media marketing, email marketing, and other aspects of digital advertising will come into play.
More so, the more your content is spread and linked back to you, the more you are rated by search engines, resulting in a higher ranking which will also, in turn, drive more traffic to your site.
Be Precise
You cannot afford to be generic. Your target audience MUST be carefully chosen. You must identify the persona of your target so that your marketing and content can be tailored to their exact needs. You should also know the exact keywords to target to ensure you can get the right target.
Rely on Data
Everything that is done in the digital market is data-driven. From the choice of keywords to the mode of delivery and more, you need to take action based on data. Thankfully, there are many tools that are available for this purpose.
Conclusion
You may find some of the points listed above a bit confusing as most folks do. What they do in such cases is simply hand their online marketing and SEO campaigns to agencies.
There are a number of great Digital Marketing agencies in Birmingham that can help you get the work done.
There is absolutely no doubt that online marketing is a veritable goldmine. You, however, need to know how to be effective with it or you will not enjoy the full benefits it can offer. Many people spend a lot of money on it and do not get much by way of results.
Take some time to understand what you need to do to get a great result or else hand it over to a professional agency so you can face the actual running of your business. The important thing is to do it right so you can get the right result.
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