The advantages and disadvantages of online marketing are often misunderstood. While there are obvious perks to digital marketing, there are also significant drawbacks that must be considered. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing.
Advantages
Many believe that the advantages of digital marketing outweigh the disadvantages. The global market value of digital marketing is set to reach $183 billion by next year. The value is predicted to rise 21.6% in 2022.
Thanks to online marketing, traditional marketing methods such as newspaper ads and radio spots can now be targeted to a specific audience and designed to achieve specific results. In days past, marketers designed their campaigns around demographic groups, such as men or women, young adults, or parents with young children. As a result, most marketing campaigns achieved only limited success. With the ability to precisely target the right audience and develop a strategy to convert website visitors into paying customers, the advantages of digital marketing are obvious.
Disadvantages
While the advantages of digital marketing are many and significant, so are the disadvantages. To start, let’s examine the fact that 90% of internet users now browse websites anonymously. This means that website owners and marketers have limited information about who exactly is visiting their site. This lack of engagement may result in less qualified leads, reduced conversion rates, and a huge waste of time and effort.
Further, most people only visit a small number of websites regularly. When a marketer creates content to promote a product or service, the challenge is getting people to see, read, and engage with the content. The more websites a person visits, the greater the competition for attention. As a result, it’s often difficult to stand out among the noise and achieve meaningful engagement.
In addition to limited information about website visitors, marketers also have very limited information about potential customers. The field of psychographics, which stands for the study of personalities, buying behaviors, and lifestyle factors, can be very useful in this regard. The combination of demographic and psychographic data can provide a complete picture of a person’s interests, hobbies, and lifestyle.
One of the major disadvantages of digital marketing is that content must stand out and be interesting enough for people to want to read it. In today’s world, consumers are overloaded with information and many choices. To get noticed, content needs to be unique and interesting enough to capture a reader’s attention. The following examples of pop culture blogs and websites highlight this point well:
MTV Makes Video Easy To Access And Watch
If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either a consumer yourself or someone who knows one. MTV, the leading brand in music-related content, understands this very well and makes video easy to access and watch. The cable network launched the MTV News Digital Studios in 2014 to create original journalism and reportage around the world of music and pop culture. This division brings together MTV’s iconic news brand with the creative talent and technical know-how of its in-house video production house.
One of the most significant differences between traditional media, such as print and radio, and online media is the fact that the latter is always accessible. This is a great advantage when you need to promote a brand or product and have little to no budget to spare. However, video content is very expensive to produce and doesn’t always need to be online to be effective.
YouTube Is The Leader In Digital Marketing
If you happen to be reading this, you’re probably wondering what we’re talking about when we mention digital marketing and YouTube. The answer is video. YouTube users spend about 50 minutes per day on the platform, on average. That’s more time than any other social media network, including Twitter.
Additionally, about 83% of YouTube users say that the platform helps them discover new things. While this might not seem like a disadvantage, consider that YouTube is a crowded platform with millions of videos and millions of users. While it’s an amazing resource for consumers, marketers must remember that the platform is designed around discovering and entertaining viewers.
Last but not least, let’s discuss the fact that YouTube’s main audience is Gen Z, with 79% saying that the platform helps them learn new things. This demographic is more tech-savvy than any other before them and has grown up with video content being a regular part of their lives. It’s no wonder that YouTube is the leader in digital marketing. It’s a combination of the factors listed above that put the platform at the forefront of online marketing.
Affordable
Thanks to the rise of digital marketing and video content, affordable web hosting and content offers have become common. This has made it much easier for businesses of all sizes to launch a website and create a presence on the internet. The fact that so many services are readily available at affordable prices makes digital marketing more accessible than ever before.
Effective
The increased effectiveness of digital marketing is largely thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies enable businesses to target their marketing to a highly specific audience. By using a combination of AI, machine learning, and traditional marketing methods, businesses can better understand their customer base and engage with them on a more personal level.
Thanks to AI and machine learning, keywords and search engine optimization no longer form the basis of a successful marketing campaign. The effectiveness of SEO is determined by a range of factors, from the quality and volume of backlinks and the page’s content to whether the site is mobile-friendly or not.
Additionally, the growth of virtual assistants and chatbots makes it much easier for businesses to carry out online marketing campaigns. When a consumer requests information from a chatbot or virtual assistant, they are often presented with a range of marketing options and options for further action. This level of personalization and convenience makes digital marketing more effective than ever before.
Durability
What happens once a consumer has clicked a link or watched a sponsored video? How long do these effects last?
Thanks to the increasing dominance of digital marketing, the effects of any campaign or interaction remain relevant for a very long time. One example is the sponsored video we just discussed. Once the viewer clicks the play button, the video will start playing and the impact of the brand or product will be visible to the consumer for the rest of the day.
Similarly, a link to a website can act as a beacon, drawing in potential customers and establishing a brand’s credibility. For example, if you’re considering marketing your accounting practice, you might want to consider a link to CPA Practice Advisor, an online platform that provides users with the information they need to choose a CPA. While they’re on the site, users can learn about the benefits of having a CPA, as well as the various services the firm offers, such as bookkeeping, payroll processing, and compliance consulting. In this case, the link takes them to a landing page, where they have more information and can make a decision about the practice.
No Longer Tricky To Reach Audiences
One of the major disadvantages of traditional marketing, such as radio spots and print ads, is that they require a physical, static form. To be effective, these items needed to be distributed to a large audience, which is usually costly and difficult to do. However, that is no longer the case with digital marketing. With the ability to target the right audience and execute a highly effective strategy, much of the work usually associated with reaching an audience is now automated.
The rise of virtual assistants and chatbots means that marketing campaigns can now be carried out with little to no human intervention. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the work is without its challenges. For example, much like SEO, the effectiveness of a marketing campaign can be judged by a range of factors, from the website’s traffic to the quality and volume of leads. However, with the right tools, this is much easier to track and improve upon.
Increased Exposure To Brand
When consumers and potential customers visit a website or open an app and begin engaging with content, this is often referred to as “brand exposure.” In other words, the chances of the consumer or potential customer becoming a loyal or returning customer increase as a result of their interaction with a brand.
What is the advantage of this increased brand exposure? Simply put, a business can utilize digital marketing to build and grow a brand. In addition to marketing a product or service, a brand can also be used to gain credibility, establish a sense of trust, and generate interest in a particular field or niche.