If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either a marketer yourself or work with one. And if you’re an advertiser, you’re probably wondering how to reach the baby boom generation.
Traditional advertising platforms like TV and radio may not be the best fit for influencing people in their 20s and 30s. But that doesn’t mean online marketing is a perfect replacement. In fact, it can work quite well when executed correctly. And before you decide online marketing isn’t for you, consider these five benefits.
1. Authentic Audience
The first and most important benefit of online marketing is that it allows you to target an audience much more accurately than before. Before the dawn of the internet, marketers would rely on things such as demographics (age, gender, and geographic location), psychographics (attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors), and previous buying patterns (which products and brands they’ve previously purchased) to determine who they should reach out to with their marketing efforts.
But with targeted online marketing, you can access detailed information about an individual’s preferences, allowing you to serve up customized content that more accurately matches their needs. For example, if you know a person has a special interest in luxury goods, you can serve up content that focuses on luxurious brands.
Now, the ability to target a highly specific audience is not unique to digital marketing. Marketers have used digital channels (such as websites and social media) to target specific groups of people for years. But with the advent of CRM software, online marketing has become much more efficient and effective. And with the right tools, you can even target individual customers by name.
If you’ve never used digital marketing software, NOW is the perfect opportunity to try it out. You can download the free trial and see how easy it is to use. Once you’ve tried it out and seen how well it works, you can purchase a license for less than $500.
2. Converts Better
With a targeted email campaign, you can significantly increase your odds of converting a prospect into a customer. Instead of sending broadcast emails to all of your contacts, you can send personalized emails to people who have signed up to receive them. And with each email you send, you can track how each individual is responding (e.g., opening the email, responding to the offer, or unsubscribing).
When you improve the conversion rate of an online marketing campaign, you increase your chances of converting a much larger audience. According to HubSpot Blogs research, users who have a clear understanding of how email marketing works and how to apply it maximize the odds of converting someone.
If you want to improve your odds of converting a prospect into a customer, try implementing a lead generation strategy. The key is to understand what makes your product or service different from your competitors and leverage that knowledge to develop an effective lead generation plan.
3. Build a Longer-Lived Relationship
The average buyer has hundreds of thousands of interactions with a brand or company online before deciding to make a purchase. Therefore, the internet provides a unique opportunity for marketers to build a longer-lived relationship with consumers. You can engage with potential customers through blogs, websites, and social media platforms, which means you can continue to build credibility and trust while also providing useful content that helps them make more informed decisions about their needs.
In an increasingly digital world, customers are more likely to seek information online before making a purchase decision. So instead of just converting them into a sale, you can turn followers into advocates who become long-lived, brand-building assets.
4. Scalability
Anyone who’s ever tried to grow a business from the ground up knows the importance of being hands-on at the early stages. In an ideal world, you’d have a team of people handling different tasks so that you can stay close to the action and ensure everything is handled effectively. However, as a digital marketer, you usually have to do a lot of the work yourself. Which means you’ll have to become self-sufficient and learn to be both hands-on and a hands-off manager. And while this may seem like a dichotomy, it’s an effective balance that allows you to scale a digital marketing campaign quickly and effectively without having to babysit.
When you have a scalable strategy, you can continue to expand your reach to millions of users. Of course, this relies on having a profitable venture, but that’s a challenge plopped into the lap of any entrepreneur.
5. Less Risk
When you run an online marketing campaign, you essentially have no idea what kind of response you’ll get. You have an idea of the demographics you’re targeting, but beyond that, you have no idea whether or not the marketing will actually work. Which is a gamble any way you slice it. But with the right tools, you can minimize the risks associated with digital marketing and increase your odds of success.
Risk aversion is one of the major reasons why marketers have shied away from digital marketing. From an inability to measure results to the high degree of customization required, all of which can increase the risks associated with this type of marketing. However, in a perfect world, none of these risks would exist. Which is why we believe a hybrid model — combining the best of both worlds — is the way forward.
This is not to say that all risks can be eliminated. Marketers will always be faced with the risk of not identifying with their target audience and ending up with a smaller audience, or worse yet, no audience at all. But with the right tools, you can mitigate these risks and increase your chances of success.
In short, if you want to get the most out of online marketing, build a marketing team that’s as diverse as possible. Get a blend of digital experience and marketing experience, and invest in the tools that can help you measure and analyze the performance of your marketing campaigns.