Most businesses, if they’re doing anything online, are probably considering the cost of online marketing. But what does that really mean? Is it simply the cost of hiring a content creator to produce web content for you? Or the cost of buying ads on popular social media platforms to grow your audience? Or the cost of hiring a digital marketer to build a marketing strategy?
No. It means so much more than that. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. Consider the following:
Lower Lifetime Marketing Costs
The average lifespan of a consumer internet connection is around 2 years. So if you want to reach that audience, you’ll have to invest in web hosting and domain names. And what’s more is that you’ll have to upgrade the connection every year or so to stay competitive. And let’s not forget about the maintenance and support costs either.
On the other hand, consider a business that builds a steady stream of leads and sales each month. Their marketing efforts may include paid ads on social media, email campaigns, and SEO work. But what’s unique is that they’ve also built a blogging platform and a community of bloggers that talk about their products. As a result, they’re able to capitalize on their audience by offering them lucrative deals and discounts. And because they have a captive audience, they’re able to keep up with the ever-changing algorithms that promote content from popular brands.
So in the long run, the business that leveraged blogging and social media to gain support and credibility among their target audience was able to significantly reduce their lifetime marketing costs compared to the business that relied solely on paid ads and affiliate marketing.
Raising Brand Awareness
With paid ads you aim to get as many people as possible to see or hear your message. The more people that see or hear your ad, the better. But with digital marketing, you’re not necessarily looking for as many views or clicks. Instead, you’re looking for brand awareness. And believe it or not, that costs quite a bit less money.
This is largely because with paid ads you’re only paying for views. So in order to know if your ad was effective or not, you have to look at the numbers. And if you’ve never looked at your website’s analytics before, you might be surprised at how much data you can find there. For instance, you can check the number of people that clicked on your ad versus the number of people that viewed it. And if that number is high, but the cost per click is low, you know the ad was effective.
On the other hand, if the number of views is lower than the number of clicks, you know your ad wasn’t effective. But you didn’t necessarily need to run that ad again. You can simply look for a more appropriate one. Nowadays, you’d be surprised at how many effective campaign strategies you can find in your analytics.
More Engagement With Your Audience
When you have an engaged audience, you can develop stronger relationships with them. This means they’re more likely to value your opinion and what you have to say. So when you engage with your audience on social media, don’t just throw out a link to your blog or website. Instead, get creative and stand out from the crowd. Create memes, invite your audience to join your newsletter, and consider asking them questions about their opinions on your product or service.
By doing this, you’re showing the world that you appreciate their interest in your content and are willing to engage with them. And what’s more is that you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. This will naturally draw more people to your blog or website, which, in turn, will significantly reduce your marketing costs.
More Opportunities For Growth
As a business owner or leader of a marketing agency, what’s the main goal of your team? Is it to create brand awareness among the masses or is it to simply get the most views for your sponsored content? If the former, then paid ads are your best bet. But if the latter, then engaging with your audience through content and building relationships is your best bet. After all, if you want to be successful, you have to be willing to do anything to get there.