The current pandemic has forced hundreds and thousands of businesses to close and file for bankruptcy this year. While there are still the lucky few standing, surviving, and trying to stay afloat, there might be changes in how consumers do business. Changes in their purchasing behaviors mean keeping themselves safe from contracting the deadly disease, especially now that there is another threat in the form of a new virus strain – several, in fact.
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Consumers and brands will be shifting towards digital means, both in marketing and buying. Since more and more people are working from home due to the current situation, it’s smart to bring your marketing online than offline these days. Online marketing will be the top form of advertising while the threat of coronavirus is still here.
If you’re still not moving your advertising online, you’re missing out on huge opportunities. The digital advertising is all the rage now, and you must join the bandwagon before you get left behind. Here’s why online advertising is essential in 2021, and the next years to come.
People are online
As of October 2020, there were an estimated 4.66 billion people considered as active internet users. Even before the pandemic, people were already spending most of their time online. Now that the pandemic is forcing more people worldwide to avoid getting into contact with anyone, this number will undeniably surge.
Employees used to dealing with co-workers and bosses face to face will have to do it via video conferencing software. The same goes for teachers and students. This much time spent online is only going to fuel industries to begin transitioning, in part or in whole, towards an internet-based operation.
Whether a business is at its seed stage or not, digital marketing will be the holy grail of tapping into their audiences. Companies will see a big opportunity when marketing their products and services online because almost all of the world’s population will be spending more time online.
Competitors are online
A lot of businesses have started and ended without ever having to spend a billboard or flyer to promote their business. Why would they when you reach just as much audience (if not more) when you use the power of the internet. More so, the audience that you attract online has been screened through various digital marketing strategies to be those who are more likely to patronize the products and services of the business.
Although traditional advertising such as billboards, flyers, or posters still works to this day, businesses might reach a smaller audience due to stay-at-home mandates. There will be fewer people on the streets that will see your advertisements. That being said, it’s recommended to advertise on different online channels.
Variety of options
Speaking of online channels, there is no shortage of advertising methods on the internet nowadays. Since digital marketing is a promising strategy, more and more advertising companies are offering services to brands.
You can invest in paid advertising or go for a more cost-efficient route like SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Or you can advertise through social media networks, influencer marketing, or affiliate marketing. As of the moment, video content is getting a lot of attention since many of its contents are educational and entertaining.
Overall, there are many choices to choose from. Moreover, you can choose the advertising fees that fit your marketing budget. This is extremely beneficial for those companies that have been hit by the current pandemic.
Targeting
In marketing jargon, targeting is when you break a larger market into smaller components and concentrate your marketing efforts on certain groups of consumers within that audience pool. Customers are categorized based on characters such as age, gender, income level, and so on.
Although you’re targeting an extensive audience with traditional outdoor advertising, the reach isn’t as targeted as online advertising. With digital marketing, you’ll have the option to show your ads only to particular demographics and psychographics. This ensures that the budget you’re spending on online ads is spent wisely. For instance, Facebook Ads has a Campaign Budget Optimization wherein it automatically uses the budget for ads that are garnering more conversions, impressions, and engagement than others.
Monitoring
With traditional marketing strategies, it was very difficult to conduct monitoring but not for lack of trying. Simply asking each person who comes across an ad on TV or poster on the streets and asking them how the marketing effort affected their perception of the brand was hard to scale up.
On top of being able to manage the campaign budget for your ads, you can also track, monitor, and modify your online ads. With the use of analytics, you’ll be able to know what ads work better with certain audiences, and what ads you need to nip in the bud. This will help you save time, money, and effort in creating advertisements that don’t give your conversions.
Personalization
With the attention span of consumers getting narrower by the day, brands need to hook them with something that interests them. And people are drawn to compelling visuals, and most especially, benefits. Consumers will always think and ask: What’s in it for me?
So when creating advertisements, personalization is key to turn a lead into a conversion. And with digital advertising, you can easily achieve this through the use of analytics. Once you integrate personal touch on your ads, consumers would want to engage with your brand more.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It is easy to see how the state of the world is pushing a good majority of us to see the internet other than a place to kill time. It’s clear that humans have become increasingly dependent on it. Now more than ever, businesses have discovered just how much they need digital marketing if they want to ensure that their enterprises survive. With people still prevented from going out and interacting with other people or doing the normal things they used to do, the online world is the only thing left for people to turn to during these difficult times.