Whether it’s a regularly updated blog, an active Facebook page, a steady Twitter feed, or a curated network of affiliates, internet marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of business marketing strategies. Sure, it’s hard to let the old ways of doing things die, especially when print media and television aren’t exactly dead. However, new technologies mean new channels and new ways of reaching your audience. As a forward-thinking company, it’s in your best interest to use these methods. Why is internet marketing so important? Here are six reasons.
1. It gives you lots of bang for your buck. Maintaining a quality website typically runs a lot less than ongoing charges for print and television ads, and production costs are lower as well. Plus, with social media, your only expense is your manpower, since accounts cost nothing.
2. It’s where your audience is hanging out. With the overwhelming popularity of mobile devices, any free moment becomes a moment when you can attract a new customer. People are searching on smartphones, reading on smartphones, and even making purchases on smartphones. Skip an internet marketing strategy, and you lose a whole lot of potential purchases.
3. It allows for direct contact with your target audience. Traditional marketing methods generally work in one direction: you have a message that you send out to your audience. However, with internet marketing, especially on social media, you’ve got an unprecedented opportunity to engage with your audience. They can respond to questions, comment and like content, and share information that can be helpful in shaping future marketing messages. Plus, when you use a strong call to action in your internet marketing efforts, you get a very solid idea of how many consumers you’re truly reaching.
4. It brings more traffic to your website. If they come to look, they’ll stay to buy, as the old saying goes. Visitors often mean conversions in your favor, and internet marketing generates visitors better than just about any other strategy.
5. It makes your business look contemporary and forward-thinking. Your customers are keeping up with changing technology, and that means your business has to keep up with it as well. Whether it starts with a typed query or a slightly awkward, “OK Google,” the internet is the first place people look for information. If you don’t have any company-created content, there’s going to be a large percentage of people who wonder why not — and they’ll find a competitor who does have online content.
6. Finally, internet marketing is important because it works — for all of these reasons and more. Just as medicine shows were effective in the 19th Century and television advertising was what worked in the 20th Century, if you want to reach your audience in the 21st Century, you’ve got to go online.
If your business does not already have an internet marketing strategy, now is the time to develop one. You should quickly see a higher level of engagement and a boost in your website traffic, all of which will help improve your bottom line. It may be a bit of a rocky transition to move your marketing efforts to the virtual realm, but we think you’ll agree that the overall investment to do so is well worth it.