Whether you know it or not, you’re bombarded by digital marketing every day. If you’re here right now, you’ve probably been exposed to at least 20 different methods of marketing online. Heck, you’re kinda being marketed to right now. But that’s nothing new.
If you’ve been in business for any period of time, you know that marketing in one form or another is critical to your business.
When I first started marketing in 1998, mailers and cold calls were the most common form of attracting a client to your business.
So, what is Digital Marketing?
In a nutshell, digital marketing is simply marketing. In 2019.
Sometimes it’s hard for businesses to understand that digital marketing has all but replaced what has been considered as traditional marketing.
But here’s a good thought exercise to help you understand the shift: if you’re thinking about ways to grow your business, does taking out an ad in the Yellow Pages come to mind?
No? Why not? Well, related to the fact that the last Yellow Pages book will be printed in 2019, people have almost stopped using print media entirely.
Ten years ago, advertising in the Yellow Pages would bring great returns. I know, I had the biggest computer repair ad in my local directory. $1,500/mo would bring me a decent amount of business.
But now, 97% of all local searches are done on online sources. It’s safe to say that local marketing is almost entirely Digital Marketing.
But what if you’re a company that relies on national marketing? National Radio or TV? Probably not?
What about direct mail? Direct mail is still a non-digital marketing method that gets results, but let’s take a look at the cost per client acquisition below:
The household cost per acquisition for direct mail is $26.40 (compared to $10.32 email, $20.32 social media, $16.22 paid search, $24.75 internet display). (Source: DMA)
Not only does this show that email and paid search cost roughly half of what direct mail does for the same client, but we’re also forgetting that direct mail still has some aspect of digital marketing involved as a follow-up, i.e. sign up forms, applications, email follow-ups, etc.
That being said, even using digital marketing in conjunction with direct mail see a significant increase in client acquisition, however, using direct mail greatly increases your cost per acquisition.
Direct mail with digital ads yield 28% higher conversion rate. (Source: NonProfit PRO)
And if your goal is to get a client to call to complete a transaction:
90% visit website first before calling. (Source: Huffington Post)
A bad website can decrease a successful marketing campaign’s conversation rate by a large margin (by up to 100% depending on how bad your website is)
A typical website conversion rate is about 2.35% on average. But the top 10% of companies are seeing 3-5x higher conversion rates than average.
The average conversion rate of a Facebook ad is 9.21%
(Conversion Rate is the rate that a potential customer or visitor converts to a lead or acquisition.)
An effective and specialized landing page on your website can convert visitors at a much, much higher rate than if they just land on your home page.
Furthermore, businesses with over 40 landing pages generated a whopping 12 times more leads than those with 1-5 landing pages.
I know that’s a lot to take in, but in summary, digital marketing is simply today’s marketing.
There are other ways to market, but in 2019, digital marketing remains by far, the most efficient and cost-effective form of marketing for most small businesses in the US.
