Marketing is one of the most important tools to give a boost to your sales and help your business grow. It is a tried and tested way to reach out to a wide target audience. These days, when it comes to working out marketing strategies, it is found that companies concentrate not just on the traditional modes of marketing but they give equal importance to digital marketing. Several bigwigs make huge investments in digital media. Here are some of the important insights about digital marketing that you should take into account while planning your marketing budget.
14 Insights to Consider When Planning Your Digital Marketing Budget
1. Digital ads gain more importance
According to reports, it is found that companies are spending more on digital ads rather than television ads. This is a clear indication that the target audience of different industries is today more focused on the internet than on television.
2. Increase in investment in social media marketing
Social media like Facebook and Instagram is where you will find the youth and even people of the older generation. So, it makes sense to invest more in social media marketing. This is a much easier way to not just reach people, but you can actually interact with them, know their opinion, and get their feedback. Social media marketing is not only confined to the big names in the industry. It was found that organizations of all sizes are increasing investments in social media marketing.
3. It is FB all the way for small and medium sized companies
Facebook has come up with a number of new features like Creative Hub, updated metrics and reporting, dynamic ads for mobile app installs, and Facebook Live 360 Degree videos, which are very useful in digital marketing. It has been found that small and medium sized businesses are reaping maximum advantage of Facebook advertising because it is an easy and effective way to reach out to large number of target audiences.
4. More concentration on content marketing
Earlier, investors did not spend much on content marketing. But slowly they have realized the importance and effectiveness of content marketing. This is the reason many B2C marketers are now allotting more budget to content marketing and paid promotion methods.
5. Greater effectiveness of social media posts
Everyone knows how tweets and posts on social media can easily go viral and this factor can be very useful if one wants to reach to more number of people. No wonder today these tweets and social media posts are one of the most effective marketing tools which help in reaching out to audiences directly.
6. B2C marketers must focus on content strategies
The content strategies on social media have proved to give a major boost to business promotion and hence it is only right that B2C marketers focus on building effective strategies. Like in case of Facebook platform, it has been found that the focus in on posting about the product, promoting the business page, posting videos and trying to create a brand image of the product, and directly interacting with the audiences. Instagram is one more channel the marketers must use more effectively. Instagram has already opened the stories platform for advertisers and they are also coming up with more marketing tools. Marketers should note that Instagram already has more than 600 million monthly users. So, you can imagine the target audience base that you can get with Instagram. It is estimated that this year B2B advertisers will invest more in content marketing and social media marketing.
7. Email marketing is a powerful channel
Marketers need to understand one thing that just like social media marketing, email marketing is also one of the best channels to market your products and reach out to more number of people. What is needed is an effective email marketing strategy whereby you can promote your products to target audiences via emails.
8. For B2B content distribution, email is the best
For informative content distribution like ebooks, guides, white papers, research reports and more, emails are the best thing. However, there’s a lot of hard work that needs to be put in and the marketing strategist needs to ensure that the informative material is ready on time and reaches the audiences on time, in order to create maximum impact.
9. Personalization of email messages helps B2B marketers and B2C marketers
It is possible to give a personal touch to email messages and this is turning out to be quite effective for B2B marketers. The marketers must make sure that all the data in the email, including the contact information, is correct and complete. The automation of the email marketing process is also important. B2C marketers are also comfortable in using emails for promoting content.
10. The growing popularity of digital videos
Most companies these days like to concentrate more on digital videos than on television advertising. The reason for this shift is simple. It is much easier to reach more target audiences through digital videos than with television advertising. The most important thing about digital video advertising is the timing of the digital ads. These ads need to be available at a time when the target audience is more approachable.
11. Measuring the performance of digital videos
The site traffic is definitely one of the best ways to measure the performance of a digital video. But marketers also need to make use of cost per acquisition for measuring the performance of digital videos.
12. Length and audibility of the video is crucial
The increase in the rate of purchase will also depend on the length and the audibility of the video. According to certain surveys and reports, it has been found that a video that is watched for 7 to 16 seconds will normally help in generating more sales.
13. Mobile marketing
With people mostly using their mobile phones for accessing the web and social media platforms, marketers just cannot miss out on mobile marketing. Websites that are mobile friendly are a must. The budget for mobile advertising will surely keep on increasing in the future.
14. Focus on SEO marketing
Most of the companies are already spending more money on search engine optimization and this will only increase in the next few years. This is because if you want your products and services to reacha broader target audience, then it is important that your website gets the best possible ranking in the major search engines. The marketing strategists should focus on generic searches as well as PPC marketing.
Final Takeaway
Digital marketing holds the key for successful marketing strategy. An effective digital marketing strategy has to be the perfect combination of SEO marketing, mobile marketing and mobile optimization, video and social media marketing, and more. Along with new trends in digital marketing, it is also important to focus on older methods like email marketing. The content, the timing of promotion, and many other factors are crucial for an effective strategy. The bottom line is if you want to establish the brand image of your products and services, then irrespective of the size of your company, digital marketing strategy is a must.