Topic Introduction
Posted on 04. Sep, 2011 by Al Black in Digital Marketing
Are you involved in the sales or marketing of an organisation?
If you answered yes to the above question then you need to know how activities such as Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can benefit your enterprise. Perhaps you are well acquainted with such practices and you’ve been employing them successfully for years. Maybe you’ve only recently begun your digital journey and are excited by the many benefits that you can see over more traditional forms of marketing. Or (heaven forbid) you’re possibly still stuck with an ad in the Yellow Pages and you think you’ve missed the boat.
- Which category do you fall into?
- Which category would you like to belong to?
- Which category will you belong to?
As a marketing professional I have worked in the radio, print and digital industries and there is a reason I no longer associate myself with what is known as traditional media. Digital is simply the superior communication channel and there are so many reasons why.
Have you ever placed an ad in a newspaper or run some ads on a radio station? Sure you could see or hear the ads but did you find yourself wondering, “I wonder how well this is working for me?” With digital it has become so much easier to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and based on the information businesses now have access to, they can make informed decisions on the size and placement of their marketing budget.
Digital marketing has many aspects to it and includes tools such as organic search, paid search, email marketing, display advertising, social media, directories, blogs, video, digital radio, digital tv, digital outdoor and the burgeoning mobile section. Each of these aspects has a number of features that can greatly enhance how people promote their organisations whilst dynamically engaging with their target market.
But are businesses really using such tools?
A recent report by respected industry publisher eMarketer has shown worldwide annual expenditure on online advertising is currently $80.2 billion with an annual growth rate of 17.2%. 16.1% of the total global ad spend in 2011 will consist of digital, with that figure increasing to a predicted 22% by 2015. This is in direct contrast to that bastion of traditional advertising, print, which recently saw its annual revenues plummet by a huge 29%.
Whilst marketing budgets are remaining fairly constant, businesses are increasingly reallocating marketing spend away from print and into digital. We are also noticing that the human aspect is experiencing a revolution, with an increasing number of businesses creating specialist digital marketing-related positions to take advantage of this global trend.
Another point of note is how in a shrinking global market, companies are seeking to determine the benefit of each marketing dollar, in other words, their return on investment (ROI). Through existing technologies it is now possible to determine various matrix such as cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and more importantly, cost per lead (CPL).
The digital age is causing a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Will you be coming along for the ride?
