Marketing methods are constantly changing and improving, and almost every day there is another new way to get your business and products out there and convert sales. Traditional techniques of interruption marketing, such as telemarketing calls, emails, and television and radio advertisements, have been shown to have decreased in success these days, as consumers often ignore them or tune them out.
Marketing is an incredibly important investment for any small business, but it is completely pointless if no one is paying attention to your campaigns. Online marketing, on the other hand, has greatly increased in success. If you haven’t yet joined the online marketing bandwagon, keep reading for some of the top reasons why you should!
1. Everyone Is Online
While 100% of the world population may not use the internet yet, it could happen someday, who knows? In the meantime, an incredibly large portion of the population does use the internet; In fact, according to recent statistics, almost 90% of individuals in the US use the internet on one device or another, so it would be ridiculous not to get your business online. With the rise in popularity of smartphones, if you do intend to use online marketing, you have to be sure that any content you produce can be viewed properly on smaller screens.
2. It’s Competitive
If you want your business to be successful, then you’re going to have to compete with similar businesses for attention and sales. To do this, you need to be getting involved in the same successful marketing techniques that they are using, like online marketing, only you need to try to be better at it than they are!
If you don’t, you could be seen as not current enough or just plain irrelevant, which isn’t going to get you any customers. Being online also allows you the chance to check out other things that your competitors are up to, so you can keep up, or get ahead.
3. Reach A Wider Audience
Your sales will only increase as your audience reach does, so, if you are sticking to marketing your business with flyers through letterboxes, you will only ever gain business as far as you can walk or drive. Marketing online has no such boundary.
There are billions of people using the internet every second of the day, and even if you have no intention of selling your products to all of them, you can’t go wrong with getting your name out there to as many of them as you can. Marketing online also makes it easier for people to share your business and products with their friends and family, spreading further awareness for you and your products.
4. Online Shopping Is Popular
Almost everyone that uses the internet has bought something from it at one time or another, and why wouldn’t they? Shopping online is incredibly quick and convenient. You can do it if you have difficulty leaving the house, or simply don’t want to because it’s raining or you’re comfy on the sofa.
You can buy anything from furniture to food, to a new outfit for a night out, and can do it any time of the day or night. If you don’t sell your products online, you are cutting yourself off from a large percentage of consumers that would much rather shop from their own home.
5. Measure Results Easier
When you’re investing your hard-earned cash into marketing, you are going to want to measure your ROI. Unfortunately, you are never going to know how many of your sales were generated because of your flashy new television advertisement or leaflets, unless you offer some sort of discount with a code that you could have only gotten from looking at these advertisements, or something similar.
With online marketing and all of the tools available, it is incredibly easy to analyze results. You will be able to measure in real time how effective different strategies are so that you can optimize your campaigns, and only invest in the strategies that work for you.
6. More Cost Effective
Years ago, the most popular marketing technique was cold calling. This means that you would have had to employ a fairly large sized group to spend hours and hours calling up people, who still might not even have any interest in your product.
This not only wastes a lot of time, and a lot of money in wages. With online marketing techniques, like social media marketing, a single person is often enough to handle social media profiles, so you save money, while also reaching a wider audience.
7. It’s A Lot Quicker
The speed of online marketing is something that is difficult to deny. A single post on Facebook can go viral in just a few hours, whereas a new billboard in your local town center might take a week to get into your local newspaper (if at all). Being online also makes it a lot easier to communicate with customers and clients regarding your business and products.
If you miss a phone call, you might not have time to call back for hours, and they will wait days for a response from a letter. Emails and messages, on the other hand, can be answered quickly and easily. This reduces the chances of them taking their business elsewhere.
8. You Can Engage
Online marketing, specifically social media, gives you the unique opportunity to engage with your audience quickly and easily. This opportunity for interaction can be used for a variety of things, all of which can help to improve your business, products, and customer service.
For example, if a customer has a complaint or query, you can easily help them as best as you can, which shows them that you are a business owner that cares. You can also use this platform to find out your audience’s likes, dislikes, and opinions, so that you can create products that will suit their needs, and therefore sell.
The internet expands every single day, and as it does, so does it’s usage. If you want your business to expand too, you can’t get left behind…You need to get online!
Images courtesy of Pixabay.
Hello there, I am 
