Even before the stifling constraints imposed by the 2020 pandemic lockdown, many businesses had begun to recognise the simplicity and effectiveness of digital marketing to supplement or replace their conventional campaigns. Consumers worldwide also began favouring email over the dependence on the typically costly, slow, and unreliable postal services. In addition, many were quick to embrace the convenience of shopping online compared with the hassles of driving to a mall, walking up and down supermarket aisles, and standing in long queues at their checkouts.
The first and oldest surviving network was info.cern.ch. It was hosted on a server at the “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire” (CERN) in the Swiss town of Meyrin by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, the name he initially assigned to the world’s first web browser.
Today, best estimates suggest that there are more than a billion websites and that over 250 000 are added daily or about one every three seconds. Consequently, some businesses could be vying for trade against hundreds of competitors or more in a global online market; hence, they need effective strategies to grow and retain their market share. Digital technology provides several solutions.
Popular Forms of Digital Marketing
Internet marketing technology comprises a broad mix of strategies and tactics that leverage various online platforms. The following are currently among the most widely used and effective options:
- Search Engine Optimisation: More often referred to as SEO, it involves optimising a web page’s visible and hidden structure and content to improve its ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). The nearer the top of the SERPs, the more exposure the site will receive.
- Content Marketing: Creating and distributing relevant online material about a company’s products and services via blogs, videos, and infographics can be an effective digital marketing tactic to increase customer engagement.
- Social Media Marketing: Besides facilitating social interactions, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok are powerful tools with which to build brand awareness and engage with potential customers. Marketing managers can also generate direct sales and drive website traffic by including hyperlinks in social media posts, where permitted.
- Email Marketing: There are many legitimate ways to compile a list of the email addresses of potential clients and a few extra details like occupation and personal interests. Popular options include inviting web visitors to download a catalogue or subscribe to a newsletter. The list can then be used to deliver targeted messages to generate leads and establish and maintain ongoing relationships with customers.
- Affiliate Marketing: This option involves partnering with other companies with related but complementary interests to promote one’s products or services for a mutually agreed upon commission.
- Mobile Marketing: According to the International Telecommunication Union, mobile phones now outnumber the human population, making them an ideal target for digital marketing options like SMS and websites optimised for smartphones.
The Potential Benefits of Digital Marketing
Applying digital technology for marketing offers businesses several advantages over traditional advertising methods. It is particularly relevant in South Africa, where inflation and cut-priced imports from Asia continue to complicate the market. The digital approach offers marketers several powerful advantages, including but not limited to the following:
- Digital campaigns are invariably cheaper than traditional methods, making them affordable to businesses of all sizes.
- Data-driven strategies and advanced analytics enable companies to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviour patterns directly relevant to their products and services.
- Due to the expansion and upgrading of mobile and Internet connectivity in South Africa, marketers can now transcend geographical hurdles and significantly widen the reach of their marketing campaigns.
- Access to informative performance data enables greater flexibility and agility, allowing marketers to identify the strengths and weaknesses in a campaign, capitalise on the former, eliminate the latter, and adapt timeously and appropriately to changing market trends.
- The combination of targeted content and a streamlined user experience consistently leads to higher conversion rates than traditional marketing tactics.
- Digital marketing offers a way for small businesses to compete with large corporations, levelling the playing field by focusing on effective strategies rather than the size of their budget.
Getting Started as a Digital Marketer
Whether yours is a large or small business, there are numerous advantages to offloading your digital marketing needs to professionals. Few are better qualified than XCO Group, a market leader with over 35 years of experience. Contact us today and partner with a team of experts to optimise your marketing success and expand your brand.
