Add Internet Marketing To Your Marketing Mix
Are you looking for ways to expand your marketing activity and improve your marketing results?
Do you want to reach a broader audience?
Do you want to find a new way to generate return on investment (ROI)?
Online marketing is the answer. It’s likely that if you are doing any of these things, or thinking about doing them, online marketing should be part of the mix. Below we will explore seven reasons why online marketing is important for your business:
1) Better ROI - Cost of customer acquisition and lifetime value are lower with online channels than offline channels. There is a greater value to online marketing, because it is so measurable. You know what you are getting and how many leads, customers, or reach you are receiving from the channel.
2) More Targeted - Do you have the budget to reach all the people who could possibly be interested in your product or service offline? With online channels you can target by geography, demographics and psychographics. This increases your chance of talking to people who are actually interested in what you have to offer.
3) More Efficient - Creating an entire branch of your business on-line takes less time than building a virtual branch or opening a store. It’s also less expensive and much more efficient as well.
4) More Emotional - It is more emotional than simply selecting a phone number from a list, and it engages the person on your website more than the traditional methods of “sampling” or giving away a free product.
5) More Versatile - Online advertising can be customized to fit your business’ needs. You can reach out to customers almost as easily as you do in person and it costs less per piece – meaning more marketing dollars for better results!
6) Greater Visibility - You can gain visibility by distributing your message across multiple channels. This can give you a broader reach but also allow you to focus on the areas where you are most likely to profit.
7) More Flexible - You can change your message, target market and budget on a daily basis. With online marketing you have greater control over the type of content you send to your audience, the time and amount of exposure to it and how often you need to send it.
If you’re looking for new ways to market your products or services, internet marketing is an effective way to reach a wider audience at a more affordable cost. And with all the benefits listed above, why wouldn’t you?
Source: http://marketingprofs.com/articles/2010/28942/how-to-add-internet-marketing-to-your-marketing-mix [ARTICLE END]
I believe the advice here is sound. Well actually, it is for all marketing channels but companies and business owners usually don't think about marketing in a holistic manner. They only think about what their industry peers are doing or what their competitors are doing. Somehow, they always forget about the basic rules of marketing.
I will give you another example from my own personal experience I had and I hope that you can learn from it.
In my company, we have been providing services to one of our big clients for a long time now. These are the things that we like to do for them and we make a lot of money from it too. But if you were to ask me how much does it cost us to deliver all these services, I honestly wouldn't know an exact number. Why? Because we didn't set a budget for this. In fact, we even didn't have a budget for any of our other clients (yes, we had other clients).
When was the last time you asked your marketing people and programmers how much money do they need to develop your website? When was the last time you asked the marketing personnel what is their budget for online advertising?
So if this is your situation, I suggest that you keep reading and take notes.
Below are things that should be in every marketer's budget from my experience. These are just some of the things that I did without actually charging money for them properly.
Your work-life balance is a very important aspect of your life. This is why you should hire an executive assistant (like me) to manage your communications, scheduling and marketing activities.
As you can see from the image above, I have thought about the things that will be beneficial for me and my company to do as your company grows or evolves. It's also good for you to think about it too.
So before you start adding online marketing to your marketing mix, think about what it can do for you and your business today.
How much time do you have to work on your marketing?
If it's more than hours, then you should work on your marketing. But if it's less than hours, then you need to hire someone to help out. Why not me?
Here are the things that I kind of did for you when it's not my first day at the office:
All of the above is included in your agency fee. There are many agencies who usually charge one-time upfront payment when they get hired. If this is the case with you and your company, why not consider hiring them to manage each of these activities on behalf of your company?
Sources: http://www.alexkrantz.com/blog/what-does-a-marketing-budget-look-like.html and http://www.alexkrantz.com/blog/what-is-your-marketing-budget.html
Defining the goals of your online marketing campaign is a critical step in the process of beginning to plan a marketing strategy for your business. Your goals should be specific, measurable and realistic for your company or business to achieve success online. You need to figure out what you are trying to accomplish in regard to online marketing.
In order to meet your goals, you should also consider making a business plan. A business plan will help you create a comprehensive approach for marketing your product or service.
Source: http://www.plannetevidence.com/blog/2010/06/15-questions-to-answer-when-planning-for-your-businesss-socialmedia-marketing Now that you have established your goals and developed a plan, it's time to start creating an actionable plan.
Conclusion
As you can see, online marketing can be a powerful tool for your business. You just need to put in the effort to achieve your goals. And no, I'm not charging you for this.
I will be back with another article on how to organize and manage your online marketing campaign as soon as possible so stay tuned!
Sources: http://www.plannetevidence.com/blog/2010/06/15-questions-to-answer-when-planning-for-your-businesss-socialmedia-marketing and http://www.alexkrantz.