Digital promotion uses social media, phones, and other electronic devices to advertise or sponsor a product or service. This includes those fancy electronic billboards that are alongside highways and heavily trafficked areas.
Digital marketing is the planning or overall scope of your plan to attract and retain customers. Digital marketer should take into consideration all the different platforms and types of devices like desktops, mobile phones, tablets, etc. Sometimes the focus is on a narrow segment like a local cable channel, or it can be more widespread. The digital component should be a part of your overall marketing strategy that can include open houses, outdoor advertising, print material, etc.
Digital advertising is any visual ad, written or video, that you see on the internet. This includes pop ups that appear before you can log onto your daily crossword puzzle or information about a new drug that comes into your Facebook feed. Sometimes these ads appear when you search for a new topic. They are distinguished (sometimes) by a small box that says “ad”. Advertising is part of the overall program of digital marketing.
Advantages of Digital Promotion
There are definite benefits to digital promotions.
- Target – It will allow you to target the people you want to reach. It lets you zero in on the consumers by type including age or avocation. The choice is yours depending on the product or service you provide.
- Global Perspective – The internet increases your audience. If you can provide what they want, it doesn’t matter where your clients or customers live.
- Cost Effective – Compared to television advertising, digital is far more economical. Looking at traditional marketing measures, digital still wins.
- Tools – There are a number of programs that allow you to judge your effectiveness. These apps will give you the details you need to know about where you are successful and where you are not. With that perspective, you can more effectively plan your ongoing business strategy about where to invest your time and money.
- Personalize – Correctly planned, you can link your existing database of customers to your website. In that way you can steer them to specific offers. As your database grows and becomes more refined, you will have more information on each client’s preferences and target specific products or services.
- Social Media Management – Social media can be one of your best friends if managed appropriately. Controlling the quality and quantity of your posts can engage the viewer into making a purchase. Sharing through reposts can increase your exposure without lifting a finger.
- Evens the Playing Field – This is an opportunity that is available to almost any size business.
Disadvantages of Digital Promotion
There are downsides to almost everything and here are a few:
- Social Media Disaster – Once posted, you have little control over how your material is accepted. What may have seemed like an innocent phrase or photo has been manipulated or misinterpreted and suddenly you or your company is a meme going viral.
- Skills – Whoever you use should have the appropriate skill set to do the job correctly. Programs and applications are always adapting. Not all of the improvements will benefit your company, especially if you do not maintain the balance of your hardware and software accordingly. One programming change can unknowingly affect others that could cause serious problems. Good skills also applies to whoever is writing the text or taking the photographs. A blurry snapshot will only cause confusion. If you are working in countries that speak another language, be sure the translations are accurate.
- Time – Everything will take time. It will depend upon whether you have someone available pretty much full time to manage the marketing and promotions or if you will try to incorporate it into other responsibilities. You need to look at how much return you expect for this project.
- Competition – Everybody is doing it. While you need to keep pace with your competition, your competitors are also going full throttle. It may become difficult to capture the attention of your target audience.
- Security – You will be dealing with financial transactions and that will mean fiscal responsibility for the transactions. Hacking and identity theft is a serious concern. Also, you will need to check with your legal advisor about collecting, using, and sharing client information.
- Criticisms – Everything people say about you is going to visible in comments. Social media posts have a far reaching effect. Equally important are your responses. It may be difficult to avoid taking comments personally and equally hard to post non-defensive replies.
Best Practices
You need to know how to give yourself the best chance at success and here are some ideas for you to mull over.
- Videos – It seems that videos are the current preference. This can be a virtual tour of your manufacturing area, or a how-to on the best way to work with your product. Just be sure that the video and sound are of good quality or you will lose points. A shaky picture or unintelligible narrative won’t make people want to watch any of your videos again.
- Personal Attention – By making your customers feel you are trying to help them, they are more likely to continue with your brand. Personalized emails about promotional items they have purchased in the past, or simply greeting them by name at the time of log in are good strategies. Think about ways you can create that solid handshake or smile that a customer gets when walking into a brick and mortar establishment, even though it is through the Ethernet.
- Consistency – Regular blogging is showing to be highly effective. Just make sure the information is unique and relevant to the product or service you want to sell. Statistics are showing that more blogs per month increases website hits. Then it is up to you to convert to sales.
- SEO – Don’t discount the importance of being one of the top results in a search. While Google may be the best known search engine, don’t overlook other players in the field.
- Website – While concentrating on all your posts, don’t overlook your website. See if it needs any updating. If you shop in department stores, you may have noticed that goods are sometimes relocated within the store. That is a clever ploy to have the customer come face to face with something they were not, or would not usually, purchase. Somewhat like impulse buying, it has its place. Sometimes websites need new colours or different fonts or just putting the testimonials in a different order.
- Remarketing – Cookies provide valuable insights into what was not successful. This will give you the opportunity to seek out other sites that might benefit from a new or different ad.
As a business owner or manager it is important that you use all the tools available to effectively market your product or services. As those tools change based on trends and interest over time, your company needs to adapt. Knowing your demographic and being able to successfully expand is another critical element. It can be frustrating to develop a strategy only to realize it needs a revamp. All of this boils down to implementing the best approach to your business and that includes digital promotion.
For best results, you should consult a marketing specialist that includes a solid foundation in digital promotions. There are quite a few choices around, so do your homework. However, we at DigitPro can provide the kind of full service you want. We are also able to help with suggestions and offer ideas as innovations occur.
PS: GIFs animation is cool form of digital promotion too, in order to increase engagement and conversion rates in post, here are some example from Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), they beautifully created quality, humorous and branded GIFS that were beautifully engineered visual ads!
