“These days, it is next to impossible for any business to remain profitable without a solid Digital Marketing strategy. Because of the basic (and obvious) fact that the Internet is everywhere.”
For the obvious reason that the Internet has largely taken over our lives (as a species). And if any businesses even so much as think about neglecting it, it risks getting beat up horribly! Because its competitors are never one to rest on their laurels. Especially not when they have the opportunity to reach millions of potential customers online. And with the help of a powerful ISP support like Frontier Internet, get them to convert quickly!
Cha-Ching.
These days, Digital Marketing means almost everything for a company’s promotional efforts. And in this post, I’m gradually going to explain how. As well as why this is so.
A Word on What Brand Marketing Used to Be Like
Now I know that everyone understands this point well enough. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to revisit our history. Because it is only when we look back towards our roots that we can fully appreciate how far we’ve come. This helps to keep everything in perspective and to not take any modern tool (like the Internet) for granted.
In the old days (before the ‘dot com’ revolution spread like wildfire), businesses had a handful of marketing mediums at their disposal.
They could either go the electronic route and have their ads carried on TV and the radio. And in spite of the Internet, this continues to be a marketing staple for many organizations even today.
The other way in which they circulated their ads was through print-publishing. This included publishing ads on everything! From newspapers, book covers and leaflets to large roadside billboards.
The ‘Curse’ of the Limited Ad Life
The audience for these ads, however, was limited. And for the most part, it was mostly restricted to those people who were present at the ‘right time’. Meaning the exact time frame in which an ad was aired, or when it could be viewed freely. If anyone missed this brief opportunity, that person (or group) had no way of knowing what they didn’t know! Other than those instances, of course, when someone else told them about it. And when their curiosity got the better of them, and they just had to buy the thing advertised.
So less ads exposure naturally translated into less public knowledge. Regarding a company’s products & services. And this automatically meant fewer customers; and hence lesser profits! Pretty straightforward.
Enter the ‘WWW’ Game Changer
The Internet, of course, completely changed this marketing dynamic. And it brought a number of ‘always on’ channels like:
- Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc.)
- Search Engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo)
- Video Streaming Sites (YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion – to name a few!)
These platforms could literally be used by businesses to ‘bombard’ their users with an unending barrage of advertisements.
On the flipside, this meant that social media users could not escape from the motivations of different brands. But on the positive (commercial) front, it meant that ‘shop was always open’; to use a crude everyday phrase. And if businesses played their cards right, they could ensure that their revenue streams never stopped!
For anyone who’s been following this trade, it would suffice to state that this is exactly what happened.
Soon enough, you couldn’t log onto your Facebook or Instagram account without seeing an ad or two. And even today, you really can’t hope to get rid of them!
How Algorithms Help Businesses Win
Algorithms are what keep most of the internet moving. Be it social media sites or search engines, they decide what we all ultimately see. And they do this based on a number of criteria (or benchmarks); what people in the SEO trade like to call ‘Ranking Factors’.
On a site like Facebook, businesses stand to gain the most from these algorithms. And almost everyone nowadays has experienced their effects.
A simple everyday occurrence is enough to explain this point.
Whenever you like a particular Facebook page or post, your action sends a ‘theme/category signal’ to the algorithm. In response, the program practically litters your newsfeed with thematically similar posts. Both from the same company, and others like it. In this way, the social media site delivers content that it thinks you prefer; thereby improving your user experience. Or so it (and others like it) believe!
All the data that is received from users (about their likes & dislikes) is stored in the sites’ databank. And all this information can be used by businesses to discover and target their ‘ideal’ customers.
As per recent estimates, it is believed that all the major social media platforms collectively host more than 3 billion people. This number is easily one-third of humanity, or even more. An incredible figure!
For businesses specifically, all these people can be likened to ‘sitting ducks’. Just waiting to be sold on a particular product or service, and becoming customers.
Making Digital Marketing Work for You
For this to happen, you need to learn a few of the basic practices carried out regularly in the trade. Things like SEO, SEM and Social Media Marketing, for starters. Initially, I read a lot of advanced tutorials on these approaches through a Frontier Deals project guide. I was working to get the ISP’s website to rank high in Google search at the time. Later on, I consulted a number of field experts – who had a great deal of hands-on experience in running online business campaigns. And it wasn’t long before I got my wish, as well as a fat stack of cash as compensation!