The year 2020 has only emphasized why the digital world is more important than ever. Digital marketing has seen a holistic transformation. Today, we see brands split up into two categories. One is overwhelmed with orders online (household products, groceries, healthcare), and the other one completely lacks engagement and orders (luxury, hospitality, furniture). Consumers use a variety of digital touchpoints during their buying journey. The discovery and evaluation process includes searches on various social media platforms to get a feel of the product. The purchasing part of the journey consists of new types of purchase points, one of which still includes social media.
Importance of digital marketing
33% of the consumers’ time is spent on various social media platforms. 16% is spent on online TV and streaming. 16% goes into music streaming, 13% on online press and almost 22% for other sources. This shows that a brand needs to crawl in this 33% and make the best use of it.
Digital sales today are more active than ever before. Unified channels are critical to the success of digital marketing. Digital marketing today needs to consider the following to be successful
Homebound economy: Deploy marketing campaigns from home to collaborate with various teams and ensure engagement, conversions and home delivery
Personalized interactions: Ensure customized engagement across digital channels to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time and accelerate the conversion process
Engagement with empathy: Use digital media to listen to both the consumers and the target group and understand their needs to interact with empathy
Optimized budgets: Analyzed unified marketing performance and execute real-time decisions to understand and reduce the negative impact
A brand is almost always only as good as its customers recognizing it. Globally, 3.04 people are active on social media channels. And that is where the brands should be as well.
The only way brands can capture the attention of their prospects is by creating and executing a strong digital presence so that their target prospects are well informed. While so much effort has been put into the digital channels, it is only fair that you calculate the amount of time and effort spent online. As you understand the importance of digital marketing, beware of the investment you make in this platform. It has to be calculated and optimized to ensure efficient results.
Importance of digital marketing in today’s scenario
The pandemic has thrown everyone off-course. The lockdown has changed the way we internet. With social distancing becoming the norm, social media is where everyone is today. Be it entertainment, essentials or education; the internet is the go-to place. This change in the behaviour has impacted the purchase decisions as well. The homebound economy has set in. Health care and groceries take preference over luxury and decor. The importance of digital marketing in today’s scenario can be realized with the right digital marketing analytics.
Case Study: Take online shopping for example. Brands are leaning towards influencer marketing in order to deliver consistent and relevant messages that help keep the target group engaged during the pandemic. Grocery shopping has seen a shift too. What used to be a family outing is now just a click away.
Digital marketing importance for business
In the digital era, consumers resort to searching for what they need online before making a decision. This surge of the internet has enabled management to understand digital marketing importance for business. Be it big or small, retail or eCommerce; their presence is critical to their survival in the market.
Importance of digital marketing in eCommerce
eCommerce plays a key role in generating massive revenues for brands as it enables them to acquire consumers as well as brand value. The importance of digital marketing in eCommerce is paramount to the success of their goals as it accelerates business growth. It helps break the sales funnel and enhance the bottom line. Digital marketing provides equal opportunities for all eCommerce brands at the same level, irrespective of the size, age and market share.
Importance of digital marketing for small business
Seeing as digital marketing provides an equal footing for businesses big and small, the importance of digital marketing for small businesses is not lost on the owners and partners. The requirement for the right strategy for online marketing along with metrics to observe the results is critical to their revenue growth.
Case Study: Netflix is a prime example of how the smallest businesses can evolve into giants in the market space. Starting as a small DVD mail rental company, Netflix evolved to online streaming over the years. Their agile digital marketing strategies such as user-generated content and light-hearted social media posts won them million hearts along with thousands of dollars as revenue.
What is digital marketing analytics?
Digital marketing analytics can be defined as the expression of the behaviour of the customers in the form of actionable insights. Digital marketing experts today use various online analytical tools to examine the different online social media platforms that the buyers use and identify innovative opportunities from the marketing campaigns.
Digital marketing is the collection, measurement, analytics and interpretation of the digital information using the customers’ behaviours on these digital platforms. These numbers provide the brand with a ton of information about their customers and the brand’s presence online. By gaining insights, the brand makes informed decisions and leverages online platforms by improving marketing efforts. This directly helps optimize the return on investment in digital marketing. Understand the importance of digital marketing with the right metrics.
8 most important metrics to focus in your digital marketing
- Traffic metrics
Overall traffic metrics will show how many people have visited or engaged with the site in total. It can be further segregated based on the source of traffic and channel-specific traffic. The channels to watch for include direct, referral, organic and social. The bounce rate is critical to understanding the customer journey on the site.
Recommended tool: Google Analytics
- User demographics
Understand the age, gender and location along with their interests. These metrics can help the brand create customized content curated to the needs of the target audience.
Recommended tool: Google Analytics
- New versus returning visitors
An increase in new visitors is essential. Ensuring that the existing customers revisit is all the more vital. It reflects on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.
Recommended tool: Google Analytics
- Conversion metrics
The journey of a visitor right upto the checkout page to classify him as a paying customer is called a conversion. Conversion metrics help understand the cost of acquisition of the customer. But the fact remains that every other metric is just as vital, not just conversion.
Recommended tool: Google Analytics
- Revenue metrics
It is not just the revenue that should be calculated, but numbers such as value per visit cost per acquisition and return on investment. Revenue will be the net income that comes in after deducting all the expenses associated with the conversion. The success of the channel depends on these metrics.
Recommended tool: Google Analytics
- Search trends
The search trends explain what you can control and what you cannot Understand the target words you should concentrate on, keep track of the pain points and the market requirements.
Recommended tool: Google Trends
- Brand sentiment
Online reputation management is critical. Gauge the sentiments of online conversations regarding your brand. Measure the brand sentiment and keep a solid response plan in place to suit all types of replies.
Recommended tool: Talkwalker or Google Alert
- Top organic landing pages
Landing pages or entrance pages are how visitors enter your website after searching for specific keywords on the search engine. These numbers help you understand which pages rank high and are visible on the net. Compare the other searches to find out the missing keywords in your page. This could be the key to you ranking higher.
Recommended tool: Google Analytics
Some call these metrics Key Performance Indicators. These numbers make a big difference to your future course of action. This is where data-driven decisions are made. These data points become the transport that takes you to your goals. Validate your story by making them quantifiable and tangible.