Online marketing is key for offline marketing

Last Updated on August 10, 2019 by DesignerPeople

“SOCIAL MEDIA ALLOWS BIG COMPANIES TO ACT SMALL AGAIN”

Digital marketing, a new marketing channel for the business, is seeing an up word trajectory during recent times. It has seen tremendous growth and expansion, and the way, the sector has progressed is beyond comprehension.

Why go digital?

The emergence of digital marketing has left traditional marketing to second fiddle. Surprisingly the long existed offline marketing has turned to be a subsidiary to online marketing, and online marketing is now a preferred choice for many businesses to reach a wide range of customers for a varied number of reasons, and one among them is its cost-effectiveness to market business.

Generates Better Revenues

When compared to traditional marketing, the cost of digital marketing is low and had the potential to reach a large group of audience in a short while. The scope of digital marketing to reach target audience has experienced a drastic shift where it can reach a broad group of the audience which keeps your revenue multiplying.

Advent of mobile

Mobile phones have created the next wave of information dissemination and communication channel with the proliferation of handy devices like smartphones, tablets, and Internet-enabled devices.It is one of the biggest digital marketing medium to improve visibility of product and brand building.

Measurable performance

Unlike traditional marketing methods, digital marketing takes probabilities and guesswork out from the marketing plan. The performance of digital marketing can be tracked to determine its success. By measuring the digital marketing strategy in real time, you can take the corrective action at the right time for betterment and improvement of your marketing strategies.

Digital marketing is an affordable marketing alternative for a small business that has no assets and capitalization. As small business cannot mobilize enough resources to compete with the big brand’s trough offline marketing channels. Digital marketing Agency turns to be an effective mode to create their own market space at affordable prices in spite of big players in the market.

It is said that consumers buy CPG goods in the stores quite often, but they conduct enough online research to know more about the product. Often social media plays a role in making impressions about the brands quickly.

Digital marketing has the potential to make the best utilization of the quality time spent by the customers online while researching the products. You can engage those customers and influence their offline decisions too. These impressions of the customers about the products and services offered by the business will drive towards the loyalty of the product and services offered by the business too.

A new IRI report,” Influence Offline CPG Purchase Behavior with Digital Media” has shown how data, technology, and analytic horsepower have emerged together to give insights to CPG manufacturers and retailers to change their game play.

With huge penetration of smart phones into the market, the number of online buyers and browsers continue to increase rapidly. The new technology in the giant search engines is making it easy for the mobile users to access the information they need, be it store location, availability of coupons, product information, and price comparison. With the insights given through digital marketing, retailers will invest where it matters the most to the shoppers like improvements in browsing sites and orders on mobile sites.

Digital marketing in FMCG Products allows marketers to capture the attention of the buyer at the final purchase decision and also create a relationship with them right from the beginning, which was next to impossible earlier. With these opportunities, marketers can formulate digital strategy influence and engage customers.

Most of the retailer conducts digital research before they visit a shop to purchase a product and the shopping trends support that intuition of the buyer. 88% of the consumers research about the product online before buying it at a physical store.

Mostly 2/3rds of B2B buyers purchase decisions regarding machinery, industrial supplies, packing and shipping products, and services are influenced by digital marketing. Digital marketing today has given consumers the liberty to compare pricing of the same brand on different online mediums and hence consumer feels good to grab the best deal in turn for his research online. This will make him recall the brand that impacts and enhances brand identity in the long run.

Digital marketing has increased weight for reviews which was never before. With platforms like social media playing a pivotal role in consumer decision making, getting feedbacks is much easier now. Many e-commerce portals like Amazon and Flipkart have reviews of the branded products sold by them to the customers. These reviews of the customers on the reputed e-commerce portals help consumers make an informed decision on their offline purchases. The way consumer gives feedback about the brand can strongly influence buying decisions. Social media has made the process easy and democratic too.

In online to offline commerce, companies treat both marketing channels as complements to each other rather than competitive. Few examples include

• Click and collect – The customers can click the product and pick them up in the store.
• Online shopping on a physical visit
• Returning online purchases to a physical store
• An example of the importance of O2O is illustrated in Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods.

On e-commerce, Amazon store has invested $13 billion in acquisition, understanding the reality of the consumers. Despite the emergence of multiple devices that facilitate digital shopping, most of the sales happen at a physical store even today. It is said that 76% of the people who search for the products in the local area end up visiting a physical store within a day that leads to purchases. Spotify research estimates show that 80% of the retail sales happen in the store by 2021 and it can be more too. It shows that your effective marketing campaigns cannot overlook offline strategies.

PPC marketing online works the same as outdoor advertising and sends the same brand image message as offline advertisements and help you create strong brand recognition in the market.

The thin line between online and offline marketing is blurred with experiential campaigns. These kind of campaigns are today used to create a positive buzz around the brands, and these campaigns are later promoted through different social media channels to enlighten customers. They can engage customers and show actual experiences to boost their offline sales and credibility.

Companies that focus on omnichannel customers can engage 88% of the customers while customer retention is restricted to 33% for the companies that practice non-omnichannel customer engagement.

Example

Cross channel marketing accompanied by CRM software enabled Volvo CE to make $100 million in annual sales due to digital marketing.

Online marketing can be used to promote an offline business

• By sending offers to potential customers through emails
• Engaging in customer interaction to discuss new products
• Address customer issues by reading their complaints
• Improve brand exposure

Digital marketing allows you to analyze data and measure ROI of online efforts. By analyzing data through various campaigns, you can conclude which activity is drawing best engagement from the customers.

If you are looking to measure offline sales, use unique coupon codes for different locations, you will be able to track real return on investment on both types of marketing when you use different methods.

Conclusion

The fact is many digital marketing campaigns that work for ecommerce store works for the offline store too. Don’t perceive digital marketing as a technology that replaces your business entirely. In spite of the popularity of online stores, many people still wish to purchase products in person. Many people conduct online research to know about the product before they purchase at the store so, your digital presence will help to engage customers long before they’re ready to buy.

Build your brand and increase your visibility online by engaging customers and solving their problems quickly. Your brand will get online exposure when you are active and unique online. Boosting your brand visibility will boost more in store traffic.