Can Digital Marketing be cost effective?

How do you use digital marketing into your business?

When you see the world around you today, you realise that the buzzword in various businesses is Digital Marketing. The argument therefore is no longer around whether or not one needs to adopt digital marketing.

The focus is more on how to make digital marketing effective, both in terms of cost as well as in terms of adding value to the business, and the use of strategies to achieve this.

Let’s look at how you could work towards cost -effective digital marketing.

Do not dive deep initially:

Many a times, entrepreneurs get carried away by fancy terms and want to try everything at once. Start small initially, especially with the outflow of money by looking at cheaper options such as SMS marketing, email marketing, blogging or using social media.

As you move along, you could build on your capabilities and get into more complex forms of digital marketing.

Content creation:

The cornerstone of any marketing activity is to create the right content to market. With increasing marketing platforms, it will be extremely expensive if different content is being created for different platforms. Creating a common content to be used across various platforms is an important part of digital marketing. This not only includes online channels, but offline channels of marketing as well.

For example, if you hand over a flyer or a brochure about your product or service to customers in a mall, include a QR code in this. This could enable the interested customer to scan the code and gain online information access or even purchase the product online, without much effort on your part.

Go Social:

Integrate all your marketing activities on your company’s social media page. For example, if you create a content to be used on your website, you must immediately share it on social media, which could promise a wider reach at a lower cost.

Further, use social media to engage customers and build a loyal fan base, rather than use it only to push your products. When someone is interested about your company and its affairs, he will automatically become a customer over time.

Assess performance:

Use data and analytics to analyse the performance of different channels of marketing. A simple way of assessing the effectiveness of different channels of digital marketing is to study the return you make on the investment made, popularly known as the ‘Return on Investment.’

Sometimes, it is not a straightforward calculation, as different channels have inter-linkages. In this case, you can atleast use analytics to find out the number of customers coming to you using that medium, how they come and what is the end result of this use.

Use virtual agencies if needed:

Digital marketing technology is extremely dynamic, with new skill sets needed frequently. A traditional all inclusive agency may be expensive in this regard, as there is a need to upgrade skills regularly. If you opt for three or four different specialist agencies to handle different aspects of your digital marketing activity, it is very likely that you will find it difficult to co-ordinate their efforts.

You could try to associate with virtual companies, which do not have a traditional set up with rentals, employee costs and software loyalties. Instead they make use of services of various designers and digital marketing professionals from across the world and present a solution to you at a much reduced cost.

Use multiple channels:

Once you begin to see some traction in customer intake, it is advisable to use multiple channels of communication. This can help in better customer engagement, interaction and higher visibility.

Besides, you can use the same content across multiple platforms, resulting in lower costs and higher Return on Investment.

Marketing today also means that customers constantly interact with brands. It can be in the form of searching products online or finding deals on their mobile, or simply in the form of receiving promotional SMSes and Emails. Digital marketing should be used to unite all these different efforts and channelize these activities under a single marketing strategy.

What has been your experience with ‘digital marketing’? Please share your views.