Digital media advertising is an indispensable and essential marketing tool. But as easy it may appear to be, it can get things complicated if you’re handling it all alone. If you’re a business person, then you cannot afford to do it at the expense of your business. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of digital media advertising that you need to understand and then act accordingly to benefit most from it. ~ Ed.
When was the last time you bought anything after watching a TV spot or a billboard in the streets?
Keep thinking, because you’ll probably have a hard time remembering one.
Buying things because of those ways of advertising, it’s safe to say, it’s a thing of the past; now, people buy products after seeing them online.
With the internet came digital media advertising and it changed how businesses market their products and how consumers view them.
You can’t spend an hour online now without coming across dozens of ads for all sorts of products and services, and it can get overwhelming at times. Still, that’s the way things are now, and digital marketing is the future and it has helped many businesses reach new heights and grow faster than ever.
But is it all sunshine and rainbows, or does digital advertising come with some cons as well as pros?
Let’s make sure that we go over all the advantages and disadvantages of digital media advertising.
Advantages of Digital Media Advertising
Bigger Reach
Can you guess how many people have internet access all over the world? Over 3 billion! That’s the power you have at your fingertips, and that’s the kind of reach the internet can give you.
The biggest advantage of digital media advertising has got to be the huge reach it can give any business, and it’s bigger than any other traditional means of marketing.
If you look to everybody you know, you won’t find anyone who doesn’t use the internet. So, to have an online presence means that any brand can grow beyond its wildest dreams if they do it all right.
Cheaper
Any ideas how much a street billboard cost, or a TV spot? Well, a lot, thousands of dollars to be exact. On the contrary, promoting your brand online doesn’t cost nearly half as much as one of those other traditional means.
You can post ads online and create campaigns, and they cost fractions of what 30 seconds on TV would. This is the power of the internet, and why pretty much every company out there is using it.
You also have social media, and it won’t even cost you a thing to create a page and start posting quality content on it. Sure you can boost your posts by paying money, but if you choose, you don’t need to pay anything and you can still get good reach.
Tailored Targeting
One of the most interesting and powerful qualities of digital marketing is the fact that it helps you target specific customers. It’s how companies multiply their sales, by reaching all the right people.
How is this done? Thanks to the massive data available in the world of digital media advertising, you get to learn who your most interested demographics are, and you target them among all others.
Platforms like Facebook or Google, for instance, give you access to all sorts of data about your audience, like age, search and purchase patterns, location, interests, and much more. You get to leverage that data to create content specifically tailored to those demographics.
In a nutshell, you find out who your loyal customers are, what they like, and more importantly, how to create content specifically for them so they could remain loyal and invested in your brand.
The Ability to Track Results
Another very important feature of digital advertising is the fact that it allows you to track your results and how well your campaigns did.
Using web analytics and online tools, you get to learn what your campaigns did best and where they went wrong, and who liked them of your target audience and who didn’t.
This helps you determine what ads of yours are working, and in time you get to duplicate your successes and minimize your failures because you have measurable metrics that help you track and understand them.
Disadvantages of Digital Media Advertising
It Isn’t Easy
In all honesty, digital marketing is complicated, and it’s a science that needs a lot of time to master, if you even manage to do that.
Between SEO, paid ads, pay per click ads, social media campaigns, websites, and tons of other things, you’ll need a very capable team to manage that, and you’re going to have to invest in training them and honing their skill if you want them to truly be good at what they do.
It’s a lot to absorb, and more importantly, there are always new trends and tools created to even further improve the performance of your campaigns and platforms.
So, you need to also keep up to date and always stay aware of what goes on in this intricate world.
Bigger Competition
While digital advertising opened new doors for you and can help you take your business to new heights, it did the exact same for your competition. Every competitor you have is using the same strategies and approaches you’re using, and that means you have to up your game.
Businesses aren’t just local anymore, and you can just as easily be faced with competition from another country from out of nowhere. So you always have to be on your toes and at your best game if you want to go head to head with the best.
You Can’t Afford to Slip
With bigger reach comes a bigger responsibility. A slip-up can be very costly in the world of digital advertising, and the internet doesn’t forget or forgive.
This is why you need to be very careful because if you offended someone with a campaign or stepped on the wrong toes, it can go viral within hours and your business can be easily ruined.
Privacy Problems
There are some who claim that platforms gathering data on users without their permission is both unethical and should be illegal. That is something you need to take into consideration.
Is it acceptable to collect information and data about users, and does this constitute a breach of their privacy?
Wrapping Up
When it comes down to it, using digital media advertising is no longer an option for any business wanting to succeed.
Is it perfect? Definitely not, but what is?
It’s up to you to decide at the end of the day if you’re going with the flow, but not doing it would be most definitely swimming against the tide.
Over to you
How do you manage your digital media advertising and marketing needs? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
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