It’s safe to say that all organisations and businesses are not at the same table when it comes to adopting and utilising digital media.
Some businesses, particularly those with a global customer focus or younger target demographic tended to adopt online media and marketing earlier than others.
The same can be said for marketing managers and senior directors. On balance, younger, recent graduates have adopted online and social media into their skills base compared to more senior staff. Of course this is understandable as todays corporate leaders have grown up with and relied on traditional direct media during their careers.
Marketing activity and budgets show clear evidence of moving away from traditional media such as print and broadcast adverts and direct mail and towards online marketing methods
But the overall trend for digital media adoption and use across all demographics is now encouraging senior managers to explore the merits and benefits of online marketing – and encouraging them to allocate a greater slice of the marketing budget towards it.
So if you are a marketing manager or senior director you are likely to have to make or consider the business case for digital marketing sooner rather than later.
Below, I’ve outlined a few of the key areas that you might have to consider as part of an overall business case for digital media investment.
Media and marketing trends
Businesses and organisations are now faced with several media and marketing trends.
Changing Media. New media, ranging from search engines, social media to mobile present genuine opportunities for companies and organisations to reach out to and engage with their customers. According to recent figures, Social networking accounts for 23% of all time spent online in the UK and UK internet users now spend 64% more time using search engines than they did in 2007.
Changing Marketing. Businesses need to reach and influence consumers who are using online channels. So your marketing needs to include a greater level of online activity.
Marketing activity and budgets show clear evidence of moving away from traditional media such as print and broadcast adverts and direct mail and towards online marketing methods. What’s especially interesting is that the economic recession has acted as a catalyst for this trend as marketing managers are looking for more cost effective ways to market more effectively and are reinvesting more in digital marketing.
Changing buying habits. Growing customer trends for researching products and services online and the growth in ecommerce mean you need to promote your brand online and sell online. Thirty-four percent now research online to purchase the actual product at the store
Benefits of digital marketing
Budget Pressures. Back in the early 20th Century, a leading businessman said ‘you know you are wasting half your marketing budget, you just don’t know what half’? Well now businesses can gain a much better idea of how effective their marketing spend is through online channels.
Indeed, businesses and public sector organisations are under pressure to reduce marketing spend, gain greater value for money and improve overall marketing effectiveness and online marketing can help reduce marketing inefficiencies.
Global Opportunities. Targeting people and consumers from around the globe who want to buy your products or services has very distinct benefits compared to an over-reliance on local markets. Internet marketing strategies including search engine optimisation and email marketing and online channels such as Linked In allow companies to reach wider and more diverse markets.
Ultimately if you are targeting new markets then your main objective is to drive sales. Sales software, use of online affiliates and internet retailing in particular has really opened up global retailing opportunities.
Next steps
Although there is no harm in testing different online channels, if you want to make the most of your online presence you need to plan and produce a suitable strategy. In essence this process isn’t really any different from traditional marketing planning and you might want to consider some fundamental areas.
For example, what do you want to achieve online – sales, brand promotion, etc – target markets, online methods such as internet advertising, email marketing, online PR or measurement (web analytics).
To find out how to make a business case for digital investment, how to create an online marketing pan and more facts and figures on internet media and marketing you can visit www.octaveoc.com/downloads.asp.
