GETTING THE RIGHT MARKETING MIX EVEN WITH A TIGHT BUDGET

Everyone wants to get his or her products or services out there to the public but many do not have what it takes to start or sustain it due to a tight budget. The good thing is that with the emergence of online marketing you now have cheaper ways of achieving your goals. This post is mainly for those who are still new or fairly new to the world of online marketing. Let me start with a brief of what online marketing really is.

Prior to the 21st century we knew of newspapers & magazines, fliers, billboards, posters, TVs, radios and many other channels we used to know back then. We refer to these channels as ‘offline’ channels and the marketing type as ‘traditional’ marketing or offline marketing. Traditional or offline marketing simply refers to every marketing effort that does not involve the use of the internet whereas online marketing is purely about the internet. Another feature of this form of marketing is that it relies much on the human senses of sight, touch, hearing, tasting and smelling. A commercial on the radio appeals to the ears; a TV Ad appeals to both the eyes and the ears; a local seller of Air fresheners appeals to the eyes, ear, touch and smell and so on.

On the other hand, online marketing is reaching the same population set (as traditional) but using an entirely different medium – online. You probably would have noticed image banners pop up or under or show on certain parts of a webpage when you are browsing or using an app. This are called Banners. They are just like the regular billboards you see by the road side; only adjusted to screen sizes that fit mobile phones, tabs, desktops or laptops. You see the resemblance?

Though traditional marketing has been around for a long time and will still continue to be; especially as a vast number of people in these parts are not yet internet savvy, Online or digital marketing has equally assumed a large proportion of the marketing mix in this 21st century. With the introduction of World Wide Web (www.) in the 1990s and the emergence of technology companies like Yahoo in 1995, Google in 1998 [both coming in the late 20th century] and social networking sites like Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006, another whole level of commercial activities was opened. What this means is that you now have a wider audience to reach out to than ever before; all for a cheaper rate. That’s right; this is one of the many advantages Online has over Offline marketing. Here are some more advantages.

1. It is measurable: That is you can know the number of people or visits you get from your Ads. Imagine passing a billboard of an e-commerce store in Nigeria. How can you tell who comes to their site via this medium? But this is not so with online. Banners (miniature versions of billboards like I said earlier) are clickable and it directs you to the website and with proper tracking tools like Google Analytics and MixPanel, you can monitor who comes to your site and know what things were purchased or were not purchased.
2. It is cheaper: We are talking of being as low as 5 cents per click. Try asking for advert rates from a national newspaper or television station and you will understand what I mean. It is expensive and the worst part is that you can’t track who saw your Ad or who purchased your product or service via that Ad unless you have a way of collecting such data such as asking prospective customers where they saw your Ad or placing a number code that is only applicable to where that Ad was placed.
3. In online you usually get to pay when a customer clicks on your Ad but in offline you pay for your Ad whether people come to you or not.
4. In offline you could miss your target audience due to external forces which are beyond one’s control. Imagine you want your TV commercial to run during the news hour break and suddenly there is a power outage. Those split seconds or minutes could be enough to make people miss out on your Ad. In online, however, your banner gets to show across multiple devices and at different times of the day as long as you are online.
5. In online marketing you have the ability to target people based on demographics, location, interests, topics or even target websites. This helps to drive better conversions as people who fit your customer profile are more likely to make purchases rather than to show your Ads to every possible person out there. In offline, it just isn’t that simple to make such targeting.
6. People are relying heavily on search engines to get information on products, services, health related issues, finance tips, news, places to buy cars and properties etc. Anytime someone searches, your Ad is likely to show for that particular topic of interest. If for instance you are into event decoration and you have a search Ad that is running, your Ad can likely show when someone searches for anything that pertains to wedding or events. In offline there is no room for searching. The most that could happen is to rhyme ones Ads to the timing of a media house. E.g. if a media house puts out job offers on a Tuesday, its same Tuesday you get to advertise your job offers so as to maximize your reach.
7. Online marketing is not all about PAY! PAY!! PAY!!! You can also promote your business FREE OF CHARGE! Using social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other sites you can promote the things you do – FREEEE!!!. All you need to do is open an account or set up a page and starting posting or tweeting. The only difference between free and paid is that your post (Ad) will have a wider reach than free.
8. In online, you have the opportunity to test a campaign Ad with a little budget before embarking on a bigger budget. Also, your Ads can be paused or stopped almost immediately and at anytime. Offline marketing does not have this benefit. Imagine the disaster that could occur if you pumped in so much funds for an Ad that ends up failing.

There you have it. Online marketing remains vast and has lots of potentials for the future especially as internet data is becoming more affordable and phones are getting way cheaper. It will only be ideal for you to key in and reap this and many more benefits.

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