Why The Shift From Analog To Digital?

The present age marketing mix is highly diversified. The myriad of modes available for brands to engage with their consumers can be overwhelming at times. Although recent years exhibit the anticipated shift from traditional marketing channels to the modern ones, the beginning of the decline of traditional marketing still needs more evidence. So, should you be using TV commercials and distributing pamphlets? Or should you be using influencer marketing and YouTube ads?

In this article, you shall find answers to all such questions. And to make it worth your time, you will also learn what strategies you should use for the best results.

But before we move to the strategies straight-away, it’s better to understand what are the problems with the analog technologies.

The Problem With Analog Technologies

From time olden, businesses have been using printed media for promoting their products and services. These traditional channels appreciated the physical reach of the content to the desired masses. For example, billboards and pamphlets make use of hard canvas. And they need physical channels to reach the masses such as public hoardings and manual distribution. This compromises more investment in terms of resources, both movable and fixed, without proposing a strained targeting of the audience.

Furthermore, analog technologies lack data-driven execution. Although these analog channels have a proven increment in sales, the problem is there are no metrics to measure the effective conversion rate. For example, it’s easy to plan where to place the hoardings and where to distribute pamphlets but the people who notice the content cannot be measured. This is purely a hit and trial approach to market products and services.

However, there are certain channels traditionally, such as television commercials, that allow data mining. But still, the conversion rate cannot be estimated accurately. Furthermore, the cost of using such traditional marketing channels can jeopardize the marketing budget of any corporation. Especially small and medium organizations that often lack the financial mediums to support such campaigns.

So there is a need for a better strategy to approach the target audience and drive sales. An alternative method which can prove as effective as the traditional promotions yet cost a fraction of the same. This is where digital marketing channels have proven their worth. Let’s dig a little deeper into the anticipated shift.

Why The Shift From Analog To Digital?

The areas where traditional marketing channels lack are the same where digital channels excel. In other words, digital media is highly efficient for converting the leads at a fraction of traditional marketing costs.

Consider an example- a small-scale trader of electronic gadgets makes use of content marketing through social media. According to the experts at Agency41.com, promoting content on social media channels can be optimized for precision to target only the potential customers. This means social media ads will only be displayed to the audience that is likely to convert and improve sales. The target can be set depending upon their age and location. This reduces cost while improving the results of marketing campaigns drastically. Furthermore, with the integration of artificial intelligence user interests are now easily accessible. Thereby, promising a better targeting of the audience based on their interests.

What’s more? Digital marketing involves a whole lot of practices including SEO, email marketing, mobile marketing, social media promotions, PPC campaigns, and influencer marketing. Usually, these practices are carried out simultaneously, as they are interdependent. This means your business can receive enhanced multifaceted marketing benefits from all sides.

Since the present-day consumer is more active online, you can expect your digital campaigns to reach your audience easily and effectively. And several studies also confirm the same as more than 50% of consumers engage with online resources before making any purchase. So, there’s certainly no denying that digital marketing is not going to fade away. At least, not very soon.

But, does this mean the traditional channels are no longer effective? Well, this notion is purely hypothetical. Since there are consumers who still watch television, tune in to the radio, or receive daily mail in their inbox. In case you prefer to use only one, either digital or analog, you may lose potential customers who are not tapping into your preferred channel. 

How To Integrate Both For Maximum Impact?

By now, it must be pretty obvious that you’ll need to integrate both the channels to tap into your audience effectively. But, how do you do it? And that too without burning holes into your pocket? To assist you with your strategy planning, we’ve listed down a short guide. Following these tips and including these practices into your marketing plan can help increase your sales. Thus promising a higher ROI.

• Learn About Your Target Audience

Marketing strategy for any business essentially includes a target audience. For example, a clothing brand for women, cannot sell its products to men of any age group. These basic targets are, of course, easy to figure out. But there are more complex factors that can affect the target acquisition of your marketing strategy. Developing and implementing a buyer persona can be a good strategy, for starters. This can allow you to predict the interests of your consumers and how they may react to your product. But for designing an omnichannel marketing strategy you may need to study the origins of your consumers, as well. Simply put, you need to create a data set of your target consumers engaging with digital and analog channels, independent of each other. Furthermore, you can also segregate your audience based on which analog or digital modes they engage with. For example, the number of users engaging through FaceBook and those following your brand on Instagram need to be segregated and targeted separately. After all, when you’re scaling up your sales you need to acquire a greater market share. And precise information can make a huge difference in your sales.

• Create & Segregate Your Budget

The next thing that you should be doing is to decide a budget for your marketing efforts. Without a budget, your marketing strategies can go rogue and you may end up spending a lot more than your business can afford. Once you have a budget you can allocate the expenses that you can spend on each channel. For example, you can segregate your budget that you can spend on influencer marketing, apart from investing in print-media. This would help you keep track of your campaigns. So that when you notice any anomaly, you can check and rectify the problem areas. Or if needed omit the practice out of your marketing mix, completely. This would save you on your budget, and allow you to reinvest it into the modes that are fetching better sales.

• Design Separate Content For Both

Regardless of what strategy you choose content creation is indispensable. Since content can be both, in written as well as a spoken form, you’ll need to put your head into it every time you design a new campaign. For example, printed media makes use of written content, whereas radio advertisements are essentially voice-scripted. Depending upon the interests of your audience on these channels the content you create will also vary. After all, your content needs to align with the audience’s interests and that of your business too. With that being said, if you create content around the same idea or theme the impact it has can be far-reaching.

• Connect With The Audience Through Values

As many marketing mavens opine, the effectiveness of marketing depends upon how well the consumers can relate to a brand. Subsequently, the brands also need to be able to relate to their consumers. So, when you are creating content for your marketing efforts, it is important to focus on your consumers. Content marketers suggest that you should consider what your consumers need. Since sales thrive on how well a product adds value to the consumers’ life, why not include value proposition into your content? For example, when you are creating content for your blogs, keep the user intent in mind and include the possible search terms into your content that your potential customers may search for. Similarly, if creating content for an influencer marketing campaign, you can mold your content to be more appealing emotionally. Consumers prefer brands that are emotionally relatable over the bland ones.

• Diversify Your Strategy For Greater Impact

If you’re using an omnichannel approach for your marketing, you must keep your strategy a bit flexible. Since market space is dynamic, holding on to a single strategy can be ineffective in the long run. Simply put, you may need to keep upgrading your strategy with the marketing needs. Following market trends and modifying your strategies accordingly may require more effort but can prove to be highly productive. For example, if email marketing is no longer proving results, you can gather a fresh set of user data, and retarget your audience. In doing so, you can expect better sales conversions. This is just an example. The point is to be agile and able to diversify your strategy as and when needed.

• Subscribe Brand Ambassadors/Influencers

Since a face for your brand can help consumers remember a brand and relate to it, investing in such strategies can be a wiser move. And thankfully, such faces are available on both the channels, traditional and modern. The traditional marketing includes TV commercials, printed media, and radio broadcast commercials that endorse celebs for promoting a product or a service. Likewise, digital media hosts online bloggers with influential effects on their followers and readers. These bloggers can be present on social media, such as Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram. Or they may be hosting their own website/blog. Now, depending upon your budget, you can either go for the traditional branding through TV and radio ads, or you can make use of influencer marketing, which is a lot cheaper and equally effective.

So, now that you have an idea of where you need to begin, what are you waiting for? Implement these tips into your marketing mix, and you can surely expect a growth in sales. After all, your consumers are everywhere, and so should be your business.