Today I read an interesting article by eMarketer on the use of digital resources by small businesses. For the first time, online advertising penetration was higher than traditional, non-digital advertising.
According to â??Local Commerce Monitor Wave XIIIâ? from The Kelsey Group and Constad, 77% of U.S. SMBs used online for advertising in August 2009, compared with just 69% that used traditional media. However, though more small businesses used digital advertising, the majority of their budgets still went to traditional channels.
This is hardly surprising. The Internet is one of the best platforms to market a small business. Compared to traditional marketing methods, online marketing is:
1. Simpler to track = Higher ROI
2. Easier to follow-up on generated leads
3. Cheaper
4. Better for the environment
1. Online Marketing is simple to track, providing a higher ROI
The case is simple: when you advertise on a print magazine, you donâ??t know how many people are actually noticing in your ad. You can only accurately track your success by the number of people contacting you. In the web, you can develop specific webpages to each campaign. These webpages â?? or landing pages â?? will be tailored to a pre-determined campaign, so you can track the number of visitors, page views, and generated leads for each specific effort. There are many tools out there to help you track your online marketing programs. The most popular ones are Google Analytics and Omniture.
Since Internet marketing campaigns are easier to track, it is also simple to calculate its return on investment. You can measure your online marketing success by number of hits, number of generated leads, number of closed customers, etc (keep in mind that what you choose to assess the campaignâ??s success highly depends on the goal of the campaign). You can then take an extra step and determine the campaignâ??s cost per click, cost per lead and cost per acquisition; your tracking provider will be able to provide you the information you need to calculate your costs. You should also measure your ROI, even if itâ??s as simple as dividing money invested by profits generated. You should then use these metrics when evaluating a new marketing program: what is the expected cost per click/lead/acquisition for this new campaign? Is it higher or lower than the one we registered? What is the ROI best and worst case scenario?
2. Itâ??s easy to follow-up on leads
If youâ??re a business-to-business organization, this is one of the most challenging areas for the marketing department: to track generated leads. As mentioned earlier in the post, you should develop a landing page to get the best bang for your buck. Why not include a contact form at the end of the landing page? Contact forms provide you the necessary information for each lead you generate: name, company, address, email or phone number â?? you decide. This information can then be automatically uploaded to your CRM system, or just sent to your email, so you can follow-up with the lead directly.
If youâ??re in an industry where your audience is not easily motivated to leave their contact information, consider giving them something in return: a discount, a free assessment, a case study or white paper. Youâ??d be surprised how effective contact forms are.
3. Online marketing is cheaper
You got to love the Internet. There are so many free tools out there to help small businesses on their marketing efforts that it naturally makes this marketing technique cheaper than traditional, non-digital media. Plus â?? and more importantly â?? online media is more affordable for its low implementation costs. There are also some advertising methods, such as pay-per-click (PPC), where the investment is directly proportional to the number of visitors generated to your website. It is you who decides how much a click on your ad (or a visitor to your website) is worth â?? and you bid on it. You can even set up a budget so, if you donâ??t want to overspend, the ad is removed once you have reached that cap.
4. Online marketing is better for the environment
Since online marketing is easier to track and provides a higher ROI, you will most likely reduce your investment in traditional, print advertising. You will also discover the amazing wonders of online direct marketing, reducing the number of catalogues and brochures that go from the mailmanâ??s bag directly to the garbage.
Although more sustainable than print media, digital efforts still produce carbon emissions. There are a number of steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint: you can first start shutting down your computer and monitor, and set your PC to hibernate after 20 minutes of not being used. You can also choose to host your website with a web hosting provider that is 100% powered by alternative or renewable energies. Our recommendation goes to Yellow Dandelions. And, obviously, you can calculate and offset your carbon emissions. We suggest a couple reliable providers in our blog post Offset the Carbon Emissions of your Marketing Programs.
Sofia Ribeiro is the founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing, a green marketing services provider dedicated to support small, sustainable businesses. An experienced marketing professional and a green enthusiast, Sofia has an extensive marketing background across both small businesses and large enterprises throughout Europe and North America. Her expertise lays in guerrilla marketing and Internet marketing techniques, paired with a solid experience in copywriting and industry research.
