The advent of the internet has revolutionized our lives, including how we conduct business. With people spending more of their time online, industries have had to shift their marketing strategies to target their customers. If you want to have better customer targeting, consider incorporating the forms of digital direct marketing into your online strategy.
What Is the Difference Between Direct and Digital Marketing?
Direct marketing is a traditional marketing strategy where businesses send promotional materials to consumers’ postal address to persuade them to take some form of action. The ultimate goal is to make a sale but for consumers who are not yet ready to covert, direct marketing can instead send them deeper into the sales funnel.
The most popular forms of direct marketing are brochures, catalogs, newsletters, and fliers. Businesses who obtain the phone numbers of their target customers may also use direct marketing forms like telemarketing and text marketing.
One of the main benefits of this marketing strategy is that it establishes direct communication between businesses and consumers. Compared to mass marketing, direct marketing also allows businesses to target consumers who have previously expressed an interest in their products and services. Thus, you will be able to tailor your promotional messages based on the information you have gathered about your target audience.
Whereas with mass marketing, the same message is presented to everyone. The most popular forms of mass marketing are commercials, magazine ads, and billboards.
Direct marketing strategies are very effective and have been for hundreds of years. However, the arrival of the internet and other technological advancements have changed consumers’ buying behavior. Advertisements, brochures, flyers, and other physical forms of marketing are becoming less effective as consumers have embraced online shopping.
To account for these changes, businesses have had to evolve their marketing strategies. This is where digital direct marketing comes in.
What Is Direct Digital Marketing?
There are currently over 4.57 billion active internet users, representing 59% of the world’s population. On average, an Internet user spends about 6 hours and 42 minutes online. Given these statistics, businesses have begun using digital marketing strategies to find and target their customers online.
Digital direct marketing is essentially the same thing as direct marketing, except that it exists in the digital world. Businesses communicate with consumers through email, web browsers, mobile applications, social media sites, and other digital media channels.
By using the different forms of direct digital marketing, it’s much easier to reach consumers. Thus, businesses can enjoy the best of both worlds. They can deliver targeted promotional messages to their target customers without the added costs of printing, mailing, and/or shipping.
What Are the Major Forms of Digital Direct Marketing?
There are numerous ways to communicate with customers online. To get you started, here are the major forms of digital direct marketing.
1. Email Marketing
Not all internet users will be familiar with your brand. You need to develop the relationship so that they become familiar with your products or services — and email is one of the best ways to accomplish that.
You can offer consumers a special discount or a free white paper in exchange for their email address. Once they opt-in, you can use their email address to send promotional materials. It can be a preview of upcoming products, an informative blog post, or a sale announcement.
Email is an effective digital marketing strategy because it gives consumers the opportunity to learn more about your business. The more familiar they are, the easier it is to convert them into paying customers.
Best of all, sending an email is free so you can reach a wider audience for a fraction of the cost. There are also email marketing tools that will provide metrics such as click-through-rates, open rates, and bounce rates to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.
2. Mobile App Marketing
Mobile applications are predicted to generate $189 billion in revenue in 2020. With mobile app usage at an all-time high, you may want to consider creating one for your business. This will allow you to send promotional messages directly to your customers’ mobile devices.
There are two types of mobile app marketing: app user acquisition and app user engagement. With user acquisition, the goal is to increase mobile app downloads.
You can employ app store optimization (ASO) to increase visibility on app stores. By optimizing titles, icons, screenshots, and ratings, you can better convince consumers to click on the listing and download the app.
Meanwhile, user engagement focuses on strategies that will keep consumers engaged with your mobile app. Make sure that your mobile app is user-friendly and seamless. Segmentation also helps increase engagement. Users will respond more to your promotional messages if they are tailored to their needs or interests. You can use push notifications to alert them of the latest products, upcoming sales, industry news, and so on.
Mobile app marketing has many benefits. It can be used to boost brand awareness, provide valuable information, deepen relationships with customers, and improve customer service — all of which are important when building a loyal customer base.
3. Web Browser Marketing
There are so many ways you can use the web browser in your digital marketing strategy.
You can employ on-site and off-site search engine optimization (SEO) to increase your rankings on search engines, set up landing pages based on your customer avatars, establish authority through content creation, or retarget consumers using display ads.
Website optimization is also important. Your business website should provide users with a clean and seamless experience. Otherwise, they will quickly exit your website without ever learning anything about your products or services.
Metrics like page clicks, social shares, bounce rates, time on site will allow you to measure users’ engagement with your website. You want users to stay as long as possible so that you have more opportunities to convert them into customers.
Businesses should also have a retargeting strategy. Once users leave your website, you can remain in their consciousness by appearing on display ads and other retargeting platforms. If you decide to utilize ads for your business, make sure that they are compelled to convince customers to click on the link. It’s important to know your target audience really well so that you will know where and how to retarget them.
Utilizing the Different Forms of Digital Direct Marketing
The marketing industry is constantly evolving so you must ensure that your business can adapt to all these changes. From direct and traditional marketing, there is now a greater focus on digital direct marketing.
Creating a winning strategy is a worthwhile investment because the major forms of digital direct marketing can leave a big impact on your customers. As long as your strategies are well-thought-out, digital direct marketing can increase business sales. More than that, it helps create a customer base that will be loyal to your products and services.
Need professionals to handle your digital direct marketing strategy? Consider hiring a Charlotte, NC digital marketing company like Tanner Grey. Feel free to call us at 844.500.1339, email us at web@tannergrey.com, or contact us online to learn more about our services.
RELATED ARTICLES:
- 9 Brilliant Tips To Build Brand Awareness Online
- Embrace the True Efficacies of Online Brand Marketing
- Hiring A Digital Marketing Agency VS In-House Marketing Team
