Gone are the days of direct marketing, today it is all about getting more digital, as we spend more time on our laptops, tablets and mobiles. This poses a major challenge to retailers as they fight to keep their customers engaged through various social media platforms, e-commerce portals and internet advertising. Real-time conversations are happening at social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and other forums which helps in sales conversions.
Creativity is the key, of course.
Guardian News and Adobe collaborated and initiated a discussion, regarding marketing and technology, among 50 digital marketing professionals. They arrived at a conclusion that a dash of creativity in marketing goes a long way in contributing to brand awareness and brand loyalty. Who can disagree?
The digital era has produced a kaleidoscopic effect on marketing and has helped marketers to reach the precise target audience at a larger number and a faster rate.
So how much should a company invest in digital marketing?
The amount of time and money you need to invest in digital marketing depends on the nature of your business, product or service, your objectives and budget. But to keep pace in the digital age, any business will need to have a basic online presence, say a website or a Facebook page at least.
The technology research firm, Gartner, conducted a market survey to measure the budget spent by companies on digital marketing including the following expenses website creation and maintenance, softwares used, social and mobile marketing, content creation and management and personnel costs.
Digital marketing spend by various industries
More statistics that help analyze the top channels used in digital marketing:
With these statistics, you can see that the digital marketing budget varies according to the industry, but on an average 2.5% of a company’s annual revenue is being spent on digital marketing with ‘media’ spending the highest and ‘healthcare’ spending the lowest. o, say you are a $2 million company, you may plan to spend around $50,000 a year on your digital marketing. It is also evident that digital advertising and content creation / management are the most popular channels used in digital marketing.
