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| Is online marketing worth it for you? Pros and cons of digital advertising |
Dear reader, you are rightly skeptical! Because the saying “All that glitters is not gold” also applies to online marketing. Online marketing has many advantages but also disadvantages. Are you still torn as to whether online marketing is the right path for you? Then this blog post will definitely give you some clarity. We subject areas of online marketing to a critical appraisal and show you the advantages and disadvantages of online marketing.
Benefits of Online Marketing
Let's start with the benefits that come with the various online marketing activities.
1. Great coverage
Search engine-optimized websites, Google advertising, and various social networks allow a large reach. You take up more space in the online world through the various possible touchpoints (Google My Business, Google Ads, social media, blog, etc.) that you offer your potential customers. According to the Federal Statistical Office, over 80% of Swiss people use the internet regularly. This way you can address internet users directly and draw their attention to you.
2. Cheaper than other measures
While you can quickly pay several thousand Swiss francs for offline marketing measures, both Google advertising and advertising on social networks are significantly cheaper. Theoretically, you can start with an investment of 1 franc a day. The cost of Google advertising varies depending on the industry. Nevertheless, you can decide for yourself how much budget you want to invest for which measures and have your costs fully under control.
3. Low wastage
Do you only want to reach those people who are really interested in your service or product? This is possible with various online marketing measures! Thanks to precise targeting, you can narrow down your target group according to search behavior, interests, demographic characteristics, and/or surfing behavior. With this method, you reduce wastage and even save costs.
4. Measurability of the measures
This is one of our favorite benefits of online marketing! With conversion tracking set up, in which the behavior of users on your website is tracked, we can understand where they came from on your website, what actions they take on your website, and whether they are achieving your desired goal (e.g. product purchase, contacting newsletter subscription, etc.).
However, we can track not only the activity on the website but also the performance of the organic (unpaid) and paid activities via other sources, such as Google Ads or social media. In this way, you will find out which measures are suitable for you, which you still need to refine, and which measures you should say goodbye to.
We can aggregate and evaluate all this data with Google Analytics, Google's analysis tool, and summarize it in a meaningful report. super cool right?
5. Customization & Optimization
This advantage is the result of the previous point. Because if you can measure your activities, you can also analyze their performance. With this knowledge, you can, for example, test other texts or images on Facebook ads that may perform better. Thanks to this data and analysis, you can continuously adjust, test and optimize your measures. The goal behind it: is to continuously increase performance.
6. Interaction with users
Away from the one-to-many communication of classic marketing measures and towards one-to-one and many-to-many communication. The various social media platforms, newsletters, or instant messengers have the advantage of being able to exchange information directly with users.
Get feedback on your service or product, see how users interact with your social media posts via likes, shares, and comments, and show them you see and hear them by responding to their interaction. This direct interaction promotes trust and strengthens company-customer loyalty.
7. Structure of the image
Whether SEO, blogs, or social media activities - all these digital marketing measures are ideal for improving the corporate image. There is a high probability that you too, as an individual or as a company, want to position yourself as an expert and build a positive online reputation. The web offers you the chance to do this.
To name just a few examples, you can use LinkedIn to share your knowledge, respond to and comment on specialist articles, write your own blogs about your specialist area, work with various online specialist media, be present on social media, and much more. Use this online space for your purposes and benefit from the reach of the World Wide Web. The users will notice you, and be inspired by you and word-of-mouth will take its course.
Well, that concludes the advantages of online marketing. Now let's talk about the downside.
The disadvantages of online marketing
As with everything, online marketing has its downsides. Strictly speaking, almost every pro-argument for online marketing also has a suitable contra-complementary.
1. High effort
A disadvantage of online marketing is that the measures are time-consuming. Websites, advertisements, social media - all this is not done with the one-off setup. The website must be continuously updated and updated with new content. The advertisements on Google must be continuously checked and optimized for new keywords.
Your followers on LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing, and Instagram want to be informed regularly about your company news and benefit from your insights. This means that there is a continuous process behind the various measures and there is a hell of a lot of work to be done.
2. banner blindness
Ads are a dime a dozen. There are very different situations in our everyday life: You search for a new e-bike on Google and the first thing that appears are three to four text ads and on the right side shopping ads in image format. In the morning you pick up your smartphone and scroll through the news on the NZZ website.
At the top and on the right are banners vying for your attention. Advertising is also our constant companion on social networks: While you let yourself be showered with your friends’ Insta-Stories, advertising stories keep slipping in secretly. Do you still see the ads? There are two situations where users might see these ads:
- The ads are annoying annoying
- The ad is relevant to you and you are interested
However, it is not easy to address the target group in this sea of ads. To draw attention to your advertising, you need unusual ad texts, creative images or videos, and, above all, a relevant offer.
3. ad blocker
There are users within your target group who have had too many negative experiences with advertising and are now fed up with it. According to the Media Use Index (2018), 39% of all Swiss users already have an adblocker installed on their laptops. In other words: You no longer reach these users with your advertising, even if it would have been relevant for this target group.
4. Target group 60+
If your target group is older than 60 years, targeting via online marketing measures will reach its limits. Only a small part of this target group is regularly on Google or YouTube or exchanges information with friends and family members on Facebook or WhatsApp ( study by Media Use Index 2018 ).
But you will hardly reach this target group via Instagram or TikTok. The strategy for addressing this customer segment online is more complex. One possibility is to reach this target group through younger family members.
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| Is online marketing worth it for you? Pros and cons of digital advertising |
5. High competition
Let's do a little live test. Open a new tab, go to the Google search engine, and enter a search term relevant to your business. For example, for those readers among us who come from the financial industry, this could be the search term “open a bank account”. Now, look at the first three to four results. Do you see the word "Advertisement" hidden in the upper left corner? If so, that's an indication that the competition isn't asleep.
Now scroll down a bit. After the ads come the organic (unpaid), hard-earned search results. Is your website in the first place? Then congratulations! Your website is super optimized for the search term and relevant to your target audience. If “No”, then you have some catching up to do here because Google classifies the search results of your competition as more relevant.
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| Is online marketing worth it for you? Pros and cons of digital advertising |
The disadvantage is evident in this: If the competition is high and strong, investments in this area also increase - because the time and money required become more intensive.
6. Accessibility of companies increases
From the user's point of view, this point is an advantage. Because from now on, your customers can get in touch with your company on every platform you are active on. Businesses these days can be reached through their website, email, phone, and social media. The company's availability thus increases. The disadvantage of this point concerns you.
Higher availability means more time and more intensive coordination for you. For example, according to Brandwatch, 78% of users who complain about a company on Twitter expect a response from the company within an hour. The availability, the demands on the company, and thus the pressure on the company are increasing.
7. loss of image
If you do not meet the requirements of your (potential) customers, the tide can quickly turn. According to WebZunder, 39% of companies active on social media have had a negative experience with it. Only 3% of those surveyed saw themselves in a shitstorm. Nevertheless, 48% of companies are aware that negative customer feedback or a shitstorm is a disadvantage and a danger of online marketing that should not be underestimated.
Every post and communication should be carefully considered. Therefore, a clearly defined online marketing including social media strategy is essential.
Conclusion advantages and disadvantages of online marketing
As with everything, online marketing has its pros and cons. The advantages of online marketing, such as a large reach, lower costs, precise target group targeting, and measurability of the measures implemented, can be tempting and paired with a well-founded strategy incredibly effective.
Nevertheless, everything is a question of strategy, in which the disadvantages of online marketing must not be ignored. Above all, it is important to always keep an eye on any reactions to online marketing measures to be able to react to them in good time if necessary. In short: Always keep the risks and opportunities of online marketing in mind - then all digital doors will be open to you.
