The age of Digital Marketing in Zimbabwe is truly upon us, while traditional methods are fading away.

Traditional Marketing is a long-standing marketing method that we are all accustomed to and probably view almost every day. However, each day, the world becomes more digital – we do most of our banking online, view our news on our phones, and even read books on e-readers. Digital Marketing has taken over – it has managed to give brands, not only a global platform to reach a greater audience, but also has helped to create awareness and promote businesses on a much larger, and more instant scale. With Digital Marketing surpassing traditional methods, we tell you why it’s better to put your marketing online if you want to see your business grow.

With Traditional Marketing it’s very difficult to interact with your audience. Often, brands have to wait for customers to get in contact with them in order to take the next step in the process. On the other hand, with digital marketing strategies, brands can instantly connect with their targeted audience via social media comments, emails or instant messengers. It is also much easier to engage your audience in discussions via video or questions, meaning your brand has a much better presence, thus increasing the likelihood of repeat customers or brand loyalty. Additionally, businesses can much better engage with their customers if there are any problems or issues, as communication is instantaneous.

The results can be easily measured 

With older methods – such as handing out brochures or advertising in newspapers, it’s almost impossible to measure success. In contrast, when utilising digital marketing in your strategy, you can instantly measure and view all information – from conversion and bounce rates to the number of visitors, tools such as Google Analytics mean that businesses can easily study the success of their campaigns, and then adjust them accordingly.

You can target a larger range of audiences 

The majority of the time, traditional marketing only reaches a local or regional audience, even if your business isn’t restricted to those locations. With online marketing, you can tailor your campaigns to reach a number of different regions, countries or even specific demographics. This means that each campaign can be altered to best appeal to your audience, rather than with traditional marketing, which uses a blanket effect – more generic keywords and content in the hopes of connecting with a wider audience.

It’s infinitely cheaper

It’s no surprise that digital marketing yields a greater ROI than traditional methods. Paper and printing costs are relatively high, and marketers then have to spend even more money on distribution, while television and newspaper ads are also very costly too. Online marketing, however, is much more cost-effective, and your adverts and brand are seen by a much greater audience, meaning a lower portion of the budget brings in more business.

It’s instantly shareable

Have you ever heard of a brochure going viral? That’s because it doesn’t happen. If you’re looking to increase awareness of your brand, digital marketing is the way forward. With Facebook users generating 4 million likes every minute, creating high-quality content that is easily shareable is so important if you want your posts to be seen. With Facebook having over 1.19 billion monthly users, while Twitter users average at around 232 million a month, the opportunity for growth and engagement via social media is huge – posts are instantly shareable, meaning your reach in infinite!

Your audience can choose how they want to view your content

Placing adverts in newspapers, on billboards or on the radio can, at times, feel like a nuisance, and are quite often ignored. However, with online ads and posts, your customers have the power to decide whether they want to see the ad or not, comment or share your social media posts or act on an email – there is much more choice. Furthermore, as marketing changes, people have different preferences for how they like to view their online content – while some people love to read content rich blog posts, others will only engage with videos or quizzes. By utilising all that digital marketing has to offer, you are more likely to engage with a more diverse range of customers., and are therefore more likely to generate needs, as your customers will be viewing only what they want to see.

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