Today's world is going digital in every aspect and that puts many people's careers and businesses at risk. Many businesses have failed to keep up with the fast growing pace of the digital world and end up closing shop as a direct result of failing to know their target, competition and using ineffective advertising platforms.
Why Digital?
According to a report by TechCrunch, there are currently 2.6 billion smartphone subscriptions globally, with an estimation of 6.1 billion smartphone users in 2020. Well, that's just 2 years and few months from today. There is an astounding growth of Internet users every day, both in desktop and largely in mobiles. The world is going digital and so should your business be in order to survive.
As everyone is moving online, businesses are now considering building their profiles and advertising online more than before. In 2015 alone, Google AdSense paid almost $10B to online publishers, the amount made through business advertising online through AdWords. This alone advocates that online advertising is the 'in thing' lately.
If your business is not currently found online, through search engines and web crawlers, you will definitely have to reconsider that. Most users believe that if your business is not available online, or not found in web directories, it is probably a scam or does not exist. The new way of communicating with customers is meeting them where they are – online. A mere Twitter and Facebook account can help add your brand's reputation in today's world.
Here are some effective digital platforms you can consider to advertise on:
Social Media Networks
Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. tailor information and data to every user according to their activities, including their internet searches, Apps on their phones, the content that they watch and the messages that they send and caches stored in their device's memory. Users that keep searching about technology will be served with information and advertisements of that nature.
This helps you as an advertiser to get the most and also reach relevant customers who like your product. Social Media also allows you to see the most talked about topics through their automated algorithms that display trending headlines. You can also use 'Hashtags' of trending topics to reach anyone who will be browsing through the topic. You will never go wrong with this method.
Ad Clients
Ad clients such as AdWords, Bidvertiser, Infolinks, and AdBrite are so powerful and can save you tonnes of cash. AdWords specifically, has a good review history and is effective. This is because of the large network of Google publishers and content creators. AdWords is an advertising service by Google for businesses wanting to display adverts on Google and its advertising network. This channel matches up users who are searching for keywords that relate to your product and services. If a user happens to search about 'creating a website', Google will display your 'creating website' business as top results. Your budget is only billed when users see or click on your advert. This system is called Click Per Cost (CPC).
Blogs and Websites
Most blogs and websites offer content on particular topics. There is a website or blog of almost every topic we can think of. Be it of fashion, technology, food, sports etc. For a business that sells clothes, for instance, it would be beneficial to advertise on a website or blog that talks about fashion, meanwhile cell phones and computers would do well on a website that offers technological related content. Blogs are usually made of communities that keep on visiting when a new post is made. You can search for blogs that discuss topics related to your product and advertise with them.
All of the above three methods offer insights, impressions, engagements and analytical information that will help you see how many customers your advert has reached over a certain time span. There is no excuse. You go digital or you go home.