Your digital marketing budget is fluid and has to be reviewed regularly. The prediction for 2016 is that this is set to be a breakout year for digital marketing as the mobile revolution grows in stature and visual content reigns supreme. The majority of companies will increase their budgets this year. This is the year where your digital marketing strategy should receive huge increases in its budget.
Here are some of the main reasons why you should expect your digital marketing spending to increase this year rather than bootstrapping your next campaign.
Consumers Spend Most of the Day Online
The world has reached a point where the majority of people are spending most of the day online. Take a look at the number of people glued to smartphones and you can tell that this is true. It means that billboards and TV advertisements are in a state of decline, as they have been for many years.
Dedicate more of your resources to online advertising because that’s often the only way you are going to communicate with these people. Offline spending is still important, but it pales in comparison to the various online strategies at your disposal today.
You Can Easily Measure Digital Marketing
No other form of mainstream advertising will allow you to throw money at the problem so that it will eventually work. Digital advertising is no different in that you have to test. The difference here is that you can constantly test your digital marketing strategies. You have access to a range of metrics that will allow you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.
And that means you can keep trying new things while getting a return. In fact, you should be constantly trying new things in order to get a better return. It’s the only way to stay on the cutting edge of your industry. If you aren’t testing, your competitors certainly will be.
Understanding Consumer Behaviors
One thing you need to understand is how your target market behaves. You don’t just need to know who they are you need to know their likes and their dislikes. You need to know how they react to certain content types and formats. Without a knowledge of this, you are not going to get the most out of your digital marketing campaign.
By increasing your marketing budget, you are going to better understand consumer behaviors. You will know how they interact online and what sort of content they are most likely to respond to.
And consumer behaviors are changing all the time. The only way you are going to successfully keep up with it is through constantly upping your budget and keeping a close watch on your audience.
The Consumers of Today Demand It
You have more channels to take into account than before. The rise of video marketing is responsible for this because now you have YouTube, Periscope, Instagram, and Vine to take into account. Your messaging must be consistent and relevant across all channels. You can’t simply copy and paste everything you post on Facebook to every single network you happen to be on.
Consumers are on more social channels than ever before. And they demand relevant and consistent brand messaging. The only way you are going to do this is through an increase in your digital marketing budget.
But Remember That Throwing Money at the Problem Won’t Solve It…
Smaller companies have been known to completely outperform larger companies when it comes to marketing results. It’s not a fluke and it’s not something that happens rarely. It happens all the time because the smaller company better understands its customers and is strategically spending, rather than trying to throw large wads of cash at Facebook or Google.
Just because you increase your digital marketing budget doesn’t mean that you are going to get great results. You need to test and you need to know your audience intimately. Unless you can do this, you are going to struggle to gain any real traction at all.
Conclusion – Is this a Trend for the Future?
This guide is designed for the year 2016, but these tips shouldn’t be looked at in isolation. Every single year companies have been urged to increase their digital marketing budgets. And in 2015 budgets rose again by 15.5%. The Internet still reigns supreme and there’s zero chance that this is going to change anytime soon.
It’s a trend for the future because in 2017 and beyond, digital marketing will still be a priority and your performance in this sector will determine whether your company survives and thrives.
