Depending on your current marketing strategy, you might already prefer digital marketing. Leadfeeder certainly does. We know well the advantages of B2B digital marketing over traditional marketing.
Before we discuss what digital marketing offers that traditional marketing doesn’t, let’s go over the basics.
Quick Rundown: Differences Between Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing
Digital marketing uses electronic devices to share promotional messages. These devices include computers, phones, tablets, and even smartwatches (but not TV or radio).
Because of this variety, digital marketing includes many forms and channels: social media marketing, content marketing, videos, photos, targeted advertising, email marketing, search engine marketing, and more.
Traditional marketing, on the other hand, is limited to ads on billboards, newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV.
So why is TV advertising considered traditional marketing if TV is electronic? It comes down to two main differences.
First, traditional marketing uses hard-to-carry mediums like billboards or radio. You might see ads in a sports bar, but you won’t carry a TV in your pocket. People spend about 4.8 hours a day on their smartphones, so they’re more likely to see digital ads.
More importantly, tracking exact conversion rates with TV or other traditional ads is hard. You can’t know how many people saw your TV ad, how they reacted, or if it influenced their decisions.
Digital marketing is better here because you can track activities to exact numbers. This is why digital marketing is more effective than traditional marketing.
That’s the short version. Let’s go deeper into why digital marketing is better than traditional marketing.
Benefits of Digital Marketing Over Traditional Marketing
Digital marketing for B2B is different from traditional marketing in many ways. Here are some key points:
Measurability
In digital marketing, you can find out how many people interacted with your ad, how they reacted, and even when they spent more time on your content. You can see the country, company, and time of a person’s interaction with your content. This allows for improving and personalizing your marketing campaigns. According to an Adobe study, personalization gives 68% of marketers a $2 to $10 return for every dollar spent, and 22% get even higher returns. Traditional marketing doesn’t offer these opportunities.
Lower Costs
Digital marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing for reaching the same audience. For example, in 2018-2019, the average CPM (cost per thousand impressions) on cable TV was $17.50 and $32 on a national broadcast. The CPM on the Google display network was $2.80.
You also save money by not printing banners, flyers, or leaflets, and not paying for their delivery and distribution. You can stop a digital marketing campaign with one click if it doesn’t work, improve it, and restart it. In traditional marketing, you can’t stop the ad campaign and get your money back if it doesn’t work.
Easy Access
For traditional ads, you need to find people who can place them on billboards, TV, radio, or magazines and set up meetings with them. You discuss what you want to advertise, where, when, and negotiate the best price. If you’re lucky, you can have a Zoom call, but you’ll likely need several offline meetings.
With digital marketing, you just open Google or Facebook Ads, set everything up, and launch your campaign from your chair in a few minutes.
No Need for Personal Communication
In traditional marketing like cold calling, you need to convince customers directly to buy something. This might take several rounds of negotiations with multiple managers and decision-makers in B2B sales.
With digital marketing, you can use different lead-generation tactics more effectively. You describe your arguments in a blog post, landing page, and social media posts, then set up targeted advertising or PPC. Decision-makers using the internet as a research tool read your resources and see their need for your product, influencing their decision.
Digital marketing allows you to influence hundreds of potential buyers at once, without spending days on a single customer.
More Time for Growth
These benefits give you more time to invest in more marketing efforts, reaching a large audience of potential customers with the right growth marketing tools. Digital marketing is everywhere; decision-makers will see it whether they’re searching for a business solution, scrolling social media before bed, or watching YouTube during lunch.
With all that said, it looks like digital marketing is the future. And what does the future of digital marketing look like? Here are some trends.
5 Digital Marketing Trends for 2024 and Beyond
I don’t have a crystal ball, but I know which digital marketing trends have big potential in B2B marketing. Here are five of them:
1. Use Social Media Influencers or Become One
Influencer marketing isn’t just for B2C companies. Decision-makers in B2B companies are individuals, and they listen to influencers. When a successful digital marketing CEO or a renowned e-commerce industry player shares their opinion, many business owners take note. Many small and medium business owners, as well as owners of larger companies, listen to podcasts.
You can either become an influencer for your company or find influencers who recommend your product. Becoming an influencer is more complicated but effective. Companies with branded podcasts have higher customer brand awareness and purchase intent. If you’re a startup, working with an influencer is also a good tactic for 2024.
2. Be Present on Every Social Media Platform
Having a presence on more than just LinkedIn or YouTube is important. Sometimes, being a little goofy can help customers relate to you. For example, creating a company BeReal profile could be funny and engaging. Even if you don’t close deals on BeReal, it can function like a funny TikTok account showing behind-the-scenes moments or promoting company culture.
This presence can make customers remember you when they need a solution and check your blog, site, or social media for business details.
3. Encourage User-Generated Content on Social Media
User-generated content is trusted more than branded content. If you start a challenge for companies and their employees, you’ll get more eyes on your company and product. For example, ask companies to show how they prepare for Halloween and offer a prize. Or have a contest for funny videos showing “What our support agents do while chatbots handle requests.” This can show the value of your product.
You just need to come up with great ideas!
4. Build Strong Relations Between UX and SEO
Google’s new algorithm wants people-first content. So, balance SEO-focused content with helpful content. Focus on publishing case studies, expert interviews, and other valuable content. But don’t abandon all SEO practices. Use advanced approaches and tools like AI-based SEO software to create search-engine-optimized texts that sound natural.
5. Personalize Customer Experience
Personalized user experience is crucial. Use automation tools to gather, store, and find customer data easily. B2B companies can personalize just as well as B2C. Explore buyer personas and create interfaces that match customer needs. This might include different languages and features depending on the prospect’s size, location, and package.
Personalized emails and customer support will also be relevant. With Leadfeeder, you get data about your website visitors, so you can create personalized recommendations and improve the customer journey.