10 Digital Direct Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages

These days direct marketing is more than brochures and postcards. We no longer have to rely on snail mail and putting flyers on windshields. In the internet age, we have a host of digital strategies we can use to reach our customers. If you have ever received a company’s email or visited a website, you have been exposed to direct digital marketing.

The world is moving fast and if you want to be seen and heard in your industry, you have to take on a marketing strategy that is current and where your customer is. Digital direct marketing is how to reach them and with over 4.5 billion internet users, a strong online marketing plan can get the attention and traction you are looking for.

In order to have a successful campaign you need to create compelling content for multiple media streams and optimize it with relevant SEO. You also need to have regular updates on your site and continue targeting clients on your mailing lists.

Digital direct marketing is the way to do business today. While traditional methods are still deployed, your customers are plugged into the net and you better have a plan of action for converting them into new customers. With the right team and digital outreach strategy, you can dominate your industry.

Here are the digital direct marketing advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

With digital direct marketing, your website and email can reach more customers.

Advantage #1: International Reach

Your website exists on the internet and that extends globally. Customers from around the world can view your website and you can target your products and service to them. Your content can also be easily shared with a click of a button, reaching new potential customers.

Advantage #2: Track Through Analytics

It’s easy to track your customers and measure your campaign’s success. By using web analytics, you get detailed information on how your advertising is responded to and can track click-through rates because of detailed online metrics.

Advantage #3: Immediate Action

Gone are the days when you send out letters and wait for a call. With digital marketing, it is sent and received in an instant. You can send emails, texts, and social media updates that have the ability to be viewed within seconds of sending them.

Mobile users have their devices within hand’s reach at all times and you can alert them when your campaign goes out.

Advantage #4: Affordable

Your digital direct marketing campaign is less expensive than traditional marketing. Because of the rapid growth of the internet, it’s cheaper to get your message out to customers globally. There are start-up costs to setting up email and text campaigns but they pale in comparison to radio ads or magazine spots.

Advantage #5: Better Conversion Rates

With traditional marketing, your potential customer had to read your ad and then make a phone call to you or go to visit your operation. Digital marketing takes away those steps.

All a person has to do is click a link on an email and they are at your website. From there you can guide them to a quick sales page to make the purchase.

Disadvantages

There are some challenges with digital direct marketing that we need to go over.

Disadvantage #1: Longer Setup

Disadvantage #2: Training and Updating Skills

Your staff has to be able to operate in this digital landscape. You need a marketing team that can produce content with targeted keywords and a call to action.

Whether it’s writing blog posts for your email list or articles on your website, you need a qualified copywriter. A social media expert is also necessary for updating social media as well as customer feedback on your website.

Disadvantage #3: Piracy

When something is posted digitally, it can be viewed by everyone instantly. It’s very easy to have your content copied and reused by your competitors. You don’t want your marketing strategy stolen and misused by hackers. Unfortunately, it’s hard to stop this kind of theft.

Disadvantage #4: Global Competition

In this digital age, your competitors can be from the other side of the world. You want to expand your reach but so do your competitors. No longer is your city considered your region. You will need to stand out from your competition and deliver a great digital campaign to gain market share in your industry.

Disadvantage #5: Negative Feedback

The great thing about buying online is you can check out reviews of products and services from companies and their offerings. Not so great if you have a dissatisfied customer. Negative feedback about your business can immediately affect you so you need to have an excellent customer service strategy included in our digital marketing plan.

Make sure you address your unhappy customers fast online and offer incentives to stay. Adding a great guarantee in your digital correspondence will put customers at ease.