Digital marketing channels such as websites and social media networks are becoming increasingly dominant within the industry. Nowadays, almost all big, small and mid-range companies focus on creating promotional and marketing content for digital mediums.
If you think about it, blogging forums and platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have been crucial to increasing brand awareness and engagement. It is difficult to think about marketing without digital platforms in this day and age, given that 81 percent of consumers search for products and services online.
Like everything else, digital marketing also has its good, bad, and ugly sides. If you want to navigate this field without any problems, you should know how to tackle them all.
Tackling the Good, Bad, and Ugly Sides of Digital Marketing
With the progress of technology, many developments have been in the marketing sector. Digital channels continue to evolve and change how they function, interact, and respond to audiences. Sometimes, it can become confusing to keep track of what’s happening in digital marketing and create strategies that would lead to the desired results.
To make this easier and give you a deeper insight, let’s talk about how you can find your way through the good, bad, and ugly of digital marketing.
Good
First, we will discuss all the positives that come with the good side of such marketing platforms. There’s no denying that digital mediums have made it a lot easier for businesses and marketers to spread the word among the target audience and promote their brands. Websites, social media networks, email, and content marketing, can be incredibly effective for branding.
Suppose you are running an advertising firm, for instance. In that case, you can create your advertising company logo and incorporate it in online platforms such as websites, Twitter, or Facebook accounts and emails. This could help consumers become familiar with your business, work, and industry, and encourage them to learn more about it.
Digital marketing is also affordable and requires a smaller investment that other traditional methods like billboards, flyers, or print ads. It also has a broader reach than any medium and can impact people globally. So by marketing on digital forums, you can engage and communicate with consumers across the world.
According to a report, around 59 percent of people have stated that social media, websites, emails, or pay-per-click ads have helped them become aware of a particular brand.
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One of the most significant advantages of digital marketing is the opportunity to compete with huge brands. By investing in analytical tools like Google Analytics and SEMRush, you can increase the visibility of your business online and increase the ranking of your web page.
With SEO or search engine optimization, you can get your website to show up among the top search engine results and with other established business pages.
These are some ideas you can tackle the good side of digital marketing and gain an advantage over your competitors.
Bad
You will experience quite a few challenges in the digital world, and they could have a negative long-term impact as well. While there are more than 5.4 billion people actively using the internet across the globe, there is still a chance that your target demographic is found somewhere else.
So if the consumers you want to focus upon trust promotional content in magazines or brochures, you may not get the same results by investing in digital marketing. Many people still rely on print, word of mouth, or personal recommendations to get information about a product or service.
Other than that, there are several choices in digital channels, and you have to narrow down to a few where your consumer base is located. Picking between social media networks, emails, blogs, and search engine ads can become overwhelming and requires extensive research.
Those who do not have the resources may not be able to get the best that digital marketing platforms have to offer.
Ugly
It might come as a surprise, but digital marketing does have an ugly side and can bring down the revenue and sales of a business quickly. If you think about it, digital channels are a source of information for many people.
People tend to believe much of what is written and discussed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Youtube. Hashtags can begin trending around any topic in a few minutes, and any blog or video can go viral worldwide. Now, this is not always about something good or positive. Sometimes, 'fake news' and misinformation may start spreading and damage the image of brands or businesses.
You cannot control consumers' opinions and ideas on online forums. For companies, this can create significant problems as one negative review or article could impact their bottom line negatively.
McDonald’s actually became a victim of the ugly side of digital marketing when they started their trend 'McDstories' trend on Twitter. Instead of positive things, people started sharing all their bad experiences with the food and services of the restaurant. The backlash was so severe that Forbes called their social media campaign a ‘bashtag’.
Such situations are damaging and can be prevented if you are clear with your guidelines and develop strategies that encourage people to avoid negativity.
To Sum Up
The good, bad, and ugly of digital marketing can be tackled smoothly with awareness and knowledge of consumers’ interests and preferences. Once you know what people want and expect from your brand and marketing campaigns, you will be able to achieve the results and overcome the challenges.
