The term, Information Revolution first appeared in a British book in 1939. In that time, researchers were trying to define a new society where the technology and science were responsible for playing a main role. In the dictionary, the definition for Information Revolution is, “the development of technologies (such as computers, digital communication, microchips) that has led to dramatic reduction in the cost of obtaining, processing, storing, and transmitting information in all forms (text, graphics, audio, and video).” However, even being an old term, the process to achieve a complete Information Revolution was just possible due to the Web (Technological) Revolution, finally coming to fruition in 1990 with the computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee (World Wide Web).
Since then, people have been changing the way they think, consume, communicate, interact, talk, move, play, eat, etc., etc., etc. That means – it’s a complete behavioral transformation in a human’s life. There is no path backwards. We are living in an Era where data is the most important wealth; where U.S. adults are spending 5 hours/day using mobile devices (Flurry Research, 2017), an increase of 69% compared to 2016. In this scenario, media has also been impacted drastically. According to the latest US Online and Traditional Media Advertising Outlook, online advertising has already overtaken TV advertising in size, “with a strong 9.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2016 through 2021, online advertising will be a $116 billion market by end of the forecast period, per the report. That would make it more than 50% larger than the TV advertising market at that point”.
There is no doubt about the power of the internet and how online marketing can more precisely help the company reach the target audience, interact with consumers and convert leads into the purchase stage. The benefits offered by the internet to the marketers are unlimited and increase day by day. In comparison to offline, Digital Marketing is revolutionary and below are the main reasons why companies can take a lot advantage from it:
1. Through Business Intelligence (BI) and digital analytics, you can have access to customer data such as purchase behavior, demographics, ethnographics, tastes, and a wealth of other information. All the online data available about your target audience is crucial to help you be more assertive in creating your buyer persona and also defining your marketing strategies.
2. Using the same tools cited above plus search engines, you also can have easier access to competitors’ and market data. This information is the key to build a realistic business plan and help you track your results compared to the market/segment.
3. The internet also facilitates the marketing research process a lot, being more reliable and faster than the traditional research model. Even big companies such as Google and Facebook are investing in tools to make it easier for businesses to perform quantitative and qualitative researches.
4. For online advertisement, the icing on the cake, the internet and later the social medias perfected the process of ad campaigns for marketers: independent of which online media you choose to run your campaign, it is always possible to personalize your message and your segment, targeting just the qualified market for your business and optimizing your resources.
5. Because of the low costs and different platforms the internet offers, it is possible to see a rise in creativity in the marketing field over the years. Everything is available now! You can mix videos with blog posts, create apps, games, photo galleries, e-books, email marketing, podcasts and a lot of options to interact with your customer and sell your product. Learn more about Inbound Marketing.
6. For some marketers, the possibility to measure results in real or near real-time is the most important benefit offered by digital marketing. Using analytics and measurement tools (paid or free), you can analyze if your strategies are effective and if they are not, you can make improvements quick without blowing your budget. Therefore, you are able to deliver a better Return on Investment (ROI), making your business more profitable.
7. In the Information Era, instead of just focusing on the sales number, companies must be aware about brand engagement, mainly if it’s targeting the millennial generation. And what better place to engage your customer? The online platforms are the best solutions to help you provide a more intimate customer service and find your brand advocates (the fans of your products). It’s also a place to listen and talk with customers, follow their opinions about the experience with the brand (reviews), analyze what they want and show the brand core values, which goes beyond just sales.
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8. Because the variety of available sources, in the online environment is also easy to develop a customer education campaign about your brand. Again, to sell in the Information Era, is less about your product and more about your values.
9. The internet marketing increased brand’s visibility as well. Opposite of the offline world, where the majority of companies names appeared tiny in the middle of a bunch of yellow pages, the internet allows all brands, no matter its size, to be founded easier and faster. For the same (or less) amount of money, you can beat the biggest player in your segment in online visibility, just by investing in assertive strategies, keywords, inbound marketing, and, more important, specializing SEO services, such as The HOTH.
10. Last but not least, digital marketing offers all the benefits mentioned in this article for a really low cost compared to traditional marketing. It’s proved that digital can reduce customer acquisition by at least 50%.
The Information and Technological Revolution are not just conceptual anymore. It’s real and it is transforming the market and the way we do marketing. It’s the key to survive in this new era and it’s the way to succeed for, at least, the next 100 years.