With life, comes change. Consider how just the music industry has changed in the past few decades. From LP records, to cassette tapes, to compact discs, to digital recordings, to Internet streaming music. Besides changing format, its delivery options metamorphosed from being limited to radios and home stereos to pervasive availability and options on a multitude of portable devices. The LP hasn’t died, in fact it thrives with audiophiles, disc jockeys, and those who simply prefer it as a listening experience; but as technology evolved and was embraced by consumers, the music industry had to adapt to respond to the change to continue to thrive. This evolution of technology and consumer patterns is true as well in advertising. Gone are the days when outbound marketing was sufficient in and of itself to attract new customers and engage them sufficiently to enable their conversion from a visit to being an enthusiastic and dedicated repeat customer. Certainly a quality product and service remains paramount, but to attract and retain customers today, traditional forms of advertising need supplementation with digital media marketing.

As AdWeek reported in 2014, 81% of Shoppers Conduct Online Research Before Buying. Even if your business doesn’t offer a product or service that is feasible for Internet shoppers, put more simply: your customers are online, you should be too. And for your precious media/advertising dollars to reach them, it needs to be as well.

The Purchase Funnel consumer marketing model illustrates the path customers take from marketing to consumer:

• Awareness – the customer is aware of the existence of a product or service
• Interest – actively expressing an interest in a product group
• Desire – aspiring to a particular brand or product
• Action – taking the next step towards purchasing the chosen product

Today’s consumers spend much of their time online. Whether at home or on smart phones, on social media sites or using Internet search engines – a purely traditional advertising method is insufficient alone for fully engaging the awareness stage. And digital media marketing solutions and approaches are increasingly the means for initiating interest and desire stages. From email to videos that “go viral” to customers, and in this day and age of social media, where one person now reaches 130+ people at a time: expanding to an multi-channel approach through incorporating digital media marketing is increasingly necessary.

Traditional marketing approaches continue to exist and provide business and customer benefit, much like LP records remain an important part of the music industry and in the lives of many music lovers. But businesses that limit themselves purely to traditional marketing channels, by failing to include the digital media marketing channel, limit their potential. They risk not acquiring new leads, potentially losing prospects, and not fully retaining current customers engagement, interest and involvement.

While digital media marketing appears daunting at first consideration, it is a challenge worth undertaking. Not excluding traditional marketing, but as supplemental to it. A multi-channel strategy: increasing awareness of your business, enticing consumer interest, building desire, engaging customer action, and retaining them over time in an increasingly real-time, constantly connected world. With life, comes change. Change can be resisted, or embraced for growth and possibility.

For More Information On How To Make Inbound Marketing Work For Your business Contact Us At MediaWorks.