Digital Mediums You Should Include in Your 2018 Budget

At the rate that digital marketing has evolved, it’s unsurprising that digital media spending has overtaken television spending in 2017. The digital landscape is always developing, meaning that marketers are always having to adapt to the latest challenge.

A major change in the modern digital landscape is that consumers consult multiple points of reference before purchasing or even engaging with a brand – for example, reading reviews, asking for recommendations, using coupons and comparing prices online. From a digital advertising perspective, it’s important for your brand to be everywhere at all times for this reason. In the fast-paced, ever-changing digital world, your brand’s capacity to be present across all devices increases your chance of making an impact.

There’s an incredible number of digital channels and advertising formats to consider. Even if your primary focus is on one medium, there are a variety of factors to consider on where and how you should be allocating your money.

Mobile comes first

On average, the typical digital consumer now owns 3.23 devices. Mobiles and smartphones are considered the most important devices by users; in fact, smartphones are the most commonly owned device globally. 48% of emails are opened using a smartphone while 80% of time spent on social media happens on mobile devices.

As a general rule, optimising your mobile channel is imperative in the current digital landscape. It’s the most personal channel of all – a mobile is kept in someone’s pocket or bag. It’s very likely the first thing a person looks at when they wake up, and the last thing they engage with before going to sleep. There is huge potential for you to hit your business’ targets through social media, email and advertising if you optimise your mobile platform.

By 2019, the number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to hit over five billion so it’s important to ensure that you have room in your budget for this channel to grow. Furthermore, 61% of people are unlikely to return to a brand’s mobile site if they experience a problem accessing it, with 40% stating that they will visit a competitor instead.

Quality content makes quality leads

In 2015, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5x more traffic and 4.5x more leads than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts. Content marketing is the way of the future, and it’s never been more important to invest in a high-quality content strategy.

Content marketing has a huge number of benefits. Firstly, having more on-site content means that your customers will be more likely to stay and explore your site for longer. This will give them the opportunity to become more familiar with your brand, establish trust and lead to higher conversion rates.

Similarly, every post you add to your blog is another page that will appear in Google’s index. This provides you with more chances to appear in relevant search queries and drive traffic to your site. If you syndicate your content with your social media for added exposure, this can result in more followers for your brand.

The best thing? The cost of content marketing is relatively cheap in comparison to its return. While your first few months may not offer much in terms of results, you will start to see growth after several months which will quantify over time. It’s definitely a worthwhile addition to your 2018 budget.

Other considerations

According to a survey conducted by Smart Insights, marketers consider SEO, content marketing and email marketing as the most effective strategies with the highest ROI. 90% of organisations use content marketing and invest 25% of their budget into it. This suggests that these channels demand investment in most businesses. Earned media techniques such as online PR and outreach and organic social media were lower, but considered medium ROI so still worthwhile.

However, the channels you choose to use will depend greatly on the direction your business is taking. What are your short-term and long-term goals? How will the marketing channels you choose to invest in help you achieve them? Sit down and make a plan, mapping out your company goals for the next year. Compare these to the list of potential channels that your business may benefit from, and you’ll be on your way to a personalised, relevant budget for the year ahead.