How long have you been in the business scene? If you have been there for years, you probably know how marketing is very important to reach out to your prospects and potentially gain more revenue for your business; thus, marketing is a catalyst that helps your business grow.
You have probably ventured out in advertising through flyers and brochures, where you will have your staff hand these out to people shopping in malls, train stations or appropriate events. More often than not, people just throw the flyers or brochures away. When you do this type of advertising, in some cases, you may just be throwing hundreds, or even thousands of dollars away.
These days, most companies don’t stop with just one tactic such as handing out flyers and brochures as they put more effort on their marketing strategies and opt to showcase themselves through newspaper, radio or television advertising. However, the utilization of these types of advertising are limited, as these would cost them thousands of dollars for an advertisement that would air in just a few days and in a limited time.
The cost of a newspaper ad depends on the size of your ad, the duration of its appearance and if you want to choose where the ad should be posted. In some newspapers such as Post Newspapers, advertisements would range up to $8-$13 per centimeter while requesting for a specific page for your ad would gain up to 10%-50% additional charges from your base price.
Furthermore, marketers looking to buy time on broadcast television need the average of $100,000 if they want a spot on prime time. According to an analysis by TargetCast (an independent media agency in New York), the average price of a 30-second spot would range up to $108,956 in 2011—an increase for 5% from the period the previous year. The percentage increase translates to an average hike of $5,000 per advertisement. The cost for these would range depending on the series as well. ABC’s priciest program was Grey’s Anatomy where the ads ranged up to $225,000 a pop, while CBS charged a premium for $215,000 for commercials in between Two and a Half Men.
With that being said, it is important for companies to look for ways to have long-term plan with their marketing that would help them reach prospects and be remembered by their current customers. Websites can help them with that.
Today, the internet is the most important global communication tool. Internet marketing efforts are gaining popularity because of their effectiveness, convenience and wide cost-effective reach.
Online marketing gives specialists the possibility to target prospective customers better than traditional methods thanks to the aid of Search Engine Optimization, which help sites rank on top of search engine result pages. There are literally thousands of websites designed for a particular group of people and advertisers on the internet can easily tailor their ads to the specific group of customers they choose to target.
Furthermore, websites can serve as a more accessible form of brochure for any company as it would be visible for prospects and present clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The beauty with online marketing is that there are various packages that you can choose from and will most suit your goal. If you want to be able to create a website from scratch with only an SEO for starters, you can. However, if you already have a website and you only want content development or advertisements in social media, then you can have an online marketer customize a package for you as well.
The price range for an online marketing strategy can range anywhere from as low as $99 all the way up to $15000 per campaign. This will all depend on your requirements and budget. In addition, if you are able to develop your own website, then this could cost less for you. All you will need is a domain name and a web hosting service to start off—both of which would cost less than a $100.
Most companies these days are aware of the advantages of websites. In fact, most established businesses do both online and offline efforts. Notice that when you watch a commercial, in the end some would endorse their websites. This is probably because businesses are planning to put all their efforts online as they know that this is more beneficial since companies can communicate more of what they want through there. All they would have to do to be continuously successful in this field is to make it a point to maintain the website and make sure that it does not collect cobwebs.
Ultimately, both online and offline efforts are still effective, but for companies looking for a way to save more money and yet still have an effective marketing strategy, then creating a website is the solution for them.