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In terms of newspaper readers versus online readers, it is no longer a question of why online marketing has become a staple and print media is losing ground. The real question is why online marketing is working so well. Consider the advantages it has over print media in terms of time, costs, and effect. Let’s go into more detail of why online marketing is gaining popularity.

Buyers Look Online
Buyers are changing. While direct mail marketing isn’t one for the history books yet, the new aspects of marketing are web usage. Buyers are smarter with their money; they don’t just immediately spend it on the first ad they see. They research products, competitors and prices, often online, making direct marketing far more difficult. This is not to say you can no longer use direct marketing, but online marketing may have more of an immediate impact.

Media Usage Down, Web Usage Up
In the book “Get Content, Get Customers,” it’s noted that while newspaper sales are going down, PC usage is going up. Look at the huge growth in Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn users, compare it to how major newspapers are losing ground and cutting budgets, and you’ll see why online marketing is superior. Again, this is not to say traditional media marketing and coverage has no place, but in the last 40 years, newspapers readers have almost been halved in certain age groups, while internet usage has gone from nothing to billions.

Immediate Impact of Online Marketing
Online marketing can be easier to track, easier to implement, and easier to see the results. This is because of advancing digital technologies for tracking search engine rates, site traffic, and click throughs. For example, with Google Analytics, you can get a free reporting tool showing visitor trends, traffic sources, page visits and even what keywords people are using to find your site. Try getting the same kind of information and reporting from your print marketing.

Easier to Build Prospect and Customer Base
With email marketing, blog RSS feeds, social media accounts, and other useful content technologies, building up a base of leads, prospects, and customers has become much more streamlined.

For example, you can use search engine marketing, either SEO or Pay-Per-Click, to capture leads and send them to your website. From there, say they fill out a form requesting more information. You provide said information, but they continue to shop around. You however, captured their email address and they agreed to opt-in to your monthly newsletter. Next month you send out your email, they never found a better solution and return to your website to make a purchase.

Of course, there are many different ways online marketing works; this is just one example to demonstrate how simple online marketing can be when it comes to building a base of clients and reaching new customers.

Online Is Cheaper and Easier
While print media is likely going to stay for some time, it is simply easier and faster to publish online. You can run a blog, website, social page, and newsletter for incredibly low amounts and publish all the content yourself. With print, you’re restricted to publication deadlines and sometimes have to pay exorbitant amounts for ad space. This, however, is not to say effective online marketing is cheap, only that it can cut down marketing costs.

As you can see, online marketing is nothing new; we’ve been doing it for years. However, why we use it is changing. Buyers are adapting to being sold, having likely experienced thousands of commercials, received hundreds of direct mail letters, listened to radio ads, and looked over newspaper editorials. Now they are experiencing blogs, sites, email, and social pages. Why is simple: it is an easier way to get information.