Digital marketing—including content and email marketing, paid search, and social media—is gaining momentum. Growing at an annual rate of more than 11%, digital marketing expenditures are expected to reach $120 billion by 2021. In fact, it’s projected that, by 2021, marketers will spend 75% of their total marketing budget online rather than in traditional media.

The meteoric rise of digital marketing expenditures is not surprising. Thanks to social media and easy access to expert opinion, consumers are now more selective about the brands they want to associate with, and they’re increasingly tuning out direct advertising pitches on TV and radio and in print. (45% of Americans used ad-blockers in 2017.) Savvy consumers now prefer digital content that provides more direct information about their interests, and they’re more likely to favor brands that are endorsed on their social media channels. 

Better Results, Greater ROI

Digital marketing is proving to be far more cost effective than traditional marketing. Consider the following statistics: 

•  Content marketing has a 6X higher conversion rate at a fraction of what it costs to promote a brand through traditional channels.

•  Consumers who purchase products through email spend 138% more than those who don’t receive email offers. What’s more, 80% of retail professionals say that email marketing is the most powerful driver of customer retention.

• 59% of global consumers now use social media as a source of inspiration for product purchases. 76% of U.S. consumers have purchased a product they’ve seen on a brand’s social media post. 

A Key Ingredient for Success

To get the most out of any digital marketing investment, you should start with a strategic plan—detailing who you need to reach, why they need your technical expertise or services, then what content you need to deliver to achieve those objectives. Finally, its important that you tell your story in a compelling way that it connects and resonates.

 All the digital channels, platforms and paid media in the world won’t help build a brand without high-quality, relevant and authentic content behind them. Creative ideas and well-crafted stories have always been, and will always be, the most critical component of any marketing strategy. What we call digital marketing is simply the modern way to deliver those ideas.

Quality content is: 

•  Original, written specifically for your business in your brand voice

•  Tailored to the needs and concerns of your audience

•  Engaging, even entertaining, and meant to be shared with others

•  Designed to invite action of some sort—whether that’s social sharing, downloading a resource, signing up for a consultation or encouraging a word-of-mouth recommendation

A New Program to Improve Digital Marketing Initiatives

To help our partners expand their digital presence with quality content, we’ve introduced a unique program called Ingram Micro Partner Connect—an effective way for vendors to share useful information with solution providers and for solution providers to get the digital marketing support they need. The program is flexible. Partners can use their own content or choose from a variety of Ingram Micro-created content and campaigns that are transformed into your unique brand voice, look and feel.

A key advantage of Partner Connect is the data-backed analytics it provides. Metrics on search activity, campaign effectiveness and preference offer invaluable insight so partners can fine-tune their digital marketing efforts to maximize results.

To learn more about Partner Connect and how to participate, contact the program manager, Wendy Sanacore.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.