Digital marketing, also known as online marketing, refers to advertising delivered through digital
channels to promote brands and connect potential customers using the internet and other forms of
digital communication
Consumers today rely heavily on digital means to research products. Some 77% of customers
research a brand online before engaging with it, according to HubSpot Research. Meanwhile, 51% of
consumers say they use Google to research products before buying.
Types of digital marketing:
There are as many specializations within digital marketing as there are
ways of interacting using digital media. Here are a few key examples of types of digital marketing
tactics.
Search engine optimization:
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is technically a marketing tool rather than a form of marketing in
itself. The Balance defines it as “the art and science of making web pages attractive to search
engines.”
The "art and science" part of SEO is what’s most important.
Search engine optimization:
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is technically a marketing tool rather than a form of marketing in
itself. The Balance defines it as “the art and science of making web pages attractive to search
engines.”
The "art and science" part of SEO is what’s most important. SEO is a science because it requires you
to research and weigh different contributing factors to achieve the highest possible ranking on a
search engine results page (SERP).
Social Media Marketing:
Using social media to advertise a brand, products, or services. Social media marketing allows
a brand to insert itself into ongoing conversations on channels such as Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram. Best practices for effective social media marketing include creating
interesting content that links back to your website as well as publicly replying to questions
and comments.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Digital marketing involves marketing to consumers through any number of digital channels.
This form of marketing is commonly executed on websites, mobile devices, and social media
platforms.
This form of marketing is different from internet marketing, which is exclusively done on
websites.
Digital marketing is a broad field, including attracting customers via email, content
marketing, search platforms, social media, and more.
Website Marketing:
A website is the centerpiece of all digital marketing activities. It is a very powerful channel
on its own, but it’s also the medium needed to execute a variety of online marketing
campaigns. A website should represent a brand, product, and service in a clear and
memorable way. It should be fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising:
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising enables marketers to reach Internet users on a number of
digital platforms through paid ads. Marketers can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing,
LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook and show their ads to people searching for terms
related to the products or services.
PPC campaigns can segment users based on their demographic characteristics (such as by
age or gender), or even target their particular interests or location. The most popular PPC
platforms are Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
Email Marketing:
Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels. Many people
confuse email marketing with spam email messages, but that’s not what email marketing is
all about. This type of marketing allows companies to get in touch with potential customers
and anyone interested in their brands.
Many digital marketers use all other digital marketing channels to add leads to their email
lists and then, through email marketing, they create customer acquisition funnels to turn
those leads into customers.
1. Global Reach
Traditional marketing is restricted by geography and creating an international marketing campaign
can be hard, expensive, as well as labour-intensive. However, digital marketing happens on the
Internet, which means that the reach you can achieve with it is immense. Even a very small local
business owner has the ability to reach an international audience with an online store. This would
never be possible with traditional marketing or would cost a whole lot of money to do so. This
online accessibility has opened many growth opportunities for businesses to explore. The
combination of global reach and visibility is a great opportunity for any business.
2. Local Reach
While global reach is a significant advantage of digital marketing, it also improves local visibility,
which is especially important if your business relies on nearby customers. Local SEO and locally
targeted ads can be beneficial for companies trying to bring more customers to their doors. Think of
the reach you can get to a whole neighbourhood with digital marketing versus the reach it would
take you to print out flyers and distribute them around.
3. Lower Cost
Whether you want to promote your business locally or internationally,
Digital marketing, provides
you with cost-effective solutions. It allows even the smallest companies to compete with larger
companies using highly targeted strategies. Most of these strategies won’t even cost anything at all
to start with (such as SEO, social media, and content marketing). However, not every form of digital
marketing is suitable for every business and some may even have more costs than others. A business
can find appropriate solutions based on its marketing goals.
4. Easy to Learn
While there are many aspects of digital marketing that you need to learn, it is fairly easy to get
started with. It gets more complex from the nature of the goals and the scale of the campaigns.
However, it is all a matter of finding the right strategy that works for your business.
The benefits of
Digital marketing, are immense. One can never explain the short-term and long-term
benefits of blog marketing enough. It is a greatly rewarding process but rewards require hard work.
Creating and establishing a successful and popular blog takes time, effort, and consistency. The
world of blog marketing is out there, waiting for you to explore it and make the most of the benefits
of blog marketing as are possible. Start today, start with one step and before you know it, your blog
would start paying you more than what you invested in it in the first place.