What is Digital Marketing? A Comprehensive Guide – Technologist
Online marketing has seen a significant shift throughout the previous years. Traditional advertising is used to help corporations generate millions of dollars. However, its effectiveness has diminished. Digital marketing has now taken over the market. Businesses utilize online platforms to sell their brands to a large audience since billions of people have access to the Internet.
So, keeping in multiple factors I have considered it crucial to highlight different basics of digital marketing with you in this precious note.
What is Digital Marketing?
In simple words, Digital Marketing is a way of promoting something using channels related to the Internet. They are emails, internet advertisements, social media, etc. Radio and TV are also included but they aren’t the main focus.
It seems that in the years to come, the marketing sector will keep growing quickly. This market will be valued at $786 billion by the year 2026. If you take a general look at it, you will understand why it is blooming. It focuses on channels that a general person spends a lot of time on.
This person spends around 7 hours a day on the Internet. Marketing to such a person constantly will bring massive results. Besides this, it gives you global coverage. Your ads won’t be published on a single geographically-restricted channel. It will have a worldwide reach meaning you’ll have more audience.
Types of Digital Marketing:
Digital Marketing is an umbrella term. There are different types of marketing that are included in it. Each of these types has its market that is worth millions. Some major types that businesses and marketers focus on are given below:
Social Media Marketing:
When you mention Digital Marketing to a general person, he will instantly picture ads running on social media. That is because social media marketing has become a major entity in today’s world. Almost every brand is trying to build a decent online presence on social media platforms. They include Facebook, Instagram, etc.
There are different things included in this marketing.
- Conducting audience research.
- Creating quality and captivating content.
- Account creation on different platforms.
- Engaging with followers directly.
- Running specific ads.
Search Engine Optimization:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is another big part of digital marketing. It is related to websites and search engines. These days, each business has a website. It offers its services through this site or uses it as a relevant content-sharing platform.
But having such a site isn’t enough. You have to optimize it using SEO practices so that it can show at the top search results. Securing a place in these results means you will have traffic in millions.
You can then convert this traffic to potential customers. If you don’t offer products or services, you may leverage this traffic to make money from advertisements.
Major things that are included in this Digital Marketing pillar are:
- Keyword researching.
- Website building using different methods.
- Optimizing the structure of the site for user-friendliness.
- Optimizing the content so that search engines can analyze it.
- Link building with different websites.
Email Marketing:
Although many communication apps have been developed, emails are used for professional communication. Many people still use them for personal communication as well. That’s why, businesses use Email Marketing.
In this type, professionals create emails related to different aspects of their brand and send them to their audience. These emails are sent to the target audience so the impact is a lot. These emails can be related to a bunch of different things.
For example, an onboard email is sent to the people who have recently joined your business. Similarly, an introductory email is sent to people who just subscribed to your newsletter. The basic goal is to persuade a person to purchase your product eventually. Some basic things this type includes are:
- Audience research.
- Email address list building.
- Copywriting for emails.
- Using email management services.
Search Engine Ads:
Businesses that want an audience to their website quicker tend to use search engine ads instead of SEO. Have you ever searched for a product on a search engine and it shows the word “ad” in front of the site on its front page?
Well, that’s search engine advertisement in action. These engines offer ad-running facilities such as Google Adsense to website owners. Their websites are shown at the top instead of the site being ranked organically. As a return, these engines receive money and make a good revenue.
Content Marketing:
Content Marketing is a general marketing method that is used in all the types we discussed above. It relates to creating and sharing quality and useful content with your audience. The main purpose of this type is to build proper brand authority in the industry. It also helps you educate your audience on different topics related to your business.
Why is Digital Marketing Important?
It is important for the following reasons:
Global reach:
As mentioned earlier, billions of people have access to the Internet. Marketing your business via it gives you a global reach. You can run a business in the US and access relevant clients in Australia with the help of it. This global reach can help some businesses make billions of dollars.
Costs less:
This strategy costs a lot less than traditional marketing. Several tools used in it are available on the Internet. Most of these tools are completely free to use. Even if they are paid, their prices are extremely low compared to the work results they bring.
Easily measurable results:
You can easily measure results here. For example, you have no way of telling how many people saw your ad in a newspaper. However, you can know it for digital ad running on social media. Not only that. You can measure different other metrics as well. For example, you can know how many people clicked on your site ad through PPC.
Easy alteration:
As we mentioned, you can easily measure the performance of your marketing efforts in this form of marketing. If the performance is bad, you can easily make changes to your strategy.
For example, if your blog isn’t ranking as it should, you can make different changes to it. You can update the content or make changes in the keywords etc. Making these changes is easy and they can impact the result massively.
Direct connections with customers:
This marketing offers you an opportunity to connect with your customers directly. You can engage with your emails and comment on your social media posts. Besides this, they can directly message you on these platforms as well. Having such connections with them builds a positive environment of trust.
Building a Digital Marketing Strategy:
The effect of this marketing can be huge on your brand. However, it cannot be achieved without a proper strategy.
- First, determine your end goal. It will help you form a strategy that will only focus on these goals saving you time and resources.
- Then, choose the right marketing type. This means that you have to pick whether you want to perform email marketing or SEO.
- Before going further, make sure to conduct audience research. It will help you know what type of people your marketing needs to target.
- Once done, pick the right platform. This point is more relevant to Social Media Marketing. It explains that you have to decide whether you want to market on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
- After this, create a proper content strategy. This means that you have to know what type of content is going to work on your chosen platforms.
- Now, start creating and sharing content.
- Make sure to analyze the received results and make changes in the strategy if required.
Digital Marketing has become the primary way of promoting your business in this modern age. That is because billions of people are using online digital channels. Marketing on these channels helps brands reach out to a global audience.
In this way, they have a better chance of attracting more and more customers. There are different types of this marketing that we have discussed comprehensively above. Besides this, we have also mentioned how you can build a proper Digital Marketing strategy for your business.
Is Digital Marketing expensive?
Not at all. This marketing strategy is a cheaper option compared to traditional ones.
Is the SEO performance of a site trackable?
Yes. You can track it with different tools.
Can I hire a professional for this marketing?
Yes. Hiring a professional for this marketing is a good idea if you can afford it.
Can I market on multiple digital platforms simultaneously?
Indeed. You can market your brand on multiple platforms at the same time.
Can a brand use Facebook for eCommerce purposes?
Indeed. Facebook offers decent eCommerce opportunities.