What is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing

Data analysis by a well-known website “Statista” estimates that the total number of internet users was 5.18 billion worldwide till April 2023. This number is increasing exponentially as the internet is very accessible to the masses. Apart from this, the buying and selling mode of people has also changed in the past few years. People have been shifting to online shopping forums, finding it more convenient and accessible. Marketing is considered an important pillar of every kind of business. Connecting with your audience in the right place at the right time is the basic element of marketing. With increasing numbers of digital forums and internet users, digital marketing has become a lifeline for companies striving to stay relevant to the online business and to reach their target audience in an increasingly online-centric society. But to understand what exactly digital marketing is, let’s dive into the topic to untie the layers of this fascinating digital sphere.

What is digital marketing and why does it matter?

Digital marketing is the marketing or promotion of products, services, or brands to connect with potential consumers using the internet and other digital devices or technology such as computers, mobile phones, etc. These days, screen time is at its peak for several people. Digital marketing takes advantage of this reality, promoting businesses across the internet. In this way, businesses make sure that their marketing efforts are likely to reach consumers by targeting them where they consume most of their time.

“If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business”. Bill Gates

We all know how powerful the online market, in other words, digital marketing is. You can literally sell any product online, from stationery to fitness equipment or furniture.

Unlike traditional marketing, which is static and often referred to as one-way communication, digital marketing is a changing, dynamic process. It provides an avenue for two-way communication between a business and its actual prospective customers. Let’s take a step back to when businesses relied solely on traditional marketing methods such as print ads, billboards, TV, and radio commercials to promote their products or services. Although these methods were useful, they couldn’t match the precision and broad reach that digital marketing provides today. Successful digital marketing strategy generally involves a combination of various methods, including online advertising, search engine optimization, and marketing, social media marketing management, and content creation, among others.

Types of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the strategic use of digital channels, platforms, and technologies to connect with potential customers where they spend a significant amount of their time online. It encompasses a wide range of tactics and tools, each designed to engage, inform, and influence target audiences. Here, I am going to mention only seven types of digital marketing tactics. Companies may use more channels in their efforts depending on their business needs and goals.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Affiliate Marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Influencer Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As far as digital marketing strategies or tactics are concerned, the first thing that comes to mind is probably SEO, and it’s very essential. Nowadays, almost every business has a website, and SEO is the art of optimizing the content of your website to be visible and rank higher in search engine results pages (SERP), like Google, Bing, and others. To ensure that your site is performing properly, you have to follow the changes in search engines’ algorithms consistently and need to stay updated. It’s cost-effective as it increases the traffic of your site organically. There are several methods to adopt to make the process easier for your potential customers to find you, such as:

On-page SEO
Off-page SEO
Technical SEO

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

The goal of PPC is similar to SEO: to take your website or business to the top level of the search engine’s result page (SERP). You can differentiate PPC as a paid tool as it’s a form of advertising on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and others. It’s called PPC because when you run your ad campaign, your ad account is charged every time someone clicks it. It can be an efficient and quick way of grabbing potential customers or ranking higher on search engine result pages, but it’s not cost-effective.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is another type of digital marketing that is very important to build relationships with your customers. Your content can be the voice of your brand if you provide valuable and useful information to your target audience. Through content marketing, you can solve the problems of your customers and entertain them as well. Create content such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, and infographics to engage your target audience.

Qualitative and reliable content can help you generate leads, so it should be published consistently. This form of marketing is cost-effective if you produce it yourself.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing is one of the oldest, best, and still successful types of digital marketing. It’s an incredible way to promote businesses and services. The best way to start email marketing is to create a newsletter and ask people to sign up when they land on your website. The email list that you gather yourself is more reliable than any other (paid or taken from any 3rd party).

Now, use this platform to spread awareness and promotion of your brand or services by engaging your subscribers with thank you emails and sending them regular updates about your products. You can also take honest feedback from your customers to improve further.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is the best way to create a passive income stream. Marketers promote someone else’s product or services by adding their products and affiliate links on their websites. By doing so, they get a commission from every sale they make or every lead that is generated by affiliate links. Several well-known companies have affiliate programs and pay out millions of dollars to those marketers who sell their products.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is not only a popular but also a crucial part of digital marketing strategy for any business. You can increase your brand awareness, boost traffic to your website or social media pages, and make sales or generate leads by promoting your brand or services on different social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc. These platforms help companies or users to better engage with their customers and build relationships.

Influencer Marketing

It’s a growing form of marketing. It’s about the collaboration between influencers and brands to promote the products or services by using the massive following of influencers who have followers relevant to your niche.

Importance of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing helps businesses reach their target or niche-specific audience online to promote their products or services. There are many reasons why this market is important for your business growth. Let’s discuss a few of them.

Good for business awareness and growth: As you know, billions of people use the internet, so if you use good marketing strategies, you’ll be able to grow your business by creating awareness and generating leads.
Cost-effective: This marketing is ideal for brands that have limited funds or resources as it’s more cost-effective than traditional marketing.
More efficient: Implementation of good strategies can make the process more efficient and quicker. If you use just the basics of SEO techniques and post relevant content on social media consistently, you can improve the presence of your brand.
Measurable: In digital marketing, you can access huge amounts of data or metrics such as time on page, views, impressions, CTR, ROI, and so on, through which you can measure your success and failure to improve further.
Impressive return on investment (ROI): As it’s easy to track day-to-day performance in digital marketing, it allows you to optimize the campaign budget accordingly for a higher return on investment.

FAQ

Digital marketing is the promotion of your business or services online by using different digital channels, techniques, and methods.

How can I start digital marketing?

Take courses, gather knowledge, and practice what you learn. Identify your strengths and interests. Build your brand by creating your website and social media presence. Offer your services, be consistent, and stay up to date.

What’s the future of digital marketing?

The future of digital marketing is bright as billions of people are using the internet through smart or digital tools, and well-trained marketers reach their target audience to engage and entertain them wherever they are on the internet.

Why does digital marketing matter?

Digital marketing is the key to success as it’s cost-effective, efficient, and measurable. It also allows businesses to create brand awareness by reaching their potential customers where they spend time online. It can generate leads, sales, or conversions and increase ROI by using digital channels with smart tactics.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is growing or boosting brands by connecting and engaging with people. In this modern era, digital marketing is essential for every business looking to be successful. Its ability to reach, engage, and convert customers while offering profitable and measurable results makes it a powerful element of any rewarding marketing strategy.