The “constant” use of the Internet among adults continues to increase more and more. And although we say it often, the way people shop and purchase has really changed with it, which means offline marketing is not as effective as it once was, but rather can be seen as a supplemental resource.
Today’s marketing means connecting with your audience in the right place at the right time. Today, that means meeting them where they are already spending time: on the Internet.
Enter digital marketing , in other words, any form of marketing that exists online.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing encompasses a range of strategies and tools that are adopted on the Web. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, e-mail and other Web sites to connect with current and potential customers.
Why is digital marketing important?
Digital marketing helps you reach a wider audience than you could with traditional methods and target potential customers who are more likely to buy your product or service. It is also often more cost-effective than traditional advertising and allows you to measure success on a daily basis and target as you see fit.
Benefits of digital marketing
You can target only those potential customers who are most likely to buy your product or service.
If you place an ad on TV, in a magazine, or on a billboard, you have limited control over who sees the ad. Sure, you can measure some demographics, including typical magazine readership or the demographics of a given neighborhood, but it’s still largely a shot in the dark.
Digital marketing, on the other hand, allows you to identify and target a highly specific audience and send personalized, high-converting marketing messages to that audience.
For example, you could leverage social media targeting features to show social media ads to a specific audience based on variables such as age, gender, location, interests, networks, or behaviors. Alternatively, you could use PPC or SEO strategies to deliver ads to users who have shown interest in your product or service or who have searched for specific keywords related to your industry.
Ultimately, digital marketing allows you to conduct the research necessary to identify your buyer and refine your marketing strategy over time to ensure that you are reaching potential customers who are more likely to buy. Most importantly, digital marketing helps you market to subgroups within your broader target audience. If you sell multiple products or services to different buyers, this is especially useful.
It is more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods.
Digital marketing allows you to monitor campaigns on a daily basis and reduce the amount of money you are spending on a particular channel if it is not demonstrating a high ROI (return on investment). The same cannot be said for traditional forms of advertising. It doesn’t matter how your billboard performs-it still costs the same regardless of whether or not it converts for you.
Also, with digital marketing, you have complete control over where you choose to spend your money. You can pay for PPC (pay per click) campaigns, or you can choose to spend money on SEO and target organic search, trying to climb the ranks on Google. A digital marketing strategy allows you to continually rotate, ensuring that you never waste money on channels that don’t work well.
In general, digital marketing is a more cost-effective solution and gives you unique opportunities to ensure you get the most out of your investment.
For example, if you work for a small business with a limited budget , you might try investing in social media, blogging or SEO: three strategies that can give you a high ROI even with minimal spending.
Digital marketing allows you to get ahead of the bigger players in your industry.
If you work for a small business, chances are you’re competing with the major brands in your industry, many of which have millions of dollars to invest in TV spots or national campaigns. Fortunately, there are many opportunities to outperform the big players through strategic digital marketing initiatives.
For example, you could identify a few long-tail keywords that relate to your product or service and create high-quality content to help you rank on search engines for those keywords. Search engines don’t care which brand is the biggest: instead, search engines will prioritize content that resonates best with your target audience.
In addition, social media allows you to reach new audiences through influencers or endorsements. If you work for a small-to-medium sized company, this might be a good avenue to consider.
Digital marketing is measurable.
Digital marketing can give you a complete view, from start to finish, of all the metrics that might be important to your business, including impressions, shares, views, clicks and time on page. This is one of the biggest benefits of digital marketing. Although traditional advertising can be useful for certain goals, its biggest limitation is measurability.
Unlike most offline marketing efforts, digital marketing allows marketers to see accurate results in real time. If you have ever advertised via a billboard or newspaper, you will know how difficult it is to estimate how many people paid attention to your ad. There is no sure way to know if that ad was responsible for any sales.
On the other hand, with digital marketing, you can measure the ROI of virtually any aspect of your marketing efforts.
Main digital marketing channels
Website and SEO
A website is the core of all digital marketing activities. On its own, it is a very powerful channel, but it is important that this is optimized for organic search and therefore easily reachable by search term/keywords. To do this, it is important to take into account many aspects that are part of SEO: from mobile optimization, to speed and many other aspects that you can learn more about here
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
PPC advertising allows marketers to reach Internet users on a variety 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 products or services. PPC campaigns can segment users based on their demographics (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.
Content Marketing
The goal of content marketing is to reach potential customers through the use of content. Content is usually published on a Web site and then promoted through social media, e-mail marketing, SEO or even PPC campaigns. Content marketing tools include blogs, ebooks, online courses, infographics, podcasts and webinars.
Email marketing
Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels. Many people confuse email marketing with spam emails, but that is not the goal of email marketing. Email marketing is the means to connect with your potential customers or people interested in your brand. Many digital marketers use all other digital marketing channels to add leads to their email lists and then, through email marketing, create customer acquisition channels to turn those leads into customers.
Social media marketing
The main goal of a social media marketing campaign is brand awareness and social trust building. As you delve deeper into social media marketing, you can use it to gain leads or even as a direct sales channel.
If you want to learn more about this topic, you can read this article and also understand what a social media manager does
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing, and the Internet has brought new life to this old standby. With affiliate marketing, influencers promote other people’s products and earn a commission every time a sale is made or a lead is introduced. Many well-known companies such as Amazon have affiliate programs that pay millions of dollars a month to Web sites that sell their products.
Video marketing
YouTube has become the second most popular search engine, and many users turn to YouTube before making a purchase decision, to learn something, read a review, or just to relax. There are several video marketing platforms, including Facebook videos, Instagram, or even TikTok to use to run a video marketing campaign. Companies achieve the most success with video by integrating it with SEO, content marketing, and broader social media marketing campaigns.
SMS messaging
Companies and nonprofit organizations also use SMS or text messages to send information about their latest promotions or offer opportunities to available customers. Even running political candidates use SMS message campaigns to spread positive information about their platforms. As technology advances, many text-to-give campaigns also allow customers to pay or donate directly through a simple text message.
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