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Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing
Have you heard of gummy bear vitamins? You must have- Kylie Jenner promoted a great deal of it on her Instagram account. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t follow the Kardashians? This type of marketing is called influencer marketing. Super interesting, no?
In one way or another, you might have heard the word digital marketing since everybody is talking about it nowadays. You will see your university providing certain courses on it, or you will see various videos on Youtube talking about the importance and popularity of digital marketing.
Since Rezaid also provides digital marketing services with various other services, we get asked a lot about digital marketing. Fret no more because, in this article, we will give you a detailed review of what digital marketing is.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a form of marketing that promotes or sells any service on the internet. Different marketing channels like email, social media, SEO — which are great examples of digital marketing- are used to reach the target audience.
Many people confuse digital marketing with internet marketing but these two are very different, and should not be used interchangeably. Digital marketing encompasses all the digital channels which are used to promote services or products whereas internet marketing, also called online marketing, is a subset of digital marketing that includes all the strategies used to increase your online presence. Banner ads, email lists, and PPC are some examples of internet marketing
History of Digital Marketing
Before we start talking about digital marketing in-depth, you should know a little bit about its history and how it all began.
You may wonder who the father or inventor of digital marketing is? Enter 1896, the year radio was invented by the famous Guglielmo Marconi, who is considered the world’s first digital marketer. However, some people disagree with Marconi being the first digital marketer.
Ray Tomlinson, who was a computer engineer, was the first person ever to send an email in 1971 so people think he is the rightful owner of the throne. We won’t get into the discussion of who should get the credit. That’s up to you to decide who is more worthy of being called the father of digital marketing.
Over the years, many people have contributed to this field, but Philip Kotler, who is a well-known American professor, has made a lasting impact on the marketing world. He published the first proper book on the principles of marketing and marketing management. Later on, he wrote more than 70 books in the marketing field, and he was the first one to realize that marketing was an essential part of economics and proposed that demand for goods and services was not only influenced by price, but also by advertising, promotions, direct mail, retailers, and distribution channels.
Yeah, imagine being smart enough to come up with that.
What are the Different Types of Digital Marketing?
Different types of digital marketing tools are used to create an effective and comprehensive strategy to increase the online presence and yield the best results. There are a total of 11 types of digital marketing which are mentioned below:
- Content marketing
- SEO
- Social media marketing
- PPC
- Display advertising
- Email marketing
- Mobile marketing
- Affiliate and influencer marketing
- Video advertising
- Audio advertising
We will talk about each in detail so that you understand which combinations of categories will work best for your business.
Remember, you don’t have to include every type of digital marketing in your marketing strategy. Just choose the ones that go with your goal and will best suit your business model.
- Content Writing
The posts you see on Instagram or any other social media platform, the blogs you read, the videos you watch- this is all part of content writing. What’s the purpose of it? Its main aim is to target your audience by gifting them high-quality content constantly.
Ever heard of the phrase content is king? There is a reason this phrase exists. If you post the right content and make your customers feel like you care, their loyalty and purchase decisions will all be impacted in a positive way which will give you an edge over your competitors. This will help you to build a strong, lasting relationship with your customers.
The right content will help you to connect with your customers that will lead to more sales. One of the most vital aspects of content writing is consistency. Whatever you post, be it videos, blogs, or any content on social media, it should be published regularly with the target audience in mind. You want to establish your brand in such a way that people will come to you first for relevant information and the latest industry trends.
2. SEO
If you Google “ultimate guide to cryptocurrency”, you will see some blogs at the topmost page, and why are these blogs at the top? There must be some reason that you don’t see these blogs on the second or third page.
This is what SEO, also called search engine optimization, is all about: bringing your page’s ranking up so that it has better visibility and credibility. This is done by doing a thorough analysis on keyword research, loading speed, and building relevant backlinks
SEO is one of the most important types of digital marketing as it can lead to relevant traffic to your page that makes your business or brand grow significantly. That will increase your organic search positions on sites like Bing and Google. The concept of organic ranking is the main difference between SEM and SEO which means you rank organically and not by paying or promoting your content.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the process of using social media platforms to generate attention and traffic. Using social platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook can grow your business by helping you reach a wider audience. Through targeted ads, your reach can grow vastly.
Sites like Facebook and Instagram collect data about your likes, dislikes, interests, etc, and create targeted ads through this information. It can lead to more exposure for your organisation and it can also help to build relationships with your consumers.
Moreover, as it is a form of a digital marketing channel, you can inform your customers about your new products and their features, all the exciting new offers thus keeping your customers up to date about everything within seconds.
4. PPC
PPC (pay-per-click), is paid search advertising, like Google and Bing. When you Google a query, you see Ads on the side of some pages. This means that these pages bought a top-ranking position via an auction based on demographics, keywords, and geographical location. In simple words, your blog or article can move to the top of search engine results pages through paid ads.
Every time someone clicks on the advert, the ad account is charged. Because there are four spots on Google Ads, getting your blog or website is extremely challenging and requires a lot of research, and implementation of an effective strategy is required to reach that spot.
5. Display Advertising
When you are browsing through some website, and you see banners on the side saying click on this ad? This is what display advertising is all about. Advertising your business through visual content like gifs, text or images, on a publisher’s website is an effective type of digital marketing.
You can target specific publications to increase your presence online by targeting your ideal consumers. Display advertising can be executed either through a network like Google Display or through any other ad network of our liking that goes with your target audience.
6. Email Marketing
You may think, email marketing? Is this the 1980s or something? Let us tell you that. Email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing tools, and a lot of people sleep on it as they find it old school.
Email marketing involves sending information or offers directly to your users’ inboxes. It’s all about keeping your audience updated with relevant and useful information. Moreover, it is a great way of reaching your audience and interacting with them. This builds customer loyalty as it encourages meaningful interaction with your brand that leads to the generation of sales revenue.
Email marketing requires a lead capture strategy that grows your email list by collecting email addresses through various techniques. The main purpose of this is to convert visitors into customers.
Remember: you don’t want to spam your consumers. Not only does this look unprofessional, but your email can land in the spam box. To overcome this problem, choose an email software like ConvertKit and then select certain times of the day at which you will send the emails. Your email should have an eye-catching title otherwise it will be lost in the sea of other emails.
7. Mobile Marketing
Mobile advertising is a form of advertising via mobile. Because consumers nowadays are spending more time on their mobiles (can’t argue with that), businesses are shifting more of their advertising budget into mobile marketing. This type of digital marketing tool is effective if you are targeting a younger audience as they spend a lot of time on their phones.
Make sure your content is mobile-friendly so that it looks clear and competent. some other better adjective? Competent? Better readability? on different devices. You can hyper-target mobile ads by using geofencing, which is based on the consumer’s physical location. You will be able to target mobile phone ads to a clearly defined and relevant audience. When running your mobile ad campaigns, Key Metrics or Google Analytics can be used to collect data.
8. Affiliate and Influencer Marketing
Let’s find out what influencer marketing is and how it is related to the Kardashians.
On Instagram or YouTube, you will see celebrities and influencers promoting certain products, this is called influencer marketing. The influencer will promote your products, and in return, they will receive a commission for deriving that sale.
Affiliate marketing is when you generate revenue by offering your audience special offers, discounts, and sales. So, both types of marketing promote your product or brand through their followers or their blogs.
This type of marketing has become very popular in recent years especially, on YouTube and Instagram. Collaborations are done in which they give discount codes, sponsor blog posts, etc to create a hype of your brand or business.
The key is to find the right influencer for your brand. Make sure they have a good reputation as people start to boycott certain brands just because the brand is associated with a certain influencer.
9. Video Marketing
We all hate watching ads on youtube especially when there is no skip ad button! This form of marketing is called paid video marketing.
Organic video marketing is when you post videos on social media to update your audience with all the new and exciting offers.
It’s a super-effective way of getting your message across as people tend to remember the message from a video rather than reading it from a text. Sometimes your message is so technical and complex that it’s hard to put into words so it’s better that you make a video regarding it and promote your content.
10. Audio Marketing
Audio Marketing includes podcasts, smart home assistants like Alexa or Google Home, and radio.
People may find audio marketing ineffective, however, it can play a great part in increasing your brand’s online presence. People listen to the radio every week especially when they are going to work or coming home after a long day at work, so it reaches the audience in key moments throughout the day. You can also contact relevant podcasts to see if you can appear as a guest to reach a wider audience.
The world of digital audio is only beginning as mediums like Spotify and Apple Music are becoming popular day by day. Not only is it a convenient medium to convey your message, but it can also be cheaper and easier to produce than a video.
What are the Benefits of Digital Marketing?
Now that you know about various types of digital marketing tools, let’s talk about the different benefits or uses of digital marketing so let’s dive right into it.
- Target Your Ideal Audience
Every business has a target audience. You can’t make an ad on an iPhone and expect everyone to relate to it. Since not everyone prefers android over iPhone.
One of the numerous benefits of digital marketing is that you can target your audience effectively. In today’s era, we have different online tools to collect all the information related to your desired audience, and you can create ads or products with astonishing specificity.
In other words, you can offer user-specific products or services that your customers may be interested in. This will lead to a higher return on investment and a greater percentage of leads.
When you use marketing strategies like SEO, you create buyer personas. A buyer persona is the representation of your based on research and data. You can target people who are most likely to buy your product or use your service. Specific ads on Facebook or Instagram should be run in hopes that they will reach people who are interested in your business.
In contrast, targeting people with traditional marketing methods would be extremely difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Also, this level of depth cannot be reached by traditional marketing.
2. Measurable Results
One of the best things about digital marketing is that it gives you the ability to track how well your campaign is progressing by allowing you to measure the results.
By seeing how well the campaign is performing, it allows you to change elements or alter the message in such a way that will help you achieve the best results. At the end of each campaign, detailed data is provided which can be analyzed for future campaigns. This can tell us which part of the campaign was best received so that we can incorporate those specific elements more often.
With traditional marketing, like running an ad in the newspaper, you don’t know how many people read your ad and whether it was effective or not. Nowadays, there are digital newspapers like Time, The Wall Street Journal which show that physical newspapers are outdated.
When it comes to digital marketing, you can measure and everything. You can measure which ads did consumers click on the most, for how much time did they stay on the website, what things did they buy, etc. Software like Google Analytics can help in monitoring the data which includes clicks, impressions, comments, shares, etc.
3. Reaches People at Every Stage of Buying Cycle
Buying cycle is all about the journey a customer goes through from discovering the product to purchasing it. The stages of the buying cycle include research, awareness, consideration, retention, and conversion. One of the huge benefits of digital marketing is that it can engage your audience at every stage of the buying cycle, as it can track every step of your customer.
You must make an impact at the early stages of the buying cycle so, with the help of digital marketing, you can reach your customers at the start of the buying journey.
This leads to brand exposure and makes them aware of your online presence. It makes your brand memorable even if they don’t buy anything. This ensures that an impact is created at the beginning of the buyer’s journey.
4. Better Conversion Rates
When you target your audience efficiently, it can increase your conversion rate as it helps you target people who might be interested in your business and hence can become your potential clients.
If you have a website, then it’s very convenient for customers to just click and make a purchase( shopaholics, where you at?) whereas other media require the physical presence of a customer to make a purchase. This makes digital marketing fast and seamless, and this leads to an improved conversion rate.
With traditional marketing, it’s very hard to track the conversion rate as you don’t know how people saw your ad on the billboard or how many people saw your ad in the newspaper.
If you can’t track your advertisement’s performance then you won’t be able to optimize it. In conclusion, the conversion rate can be improved more conveniently with digital marketing as compared to traditional marketing.
What are Some of the Disadvantages of Digital Marketing?
Now, let’s talk about the drawbacks of digital marketing because every pro has a con too. Let’s dive right into it.
- Intense Competition
Because of intense global competition, digital marketing campaigns have become extremely competitive. This has made it extremely difficult to stand out and make a mark in front of your audience.
To stay relevant, you have to come up with a comprehensive and well-thought strategy, incorporating various types of digital marketing tools.
Customers are bombarded with advertisements from all sides, so it’s a big challenge to grab the attention of the consumers and make them brand loyal.
You not only have to anticipate their needs, but you also have to be quick when it comes to responding to their needs. You constantly have to stay on your toes and one wrong move can drive you out of the competition.
2. Security Issues
We all have seen Mark Zuckerberg and the endless congress memes. But why did he have to testify in congress? Two words for it. Data leak.
For any organization, consumer data protection should be the top priority because it can destroy the reputation of the company (Facebook can relate). It may even shut off the business forever. Hence, security should be the primary requirement for any brand.
Digital marketing is exposed to spammers and hackers, which can lead to breaches of security and misuse of media accounts.
Therefore, software like firewalls and VPN should be used to make sure that your network connections are secured to avoid cyber threats like scams and identity theft.
3. Time-Consuming
One of the drawbacks of digital marketing is that it is time-consuming. You have to make sure that all of your strategies and tactics are organised otherwise they will take most of your time. Hence, finding enough time to spend on your digital marketing campaigns daily can become difficult. This can lead to negative results, which can affect other areas of your business.
Use digital marketing tools like Ahrefs or HubSpot and use scheduling tools like Hootsuite to overcome any issues you can face in terms of time.
4. Technology Dependency
Nowadays, people have a very short attention span (we blame social media for it), and they want instant results. So, if they come to your page and your website’s server is down, then they will move on to your competitor’s website.
You will end up losing a potential loyal consumer, so you have to make sure that your website is working at all times, all pages are loading, and buttons are working.
Conclusion
So, hopefully, after reading the entire article, you will realize that digital marketing is the future
For your business to excel in terms of customer service and brand loyalty, you must focus heavily on digital marketing and its tools. Now, you can reach your audience not just internationally but globally, so you must master the art of coming up with effective marketing strategies for your business.
In the words of William Shakespeare, “The world is your oyster”. Go ahead and dominate your brand by implementing different types of digital marketing tools and take advantage of the resources you have.
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