What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing has become very important in the world of today. No company can ignore it.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing, in its broadest sense, refers to advertising carried out using digital channels such as search engines, websites, social media, email, and mobile applications. Digital marketing is a way for organisations to promote their products, services, and brands through the use of online media platforms. When it comes to doing product research, customers almost exclusively use digital tools. Around 48% of customers begin their enquiries on search engines, while 33% go to brand websites and 26% go to mobile apps.

When it comes to internet advertising, it’s far more complicated than just using the various channels that digital marketing has become in today’s world. Digital marketers must go into today’s huge and intricate cross-channel world to find tactics that have an impact through engagement marketing if they are to realise their full potential. In engagement marketing, you use the data you acquire over time to create meaningful interactions with potential and returning customers. You can create brand awareness, establish yourself as an industry thought leader, and position your company at the front of the line when a customer is ready to buy by engaging them in a digital landscape.
Marketers can gain useful insights into target audience behaviour while also opening the door to new types of client involvement by employing an omnichannel digital marketing approach. Companies might also expect to see an improvement in employee retention.

When it comes to digital marketing in the future, the number of wearable gadgets available to customers is only going to grow. Social media will become even more conversational, video material will be optimised for search engine placement (SEO), and email marketing will become even more tailored.

History of digital marketing

Consumers used to be at the whim of advertisers who dished out marketing messages via a few media channels, such as print, billboards, television, and radio, to keep them in the dark. That has all changed. As a result of their marketing efforts, these companies developed new markets and reinforced existing consumer preconceptions. Advertisement was mostly a one-way dialogue with a captive audience in the 1950s. TV ad campaigns have evolved and become a reliable marketing tool. Style was set by experts.

Due to the proliferation of digital media, people began to interact with one another and the companies they conducted business with differently. The old print and broadcast media’s influence has waned, resulting in a shift in the consumer-corporate relationship. Consumers now have more options because to digital outlets. By becoming active authors, publishers, and critics themselves, consumers ceased to be mere passive recipients of a commercial message. Consumers can exchange ideas in a participative digital environment. The conversation is no longer being driven by marketers. Consumers are increasingly the ones who set fashion trends.

It’s exceedingly tough for marketers in this new digital media to surface their content above the competition cacophony. While customers’ time spent online and on mobile devices has expanded substantially, the amount of content available has grown rapidly. An average person can consume more digital content in a year than is produced in a day. In this day and age of information overload, your audience has a short attention span.
Digital marketing has become increasingly important as a result of the rapid expansion of digital platforms. Digital marketing, on the other hand, goes beyond the medium. As a result, it serves as a method for users to create content and share their experiences with one another as well as the businesses they do business with.

How to do digital marketing?

Digital marketing and the channels that go along with it are critical, but they should not be used as a substitute for traditional methods. Just knowing your clients isn’t enough. You need to be able to interact with them where, when, and how they are most receptive to your message so you can get the best results.

This requires a consolidated view of client preferences and expectations across all channels, including the web, social media, mobile devices, direct mail, and point of sale transactions, for example Omnichannel retail analytics is used by retailers to do this. This data can be used by marketers to build and anticipate consistent, coordinated customer experiences that move customers along in the purchase cycle and increase revenue. You’re more likely to engage customers in profitable interactions when you have a better understanding of their behaviour and preferences.

SEO

It’s true what they say: SEO (search engine optimization) optimises for search engines. This entails creating content that people actively seek out as well as ensuring that this content and the platforms on which it resides are also optimised from a technical standpoint. This is something that everyone should be doing, regardless of their profession or industry.

Positive sides

• It’s completely free!
• In the eyes of your customers, your brand appears more ‘authentic’ and objective when it appears in the organic results of searches.

Negative sides

Creating amazing content and performing technical optimization on your website take time and effort even if you don’t have to pay for the results.
Due to Google’s ever-changing algorithms and the volume of content now available, it’s nearly impossible to achieve high rankings in organic search results.

Pay per click (PPC) campaign

Pay-per-click advertising, such as Google Adwords or Bing Ads, is paid search advertising. It has a similar appearance to the organic search results, with the exception of a small box at the top of the page that says ‘Ad.’ Top positions can be purchased via an auction based on keywords, geographic location and demographics; this is particularly beneficial for e-commerce and local businesses..

Positive sides

• If you’re willing to pay for it, PPC can quickly get you to the top of the rankings.
  If someone clicks on your ad, you only pay when they do so.

Negative sides

• Costs can add up quickly, especially if you’re attempting to rank for highly competitive keywords.
• Customers are wary of paid advertisements and prefer to rely on organic search results instead.

Mobile advertising

In terms of scope, mobile marketing is almost as broad as digital marketing as a whole. Adapting your desktop activities to mobile ones, as well as doing mobile-specific things like in-app advertising, text messaging, and using social messaging apps, are all part of the process of going mobile. It’s critical if you’re trying to reach a younger demographic that’s glued to their phones.

Positive sides

• As a result, customers (like you and me!) spend more time on their phones than on their computers these days, making mobile marketing essential.
• The use of geo-fencing or specific audience segments in mobile marketing can help mobile marketers reach people in a specific location.

Negative sides

• Your creative options on a phone are severely restricted by the small screen size and low click-through rate, and the vast majority of applications are only used once before being deleted.
• People don’t want to be interrupted while talking to family and friends by brands and marketing messages.

Social media platforms

Social media adds a new level of engagement and interaction over and above traditional media such as TV, print, and even online display advertising. As opposed to simply broadcasting messages to a large audience, you can engage with and listen to your customers directly. Everything from Facebook to Instagram to Twitter and LinkedIn to Pinterest and YouTube and Snapchat has options ranging from organic (like Facebook groups, posts and stories) to paid options (like Instagram ads). There are also a wide range of platforms from which you can advertise. Most businesses should be on at least a few of these social media platforms.

Positive sides

• The time and effort you put in can be multiplied by the number of people who like, comment on, and share your content.
• Facebook ads, in particular, have evolved to the point where you can now target specific customer segments with your content in order to ensure that your message is seen by the right audience.

Negative sides

• Social media’s owners are constantly adjusting their algorithms and finding new ways to make money, and it’s difficult to keep up with all of these changes and keep your marketing effective.
• Posting on social media may seem simple, but it takes a lot of time and effort to do it well and consistently.

Email marketing

Despite the fact that many people now communicate via instant messaging apps like WhatsApp or Snapchat, email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach customers online. Most retail brands, especially e-commerce ones, benefit greatly from using seasonal promotions and discounts (such as Black Friday deals or Mother’s Day sales). Email newsletters, on the other hand, can be used to nurture prospects by providing them with substantial value in addition to simply promoting your products and services.

Positive sides

Keep in touch with followers even if the algorithms change thanks to an email list (say, if Mr Zuckerberg suddenly decides to close down your Facebook group)

Keep in touch with your email list on a regular basis to foster relationships and stay at the top of their minds when it’s time to buy.

Negative sides

In order to get people’s attention from their cluttered inboxes, you’ll need to come up with compelling subject headings for your emails.

In order to keep their loyalty and prevent them from cancelling their subscription, you must continually add value.

Content marketing

Instead of simply broadcasting an advertising message, content marketing entails generating and disseminating material—text, images, and multimedia—that adds value for your audience. Business-to-consumer (“B2C”) content might include social media postings, blog articles and entertaining videos; business-to-business (“B2B”) content can mean more white papers or reports and webinars and educational films. B2C content can imply both.

Positive sides

• Rather than spending money to advertise to a cold audience, you can use this strategy for free to attract clients to your business and brand.
• In addition to helping you establish your brand by educating, entertaining, and inspiring your target audience, content is the fuel that powers all other forms of digital marketing, such as SEO, social media, and email.

Negative sides

• In an age where everyone is aware of content’s importance, it’s difficult to stand out in a crowded market full with blog posts, videos, and other types of material.
• Creating high-quality content that satisfies the demands of your customers and also represents your brand and helps you achieve your business goals is essential for success.

Influencer marketing

Marketing with influencers involves working with people who already have a following, such as celebrities, experts, and government officials. Loyal customers will buy from you if they see you promoting your product on a popular social media platform like Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube. Many people associate influencer marketing with celebrities like the Kardashians or some uber-hip young actress, but influencers can be just as effective in promoting B2B products because they are partnering with more serious and specific thought leaders or experts in their field.

Positive sides

• Instead of building your own audience from scratch, you can use the influencer’s already-existing one.
• Affiliating yourself with a well-known figure can give you instant ‘cool points,’ especially with a younger audience.

Negative sides

• While paying a large sum of money to get a big celebrity is an option, it’s much more effective if you choose the right influencer for your brand and target audience and partner with them in a genuine way.
• Influencers are becoming increasingly untrustworthy, so you must be extremely cautious and transparent when using them to promote your brand.

Affiliation advertising

Affiliate marketing is the practise of contracting out your product promotion to other people or companies in exchange for a commission. Bloggers and e-commerce sites love it because it’s easy to use (one of the biggest programmes is Amazon Associates). If a customer clicks on the affiliate link and makes a purchase, the affiliate earns a commission for promoting your product on the customer’s website.

Positive sides

• They do all of the marketing and sales work for you!
• You only pay for conversions, so there’s no up-front cost to using this service (when the affiliate is successful, and someone actually buys from you)

Negative sides

• As a result, you’ll need to educate your audience on your brand’s identity and messaging.
• You can’t just outsource it and leave it at that; you must spend time tracking and supervising your partners.

Video marketing

Whatever your industry, video is probably the one thing you should be doing now that’s all the rage. If it’s pre-recorded or live in real time, a short clip or a longer format is fine. Instead of simply uploading a TV ad, you’re creating original content specifically for your digital channels.

Positive sides

• With video, your message will be more memorable because it will create an emotional connection with your audience and be more memorable than just text or even a picture.
• Video is now being pushed by all the major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, so your video content will have a greater audience and be more visible in search engine results.

Negative sides

• Due to today’s audience’s short attention spans, you must capture people’s attention within a few seconds, or they will move on to the next item in their feed.
• High-quality video content takes time, skill, and money to produce even if it’s on a tight budget

What digital marketing has to offer

A large part of digital marketing’s popularity is due to its wide reach, but it also has several other advantages. Some of the advantages include the following.

A large reach

If you post an ad online, anyone can see it (assuming you haven’t geographically restricted your ad). As a result, expanding your company’s market reach is a cinch.

Efficiency in terms of costs

Digital marketing not only reaches a larger audience, but it also has a lower cost than traditional marketing. Advertisements in newspapers and on television can have substantial overhead costs. Additionally, you have less control over whether or not your intended audience sees your messages.

Digital marketing allows you to create a single piece of content that will continue to draw readers to your blog as long as it remains live. You can set up an email marketing campaign to send messages to specific customer lists on a regular basis, and you can easily alter the schedule or the content of that campaign as needed.

Overall, digital marketing gives you much greater freedom and direct contact with customers for a given ad budget.

Results that can be measured

Finding out how many customers your marketing strategy attracts and how much revenue it ultimately drives will let you know if it is effective. The question is, however, how to go about doing that without utilising digital marketing?

Another option is to simply ask each customer, “How did you hear about us?”

Not all businesses are as fortunate. One-on-one conversations with customers are rare in many businesses, and surveys don’t always yield complete results.

It’s easy to keep track of your marketing efforts’ success with digital marketing. Digital marketing platforms and software automatically track the number of desired conversions that you get, whether that means email open rates, visits to your home page, or direct purchases of your product or service.

Personalization is made simpler

Digital marketing gives you the ability to collect customer data that isn’t possible with traditional methods. In general, digitally collected data tends to be much more accurate and detailed..

Assume you’re in the financial services industry and want to reach out to people who have shown interest in your offerings. To ensure better results, you decide to prepare two campaigns, one for general distribution and the other for a targeted audience. For young families who have looked at your life insurance options, and for millennial business owners who have pondered your retirement plans, you have two different types of customers.

Without automated tracking, how are you going to collect all of this information? Were there hundreds, thousands, or a million? There must be a certain number of customer profiles. Who knows if the brochure you sent out has been read or not.

All of this information is now readily available thanks to digital marketing.

Increased contact with clients

With digital marketing, you can stay in touch with your clients all the time. It also gives them a way to converse with you. Consider your approach to social media. There is nothing better than having a comment or share from someone in your target audience on your most recent post. Every time someone adds to the conversation, your product or service will get even more visibility.

Your customers will also benefit from interactivity. As they become more involved in the storey of your company, their level of engagement rises. This sense of pride in one’s work can lead to a strong attachment to a brand.

Conversions that are simple and quick to use

Customers can take action immediately after seeing your digital marketing ad or content thanks to the power of digital marketing strategies. The best you can hope for from traditional advertising is a phone call within a few minutes of someone seeing your ad. However, how often do people have the time to contact a company while doing dishes, driving down the highway, or updating records at work?..

You don’t have to wait to move along the sales funnel when using digital marketing. Even if they don’t buy right away, they’ll remember you and give you another opportunity to interact with them.

Difficulties of digital marketing

Digital marketing is particularly difficult for those who provide it’s services. Digital channels are rapidly expanding, and digital marketers must keep up with how these channels work, how receivers use them, and how to effectively use these channels to market their products or services. Furthermore, it’s getting harder to get the attention of receivers due to the increasing amount of competing advertising. This data analysis is also difficult for digital marketers, who have to use the information in new marketing efforts after collecting it.

Capturing and using data effectively is challenging, which shows that digital marketing requires a consumer behavior-based approach to marketing. As an example, a company may have to examine new types of consumer behaviour, such as website heatmaps, to gain a better understanding of the customer experience.