digital marketing

digital marketing is defined as a marketing approach that primarily relies on the internet to connect with the target audience through various digital media channels and platforms.

Digital marketing is an all-encompassing term that consists of digital channels, such as content marketing, SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, mobile marketing and so on, to create elaborate strategies to reach and connect with prospects and customers.

In the 1990s, the term Digital Marketing came into use. The first clickable banner went live in 1993. As a result, Hotwired purchased few ad banners for their advertising. Hotwired was the first commercial web magazine. This impact launched the process of Digital Era of Marketing

An average user consumes content via the television, computer, tablet, Smartphone, radio, and other traditional media. This constant exposure to various types of media has led to information overload, further complicating the buyer’s journey. Digital marketing has allowed brands to stay relevant by making themselves visible through different channels and touch points.

WHY IS DEGITAL MARKETING IMPORTANT

For companies today, digital marketing matters because it offers:

Multiple online marketing strategies
Cost-effective marketing solutions
Level playing field
Advanced targeting and personalization options
Accurate campaign tracking and measurement
Continuous campaign performance feedback

Types of Digital Marketing Channels

Before we delve into other aspects of digital marketing, let’s quickly review the top eleven types of digital marketing channels:

WEBSITE

The website is often the home to your digital marketing efforts. Brands and organizations use websites to host content while using other mediums to distribute it. Most of your digital marketing activities will link back to your website, where an action is expected to take place, and the conversions are tracked. FOR EXAMPLE: The download of a file, booking of a product or a service, and so on.

CONTENT MARKETING

Content creation is the spine of your entire DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY. Whether you’ve got a documented content marketing strategy or not, you’re creating content to inform, entertain, inspire, or persuade your buyers through other channels. Some of the most common formats of content include text (blog posts), videos, images, info graphics, podcasts, slide decks, and eBooks.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTAMIZATION (SEO)

SEO acts as a jetpack for your content marketing efforts. SEO consists of on- page and off-page activities to boost your website’s visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) for your preferred keywords. Earlier, SEO was primarily text-based, but in recent years voice search has gained prominence as well, which are why you’re SEO activities need to have a conversational approach.

DEGITAL ADVERTISING

Digital advertising is an umbrella term for various online advertising strategies. The typical pricing/bidding strategies for digital advertising are and cost-per-mille (CPM), i.e., per thousand impressions. Common formats of digital advertising are search engine marketing (SEM), display advertising, native advertising, social media advertising, and programmatic advertising.

EMAIL MARKETING

Email Marketing is the process of maintaining a database of cold and warm contacts and sending them email alerts about your brand, products and services. It is an effective channel to communicate with your audience on an ongoing basis. Email marketing is useful to build your subscriber base, onboard new customers, retain existing ones, promote discounts and offers, and distribute content.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media Marketing ensures you are present on the platforms your users are spending the most time on. These include Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Instagram, where you can distribute content through both – organic and paid channels. Social media has also played a vital role in propagating video marketing and the ephemeral content wave. It enables two-way communication and your fans and followers can interact with you on your content through likes, comments, direct messages, or by posting on your official pages.

MOBILE MARKETING

The number of Smartphone users across the world is expected to grow to 3.5 billion in 2020. To bank on this opportunity, brands connect with their users on their smart phones through mobile apps, emails, mobile-friendly websites, and social media. By connecting with users on the go, brands have been able to optimize their marketing strategies and send timely messages.

ADVANTAGE OF DEGITAL MARKETING

The main advantage of digital marketing is that a targeted audience can be reached in a cost-effective and measurable way. Other digital marketing advantages include increasing brand loyalty and driving online sales.

THE BENEFITS OF DIGITAL MARKETING INCLUDE

GLOBAL REACH

A website allows you to find new markets and trade globally for only a small investment.

LOWER COST

A properly planned and well targeted digital marketing campaign can reach the right customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing methods.

Tractable, measurable results – measuring your online Marketing with web analytics and other online metric tools makes it easier to establish how effective your campaign has been. You can obtain detailed information about how customers use your website or respond to your advertising.

PERSONALISATION

If your customer database is linked to your website, then whenever someone visits the site, you can greet them with targeted offers. The more they buy from you, the more you can refine your customer profile and market effectively to them.

OPENESS

By getting involved with Social Media and managing it carefully, you can build customer loyalty and create a reputation for being easy to engage with.

SOCIAL CURRENCY

Digital marketing lets you create engaging campaigns using Content Marketing tactics. This content (images, videos, articles) can gain social currency - being passed from user to user and becoming viral.

IMPROVED CONVERSION RATES -

if you have a website, then your customers are only ever a few clicks away from making a purchase. Unlike other media which require people to get up and make a phone call, or go to a shop, digital marketing can be seamless and immediate.