Digital marketing, also known as online marketing, refers to advertising delivered through digital channels to promote brands and connect potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication such as:
Search Engines
Websites
Social Media
Email
Mobile Apps
Text Messaging
How does digital marketing work?
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Digital marketing uses a range of strategies to reach customers, whether the aim is to tempt them into making a purchase, increase their brand awareness, or simply engage with your brand. Modern digital marketing comprises a broad system of channels, including:
Social Media
Content Marketing
Website Marketing
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Why is digital marketing important?
By implementing an omnichannel digital marketing strategy, marketers can collect valuable insights into target audience behaviors while opening the door to new methods of customer engagement.
Digital marketing continues to evolve. For example, the increasing variety of wearable devices available to consumers affords new opportunities to market to them. Forbes also forecasts that social media will become increasingly conversational in the B2B space, video content will be refined for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, and email marketing will become even more personalized.
The differences between B2B and B2C marketing:-
“Digital marketing can help you get to know your audience”
You’ve almost certainly heard of B2B and B2C, but do you know the differences between them? B2B is business-to-business, while B2C is business-to-consumer, so your marketing activity needs to be adjusted for and targeted to each audience.
Language and messaging
With B2B marketing, you’re focused on reaching out to other businesses directly and trading with them, while with B2C you’re marketing to consumers and customers instead.
For example, with B2B marketing you’re more likely to focus on messaging to educate your potential prospects, with language that is professional and uses industry terms — you can be formal and direct. With B2C marketing, the focus may be on enticing customers, creating brand awareness and telling a story.
Decision-making
Another key difference is the decision-making process. With B2C, the customer could make a relatively quick decision to buy from you. Of course, you first need to earn their trust through your digital marketing strategy.
But one person is often the sole decision-maker, especially if you’re retailing an item like clothing or kitchen gadgets. Things can become more complex with bigger ticket items like vacations. But the purchase journey is quicker and less complicated.
With B2B marketing, a business may have to convince several stakeholders — you could be selling building materials directly to large construction companies and in competition with similar providers.
Ultimately, it’s all about knowing your target customers, and tailoring your marketing accordingly.
The benefits of digital marketing:-
Digital marketing can help you get to know your audience, learn important information about them, and provide metrics that will give your marketing team credibility. The benefits of digital marketing include:
You will get to know your audience: Digital marketing offers the perfect way to get to know and connect with your audience. You can test offers and messages and get an insight into the peak times they visit your website. If you have a social media strategy — and you really should — you can build relationships with them faster and more easily. Attune yourself to your audience and you’ll build credibility that can set you apart from the competition.
It doesn't cost much: Compared to traditional marketing methods, digital marketing is cheap. There are fewer overheads. You can create a slick, professional website for a relatively small cost, using one of the many templated systems or paying more for a bespoke creation. You can create social media accounts for free, and partner with an email newsletter provider for a competitive price. Relatively cost-effective, digital marketing is suitable for even the smallest of businesses.
You can market to anyone, anywhere: With digital marketing, your potential reach is huge. You can connect with customers on the other side of the world, in multiple time zones, as seamlessly as though you were taking out an ad in the local newspaper (easier, in fact). You can expand your market reach and grow your business in ways that would have seemed impossible before.
Digital marketing is adaptable: Withdigital marketing, you can be fast, fluid and nimble in your approach. Trial different strategies, assess the results, and try something different the following month — or week. Get access to real-time data to help inform your business decisions — there’s no need to wait weeks to see the results of a campaign.
You can personalize by channel: Your marketing must deploy cross-channel functionality from teams with multiple skillsets to engage customers where they are in that precise moment. For example, each social media platform includes different audiences and expectations, so marketing may look different for each. This includes tone, imagery, offers, and scheduling of your posts.
Types of digital marketing:-
Digital marketing spans a massive network of digital touchpoints that customers interact with many times a day. To properly utilize each of these channels, you need to understand each one.
Paid search
Paid search — also known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising — typically refers to the sponsored result on the top or side of a search engine results page (SERP). These ads charge you for every click and can be tailored to appear when certain search terms are entered.
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Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of optimizing the content, technical setup, and reach of your website, so your pages appear at the top of a search engine result page for a specific set of keyword terms.
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Content Marketing
Effective content marketing is not outwardly promotional in nature, but rather serves to educate and inspire consumers who are looking for information. When you offer content that’s relevant to your audience, it can establish you as a thought leader and a trustworthy source of information.
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Email Marketing
After more than two decades, email is still the quickest and most direct way to reach customers with critical information. Today, successful email campaigns must be incredibly engaging, relevant, informative, and entertaining to not get buried in your customer’s inbox.
To succeed, your marketing emails should satisfy five core attributes. They must be:
Trustworthy
Relevant
Conversational
Coordinated across channels
Strategic
Mobile Marketing
Mobile devices are kept in our pockets, sit next to our beds, and are checked constantly throughout the day. This makes marketing on mobile incredibly important — two-thirds of consumers can recall a specific brand they have seen advertised on mobile in the last week — but mobile is also very nuanced considering its intimate nature
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