Digital marketing definition
Can you provide a definition of digital marketing?
Digital marketing involves utilizing various online marketing channels such as search engines, social media networks, and email to effectively reach and engage with the intended audience, with the aim of promoting and selling products or services on the Internet.
By means of digital marketing, you have the ability to identify individuals who are interested in what you are offering, engage with them, and establish confidence in your brand.
There are various types of digital marketing, including website marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, PPC advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, video marketing, and affiliate marketing.
How Digital Marketing Works?
This video offers insights on the definition of digital marketing, its functioning, and strategies for creating effective digital marketing campaigns.
Digital marketing operates in a straightforward manner.
Before anything else, it is important to define your objectives for digital marketing, which means determining what you aim to accomplish through it. A few typical illustrations of this include boosting brand recognition, generating higher sales, or expanding your audience.
Once you have determined your goals, you will need to select the marketing channels that can assist you in attaining them. For instance, if your aim is to increase sales, initiating paid campaigns on platforms like Google and Facebook would be a beneficial first step.
In order to facilitate the entire process, it is possible to develop a comprehensive plan that outlines the budget, identifies the target audience, determines performance metrics, and includes other pertinent details that assist in managing the process effectively.
Do not worry if you find it perplexing at the moment, as there will be a more elaborate illustration of crafting a prosperous digital marketing campaign later in this article.
It is necessary to familiarize yourself with the various marketing channels and their operations before initiating your inaugural digital marketing campaign.
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Digital marketing channels
There are two main categories in which digital marketing channels can be grouped.
Different channels that are used for marketing, whether online or offline.
Online marketing channels exclusively rely on the Internet, whereas offline marketing channels involve digital devices that may not be linked to the Internet.
Online Marketing Channels
Website Marketing
The center of all digital marketing campaigns is a website. It possesses great potential as a standalone platform and also serves as the primary means to carry out various online marketing strategies.
Your brand, product, and services should be effectively represented by your website, ensuring it possesses qualities such as speed, mobile-friendliness, and user-friendliness.
After creating a website, the subsequent task is to devise a digital marketing plan aimed at increasing website traffic and attracting a larger customer base in order to promote your content effectively.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Optimizing your website for search engines is known as search engine optimization.
The primary objective of SEO is to enhance a website’s visibility in search results and attract organic traffic from search engines.
There are several sub-processes involved in SEO. The primary ones include:
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Through paid ads, PPC advertising allows you to target internet users across various networks.
You have the option to establish PPC campaigns on platforms such as Google, Bing, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook, which allows you to display your advertisements to individuals who are actively searching for keywords associated with your products or services.
PPC campaigns have the ability to group users according to demographic traits (age, gender, etc), as well as their specific interests or location.
The term “pay per click” means that whenever a user clicks on your ads, you are obligated to pay a fee to the provider.
Google Ads and Facebook are the PPC platforms that hold the highest popularity.
Content Marketing
In the realm of content marketing, the focus lies solely on the content itself. Within the digital sphere, there exists an immense variety of content encompassing text, images, audio, and video.
The aim of a content marketing campaign is to achieve the attention of potential customers by utilizing content.
Typically, content is first published on a website and subsequently marketed via social media, email marketing, SEO, or even PPC campaigns.
Running a content marketing campaign differs from having a blog in that the former involves defined objectives for content creation and distribution, target audience identification, scheduled publication, and effective content campaign assessment.
The primary instruments utilized in content marketing are:
Email Marketing
Email marketing remains one of the most effective digital marketing channels, even with the rising popularity of social media networks.
Email marketing is often mistaken for the numerous spam emails we receive daily; however, this misperception is not representative of its true nature.
Email marketing allows you to connect with individuals who are genuinely interested in your brand or potential customers, ensuring that you are not intruding upon their inbox but rather providing desired content.
Many prosperous online businesses and marketers employ various digital marketing channels to generate leads for their email lists. Subsequently, they utilize email marketing to establish multiple funnels aimed at converting those leads into customers.
Social media marketing involves engaging with individuals on different social networks by utilizing content marketing campaigns (postings), paid advertisements, or a combination of both.
The main objective of a social media marketing campaign is to create brand awareness and establish social trust. However, as you delve further into social media marketing, it can also serve as a means to generate leads or even function as a direct sales channel.
Let’s consider Facebook as an example. The sales funnel of Facebook comprises four main stages.
Awareness is the beginning of the funnel, where Facebook ads can be utilized to familiarize Facebook users with your brand. The objective in this stage is to maximize the exposure of your ad and acquire new followers.
Engaging with your audience by responding to their inquiries on Messenger or email, as well as delivering valuable content through blog posts and FB updates, is the action to take during the second phase known as discovery.
During the third step, known as consideration, the objective is to persuade individuals who have already shown an interest in your brand to proceed further into the conversion funnel. The aim is to encourage them to visit your website, interact with your page, install your app, send you a message, and so on.
In the conversion stage, which is the final step, you aim to persuade individuals who enter your funnel to take a desired action. This action, known as a conversion, may include valuable outcomes for your business such as product/service sales or visits to your physical store.
Affiliate Marketing
With the increase in Internet usage, affiliate marketing, which is one of the oldest marketing techniques, has experienced significant growth.
In essence, affiliate marketing involves promoting products belonging to others and earning a commission for each successful sale or lead you generate.
Websites that sell products for well-known companies like Amazon can earn millions of dollars per month through their affiliate programs.
When formulating your digital marketing strategy, it is important to incorporate affiliate marketing as a means to engage individuals with your brand and generate sales by offering them a commission.
In simpler terms, if you have a product or service to promote on the internet, it is advisable to establish an affiliate program. This program allows individuals to join and gain access to resources and materials that can be utilized for promoting your products online.
While they will receive a commission as an incentive, the advantages for you as the provider surpass it significantly.
Not only can your affiliates boost sales, but they can also serve as the finest brand ambassadors, effectively persuading others to purchase or engage with your company.
Inbound marketing vs. digital marketing
The objective of inbound marketing is to lure customers by means of company-generated online content, with the aim of having customers come to the organization instead of marketers having to vie for their attention.
The following are examples of inbound marketing content and tactics.
- blog posts
- photos
- infographics
- videos
- podcasts
- presentations
- e-books
- white papers
- e-newsletters
- webinars
- search engine optimization or SEO
- social media marketing
Digital marketing encompasses all marketing methods that involve digital outreach and does not distinguish between inbound and outbound techniques, unlike inbound marketing which specifically focuses on attracting and engaging customers through content and targeted strategies.
The objective of inbound marketing is to reach out to customers on digital platforms like social media or search engines by producing content that appears in these spaces, ultimately generating organic traffic to the organization’s website.
Although outbound marketing has the potential to target a larger audience, it also poses the risk of bombarding disinterested consumers. On the other hand, inbound marketing aims to reach interested prospects by segmenting the audience, but inherently has a narrower reach in terms of potential customers.
In addition to its role in attracting new customers, inbound marketing plays a crucial role in customer retention. By establishing consistent communication channels and offering valuable content and promotions, organizations can effectively engage with customers and maintain their interest.
B2B vs. B2C digital marketing
The main objective of B2B digital marketing is to generate leads through online platforms, aiming to connect with other businesses interested in purchasing the organization’s products or services.
B2C digital marketing aims to draw in individuals and convert them into customers, emphasizing the creation of a streamlined purchasing process.
B2B clients often take more time to make decisions as they rely on multiple individuals’ input. Conversely, B2C customers solely require their own input and may be influenced by their emotions or mood when making purchases. Additionally, B2C customers tend to have a favorable response to social media marketing and the limited-time deals and offers featured in email digital marketing.
Digital marketing benefits
The following are the advantages of digital marketing:
- Global and local reach. Individuals can see the same ad in different time zones or across the globe. Digital marketing also improves local ad visibility, so organizations can customize their locally targeted ads.
- Targeting specific audiences. Customers and prospective customers can stay connected to brands through email or social media platforms, where organizations can then communicate with them or test offers to gain insights.
- Cost-effectiveness. Digital marketing is less expensive than traditional forms of marketing, such as TV spots. It costs almost nothing to promote through email campaigns and social media.
- Customized channels. Digital marketing channels can be marketed differently, depending on the organization and the platform it’s on. Marketing teams within an organization can find their best and strongest forms of marketing and modify those methods as needed.
Digital marketing challenges
However, digital marketing is faced with the following challenges.
- Time-consuming. Organizations must continually create content and optimize their marketing campaigns, which takes time.
- Competitive. This can occur when prospective customers are inundated with too many competing ads. Marketers must make their brand stand out, which can be challenging.
- Data privacy. If an organization is using an individual’s data to target them for advertising, then it should understand how to handle that data and follow data privacy laws.
- Technology. Digital marketers must ensure websites are set up for mobile users so that the customer journey can quickly lead a prospective customer from learning about an organization to making a purchase.
