Digital marketing refers to marketing activities that use digital technologies. This includes both the Internet as well as mobile devices.
Digital marketing tactics and related activities include:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Marketing automation
- Content marketing
- Blogging
- Affiliate marketing
- Web development
- Chatbots
Knowing which set of digital tools to use for your specific business could help you plan accordingly and meet your marketing targets efficiently.
The Way Digital Marketing Works
Digital marketing uses various strategies to reach one key goal through different routes.
Think of digital marketing as a company, the strategies are the employees of the company who work in different departments. All employees work for the same organization with one motive; to make the business successful.
Similarly, all digital marketing strategies work together to generate traffic, create awareness and transform leads into loyal customers for the business.
That being said, let’s dive deeper into more details about the seven major digital marketing strategies that we have mentioned earlier.
1. Search Engine Optimization
Every time you need to know or purchase something, the first thing you do is search it up on the Google search engine. When the results are delivered, a consumer usually finds what they are looking for on the first or second page of google search.
That’s where SEO comes into play. Making your website SEO friendly is one of the most important steps in digital marketing. Without optimizing your website to be Search Engine friendly, you will be left behind in the searches and miss the opportunity to grab potential leads and exposure to your business.
It does take time, effort and patience to generate organic traffic to your website but if you don’t want to pay to appear on the first page of Google search engine, then SEO is the way to go. SEO is free to implement and increases the site’s traffic gradually over time
2. Pay-per-click Advertising
In simple words, every time a user clicks on your advertised ad, you would have to pay for the number of clicks. It’s the easiest and quickest way to gain traffic to your website. The traffic received through this method is not considered organic.
Nonetheless, it’s still important to use PPC advertising as SEO takes time to work to bring in organic traffic.
3. Website Marketing
Your website is one of the biggest marketing assets that could help your potential customers find what they’re looking for and make the final purchase.
An average buyer spends a significant amount of time on a website before moving on to make the final decision of buying. Your responsibility is to provide an excellent user experience that keeps your customer on your website for longer. They should easily find information on their desired products and services.
Your website represents your business so make sure you put a good impression on your visitors.
While creating a website, keep in mind about your site’s graphics, design, and overall layout. Make sure it is mobile friendly because that is where most consumers are.
4. Content Marketing
Content marketing holds a valuable place in the digital marketing world. Whatever online marketing strategy you may have, without content marketing you won’t be able to build the customer base, brand, and engage your target audience into having an interest in your business.
Basically, content marketing is about promoting your business through interacting with your customers and convincing them to make a purchase. Some forms of content marketing are: Videos, Testimonials, Ebooks, Podcasts, Infographics, Blog posts, Social media posts and the list goes on.
All of these could contribute to being a part of your digital marketing campaign that helps to build awareness among consumers about the business.
5. Social Media Marketing
One of the most trending and effective forms of digital marketing is social media. The revolutionary change that social media has brought to the table of business marketing is incomparable.
With the ever-growing number of social media users around the world, it’s mind-boggling how much exposure your business could get. And with all the consumer’s behavioral data, you are not going to throw darts in the dark for successful marketing.
Read our blog post on how social media changed marketing to understand and consider social media marketing for your business.
Social Media is your golden ticket to preach about your products and services while being in touch with your potential customers on a platform in which they spend the majority of their time. Apart from providing customer service, you can use social media to run ad campaigns, contests, create creative & engaging content and could even become viral.
6. Email Marketing
According to Forbes, an average person checks their mail 15 times a day but the number could be more.
Email marketing may not be the primary source to generate fresh leads to your business, but it is more often used as a form of communication with your customer who has liked your services or products and has chosen to subscribe to your business updates.
Your chances of succeeding in making loyal customers who keep repurchasing from you, increase through email marketing. Most businesses use email marketing to send weekly newsletters, promotional offers and updates about their products and services.
7. Affiliate Marketing
This form of marketing involves having a brand ambassador for your business who helps to engage with potential consumers and recommend the services and products of your business for a commission or pay.
You could even reach out to influencers and successful individuals in the digital marketing world and pay them to promote your business to a large number of audience.
Having a better understanding of how each segment of digital marketing can contribute to your business will help you determine the structure of digital marketing you would want to create and execute.
Conclusion
So far we have learned about what digital marketing is, how it works and the various digital marketing tools that businesses use.
To make digital marketing work for your business, you must create a strategy that is unique to your business’s needs. Internet marketing is not one-size-fits-all.
You could use a few or all of the tools combined for your digital marketing campaign depending on your business category, your preferred audience, business objectives, and your business size. By using the right form of digital marketing, you will be able to attract the intended audience to your business, build awareness, engage them and shorten the buyer’s journey.
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