Digital marketing includes the use of search engines, websites, apps, mobile phones, social networks and other digital tools to market and sell products.
Digital marketing is often viewed as a way to reach out to consumers and better understand their behaviour. In their marketing strategies, companies often combine both traditional and digital techniques. Digital marketing has its own challenges. In the 1990s, digital marketing became popular due to the wide adoption of the Internet.
Digital Marketing: How it Works
Marketing is a broad term that encompasses many techniques and media companies can use to market their products and services and increase their share of the market. It takes a combination advertising and sales knowledge to be successful. Professional marketers can be employed by companies to perform these tasks or by marketing firms who may have many clients.
Until recently, companies relied on print, radio, and television to market their products. Digital marketing is a new way for companies to reach their customers.
New technologies and trends forced businesses to rethink marketing strategies and budgets. Email was a very popular tool for digital marketing in its early stages. Search engines such as Netscape allowed businesses to use keywords and tags to attract attention. Social platforms such as Facebook have allowed companies to track data on users and target their messages at very specific audiences.
Smartphones, and other portable devices make it easier for businesses to market their services and products to consumers wherever they may be. In a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 76% of American adult consumers had made online purchases with their phones.
Types of digital marketing channels
Since the 1990s, digital marketing channels continue to evolve. Here are the eight most popular channels used today.
Website Marketing
Many companies use their website as the focal point of their digital marketing efforts. Most effective websites are those that represent , its brand, and their products and services clearly and in an unforgettable way. Today, a website must be mobile-friendly and easily navigable.
Pay-per-Click Ads
PPC advertising allows marketers to reach their audiences through digital platforms and news websites. PPC advertising allows marketers to reach audiences on news websites, digital platforms, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, Facebook, Bing and Google.
These campaigns can be segmented based on demographic features (such as gender or age), or based on specific interests or locations. Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the most popular PPC services.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a way to reach out to potential customers by using written, visual or video material that they find interesting. This content is typically published on a company’s website, and then promoted via social media, email, search engine optimization or pay-per click campaigns. Content marketing is more subtle than traditional advertising. The product or service that the sponsor wants to promote may or may be highlighted.
Email Marketing
Email Marketing is one of the most powerful digital marketing channels. However, many people still associate it with spam. Digital marketers often use other channels of digital marketing to gather names for their email list. They then try to convert those leads through email marketing.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing campaigns are primarily designed to increase brand awareness, and establish trust. You can use social media marketing to generate leads, as well as for direct-marketing and sales channels. Social media marketing includes promoted posts and tweets.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing has been around for centuries, but the digital age has given it a new lease of life. Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing where companies or individuals “influencers”, promote the products of another company and receive a commission for every sale made. Amazon is one of many well-known companies that have affiliate programs. They pay millions of dollars in commissions to affiliates who help them sell their products.
Video Marketing
Many internet users visit sites like YouTube to make a purchase, learn how to perform a task, read a review or to simply relax. Marketers can run video campaigns using any of the video marketing platforms available, such as Facebook Videos, Instagram and TikTok. Video marketing is most successful when integrated with SEO, social media, and content marketing.
Text Messaging
Text messages, also known as SMS (short message service), are used by companies to inform their customers about the latest products and special offers. Texting is also used by political candidates and nonprofit organizations to solicit donations and promote their campaigns. Many marketing campaigns allow consumers to donate or pay via text message.
Key Performance Indicators in Digital Marketing
Just like traditional marketers, digital marketers also use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs allow them to compare their efforts with those of their competitors and measure their long-term marketing performance.
Here are some of most common KPIs marketers use to measure their performance:
- Click-through rate (CTR): This KPI can be used to determine the effectiveness of an online advertisement by calculating the percentage of viewers who clicked on the ad.
- Conversion rate: This rate compares the number of people who have taken a desired action (such as buying something) to the total audience reached by an ad.
- Social media traffic is a measure of how many people interact on a company’s social media profile. This includes likes and follows, views, share, and/or any other measurable actions.
- Website traffic: This measure measures the number of people who visit a website in a certain time frame. It can be used to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in driving customers to a company’s website.
Digital Marketing Challenges
Digital marketing presents unique challenges to marketers. Marketers must keep track of the rapid proliferation of digital channels and learn how to make them work for them. It can be difficult for marketers to make the most of all of the data that they collect through these platforms.
The biggest challenge is that consumers are bombarded with digital ads, and other distractions. It’s harder to get their attention.
What is a Digital Marketing Agency (DMA)?
Digital marketing agencies are companies that specialize in digital marketing. They target consumers and businesses exclusively. It includes creating and launching client campaigns through social media, video, custom websites and pay-per click advertising.
What is SEO in Digital Marketing?
Search engine optimization (SEO), also known as search engine marketing, is a term that describes the techniques used by companies to boost traffic to their websites and improve its ranking in search results. The higher up a website appears in the search results, the more likely it is that consumers will see it and click on it.
What is Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing, technically speaking, is marketing done exclusively on the internet. It is therefore a subset to digital marketing that can utilize many digital platforms including the internet to reach their desired audience.
How can you become a digital marketer?
Digital marketers must have strong writing, social media and data analytics skills. Most digital marketing jobs require a bachelor’s degree. You may also wish to enroll in digital marketing classes or a “boot camp” for digital. It can also be beneficial to complete an internship during your schooling. It is not essential to have a master’s in digital marketing.
What skills are needed in digital marketing?
If a marketer wants to tell the story of a product or company to potential clients, strong communication skills are crucial. Skills in data analytics are important to understand how a campaign performs and what can be done to improve it. Social media skills are also a must.
What is implicit bias in digital marketing?
Implicit bias is also called unconscious bias. It refers to messages which unintentionally promote negative stereotypes and derogatory attitudes towards certain groups. It has been a topic of discussion in recent years, especially in advertising and marketing. It can be as simple as choosing stock photos to use in a digital marketing campaign.
Companies may, for example, use only images of heterosexual White people, while excluding Blacks, Indigenous and other people of colour, as well as those with different body types and disabilities. Digital marketers use algorithms, which are supposedly neutral, to create their campaigns. However these algorithms were created by humans who could have their own biases.
The Bottom Line
Digital platforms are increasingly important to marketers, sometimes exclusively, because of the way people consume media today.
