Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is a contemporary marketing effort using the internet or electronic devices. Digital marketing is also referred to as online marketing or internet marketing.In digital marketing, businesses take advantage of digital channels such as social media, search engines, videos, online displays and other web-based applications to reach the customers and to attract prospective customers. Digital marketing has become a new and most effective way of approaching the customers.
The development of the internet has changed the way people behave. The introduction of world wide web and other developments in technology has made digital platforms a most accessible and admissible platform for marketing. The growing attraction and dependency of individuals on such developments/platforms have made digital marketing, the most essential marketing practices.
Traditional Marketing Vs Digital Marketing
Traditional marketing had limited scope. Traditional marketing was limited to print ads in magazines, newspapers or pamphlets, telemarketing via phone and text messages and broadcasting methods i.e. TV and radio broadcasting or any physical marketing i.e. vendor announcement. Traditional marketing doesn’t imply an old form of marketing. Traditional marketing and Digital marketing differs in the approach to the marketing like medium used for marketing.
Digital marketing co-exists with the traditional form of marketing. Digital marketing uses online platforms and social media and websites as a medium to connect with the customers or attract the potential customers. Video and print ads are prevalent in digital marketing as well but they are in digital form and are broadcasted in digital platforms.
Types of Digital Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
Statistics on www.statista.com shows that in 2019, about 2.95 billion people were using social media worldwide and this is projected to be 3.43 billion by 2023. This figure clearly reflects the scope of social media and presence of social media marketing.
Social media marketing is a practice of digital marketing where businesses promote product and services and various content on social media channels. Businesses connect with the customers and audiences to promote and build brands, increase sales, and create website traffic. Some of the most influential social media marketing channels includes:
- Snapchat
- Youtube
Video advertisement in Youtube, Facebook, sponsored advertisements in Instagram and Facebook, paid in partnership with social media influencers (influencer marketing), shoppable instagram pages, microblogging etc.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of increasing the visibility and marketability of a website or web page. SEO helps in increasing the organic or free traffic in the website. SEO can be useful in allowing the content to reach to the maximum users across the globe. SEO helps in targeting or attracting the correct audience for your website. There are number of ways to use SEO for managing the traffic in the website:
- On page SEO: This means SEO focuses on the content you have in your page and attracts or reaches the audience that has asked for similar content.
- Off page SEO: This means SEO considers for the factors that the website lacks might hamper the position and ranking of websites. Many publishers use backlinks and inbound links to connect with various contents, topics and individuals to properly channelise the website and rank the website in a better position.
- Technical SEO: Technical SEO analyses the backend of the website i.e. how you website is built, the position of the content, structure related issues, data management to efficient loading of the website to improve the users experience.
- Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay per click is a digital marketing model where advertisers pay a certain fee every time users click to the placed ads. It is quite prevalent in websites i.e. advertisers pay for an area in a website to place the ads. One of the most common PPc is Google Ads.
Paid ads on Facebook, Twitter Ads campaigns, Sponsored Messages in Linkedin, ads shown in websites etc. are some examples of PPCs.
The first documented PPC advertisement can be dated back to 1996 and infographics in SERPWATCH suggest that the PPC ads conversion rate for Facebook is 9.21 % and for Google is 3.46%.
- Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the contemporary ways of promoting products and services and an effective advertising model. Affiliate marketing is one of the emerging strategies to attract sales and generate online revenues. Instagram influencers, Vloggers etc. are seen promoting brands in their contents and providing affiliate links in their page or channels. For more: Affiliate Marketing
- Content Marketing
Content Marketing is producing and promoting the content related to the business and services for the purpose of generating brand awareness, traffic growth and lead generation. Content can take any form considering the purpose of the marketing. From simple feature publicity to news coverage of product launch, from product review by influencers to infographics presentation.
- Email Marketing
Email Marketing is a digital approach to get connected with the customers or audiences. This is more of a public relation approach to marketing. Companies and businesses use this form of marketing to promote offers and content, to inform the audience about the updates, and to direct people towards business’s websites. Some of the email marketing include:
- Blog subscription newsletters
- Email newsletters
- Product and service promotion emails
- Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a strategy to attract customers by creating valuable content and tailored advertisements. In inbound marketing, marketers follow the customers and audience in their online behaviour journey and create experience for them.
Pop up ads in websites, viral videos suggestions, commercial advertising and video marketing, email span, optimized advertisement, infographics etc. are some inbound marketing strategies.
- Sponsored Content
Sponsored Content is one of the advertising techniques by publishers or social media influencers where articles, photos, videos or any content are co-created or sponsored around the product. We are used to these kinds of digital advertisements. “Brought to you by”, “ Presented by”, “Sponsored by” we see are sponsored content and form of sponsored advertisement.
- Native Advertising
Native Advertising is another form of digital marketing where paid ads are tailored to match the look, feel and purpose of the media format in which they are displayed.
Native ads can be found in social media feed, as recommended content, banner ads. In many content-based platforms, native ads are placed as if they are the regular content but actually are an advertisement. For instance, a news based online portal, promoting a brand in the form of news. Similarly, a photography based page promoting brand or service with a photo based theme.
- Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation is the use of software and programming to automate the responses and other basic marketing functions. We are very familiar with this form of marketing. Most of the web-based platforms require the audience to subscribe to their platform using emails. Marketing Automation programs direct the structured advertisements, announcements and any information to the subscribed audience.
Email newsletters, post scheduling tools, campaign tracking and reporting computer generated assistance etc. are some marketing automation. It is estimated that automating marketing will grow worth $6.4 billion by 2024.
- Online Public Relation
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