What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a popular and effective technique to increase exposure, interest, and revenue for your products or services. As the name suggests, digital marketing is carried out through digital channels such as social media, websites, search engines, email, and text messaging.

To achieve the greatest results, you must first determine which digital marketing methods are most effective for your target demographic. This post provides an in-depth look at the most effective digital marketing techniques and best practices for attaining corporate objectives.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing, often known as online marketing or internet marketing, is the communication of messages using digital channels accessed by electronic devices like as phones, laptops, and tablets.

Digital marketing and conventional marketing, such as print advertisements and direct mail, have the same end goal: to raise product awareness and influence purchase choices in order to boost sales. The primary distinction between conventional and digital marketing is that the latter use internet-connected tools to interact and engage with specific audiences.

The development of the World Wide Web in 1989 paved the way for the rise of digital marketing. The development of corporate websites, advances in email technologies, and the emergence of hugely popular social networks have all fueled exponential growth in digital marketing.

Why is digital marketing important?

To flourish, businesses must discover efficient ways to spread the word about their products and services, which has never been more difficult than now. Consumers have more options from more suppliers, each vying for their attention. Stand out from the crowd by deploying intriguing content on digital marketing channels.

Another reason digital marketing is vital for businesses is that it is where your ideal consumer hangs out. Statista research specialists predict that by 2023, there will be 5.19 billion internet users and 4.88 billion social media users globally. Internet users spend an average of six hours and forty minutes every day online.

Types and Strategies of Digital Marketing

Developing a strong digital marketing plan for your company begins with gaining a deeper grasp of the digital marketing tactics that produce the greatest results. We’ve broken down digital marketing into six categories: social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email marketing, mobile marketing, and content marketing.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is among the most prominent kind of digital marketing. In the United States alone, approximately 308 million individuals use social media at least once a month. People of various ages use social media to enjoy themselves, engage with others, learn about specialized hobbies, and shop.

For businesses looking to increase exposure and sales, social media statistics show that including social media into your marketing mix might be a good approach. 78% of internet users rely on social media to find brand information. Almost half of U.S. customers say they’ve made a purchase on social media.

Top social media sites include YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and X (previously Twitter). New platforms enter the market on a regular basis, like BeReal and Paparazzi.

The social environment is always shifting. For example, Twitter, now X, was once a popular platform, but it looks to be faltering. Twitter has lost around 32 million users since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022. TikTok did not enter the worldwide market until 2017, but it currently has over 1.7 billion monthly active users. Digital marketers must be vigilant as social media channels shift.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important digital marketing approach for firms that want to drive traffic to their websites. SEO is the practice of improving your website so that search engines like Google rank it higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

SEO is all about generating organic traffic to your website. Unlike paid advertising, SEO generates traffic to your site through unpaid searches. Google receives around 8.5 billion searches each day, providing several chances for businesses looking to market their products and services. Ranking highly on Google is essential for attracting more visitors to your website.

According to Search Engine Journal’s poll, 49% of respondents believe SEO provides the best return on investment (ROI) of any digital marketing strategy. You may get started with SEO for free by studying Google Ranking Factors or using top SEO tools and software. You may also hire an SEO firm or agency to develop an SEO strategy and manage your SEO for you.

PPC Advertising

PPC advertising is exactly what the name implies: you pay a price each time someone clicks on one of your digital ads. The price you’ll spend depends on the platform you’re advertising on, the potential traffic for your promoted post, and the number of rivals ready to pay for comparable ads.

Google Ads is the world’s largest PPC platform. Many firms that engage in SEO marketing also use Google PPC advertising. Paid advertising on Google displays above organic search results, and this positional advantage can attract additional visitors to your site.

Google Ads isn’t your sole option for PPC advertising. You may also buy PPC advertisements through the Microsoft Search Network on Bing and partner sites, as well as on popular social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Amazon, and TikTok.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is another effective digital marketing method that you should consider including in your marketing mix. According to Statista, firms gain at least $32 for every dollar invested in email marketing. For certain industries, such as retail, e-commerce, and consumer products, the figure is $45.

To be successful with email marketing, you must devise a plan for gathering email addresses from customers and prospects. Many firms gather emails with each client interaction, perhaps giving a unique incentive for joining an email list. Your business website is also an excellent area to provide visitors with incentives in order to develop your email database.

Growing and nurturing your email list is essential for successful email marketing. You must also respect your list’s communication settings and only distribute information that your base wants to receive. Furthermore, failing to handle the legal parts of email marketing, such as being in compliance with CAN/SPAM Act obligations, is critical to email marketing success.

Most marketers use email marketing software instead of manually handling corporate email. The finest email marketing software automates the process of keeping your email database up-to-date by handling new subscribers and unsubscribes.

Your email software should also allow you to easily segment your email database depending on client interests, build visually appealing email designs, manage email scheduling, and track email metrics, including as open rates, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and bounce rates.

Mobile Marketing

With over 310 million smartphone users in the United States alone, it is not surprising that mobile marketing has become a popular digital marketing technique for businesses.

Mobile marketing is often done by text, also known as short messaging service (SMS). Text open rates are believed to be as high as 98%, which explains why mobile marketing can be so effective. While text messaging is the most prevalent form of mobile marketing, smartphones may also get notifications from mobile applications and social media. Every day, the number of company applications for mobile marketing grows.

Content Marketing

Every type of digital marketing relies on interesting content to pique the attention of and engage prospects and consumers. The phrase “content marketing” refers to the various forms of material that may be developed and deployed in digital marketing efforts.

Content marketing may take numerous forms, including blogs, infographics, whitepapers, ebooks, films, podcasts, quizzes, slide presentations, and webinars. Unlike advertising, content marketing uses more subtle strategies to inform, educate, or persuade a certain target population.

You may use content marketing to develop authority on specific topics or generate buzz for your brand. One of the primary benefits of content marketing is that it can be done on almost any budget. A do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to content marketing will cost you pennies, or if your budget allows, you may collaborate with copywriters, videographers, designers, and other content creation pros to generate content for your company.

Benefits of Digital Marketing:

There are numerous main benefits of employing digital marketing. Here are the main benefits:

• Budget-friendly: You may engage in various kinds of digital marketing, such as email and social media, for little or no money.
• Measurable results: The majority of digital marketing platforms allow you to track important performance data like total impressions, CTRs, cost per conversion, overall conversion rates, and more.
• Improved brand recognition: With so many people utilizing digital devices to access social media, messages, and emails, you have almost limitless opportunities to raise exposure for your brand and goods.
• Strong engagement: Digital marketing enables you to generate appealing content using text, graphics, and video, resulting in high consumer interaction.
• Strong ROI potential: Digital marketing frequently generates a higher ROI than traditional marketing and advertising strategies.
• Worldwide and regional reach: Depending on the digital marketing strategies you utilize; you may limit your reach to a certain area or use digital networks such as YouTube and TikTok to reach a worldwide audience.
• Flexibility: You can adapt or implement new digital marketing techniques quickly.

Digital Marketing Best Practices

While digital marketing can be very effective for building business results, you must understand the drivers of success. When you embrace direct marketing best practices, you’re far more likely to achieve the stellar results you want.

Establish your digital marketing goals.

Before beginning any form of digital marketing, you must set SMART goals. What are your specific goals? Examples of top digital marketing goals are:

• Increase online traffic.
• Create brand awareness.
• Increase brand engagement.
• Become an industry expert and generate quality leads.
• Expand your email prospect database.
• Increase sales.

Define your target audience.

Before deciding on digital marketing platforms and content marketing methods, you must first identify your target audience. Otherwise, you risk sending out incorrect messages or employing ineffective digital marketing strategies.

Defining your target audience starts with determining common characteristics such as age, gender, income and education levels, geographic areas, interests, and purchase habits. The next step is to determine the precise challenges or pressing demands that your audience is experiencing. Once you’ve clearly identified your target demographic, you can create digital marketing message that emphasizes how your company solves their top problems or meets their wants.

Determine Your Digital Marketing Budget

Setting a digital marketing budget helps prevent you from under or overpaying. Setting specific marketing goals and success metrics can help you stay on track with your digital marketing budget.

You may set a budget for each digital channel or for all efforts. To create a solid budget, you must first understand the expenses of digital marketing. Consider the technology you’ll need to execute your digital marketing strategy, such as SEO software, email marketing software, website hosting services, and social media management tools.

If you desire to employ PPC advertising, you must first examine the prices associated with the platforms. PPC rates vary per platform, and Google Ads and the majority of social media channels provide detailed information about PPC pricing on their advertising sites.

Other expenses you may need to factor into your digital marketing budget include copywriting, filming, and design. If your budget allows, you may engage with a typical marketing firm, which can range in price from $75 to $300 per hour. If you’re on a tight budget, consider hiring freelancers from popular job sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com, where rates may start as low as $15 per hour.

Select your digital marketing methods.

Many organizations begin their digital marketing with the creation of a corporate website. The extra digital marketing strategies you pick are determined by what you’re offering, where your target audience spends their time, and how much money you want to invest in digital marketing. Although social media, SEO, and email are the most widely used digital marketing strategies, your target market may respond better to a different combination of strategies.

Monitor and evaluate the outcomes.

One benefit of digital marketing is that results can be easily tracked. Having goals helps you to know what you want to accomplish. In the analysis phase of digital marketing, you evaluate how well you are accomplishing predetermined goals.

Establish a frequency for tracking performance metrics related to digital marketing: weekly, monthly, or daily. Very few digital initiatives provide fantastic results right away, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t meet stretch objectives on the first iteration of your marketing efforts. Learn from your analyses and use them to fine-tune your future digital marketing initiatives.