Marketing that is digital can include any marketing that involves electronic devices. This includes marketing specialists who can use it to communicate promotional messages and track its impact on your customer journey. Digital marketing is a term that describes marketing campaigns that are displayed on a phone, tablet or computer. Digital marketing can come in many forms: online video, show ads search engine marketing and paid social ads. Digital marketing is often compared with traditional marketing such as billboards and magazine ads. Television is often lumped with traditional marketing.
Did you know that over 3 quarters of Americans use the internet on a daily basis. Not only this, but 43% of Americans go online more than once per day and 26% are online ” nearly constantly.”
These numbers are even higher for mobile internet users. 89% of Americans use the internet at least once a day, while 31% go online almost daily. It’s crucial to capitalize on the digital world as a marketer by creating a brand and providing great customer experiences that bring more potential customers.
You can use digital marketing strategies to connect with customers and people who are interested in your products and services. You can create a brand, offer great customer service, and bring in new customers.
What is digital marketing?
Digital Marketing is also known as online marketing. It involves promoting brands to connect with customers via the internet and other forms digital communication. This includes email and social media as well as web-based advertising. However, it also includes text and multimedia messages that can be used as a marketing channel.
Digital marketing is, in essence, any marketing campaign that involves digital communication.
Inbound marketing versus digital marketing
Inbound marketing and digital marketing can be easily confused . Many of the same tools are used in digital marketing as inbound marketing, including email and online content. Both aim to attract prospects’ attention and convert them into customers. The relationship between the tool, the goal is different in both of these approaches.
Digital marketing is about how individual tools and digital channels can convert customers. The digital strategy of a brand may utilize multiple platforms, or rely solely on one platform. A company might create content solely for email marketing campaigns and social media platforms.
Inbound marketing, on the other hand is holistic. Inbound marketing is holistic. It starts with the goal, then examines the tools available to determine which will reach the target customers and finally, at what stage of the sales funnel. Let’s say that you want to increase website traffic in order to generate more leads and prospects. Search engine optimization can be a key component of your content marketing strategy. This will result in better content including blogs and landing pages.
It is important to remember that digital marketing and inbound are both options. As a marketer, you don’t have to choose between them. They work well together. Inbound marketing gives structure and purpose to digital marketing efforts. It ensures that each channel of digital marketing works towards a common goal.
Why is digital marketing so important?
Your business can thrive with any type of marketing. Digital marketing is becoming more important due to the ease of accessing digital channels. Globally, 5 billion internet users were active in April 2022.
There are many digital marketing strategies that you can use to reach your target audience, including text messages and social media. Digital marketing is affordable for small businesses, and it has low upfront costs.
B2B versus B2C digital marketing
While digital marketing strategies can be used for B2B companies (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to consumer), best practices are different between the two. Let’s take a closer look at digital marketing in B2B and B2C strategies.
- B2B clients have longer decision-making cycles, which leads to longer sales funnels. Relationship-building strategies work better for these clients, whereas B2C customers tend to respond better to short-term offers and messages.
- B2B transactions are often based on logic. This is what skilled B2B marketers present. B2C content tends to be more emotionally-based and focuses on making customers feel happy about a purchase.
- B2B decisions often require more than one person’s input. These marketing materials are shareable and easily downloadable. B2C customers prefer one-on-one relationships with brands.
There are exceptions to every rule. B2C companies that sell high-ticket products, such as computers or cars, may offer more detailed and serious content. Your digital marketing strategy should always be targeted at your customers, regardless of whether they are B2B or C2C.
To create targeted and well-informed online marketing campaigns, take a look at who your audience is. This will ensure that your marketing efforts are successful and can attract potential customers.
Different types of digital marketing
There are many specializations in digital marketing, just as there are ways to interact with digital media. These are just a few examples of digital marketing strategies.
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (or SEO) is technically a marketing tool, rather than a type of marketing. The Balance describes it as “the science and art of making web pages appealing to search engines.”
SEO’s “art and science” part is the most important. SEO is a science. It requires that you research and weigh various contributing factors in order to rank high on a search engine results page (SERP).
The most essential elements you should consider when optimizing your web page for search engines are:
- Content quality
- User engagement
- Mobile-friendliness
- Quality and quantity of Inbound Links
You must optimize technical SEO. This refers to all back-end components of your website. This includes URL structure, loading speeds, broken links, and more. Search engines can better crawl and navigate your site by improving your technical SEO.
Search engine optimization is a science when you use these factors strategically, but it’s an art when you consider the unpredictable nature of search engine optimization.
The ultimate goal is to rank on the first result page of any search engine. This allows people to easily search for your services or products by searching for specific keywords related to your brand. Although there are many search engines available, digital marketers tend to focus on Google because it is the global leader in search engine marketing.
There is no consistent ranking rule or quantifiable rubric in SEO. Google and other search engines modify their algorithm nearly daily. It’s difficult to predict the future. You can monitor the performance of your page and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Content Marketing
The quality of your content is key to an optimized page. SEO is therefore a key component in Content Marketing, which is a strategy that distributes relevant and valuable content to a audience.
Content marketing, like all marketing strategies, aims to draw leads and ultimately convert them into customers. It does this differently to traditional advertising. Instead of appealing prospects with the potential value of a product or service to them, it provides value in the form free written material such as:
- Blog posts
- E-books
- Newsletters
- Audio or video transcripts
- Whitepapers
- Infographics
Content marketing is important and there are many stats to support it.
- 84% of consumers expect companies produce useful and entertaining content.
- 62% of companies with at least 5,000 employees produce content every day
- 92% of marketers believe their company values content.
Content marketing can be as effective as it is. However, it can also be difficult. It is essential for content marketing writers to be able rank high in search engine results and engage people who will share the material and further interact with the brand. If the content is useful, it can build strong relationships with other people in the pipeline.
It’s crucial to identify your audience in order to create engaging content that is highly relevant and useful. What audience are you trying to reach with content marketing efforts? You can begin to determine what type of content you will create once you have a better understanding of your audience. Content marketing can include videos, blog posts and printable worksheets.
It doesn’t matter what content you create. Content marketing best practices are important. It means creating content that is grammatically correct, error-free, understandable, relevant, and entertaining. Your content should direct readers to the next stage of the pipeline. This could be a free consultation with sales representatives or a signup page.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing is driving traffic, and increasing brand awareness through engaging people in online discussion. Social media marketing can be used to promote your brand, products and services, as well as culture. Social media marketing is a worthwhile investment, as billions of people spend their time on these platforms.
The most used digital platforms for social media marketing include Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn and YouTube are close behind. Your goals and your audience will determine which social media platform you choose for your business. If you are looking for new leads for FinTech startups, LinkedIn is the best platform to target your audience. This is because many industry professionals are on LinkedIn. If you are a B2C company that targets younger consumers, it may be a better idea to run Instagram social media ads.
Social media marketing is a very popular method of getting attention. It involves active audience participation. With 96% of B2C marketers using it, it is the most used content medium. It is also growing in popularity in the B2B space. The Content Marketing Institute reported that 61% of B2B content marketers increased their social media use in the past year.
Social media marketing has built-in engagement metrics that can help you understand how well your reach your audience. You can choose which interactions are most important to you. This could be the number of comments, shares, or total visits to your website.
Your social media marketing strategy may not include direct purchase. Social media marketing is often used by brands to build relationships with their customers rather than to encourage them to spend immediately. This is particularly true for brands that target older customers and offer services or products not suitable for impulse purchases . All of it depends on the social media marketing goals of your company.
It is crucial to use best practices in social media marketing. These are some of the top social media marketing best practice:
- Create engaging, high-quality content
- Professionally reply to questions and comments
- Make a schedule for social media postings
- Post when it is convenient
- Social media managers can be hired to help you market your products and services
- Know your audience. Which social media channels are they most active on?
Check out this comparison of our social media management tools to learn more about Mailchimp’s role in your social media strategy.
Pay-per-click marketing
You pay a fee each time someone clicks your digital ads. This is called Pay-per-click. Instead of paying a fixed amount to run targeted ads on various online channels, you pay only for what people interact with. It is more difficult to determine how and when people view your ads.
Search engine advertising is one of the most used types of PPC. Many businesses use Google Ads to advertise on Google because it is the most widely used search engine. The engine fills a spot on a search engines results page with an auction-style bid. The algorithm determines which ad is prioritized by using a variety of factors, such as:
- Ad quality
- Relevance of keywords
- Landing page quality
- Bid amount
PPC ads are placed at the top search engine result pages according to the above factors whenever someone searches for a particular query.
Every PPC campaign includes one or more target actions that viewers must complete after clicking on an ad. These are called conversions and can be transactional, or non-transactional. Conversions include making a purchase, signing up for the newsletter, and calling your home office.
You can track your targeted conversions using your preferred digital marketing channels, so you can see how your campaign is performing.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing allows you to make money by promoting other people’s businesses. The process can be done by either the promoter or the business that works with the promoter. However, it is the same.
The revenue sharing model is used. You earn a commission each time someone buys the product you recommend. You pay the merchant for each sale you help them make.
Affiliate marketers may choose to only review products from one company. This could be on a blog, or another third-party site. Some affiliate marketers have relationships with multiple merchants.
Make a connection with other affiliates, whether you are looking to become one or to find one. Digital channels can be used to connect affiliates and retailers. You can also join or start a single-retailer programme.
You can do many things to appeal to potential affiliates if you are a retailer. These affiliates will need the tools they need to succeed. This includes providing incentives for great results, as well as marketing tools or pre-made materials.
Native advertising
Native advertising is digital marketing in disguise. Its purpose is to blend into the content around it so that it doesn’t seem as obvious as advertising.
Native advertising was developed in response to today’s cynicism about ads. Many consumers will assume that an advertisement is biased because it has been paid to be run.
Native ads overcome this bias by providing information and entertainment before any promotion, downplaying its “ad” component.
It is important to clearly label native ads. Avoid using words such as “promoted” and “sponsored.” Readers might spend a lot of time reading native ads before realizing it is advertising.
Your content and brand will be more appealing to consumers who know what they are getting. Although native ads may be less intrusive than traditional ads they are not deceptive.
Marketing to Influencers
Influencer marketing is similar to affiliate marketing. In exchange for exposure, you work with an influencer, which is someone with a large following such as a celebrity or industry expert. These influencers may endorse your products and services to their followers via multiple social media channels.
B2B and B2C businesses who wish to reach new customers can use influencer marketing. It’s crucial to work with trusted influencers as they are essentially representing your brand. Bad influencers can damage the trust that consumers have in your business.
Marketing automation
Digital marketing automation makes it possible to create digital marketing campaigns that are more effective and relevant. Instead of focusing on cumbersome, time-consuming processes, you can concentrate on the strategy behind your digital marketing efforts.
Marketing automation can be a great tool for your business, but it can also significantly increase the engagement between your audience and you.
According to statistics:
- 90% US consumers consider personalization “very” or “somewhat” appealing.
- 81% consumers would like brands to get to know them better
- 77% of companies believe in the importance of real-time personalization. However, 60% of them struggle with it
Market automation allows companies to keep up with personalization expectations. It allows brands:
- Analyze and collect consumer information
- Targeted marketing campaigns
- Post and send digital marketing messages to the right people at the right time
Many marketing automation tools allow you to use prospect engagement (or lack thereof), with a specific message to decide when and how to reach them next. You can create a customized marketing strategy for each customer with this level of customization.
Mailchimp’s marketing automation tools allow you to interact with your audience through behavior-based, transactional, and date-based automations.
Email marketing
Email marketing has a simple concept. You send a message to your prospect and hope they click on it. Execution is more difficult. You must first make sure your email addresses are being used. You will need an opt in list which does the following
- Separates the content in the body and the subject line
- Indicate clearly which type of email the subscriber will receive
- A email signature with a clear unsubscribe button
- Integrates transactional and promotional emails
Your prospects should see your campaign not as a promotion tool but as something they will actually use.
Email marketing is an effective and proven technique. 89% surveyed professionals cited it as the most effective lead generator.
You can make it even more effective by incorporating other digital marketing techniques, such as marketing automation. This allows you segment to schedule your emails in a way that meets your customers’ needs.
Here are some tips to help you create great email marketing campaigns if you’re thinking about email marketing:
- Segment your audience so you can send the right campaigns to the right people
- Make sure emails look great on mobile devices
- Make a campaign schedule
- Run A/B tests
Mobile marketing
Mobile marketing allows you to connect with your target audience via their mobile devices (such as smartphones or tablets) using digital marketing strategies such as SMS and MMS messages. This can be done via SMS or MMS messages, social media notifications and mobile app alerts.
It is crucial that content be optimized for mobile devices. Pew Research Center estimates that 85% of Americans have a smartphone. This means that your marketing efforts will be more effective if you create content for mobile and computer screens.
Digital marketing has many benefits
Because it is accessible to such a large audience, digital marketing has been prominent. It also provides a variety of other benefits that will help you market your products and services. These are just a few benefits of digital marketing.
Geographic reach
People can view your ads online regardless of where they live (provided that you don’t limit the geographic reach of your ad). This allows you to expand your reach and reach a wider audience through different digital channels.
Cost efficiency
Digital marketing is more accessible than traditional marketing and also has a lower price. Newspaper ads, TV spots, and other traditional marketing options can have high overhead costs. You also have less control over the likelihood that your target audience will view those messages.
digital marketing allows you to create one content piece that attracts visitors to your blog, as long as it is active. It’s possible to create an email marketing campaign to send messages to specific customer lists. You can also easily change the schedule or content of your campaign if necessary.
Digital marketing offers you more flexibility and customer contact when you combine it all.
Results that can be quantified
You need to know how many customers your marketing strategy attracts and how much revenue you generate. How can you determine if your non-digital marketing strategy is working?
You can always ask each customer “How did your find us?”
This doesn’t work for all industries. Many companies are unable to have one-on-1 conversations with customers. Surveys don’t always yield complete results.
Digital marketing makes it easy to monitor your results. Digital marketing platforms and software automatically track the number desired conversions you get. This could be email open rates, visits on your homepage, or direct sales.
Easier personalization
You can collect customer data digitally, which is something that offline marketing cannot do. Digital data tends to be more precise and specific.
Imagine that you are a financial service provider and wish to send special offers to people who have viewed your products. Because you know that you will get better results when you target the person’s interests, you decide to create two campaigns. The first is for young families that have already looked into your life insurance products. The second is for millennial entrepreneurs, who have also considered your retirement plans.
What is the best way to gather all that data without any automated tracking? How many phone records do you need to look through? How many customer profiles would you need? How do you find out who has read your brochure?
Digital marketing makes it easy to access all this information.
Increase your connection with customers
You can communicate with customers via digital marketing in real time. It also allows them to communicate with you.
Your social media strategy is what you should be thinking about. It’s wonderful when your target audience views your latest post. But it’s even more amazing when they comment on it and share it. This creates more buzz around your product or service and increases visibility each time someone joins in the conversation.
Customers also benefit from interactivity. As they participate in the brand’s story, their engagement levels will increase. This sense of ownership can lead to strong brand loyalty.
Conversions are simple and easy
Your customers can take immediate action after seeing your advertisement or content through digital marketing. Traditional advertisements can only provide a call within a few minutes of someone viewing your ad. How often do people have the time to call a company when they are busy doing dishes or updating work records?
They can save a post or click a link to digital marketing and they can move right along the sales funnel. Although they might not purchase right away, they will keep in touch with your company and allow you to interact further.
How to make a digital marketing strategy
It can be challenging for small businesses and new digital marketers to get started in digital marketing. The following steps will help you create a digital marketing strategy that increases brand awareness, engagement, sales, and profitability.
Set Smart goals
Marketing strategies must be specific, measurable and achievable. There are many goals that you can set, but try to keep your strategy moving forward and not stagnant.
Identify your audience
It is important to identify your target audience before you start any marketing campaign. Your target audience is the people your campaign should reach based on similar characteristics such as age, gender and demographic. A good understanding of your target audience will help you decide which digital marketing channels and what information to include in your campaigns.
Make a budget
A budget will ensure that you are spending your money in the right direction and not on channels that don’t deliver the results you want. To create a budget, consider your SMART goals as well as the digital channel that you plan to use.
Select your digital marketing channels
There are many digital marketing channels that you can use to your advantage, including content marketing and PPC campaigns. Depending on your goals and budget, which digital marketing channels to use most often will depend on what you are trying to achieve.
Improve your marketing efforts
Analyze your campaign data after the campaign has ended to determine what went well and where there are opportunities for improvement. This will allow you to build even more effective campaigns in the future. This data can be accessed in a simple-to-use dashboard with the help of digital technology and software. Mailchimp’s digital analytics reports will allow you to keep track of all of your marketing campaigns from one central location.
Digital marketing is a way to grow
Every business should make digital marketing a key focus of their overall marketing strategy. There has never been a better way to keep in touch with customers than digital marketing. And no other method can offer the same level of personalization as digital data. Digital marketing is a powerful tool that can help you realize your company’s potential growth.
