Digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via the Internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels. By using digital marketing channels and methods, you can analyze your marketing campaigns to understand what is working and what is not typically in real-time.
Consumers can now access information wherever, whenever and however they want it. And they are no longer influenced by just what you say about your brand. In fact, consumers are more likely to be influenced by what others say about your brand.
The reality is that people prefer brands that they can trust, companies that know them, communications that are personalized and relevant, and offers that are tailored to their anticipated needs and preferences.
Digital marketing can help you deliver all that, but there are some challenges to overcome.
Consumers use multiple channels and a variety of digital devices with different protocols, specifications, and interfaces. This makes it hard to manage digital marketing efforts. Competition is intensifying because digital channels are relatively cost-effective compared with traditional media, such as print, making them within reach of practically every business.
Digital Marketing Channels
The list of digital marketing Channels are also constantly evolving, but here are some of the channels most businesses are using:
Website
The way of building and promoting a brand of most of the businesses has greatly changed because of the internet. Most of the consumers are reaching any brand online before making a purchase and if your business does not have a strong and effective website to engage with consumers then the online sales opportunities will be missed out easily since website is the first thing that shows your business exists when people search for any relevant product on search engine.
A website is the centerpiece of all digital marketing activities. Alone, it is a very powerful channel, but it is also the medium needed to execute a variety of online marketing campaigns.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
One of the best ways to increase web traffic is through search engine optimization or SEO for short. As of today, there are over 130 million registered websites out there on the internet. To sort through all of it most of us rely on search engines to find what we want. Every search engine has a secret way called an algorithm for turning all that information into useful search results. Now, if you own a website, search results matter when your pages have higher rankings, they help more people find you.
Search engines today all follow this model. They still look at your website’s keywords but then rank your site’s relevance on the number and quality of backlinks to it from other websites. But keep this in mind that the more influential or legitimate the website is that links back to you the more effect that backlink from that site it’s going to have on your search result ranking.
Search Engine Marketing
Let’s say you search for something like “Wedding photos”. You will get lots of options on the search engine results page. Now we’re going to have a closer look at those results. The links you see in the main part of the page are called organic results. It costs nothing to appear here. This is where search engines show sites, they think have the most relevant content.
Now, look at the right column and across the top of the page. See those results? Well, these listings are paid advertisements. SEM lets you use this space to advertise to potential customers when they search for certain words and phrases that are relevant to your business. These are known as keywords.
Another unique thing to know about SEM is that the advertiser only pays when someone clicks on their ad. So, if your ad appears but no one clicks on it, you won’t be charged. That’s why it’s called “pay per click” advertising.
Search Engine Marketing is a uniquely powerful option for your business. It’s simple but effective. People search for things they want and advertisers target specific searches but only pay when someone clicks to learn more.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is old but is still one of the effective marketing channels. If you can nail your message in the email then it is easy to create customer acquisition in a cost-effective way.
Video Marketing
Sometimes people want to find things and have time to relax at the same time and that is when they go to YouTube. Users watch a review of a product before making a purchasing decision. They also learn something new and become a potential customer if they like it. To find the most success in video marketing through Facebook Videos, Instagram, or even Tiktok, companies should integrate it with SEO, content marketing, and broader social media marketing campaigns.
Affiliate Marketing:
One of the oldest forms of marketing is Affiliate marketing and but the process has changed with internet. In affiliate marketing influencers promote products and services and get a commission for each sale or lead is made from it. Affiliate Marketing is a win-win situation for both merchants and publishers.
Social Media Marketing:
Going social” isn’t simply about being active on Facebook and Twitter. It’s about being present where your audience hangs out—so you can engage with them, build relationships, and make offers your followers will love. The primary goal of a social media marketing campaign is brand awareness and establishing social trust. As you go deeper into social media marketing, you can use it to get leads or even as a direct sales channel.
Social media marketing is the free, organic way to use social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter to market your business. And, just like SEO, organically marketing your business on social media takes a lot more time and effort, but in the long run, it can deliver much cheaper results.
By connecting and engaging with your social media followers, you’ll be able to build lasting relationships between them and your business. You can do this by interacting with them on your posts, responding to their questions and comments, and providing them with any help they may need.
You can also ask your followers questions about your products, their pain points, or create giveaways to help you build trust and show them how much you value their input and support.
Paid Social Media Advertising
When you have more funds to grow your social media marketing, an area that you can consider is social media advertising. Most social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat will allow you to run ads on their site. Paid social media advertising is great for building awareness with audiences that might not be aware that your business, product or service exists.
