What is Digital Marketing?
In today’s era, everything has gone online. Internet has made our lives better and through this we can enjoy many facilities only through phone or laptop.
We can do many things like online shopping, ticket booking, recharges, bill payments, online transactions (online shopping, ticket booking, recharge, bill payment, online transactions) etc. through internet. Because of this increase in digital awareness and ease of work with the help of Internet, businesses around the world are adopting Digital Marketing to promote their businesses.
If we look at the market stats, about 80% of shoppers do online research before buying any product or taking any services. Because of this digital marketing has become an important tool for any company or business.
Digital Marketing Definition
Digital marketing is the way of marketing your goods and services through digital means. Digital marketing is done through the Internet. We can connect with our buyers and customers through internet, computer, mobile phone, laptop, website advertisements or any other applications.
The first few attempts were made in the 1980s to establish a digital market but it was not feasible. Its usage actually started in the late 1990s.
Digital marketing is a simple way to reach new customers. It carries out marketing activities. It can also be called online marketing. Digital marketing is the best way to reach more people in less time.
Digital marketing allows manufacturers and service providers to reach his customer as well as keep an eye on their activities, their needs. What products the customers are interested in or looking for, all these can be known through digital marketing. Simply put, digital marketing is a means of reaching customers through digital technology.
Importance of Digital Marketing
This is the era of technology and in this modern time everything is evolving. The Internet is an important part of technology which is prevalent everywhere like wildfire. With more and more people using internet every day, reaching out to them has become easier through various platforms like blogs, social media, videos, etc.
Every person is connected to the internet, they can use it easily everywhere. People are spending more and more time on social media site, looking for information, entertainment, connecting with friends and sharing thoughts. Given all these things, digital is the best platform to showcase your products and services to a large group of people in a short duration.
People can easily get their favorite and necessary goods ordered through the internet as per their convenience.
E-commerce has made this possible. Now people avoid going to the market and prefer ordering online. With Digital marketing you can launch your products and services in a short period of time, and consumers also benefit with it. They save their time and effort from physically visiting stores and malls to buy things and also get the latest updates on product launches, discounts and features sitting at home.
Digital Marketing has created a win win opportunity for both the sellers and buyers.
Future of Digital Marketing
The demand of digital marketing in 2020 is strongly immense then ever. With thousands of businesses coming online everyday, the demand for digital marketing services and trainers are increasing like never before. No business can get sales and conversion without digital marketing, whether its organic or paid marketing.
Earlier, businesses had to resort to offline advertisements like banners, newspapers, TV commercials, posters,etc. The greatest con of offline advertisements is you never know how beneficial your campaign are, how many people actually see your ads, how many people actually liked your product, how many people actually bought your product after seeing your ad, etc.
But now with Digital Marketing you can measure and analyse every statistics. The most popular advertising platforms are Google, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Let’s get a step deeper and understand what are the types of Digital Marketing.
Types of Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is a broad subject. Whatever you see on the internet is a part of digital marketing. There are basically seven types of digital marketing/advertising.
- SEO ( Search Engine Optimization )
This is a technical medium that places your website at the top of the search engine results which increases the number of visitors. For this, we need a website to write blogs and content which are optimized for search engines.
2. Social Media Marketing
Social media comprises of many platforms – such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. Through social media one can express his views and share any media in front of thousands of people. When you browse through these sites, you can see advertisements on it at certain intervals. It’s an effective means of advertising.
3. Search Engine Marketing and Pay-Per-Click Advertising
The type of advertisement where you get paid whenever someone clicks on your ads. The promoters is charged for clicks and not for views.
4. Content Marketing
Content marketing refers to the practice of delivering a quality piece of content to your users to generate sales and leads. Tweets, a YouTube video, and blogs on your website all comprise content marketing. Content Marketing works because it melds together exceptional content with other types of digital marketing like SEO and Social Media Marketing.
Keep your audience in mind as you create content. Remember who you’re talking to and what they’re interested in. This will dictate the subject of your content. Consider the language your audience uses when they search online for information. Use these keywords to boost your SEO.
Last, share your content across all of your social media platforms for maximum exposure and feedback. Content marketing is an ongoing practice. It’s not always about sales but more so about engaging and educating your consumer to build brand recognition, trust, and equity.
Creating relevant, quality content helps you stand out and boosts your SEO.
5. Affiliate Marketing
In affiliate marketing, you promote other businesses products and earn commission per sale. You can advertise products or services through websites, blogs or links. Under this, you create your referral link and promote products with this affiliate link. When the customer buys through your link, you receives a commission.
6. Influencer Marketing
It is among the newer types of digital marketing. Influencer marketing uses people with an enormous online reach considered experts by your target market to drive traffic and sales.
Influencer marketing is popular on social media channels like Instagram and Snapchat. Companies hire Instagrammers with large followings to promote their brand by posting one or more photos with the product. Companies now engage in Instagram or Snapchat “takeovers” where the hired influence controls the company’s social media platform for a given amount of time, most often a day. These social media takeovers drive the influencer’s following to your social media channels increasing your new followers and unique views.
7. Email Marketing
E-mail refers to reaching out to your customers and subscribers through Email. E-mail Marketing is necessary for every company in every way. Businesses can promote their offers, blog posts, offers, product to their subscribers with just one click. Many E-mail marketing platforms are available to manage e-mail campaigns. Some popular ones are Mailchimp, Aweber, builderall, etc.