What is Digital Marketing? - A Comprehensive Guide

Digital Marketing can also be known as online marketing. It involves promoting brands to connect with customers via the internet and other forms of 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.

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Jump to:

• Inbound marketing versus digital marketing

• Different types of digital marketing - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Content marketing - Social media marketing - Pay-per-click marketing - Affiliate marketing - Native advertising - Marketing automation - Email marketing

• Digital marketing has many benefits

• B2C vs B2B digital marketing

• Conclusion

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Inbound marketing versus digital marketing

It is easy to confuse digital marketing with inbound marketing. Digital marketing can use many of the same tools as inbound marketing, including email marketing and online content.

Both are designed to grab the attention of prospects and turn them into clients. However, these two approaches have different perspectives on the relationship between the tool & the goal.

Digital marketing looks at how each tool can convert leads. A brand's digital advertising strategy can use multiple platforms or concentrate all its efforts on one platform.

Inbound marketing can be described as a holistic approach. It starts by defining the goal, then examines the tools available to determine which will be the most effective in reaching target customers, and finally, which stage of a sales funnel should it occur at.

Digital marketing and Inbound Marketing are two separate things. You don't need to choose one or the other. Both work best when combined. Inbound marketing is a framework and purpose that allows digital marketing channels to work together towards a common goal.

Different types of digital marketing

There are as many specializations as ways to interact using digital media. Here are some examples.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (or SEO) is technically more of a marketing tool than an actual marketing technique.

It requires you to study and weigh all contributing factors in order to achieve the best ranking. Among the most critical elements when optimizing a website are:

• High-quality content

• Engagement level

• Mobile-friendliness

• Inbound links: Quality and number

SEO is a science through the strategic use of these elements, but SEO's unpredictable nature makes it an art.

There's no standard or quantifiable SEO rubric that will guarantee high rankings. Google updates its algorithm nearly constantly, so it is impossible to predict exactly what will happen.

One of the most useful things you can accomplish is closely monitoring your page's performance and adjusting it as necessary.

Content marketing

SEO is a crucial factor in Content Marketing. It is a strategy that focuses on distributing relevant and valuable content to an audience.

Content marketing has a clear goal as any other marketing strategy: attracting leads that can be converted into customers.

However, it works differently from traditional advertising. Instead of tempting prospects with potential benefits from a product, it offers value free of charge in the form of written materials.

Content Marketing is important. Many stats prove this:

• 84% expect entertainment and helpful content from companies.

• 62% of companies employing at least 5 000 people produce content each day

• 92% believe content is an essential asset for their company.

It can be complicated, no matter how effective content marketing may be.

The content marketing writer must be able to rank well in search engine results, engage people, and share the material.

Relevant content can help build strong relationships in the pipeline.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing involves driving web traffic and creating brand awareness via engaging in online discussions.

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the most used platforms for social media marketing. LinkedIn and YouTube follow close behind.

Social media marketing involves active audience participation and has become a well-known way to get attention. With 96% of B2C marketers using social media, it's the most preferred content medium.

It's also growing in popularity in B2B. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 61% of B2B content marketers increased their use of social media this year.

Social media marketing comes with built-in engagement indicators which can be extremely helpful in helping you understand how well you are reaching the audience.

You decide what interactions matter most to you. That could be comments, shares, or total clicks to your website.

Your social media strategy might not have direct purchase as a goal.

Many brands use social marketing to have dialogues with customers, not to get them to spend money immediately.

This is especially true for older brands that offer services and products that are not suitable for impulse buying.

It all depends upon your company's goals.

Brand24 is a social media listening tool that can be used to help you with your social media strategy and to monitor your overall brand health.

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Pay-per-click marketing

Pay-per click advertising or marketing, also known as PPC, refers to posting an advertisement on a platform and getting paid each time someone clicks on it.

A bit more work goes into how and when people see your ads. A spot that is available on a Search Engine Results Page (also known as a SERP) is filled by the engine in what is basically an instant auction.

An algorithm prioritizes each ad by multiple factors that can be used to determine the priority of it:

• Ad quality

• Keyword relevancy

• Landing page quality

• Bid amount

Each PPC campaign has either one or even more target actions the marketer wants them to complete after clicking an advertisement. These actions are called conversions.

They can be transactional and non-transactional. A purchase is considered a conversion. However, a signup for the newsletter can also be considered a conversion.

Whatever target conversions you choose, you can track them through your chosen platform to monitor how your campaign is doing.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing allows people to earn a commission for promoting products or services made by other retailers or advertisers. An affiliate partner receives payment for delivering a particular result to the advertiser or retailer.

The result is usually a sale. Some programs offer rewards for leads, free-trial users, or clicks to a site.

Affiliate programs usually come with no cost to sign up, so there's no need to worry about expensive startup costs. If done well, this performance-based opportunity could transform your side hustle into a profitable online business and generate a steady income.

Native advertising

Native advertising refers to ads that are cohesive with page content, integrated into the design, consistent with platform behavior, and feel like they belong there.

Native ads are very popular in the form of sponsored posts and promoted search results. Both formats offer the same value to users as user-generated social media posts and organic search results.

Consumers are becoming more resistant to traditional advertising formats, such as banner and display ads, so Fortune 500 companies and consumer startups allocate larger budgets and more ad spending towards content marketing and nondisruptive formats.

By 2025, the global native advertising market is expected to be worth more than $402B annually.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation enables digital marketing campaigns to be more efficient and relevant by using various software.

According to statistics

• 90% of US consumers think personalization is "very" and "somewhat" attractive

• 81% of Consumers want brands to better understand them

• 77% of companies believe in real-time personalization. But 60% are not convinced.

Marketing automation helps companies meet the demand for personalization. It allows brands to:

• Analyze and collect information from consumers

• Create targeted marketing campaigns

• Marketing messages should be sent and posted at the proper times to reach the right audience

Many marketing automation tools combine prospect engagement (or lack thereof), and a particular message to determine when to reach out to them next.

This allows you to create a personalized marketing strategy for each client without spending extra time.

Email marketing

Email Marketing is an effective marketing channel. This includes direct marketing and digital advertising that uses email to promote products or services.

You can inform your customers about the latest offers and products by integrating them into your marketing automation.

It can also be an integral part of your Marketing Strategy. This includes lead generation, brand awareness building relationships, and keeping customers engaged between purchases through various types of marketing emails.

Digital marketing has many benefits

It is a popular form of marketing, primarily because it can reach such a broad audience. But it also has many other benefits. These are simply some of the numerous benefits.

Broad geographic reach

People can view your advertisement online regardless of their location, provided you don't restrict it geographically.

This makes it easy for you to increase your market reach.

Cost efficiency

Digital marketing can reach a wider audience than traditional marketing and comes at a lower cost.

The overhead costs associated with traditional marketing channels such as television spots and newspaper ads can be very high.

These ads also give you less control over your target audience's perception of the messages.

Digital Marketing lets you create just one piece of content that brings people to your site. As long as the piece is active, it can be used as a single content piece.

An email marketing campaign can be created that sends messages to targeted customer lists according to a set schedule. It is easy to modify that schedule and the content as needed.

Digital marketing gives you more control over your advertising spending and provides more contact options with your customers.

Quantifiable results

It is important to determine if your marketing strategy is effective by determining how many customers it draws and what amount of revenue it generates.

What about a non-digital strategy for marketing?

The traditional way to ask customers is, "How did they find us?"

Unfortunately, this doesn't always work across all industries. Many companies don't have the opportunity to speak one-on-one with their customers.

Also, surveys don't always provide complete results if you do them offline, but engaging with your customer and prospect online via survey tools like Typeform can give you a lot of valuable information.

​💡 You can read our Review about Typeform to find out more about it.

Furthermore, monitoring the results of digital marketing is easy. Many digital marketing platforms and software let you track the number of conversions, whether it is email open rates or visits to your homepage.

Easier personalization

Digital marketing enables you to gather customer information in ways offline marketing cannot.

Digital data is more specific and precise than offline marketing.

Imagine you offer financial products and wish to send out special offers for people who have looked into your products. It is clear that targeting the right person will result in better results, so you create two campaigns.

The first is for young families who have already considered your life insurance products. The second is for millennial entrepreneurs who are considering your retirement plans.

How can you collect all this data without automatic tracking?

How many phone records would it take to get all that data?

How many customer profiles would you need to look through?

How can you tell who has received the brochure and who hasn't?

This information can be easily found and collected online with digital marketing.

Connect with your customers more

Digital marketing allows you to communicate with your customers instantly. At the same time, they can do the same with you too.

Consider your social media strategy. It's amazing that your target audience notices your latest posts, but it's even better when they comment or share them.

It creates more buzz about your product or service as well as greater visibility when someone joins the conversation.

Your customers also benefit from interactivity. Your customers will engage more when they actively participate in the brand's story.

This ownership can build loyalty to your brand.

Conversions are simple and quick

Digital marketing allows your customers to take immediate action once they have seen your ad.

A traditional advertisement will only result in a phone call just after someone has seen your ad. Someone rarely has the time or inclination to contact a company while they do the dishes, update their records, or drive down the highway.

Digital marketing lets them click on a link, save an article and start a sales funnel immediately.

While they may not buy immediately, they will stay in touch and allow you to interact further with them.

B2C vs B2B digital marketing

Digital marketing works well for companies as well as B2C businesses, but the best practices are very different between the two.

• B2B customers tend to have more complex decision-making processes and, therefore, more prolonged sales funnels. Relationship building techniques work better for these type of clients, whereas B2C customers tend to react better to short-term offers and messages.
  

• B2B deals are often based upon logic and evidence. This is the expertise of skilled B2B digital marketers. B2C content will be more emotional-based. It will focus on making the customer feel satisfied about a purchase.
  

• B2B decisions require more than one person. These marketing materials tend to be easily shareable and downloadable. B2C customers favor personal connections with a brand.

There are exceptions to everything, as there might be B2C companies selling high-end products like computers and cars, which could be able to offer more detailed and informative content.

Your strategy must always be targeted at your customer base, no matter if you are B2B/B2C.

Conclusion

Any business's marketing strategy should include digital marketing as a primary focus. Digital data offers a unique way to maintain constant contact with your customers. You can realize the potential of digital marketing and your company's growth potential by embracing it.