Undoubtedly, the world has been digitized. No business can progress without digital marketing. Whether you have a real estate business, you are in e-commerce business, or any other business you are doing, digital marketing is a must. In this post, we will tell you what is digital marketing, its types, and its advantages and disadvantages. So, let’s go.
Digital marketing is called online marketing. It is the promotion of brands to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. For example, email, social media, web-based advertising channels, search engines, mobile applications, and also text and multimedia messages. It is an act of promoting and selling products and services by using online marketing tactics such as media marketing, search marketing, and email marketing.
Digital marketing is a way to connect with and influence potential customers online. Basically, if a marketing campaign involves digital communication, it is called this digital marketing. It can be done online and offline and in fact, both kinds are important for a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.
Consumers rely heavily on digital means to research products. For example, think about google. Marketing insights found that 48 percent of customers start their inquiries on search engines, while 33 percent look to brand websites and 26 percent search within mobile applications.
Digital marketing helps you reach a larger audience than one could reach through traditional methods and target the prospects who are most likely to buy the particular product or service. Another advantage is that it is often more cost-effective than traditional advertising and enables you to measure success daily and change the plans accordingly.
Indeed, digital marketing is vital for one’s business and brand awareness. It seems like every brand has a website. If they don’t, they at least have a social media presence or digital ad strategy. Surely, digital marketing and content are so common that consumers now expect and rely on them as a way to learn about the brands.
Types of digital marketing
Now let’s look into the types of digital marketing.
1. Search Engine Optimization
It is the process of optimizing the brand’s website to rank higher in search engine result pages, thereby increasing the amount of free traffic the website receives.
2. Content Marketing
This term refers to the creation and promotion of content assets to generate brand awareness, traffic growth, lead generation, and customers. The channels that can help in content marketing strategy are blog posts, ebooks, etc.
3. Social Media Marketing
This practice promotes one’s brand and content on social media channels to achieve the same targets such as increasing brand awareness, driving traffic, and generating leads for the business. The channels include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
4. Pay-per-click
That is PPC. It is a method to drive traffic to the website by paying a publisher every time your ad is clicked. One of the most common types of PPC is google ads. Other channels include paid ads on Facebook, sponsored messages on LinkedIn, etc.
5. Affiliate Marketing
This is a type of performance-based advertising where one receives a commission for promoting someone else’s product on the website. Affiliate Marketing channels include posting affiliate links from your social media accounts and hosting video ads through the YouTube partner.
6. Native Advertising
Native advertising refers to the advertisements that are primarily content-led and featured on a platform alongside the other non-paid content. For example, Facebook advertising.
7. Marketing Automation
It refers to the software that serves to automate your basic marketing operations. Many marketing departments can automate repetitive tasks that are done manually otherwise. Such as email, newsletter, social media post scheduling, etc.
8. Email Marketing
Companies use this as a way to communicate with other audiences. Email is mostly used to promote content, discounts, and events as well as to direct people toward the business’s website. For example, blog subscriptions, and newsletters. Customers welcome emails, holiday promotions to loyalty program members, etc.
9. Online PR
It is much like traditional PR but in the online space. Online PR is the public relations work of communicators via online communication channels. The channels include social media, blogs, websites, etc.
10. Inbound Marketing
It is a method that is designed to draw visitors and potential customers in rather than outwardly pushing a brand product or service onto the prospects. It simply refers to the marketing methodology wherein you attract, engage, and delight customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey. They use every digital marketing technique mentioned above to create a customer experience that works with a customer but not against them.
11. Sponsored Content
In this, the brand pays another company or entity to create and promote content that discusses the brand or service provided in some way.
Advantages of digital marketing
1. Global reach
A website allows you to trade globally and also find new markets for a small investment
2. Huge return on investment
It gives you a huge ROI.
3. Easy to measure
The success or otherwise of a digital campaign can easily be ascertained with a digital campaign. One can know almost immediately how an ad is performing.
4. Easy to adjust
The knowledge of the performance of an ad will inform a business on how to proceed and the course of action can be changed accordingly.
5. Brand development
Businesses can use these digital platforms to build their company brand and reputation. For example, a blog featuring quality and useful articles as a social media channel that is highly interactive.
6. Easy to share
Most digital channels feature sharing capabilities that allow campaigns and articles to be shared with multiple followers. This helps to create a multiplayer effect and can tremendously improve sales results.
7. Precise targeting
Marketing on digital platforms allows for targeted camping where ads are presented to customers based on their preferences or initial action.
8. Segmentation
Segmentation is a process in which large customer groups are further broken down into smaller groups of customers according to a particular classification. Segmentation increases the chance of sales as well as cuts down on cost.
9. Openness
By getting involved with social media and managing it carefully, one can build customer loyalty and create a reputation for being easy to engage with.
Disadvantages of digital marketing
Now let’s look into the disadvantages.
- Dependability on technology.
- Security, privacy issues.
- Maintenance costs due to a constantly evolving environment.
- Worldwide competitions through globalization.
- Promotional strategies can be copied.
- Complaints and feedback: The complaints and feedback can be seen by everyone and one negative comment can destroy the online reputation of the product or brand for a longer time.
Well, this was whole about digital marketing. I hope you have understood now what digital marketing is, the types of digital marketing, and the advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing. If you are looking for an expert opinion on how to do digital marketing, contact us at digitalmarketerz.org and contra-tec.com.
