Digital marketing has become one of the most popular buzzwords in the last couple of years. Everybody is talking about digital marketing and professionals praise it’s the way to grow an online business.
Universities advertise their new digital marketing courses and in general, there is an increased demand from users to learn digital marketing and use it to improve their online presence.
In this guide, we will examine what is digital marketing, what are the various digital marketing channels, what is a digital marketing strategy and clear out some misconceptions about digital marketing and its role in the Internet world.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is a broad term that includes all marketing channels and methods you can use to promote products or services on the Internet but also electronic devices such as TVs, mobile phones, and electronic billboards.
The main difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing is that digital marketing campaigns are executed exclusively through digital channels and this gives marketers more control, tools, and data to analyze the effectiveness of a campaign.
DM as becoming one of the most popular buzzwords in the last couple of years. Everybody is talking about digital marketing and professionals praise it’s the way to grow an online business. Universities advertise their new digital marketing courses and in general, there is an increased demand from users to learn digital marketing and use it to improve their online presence.
What is digital marketing?
DM includes all marketing channels and methods you can use to promote products or services on the Internet but also electronic devices such as TVs, mobile phones, and electronic billboards.
The main difference between DM and traditional marketing is that digital marketing campaigns are executed exclusively through digital channels and this gives marketers more control, tools, and data to analyze the effectiveness of a campaign.
Website Marketing
A website is the focal point of all digital marketing campaigns. By itself is a very powerful channel but it’s also the medium to execute most of the other online marketing campaigns.
Your website should represent your brand, product, and services in the best possible way. It should be fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC advertising gives you the ability to reach internet users on several networks through paid ads.
You can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook and show your ads to people searching for terms related to your products or services.
Every time a user clicks on your ads, you pay a fee to the provider (and thus the term pay per click).
The most popular PPC platforms are Google Ads and Facebook.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is all about the content. The digital world is a huge collection of content in different forms like text, images, audio, and video.
The goal of a content marketing campaign is to reach potential customers through the use of content.
The difference between having a blog versus running a content marketing campaign is that the later has specific goals as to what content to publish and when to publish it, who to target, and how to monitor the effectiveness of your content campaigns.
The main tools of content marketing are:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website for search engines.
The main goal of SEO is to help a website rank higher in the search results and get organic traffic from search engines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO has several sub-processes. The main ones are:
Become an SEO Expert – A step-by-step guide on how to become an expert in Search Engine Optimization.
The Complete SEO Course – A SEO full course, from start to finish.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC advertising gives you the ability to reach internet users on several networks through paid ads.
You can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook and show your ads to people searching for terms related to your products or services.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is all about the content. The digital world is a huge collection of content in different forms like text, images, audio, and video.
The goal of a content marketing campaign is to reach potential customers through the use of content. Content is usually published on a website and then promoted through social media, email marketing, SEO, or even PPC campaigns.
The difference between having a blog versus running a content marketing campaign is that the later has specific goals as to what content to publish and when to publish it, who to target, and how to monitor the effectiveness of your content campaigns.
The main tools of content marketing are:
Content Marketing Checklist
Email Marketing
Despite the increased use of social media networks, email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels.
Many people confuse email marketing with the hundreds of spam email messages we all receive per day, but that’s not what email marketing is all about.
Email marketing is the medium to get in touch with your potential customers or the people interested in your brand and this entails that these people want to hear from you and you are not hijacking their inbox.
Many successful online businesses and marketers use all other digital marketing channels to add leads to their email lists and then through email marketing, they create several funnels to turn those leads into customers.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing that has grown considerably with the rise of Internet usage. Basically, with affiliate marketing, you promote other people’s products and you get a commission every time you make a sale or introduce a lead.
Many well-known companies like Amazon have affiliate programs that pay out millions of dollars per month to websites that sell their products. When designing your digital marketing strategy, you should include affiliate marketing as a way to get people involved in your brand and sell your products for a commission.
They will get a commission as a reward but the benefits for you as a provider are much more. Your affiliates cannot only drive more sales but they can become the best representatives of your brand and positively influence other people to buy or connect with your company.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is another fancy term that refers to how you can use various digital marketing channels to reach new customers mainly through the process of content creation and how to ‘push’ them through a funnel until they convert.
What is a DM strategy?
A digital marketing strategy is a detailed plan on how you can utilize the different digital marketing channels to achieve your business goals. When you design a digital marketing strategy you need to consider which channels to use, the resources to assign to each channel, and what to expect in terms of results.
A common mistake made by many digital marketing managers or small business owners is that they try to execute everything at once and at the end of the day they get no results. Either because they don’t have the necessary expertise to run digital marketing campaigns or because they end up spending their budgets on channels that are not suitable for their business.
