Understanding Digital Marketing
Understanding Digital Marketing
Understanding Digital Marketing
Digital marketing isn't just one discipline; it's a collection of unique marketing techniques that optimize internet space for businesses and consumers.
Internet marketing has become a staple in marketing campaign efforts because of its reach and overall cost. For example, the University of Minnesota reports that NBC is charging 6.5 million dollars for a 30-second super bowl ad.
According to the Athletic, 112.3 million Americans watched the Super Bowl. That's an increase of 14% from last year's numbers. Even so, a total of 206 million people check their Twitter daily. The reach and cost of traditional marketing techniques no longer make sense in this digital age. We find it wholly inefficient to focus only on offline marketing with access to digital channels.
Reaching a large general audience is no longer the goal for marketing teams. Digital marketing efforts can ensure that advertisements are now reaching their intended audience. Targeted ads, social media, and email marketing ensure that consumers receive products and services tailored directly to them.
Types of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing activities are categorized, each with its own goals of reaching new consumers or retaining current customers.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO uses commonly searched terms to help generate website traffic. This form of digital marketing is crucial because of the numerous pieces of content uploaded to the internet.
Using optimized search terms allows users to find relevant content using search engines such as Google.
Pay-Per-Click
PPC is a short-term digital marketing strategy. It focuses on boosting traffic for a set period, typically only a few months per product or service. Similar to SEO, PPC focuses on website traffic generation. In contrast, SEO focuses on increasing traffic by properly optimizing its website and content.
Another vital thing to note is that advertisers only pay if visitors click on these ads. Since this is the case, businesses may see a better return than traditional advertising.
Like all forms of digital marketing, these PPC ads are targeted directly to the appropriate consumers to boost the chances of sales and website traffic.
Social Media Marketing
Popular forms of social media include:
- Snapchat
The appeal of social media marketing is its cost-efficiency, unlike its offline counterpart. On top of being a cheap form of advertising, it's also reasonable to maintain.
Businesses have relatively little upkeep and maintenance of their social media platforms because of marketing automation.
Marketing automation eliminates the need for humans to constantly remind themselves to keep posting on every form of social media their business has.
Content Marketing
Content marketing consists of blog posts, videos, customer experience, and any user-created content that promotes a product or service.
For example, in a study reported by Husson University, Fanatic, an e-commerce store specializing in selling sports-related products, finds success through content marketing. Fanatic focused its content marketing strategy around current sporting events, new and active trends, and any new developments in the sports world.
Fanatic saw a heavy increase in sales and relevancy through the newfound website traffic. It attracted new customers with sports-related interests. Through this active and attentive marketing strategy and proper use of SEO, Fanatic stayed on top of searches.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is prevalent in e-commerce related businesses. Upon purchasing a product, automated notifications are sent to the consumer when products they may be interested in go on sale.
Email marketing campaigns directly target consumers via email notifications. The consumer can choose to opt into or out of these notifications. However, typically businesses make it inconvenient, or consumers ignore the messages.
Marketing automation is the main appeal of email marketing. Customers look for value, and these automated notifications give consumers access to discounts that interest them. Naturally, sales create a sense of urgency for the consumer, so the prospect is likely to buy when an email notifies them of such deals.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing focuses on optimizing ads through texts, mobile applications, emails, and mobile websites. These applications rely on ads to generate revenue.
Mobile games even offer rewards to users for watching full advertisements. Mobile social media applications also generate revenue from mobile marketing efforts.
Mobile marketing efforts aim to take advantage of people's attentiveness to their phones. According to Boston University, 96% of Americans have reported having access to a cell phone.
With most Americans having access to a cellular device, mobile marketing efforts are imperative for digital marketers.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing aims to reach a specific audience to gain new customers. Through affiliate links, both business and affiliate receive revenue for each product purchase.
Affiliate marketing is powerful because it skips a business from having to build trust with new consumers. If the affiliate vouches for the product or service, their audience will not be as hesitant to give it a try.
The Future of Digital Marketing
Marketing teams are no longer bound to traditional marketing practices. Digital marketing strategies are now an essential part of any solid marketing strategy. Digital marketing activities will continue to dominate in the years to come.
A proper understanding of the different digital marketing types will help businesses optimize their marketing strategies. Each digital marketing strategy has its strengths and weaknesses. Learning where and when to apply these strategies will prove imperative to online marketers.
The Future of Traditional Marketing
There will always be a place for traditional marketing strategies. Still, we are currently seeing a merging of traditional and digital. Streaming sites such as Hulu and HBO Max give access to their streaming service by running video advertisements during movies and shows.
Newspaper outlets, such as the Harvard Business Review, offer their magazines and digital articles subscriptions. These articles and magazines run traditional advertisements. Radio stations, podcasts, and web shows continue to play ads from sponsors and endorse products.
How Does Digital Marketing Affect the Consumer?
The criticism digital marketing faces is the idea of privacy. Since digital marketing agencies use consumer information to use targeted ads, there is a barrier of distrust that lingers between businesses and consumers.
Even so, consumers reap tremendous benefits from digital marketing activities. Social media gives consumers a chance to provide direct feedback on products or services that they would like to see improved. Email marketing ensures that consumers are aware of deals that apply to them.
In a world ruled by technology, digital marketing strategies will continue to evolve to benefit both businesses and consumers.