What Is Digital Marketing? – Quick Guide

Everyone is marketing their business online, so no matter whether you call it online marketing, internet advertising, it’s digital marketing, which is a big deal these days. Digital marketing is no doubt a buzzword these days and for a good reason, it’s the way to grow your business online.

Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing because digital marketing allows you to promote your products or brand via one or more forms of electronic media.  The real difference in these two marketing strategies is digital marketing allows you to connect and influence your customers and potential a target audience.

A digital marketing strategy is executed exclusively through digital channels, therefore, it is vital to complete a digital marketing course to ensure you have full control and know-how over your digital marketing strategy.

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Types Of Digital Marketing

There are many types of digital marketing available such as email marketing, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media marketing and blogging.  All these methods of digital marketing can help introduce people to your company and convert them to customers.

These days a company needs a consolidated view of their customer preferences and expectations across all digital channels, such as web, social media, mobile, direct mail and point of sale. Marketers can then use all this information to create consistent customer experience to move the customer along the buying cycle.

Why Digital Marketing Is Important

We all know that digital media is an ever-growing medium that consumers are exposed to on a daily basis.  Digital media has become an extremely persuasive platform where consumers have instant access to information at any time and place they want it.

Consumers want brands they trust and communications that are personalized and relevant to their specific needs and wants.

Leading Digital Marketing Channels

There are so many digital marketing channels available to be included in your digital marketing strategy, including websites, social media, SEO, email, organic search, paid search, display ads, and mobile.  Along with so much choice comes the question, which marketing channel should I use?

• Websites – This is an essential digital marketing channel. A website is more often than not the first point of call for a prospective client.
• Email – A cost-effective way to engage with an audience on an ongoing basis. Some organizations send out weekly or monthly email newsletters.
• Social media – This channel has become not only a place for socializing but a powerful digital marketing tool. A solid, consistent social media presence allows you to interact with your audience on a regular basis.
• SEO – Search engine optimization is used by marketers as every day by millions of people use search engines to find information about brands, products, services and general information. SEO involves several activities that boost your rankings and optimizing your SEO content is key.
• Paid search – A paid search includes your paid ad which will appear at the top of a page, above the organic website listings. This channel is testable and trackable which undoubtedly improves your digital marketing strategy.
• Mobile – More and more consumers are using their mobile device to make a purchase. This is creating substantial opportunities to improve your digital marketing strategy.
• Display ads – These ads are best used to promote new products or special offers. Display ads can be banners, boxes, interactive ads, video ads or overlays.

Digital Marketing Challenges

Now, more than ever, customers are using multiple digital channels through many different devices, this presents marketers a challenge when putting together their digital marketing strategy.

Increased competition is rising as digital marketing across channels is relatively cheap when compared with traditional marketing.  Therefore, practically every business, regardless of size, can be a part of digital marketing.  This results in battling to capture consumers attention.

Bigger data volumes can be a problem as consumers leave behind a huge tail of data across the digital channels they access, so it can be daunting and difficult to interpret this data accurately.

Get Your Digital Marketing Right

• Customer relationships can become complex when handling them across a variety of channels, make sure your customer interaction is consistent.
• Response time to customer interactions should be swift and constant.
• The value of big data should be mined to make better digital marketing decisions.

If you would like to learn more about Digital marketing and what it can potentially do for your brand. Then don’t hesitate to look at the Digital Marketing Course available at the Digital School of Marketing.

If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.

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