What is Digital Marketing – A Basic Guide

Traditional marketing on local TV channels and newspapers brought massive benefits to businesses. However, the rise of the digital world has changed the trend completely and now companies are more biased toward digital marketing.

It is a comprehensive field and requires a lot of research to find the best strategy for success. Can you touch that mark instantly? Surely No. That’s why I am here with this basic guide on Digital marketing.

I have explained its key types alongside its importance and a general strategy so that you will be able to know how it works.

Digital Marketing is defined as the way of promoting something, like products or services, on different online channels to reach a larger number of users.

Recently, digital marketing has experienced tremendous developments. Currently, it is counted among the most commonly used methods to improve brand awareness and bring more customers to generate leads and sales.

According to Yahoo Finance, it is estimated that the Global Digital Advertising and Marketing Market will reach the $786 Billion mark in 2026. However, in 2020, it was just $350 Billion. These figures are enough to understand the popularity of digital marketing in this modern competitive world.

Digital Marketing is a broad term. Different types of marketing are included in it. All of them have their own worth and advantages. I have provided their precise overview below so you can learn about their key components.

Social Media Marketing:

Social media marketing is the most important type of digital marketing. It involves using the power of popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.

Millions of users access these platforms on an everyday basis. Thus, businesses have a wide opportunity to reach a larger audience base and promote their products and services. Social media marketing includes the following:

• Conducting audience research.
• Creating popular social media content.
• Account creation on different platforms.
• Engaging with followers directly.
• Running specific ads.

SEO Marketing:

SEO Marketing is another big part of digital marketing. It is related to ranking the websites higher on the search engine results page.

In this modern world, almost every business has established its site to expand its reach on a global level. However, establishing such a site alone is not enough. You have to optimize it according to effective SEO tips so that Google and search engines promote it organically to rank it at the top of the SERP. In this way, you can receive more users.

 Major things that are included in SEO are:

• Keyword researching.
• Website building using different methods.
• Optimizing the structure of the site for user-friendliness.
• Optimizing the content so that search engines can analyze it.
• Link building with different websites.
• Finding competitors’ backlinks to understand the latest strategies

Email Marketing:

The next type of digital marketing is Email marketing. It involves creating and sending emails to your regular users to promote your products.

Although many communication apps and channels have been developed, emails are still used for professional communication. Marketers can create messages and bring personalization to them by directly addressing the users with their names. The basic goal of this marketing tactic is to build strong relationships with potential customers. It includes

• Audience research.
• Email address list building.
• Copywriting for emails.
• Using email management services.

Search Engine Ads:

Businesses that want an audience to their website quicker tend to use search engine ads besides SEO. Have you ever searched for a product on Google and it shows the word “ad” in front of the site on the first page?

Well, that’s search engine advertisement in action. Different search engines like Google and Bing offer ad-running facilities with the help of their advertising platforms Google Ads and Bing Ads. You can use their potential to make your site appear at the top of the search results to receive more traffic.

Read More: Tips and Tricks for New Online Businesses

Content Marketing:

No matter which type of digital marketing you are using, content marketing is included in all of them. When it comes to social media marketing, you have to create posts. Similarly, for SEO, you have to generate well researched blog posts to provide authentic information to users.

Bill Gates once said, “Content is King” and the reason mentioned above is clear evidence of this statement. Engaging and high quality content has the ability to show the authenticity of your brand and build its authority in the market.

Now, you have learned about the basic types of Digital Marketing. In the undersection, I have enlisted some points to highlight its importance in this competitive world.

Global reach:

As mentioned earlier, billions of people have access to the Internet. Marketing your business via it gives you a global reach. You can run a business in the US and access relevant clients in Australia with the help of digital marketing.

Read More: Effective Tips for Online Business Growth

Costs less:

Several tools used in digital marketing are available on the Internet. Most of these tools are completely free to use. Even if they are paid, their prices are extremely low compared to the work results they bring.

Easily measurable results:

You can easily measure results here as compared to traditional advertisements. For example, you have no way of telling how many people saw your ad in a newspaper. However, you can know it for digital ad running on social media. Additionally, you can measure different other metrics like engagement time, bounce rate, etc.

Easy customization:

As we mentioned, you can easily measure the performance of your marketing efforts in a customization of marketing. If the performance is bad, you can easily make changes to your strategy.

Direct connections with customers:

Digital marketing offers you an opportunity to connect with your customers directly. You can engage with them through emails and social media platforms. Make sure to interact with them if they message you or comment on your social media posts. In this way, you can build trust and boost your credibility to capture long term benefits.

The effect of digital marketing can be huge on your brand. However, it cannot be achieved without a proper strategy.

• First, determine your end goal. It will help you form a strategy that will only focus on these goals. Hence, you can save your time and resources.
• Then, choose the right marketing type. If you are running your brand on Facebook or Instagram, social media marketing is the best choice. On the other hand, bloggers have to utilize the power of SEO.
• Before going further, conduct proper research about the preferences of your audience.
• After this, create a proper content strategy. You have to know what type of content is going to work on your chosen platforms.
• Now, start creating and sharing content.
• Lastly, you have to analyze the received results and make changes in the strategy if required.

That’s all about the basics of Digital Marketing. I have tried not to complicate things for beginners so they can have a precise idea of everything included in this vast field. The point worth mentioning here is that you have to run these marketing campaigns according to the interests and preferences of your audience base. Otherwise, you will end up with your investment.

Promoting headsets to a user who wants to purchase speakers will not bring sales to you. Therefore, you have to create a proper strategy to include all the vital components and reach out to the global audience to receive more sales and revenue.