Understanding the Digital Marketplace
In a world where digital footprints are as significant as physical storefronts, understanding digital marketing isn’t just beneficial—it’s imperative. At its core, digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via electronic media. It’s a multifaceted strategy intended to target, reach out to, and build relationships with customers online, across a broad range of channels.
Digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with current and prospective customers. It’s how today’s businesses are getting their message in front of their best prospects and customers.
The Shift from Traditional to Digital
The shift to digital media is being driven by marketing agencies, business owners, and consumers alike. The ever-increasing demand to show quantifiable results makes going digital a dream for the digital marketing agency. Most digital media, including websites, social media, and mobile advertising is much easier to track than traditional marketing media such as print advertising.
For business owners, many forms of digital advertising are very low cost. Having a web presence, engaging customers in conversations through social media, and e-mail marketing are low-cost alternatives to print advertising and direct mail. These digital channels are available to businesses of any size and help to even the playing field for start-ups, small businesses, and independent consultants seeking new business.
The Digital Marketing Spectrum
Digital marketing is a broad term that includes a range of marketing tactics and strategies – including content, email, search, paid media, and more. These marketing tactics are used to support the overall digital marketing strategy and the business goals.
Here are some key aspects of digital marketing:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages, thereby increasing the amount of organic (or free) traffic your website receives.
- Content Marketing: The creation and promotion of content assets for the purpose of generating brand awareness, traffic growth, lead generation, and customers.
- Social Media Marketing: The practice of promoting your brand and your content on social media channels to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and generate leads for your business.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC): A method of driving traffic to your website by paying a publisher every time your ad is clicked.
- Email Marketing: Companies use email marketing as a way of communicating with their audiences. Email is often used to promote content, discounts, and events, as well as to direct people toward the business’s website.
Digital Marketing: A Data-Driven Approach
What sets digital marketing apart from traditional marketing is the level of interaction and personalization that can be achieved. Unlike traditional marketing, which is static and often referred to as ‘one-way’ communication, digital marketing is an ever-changing, dynamic process.
Digital marketing is data-driven and targeted brand promotion through technology. While the umbrella term, ‘Digital Marketing’, can include mobile apps, podcasts, and other forms of digital media, the internet is the center of all tools and channels at a digital marketer’s disposal.
The Benefits of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing offers businesses of all sizes access to the mass market at an affordable price and, unlike TV or print advertising, it allows truly personalized marketing. The benefits of digital marketing include:
- Global Reach – a website that allows you to find new markets and trade globally for only a small investment.
- Lower Cost – a properly planned and effectively targeted digital marketing campaign can reach the right customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing methods.
- Trackable, Measurable Results – measuring your online marketing with web analytics and other online metric tools makes it easier to establish how effective your campaign has been.
Digital marketing is not just a buzzword thrown around at networking events. You need to understand the types of digital marketing at your disposal. You need to use these methods to stay afloat in a sea of digital competition and stand out from the crowd.