What is digital marketing, and what can it do for your business?
If you’ve been asking these questions while building your brand, you’re in luck. Digital marketing is one of the best ways to grow a brand, gain new customers, and get the revenue you really want.
Digital marketing isn’t always easy, but once you master this marketing strategy, you can see exponential growth in your company. Fortunately, there are companies that can help you build your digital marketing strategy, so you don’t have to do it alone.
In this guide, we’ll show you what you need to know about digital marketing and what it can do for your business. Stop asking “What is digital marketing?” – we’ve got your answers right here!
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a sort of umbrella term that covers all of a company’s online marketing efforts.
Search engines, email, social media, and websites are all places where you might use digital marketing. This is a critical way to connect with your current and potential customers since people today spend so much time online.
The way people find businesses, shop for goods, and make purchases has changed completely thanks to the widespread use of the internet. This means that other forms of marketing are much less effective. You can run an ad in the local newspaper, for example, but most people don’t use that as a resource to find businesses anymore.
Marketing, at its core, is all about connecting with the people who would be interested in your product or service. Digital marketing allows you to do this in the modern world. If you don’t know how to answer “What is digital marketing?” your business won’t be able to compete for customers online, and your competitors will soon take over.
Great digital marketers approach this concept with strategy. They have a clear picture of exactly how every little detail fits into the overall marketing picture. Let’s take a look at some of the most common forms of digital marketing that you can use to build your strategy.
1. SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, has recently become one of the top things that people mention when asked, “What is digital marketing?”
In SEO, businesses strive to have their website appear higher on search engine results pages. When a customer does a Google search, for example, they’re most likely to click on the results near the top of the first page. The higher up your brand’s page appears, the more likely you are to get their business.
SEO means using keywords, links, and other strategies to encourage Google to prioritize your content over that of your competitors’. Thanks to different algorithms, SEO strategies are always changing, making this one of the more difficult forms of digital marketing. But since so many customers use online searches to find businesses, it’s also one of the most important.
2. Content Marketing
Content marketing means creating “content,” such as photos, videos, and blog posts, to draw attention to your brand.
Content marketing can fall under the SEO umbrella, by optimizing content for Google searches. But it also helps with many other aspects of digital marketing, such as social media and brand awareness.
3. Social Media Marketing
In this type of digital marketing, brands use social media to attract new followers and thus new customers to their brand.
Relevant content, such as the content marketing types listed above, can be posted on social media sites to encourage user engagement with your brand. This can help you get leads, as well as promoting your brand in other ways. For example, a company can publicly address a negative review posted on social media, which gives an opportunity to show other customers how much you care about their experience.
4. Pay-Per-Click
Pay-per-click, or PPC, is when you pay someone to publish an ad for your site, and pay them every time someone clicks on it. Google AdWords is one of the best-known types of PPC. Pay-per-click advertising can result in excellent ROI, but is not always the right strategy for every business.
5. Affiliate Marketing
In affiliate marketing, people get paid for promoting products on their website. You might pay people to be your affiliate marketers, or monetize your site by affiliate marketing for other brands.
6. Native Advertising
Native advertising is similar to content marketing but appears on other sites alongside non-paid content. In short, this type of advertising mimics non-ad content to help get the attention of customers.
For example, you might sponsor a post featuring your brand on a popular website in your niche. That post won’t look like an ad but will feature informative content about your product or service to help draw customers in.
7. Marketing Automation
Marketing automation uses software to make certain forms of digital marketing happen automatically. Social media posts, emails, and new posts on the site can be scheduled to happen automatically, for example, which frees up a marketing department to focus on other tasks.
8. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great way to connect with customers in a way that feels personal and useful to them. Email can promote the content your side posts, remind customers of discounts and deals, and encourage people to click over to your site. Arguably the BEST form of digital marketing based on ROI, we can help you craft excellent email marketing campaigns.
9. Digital PR
Digital PR involves getting online coverage in digital newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other sites. This works in much the same way that traditional PR does – the main difference is that it all happens online.
Does Digital Marketing Work?
You might be wondering if you need digital marketing for your business, especially if you sell a non-digital product. For example, you might have a fly fishing company or a cleaning business. Do you still need to answer the question, “Do I need digital marketing?” for my business?
In short, yes. All businesses benefit from digital marketing because customers search for all kinds of products and services online. If people search “house cleaning near me” on Google, you’ll want to be sure that they find your business and not a competitor.
As mentioned above, you don’t have to tackle digital marketing alone. We can help – contact us for a free consultation with digital marketing experts.
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