Digital marketing
The aim of marketing has always been to be at the right place and the right time so as to attract the attention of people. With the entire world now shifting onto the internet for all its needs and wants, it’s not that hard to guess that the internet is the place to be, for today’s marketers. If your work or interests have anything to do with either technology or business, or even if you use online platforms such as social media, email, or even web browsing, you must have some knowledge about digital marketing or must have just heard of it. Since we all know that half knowledge is dangerous, educate yourself about digital marketing if you don’t want to be unaware of one of the fastest-growing global trends in the business sector. So without further ado, let’s dive right in!
Here are 15 scoops of all the information you need about digital marketing.
- What is Digital Marketing?
To put it in simple words, digital marketing is a way of reaching people — mostly consumers or prospective customers — through means of online platforms such as search engines, social media, emails, messages, etc. As the name suggests, it is a form of marketing but only more efficient than the traditional form of marketing. And obviously, it is employed by businesses, organizations, companies that operate over the internet. It is a vast industry consisting of applications like e-advertising, shopping and order tracking, online banking, payment systems, and content management.
- When did it come into existence?
Digital marketing came into existence hand in hand with advancements in technology. The event that can be said to have marked the birth of digital marketing was in 1971 when Ray Tomlinson sent the very first email and that initiated a chain of further developments in this field. In India, the term ‘digital marketing’ was first used in 1990. As the internet began to expand in the world, in 1993, the first clickable banner came into existence. Later the first commercial web magazine, Hotwired, bought a few banners for their advertising. This was the start of online marketing. Because of this steady shift, the year 1994 saw new technologies. The very next year, 1995, public access to the internet was inaugurated in India. And from there onwards, the online marketing industry has been growing continuously. While computers were responsible for its advent, it was when the smartphone came into existence in 2007 that boosted the extent of digital marketing.
- Types of Digital Marketing
- SEO – Search Engine Optimization
- SEM – Search Engine Marketing
- PPC – Pay Per Click
- SMM – Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Influencer / Affiliate Marketing
- Viral Marketing
- Radio Advertising
- Television Advertising
- Mobile Advertising
- How Digital Marketing Works
There are certain algorithms that are designed and used by search engines on the internet to felicitate internet users with optimal and accurate search results. Based on those algorithms, the search results are given a ranking on the basis of accuracy and relevancy. The most relevant search result is placed on the top and subsequent less relevant results are arranged below that on the webpage. Even above the most relevant result, paid ads of online businesses are placed by the search engine at the top of the page. The search engine also records the user’s online activity and makes it available to digital marketing agencies. They then use that information to form their target audience. That is when digital marketing companies approach customers and potential customers with their online pitches in the quest to convert them into clients or customers.
- Types Of Content Used In Digital Marketing
The type of content that is presented to a potential customer is determined mainly by 2 factors –
- The characteristics of the person who will be consuming it and,
- How close that person is to making a purchase
Based on these factors, it is decided what kind of content needs to be put through to him/her in order to lure him/her closer towards closing the sale. The types of content (arranged in ascending order of how deep the user is in the buyer’s lifecycle) are:
- Emails
- Blog posts
- Social Media posts
- Infographics
- Short videos
- Research reports
- Webinars
- Case studies
- Testimonials
- How long does it take for the results to show? Ballpark of the timeframe
In digital marketing, we have access to real-time monitoring of the activity and responses to our marketing content. This makes the process of deriving results a lot more active and dynamic. It might not even be completely wrong to say that the results start pouring in as soon as you activate your marketing project.
However, the time gap ultimately depends on the scale and effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy. To give an idea of the average time-frame in which one can expect strong results, it can range from 6 to 12 months. Projects that ensure smart audience mapping and high-quality content are closer to the lower limit of the 6-12 months bracket.
Digital Marketing over Traditional offline marketing
- Investments Required In Digital marketing
The investment really depends on what kind of growth and exposure you want for your company. Which in turn determines the elements of digital marketing that you need to involve in your marketing strategy. There are two types of digital marketing based on investments required for their execution. One is Inbound digital marketing, which involves building your organic reach through the use of techniques like SEO, social media marketing, and content creation. Unless you hire someone to do that for you, the only investment you need is your time. Even if you choose to hire a professional individual or an agency for that, it doesn’t really put a strain on the wallet.
The second type is Outbound digital marketing. To avail outbound techniques, you will definitely have to spend some money. They include online advertising, purchasing email lists, and purchasing statistics and data about people’s online activities. One such type of outbound digital marketing is PPC (Pay Per Click). To employ PPC, you have to bid against other companies in your field to buy a place in the ads that appear at the top of the search results for keywords linked to your business, For example, Google AdWords works in the exact same manner. You will have to shell out money depending on the popularity of the keyword.
- Response Tracking Using ROI (Return Of Investment)
Return of investment in digital marketing is determined by the number of people it managed to attract, to what extent, and how many of them got successfully converted to customers. All this data is recorded and used to measure the effectiveness of the marketing strategy in terms of ROI. Also, since the target audience is specifically composed in digital marketing, it is easier to track which ad led to which sale. Unlike offline marketing, where there is no way to know how many people turned to a specific page of the newspaper that had an ad on it; and there is no way to know how effectively it spoke to the viewer.
- Measuring Digital Activity Provides For Analytical Data
Through digital marketing, companies can assess and improve their business models and/or marketing tactics. This can be done by measuring digital analytics. The traffic flow is one of the parameters for these analytics. Obtaining stats and data in traditional or offline marketing is done manually and is a tedious process. Most of the digital platforms have dashboards that display statistics automatically. Those include reports and customer journey mapping. This is a great advantage of digital marketing. This automatically provides companies with feedback in a way and allows them to remodel their business plan and invest their resources judiciously. In order to efficiently execute their business plans.
- Personalized Marketing Tactics
In digital marketing, the target audience is filtered with the help of online activity tracking to increase leads and sales numbers. Segmentation of the customer-base is done. Thus, the people to be addressed share similar interests or are linked to one common aspect. This allows digital marketers to create personalized marketing content for that particular target audience. This attracts the attention of the receivers easily and they are drawn towards the product or service. This is neither viable nor possible through offline marketing. Since the target audience is too wide and of a random composition.
Merits of Digital Marketing that make it so popular
- Email Marketing Is The Best Marketing Tool
Reaching to people through Email is still the best tactic for marketing your business. This is because 72% of people still prefer to be approached by brands through emails. This might as well be because emails imply a personal level of interaction. Email marketing works by directly approaching customers or prospective customers with the products and services of their interests. When automated, trigger emails can even be sent automatically based on customer activity, further personalizing interactions.
- Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of the largest features of the internet. Of the 4.5 billion+ people who are using the internet in 2020, active social media users have surpassed 3.8 billion in number. Thus, social media is quite obviously one of the main platforms for digital marketing. Social media platforms are highly dynamic and full of potential customers for all sorts of services and products. One unique feature in social media platforms is sharing. Users can share content with their friends and families with just a tap or a click. When a friend of yours refers something to you, it makes the company look trustworthy to you. The system of likes, comments, and shares (no. of times a post is shared) works like a charm, in terms of increasing popularity and highlighting reviews for your brand. Digital marketing makes use of social media to make your company grow among the youth.
- Search Engine Optimization – SEO
Everyone uses Google. To make your business visible on Google, your website should appear on the first page of the search results. SEO can be said to be the USP of digital marketing. It is the most desirable feature of digital marketing since it earns the highest ROI out of any other type of digital marketing. It single-handedly helps you in building your company’s organic reach. SEO places your brand within the grasp of the audience. When an internet user performs a search with a keyword in it, the search engine provides a list of search results ranked in order of relevance of content to the keyword.
- Digital Marketing Helps Small Businesses Stand Up To Big Companies
Digital Marketing performs the same job for all sizes and levels of businesses. Just because big corporations have big budgets and can spend more on paid ads, does not simply put them at a contrasting advantage over the other smaller businesses. Rankings on search engines cannot be bought, they are strictly based on the merit of the content. Thus, digital marketing gives smaller businesses opportunities to compete, improve brand value & online presence, and build an audience along with support for acquiring new leads and customers.
- Digital Marketing Is For All Budgets; It Is Cost-Effective
Digital marketing uses targeted research and analytics to quickly determine which approaches are working well and which aren’t worth the cost or resources. Which means it’s quite cost-effective. One can select any customized set of services to aid their business under digital marketing depending upon their marketing requirements. For example, for relatively newer or smaller businesses, employing just SEO, Email marketing, and social media marketing can work wonders. And all that doesn’t really cost anything. That is to say, options are customizable; hence, budgetary requirements are flexible.