Digital marketing, often known as internet marketing or online marketing, is one of the hottest trends these days. After all, why not? After all, in the last decade, people’s use of the internet has skyrocketed. Humans rely extensively on the internet for anything from finding a nearby business to getting any type of info they need to complete their tasks. This blog post would help you understand what is digital marketing and various types of digital marketing services company’s/individual opt to increase their digital presence. This blog would also talk about the history of digital marketing and why business owners require it to grow their business.

What is Digital Marketing?

These aren’t limited to online marketing outlets however. Even today, offline marketing media such as television, radio, and electronic billboards play a significant role in digital marketing. While most people identify digital marketing with online marketing channels/techniques like SEO, PPC, social media marketing, email marketing, and others, a solid digital marketing strategy will also include offline marketing.

Brief History of Digital Marketing

Marconi used a radio to publicly demonstrate the transmission of wireless signals in England in 1896. After this pioneering act, others were quick to follow in his footsteps and do the same across long distances. Not long after, a Met opera performance was broadcast on radio, leading to a ticket-buying frenzy among the general public who wanted to catch the next show. This was the very first time a digital marketing strategy was employed to further sales. Yes, you read that right: the earliest use of a digital marketing plan did not involve smartphones or Facebook or the likes. If you are both shocked and confused, read on to understand how digital marketing entails the use of more than just modern digital media, including digital billboards, radio and TV.

Types of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is divided majorly into 10 types. Here is the list of various types of digital marketing you should be aware of:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Pay Per Click (PPC)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing 
• Influencer/ Affiliate Marketing
• Viral Marketing
• Mobile Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

While on-page SEO is everything you do with/on your website to win customers over, including publishing on-point, useful, and entertaining content, off-page SEO is everything you do outside of your website, including linking activities. The ultimate goal of SEO is to increase the amount of visitors to a website by ranking highly in the search engine results pages (SERPs) of Google (or other search engines). Add to this the fact that SEO is the least expensive of all the marketing techniques listed here while also yielding highly long-term, sustainable results, and you just cannot afford to ignore it.

You must bear in mind here that SEO deals with unpaid or organic search results which are populated by Google based purely on merit, i.e. how suited your website (and its contents) is to the user. Given that Google has a vise-like grip around 90% of the global search market, this branch of digital marketing can help you attract up to 22,000 website visitors from just being the top search result for a keyword. SEO also lets website owners maintain an uncluttered website structure that is easy to crawl and index by search engines. Whatever your business goals, we highly recommend that you adopt SEO services as one of your marketing techniques. Here is the complete SEO guide for your reference.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

It goes without saying that this branch of digital marketing, along with SEO, demands a thorough analysis of keywords, especially those that are relevant to your business. You can use the Google Keyword Planner and Google AdWords to carry out your research and arrive on a set of keywords that are popular yet cost-effective for you. It is then a matter of executing both short as well as long term PPC projects that will charge you every time a user clicks through to your site through the paid ad on Google.

The overall cost per click (CPC) will vary based on how in-demand a specific keyword is, i.e. the competition you face while attempting to land that keyword, and the quality score of your site, i.e. a measure used by Google to determine the spot where your paid ad will be placed on its SERP. A well-thought-out PPC strategy from PPC experts can give your web traffic a nudge in the right direction. Small businesses may not be able to go for this digital marketing method, especially for longer periods. Hence, it is best to do a business needs analysis before deciding what to do. Please note that both SEO and PPC campaigns can be tracked or measured using the supremely handy Google Analytics tool. Follow the link to know more about what is PPC

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Everybody is on various social media these days and this can only mean one thing for new businesses – promoting their brand on appropriate channels to gain a vast fan following is a no-brainer. Paid/sponsored ads on social media are a viable option as they reach the demographic you intend to target and run for the duration you have set. Moreover, such paid ad campaigns are measurable and can also help you understand a customer group better. Paid ads aside, setting up a brand page can help you interact directly with customers and hear what they have to say about your product/services.

Frequently posting compelling, topical, on-trend content will lead to it being shared by people on social media and subsequent brand recognition or awareness. If you are a B2B (business-to-business) company, LinkedIn is the way to go. If you manufacture very visually appealing products, Instagram could be the way forward. However, having a Facebook page that is alive and kicking (read: one with regular, well-timed content, including contests, sale reminders, informative videos about a product, etc.) works well for almost all businesses. Whatever social media channel you choose to employ, the key is to study your prospective customer base and make your social media presence a welcoming and standout one to them.

Content Marketing

Content marketing services form the very backbone of digital marketing as it can lend itself superbly to other branches and help in transforming passive website or social media page visitors to active customers. All you have to do is to have your ear to the ground and thoroughly understand what your consumers need and desire. No matter what type of content you create, be it blog posts, vlogs, picture montages, you name it, if it adds value to the lives of customers and enhances their experience, it is a win for you. It is important to remember here that content marketing is a continuous process and it pays to invest in a good content marketing team. It is also crucial that you pay attention to content placement and look for avenues that will provide you with maximum visibility. Additionally, you do not always have to sell your product/services to people – just communicating with them will help you reap benefits in more ways than you know. Once you have created quality content that people would not mind spending a few minutes browsing through, you can share it on various marketing platforms and of course, your site.

Email Marketing

Some of us may view email marketing as a slightly archaic method that may not yield as positive an outcome as others. But modern technology has given us the gift of personalization and tracking tools that will help you design an email campaign that stands out and monitor its opening rate, click-through rate, etc. Let us warn you that emailing someone out of the blue will not be appreciated and can affect your company’s reputation negatively. Instead, target those who have opted in to hearing from you and avoid buying email address lists from third parties. Keep your current/prospective customers informed about the latest developments in the industry, a new product/service launch or the posting of a new blog article, ask them for their feedback on a past purchase, give them a recurring service reminder, etc. Being considered a trusted source of information can land you a spot in someone’s recognized email senders’ list instead of just being part of a tall stack of spammy emails.

Influencer/Affiliate Marketing

We have all swooned over celebrities and waited for their next social media update with baited breath. And then there are industry experts or content creators with legions of fans of their own. Many companies work with such influencers to create brand awareness and convert at least some of their huge fan following into profitable leads for themselves. Many others let affiliates or brand representatives reach out to a varied demographic and generate sales. Furthermore, Google AdSense is a good way for website owners to make money by carrying ads about various products and services while brands gain more visibility.

Many online businesses even have influencers take over their social media channels for a day or two to work their magic and guide their followers onto their social media page or website. While these influencers or affiliates may be offered an upfront amount or a percentage of or commission on sales and leads, this form of digital marketing needs to be well-researched in order to work. For not only are you entrusting those outside of your company to speak for you, you must be very sure that their image/personality will compliment you. We highly recommend that you work out the details of your collaboration with such influencers and affiliates beforehand for an effective campaign.

Viral marketing

In today’s modern-day and age, anyone can become an online sensation if they put out offbeat content that you just cannot afford to miss as a consumer. This content can be in any form, including videos, blog posts, etc. and revolve around a variety of genres or topics, like travel and food, beauty, online journalism, etc. Advertisers these days seek out such content creators in an attempt to have information about their products/services placed strategically within the content. Although there is no sure shot way of making content go viral, this form of digital marketing can garner short-term yet remarkable upswings in web traffic or the number of people who show interest in your brand.

Mobile Marketing

Sending marketing messages through SMS and push notifications is a time-tested way of getting the recipient’s attention, especially since more than 90% of such messages are opened right after receiving them. This, coupled with mobile search and social ads is a powerful way of influencing a customer. Modern geofencing options ensure that you can target a specific demographic with precision and ease. Sending customers news about deals, discounts, coupons and sales, loyalty point updates, etc. are a great way to engage with your customer. Simply make sure that you give enough thought to annoying and intrusive pop-ups, mobile site responsiveness, slower internet/data speeds on the go, etc. while attempting to incorporate mobile advertising into your overall marketing plan.

Does digital marketing work for all businesses?

Digital Marketing for Business to business (B2B)
B2B industries and organisations can make great use of digital marketing since their top target is to generate as many leads as they can. Most B2B organisations require the right tools to keep up their repeat purchase and referrals systems, but they can do so much more once they understand digital marketing. It provides several benefits to your business like building a brand image while saving time and money searching for new customers. Influencer marketing, mobile-friendly content and engaging with the audience are a few ways to start.

Digital marketing for Business to Consumer (B2C)
The digital marketing definition also includes the business to customer (B2C) sector. It refers to the strategies and best practices to promote products and services to consumers, mostly for personal use. A B2C digital marketing strategy focuses on driving more traffic to the brand’s website, where leads can be generated to be converted down the sales funnel. B2C marketing leads always focus on redirecting a customer to the site or product page. In turn, such an audience ends up associating the quality of your products/services to your brand name. B2C digital marketing depends on highly engaging, interactive and useful content.

What Makes an Effective Digital Marketing Campaign?
The importance of digital marketing has increased exponentially since the 1990s and 2000s with increased presence and influence of the internet. There are certain characteristic details of any campaign that are crucial in the understanding of what is digital marketing. Some of these details are as follows:

Planning
Planning is the first step in forming a digital marketing strategy for the overall digital marketing network. A part of digital marketing revolves around effectively using digital communication tools and technology in advertising and marketing. Depending on the type of product, business opportunity, resources available, customer demographics, etc. communication tools can be used optimally through proper planning.

Stages of planning:

Opportunity
When it comes to exploiting possibilities and planning the usage of various forms of digital marketing alternatives, research is critical. To begin, a company must comprehend its client’s image, vision, and available resources. Reviewing one’s own outreach as well as the outreach of a few competitors is a good way to uncover marketing and sales opportunities. Market research, as well as specific and timely information

Strategy
While planning its digital marketing strategy, a company needs to possess clarity in its communication. When a company proposes exactly what they are offering customers online, they build relationships and trust. Basing one’s digital targeting approaches after reviewing the product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical appearance (the 7Ps of Marketing Mix) will yield the most favourable results.

Create an Action Plan
The final step is the setting up a budget and management systems with measurable reference points like the audience reach achieved across platforms, etc. The integration of paid, owned, and earned media of the company is also important. Setting up content creation – oral, visual, or written, for online media falls under this step. After the digital marketing plan has been finalised, a scheduled format of digital communications must be distributed throughout the internal operations of the company.

Understanding the Market

There is no way forward in digital marketing without understanding the market first. Unless marketers can put themselves in the shoes of the different people from different demographics and interests, planning different types of digital marketing strategies is impossible. The trick to answering the question ‘what is digital marketing’ is this – understand the market’s desires and help companies fulfil them. Listed below are some aspects that can help in the process –

Consumer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour and attitude is the key to planning a digital marketing strategy. The entire digital environment is created for customers based on these patterns, and therefore this raw data is key to determine the course of action for marketers.

Buyer Persona
Creating a buyer persona means profiling prospective customers into different types, based on the consumption habits of customers and their demographics. Therefore, not only understanding the market but also using that knowledge to imitate prospective business opportunities is an important task in deciding digital marketing types to be used in a particular situation.

Marketing Strategy
This strategy is specifically planned and used by brands to determine possible positioning in the market and target audience. It may be divided into two key elements – segmentation and positioning. It is used to plan out the marketing and buying processes of a company.

Why do You Need Digital Marketing for Your Business?

Given the sheer number of people that are on the internet these days, trying to find relevant information about local businesses that best suit their buying needs, not having a digital brand presence can prove to be a death sentence for upcoming brands. And if prospective customers are not on a desktop, they are navigating a sea of content on either a mobile electronic device or the television, radio or even an electronic billboard. Even magazines, books and newspapers are accessible on either a smartphone, tablet or an e-reader.

Digital marketing was not always the conclusive game-changer that is today – two to three decades ago, it would have been unheard of to set aside resources for it. Today, it is very easy to get a well-planned digital marketing strategy off the ground, run and even improve it. If you feel like a fish out of water when it comes to digital marketing tactics and do not know what exactly you need, you are certainly not alone. Many agencies will offer you a ‘complete package’ of various digital marketing services while making you think you need all of them. However, most online businesses do not need such heavily loaded, not to mention high-costing, approach. A unique digital marketing strategy that takes your individual needs into consideration is the one you must opt for as it is sure to yield great results when executed well.

Besides the aforementioned factors, digital marketing offers businesses one major edge over traditional marketing methods like print that are quickly becoming a thing of the past. With the former, you can gauge customer reaction, evaluate campaign reach and effectiveness, collect and analyse invaluable customer feedback and always come back stronger than before. You can control everything, right from the audience/customer demographic your campaign targets to the exact timeframe for which an ad is displayed. This, coupled with the conveniently economical ways of digital marketing make it a must-have for any marketer who wants to make their brand stand out.

How does digital marketing work?

Define Goals
It is absolutely vital for you to have long term and short term digital marketing goals. These could include (but not remain limited to) driving a certain amount of traffic to your website, increasing your click-through rate, reducing the bounce rate, having better leads, subscribers, or customers.

Define Target Audience
Determining who you’re marketing to makes digital marketing strategies more effective. Hence, defining your target audience based on controls such as demographics, interests, location, online activity, and customer psychology is another necessary step. You can create custom audiences to present different content to varying age groups, genders, locations, and so on.

Define Budget
The budget of your digital marketing strategy can vary, but if you’re new to this, you could start with the minimum expenditure. Use different types of free digital marketing tools at first, and once you start seeing results, invest a certain sum as your daily, weekly and monthly budget.

Balance aid and Free Strategies
Maintain a fair balance between the free and paid strategies you use; as we mentioned earlier, there are plenty of amazing free tools and resources for various digital marketing types that will drive results. These can be used in combination with your paid strategies. Find what proportion works best for you and use them accordingly.

Optimize Your Digital Assets
Optimizing your digital assets can boost your ranking by a huge margin. Make sure to choose the best image format, set alt titles, have quick loading images that fit the exact dimensions of the format, and make an XML sitemap of your page to start with.

Conduct Keywords Research
Create a foolproof digital marketing strategy by conducting keywords research to help your page and content rank better. This means using a combination of ranks so that you drive the maximum traffic to your site rather than using overcrowded keywords.

How to Craft an Effective Digital Marketing Strategy

As mentioned earlier, many businesses shy away from including digital marketing in their overall advertising/brand promotion efforts solely because they do not know what they can achieve with it, where to start or how far to go with it. If you too fall in the same category, you can simply draw up a lean or basic ideation sheet with goals or objectives you would like to reach, the budget you can spare for various marketing efforts, the customer demographic to be reached, market research requirements, possible digital marketing services you will need and so forth. Knowing the kind of results – long term or short term – each digital marketing category can bring in is imperative as it will help you decide where to concentrate your resources.

To make the process go more smoothly, we recommend that you answer the five key questions of why, where, when, how, and what, i.e. why do you want to use digital marketing, how do you plan to reach your objectives, when and where do you want to strike, and who are you targeting. Once done, you should sit down with your top management and decide if you would like to hire an in-house digital marketing team with managers for the different sub-teams (say, an SEO manager, a content lead, etc.) or outsource it all to someone like us. Whatever path you choose to take, remember that you can change strategies as you go while constantly evolving to suit your customers and carve a niche for yourself.

In Conclusion
It all boils down to one thing: the only way to expand your business is to regularly review where you are in terms of marketing objectives and where you want to be in the near and long term. Whatever type of digital marketing you use, it’s critical to distribute your marketing efforts and monitor campaign results on a regular basis. Having a team of competent digital marketing professionals, whether in-house or otherwise, who are well-versed with the company mission and vision is also a must. If you have any questions about digital marketing or suggestions about future posts, do let us know. If you’re looking for an experienced London Digital Marketing Agency to help put your website on top of the search results, reach out to our experts now.