What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing refers to any kind of marketing that uses electronic devices to boost a brand’s exposure or revenue. You may have seen its different forms on your device like online videos, display ads, content marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), copywriting, email marketing, paid social ads, and social media posts.
We usually compare digital marketing to traditional marketing where we use billboards, magazine ads, direct mail, and television ads. A common mistake about digital marketing is that people use it as an equivalent for inbound marketing. While Digital marketing and inbound marketing are both marketing methods, the difference is that digital marketing encompasses all types of online marketing. It uses digital channels to promote a brand or product. Inbound marketing on the other hand is a subcategory of digital marketing that instead of focusing on interruption marketing and pop-up ads focuses on producing high-quality content. So that customers will be the negotiator in their relationship with a given brand.
digital marketing toolbox:
To know digital marketing better, you should learn about the digital marketing toolbox for business growth. This toolbox consists of below items:
SEO (search engine optimization):
SEO is the process of optimizing a website to increase its visibility on search engines like Google. This involves using keywords, creating high-quality content, and improving website structure to rank higher in search results.
Copywriting:
Copywriting is the art of writing persuasive and engaging content for marketing purposes. This can include website copy, blog posts, social media posts, and advertisements. Good copywriting is essential for capturing the attention of potential customers and driving conversions.
Email marketing:
It involves sending targeted emails to a list of subscribers to promote products or services. This can include newsletters, promotional offers, and personalized content to engage with customers and drive sales.
Website building:
It refers to the process of creating a website from scratch or using a website builder platform. A well-designed website is essential for establishing an online presence and attracting customers.
Paid social ads:
are advertisements that appear on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These ads are targeted based on user demographics and interests to reach a specific audience.
Content marketing:
Content marketing involves creating valuable and relevant content to attract and engage with a targeted audience. This can include blog posts, videos, infographics, and more to build brand awareness and drive traffic to a website.
Display ads:
Display ads are visual advertisements that appear on websites or apps. These ads can be static images or animated banners that promote products or services to a specific audience.
Social media posts:
These are updates shared on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. These posts can include text, images, videos, links, and hashtags to engage with followers and drive engagement.
Why does digital marketing matter?
1. It’s more affordable:
Investing in traditional marketing like TV ads or billboards seems like a huge investment for small businesses. At the start of your business, you might not be able to spend all your budget on marketing. But still, you gotta do it!
Here’s when digital marketing comes in. These days without investing any money you can have the chance to market your business. All you need is to sign up on different social platforms and start publishing content!
2. You can measure the results:
When you invest in traditional marketing it’s hard to tell if you’ve had a good ROI or not. You can’t tell if your customers bought your product after they watched your ad on TV or if they just did it by chance. But when you use digital marketing strategies and tools you can easily monitor your ROI. You can use Google Analytics, or you can have a look at your insight section on different platforms to see the number of people who have landed on your page or clicked on your ads.
3. You can increase engagement with your audience:
To get your customers to buy your products or services, you should make sure they won’t forget your brand. And the best way to do it is to engage with them on social platforms or your website. Interacting with your audience can help increase their trust in your brand. So they’d be more willing to buy from you.
4. You can reach your ideal customers:
Here’s the simple truth in marketing, not everyone can be your ideal customer. To reduce your marketing costs, and increase ROI, you need to reach your ideal clients. For example, if your company sells diapers, high school girls might not be the group you need to target. Instead, you should focus on newly become parents. And television ads can not help you target them. But by using digital marketing you can produce useful content for your target audience and reach them more specifically.
Cons of digital marketing:
1. It’s time consuming:
Digital marketing is not an overnight game. It takes time. You might need to invest your time, energy, and money in your SEO, copywriting, etc. For months to finally see the results you need. Digital marketing is all about building brand awareness, establishing credibility with your target audience, and building relationships with customers over time. This requires creating high-quality content, engaging with customers on social media, and optimizing your website for search engines. And none of this happens overnight, so it’s important to be patient and persistent in your efforts.
2. High competition:
With the growth of digital marketing campaigns, it has become tougher to stand out. Your audience is now bombarded with content and it has influenced their attention span. In this highly competitive digital world, you only have 1.7 seconds to grab your audience’s attention. So to keep your marketing efforts from going to waste you should choose a great consistent content strategy that adds value.
3. It evolves constantly:
Another con of digital marketing is the constant need to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, with new platforms, algorithms, and strategies emerging all the time. This means that businesses need to invest time and resources into staying current with these changes to remain competitive in the online marketplace.
