Digital Marketing is an aspect of online marketing, which uses digital technologies like mobile phones, desktop computers, and other digital devices and platforms to advertise products and services efficiently. It includes search engine marketing, pay-per-click marketing, e-mail marketing, online advertising, and many more. This kind of advertising is usually conducted through a website. The website is a medium through which clients and customers are presented with advertisements. This helps them make their buying decisions. The main objective is to get as many leads and sales as possible.
There are various techniques used in this form of online marketing. It can be classified under enhanced offline marketing, digital offline marketing, and traditional offline marketing. Below is a brief description of each:
Enhanced Offline Marketing: This is another form of online marketing using electronic devices like mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones, laptops, and other similar electronic devices. It involves offline marketing strategies like sending emails to the prospects who have visited your website. It also involves sending SMS to all those who have visited your website or have been registered for your online business. For this, you will need a list of your visitors.
Digital Marketing: This is one of the most effective ways to get exposure for your brand name. It includes traditional offline marketing techniques like television ads, radio ads, print ads, etc. However, it also incorporates new techniques like email marketing campaigns, social media posts, and PPC ads.
Knowledge Commerce: Knowledge commerce refers to affiliate marketing. It is basically a system of earning through referral commissions. It works by referring customers to a service provider or a product provider. Knowledge marketers use email marketing, telemarketing, and SEO to make their way in this business. Knowledge marketers are relatively new and so many new players are entering the market.
Social Media Marketing: This is a new form of what is digital marketing. It is a technique of acquiring and nurturing customer relationships on internet-connected devices like mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones, laptops, and other similar internet-connected devices. This helps in improving customer relationship management. It uses different ways such as social media posts, PPC ads, email marketing, and SEO. For this, you will need a list of your customers.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing refers to a web advertiser who acts as a middleman between the merchant and the consumers. Affiliates are rewarded when their online marketing efforts result in sales. They can be rewarded per sale or per lead. You can use pay-per-click ads, banners, and text ads on the web and mobile apps for digital marketing channels.
Media Sales: In the context of digital marketing, media sales refers to sales made from the distribution of electronic media. Digital marketers help brands promote their products using various media channels. Examples of media include live events, television commercials, radio advertisements, trailers, movies, and music releases. The internet-connected devices that most often make these media sales are smartphones, iPhones, and smart TV.
Offline Digital Marketing: Offline digital marketing means using offline resources (books, magazines, newspapers) to advertise products. These offline resources (books, magazines, newspapers) allow you to reach specific markets that are not reached by electronic media. Most businesses use print and broadcast advertising to reach a targeted audience. For example, super bowl commercials are mostly aired on tv, while book ads are mostly bought in supermarkets. By using these traditional media, you are reaching an audience that is not exposed to your product.
Content Marketing: Content marketing is another way of getting exposure through digital marketing. Content marketing means giving out free stuff to customers and potential customers. Content marketing is not a good fit for internet-connected devices because it takes too much time reading through emails, etc. Hence, most smart devices and apps have replaced email reading and browsing with instant news and information, apps and games, as well as podcasting, videos, and audiobooks.
Search Engine Optimisation: SEO or search engine optimisation is a key component of any digital marketing strategy. SEO involves tweaking or improving websites in order to rank higher on Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines. A good SEO strategy helps you get found by consumers searching for your keywords. SEO services include article writing, social bookmarking, blog creation, website building, and website maintenance.
Other key elements in a digital marketing strategy include content marketing, offline digital marketing, and SEO. Content marketing is where you create original and unique content that is beneficial to your target audience. Offline digital marketing is where you promote your products by creating coupons, flyers, and billboards. Content marketing helps you build your brand's reputation by giving away free stuff, coupons, and flyers. SEO helps you rank high on Google and other search engines by optimizing your website, articles, and social media profiles. All three key elements listed above will improve your online presence and bring you more traffic.