Digital marketing is a broad term that covers a range of techniques used to promote your business online. It’s a cost-effective way to reach new audiences and drive more traffic to your website, blog, or social media channels. In other words, Digital Marketing refers to the process of promoting your business using digital media. As the world becomes increasingly digital, businesses must adapt their marketing strategies to remain competitive and reach their target audience. If you’re new to this field or looking for some fresh ideas for your own marketing strategy, read on for our ultimate guide on what marketers should know about digital marketing.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the process of marketing your business using digital channels and tools. It's used to build brands and drive sales via the Internet. This marketing strategy covers a range of activities, from paid online advertising to social media marketing and content marketing, as well as SEO and email marketing. You can break down digital marketing into 5 main categories: - Paid search - Advertising on Google, Bing and other search engines. - Organic search - Optimizing your website and content for search engines. - Social media - Promoting your content across social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more. - Email marketing - Building an email list and sending regular newsletters. - Display advertising - Promoting your brand on social media and other third-party websites.
Digital Marketing Tools
An important part of digital marketing is choosing the right tools to help you get your message across. It can be overwhelming to decide which tools are best for your business. Here are some of the top tools you can use to manage and monitor your digital marketing efforts. - CRM - Customer relationship management software is used to organize customer data, track sales leads and generally improve your relationship with customers. - CMS - Content management systems like WordPress and Squarespace are used to build and publish content across your websites and social channels. - E-Commerce - Tools like Shopify or Squarespace ecommerce can help you sell products online. - Analytics - Analyzing your customer data is key to understanding what works and what doesn’t in your marketing efforts. Google Analytics is one of the most widely used digital marketing tools. - Email marketing - There are lots of email marketing tools to help you craft and send beautiful newsletters to your list. - Social media management - Managing your social channels is a time consuming task. Thankfully there are tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social that can help you manage multiple channels in one place. - Visual content - Images and video are best way to engage with your audience. Tools like Canva and Pablo make it easy to create stunning visuals. - CMS - CMS like WordPress are used to build websites and blogs. - CRM - Customer relationship management software is used to organize customer data, track sales leads and generally improve your relationship with customers.
Digital Marketing Strategies
Once you’ve got your tools and strategies in place, you’re ready to roll out your digital marketing campaigns. Here’s a look at some of the most popular digital marketing strategies and how to put them into action. - Paid search - Paying for your product or service to appear at the top of Google search results is one of the most common digital marketing strategies. You can also pay for ads to appear on other websites and applications like Bing, Facebook, Instagram, and more. -
SEO - SEO stands for search engine optimization and is a way to improve your website’s ranking on Google and other search engines.
SEO is also a great way to get your content discovered by new audiences and drive more traffic to your website. - Email marketing - Building an email list is a great way to stay connected to your customers and earn more sales over time. - Social media - Share your content across multiple social channels like Facebook and Instagram to reach new audiences and earn more attention for your brand. - Display advertising - Display ads are designed to draw attention and drive clicks to your website.
What’s next in digital marketing?
Augmented Reality - Augmented reality (AR) uses computer-generated imagery to overlay virtual objects onto the real world. It promises to make product marketing more engaging and interactive. Augmented reality is expected to be a $100 billion industry by 2020. - Voice-activated devices - Voice-activated devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home are the next frontier in digital marketing. Voice search is predicted to increase by 400% between 2018 and 2020. - Virtual Reality - VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR let you explore digital environments in 3D. VR is also used in marketing campaigns to transport customers to a different place. - Voice search - With voice activated devices becoming more popular, voice search is expected to become a significant part of the digital landscape. - Digital transformation - Companies that want to remain competitive in the modern marketplace need to make their mark with their digital marketing strategies. - Chatbots - Chatbots are computer programs that simulate human conversation. They are used to improve customer service and provide assistance in the absence of human assistance.
Conclusion
Marketers and advertisers should be aware of the latest trends and technologies in the digital marketing sector to stay ahead of the competition. New tools and strategies are constantly being developed and improved to help businesses reach more customers and generate more revenue.
