What-is-digital-marketing

What is digital marketing?

What is digital marketing?

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With the internet being a critical part of our day to day activities, many people use the internet to search for information, for socializing, communication and a lot more.

Some businesses are purely online and make use of the internet to run their business while traditional businesses with storefronts and physical locations utilize the internet to market their products and offer their products or services for sale.

This created a need for digital marketing, which is also known as online marketing or internet advertising.

It is now becoming a necessity for businesses to have an online presence with millions of consumers across the world having access to the internet every second of the day.

What is digital marketing?

Digital Marketing is a way of reaching and influencing customers online. It involves connecting with customers through internet mediums such as email marketing, social media marketing, blogging and pay per click advertising. All these are ways people can get to know what you do and more importantly, get them to buy what you have to offer.

What are the main digital marketing assets?

There are several ways for businesses to reach people online. These are but a few of the current digital marketing assets;

  1. Your website
  2. Use of branded assets such as logos and icons and more
  3. Social media pages
  4. Video content through video ads, product demos among others
  5. Written material like e-books, blogs, product descriptions, product reviews
  6. Use of online products and tools, e.g. interactive content and more

Top Digital Marketing Strategies

There are numerous digital marketing strategies; here are a few;

  1. Paid Search

A paid search is when you let search engines run text adverts for you. The ads will run on their Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), and this is one of the most efficient ways to target potential clients specifically looking for products or services that you offer.

  1. Pay Per Click (also known as PPC)

This is a generic term that describes any form of digital marketing where you pay for every user that clicks on an ad. One common example is Google AdWords. This is a form of pay per click advertising where for every user that clicks on the ad, the business pays a certain rate.

  1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Through SEO, you can ensure your website gets ranked highly by search engines. SEO involves knowing the algorithms and guides search engines look for when it comes to ranking and applying these guides to your website. The aim is to rank web pages or your blog posts organically so that you get a favorable ranking to drive traffic to your website or blog.

  1. CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)

This is the science of enhancing users online experience. It is also considered an art since it involves some trial and error and by learning what works best for you. Most businesses use CRO to gain more conversion out of their current website traffic, i.e. gain more leads, calls, sales and more

  1. Content Marketing

This is a broad term to describe any digital marketing strategy that uses content (such as blogs, videos, infographics and more) to enhance users’ awareness and increase more leads, clicks or sales

  1. Social media marketing

Social media marketing is one of the free digital marketing tools available, and any person can use social media for marketing their business. Growing organically can take time and needs constant attention; like sharing content, responding to users queries to keep your audience engaged. It is, however, one of the more affordable options available and can yield results given time

  1. Social media advertising (paid ads)

A high number of social media platforms like Snapchat, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter allow businesses to run ads on their platform. It is a great way to reach a high number of users who might not know about your products or services. It is a great way to create awareness of offers or promotions you’re running and drives traffic to your page or blog.

  1. Email marketing

This is one of the oldest forms of online marketing, and it still works well to date. Email marketing works well when businesses highlight something unique such as offers, special deals or promotions.

  1. Affiliate Marketing

This is when a business pays another business or person to promote your products or services on its website.

These are some of the major digital marketing strategies businesses use today. You can choose to do it yourself or hire a digital marketing agency to work with for a fee.

10. TV Advertising 

How effective is digital marketing?

Digital marketing can be a great value add to your business; it leads to an increase in users, leads and sales in the long run. It is important to note that digital marketing is an ongoing process that needs constant content creation

Here are some benefits of Digital Marketing;

  • It is generally more affordable than traditional forms of advertising like tv or radio ads
  • The impact of digital marketing strategies are measurable, and you can see the effect or impact of any strategy applied
  • It is within your control. You can decide what strategy you would like to use, at what cost and over what period.
  • Allows you to use multiple strategies at the same time. You can choose to optimize your website and have social media pages and track the impact of both at the same time.
  • Digital marketing gives you first-hand information about your users’ experiences, and you can adjust accordingly based on the reviews and feedback you get.

Summary

Digital marketing is great for any business seeking to enhance their brand awareness and grow.

Any business can benefit from digital marketing; from small, one-person owned businesses to multi-nationals, every business can make use of digital marketing to their advantage.

As long as you identify your target market, you can target anyone in any part of the globe and get them to know what you do, and they can partake in your product or service.

Author Profile

Fernando Raymond
Fernando Raymond
Online marketing services expert and digital strategist helping people learn digital marketing and get online with digital marketing training and build amazing web properties. Visit to read more about greater vision.