What is digital marketing? Do you know and understand the fundamentals of digital marketing with Google?
Digital marketing is everywhere. It’s online videos, display ads, paid social ads, social media posts, search engine optimization, and more. Any marketing using an electronic device to promote a brand’s message and measure its impact is digital marketing.
You access digital marketing via computers, phones, tablets, and even smartwatches. So long as it’s connected to the internet, it’s a potential platform for digital marketers.
With more than three-quarters of Americans online daily, we’re a fully wired society. In fact, 26% of us are online “almost constantly”, and a further 43% go online more than once a day.
The Fundamentals of Digital in Marketing
It’s a vast market of potential customers brands can’t afford to ignore. It’s time to put the digital in marketing and explore the fundamentals of digital marketing. Learn what digital marketing is and how you can use it to attract more customers and build more sales below.
Elevate Your Digital Marketing: Schedule a free consultation with one of our digital marketing experts today!
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing, aka online marketing, is the promotion of a brand using the internet and other digital mediums. The most common – and effective – forms of digital marketing include web-based advertising, email, social media, and video.
Because of the internet’s tremendous reach, digital marketing exceeds traditional marketing’s results despite investing fewer resources. Magazine ads, direct mail, TV commercials, and billboards are all considered “traditional marketing” strategies. These mass media techniques speak to everyone.
It was a momentous innovation in its day, increasing the reach beyond the small town or city to the whole nation. However, it meant marketing to consumers who never intended to purchase your product or services.
Digital marketing is different. It’s personalized in its approach, targeting consumers interested in your brand. In fact, it’s so successful that there is no digital in marketing; digital is marketing.
Recommended services: Local SEO, Enterprise SEO, Content Marketing, Pay Per Click Agency & eCommerce Marketing Agency.
Inbound marketing or digital marketing?
You’ll often find these two terms used interchangeably. Though there are some core similarities, they don’t mean the same thing.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing refers to targeting customers via content creation. It’s called inbound because it attracts customers in. In contrast, outbound marketing includes content your customers don’t always want – think cold calling and hard sells. Inbound marketing is more cost-effective and delivers value to customers.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing includes inbound marketing. It’s more of an umbrella term referring to all forms of online marketing.
Technically, digital marketing is spam emails as well as carefully coordinated mailing lists. The former is outbound; the latter inbound.
The best digital marketing is inbound marketing. It creates the purpose of your content: to create value for your customers, while your digital channels provide the outlet to advertise and promote what you’ve produced.
Recommended blogs: How to Build a Content Marketing Funnel that Converts and Shopify VS WooCommerce: What are Their Differences?
B2B marketing versus B2C marketing: What’s the difference?
Ask any marketer the principal question of a marketing campaign, and you’ll get the same answer: who is the customer?
Your digital marketing strategy should be laser-focused on your customer base. After all, it’s the primary benefit of this approach; you don’t need to speak to everybody.
Except, sometimes your customer isn’t a customer at all: they’re another business.
Business to business (B2B) digital marketing
Business to business (B2B) digital marketing involves a more professional and informed strategy. Complex topics, data-driven reports, and expertise define such marketing. As a rule, B2B marketing is based on logic and evidence.
Fellow businesses rarely buy impulsively, preferring to develop long-term relationships with the companies they work with. You want to demonstrate your expertise, quality, and authority.
Business to customer (B2C) digital marketing
Business to customer (B2C) digital marketing, in contrast, is more impulsive, emotional, and “hype” driven. Customers aren’t always informed about your product and services, meaning your marketing strategies are often devoted to explaining the basics: who you are, what you sell, and why. In short – your content will be higher up in the content marketing funnel.
It’s less about developing leads than building brand awareness. Use calls to action to convert interested individuals into customers. Focus on creating fun yet informative content like guides, how-tos, simple tutorials, and product comparisons.
What are the types of digital marketing?
With so many mediums and devices, digital marketing can vary significantly. When people ask “what is digital marketing”, it’s like asking “what is a car” – there’s a simple answer and a long one.
Let’s break it down:
Content marketing
Perhaps the most common form of digital marketing. Creating content is a way to educate, engage, and excite your audience. Your content will vary depending on your goal.
- Generate awareness. Writing blog posts, producing short videos, and creating infographics are brilliant ways to inform your audience about topics related to your product. You won’t directly sell your product; rather, you’ll generate brand awareness for a future point.
- Inform their consideration. Your audience is considering buying a product or service. With eBooks, research reports, webinars, and more, you can inform what they want to buy and from who.
- Prompt a decision. Your customer wants to buy a product. Using case studies and testimonials, you can ensure it’s your product they buy.
Content marketing also blurs into the world of search engine optimization. By sprinkling keywords throughout your content, you’ll rank higher in search engines.
Social media marketing
Whether you’re using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube, the aim is to generate brand awareness and drive traffic to your site. Even for B2B marketing, social media is increasingly popular. Sixty-one percent of B2B content marketers increase their social media use, according to the Content Marketing Institute.
Think about creating videos or posts which inform your audience. Remember – it’s about providing value to your customers.
Paid marketing
It could be pay-per-click advertising to take the top spot on a search engine results page or affiliate marketing, where you get paid to promote someone else’s business. There’s even native advertising, where you can pay for a magazine or other content creator to produce a piece about your brand. Just remember to make clear it’s being sponsored.
Digital marketing generates sales
Learning what digital marketing is, is critical for all modern businesses. Focus your efforts on content creation, search engine optimization, and social media marketing for the best results.
And remember – digital marketing’s strength is being personalized. You want to target an audience interested in your product or services. Do that, and you’ll continue to grow your company. It’s time to put the digital in marketing!
Are you looking for a world-class digital marketing agency to strategize, execute, and promote your online marketing strategy? Contact Clicta Digital Agency today for a free consultation!
