We shall be discussing what is digital marketing, types and how it works.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is marketing done online using platforms and tools such as a website, app, mobile devices, social media and other digital means.
Digital marketing is not here to replace traditional marketing, but to give marketers more options to promote their products and gain visibility. Digital marketing works with the same marketing principles and concepts. Digital marketing just had to be birthed due to the general adoption of the internet in 1990 and subsequently the birth of social media. The goal is to reach your target audience wherever they are. If they are on Facebook, so Facebook shall you go. But just like any other field, digital marketing also has its challenges.
Key Notes
- Digital marketing involves promotion through channels like website, social media, mobile phones, etc.
- Digital marketing is measurable due to the provision of measuring tools and feedback metrics.
- Digital marketing is broad and digital marketers must find a way to master at least two areas.
How Digital Marketing Works
Digital marketers have several techniques they use in promoting and gaining visibility to their target audience. After acquiring the digital marketing skills, you can consult for companies and help them develop a tailored marketing strategy for their products and services. You can either work for a company with your skill or work as a freelancer.
Before the adoption of the internet, companies marketed their products and services through radio broadcast, buying slots on television, slots on print media and flyers. Although these traditional medium is still being practised, digital marketing has brought in an alternative method of marketing through the use of internet.
When digital marketing came on board, there was a disruption in the marketing landscape as companies began to find ways they can best tap in. Companies started to market through emails, and then through search engines and later social media. Now, smart mobile devices such as phone makes it easier for companies to market on the go.
Types of Digital Marketing Channels
Still on what is digital marketing, here are eight most common digital marketing channels that has continue to be in use.
Website
Website is a very viable channel in digital marketing. The website is used by companies to tell their story, showcase their products and services in a more detailed way.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Also known as PPC, Pay-Per-Click advertising is a method marketers used in running paid ads on platforms like Google, Bing, LinkedIn etc. The advantage of these ads is that the audience can be segmented and more detailed targeted. Their location, interested, search terms can be used for targeting which promises a better ad conversion rate.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising enables marketers to reach audiences on news and other websites and digital platforms through paid ads. Marketers can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, and Facebook and show their ads to people searching terms related to their products or services.
Content Marketing
Content marketing refers to the use of written and visual contents to arouse the interest of target audience. The visuals can include written blog articles, flyers and videos. These contents are posted to several other platforms such as social media and the company website. When run on a sponsored ad, it reaches more views and subsequently more conversion.
Email Marketing
Marketing through emails is still one of the most reliable way marketers build relationship with potential clients and converts them to loyal clients eventually. Emails can specifically be crafted to educate and pass value to a subscriber continuously and eventually build trust on the brand which later converts to patronage and more recommendation from the subscriber. There are tools used in growing the subscribers list such as mailchimp, sender.net, mailoctopus etc. A form is created and embedded on the website. Visitors signs up for newsletter by submitting their name and email willingly.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is done through posting on social media platforms with the aim to create awareness. This can be paid or organic. Some of the most popular social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (formerly x)
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has been in existence since the beginning of marketing. It has only been modernised using digital channels. It’s that type of marketing where a marketer promotes the products of a merchant and receives commission when a sale or a lead is made. Companies such as amazon, dreamhost runs an affiliate programs that pays millions of dollars in commission to marketers.
Read more: Affiliate marketing for beginners
Video Marketing
Videos are used to promote products and services. With the help of cinematographer, marketers shoot specific videos to talk about the benefits, usage, sales price and ordering information of a product or service and post it on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram reels, Tiktok etc. the video can be further promoted through paid campaigns and gain more reach and visibility.
Text Messaging
Text messaging is a very viable way to reach out to your audience in bulk with a simple message or request. The process of sending a message to a lot of phone numbers at once is known as bulk SMS. There is now the new messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram that lots of marketers are now leveraging on to reach out to their potential customers.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Digital Marketing
This next session of our “what is digital marketing” shall be showing us various ways performance is measured in digital marketing Digital marketers are able to monitor and measure their performance and compare with their competitors. Below are some of the ways marketers tracks their performance to know how well they are doing.
Click-through rate (CTR): This is a metric use to determine the click rate by measuring the percentage of users who clicked on the ad by the total number of users who viewed the ad. Let’s say if a thousand viewed the ad, but only hundred clicked, that is a CTR of ten percent (10%)
Conversion rate: This talk about the numbers of people who took a specific action from the total number of people who viewed.
Social media traffic: another way of measuring performance is through the engagement from the posts made on social media. How well are people engaging with your post in terms of likes, shares and comments.
Website traffic: Website traffic is also a key indicator to know what is being done well or what needs to be improved. You will have access to insights such as website visitors, the particular page and which keywords your website is ranking.
Digital Marketing Challenges
The digital world is a fast pace well. Marketers have to keep trying to keep to latest trends in order not to be left hand. There used to be just Facebook, LinkedIn, and then Instagram, followed by tiktok. As a marketer, you will need to keep up with the latest one.
Another challenging aspect of digital marketing is the overwhelming amount of data that they need to analyse each time.
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