What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing refers exclusively to the practices and strategies implemented on digital media and channels. We are spending more and more time in front of screens. As a result DM has become must have tool for anyone who wants to effectively reach customers. Digital marketing targets a wide range of users, on all kinds of digital devices (like computers or smartphones). To successfully promote a business online and attract an audience, you will need to use different types of digital marketing.
Nowadays, having a website is not enough to attract potential customers. Today, you need to be visible on as many digital marketing platforms as possible, whether they are search engines, social networks or mobile phones. The success of an online business and its ability to stand out from the competition depends on a complex digital strategy, in-depth market research, quality business analysis and constant feedback.
The 10 main types of digital marketing
Ideally, you should use a mix of different types of digital marketing to reach your audience through various channels. In this article, we introduce you to the most common types of digital marketing in our time. Here are the different types of digital marketing:
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is probably the first thing you think of when thinking about digital marketing. Online businesses are at the mercy of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. If your SEO is done well, your website can attract significant organic traffic. The goal of SEO is to optimize content so that it appears at the top of a search engine’s results (SERP).
There are several methods of ranking well on a search engine results page, including building inbound and outbound links or optimizing content to match specific keywords. Probably the hardest part of SEO is constantly keeping up to date with changes in search engine algorithms and updating your strategy and methods accordingly. SEO is a determining factor for the success of a website, and nowadays all companies optimize their content to adapt it to search engines. This is why it is virtually impossible to stay competitive without an SEO strategy.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEO is not the only way to increase inbound traffic from search engines. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) helps promote a product in search engines so that it appears in paid search results. Typically, search engines display paid results above organic results on SERPs (the results pages of a search engine). Their presentation is similar to that of the organic results, with a few small differences in appearance. For example, Google displays a small “ad” label next to the URL. The screenshot below shows the paid search results for the search “web hosting”:
The most used paid search services are Google AdWords and Bing Ads. They allow you to buy advertising space based on certain keywords, location, demographic data of Internet users, among others. Search engine marketing is a pretty effective method, as these only show your ad to the audience you want to reach. In most cases, the cost of SEM results depends on the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model. So you are only billed when someone on the Internet clicks on your ad.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
There is no doubt that social networks dominate the digital world of the 21 st century. This is why they are also one of many important types of digital marketing. You should therefore pay special attention to them, especially if you want to promote a B2C business. Social networks are not only a marketing channel, they also allow their users to stay in touch with friends and family, keep up to date with the news or follow topics of interest to them. Social networks abound, and among them we find Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and many more. You need to choose the one that best matches your goals and promote your business there.
Sharing great content on social media is a great way to connect with an audience and showcase your brand as a leader in a specific area. It is also very important to place share buttons under each blog post and under each piece of content you post so that your visitors can share it on their preferred network. In addition, each social platform offers a variety of organic and paid advertising solutions. Paid ads on Twitter or Facebook, hashtag campaigns , and influencer marketing are some of the most popular social media marketing methods.
Read More About: Top 10 Social Media Marketing Agencies in the World
Content marketing
Content marketing is yet another type of digital marketing that helps promote a business online. This is indirect marketing since it consists of publishing content that the public would find simply by browsing the internet. Content marketing primarily seeks to get people to interact with content, whether by reading it, sharing it, or commenting on it. You can use this type of marketing in conjunction with other types, like SEO or SEM. For example, you can build your content by focusing on certain keywords in order to get the best results.
High-quality content also helps prove to the public that the company is experienced in its field. Earning the trust of customers is one of the important long-term goals of digital marketing. You can post content (which users can then share) in a blog, in the form of articles, white papers, reports, webinars, or guest blogging in popular posts in the same industry.
Email marketing
This type of engagement is different from others. Indeed, it allows you to contact customers directly in their mailbox. Although this is one of the oldest types of digital marketing, it is still very successful because it is a great way to increase brand loyalty and increase sales made by existing customers. According to the latest statistical report on emails published by the market research group Radicati (2017-2021), the number of emails sent and received per day by companies continues to grow, at an average speed of 4.4 %.
There are a multitude of ways to reach customers through email marketing. You can create newsletter campaigns, send them confirmation emails, thank you or even notify them of updates to the products you offer. If you are promoting a local business, you can send them invitations to attend events; this is a great way to reach a local audience. There are also effective tools for running professional email campaigns, like marketing automation platforms, like MailChimp , or newsletter plugins for popular content management platforms, like WordPress.
Online advertising
Online advertising has always been used by digital marketers. The display of banners or advertisements on other websites in the same industry is the most common form of online advertising. Thanks to online platforms like Google AdSense , it is possible to automatically serve ads on other websites. Ad networks typically offer the ability to configure the settings of the sites on which your ads appear to match specific keywords, geographic locations, demographics, or other information.
Often, large ezines use their own advertising service. This is why it may be a good idea to contact them to purchase advertising space on their website. Some niche magazines, like A List Apart magazine, also offer referral programs that allow a brand, logo, or other visual elements to be featured on their platform for a set period of time (typically a week).
Read More: Types of partnership in Digital Marketing
Landing page marketing
Targeted landing pages can be used in combination with other types of digital marketing to significantly improve your conversion rates. A landing page is any web page that visitors see first when they land on a website. In this sense, home pages are often landing pages. Many brands, however, create specific landing pages in addition to these pages as part of their marketing campaigns.
Digital marketers often link landing pages to advertisements that are displayed as banners on other websites or that appear in search engine results. This way, when a web user clicks on an ad, they are taken directly to the landing page that was created for a specific marketing campaign. Several tips exist for creating a converging landing page, such as eye-catching headlines, a clean, mobile-friendly design, or highly visible call-to-action buttons.
Read More: What is Inbound Marketing? A Complete Guide
Smartphone marketing
People use their cell phones all the time. This is why marketing on this device is among the most important types of digital marketing today, especially if the audience you are looking to reach is young. You then have many options to reach your target audience via their smartphone. According to a recent report from Esendex, a business communications provider, texting experienced an average open rate of 94% in 2018 globally. These data prove that the smartphone is an incredible tool for promoting an online business.
Not only can you text your subscribers, but your audience will get even more involved if you offer them a free mobile app that works on Android and iOS. This app can also perform specific actions that will increase your visibility. It can, for example, send notifications to users’ mobile phones when new content is published on your website. Popular messaging platforms like Messenger and Telegram also allow you to create marketing bots with which you can gain new customers through more human-centric strategies.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing allows you to reduce the weight of your marketing tasks by delegating them to external service providers. All that’s left for you to do then is pay for conversions after your customers have completed a transaction and purchased a product. Affiliate marketers take care of all related marketing activities from banner placement to landing pages. The best part about affiliate marketing is that there are no upfront costs, and you determine the terms and rates you pay.
Probably the most well-known online affiliate program is Amazon Associates . It allows anyone to promote Amazon’s products and earn a commission on completed transactions. Small businesses can also use affiliate programs. This type of digital marketing is particularly popular in the tech industry. However, you should only start an affiliate program if you have the means to properly supervise and train your affiliates.
Viral marketing
Viral marketing involves all of the types of digital marketing that we have introduced to you in this article. Viral marketing involves creating an article, video, meme, or other micro content that spreads across the internet like a virus. To be successful with a viral marketing campaign, all you need to do is promote the exact same content on multiple channels like Twitter, Youtube, blogs or newsletters, and over a short period of time.
Conclusion
To get the best business results, you need to figure out what types of digital marketing you should use. Some of them are must-haves, like search engine optimization and social media marketing, while the use of others depends largely on your industry. When deciding what types of digital marketing you need, you need to consider not only the software but the hardware as well. If your target uses a certain type of device, you must be present on that type of device as well. Get as much feedback as you can from your customers, too, because there’s no better way to build trust with them.
