The Power of Digital Marketing

According to statistics, by 2020 there will be approximately 30 billion devices which are IoT enabled. What this means is that, next year, every there will be more and more people who are using smartphones, tablets, those who are wearing fitness trackers, as well as those who are making use of other digital devices which capture information, in real time, and transmit this over the Internet, to a specified data-collection point, for assimilation and processing.

This means that online processes, such as eCommerce, will become more accessible to people. No longer will they need to wait to have access to their laptops or desktops to buy something online, now they are able to purchase something immediately using a variety of apps on their smartphones. Major online retailers – such Amazon – have taken advantage of this trend of ‘always-on-shopping’ and have designed apps for their own companies.

A Digital Marketplace Requires A New Way of Marketing

Given this new way of interacting with the world, and people spending more time on digital platforms, there needs to be a new way of speaking to these individuals and communicating your company’s brand story.

Enter digital marketing

‘Digital marketing’ is about so much more than ‘marketing’ ‘digitally’. Yes, digital platforms are used in order to perform marketing functions. However, just because online media are used where, previously, offline media were utilised, it doesn’t mean that traditional, tried-and-trusted marketing principles fall by the wayside.

Take the celebrated 4Ps of marketing: price, place, promotion and product. Whether you decide to market online or off, in order to market anything effectively you need to know the following information about what is being marketed:

• The product that is being marketed,
• The price at which this product is being sold,
• Where you’re going to market this product, and
• What type of promotions you’re going to use in order to market the product.

To take a digital marketing example, say for instance that you’ve been contracted to market a new line of jeans. The target market consists of girls between the ages of 12 and 17. As a digital marketer, you know that girls of this age are very active on social media – Instagram specifically. This means that you’ll need to look at the suite of advertising options that Instagram offers in order to determine which mode of advertising suits your budget.

Forms of digital marketing

There are a number of formats that digital marketing can take. Above, we’ve already mentioned social media marketing. Another very powerful method of digital marketing is search engine optimisation (SEO). (You may have come across the term, ‘SEO optimised’, that digital marketers use in relation to website.)

Simply put, SEO is about getting into the mind of your target market and figuring out what they would search for – on their preferred search engine – when they want to search for a product like yours. So, for example, if you’re an electrician and you operate in New York, you may optimise your website for “electrician” + “New York” as a person looking for an electrician, in New York, may use this combination of terms. This, however, doesn’t mean that you only need to optimise your website for one search term. Try out a variety – based on what search trends you can find – and see which one works for your target audience.

While your SEO is getting up and running, a good way to get your website seen on the number one page of the search engine results pages (SERPs) is by taking out Pay-Per-Click (PPC) adverts. Simplistically speaking, PPC ads allow you to buy a first page spot on Google for the search terms that you want. This is very powerful because you don’t have to wait, until your SEO gains momentum, in order to get under the noses of your target audience.

Digital marketing is indeed powerful. This spells the difference between your website getting found by your target audience and disappearing into the SERPs oblivion. Given the move to all things being digital, you need to delve into digital marketing.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

Digital School of Marketing (DSM) has a large array of online courses for you to grab. Check out the Digital Marketing course or if you would like something more comprehensive look at the Advanced Digital Marketing course.