What is Digital Marketing Exactly?

When you think about digital marketing do you ever ask yourself, what is digital marketing and what does it mean? Don’t worry! This article will answer these questions and give you clarity on what digital marketing is.

What digital marketing is all about

Digital marketing encompasses of your online marketing efforts, for example:

• Google search,
• Social media,
• E-mail marketing, and
• Your company website.

People now spend twice as much time online than they used to several years ago. Offline marketing is not as effective as it used to be.

Marketing is about connecting with your audience in the right place at the right time

This means that you have to meet them where they are already spending much of their time: on the Internet. Digital marketing is a form of marketing that occurs online through tactics and assets. You may be asking yourself what we mean by assets and tactics? Let’s break it down.

Assets are platforms that you own or control where potential customers can interact with you. Examples of assets are:

• Your website,
• Blog posts,
• E-Books and whitepapers,
• Infographics,
• Interactive tools,
• Your pages on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.),
• Earned online coverage (PR, social media and reviews),
• Online brochures and catalogues, and
• Branding assets (logos, fonts, etc.).

Digital marketing tactics are certain ways to get people interested in you and interact with your assets. There are different tactics digital marketers use and we will explain each one:

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
   

   Search Engine Optimisation is the process of optimising a website to ‘rank’ higher in search engine results pages. This means that it will increase the amount of organic (or free) traffic that your website receives.

2. Content Marketing
   

   This involves creating and promoting content assets to create brand awareness, traffic growth, lead generation or customers.

3. Inbound Marketing
   

   Inbound marketing involves a ‘full-funnel’ approach to attaining, converting, closing and appreciating customers using online content.

4. Social Media Marketing
   

   Social media marketing is the practice of promoting your brand and content on the various social media channels to increase brand awareness, drive traffic and generate leads for your business.

5. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
   

   It’s a method of driving traffic to your website by paying the website owner – on whose site your ad is published – each time your ad is clicked. The most common types of PPC is Google AdWords.

6. Affiliate Marketing
   

   Affiliate marketing is a method of performance-based advertising where you receive commission for promoting somebody else’s products/services on your website.

7. Native Advertising
   

   Advertisements that are solely content-led are featured on a platform alongside other non-paid content. An example is BuzzFeed sponsored posts but many people also think that social media advertising is ‘native’ e.g.: Facebook advertising and Instagram advertising.

8. Marketing Automation
   

   This refers to software which has the goal of automating marketing actions. Numerous marketing departments have to automate monotonous tasks like e-mails, social media and other website actions.

9. E-mail Marketing
   

   Companies use e-mail marketing as a form of communicating with their audiences. E-mails are often used to promote content, discounts and events, and to direct people to the company’s website.

10. Online PR
    

    It’s the practice of securing earned online coverage with digital publications, blogs and many other content-based websites. Online PR is very much like traditional PR in an online space.

Can digital marketing work for all businesses?

Yes it can, regardless of whatever industry you in and what your company sells. Digital marketing involves building out buyer personas to identify your audience’s needs and generating valuable online content. However, all businesses don’t need to implement their digital marketing strategy in the same way. If you want to learn more about digital marketing and how it can help you in your business, visit the Digital School of Marketing’s home page to check out our wide range of courses!

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing