What is Online and or Digital Marketing?
An Introduction to Digital Media Marketing
In the simplest of terms, digital marketing is the advertising and marketing done on the Internet with the help of various digital channels such as emails, videos, articles, search engines, mobile applications, social media, and websites. The scope of digital marketing is so broad that there is no fixed definition of the term. Since the marketing is done over digital channels like the ones mentioned above, it is also known as digital media marketing.
Inbound marketing
- Attract
- Engage
- Delight
Digital marketing is the act of promoting and selling products and services by leveraging online marketing tactics such as social media marketing, search marketing, SEO and email marketing.
Have you ever wonder how companies like Google and Facebook, make their money, even though their services are for free. The answer is by digital marketing as they publish millions of daily ads through there platforms.
Since digital marketing entitles many areas, I will divide to make it easier to follow.
In other words, it is vital to know what digital marketing is and how it can help your business.
Digital or Online marketing is simply marketing - only your toolbox changed
Benefits over traditional marketing
In the past business only used traditional marketing, having to spend for promotion on radio, TV, newspaper or flyers, just to name a few. The problem was that you did not have a way to quantify how many people responded to your advertising.
On the flip side, with digital marketing, you can choose who can view your ad and even interact with your customers. Plus, it is cheaper than traditional marketing.
So based on that statement digital marketing includes both online and offline tactics.
What Are the Benefits of Digital Marketing?
Having a strong digital presence will help your marketing in multiple ways:
- It will make it easier to create awareness and engagement both before and after the sale
- It will help you convert new buyers into rabid fans who buy more (and more often)
- It will kickstart word-of-mouth and social sharing—and all the benefits that come with them
- It will shorten the buyer's journey by presenting the right offers at the right time
Top 10 Types of digital marketing I use
There are many forms of digital marketing available, but we are going to explain those who are more common users among entrepreneurs.
The various ways to go about promoting your websites, brands, and products are as follows:
- Content marketing
- Social media marketing (SMM)
- Web Development & Design - Responsive
- Search engine optimization (SEO) - [On-Page and Off-Page]
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Paid Advertisements - Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
- Inbound marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Automated Marketing
- Email marketing
The RACE planning framework - Marketing Lifecycle
Our RACE planning framework maps the online customer journey across all potential touchpoints, showing the scale and opportunity digital marketing provides - more than just "a website" or "a Facebook page".
R - REACH
A - ACT
C - CONVERT
E - ENGAGE
Top 10 digital marketing channels - explained
Content Marketing
Content is King, and creating it should be your priority.
This term denotes the creation and promotion of content assets for the purpose of generating brand awareness, traffic growth, lead generation, and customers. The channels that can play a part in your content marketing strategy include: Video marketing; Blog Posts; Ebooks, white-papers, websites and Infographics.
Social Media Marketing
This practice promotes your brand and your content on social media channels to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and generate leads for your business.
With platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and YouTube, they provide billions of users to allow contact with your followers. It is essential to learn how you can use these platforms and tools like Video Streaming and Chatbots to grow your engagement.
Web Develop and Design
Make sure your website mobile-friendly - Develop a responsive website. [web development for all devices - Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, and Smartphone]
The first step to creating an effective website marketing strategy is to audit your current website. By conducting a website analysis of your current site design and content, you can better understand what you’re doing well and where there may be opportunities for improvement.
The second step in developing a website marketing strategy is to optimize your website for SEO.
Best practices for search engine optimization are often changing or being added to as Google updates its search algorithm.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As the name suggests, search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website and its content for the search engines so that they rank higher in the search results. By doing so, you increase the organic traffic to your website. The idea here is to create engaging, quality content that adds value for the user, as well as the site.
Google is the number one website and search engine, allowing its users to look for information. When you are writing, you must follow a protocol, allowing easy access to your post. In other words, If the information is useful and provides what the user is looking for when another person is searching for the same, it should appear higher on Google. SEO done right can draw traffic to your website.
We specialize in First page Google with On-Page and Off-Page SEO
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Similar to SEO, with Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is another way to get your content first when a person is searching with Google or another search engine. The primary difference is with SEO, your growth is organic, meanwhile, with SEM, you have to pay for your position.
Google Ads and Bing Ads are the two main platforms search marketers use for paid ads. Yahoo Gemini was the third until Microsoft announced a partnership with Yahoo, serving their network under the Bing umbrella.
Pay Per Click (PPC) - Paid Advertisements
PPC is the most common form of advertising and undoubtedly, the most popular. It is similar to creating an advertisement banner, except you are doing it online. The ads are created for the search terms decided by you and are displayed within the search results only when those keywords are searched for.
PPC is a method of driving traffic to your website by paying a publisher every time your ad is clicked. One of the most common types of PPC is Google Ads, which allows you to pay for top slots on Google's search engine results pages at a price "per click" of the links you place. Other channels where you can use PPC include: Google Ads, Paid ads on Facebook, Paid ads on Twitter, Sponsored Messages on LinkedIn.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is as a method of attracting, engaging and delighting people to grow a business that provides value and builds trust. The idea behind it is to drive an audience to your site using content that addresses pain points of your target audience, which in turn gives your brand credibility.
You can use every digital marketing tactic listed above, throughout an inbound marketing strategy, to create a customer experience that works with the customer, not against them. Here are some classic examples of inbound marketing versus traditional marketing:
- Blogging vs. pop-up ads
- Video marketing vs. commercial advertising
- Email contact lists vs. email spam
Affiliate Marketing
This is a type of performance-based advertising where you receive commission for promoting someone else's products or services on your website.
Affiliate marketing channels include:
- Google Adsense
- Hosting video ads through the YouTube Partner Program.
- Posting affiliate links from your social media accounts.
Automated Marketing
Since digital marketing keeps growing, you need a service to help you make it easier, even work while you are not around. Find the best option, allowing cross-communication with your subscribers through their email, messenger, and push notification.
Marketing automation refers to the software that serves to automate your basic marketing operations. Many marketing departments can automate repetitive tasks they would otherwise do manually, such as:
- Social media post scheduling
- Email newsletters
- Campaign tracking and reporting
Email Marketing
Companies use email marketing as a way of communicating with their audiences. Email is often used to promote content, discounts and events, as well as to direct people toward the business's website.
There are a ton of email marketing tools available for businesses large and small. You can use email marketing in conjunction with marketing automation to create efficiencies within your team.
Author: Jeanette Du Toit [Founder & owner of Jaydee Media]
An IT (Information Technology) Professional with various skills and experience.
Google certified Digital Media Marketer.
An Experienced Web Developer, Web Designer, SEO [Search Engine Optimazation] specialist, Google Adwords + PPC; Digital marketing expert, Lead generation expert and Social Media specialist.