What Is Digital Marketing? 

Digital marketing comprises of the promotion of either products,services or brands via forms of digital media (including websites, apps and social media channels) platforms on the Internet.

First popularized as a term in the early 2000’s, digital marketing has actually been around much longer.

Like, WAY longer. About 100 years longer, to be exact.

Above is a pic of the first digital marketer in history:

His name: Guglielmo Marconi.

What? Marconi?

Yes, in 1896 he was the first human to demonstrate a, “public transmission of wireless signals.”

This dude invented the radio. 

Shortly after his little demonstration in England, morse signals were transmitted across open water.

And, while it would take another 10 years for the radio to reach the general public, it sure didn’t take the creators long to realize they could use it to sell stuff.

The first live broadcast was from an opera performance at the Met and guess what people did after it?

They bought show tickets!

Digital marketing strategy was born. 

Digital marketing is fundamental to businesses’ success in today’s modern era of engagement marketing. Promoting brands, products, and services online and through mobile applications is quickly becoming table stakes. So as a marketer, you must get on board. But online advertising is just the tip of the iceberg. Marketers have to dig deep into today’s vast and intricate cross-channel world to discover the most impactful strategies required to build a thriving business. Search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and conversion rate optimization techniques work in tandem to demystify consumer behaviors, capture customers’ attention, and turn people into loyal buyers over time. No digital marketing campaign should be without these critical activities.we’ll focus on the most common types below;

*Paid Search

*Search Engine Optimization

*Content Marketing

*Social Media Marketing

*Email Marketing

*Marketing Automation

Paid Search 

Paid search, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, typically refers to the “sponsored result” on the top or side of a search engine results page (SERP). You only pay when your ad is clicked. You can tailor your PPC ads to appear when specific search terms are entered, creating ads that are targeted to a particular audience.

PPC ads are flexible, visible, and most importantly, effective for many different types of organizations. They are also contextual advertisements—ads that appear when a person is searching for a particular keyword or term.

Search Engine Optimization 

Simply put, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing the content, technical set-up, and reach of your website so that your pages appear at the top of a search engine result for a specific set of keyword terms. Ultimately, the goal is to attract visitors to your website when they search for products, services, or information related to your business.

SEO can almost be viewed as a set of best practices for good digital marketing. It enforces the need for a well-constructed and easy-to-use website, valuable and engaging content, and the credibility for other websites and individuals to recommend you by linking to your site or mentioning it in social media posts.

Content Marketing 

Have you heard the expression, “Content is king?” If not, you have now. Great content is the fuel that drives your digital marketing activities:

It is a key pillar of modern SEO

It helps you get noticed on social media

It gives you something of value to offer customers in emails and paid search ads.

Creating clever content that is not promotional in nature, but instead educates and inspires, is tough but well worth the effort. Offering content that is relevant to your audience helps them see you as a valuable source of information. On top of that, resourceful content makes it less likely that they will tune you out.

Social Media Marketing 

People aren’t just watching cat videos and posting selfies on social media these days. Many rely on social networks to discover, research, and educate themselves about a brand before engaging with that organization. For marketers, it’s not enough to just post on your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You must also weave social elements into every aspect of your marketing and create more peer-to-peer sharing opportunities. The more your audience wants to engage with your content, the more likely it is that they will want to share it. This ultimately leads to them becoming a customer. And as an added bonus, they will hopefully influence their friends to become customers, too.

Email Marketing 

Email has been around for more than two decades, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. It’s still the quickest and most direct way to reach customers with critical information. The reason is simple: Consumers are very attached to their emails. Just ask yourself how many times you have checked your email in the past hour…See what we mean?

But great marketers know that not just any email will do. Successful email campaigns must be engaging, relevant, informative, and entertaining. To succeed, your marketing emails should satisfy these five core attributes:

Trustworthy

Relevant

Conversational

Be coordinated across channels

Strategic

Social Media Marketing 

As mobile devices become an increasingly integral part of our lives, it’s vital that marketers understand how to effectively communicate on this unique and extremely personal channel. Mobile devices are kept in our pockets, sit next to our beds, and are checked constantly throughout the day. This makes marketing on mobile incredibly important but also very nuanced.

From SMS and MMS to in-app marketing, there are many ways to market on mobile devices, so finding the right method for your particular business is key. Beyond the mechanisms to deliver your message, you also need to think about coordination of your marketing across digital channels and make sure mobile is a part of that mix.

Marketing Automation 

Marketing automation is an integral platform that ties all of your digital marketing together. Without it, your campaigns will look like an unfinished puzzle with a crucial missing piece. Marketing automation software streamlines and automates marketing tasks and workflows. Most importantly, it measures the results and ROI of your digital campaigns, helping you to grow revenue faster.

When used effectively, marketing automation will help you gain much-needed insight into which programs are working and which aren’t. It will give you the metrics needed to speak confidently about digital marketing’s impact on the bottom line.

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