What is Digital Marketing?

In this digital world, you must have come across the word “Digital Marketing” at least once. Either written on some ad, on any social media post, or might have heard someone talking about Digital Marketing. Hence, if you’re looking for an explanatory answer to ‘What is Digital Marketing?’, then you’re on the right article. Let’s begin with knowing the meaning of the word, ‘Marketing’.

What is marketing?

Activities that a brand/company/organization do to promote the buying or selling of their products or services is called marketing. The act of advertising, selling and delivering products or services to the customers is included in marketing. It can be simply defined as making your brand or business familiar to your target audience so that they buy from you. Moreover, the ‘marketing mix’ accurately covers all the aspects of marketing which is also called the ‘four Ps’. Those 4Ps are:

Product
Price
Place
Promotion

Marketing is a discipline followed by all the brands or businesses to attract clients.

What is Digital Marketing?

Marketing when done digitally, is called ‘Digital Marketing’. Digital platforms like social media, website, search Engines, etc. are a great source of Digital Marketing. These platforms are accessible from almost all internet-based technologies like mobile phones, computer, laptop, tablets, etc. In today’s era, where 4.55 billion people uses the social media, it is ideal for businesses to market their products or services online where they have a higher chance of reaching maximum number of target consumers. While keeping in mind the scope of digital marketing, the two main concepts that prevail are of sources and receivers. Sources are basically the advertisers, and receivers constitute of the members targeted by the sources.

More commonly, the sources focus on extremely specific and targeted receivers. Let’s take the example of McDonald’s. The globally renowned food-brand spread the news of the extension of its late-night hours in locations which abided shift-workers and travelers – basically the late-night consumers. Moreover, it motivated the consumers through ads at various spaces.

How is Internet Marketing different from Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is a broad term which encapsulates internet marketing within it. However, internet marketing focuses solely on promoting one’s business on the internet, digital marketing can be done through various other means that involve online and offline marketing on smart devices, through video games, movies, etc.

Benefits of Digital Marketing over Traditional Marketing

Digital advancements have eased our lives to a great extent. Following traditional ways of marketing has always been time and effort consuming. To solve that digital world provides comfort in several ways.

1. Low cost

Business demands compromises through financial means for it to flourish. However, digital marketing provides a low-cost higher efficiency platform for them. Its impact is stronger within the community of small businesses by being cost-friendly. For instance, as a consumer the ads seen on the internet have a higher chance of attracting audience than a pamphlet being handed personally. Similarly, sources can conveniently advertise their products via emails to thousands of costumers which is not possible in traditional marketing.

2. Huge return on investment

A business is considered good or bad based on its investment returns. Through digital marketing the return on investments has become a lot greater, especially for smaller, non-profit businesses. As it is cost-friendly, the profit is greater than the loss, keeping in mind various social media campaigns that have been successful in the past years.

3. Easy to measure

Several digital platforms, like email marketing software or have been made solely for the purpose of evaluating or tracking the accuracy of any business. This makes it easier for the owners to measure their progress after regular intervals, as compared to the traditional ways in which they have to wait for weeks or even months.

4. Easy to adjust

Digital marketing is adaptable by making the required changes in any advertisement easier and more secure. It is possible to invest more finances in it by just a click, and makes the process of monitoring an advertisement feasible. On the other hand, in traditional marketing a ton of paperwork has to be dealt with in order to make any adjustments in a particular business campaign.

5. Brand development

As said earlier, it costs lower than traditional marketing, digital marketing aids a business to develop their brand name through social media, blogs or websites. In 21^st century, the consumers consist of mainly the ones who spend most of their lives in the digital world, hence making it easier for small or large business companies to target them in more entertaining or flashy ways.

Sale results are improved greatly through digital marketing by making use of the sharing feature. Majority of digital channels give businesses the option to share their work with multiple users in just a few seconds, thus, creating a multiplier effect.

7. Precise targeting

Traditional marketing centers itself on hope by running an ad over a platform and imploring that it would interest a few people who might show some curiosity towards it. Alternatively, digital marketing aims at targeting only the segmented audience that has predeveloped interests towards a particular product. This is very commonly observed on social media where the algorithm is set according to each user. In simple words, costumers only receive what attracts them.

8. Global

The era of information technology has turned the world into a global village. It has proved to be of great significance in the flourishment of businesses by introducing digital marketing. Ad campaigns are a lot more visible now, and not just on a local level, but on a larger global level as well. Because of this benefit there are several small start-ups that have transformed into globally recognized businesses over a short period of time.

9. Greater engagement

In the highly capitalistic world which runs on competition, it is important to keep the audience hooked with the product. To do so, it is important for the advertisers to engage with the audience regularly through blogs, promotions, discounts and shows. As developments in the business world keep on changing, the attention-span of the audience has decreased, so effective marketing strategies need to be applied to keep the relationship between the source and receiver intact. Digital marketing provides the businesses with several options to do that.

Types of Digital Marketing

There are several different types of digital marketing. Many of these types of digital marketing services are offered by TKnack Digital Marketing Agency.

1. Website Marketing

In simple words, marketing done on websites is website marketing. It includes activities related to mobile-friendly and comprehensible website management.

2. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC advertisement is when advertisers pay a fee for each time an ad is clicked by the consumers. Such campaigns can be set on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Meta, Instagram showing their ads to the audience who is most likely targeted due to their particular interests revolving around a specific product.

3. Content Marketing

By keeping a group of potential customers in view, content is created and promoted through websites or blog-posts. SEO, social media marketing, ebooks, podcasts and webinars are all included in content marketing.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is about focusing on advertising new updates and promoting them via emails of the customers. Digital marketers keep an email-list of their potential buyers and create a costumer acquisition funnel to forward their product information to the customer’s system.

The biggest influence on the digital marketing is of social media in brand promotions and awareness. Social media marketing mainly emphasizes on establishing trust to get leads and obtain a privilege to undergo business activities directly.

6. Affiliate Marketing

When influencers market someone else’s product for commission, they are participating in affiliate marketing. This phenomenon prevails in companies like AliExpress that have several affiliate programs which pay them millions of dollars in a month.

7. Video Marketing

Video marketing is best understood through YouTube, one of the most accessible search engines. Moreover, videos on Meta, Instagram and TikTok partake in video marketing in promoting a particular brand.

8. SMS Messaging

SMS or text messages are used by several non-profit organizations that spread their campaigns through SMS messaging. This allows the process of buying and selling to be done via a single text message. One common example is of the political candidates who spread positive information about their parties through SMS messages. One commonly observed technique used by advertisers is amalgamating different types of marketing to ensure the best responses from their customers.

Challenges of Digital Marketing

Since majority of the world’s businesses are marketed on digital platforms. Thus, it brings along few challenges which are:

1. Generating quality leads

Quality leads are those leads that have a higher tendency to become a paying costumer. When it comes to digital marketing, it is easy to collect leads and engage them with the content if the marketer’s methods are efficient, however, the big challenge is to make those leads buy. In order to generate quality leads, the advertiser needs to define their ideal costumer, create different personas and focus on impacting them through a great amount of fore-thought and planning.

Some ways to generate and then maintain quality leads are:

Social media marketing strategies
Good business-to-costumer relationship
Consistency

2. Knowing your target audience

With increasing competition in the business world, it is almost impossible to meet costumers’ expectations. To do so, the advertiser needs to know their target audience before forming quality leads. Due to immense variability within the costumers, it become difficult to know the needs of the costumers and understand their psyche. This is where psychology is subtly incorporated in establishing a successful business.

Content marketing strategies are of significant value here. Some ways to achieve a desirable response from the costumers, the advertiser should engage the audience by

Questionnaires
Feedback
Online surveys
Keeping a track of costumers’ responses

3. Developing a content marketing strategy

Starting a business is easier than actually working on it. One of the most crucial steps to develop a successful business is to develop content marketing strategies. Although, this is of great importance, most advertisers take it for granted due to a lack in understanding of customer-oriented content.

Some valuable ways of developing content marketing strategies are to

break down the preexisting content into smaller chunks
share it on all social media platforms in the form of blog-posts or even videos.
creating a proper business plan
scheduling of content
publishing on social media platforms

4. Budgeting for PPC and knowing what ads to run

It is a challenge to strike a balance on the budget for PPC ads, and estimate the role of the digital campaign. It can be seen in start-ups that invest all of their finances on the advertisements and eventually fail to get anything out of it. The ultimate key is to know the central measurable goal of the business plan.

There are certain techniques for this purpose, like

running a campaign for a month to know how the plan is working
knowing the revenue being generated

After doing that, it becomes easier to budget for PPC and determine the type of ads that are to be run in a particular campaign.

5. Creating content people want

An in-depth understanding of the consumers leads to the creation of content that is desirable by them. However, if the knowledge about former is missing, the chances of achieving success in the latter is also compromised. Costumer analysis through feedback plays an important role.

Digital platforms aid in creating an interesting content. The advertiser can know about the interactive activity of its receivers through

An honorary mention is of trends that change with time, which can be learned through social media sites.

6. Going multichannel or omnichannel

Multichannel and omnichannel are used synonymously under a great misconception. Multichannel is channel-oriented, whereas omnichannel is focused on customers. In both, there are multiple channels at hand, but in former as much channels are used to promotes a brand’s name as the business can accommodate. However, in the latter, multiple channels are used to give an absolutely flawless experience to the customers.

Now, this is where the problem arises. The business-marketer is usually unsure which method to use. In order to avoid this confusion, it is essential that before launching a brand, the owner determines the kind of channel which does not clash with the nature of their business.

7. Creating mobile and responsive content

A very challenging thing in digital marketing is to create mobile content that is also accessible in other devices, resulting in a responsive content. For instance, elements shouldn’t be placed too close, meaning if a customer accesses a brand website on their mobile phone, the icons should be separated and large enough to be clicked upon conveniently. Hence, it is important to create mobile and responsive content first, then moving on for further content.

Content should be readable, enjoyable and responsive
Links should be spaced apart
Use of keywords, saving the customer’s time

8. Promoting brand awareness

Brand awareness means the degree to which the customer is familiar with your brand. Promoting brand awareness in a successful way may be challenging as it requires a lot of authentic and communicative content.

In order to promote the brand awareness, multichannel or omnichannel approach would be required as it aims at creating content that targets the audience using as many channels as the advertiser can. Regardless of that, setting a measurable goal before starting a business is of greatest value which further determines the content to be used for brand awareness.

9. Measuring data and analytics

After setting everything up for the brand launch, it is essential to monitor the rate of progress. By doing so, the measured and learned data enables the advertiser to fulfil the aim of their digital campaign more victoriously. This data collection and measurement may be a challenge if the advertiser is unaware of business techniques.

Some commonly used platforms for measuring data and analytics are:

10. Staying current on changing trends

Staying current and relevant in the world that keeps on changing with each passing day can prove to be challenge. The pace of the brand owners has to be faster than time itself if they want to receive successful responses towards their business. In order to do so, it is important to keep up with the digital marketing trends.

There are certain websites that provide a clear understanding of the changing marketing trends, which are

Moreover, following trending hashtags in digital marketing can be of great hep.

Future of Digital Marketing

In a postmodern world which revolves around digital progresses in the scope of information technology, digital marketing will prevail businesses in the coming future. However, because of this constant change, today’s business-person has to be smart, flexible, adaptable and alert.

Conclusion

To conclude, digital marketing is the star of the 21^st century business world. Digital marketing has a leverage over traditional marketing because it eases the lives of the individuals. In addition to the benefits, there are certain shortcomings which, if treated wisely, can be overcome before promising a successful business. There are many agencies that offer digital marketing services. One such agency is TKnack Digital Marketing Agency that operates worldwide and works hand in hand with their clients in order to deliver high quality services.

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