4.8 • +11k Ratings
Save
Print
Edit
You have already viewed an explanation
Register now and access this and thousands of further explanations for free
Digital marketing has become one of the most popular forms of marketing in recent years. As more and more people have access to digital devices, marketing through digital platforms is a must for all businesses. Let's take a look at how businesses can use digital marketing campaigns to increase brand awareness and influence customer purchase decisions.
Digital marketing is the act of promoting a product or service using the Internet and digital media
The rise of digital marketing not only brings changes to how market research is carried out but also influence the marketing mix:
Data: The Internet allows businesses to quickly gather information about their customers.
eCommerce websites can observe past shopping behavior to recommend similar items, customers are likely to purchase.
Platforms such as Youtube and Facebook can track your activities and provide advertisers with data to create customized ads.
Price: Thanks to the Internet, businesses can adjust prices based on the time of order or user history. This ability to change prices according to various factors is called dynamic pricing. One typical example is when buying a flight ticket. Visiting a site too many times and you'll see an increase in the price.
Promotion: The Internet also affects the way products and services are promoted. For example, nowadays content marketing and social media marketing are common ways for businesses to attract customers on the web. Digital marketing also makes it possible for businesses to target specific segments and involve customers in the marketing process (for example, through product reviews or social media marketing).
Distribution: Companies in the digital age don't need a physical presence to operate. AneCommerce store can easily be set up on platforms such as Shopify and Etsy to distribute all sorts of products. The internet also allows businesses to sell directly to the customers instead of selling via an intermediary.
Product: Many products today only exist in digital forms such as ebooks, online courses, newsletters, etc. They can be downloaded directly from the web rather than collected from a physical store.
People: While the Internet has grown significantly, it hasn't been able to replace humans in customer service and personal selling. It does, however, provide customers access to sales representatives and support teams at any time anywhere.
Process: The buying process can take place more smoothly on digital channels than in brick and mortar stores. With a few clicks, people can locate an item they need on an online store and make instant payment with a card.
Physical appearance: Physical appearance is no longer a requirement for establishing a business. Most businesses nowadays would rather invest in web design to increase customer experience on the web.
Digital marketing is a big umbrella term that can be split into several sub-categories:
SEO represented by online searches made on laptop, Freepik.com
SEO is the combination of all activities to help a site rank higher on a search engine.
The goal is to drive organic traffic to the company's website and transform that traffic into potential sales.
SEO practices are grouped into two categories:
On-page SEO includes activities that focus on improving on-page elements of a site such as keywords, internal links, page speed, and images.
Off-page SEO includes activities that happen "off the page" to improve a site's ranking. For example, you can write guest posts, build backlinks, create social media posts to drive traffic to your website.
Paid search represented by clicking on a dollar sign, Flaticon.com
Paid search is the act of paying the search engine for ad spaces on SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Pages).
These ads often work on a PPC (Pay per click) basis where you only pay when people click on your ads. You can find info on a keyword's competition level and pricing via SEO tools such as Ubersuggest, Moz, or SEMRush.
Content marketing is the act of creating and sharing online materials such as articles, videos, infographics, social media posts, podcasts, etc. to attract, engage, and retain an audience. The key of this strategy is to deliver the right content at each stage of customer awareness.
Social media marketing represented by likes and a hashtag, Freepik.com
Social media marketing refers to the act of promoting the product or service using social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.
Companies engage with a wide range of audiences on social media, including potential customers, journalists, employees, influencers, and the general public. One common activity of social media marketing is to encourage user-generated content such as product reviews or comments.
Email marketing represented by an @ symbol in an envelope, Flaticon.com
Email marketing is the act of making customers aware of a business's products and services via email.
It is also an important activity to nurture leads and generate sales. One example of email marketing campaign is to send a weekly newsletter to inform your audience of the latest industry news. This allows your brand to establish itself as a trusty source of information and encourage people to do business with you in the future.
Affiliate marketing represented by a handshake, Flaticon.com
Affiliate marketing is an advertising form where companies pay others to promote their products or services.
It can range across many industries and product types. One example is bloggers who review Amazon books with an affiliate link for people to buy. When someone purchases the book through the link, the affiliate marketer earns a little commission.
Marketing automation is the use of automated technology to streamline your marketing activities and make them more effective.
For example, you can schedule social posts with Hootsuite, set up an automated onboarding email series with Mailchimp, or install an automated chatbox on your website to answer FAQs.
Mobile marketing is the technique of reaching the audience on smartphones, through the use of emails, SMS, websites, and social media.
With mobile making up more than 50% of total web traffic, mobile marketing has grown to be an indispensable part of all digital marketing strategies.
A digital marketing strategy is a set of planned actions to help your business reach its goals.
Here are six steps to developing a digital marketing strategy:
1. Research and define goals
2. Collect customer information
3. Create leads
4. Nurture leads
5. Retain existing customers
6. Build marketing automation
This step includes researching your competitors and collecting customer feedback to identify your business' online position. Once the research is collected, the next step is to set a goal to help you realize your digital marketing goals.
You can increase your website's SEO ranking by setting goals such as creating quality content, building quality backlinks from authoritative websites, and improving page speed.
The next step is to collect data about your target groups. This can be done by creating a buyer persona, including your customer's preferences and behaviors online. A tool like Google Analytics can help you collect real-time customer data and create more relevant content marketing campaigns.
This step is about collecting your audience's personal data for future contacts. The most common way to generate leads for websites is to give away free ebooks or coupons in exchange for customer emails. Other popular methods include target ads display, search engine optimization, social media, and influencer marketing.
Once the leads are generated, the next step is nurturing those leads into long-term relationships and potential customers. How can this be done? The best practice is to educate your customers about your business and service in a non-salesy way. In other words, to add value to their life.
One example of nurturing leads is to develop an email course to help people solve a nagging problem or keeping them informed of an industry news.
In the long run, marketing should turn one-time buyers into loyal customers. Once you have convinced the hard-earned lead to make a purchase, it shouldn't be the end of the relationship. Try to turn them into repeated buyers with smart customer retention campaigns.
Some ways to nurture relationships with existing customers include:
Send a thank you note
Ask for feedback
Develop customer loyalty programs
Cross-sell related products through email newsletters
Disclose your plan for future product development.
You don't have to do the same thing over and over time. Technology makes it easy to automate workflow so you can focus on more important tasks.
Set up an onboarding email automation and chatbox to answer your customers' FQAs.
If you don't want to conduct digital marketing on your own, one alternative is to outsource it to a digital marketing agency. Most agencies are well-versed in industry know-how, latest trends, tools strategies. They can help to drive organic traffic, expand business reach, generate sales with little effort on your side.
You may choose a full-service agency that performs A to Z digital marketing campaigns or a specialized agency for one digital marketing area (inbound marketing, SEO, email, social media, or content marketing).
Some types of digital marketing are SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, paid search, mobile marketing, and marketing automation.
A digital marketing strategy is a set of planned actions to help a company improve its online presence. The strategy is split into 6 steps: research and define goals, collect data about the target audience, generate leads, nurture leads, retain existing customers, and set up automation.
Companies can either conduct digital marketing on their own or resource it to a digital marketing agency.
There are many free courses online to help you improve your digital marketing skills
Digital marketing is the act of promoting a product or service using the Internet and digital media. Its goal is to increase brand awareness which is directly linked to consumer purchasing decisions.
SEO is the combination of all activities to help a site rank higher on a search engine. The goal is to drive organic traffic to the company's website and transform that traffic into potential sales
Digital marketing strategies are a set of planned actions to help a business improve its online presence and achieve marketing objectives. There are six steps to a digital marketing strategy: research and define goals, collect data about the target audience, generate leads, nurture leads, retain existing customers, and set up automation.
Common types of digital marketing are SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, paid search, mobile marketing, and marketing automation.
An example of digital marketing automation would be installing an automated chatbot on your website to answer FAQs.
Be perfectly prepared on time with an individual plan.
Test your knowledge with gamified quizzes.
Create and find flashcards in record time.
Create beautiful notes faster than ever before.
Have all your study materials in one place.
Upload unlimited documents and save them online.
Identify your study strength and weaknesses.
Set individual study goals and earn points reaching them.
Stop procrastinating with our study reminders.
Earn points, unlock badges and level up while studying.
Create flashcards in notes completely automatically.
Create the most beautiful study materials using our templates.
Sign up to highlight and take notes. It’s 100% free.
