A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing
In the fast-paced world of the 21st century, human beings are extremely reliant on technology. Of course, the pervasive use of the internet has revitalised the way we exchange information. This combined with the great number of businesses in existence today has increased the popularity of digital marketing.
Here we are providing a complete guide that gives you insights into an intricate exploration of digital marketing. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to proficiently navigate the digital marketing field and attain success in your marketing efforts.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing, also known as online marketing or web advertising is the process of utilising the internet to communicate with clients about promotional messages and brand offerings. It is done through digital platforms such as search engines, websites, email, and social media platforms.
Digital marketing strategies can be used in any of the digital platforms mentioned above and more. Let’s review some strategies you can use for the most critical digital marketing platforms you shouldn’t be neglecting.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the base of your content marketing so that your website or brand content ranks as high as possible on search results.
SEO approaches are completely organic, in that they do not use any paid promotions to accelerate their rankings. In the SEO world, advertisers’ existence on the first page of search engine results can have a huge impact on the success rate of any SEO strategy. This is because the links on the first page get the most clicks. Research shows that the first five listings on any SERP get 65% of all user engagements. So, visibility at the top of search engines should be a priority for all businesses.
To optimise your business in search results, you can apply many different techniques both on and off your web pages. A few of these methods include but are not limited to:
- Link Building
- Website Optimisation
- Enhancing Site Speed
- Keyword Optimisation
- Linkable Assets Formation
Corresponding to statistics, 93% of online experiences are affected by search engine results. Thus, SEO is an imperative aspect of digital marketing.
Email Marketing
Businesses can market themselves through contact lists that they have either made themselves or paid to get from others. These contact lists consist of details such as contact numbers and email addresses through which brand communications can be sent.
When businesses create these contact lists themselves, they get permission from current or potential customers to send them marketing communications, routine updates and information, keeping them up to date on new products, services and offers that the brand is providing.
Email marketing can be used for various purposes, including for promotions, establishing brand loyalty and generating conversions. Email marketing has proven to be one of the most lucrative forms of digital marketing - improving ROI (Return on Investment) by 4300%. With such amazing statistics, email marketing has rapidly gained acceptance in the internet marketing world.
This can be automated to streamline workflows and drive a more personalised experience, known as marketing automation. There are a wealth of tools to help marketers do this strategically and effectively. See more below!
PPC
PPC advertising or “pay-per-click” advertising is a paid digital advertising approach where a small, fixed charge is paid each time the ad content is clicked upon. Pay per click promotions can be divided into two major divisions: SERP (Search engine results page) advertising and display advertising. SERP ads or search ads are available in search results for particular keywords in search engines. Display ads can be found on websites that have advertising spaces.
The success of the actual ad lies in the efficiency of the strategies used by the PPC advertiser.
When it comes to this kind of digital marketing, the company’s returns depend on the amount that they are ready to invest. Although this may impose some restrictions due to financial constraints, it allows the company to assess their performance against the daily, weekly and monthly budgets that they have allocated.
If used the right way, pay per click advertising can deliver a good deal of targeted traffic of potential clients to a brand’s website within a limited period. To maximise the benefit of this marketing approach, optimisation of the advertisement, both in visual and contextual elements and thorough keyword focusing, is essential.
Social Media
Conducting social media contests and campaigns are outstanding opportunities for engaging, building relationships, and understanding your target audience.
Social Media Marketing is one of the most used forms of digital marketing at this time. With the average person spending around three hours on social media every day, it has developed into the prime hub for advertisements. Businesses are willing to pay considerable amounts for an opportunity to have their content featured.
Social media campaigns can be exceptionally targeted to the right audiences, with lots of data on all users. The personalised nature of social media advertising gives brands the opportunity for direct engagement and interaction between brands and consumers.
It’s important for brands to make the right choice when it comes to deciding which social media platforms to use for advertising as each platform has its own advantages and varied demographics.
Native Advertising
In uncomplicated terms, native advertising is paid content that usually does not look like a promotion at all. The content is conveyed in such a way that it blends with the publication or site’s established editorial design and tone. The content is usually in line with what the users of that website would likely expect.
Native advertising is great for businesses that prefer promoting their products and services in a subliminal way, where the potential client is taking in information but is exactly aware of it. Yet, with native advertising, it is more likely that a lower portion of users will perceive the key message of the ad. There is a fine line here.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing engages potential clients through content creation well before they decide to buy any product or service. This model of marketing is prudent for somewhat new businesses as it is extremely cost-effective and has the ability to convert the public into customers of your business.
In many manners, inbound marketing explains techniques handled by other digital marketing approaches. It depends on things such as building a target persona, guest posting, identifying leads with free content and establishing influencer marketing campaigns among many more tactics to attain success.
Marketing Automation
Within digital marketing automation, the primary intent is to automate marketing procedures. Marketing automation uses a “work smarter, not harder” model - it adopts specially designed softwares that enables a company to prioritise and deal with its marketing plan more efficiently and productively. Digital marketing automation concentrates on streamlining many aspects of marketing including: lead creation, lead nurturing, client lifecycle marketing, lead scoring, cross-sell and up-sell, segmentation, client retention and marketing ROI assessment.
This digital marketing approach adds to a company’s marketing strategy in such a manner that not only does it become more economical, but it also gives a greater return per action than traditional marketing.
The success of your digital marketing strategies relies profoundly on your ability to build up stellar content. With so many channels and platforms to pick from, you can surely establish a content strategy that will most adequately meet the requirements of your target audience.
So set some goals and determine which platforms will work best for your business. Map out a digital marketing strategy that will lead you to success.
