If you’ve ever asked yourself: what is digital marketing exactly? Then here’s a 3 minute read to get your head around the basics.
Digital marketing refers to the practice of promoting products, services, or brands through various online channels and platforms. It uses the power of the internet and digital technologies to reach and engage with a target audience, increase brand visibility, drive website traffic, and generate leads or sales.
Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of strategies and tactics, including:
- search engine optimization (SEO),
- social media marketing,
- content marketing,
- email marketing,
- pay-per-click (PPC) advertising,
- affiliate marketing, and more.
Each tactic has its own unique benefits and objectives. But they all share the common goal of using digital platforms to connect you with your potential customers.
Your digital marketing toolbox essentials
1. Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation (SEO) focuses on optimizing a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
By using targeted keywords, creating high-quality content, and improving the site’s technical aspects, your business can increase organic (non-paid) search rankings and attract more visitors.
2. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing involves using popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to engage with users, build a community, and promote products or services. It offers businesses the opportunity to create brand awareness, drive website traffic, and interact with customers directly.
3. Content Marketing
Content marketing revolves around creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined target audience. It’s a key element of your inbound marketing strategy.
This can include blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, white papers… Essentially, any enticing content your customers would find valuable that sits on your website.
By providing useful information and building trust, your business can establish itself as the industry expert and nurture those valuable customer relationships.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing involves sending targeted emails to prospects and customers. Targeted is the key word here! Blasting out scatter gun email risks being labelled as spam. It is certainly not the best way to gain new customers and advocates.
Well-targeted email marketing can be used to deliver personalised offers, share relevant content, announce promotions, and build customer loyalty. Email marketing campaigns are highly effective when they are tailored to specific audience segments and provide value to recipients.
5. Pay-per-click digital marketing
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising enables businesses to display targeted ads on search engines and other digital platforms. Advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked, hence the name. PPC campaigns can be highly targeted, allowing businesses to reach specific demographics, geographic locations, and interests.
If you have the budget to compete for keywords relevant to your industry, this can be a great way to bring traffic to your website. Making sure customers convert once they land is another story. Closing that circle requires focus on the customer journey experience through your site.
6. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing involves partnering with other businesses or individuals (affiliates) who promote your products or services in exchange for a commission on each sale. Finding a partner who aligns with your business and ethos is a great way to get your product in front of a whole new pool of potential customers.
It’s a performance-based marketing model that can be a cost-effective way to expand reach and drive sales.
Digital marketing gets you global reach
Digital marketing provides businesses with incredible opportunities to reach and engage with their target audience on a global scale. By maximising the power of your digital platforms, you can increase brand visibility, drive website traffic, generate leads, and ultimately boost sales.
It’s crucial to develop a well-rounded and integrated digital marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals, target audience preferences, and the ever-evolving digital landscape. If you’re unsure of how to get started on your digital marketing strategy, book a call. We can spend some time discussing impact options for your business.
