Digital marketing, in easy words, is a medium through which businesses use the internet to communicate and promote their product and service to their consumers.
With the data collection leading to advanced audience targeting, it is a powerful approach to gaining and retaining consumers compared to the traditional method. Moreover, it would continue to expand as technology advances.
Why Does Digital Marketing Matter?
Traditional marketing is done through billboards with the intention that people would see them. This would create awareness and generate curiosity about the product.
However, with the changing era, people are shifting their attention from billboards to mobile phones.
Thus, the solution to this problem is to bring billboards on mobile through digital marketing.
Types Of Digital Marketing
There are 9 domains in this field:
- Search Engine Optimization [SEO]
- Search Engine Marketing [SEM]
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Mobile Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Influencer marketing
1. Search Engine Optimization [SEO]
When someone needs to know about a product, then the first thing they do is search online.
Now SEO is how you can get their website shown up in the SERP(Search Engine Result Page). SEO brings a steady flow of visitors who are interested in your content.
There are countless pages competing for top rank in the search engine for the same search.
With SEO, businesses can improve their ranking on Google.
2. Search Engine Marketing [SEM]
It is a paid advertising method through which businesses can appear on the search page. It accounts for a large portion of the digital marketing budget for any organization.
SEM is quite similar to SEO; however, the only difference is that SEM is paid.
It is pretty helpful as its results would pop up before organic results.
The most common form is pay-per-click advertising. The business would pay the search engine only after visitors visit the platform.
This is a powerful tool to build brand awareness and find new consumers.
3. Social Media Marketing [SMM]
SMM efforts can be both organic [unpaid] and inorganic [paid] methods.
Organic SMM would involve regularly updating your page and engaging with the community to build a following.
Paid efforts would include running advertisements to drive people to the website and converting them into a customer.
The success of the campaign can easily be monitored by in-depth data and performance metrics provided by the platforms.
4. Content Marketing
Content is the way businesses provide value to the customer. Either you can use it to strengthen the connection or stand out from the competition or do both.
Through content marketing, businesses create valuable content and distribute it to the target customer helping them to build the connection and to convert the person into a consumer.
Content marketing is a crucial component of various digital marketing strategies as the traditional form of marketing is less effective.
The main objective of content writing is to increase brand awareness or educate the audience about the topic that is important to them.
Content marketing is usually tied closely to SEO.
5. Email Marketing
Businesses use email marketing to engage their audience through promotional offers, educational material, or product updates.
6. Affiliate Marketing
It is the type of marketing in which you receive a commission for selling or promoting a business’s products and services.
Businesses give their affiliates unique links that are easy to track. Then, affiliates add these links to their content.
The commission you receive is variable, depending on what you are promoting.
7. Mobile Marketing
This strategy targets mobile users by SMS, notification, in-app advertisement, and more.
You can also target people living in specific locations.
8. Video Marketing
It can be used to educate potential customers or increase brand engagement.
Once your video is distributed, then you need to keep a close watch over your KPIs to see if your current strategy is working.
9. Influencer Marketing
As influencers have a large number of followers thus, the product endorsed by them reaches a wider audience. Businesses can take advantage of their reach by collaborating with them or paying them to promote their products.
The starting pay scale of a digital marketer is 3lpa which after 4-5 years, can increase to 7-8lpa, depending on the organization you are working with. Freelancing is also an easy way to make money in this field.