8 Types of Digital Marketing: A Beginner’s Guide
Digital marketing encompasses all marketing activities carried out in the digital space to promote a product or service. It includes not only online marketing activities, but also some traditional ones. It is not advisable to treat online marketing as a separate entity from all other marketing activities. A great marketing campaign combines the best of both worlds. The following are the eight different types of digital marketing activities.
It is critical not to limit oneself to a single type of digital marketing technique. A multi-channel approach is used by the most successful digital marketing strategies.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a type of digital marketing that focuses on creating and distributing various types of content to generate leads and sales. Content can take the form of a blog, social media posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, and so on. The content is SEO-heavy and user-friendly, and it organically attracts new clients.
If you want your content marketing to be successful, you must keep your target audience in mind. Quality content not only increases sales but also strengthens brand reputation, trust, and loyalty. All digital marketing channels rely heavily on content. SEO, SEM, social media marketing, email marketing, and PPC are all useless without business-specific content.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Content marketing and search engine optimization are frequently used in tandem. When the customer in the preceding example is researching which gym shoes to purchase, they will most likely click on one of the first three results that appear on Google.
SEO consists of on-page and off-page activities designed to increase your website’s visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) for your desired keywords. Previously, SEO was primarily text-based, but in recent years, voice search has gained prominence, which is why your SEO activities must take a conversational approach.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the process of promoting one’s business via, you guessed it, social media. With social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (to name a few) constantly growing in popularity, businesses online must invest in social media marketing to increase their following and reach a whole new pool of potential customers. Depending on the nature of your business, there is a social network for you. All businesses would benefit from being on Facebook, but if you specialize in B2B, LinkedIn is the place to be. If you have a ‘visual business,’ Instagram is the place to be.
Pay-per-Click
Search engine marketing (SEM) is the process of marketing your business through search engines. SEM is similar to SEO in that it promotes your business on the same platform, but there is a key difference between the two. The distinction between SEM and SEO is that SEM focuses on paid advertising while SEO does not. These ad placements are extremely valuable because they frequently appear at the top of the results page, before the organic (unpaid) listings.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the most common types of SEM. Businesses compete against one another in this advertising model to have their ads appear for various keywords. When a customer clicks on an advertisement, the company pays the advertising platform (Google) for the visitor.
Email marketing
A large number of email messages are sent every day, and some people believe that email marketing is dead. It is one of the most efficient forms of digital marketing. It has the potential to produce significant results if used strategically. One way to accomplish this is to provide your subscribers with useful and relevant content regularly. Product and service promotion is also an effective strategy, as long as the audience’s privacy is respected and no spam is sent.
Email is a critical component of success in an Inbound Marketing strategy. If you automate the process, you will be able to guide your customer through the marketing funnel. Emails are also a direct channel of communication with your clients.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing entails contracting with other people or businesses to promote your products in exchange for a commission. Affiliate marketing is particularly popular among bloggers and e-commerce sites (one of the biggest programmes is Amazon Associates). In affiliate marketing, the affiliate will promote your product on their website, and if the customer clicks through and purchases, the affiliate will receive a commission.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing entails collaborating with influencers—celebrities, experts, and authority figures—who already have an audience. When they promote your product to their audience, which is often done on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube, their loyal followers will take their advice and buy from you. You might imagine the Kardashians or some uber-cool young actress promoting your product to individual customers, but influencers can also be effective for B2B—you’ll just be collaborating with more serious and specific thought leaders or experts in your industry.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is nearly as broad as digital marketing and will overlap with many other types. It entails doing everything you do on desktop but adapting it to mobile, as well as mobile-specific things like in-app advertising, text messaging and using social messaging apps. It’s especially important if you’re aiming for a younger demographic who spends all of their time on their phones.
Phew! So those are the top eight types of digital marketing to consider for your business. Don’t try to do everything because you’ll end up exhausted and doing nothing well! Consider what you want to achieve, who your target audience is, and where they are active… and then select a few marketing media to get started.
