What is Digital Marketing - A Complete Guide?

Digital marketing is the buzz word being tossed all around the marketing and advertising domains nowadays. And if you are still wondering what Digital Marketing is all about, this article will completely make you understand that. So, in simple terms, Digital Marketing is promoting products and services using the internet and electronic devices. Digital Marketing is an umbrella term for the different online activities which helps the business reach their target audience.

Broadly Digital Marketing comprises:

Through Digital Marketing businesses leverage all the digital channels to connect with current and prospective customers. These channels could be search engines, social media, email, Apps, Digital POS, and their websites.

In the simplest term, Digital Marketing comprises, any form of marketing that exists online.

Marketing has always been about connecting with your target audience in the right place and at the right time.

In the current scenario, when social media is at the boom, millennials are going crazy over social networks.

Millions of mobile apps and millions of smartphones and computers in use every day. It clearly implies that people are spending their time on the internet, be it for information, entertainment, or communication.

So, the businesses need to meet their customers and prospects where they spend their time and, that is, the internet.

What is the Definition of Digital Marketing?

Google search shows this definition for Digital Marketing.

“Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.”

Which is more or less true, and this is what Digital Marketing is all about.

Digital marketing uses various channels to connect with customers and prospects where they spend much of their time. And that place is ‘online’.

How Digital Marketing Works?

Below is a quick rundown of some of the most popular digital marketing methods to help you understand.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of optimizing your website or blog to “rank” higher in search engine results pages SERPs. It increases the visibility of your website or blog in the search engine result pages.

And hence chances of getting the searchers to click on your website become higher. This technique helps drive organic or free traffic on the website. The channels that directly benefit from SEO are:

Websites
Blogs
Mobile Apps.
Videos

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing comprises a range of activities all geared towards making your website more visible in search engines. When someone uses a search engine to look for the products your business offers SEM helps show your business there.

Mostly paid advertising like display ads, keyword bids, and link referrals from high traffic websites are used for search engine marketing.

This method is used to increase brand awareness, generate leads and sales of a product or service, etc. But, broadly search engine marketing comprises the mix of both SEO & PPC.

Content Marketing

Content is the king. It always was and it always will be. Nothing can beat an engaging and meaningful content.

Content marketing is creating and promoting content assets to increase brand awareness, grow relevant traffic, generate leads, and provide useful information to the prospects so that they become customers. Below are some of the content marketing channels:

Blog Posts
eBooks
Podcasts
Videos
Infographics
Case studies
Digital Brochures
Lookbooks

Strategy for content marketing is different than other digital marketing methods. But, it’s a very powerful marketing tactic to achieve business goals.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing helps promote your brand, products, or services using social media channels.

Mostly the objective of Social Media Marketing is to increase brand awareness, drive traffic on the website, and generate leads for a business.

The channels which are mostly used in social media marketing are:

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click or popularly known as PPC is a very effective method of driving traffic to your website. In PPC an advertiser pays the publisher money to run ads.

The amount depending on the bid and the channel to get a click on his ads. That clicks on the ads drives the users on his website.

The most popular PPC is Google Ads. It allows an advertiser to get top slots on the search engine result pages of Google.

Unquestionably Google is the most used search engine worldwide. However, there are several other channels that offer Pay-Per-Click advertisement options. Some of them are as follows which are quite popular like Google:

Affiliate Marketing

It is a form of performance-based marketing. The affiliate marketers receive a commission for promoting someone else’s products or services on their own websites or blogs.

Also, the Affiliate marketers promote the services or products on social media. They attract people on their social media channels and when a sale or conversion happens they get their commission.

Affiliate marketing channels include:

Websites
Blogs
Video ads through the YouTube Partner Program.
Social media channels to promote affiliate links.

They simply use a pixel tag or UTM tag to track the conversions and get their commissions on sale or conversion based on the reports generated through these tags.

Native Advertising

It is a form of advertisement which is placed on a website. The native advertisement gels with the content and theme of the website.

It appears alongside the website’s content and looks like the part of the content of the website. Technically it is something like a contextual advertisement.

For instance, if someone is reading about a hiking destination in the Himalayas. And then they are shown some content around hiking gear which can be of interest to the reader.

Which looks part of the content, and the visitor reads it in a natural way as the content itself.

Though the advertiser pays the website to put across that content.

A good example of the native advertisement is Outbrain sponsored posts.

Marketing Automation

There is a lot of software available which helps digital marketers automate some of the basic marketing operations. Many repetitive tasks are automated through this software.

This saves a lot of time for digital marketers and also reduces the chances of an error. Some of the Marketing automation examples are as follows:

Scheduling and sending email newsletters.
Automated emails to customers or visitors visiting a website.
Scheduling Social Media Posts.
Updating the contact list.
Automate the Lead-nurturing workflows.
Campaign tracking and reporting.
SMS notifications

Email Marketing

An excellent medium to communicate with customers for the companies is email marketing.

Usually, email marketing is done to promote content, inform the customers about discounts, offers, events, new arrivals, new product launches.

It can also be used to share other information that is valuable to the customer.

For instance, the addition of a new feature on the website or opening another store near the customer location. The types of emails used in digital marketing and email marketing campaign include:

Newsletters
Follow-up emails to website visitors who downloaded something.
Customer welcome emails.
Thank You emails to customers for making a purchase or taking a specific activity on the website.
Holiday promotions to loyalty program members.
Offers, discounts, events information emails.
New arrivals, new product launch emails.
Tips or similar series of emails for customer nurturing.

Video Marketing

Videos are on the rise and if you compare today with a few years back.

You will see that all the social media channels including Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, have more video content than others.

Videos are a great way to present information in graphical and animated form in a short time.

Users instead of reading a long post prefer to watch a video. By watching a video they get complete information in less time as compared to text content.

Hence, video marketing is something that is central to every digital marketing effort. Ignoring video marketing could be a costly mistake. Video marketing is used to:

Create Awareness
Engagement
Provide information

Mobile Marketing

Another important element of digital marketing is mobile marketing.

In fact, smartphone usage as a whole account for 69% of the time spent consuming digital media worldwide.

While desktop-based digital media consumption makes up less than half.

Hence, mobile marketing is something that shouldn’t be ignored in the overall digital marketing strategy.

Rather the focus should be on leveraging mobile marketing to achieve the business goals.

Digital marketing campaigns and ads should be created keeping in consideration mobile users. Make sure that the users have the same or even better experience when they visit your website using mobile devices. Hence, your website should be very responsive on mobile devices.

Navigation and touchpoints should be visible and functioning, images and media open up in the shortest time possible.

So that the users remain engaged and don’t leave your website or uninstall your app because of an unpleasant experience.

Online PR

Also known as e-PR or Digital PR or Online PR (Public Relations). It helps get coverage in the digital publications, like eNews Papers, eMagazines, blogs, and other content-based websites.

Online PR is done usually to create awareness about a brand, its products, services, etc. The channels which are used for online PR include:

Social media.
eNews Papers.
Digital Publications.
Online Review portals.
Blogs
Websites
e-Magazines.
Newsletters

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a technique to create and promote content. It helps attract, engage, convert, delight, and make the user a repeated customer.

In this method of digital marketing, everything we have discussed so far is included.

For instance, social media marketing, search engine optimization, content marketing, email marketing, SMS marketing, etc.

Inbound marketing strategy requires a lot of research and content, automation, etc., at every stage of the customer journey.

But it’s more effective than every other means of marketing to build a long term relationship with the customers.

Besides the above Link Building, Online Reputation Management, SMS marketing, etc., also come under the umbrella of Digital Marketing.

What Does a Digital Marketer Do?

Digital marketers are usually in charge of driving brand awareness and lead generation.

They use digital channels including owned, earned, and the third party to do so. The channels include social media, the company’s own website, blogs, Online PR, email, and display advertising.

The digital marketer generally focuses on a different Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for each of the digital marketing channels. They do that because they have to measure the digital marketing campaign’s performance across each one.

A digital marketer who’s in charge of Social Media Marketing, for instance, measures the engagement ratio on their social posts.

Also, they measure the leads and conversions happening through social media. Similarly, an SEO expert measures its website’s “organic traffic” and conversions out of them.

They also measure the bounce rate, time spent by the visitors on their website, frequency of their visits, etc.

They keep optimizing their content in order to drive more organic traffic and get higher engagement and customer retention.

There are many roles in Digital marketing that are carried out across various different channels and functions.

For example, in small companies, one Digital Marketer might own various roles described above at the same time. Whereas in big organizations, different specialists might own different roles.

For instance, one specialist is focusing on Facebook, one specialist might be focusing on email marketing. Or in many cases, one person takes up two or three of these functions.

Below are some examples of these Digital Marketing specialists:

SEO Manager

Main KPIs: Organic traffic

The role of the SEO managers is to get the business to rank on Google and other search engines. An SEO manager might work directly with content creators.

He makes sure that the content they produce performs well on Google. Also, it should perform well on Social Media, and other search engines to drive traffic on the business website.

He might also directly work with the development team to ensure that the website is optimized for all devices. He ensures that the loading time of the website is fairly good.

The SEO Manager also checks all the elements like content, images, CTA buttons, etc. And he makes sure that, are all elements placed perfectly for SEO and seamless user experience.

Content Marketing Specialist

Main KPIs: Time on page, overall blog traffic, YouTube channel subscribers

Content marketing specialists create digital content for the website and company blogs.

They keep track of the company’s content calendar.

And they also work on the content strategy including the video content to achieve the business goals through content.

Content marketing specialists often work with other departments as well. They ensure that the products and campaigns of the company are supported by engaging content on each digital channel.

Email Marketing Specialist

Main KPIs: Open Rate, Conversion, Engagement

The Email marketing specialists send out a regular email communication to the customers, prospects, leads to inform and engage them.

They provide them information about the new products, offers, events, etc., which a customer wants to know.

They usually work with the Product development and content creation departments.

Email Marketing Specialists ensure that every effort the company is making for the customer benefit is communicated to them.

Social Media Specialist

Main KPIs: Follows, Impressions, Shares

Social media Specialists are responsible for managing the social media channels of the company. They make Social Media Strategy and social media content calendar for the company.

They keep a posting schedule for the company’s written and visual content to be posted on social media channels.

Social Media Specialists might also work with the content marketing specialist and email marketing specialist. He has to develop a synced strategy for the content to post on the social network.

Does Digital Marketing Work for all Businesses?

To be very straight forward I would say YES, digital marketing works for all businesses. Regardless of what a company sells or offers, digital marketing works for all. Because it involves creating buyer personas to identify the audience’s needs.

Based on the buyer’s persona they create meaningful content to reach out to those audiences. Though, there are different types of Digital Marketing strategies that are used for a different type of industry. But, digital marketing positively works in all types of industries.

Let’s see how.

Digital Marketing in B2B Industries

In B2B digital marketing is to generate online leads, which are passed to a salesperson to convert into a customer.

Channels used in the B2B Digital Marketing are LinkedIn, Twitter, and Industry Directories. Email marketing and display ads are of great help to reach out to the prospects and engage them.

Digital Marketing in B2C Industries

In B2C (Business-to-Consumer) industries digital marketing efforts are more focused around driving traffic to a business website. Because they want a direct sale without the need for a salesperson.

In B2C industries the digital marketing efforts are more focused on developing an accelerated buyer’s journey.

Because in the B2B segment the conversions need to happen in the shortest time possible. Meaningful content and strong call-to-action are the areas that a digital marketer needs to focus on.

Channels like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest are more effective in B2C industries unlike LinkedIn in B2B industries.

What Are the Benefits of Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing has many advantages over traditional marketing.

Real-Time Results Tracking

Digital marketing allows marketers to see accurate results in real-time. For instance, if you put an advertisement in a newspaper, you can’t get accurate data on who saw your ad.

Also, you can’t find accurately how much of your sale is derived through that ad. But, in digital marketing, you can accurately track the clicks, impressions, CTR, conversions, and ROI of your ad campaign.

Specific Audience Targeting

Unlike traditional marketing, you can select your target audience based on geography, gender, age, interest groups, etc. Doing this gives you a better ROI.

Cost-Effective

You don’t need big marketing budgets for Digital Advertising like the newspaper, TV, Radio or Magazine Ads. You can start with a small budget and based on the results you can put in more money.

Personalized Approach

Digital Marketing enables marketers to personalize emails, ads, content, etc. Personalized ads get a higher conversion rate than traditional advertising. Personalization was practically impossible, except sending personalized letters from the companies in traditional marketing.

Higher Engagement

In Digital Marketing and Social Media to its aid, the customers are highly engaged with the brands than ever before. They can practically interact with real people from the brands.

Also, they can write their feedback on social media about the brand. They can get instant responses to the issues they face with products or services.

Brand Building

Branding and growing loyal customer base are comparatively easier in Digital Marketing than traditional marketing. In Digital Marketing, the company knows a lot about the customer.

For instance, they know the demography, geographical location, email address, phone number, shipping address, etc., of the customer.

And hence offer them event-based, season-based, interest-based discounts, offers, etc. Doing this makes the customer repeatedly purchase from the same place and the same website.

Remarketing

Unlike traditional marketing where it was not possible to accurately track who visited their store or saw their ads.

In Digital Marketing companies know who visited their website, or subscribed for their newsletter.

They know who signed up for an offer, bought a product. Those users can be targeted back through email campaigns, display ads on the Google network, Facebook, or Instagram ads.

Data Accuracy

Digital marketing offers digital marketers to play with accurate data to analyze, plan, and act. Whereas in traditional marketing data was mostly based on a sample survey or a rough estimate.

What Type of Content Works best in Digital Marketing?

The rule for success in Digital Marketing is to create meaningful, informative, and engaging content. That content should satisfy the search intent of the user. Hence, the content should be created keeping in mind the buyer’s persona. Also, it should cater to their needs at the different stages of their purchase journey.

For instance, content should move people on the next stage of their buying journey who are at the lead stage. Where it could be a discount on shopping, Free Gift with purchase offer, cashback offers, etc. The idea is to motivate the lead to move further in his buying journey.

A customer purchase cycle has broadly six stages i.e., awareness, interest, consideration, purchase, post-purchase, re-purchase.

But we will discuss only the first four which completes a purchase cycle of the customer. Also, we will discuss how content can move the user from one stage to another stage systematically.

Awareness

In this stage, the buyer becomes aware of the problem or pain point he might have. Here the company identifies the pain point of the customer and creates industry-focused content.

This could be a detailed blog post, a short video, infographic, which discusses the solution to the customer problem. And it is published through social media, paid advertising, sponsorship, PR, etc.

Where the customer gets aware that this company or its products/services can help him with his problem. If you create shareable content for the awareness stage customers, you will have more than expected impressions for your content.

That means way more awareness than you plan. People share videos and pictures a lot on every social media channel. Hence, creating a great video or infographic image could help you create more awareness.

Interest

In this stage, a visitor shows interest in finding a solution, begins to discover trends, products, brands, etc. Here, the content should focus on solutions, educate, help prospects evaluate buying criteria.

White papers, eBooks, webinars, events, videos, reviews, checklists, can be of great help in this stage of the buying cycle.

Consideration

In this stage, your buyer evaluates specific products and services, becomes willing to engage with sellers.

So, the content in this stage should show what it’s like to work with you.

Demos, datasheets, trials, pricing, case studies, references, vendor comparisons, implementation data, etc., can be of great help. It helps inspire the buyer to make a decision.

Purchase

In this stage, the buyer commits to a specific solution; justifies reasons for purchase.

Here, your content should validate their decision; make the buying process easy.

Case studies and testimonials are of great help in this stage.

Because the buyer wants to be sure of the purchase decision, that he is buying the right product.

Also, if required in this stage begin the implementation/service phase. Live training, recorded webinars, user guides, kick-off events, etc.

After that, the Post-purchase and re-purchase stages come in the buyer’s purchase journey. These should be taken care of, as the customers expect good product performance and great customer service.

If you serve them well, they could become an advocate for your brand. Focus on continuous learning, customer communities, loyalty/advocacy programs, feedbacks, etc., to keep your customers engaged with your brand.

Every product has a certain life. The buyer might want to buy a new product. Or may become interested in expanding the use of goods and services of your brand.

So, stay in touch, look for opportunities to upgrade, expand product use, or add new products. Newsletters, phone calls, emails are a good way to keep engaging with the customer.

How Long Does it Take to Get Results From the Content?

As we explained earlier, in Digital Marketing you can see and track the results in real-time. A way faster than the traditional marketing where you have to wait for months. And sometimes years to measure your ROI.

In Digital Marketing, if you make your buyer persona correct, you can see the results in days and weeks.

However, it ultimately depends on the scale and effectiveness of your content and the digital marketing strategy.

You may see results within the first six months if you are not going for paid advertising.

But, if paid advertising is part of your digital marketing strategy, then the results can be seen quickly.

You might get conversion in the first few minutes of your campaign launch.

But I recommend everyone to focus on building your organic reach using content and right SEO strategy. You can also use Social Media for the long-term and sustainable success of your brand.

What Kind of Budgets Do Digital Marketing Requires?

Though Digital Marketing is much cheaper and effective than traditional marketing.

But if you want to get faster results you need to pay for the ads, PR, etc. And that completely depends on the industry you’re working in and what your competition is spending to get the results.

If you focus on content marketing, SEO, SMM, you would only need the right strategy, meaningful content, and your time. You may get results without even spending any money.

There are a lot of businesses that have done Digital Marketing and have established themselves in the industry. Many of them haven’t even spent any money on advertisement. They got their success with the execution and monitoring of the right Digital Marketing Strategy.

Word of Mouth Marketing has always been the best form of marketing. It not only gives a business new customers but also helps them build their brands and retain old customers. And the best part is Word of Mouth marketing is FREE.

All you have to do is delight your customers. And they would become your brand advocates to spread the brand’s reach in their community.

If you need help with digital marketing or branding feel free to get in touch with us, and we would help you in every possible way.