Originally published on Vistas AD Media

Digital Marketing is the art and science of building a community and acquiring customers for businesses through digital platforms. People socialize, research, shop, sell, comment and share experiences today, everything can be done online instantaneously.

Traditionally, people consumed content through TV, Radio and Newspapers. Today, there is an overload of content in digital platforms such as: websites, blogs, e-paper, articles, web content, etc. Marketers go where the customers are resulting in the need to build a strong digital presence. 

Digital media includes: 

1. Social media 
2. Search engines
3. eMail marketing
4. Content marketing
5. Mobile marketing

What is Digital Marketing?

Marketing is reaching out to people and presenting your product and communicating the message of ‘why one cannot get by without this product anymore’.

Connecting with the target audience when they are in search of your product is the ideal situation.

Pew Research reports about three out of ten adults say they are ‘almost constantly’ online. Some 28% are online almost constantly, 45% access the internet multiple time every-day and 9% use the internet once a day.

This data means connecting with the audience is best done online, where they are ready and seeking information. Marketing through digital mediums of the internet and digital devices is digital marketing. Every form of marketing that is conducted online is digital marketing.

Search engines, social media, email, and websites power the world of digital marketing where brands and organizations fight for prominence. Digital marketing embodies every marketing effort conducted online through electronic devices or the internet.

Digital Marketing Examples:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Content Marketing
3. Online PR
4. Social Media Marketing
5. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
6. Affiliate Marketing
7. Native Advertising
8. Email Marketing

Benefits of Digital Marketing

Advancing technologies have made digital marketing the most potent form of all marketing practices. Benefits of digital marketing are adding up every-day. Online purchases are the way of life today, thereby research and informed buying decisions.

According to a study some 89% of consumers conduct research online before making a purchase.

So how does one connect with these consumers? The answer is: digital marketing.

More businesses tap into digital marketing for driving consumer traffic than ever before with an exponential growth trajectory. Digital marketing spend is expected to rise to about $332 billion by 2021.

We list below some of the benefits of digital marketing:

Most Effective Form of Marketing

Digital marketing transforms the way that you reach and successfully engage your customers. Every city, in every country around the globe has success stories built on digital marketing.

Cost Effective

The fact that digital marketing is cost effective has been proven beyond doubt for years now. Conventional marketing practices built big brands for over a century, with the advent of digital marketing every business big and small has the opportunity to target and directly reach consumers delivering previously unimaginable ROI on smaller spends.

Totally Measurable Results

How do you know if your digital marketing campaigns are working?

Digital marketing exercises are completely measurable in real-time unlike conventional marketing where it is impossible to determine the number of people who read the advertisement, leave alone the call to action.

Through accurate measurement of all metrics it is now possible to focus on tactics that actually work and tailor campaigns in real-time for greater success and gain critical insights.

Targeting Capabilities with Accuracy

Digital marketing makes it possible to accurately target ideal customer profiles. Conventional marketing always had the element of a shot in the dark, not knowing if one effectively reached target audiences.

Sophisticated measurement tools in digital marketing enable us to draw a customer persona and design communications that appeals to the TA and then review results for further improvements.

Search marketing allows reaching consumers searching the web for content relevant to the business. And pay-per-click, display advertising, and social media marketing ably support campaign planning and implementation based on demographic information and general characteristics.

High Recall Value of Social Media Marketing

Everybody are on social media, commenting, reviewing, recommending and sharing experiences.

Perhaps, one of the top digital marketing benefits is social media marketing. Creating like-minded communities, spreading the good word through such groups delivers massive benefits than any other marketing practice.

With the right messaging it is possible to be a star on social media overnight.

According to eMarketer, 2.34 billion people, or about one-third of the earth’s population, use social media platforms regularly. Statista figures present a good picture of the massive scope social media such as Facebook and Twitter hold.

Various Types of Digital Marketing

Everybody’s familiar with the term digital marketing. With some 4 billion internet users around the world, sustained digital marketing exercises are imperative to gain even a small degree of prominence.

Lets delve deeper into the world of digital marketing and gain insights into the various types as well the pros and cons for each digital marketing exercise.

Isn’t all marketing activities conducted online known as digital marketing?

Certainly all online marketing activities are called digital, however, a few other mediums such as radio and TV can also be considered digital.

The various types of digital marketing follows:

Content Marketing

Creatively written engaging content attracts target audience to webpages or websites. There are two types of content, one is for information and second is for entertainment.

Content could be in the form of poem, story, article, blog, pictures, data, etc. Content is the foundation on which one builds the communication.

With an overload of information everywhere, easily available for free, gaining attention of people is the challenge. Good writing manages to gain the attention of people to delight them successfully.

Creation of relevant content to present, promote and inform a company and its products and services through various channels is content marketing.

Successful content marketing exercises result in heightened brand awareness, prominence in search results leading to traffic growth, and more customers.

Content marketing is performed through:

1. Blog marketing
2. Article publishing
3. Blog outreach programs
4. Press release publication
5. Case study publication
6. White paper publication

Broadly, content marketing is the backbone of every communication activity and exercises in social media, search, email marketing and infographics involves quality content.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO for short – is the process of positioning web pages prominently in response to relevant search keywords.

Searching customers reach the service/product vendor directly this way. Web pages and other content is listed and ranked based on what search engines consider the most relevant to the keywords searched.

Organic ranking is free, the fee paid to the digital marketing company in chennai is the only expense. Keywords play an important role.

Identify most searched keywords through research and place those keywords strategically throughout the website is one of the fundamentals of SEO among some 250 other steps. There are several strategies and methods for driving traffic to a web page.

Performing Search Engine Optimization or SEO on web pages means optimizing websites to achieve the highest ranking and to rank higher than competitors in search engine results pages, appearing on the top ensures every searcher gets to see the listing called impression and thereby maximising the number of visitor traffic a website receives.

If business growth is the goal, then search engine optimization is your best strategy. The practice of SEO includes on-page as well as off-page SEO methods, and there is the all important keyword research and content implementation to position you prominently for the convenience of the searching client.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM is the general term for paid ads and SEO. Paid ads can be prepared and activated in real time.

The ad position is determined through a bidding system where the highest bidder is given the top position. The ad position, duration, time of day, and importantly budget can all be managed in real time.

Search engine marketing used to be the general term for all activities in search engines. Over time, SEM evolved to signify paid search activities such as Google Adwords or paid Facebook campaigns and all paid online advertising activities.

Search engine marketing involves several components that work together to make search marketing successful such as:

1. Online Marketing Planning
2. Campaign Management
3. Keyword research and Analysis
4. Ad Creation and Management
5. Bid Management
6. Landing Page Consultation
7. Localization and Optimization
8. Search Analytics Implementation
9. Conversion Path Analysis
10. ROI Tracking and Reporting
11. Advanced AdWords Support

Search engine marketing is a goal driven search marketing practice. Hard data drives search marketing and facilitates setting of ambitious goals, precision monitoring methods tracks progress with accurate reporting of gaps in set goals, accomplishments, milestones and statistics.

Search engine marketing is capable delivering transformational results and establish sustainable growth over the long term.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media is omnipotent.

Most people around the world spend time on social media daily for entertainment, socialization, and even news consumption - including all of us.

The number of social media users worldwide in 2019 is 3.484 billion, up 9% year-on-year. More importantly, social media has risen as one of the primary marketing channels for a good portion of businesses.

With over 40% of global population on social media, it's vital for businesses to maintain a good presence in social media to reach the intended audience.

social media are the various platforms that people spend time in for entertainment and information.

Maintaining a prominent position among relevant groups and communities is social media marketing and allows businesses to interact and build relation with an online community to promote their website or product.

The following few gains can be attributed to social media when you maintain a good presence.

1. Establish recall value for brands, products and services
2. Build strong identity and branding
3. Establish authoritative website presence
4. Create “buzz” and online conversations
5. Spread the news good word of mouth about products & services
6. Form meaningful relationships with the target audience
7. Reach out to millions of people globally Compete with larger companies
8. Presents an opportunity to manage online reputations
9. Increase targeted visitors to websites and portals
10. Boost website sales
11. Present a window to businesses
12. Present visibility and accessibility

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Connect with the target market while they are searching for your product or service through pay-per-click.

Essentially, one pays every-time someone clicks on your ad. And no payments are made for the visibility or impression. PPC also includes display advertising (cost-per-click based), and affiliate advertising.

The primary skill in PPC is the selection of keywords and presentation of the message to the audience for optimal response. Bid prices are a carefully planned exercise, never the highest and definitely not the least where the purpose of advertising is defeated.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) is one of the strong arms of search advertising. It delivers targeted traffic and directs interested buyers from major search engines and directories like Google, Bing and Yahoo to your website. The three biggest sources of Pay Per Click advertising are Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a popular method of generating income. Promoting products from external sources on your website, blog or portal earns income.

Affiliate marketing is a digital marketing practice. Partner up with an affiliate network and invite ads on your online asset, and when visitors to your website click on the ad you receive a commission.

Affiliate marketing is based on revenue sharing. From as sellers perspective offer commissions to the affiliate network to showcase and generate clicks in the their affiliate network or promote products in your online asset and earn income as an affiliate marketer.

Affiliate marketing has grown into a large industry today and is a key source of income for hundreds of thousands of bloggers.

How to Take Full Advantage and Benefit from Digital Marketing

Marketing is clearly identifying a target audience and successfully connecting with them in the right place at the right time.

In today’s digital world, reaching out to audiences online is the best approach. Digital has entered our everyday lives and we laugh, gossip, spread information, buy and sell online. We highlight benefits of digital marketing and its advantages.

Advantages of digital marketing

1. The primary advantage of digital marketing is its ability to reach target audience cost effectively.
2. Spend details, customer engagement levels are all completely measurable and controlled.
3. Global reach – Digital marketing can be tailored for local, nationwide and global markets.
4. Low investments – marketing requires large budgets, however, digital marketing can also be accomplished in a low budget.
5. Trackable, measurable results – It is possible to accurately track and measure all activities, effectiveness and spends with a host of tools such as web analytics.
6. Personalisation – It is possible to perfectly personalize and refine your customer profile and market more effectively.
7. Customer engagement – excellent customer engagement can be achieved through digital marketing bringing brands closer to loyal customers.
8. Seamless transactions – minimum effort are needed to make digital transactions.

How to Hire the Right Digital Marketing Agency

A team of personnel with varied skills such as: content marketing, search marketing, social media marketing, graphic design, professional writers ,video marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising accomplish digital marketing.