Digital Marketing! Another buzzword which you must have come across in the current high-tech internet-connected era.
The global spend on digital marketing is reported to have crossed the $100 Billion mark in 2018. In the US and UK, the industry is growing at a whopping 44%.
One of the most significant events that has affected ‘marketing’ over the last three decades is the mass adoption of the internet into everyday life.
Today 40% of the world’s population has access to the internet. It was less than 1% in 1995.
Currently, there are an estimated 4.1 Billion internet users in the world.
With 26% of U.S. adults staying ‘almost constantly’ online and an overall 77% of Americans going online daily, the way people shop has changed the way companies market their products and services.
Every company in today’s time needs to market its products, services or brands ‘online’ if they must survive.
This is digital marketing at a fundamental level!
In case you are looking for a more formal definition here it is:
Digital Marketing, also known as ‘online marketing,’ is basically promoting products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. It’s a way to connect with and influence your potential customers ‘online’.
Digital marketing, using multiple channels and methods, enables organizations to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working for them and what’s not in real-time.
In this blog let’s explore three key W’s of Digital Marketing!
Why is Digital Marketing essential for your business?
As per Salesforce, 75% of the total marketing budget is expected to go to Digital Marketing!
Let’s look at some interesting facts to understand why digital marketing is currently an essential investment that businesses must make:
- 72% of marketers believe that the traditional way of marketing is no longer enough and digital marketing will increase their company sales & revenue by 30%.
- 83% of businesses think their efforts through digital marketing channels are useful in helping them accomplish their goal.
- According to asurveyof more than 500 digital marketers, most businesses rely on a variety of digital marketing channels to drive sales and revenue.
- There will be more than 2 billion online shoppers around the world by 2020, so it’s essential for businesses to have an online presence.
Digital marketing is an easy way for companies to tell their brand’s story and bring them to life on a digital platform.
A firm can engage with its audience effectively with the ability to narrate their brand story on digital media channels such as social media platforms, a website, or through email.
What benefits does Digital Marketing bring in?
People often think that the main advantage of digital marketing is that a target audience can be reached cost-effectively.
But is it enough?
Not really, until one can measure the marketing efforts real-time.
With the traditional offline marketing, it is not easy to measure how many people reach the specific page of a newspaper where your ad is published.
Further, it is way complicated to know how many readers paid attention to your ad and if that ad was responsible for any sales conversions.
But with digital marketing, one can see accurate results in real-time and can also measure the ROI of any of your marketing efforts.
There are many tools available such as Google Analytics which can tell the exact number of people who have viewed your website, how many pages they visited and which location are they from, in real time.
One can even identify patterns and trends in a user’s behavior before he/she reaches the final stage of buying.
It means a business owner can make more informed decisions about how to attract them to his/her website right at the top of the marketing funnel.
Further, right tools and an effective strategy for digital marketing allows one to track all sales back to a buyer’s first interaction with his/her business.
Which Digital Marketing channels are most commonly used?
The approach to Digital marketing largely depends upon the type of audience interactions.
Further, businesses usually invest in a combination of Digital Marketing channels.
Let’s briefly touch base the most popular digital marketing channels:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engines are responsible for driving 93% of all website traffic.
SEO is a technique of optimizing your website to “rank” higher in search engine results pages.
It is the most effective method to generate organic (free) traffic to your landing page.
Examples of SEO Tools: Google Keyword Planner, SEM Rush, Long Tail Pro
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
PPC is another technique to drive traffic to a website.
The advertiser needs to pay a publisher every time his/her ad is clicked.
While SEO takes 3-6 months to generate results, PPC leverages the paid ad campaigns to drive inorganic traffic to your website.
Examples of PPC Tools: Google AdWords, SpyFu, Ahrefs, SEM Rush
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
SMM is one of the highest used (81%) digital marketing channel.
Social media marketing enhances a firm’s brand awareness by promoting its brand and content on social media platforms.
It also drives traffic and generates leads for a business. The channels you can use in SMM are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Google+.
Examples of SMM Tools: Buffer, Sprout Special, HootSuite
Content Marketing (CM)
Great content is the fuel that drives a business’s digital marketing function.
Content Marketing is basically the creation and promotion of content to generate brand awareness, drive traffic, lead generation, and convert leads into sales.
Examples of CM Tools: BuzzSumo, Kred
Email Marketing
Email has been around for more than two decades, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
It’s still the most direct and quickest way to reach customers with critical information. People are very attached to their emails!
Examples of emails you might send in an email marketing campaign include:
- Newsletters for a blog subscription.
- Follow-up emails to visitors who took any kind of action on a website.
- Welcome emails for new customers.
Affiliate Marketing
This is a kind of performance-based marketing which allows one to promote someone else’s products or services on his/her website and receive a commission.
Examples of Affiliate marketing channels:
- Via your social media accounts, posting affiliate links.
- Via the YouTube Partner Program, hosting video ads.
Many companies are offering digital marketing courses for learning these tools efficiently.
Native Ads
Native Ads are the ads that appear to be of the same form and function as the platform on which they are viewed.
They are very beneficial as they blend with the content and the design of the page, and users are more likely to click on them.
Most people try to avoid ads; therefore, native ads come handy as people may click on them, thinking it to be editorial content.
Marketing Automation
Technology has automated almost everything, even marketing.
Marketing Automation is the next thing to look out for.
Marketing Automation is about implementing digital strategy automatically with technology rather than doing it manually.
Be it posting on social media, sending messages, or replying to your customers.
You can even send emails and set up campaigns automatically. It is a good way to save time and use a resource for business growth.
Does Digital Marketing work for all businesses?
Many people wonder whether digital marketing is needed for their business or not.
As mentioned above in the blog, the mass adoption of the internet has been the most significant shift in marketing.
With this shift, it has become essential for any brand to reach their customers online.
Digital Marketing has various channels, and it is not necessary that a company needs all the channels. But suiting to the needs of the company, every company should invest in digital marketing to grow their business.
Conclusion
To sum up, digital marketing is about accomplishing marketing objectives through digital channels and technology.
Further, joining the dots between sales and marketing is essential.
As per a market study, companies can achieve a 20% annual growth rate, if their sales and marketing functions are aligned, compared to a 4% decline in revenue for companies with poor alignment.
If a business can improve its customer’s journey throughout the purchasing cycle by using digital marketing, then it’s likely to reflect positively on the bottom line.
If you are looking to grow your brand or business through digital marketing, drop us an email or leave your contact details and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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