How accessible is the internet today? Do you know how many people are online right now? Would you believe me if I told you the number of people who go online every day is still increasing?
I know it’s shocking!! People are either on YouTube, watching reels on Instagram, trying their hand on NFT’s or are simply shopping for cool clothes online. Speaking of shopping, have you noticed that the way people shop and buy has changed a lot?
What I mean is, offline marketing isn’t as effective as it used to be. Marketing has always been about connecting with your audience in the right place and at the right time. So with today’s day and age doing the same on the internet is where things are booming.
This is called Digital Marketing, which is what you and I will briefly learn about, right here.
What is Digital Marketing?
Simply put, Digital Marketing is all marketing efforts that use an electronic device and the internet. Many businesses use different mediums to market their products and services.
Such platforms can be social media, email, search engines, etc. to connect with their target customers.
This can also apply when users are watching videos, playing video games or even chatting with friends. That’s right. ‘Every interaction is an opportunity’ and nothing is safe from the hands of commoditization.
But no matter what form your Digital Marketing takes, there are some guidelines to follow, to get the most out of your efforts. Look for them at the end, in the form of beginner tips.
What is the difference between Digital and Traditional Marketing?
Here is a quick table for you to understand the major differences between Digital and Traditional marketing:
Here is a quick table for you to understand the major differences between Digital and Traditional marketing:
How do companies use Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is really important for businesses and brand awareness to grow. Wherever you see, you will find that every other brand has a website or a social media presence at the least.
Digital content and marketing has become so common that consumers now expect and depend on them as a way to learn about brands. And because Digital Marketing does not have a set strategy and comes with many options, one can be as creative and experimental with their marketing tactics.
The use of such tactics is what is at the core of Digital Marketing. The best of the best in the field of Digital Marketing, have a clear vision of how each marketing campaign will support their goals.
And depending on the set goals of their marketing strategy, Digital Marketers can support all their campaigns, large or small, through the use of tools and platforms at their disposal.
Why is Digital Marketing important?
Digital Marketing is important because it amplifies your reach to a larger audience than what is possible with a traditional approach to marketing. This also enables you to target your audience who are more likely to buy your products and services.
As a whole, it is also more cost-effective than traditional marketing and lets you analyse your strategies along the road to achieve your goals.
So to sum up, the major benefits of Digital Marketing are:
- It’s more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods.
- You can focus your efforts on specific prospects that will most likely purchase your product or service.
- It’s easier to improvise and change a Digital Marketing strategy.
- You can engage audiences at every stage with Digital Marketing.
- Digital Marketing evens the playing field within your industry and allows you to compete with bigger brands.
- Digital Marketing is measurable.
- Digital Marketing can improve your conversion rate and the quality of your leads.
There are many forms of Digital Marketing some of which you may be familiar with. They are namely Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Content Marketing and more. Let us learn briefly about them.
Types of Digital Marketing
1. Search Engine Optimisation
You may have heard this term quite often whenever you are browsing online. SEO is more of a Digital Marketing tool than a type in itself. Simply put, it is a way to make your website the most attractive thing to search engines like Google.
In order to fulfil this in the proper way, you need to include a few elements which are absolutely necessary. They are:
- Quality of Content
- Increased user engagement
- Easy user experience on mobile phones
- Quality + number of backlinks provided
There is no set way to do this as it is an on-going process. And since Google constantly keeps changing their algorithm, it’s best to closely monitor your website’s ranking and make adjustments along the way.
2. Content Marketing
What you market, whom do you market to and how do you market it are the 3 pillars of Digital Marketing. But the most important thing out of these three is the content of it all.
The content that you present needs to be relevant and valuable to your target audience, because if it isn’t then what’s the point of it all? In any marketing strategy, the goal is to attract people and make them your customers. Right?
For e.g. if you look at Zomato, they are literally considered one of the best at marketing their products and services. They cater to memories, moods, nostalgia and feelings that highly engage people and ultimately make them want to order food through Zomato’s app.
This can be a tricky job but it has its hits and misses. But to do this effectively one needs to be highly aware of their audience and how that audience will benefit from your product. When the relevance is high, your page will rank higher.
3. Social Media Marketing
This will be a favourite for many. You have been on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube a lot. There is no other way to be connected to the world! And you are not the only one on such platforms, with you there are millions of users at the same time!
While scrolling, you do look at your usual cat videos, memes and celebrity pictures, but you must’ve come across influencers and companies who advertise products and services here as well! And we have been blown away by this!
Such pages are using effective Social Media Marketing to drive traffic (traffic = users) and building brand awareness so that we as users can talk about it and engage further. Therefore, Social Media Marketing has become a popular way to get attention.
It is very popular in the B2C (Business to Customer) space. So with this approach, brands and companies begin to understand how well they are reaching their audience and what kind of interaction works best for both.
4. Email Marketing
The very method of Email Marketing is simple. All you need to do is to send promotional messages over mail and hope that your prospect will click on it. And to make sure that your emails are received correctly, you have to do the following:
- Individualise the content, both in the body and in the subject line
- State clearly what kind of emails the subscriber will get
- Offer a unsubscribe option
- Integrate both transactional and promotional emails
You want your target audience to see your mails as a thing of value and not just a forced sales technique.
What are the different roles in Digital Marketing?
Here are top 8 Digital Marketing roles:
1. Digital Marketing Manager (DMM)
The Digital Marketing Manager plays an important role in managing and promoting Digital Marketing campaigns. The primary responsibility includes:
- Planning a project layout
- Setting the project schedule
- Drawing clear goals/objectives
- Managing project finances
A DMM helps maximising customer leads and drive online traffic to increase the customer base.
2. Content Strategist (CS)
A Content Strategist is supposed to create effective and engaging content that will be relevant to the brand/company and the target audience. The primary responsibility includes:
- Create effective copies
- Communicate the brand in a convincing manner
- Use various analytical tools to generate intriguing content
3. Social Media Expert (SME)
As mentioned before, Social Media Marketing is a very prominent method of Digital Marketing. An SME makes sure that social media platforms allow companies to interact with their customers on a wider scale.
The primary responsibility includes:
- Devise effective promotional strategies
- Promote the presence of the company on Social Media Platforms
- Create brand awareness
- Communicate with the target audience
- Keep constant engagement with existing customers
This helps a business to capture the attention of audiences who are constantly present on the internet.
4. Pay-Per-Click Specialist (PPC)
The PPC specialist monitors the Pay-Per-Click promotional campaigns on the company/brand website. The primary responsibility includes:
- Strategy formulation
- Designing
- Execution
- SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
- Evaluate the impact of Ads
5. Search Engine Optimisation Specialist (SEO)
The SEO specialist has an important role in making every Digital Marketing campaign successful. The primary responsibility includes:
- Track, report, and analyse website analytics and PPC initiatives and campaigns
- Research and analyse competitor advertising links
- Optimise copy and landing pages for search engine marketing
- Work with editorial and marketing teams to drive SEO in content creation and content programming
6. Email Marketing Specialist (EMS)
An EMS maintains customer details by forming email lists and executing promotional campaigns through emails. The primary responsibility includes:
- Ensuring conveyed message is precise and appropriate
- Emails are informative and beneficial to the target audience promoting brand value
7. User Experience (UX) Designer
UX designers are an integral part of Digital Marketing. They are not only experts in technical things and design, but also have a good understanding of human attitudes and mentalities.The primary responsibility includes:
- Generate websites, products/services and applications that are user friendly
- Enable customers to keep track of history with the website
8. Conversion Rate Manager (CRM)
This is one of the most significant roles in Digital Marketing. The Conversion Rate Manager makes sure to acquire new customers by modifying and developing components of the company website.
With the CRM’s effort, companies have a higher chance of converting their target audience into regular customers. The primary responsibility includes:
- Optimise website experience
- Analyse customer behaviour
- Modify web pages accordingly
To upgrade your Digital Marketing performance, you already know what to do. And to be part of this journey check out our Digital Marketing course here.
