What is digital marketing? (Learn it in 5 minutes)
Before we get into the basics of digital marketing and even its advanced tactics, let’s start with the concept of digital marketing.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the sale of products and services through Internet channels such as social media, email and mobile applications. Digital marketing is basically a kind of marketing that is done through electronic devices. It can be done online and offline, and in fact, both are crucial to a successful digital marketing strategy.
Why is digital marketing important?
Have you noticed the billboards? Sometimes, the big brands even start a billboard war to compete with each other, but unfortunately or fortunately, it must be said that the billboard advertising is mostly dead. Why? Just think, Google and Facebook make more money than any traditional media company because they control more eyes. That’s why digital marketing is so important.
Another reason billboards will die in the future is that the driving system will change in the not-too-distant future. Although driverless cars are now available, they are not ubiquitous at the moment and drivers still have to pay attention to the road. In the future, with the advancement of technology, no traveler will spend their time looking at the road and will most likely be busy with their mobile phones, so who should see the advertisements on those billboards?
In addition, the share of people who spend more time using electronic devices is still increasing, while print advertising is still declining.
History of Digital Marketing
Although digital marketing first became popular as a term in the early 2000s, its history has actually been much longer, perhaps about 100 years ago. Above is a photo of Gulielmo Marconi, the first offline digital marketer in 1896. He was the first to invent “wireless signal transmission”, and invented radio.
After a while, the radio makers realized that they could use it for sale. The first was the live broadcast of the opera, which people bought tickets for, and thus the digital marketing strategy was born.
Key components of digital marketing strategy
Some of the key components of a digital marketing strategy are:
Check statistical information of customers:
Gather and examine demographic information such as age, gender, location, as well as motivations that lead people to choose products and services. Use Google Analytics to check this information based on keywords in organic traffic.
Identify target markets:
Use market research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends and Facebook Audience Insights to conduct market research and identify potential target markets.
Competitive analysis:
Use analytics tools such as Semrush and SocialBakers to analyze competitors and plan carefully.
Proper management and allocation of resources to achieve the goals:
Resources include manpower and budget, which must be carefully scrutinized and then used to plan goals.
Review and optimize campaign performance:
Use digital marketing analytics tools like Google Analytics to track, measure and report on the performance of your digital marketing campaigns.
Digital Marketing Online
The two main pillars of digital marketing are online marketing and offline marketing. The 7 major categories of online marketing are:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Content marketing
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- PPC Advertising
- Affiliate Marketing
- e-mail marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic or a web page in search engines, and targets unpaid traffic, known as “natural” or “organic” results. Unpaid traffic may result from various types of searches, including image search, video search, and more.
As a digital marketing strategy, SEO is how search engines work, computer-programmed algorithms that determine search engine behavior, what people search for, actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines target the target audience. , Examines the preferred. SEO is done because when a website ranks higher on a search engine results page (SERP), that website receives more visitors from the search engine. These visitors can potentially become customers.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
It is a type of internet marketing that involves promoting websites by increasing their visits to search engine results pages (SERPs), primarily through paid advertising. SEM may use search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to rank higher in search engine results pages.
Content marketing
It is a type of marketing that focuses on creating, publishing and distributing content to the target online audience. Content marketing is often used by businesses to achieve the following goals: attract and build leadership, expand customers, build or increase online sales, increase brand awareness or credibility, and engage the online community of users. Content marketing attracts new customers by creating and sharing valuable free content. This helps companies build consistent brand loyalty among users, provides valuable information to consumers, and creates a desire to buy products from the company in the future.
Content marketing begins with identifying customer needs. Information can then be provided in a variety of formats, including news, videos, e-books, infographics, email newsletters, case studies, podcasts, guides, Q&A articles, photos, blogs, and more. Content marketing requires continuous delivery in content production.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing is the use of a social media platform to promote a product or service. Most social networks have built-in data analytics tools that enable companies to track the progress, success and participation of advertising campaigns. Companies engage with a wide range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers and the general public. At the strategic level, social media marketing involves managing a marketing campaign, determining the scope (for example, more active or inactive use), and creating the desired “culture” and “tone” of the company’s social media.
When using social media marketing, companies can allow customers and Internet users to submit user-generated content (e.g., online comments, product reviews, etc.) instead of using ads generated by marketers.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
It is an online advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which the brand owner or advertiser pays the publisher a commission for each click on an ad that is linked to.
Pay per click is usually associated with top sites (such as Google Ads, Amazon Advertising and Microsoft Advertising, formerly Bing Ads). Advertisers usually suggest keywords related to their target market and pay when the ads (text ads or ads that are a combination of images and text) are clicked on. Content sites (publishers), on the other hand, usually charge a fixed price per click. PPC display ads, also known as banner ads, are displayed on content-related websites that have agreed to display the ads. Social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter have considered click-through payment as one of their advertising models.
Affiliate Marketing
Collaborative sales or affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing. Collaborative sales overlap to some extent with other internet marketing methods because publishers often use the usual advertising methods. These methods include Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search Engine Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), Email Marketing, Content Marketing, and Display Advertising.
In simple terms, affiliate marketing is a way in which a person who owns a website, Instagram page, Telegram channel, Twitter or any other popular online media can select a product and advertise it in their media through an intermediary. Through these advertisements, attracting the audience and transferring them to the target website, this person receives a percentage of the product owners as a commission for the return on the company, which is often the sale of goods.
e-mail marketing
It is sending a business message, usually to a group of people, using email. In the broadest sense, any email sent to a potential or current customer can be considered email marketing. This includes using email to send ads, request jobs, or request sales or donations. Email marketing strategies usually seek to achieve one or more of three main goals: building loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. The term usually refers to sending e-mails aimed at boosting merchants’ relationship with current or former customers, encouraging customer loyalty, attracting new customers or persuading existing customers to buy immediately, and sharing third-party ads.
Digital offline marketing
In general, digital offline marketing falls into four categories:
- Enhanced offline marketing
- Radio marketing
- TV marketing
- Telemarketing
Advanced offline marketing is a type of marketing that is completely offline but is enhanced by electronic devices. People have been using digital media such as television, radio and telephone for decades to increase their marketing. For example, a restaurant that uses the iPad to take orders from its customers. Or electronic billboards that use LEDs are examples of offline digital marketing.
Conclusion
Having a digital marketing strategy for the success of a business in the future is undeniable, and sooner or later all businesses, large and small, must join this digital wave!