A Guide to Digital Marketing

Today the world is digital. We made a shift from newspaper advertising to social media banners and online events. It is difficult to find something that is not sold online, and even if you find items like that, it is only a matter of time until it goes digital. Almost everyone is involved with or impacted by some kind of digital marketing. If you have social media channels, a website, or a blog, you have carried out an act of digital marketing. In this article, you will learn how to leverage digital marketing to strengthen your online presence. 

Digital marketing encompasses nearly every marketing activity. Digital marketing drives marketing forward, even though it is newer than other marketing activities. Digital marketing continues to grow as the internet evolves more and more these days. It is not surprising that digital marketing is synonymous with the term internet marketing. 

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing encompasses advertising and marketing activities that are used on digital channels such as websites, social media, search engines, email, mobile apps, etc. Digital marketing is a collection of both organic and paid efforts.

Why is digital marketing important? 

In order to make a sale, you need to know where to market your product or service. The majority of businesses acquire their prospects online; therefore, it is logical to focus marketing efforts online, too. Digital marketing is much more complex than just doing marketing online. It is a data-driven, precise form of marketing that should be taken seriously. 

Importance of digital marketing

Extending your reach

Consumers around the world have similar problems and demands, and if your company can address these requirements, it is a great market opportunity to engage with them. Thanks to digital marketing, businesses can extend their reach to prospective customers from any part of the world and do business with them. It is a great way for companies to become international while remaining in one country. These days, internationalization has become more accessible for smaller businesses on IG that deliver goods to multiple countries where their products are popular. In contrast, digital marketing also allows companies to increase their reach within a particular geographical region. For instance, a flyer or a billboard is visible within a two-kilometer radius, but an ad on Google can be viewed by an entire city. 

Targeting the right audience

Marketing can be costly. It takes a lot of planning to carry out paid campaigns since there is usually a limited budget allocation. For this very reason, targeting becomes so important for marketers and advertisers. 

It is possible to conduct broad-based campaigns with a couple of demographic filters, but it does not imply that these campaigns will be successful. Digital marketing makes it possible for marketers to target audiences according to their interests, demographics, and awareness level. This data is collected from online searches, social media information, and other details. These inputs allow marketers to create a buyer persona and create campaigns that are suitable for the right group of people. In addition, this data facilitates retargeting that eventually yields better outcomes for these campaigns. 

Personalization

In order to facilitate better targeting, you need to have the right audience data at your disposal. This data provides invaluable insight for marketers. Collecting customer data allows companies to develop better campaigns, ad copy, and emails that deliver the desired impact on the intended audience. It goes without saying that the amount of collected data can be enormous, but fortunately, there are customer data platforms that assist marketers in assembling and segmenting information. 

Digital marketer’s role

The majority of marketers are digital marketers these days. Every marketer whose work revolves around interaction with the online world is considered a digital marketer. 

Digital marketers are:

Content marketing professionals

Content marketing professionals are more than just content writers. They conduct research, determine keywords and trends and write content in different formats. They also have a strategy in place. Content marketing professionals should not be confused with social media marketers, as their job comprises the creation of posts and captions. It is the same as having an accountant dealing with investment banking. These two differ. 

SEO experts

SEO experts are in the know about search engine updates. They map keywords that are targeted by the content team, monitor the performance of a given page, and carry out optimization of page performance to facilitate better ranking on SERP. These are some of the tasks SEO experts deal with on a daily basis.

Social media marketers

Social media marketers are in charge of social media management. They create posts and captions for social media, speak with followers and react to their comments, engage with the audience through polls, videos, and live streams; they are also responsible for maintaining consistent feed with regular posts. Their work process goes beyond posting a picture and adding a couple of hashtags. In order to ensure engagement, they conduct research that yields enhanced engagement. 

Graphic designers

Graphic designers create visuals that people see on a company’s website, merch, or social media. Their main task is to create eye-catching assets that resonate with the audience and invoke a reaction. Professional designers are familiar with positioning and placement. 

Video editors

Considering that video has become a very popular medium, it is not surprising that a decent video goes a long way. Video editors work with raw footage and create engaging and interesting video content. They deal with graphics, audio, special effects, sound effects, and animation to make videos more appealing and deliver the message as effectively as possible. 

Digital marketing is about building relationships

There are multiple reasons why companies of all sizes should adopt digital marketing strategies for their businesses. Digital marketing is data-driven which makes it quantifiable, precise, and justifiable. With digital marketing, you can facilitate personalization, which makes it a good reason to look into it. Marketing resonates with the audience and empowers brands to convert leads into long-term customers.