You are in the perfect place to learn the Introduction to Digital Marketing. Our introduction to digital marketing looks at everything you need to start.
If you’ve always love digital marketing, this is the article for you. We take a look at what it is and what the different types you can learn.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services according to wikipedia
Why digital marketing is important?
With around 4.5 billion internet users worldwide or even more, digital marketing gives businesses the chance to reach people on platforms where they spend a lot of time and money. It also gives smaller businesses an opportunity to compete, allowing them to use data and insights to target customers.
We’ve also seen how vital online shopping is in the first half of 2020. At the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK & in Nigeria the numbers went also high. Online orders were up 150% compared to the previous year. For all kinds of companies, digital marketing and the sales it generated were a lifeline when stores were closed.
What are the types of digital marketing?
Digital marketing is must times a collective effort, where professionals working across different areas combine their knowledge and resources to meet the goals of the business. The next step in our introduction to digital marketing is to outline what these different areas are.
It’s important to state that not every company will necessarily use all of these methods. However, each channel presents an opportunity for a business to expand its brand reach and increase sales. but here are some highlighted most frequently used types of digital marketing skills and what they entail.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is big business nowadays. Not only does it help individuals connect and network, but it also gives companies the opportunity to expand their brand reach and user base. Using social media analytics, marketers can gain insight into how their customers act online, what they respond to, and what actions they should take.
As well as activities such as posting updates, images, and videos, brands can use social media for paid advertising. Their goal is to drive engagement and clicks, trying to get customers to respond to their messaging while building brand loyalty.
Email Marketing
Email marketing focuses on driving engagement by sending emails to existing and potential customers.
Since close to 99% of consumers check their email daily, it’s no surprise that it’s still such a popular way of marketing.
Professionals in this area focus on building mailing lists, segmenting customers, targeting and personalising emails, and improving open and click-through rates. By the way i use mailchimp and mailer lite for my campiagns.
When it comes to embracing digital technology for marketing, email remains one of the top skills to know because in 2018, data showed that there were around 111.1 billion consumer emails sent and received each day.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation is the art of understanding how sites like Google index data, and optimising the page and its content to increase quality web traffic (visitors). The goal of SEO is often to make a page or website appear as high as possible in search engine results pages without having to pay for it.
The process of having your contents top after a search query is carried out on a particular subject is called SEO. Simply means, Search Engine Optimization.
To further break it down, Search Engine = Search platforms on the internet, Optimization = Rank. Now join the words together, does that make sense to you now? Sure should! It also means Organic Search or Organic Listings. Check out our article on the Introduction to SEO.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
While SEO focuses on unpaid methods of boosting visibility in search results, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) relies on paid options. If you’ve ever Googled something and seen the ‘Ad’ text next to the top results, you’ve seen SEM at work. It’s a practice also sometimes referred to as paid search or PPC (pay-per-click) advertising.
With this form of digital marketing, keywords are crucial. These are the popular terms that people search for in relation to a particular product or service. With SEM, you can then bid to have your ad appear in the top results when people search for that term. The ads are ran on Google Ads platform as a search Ads campaign.
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is defined as a form of digital advertising that serves paid ads to your target audience using social media platforms such as Facebook & Instagram both set up in the facebook business manager, Twitter, LinkedIn set up in there respective managers.
Social media advertising mentioned above, there are also things like Google display ads, retargeting ads, and more.
Online ads require a considerable amount of insight and planning. Networks such as Google Display Network and Facebook’s Audience Network mean ads are once again relevant and less intrusive.
Affiliates
Affiliate marketing has become incredibly popular over the last few years. Essentially, this method encourages people to promote other people’s products. When this promotion results in a sale, the affiliate gains a small amount of commission.
It’s a technique that benefits everyone involved. For those with a product to sell, you have a network of people promoting it. Those who want to make money without a product, shifting someone else’s can bring a passive income. There are whole networks of affiliates that businesses can make use of, focusing on a wide variety of niches. I will write further on Affiliate marketing in subsequent posts.
Content Marketing
Our introduction to digital marketing wouldn’t be complete without mentioning content. One thing that’s consistent across digital marketing is that each approach requires some form of it.
Producing high-quality, entertaining, informative content is at the heart of any marketing strategy. Whether it’s blog or social media posts, infographics, videos, podcasts, ads, or webpages, content is king. Check out our article on the Introduction to Content Marketing.
Content marketing focuses on creating great content and getting it in front of the right audience. It’s about strategy, planning, creativity and analysis.
Thank you for reading.
