The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing

We bet you have already heard the term ‘digital marketing,’ since it is one of the most discussed topics in the contemporary digitalized world. However, do you know what exactly it is and what strategies it includes? Well, how about going through the below-mentioned ultimate guide to online advertising and, therefore, finding the answers to these questions? Let us figure out why is digital marketing important together!

About Digital Marketing in a Nutshell

First and foremost, let us define the notion of digital marketing. In basic terms, it is any form of online advertising. Or, in other words, it is the combination of strategies you employ to promote your business on the Internet.

Please note: Digital advertising is substantially distinct from traditional marketing. Despite having numerous parallels, they both employ different strategies. Thus, it is crucial to differentiate between online and offline marketing in order to succeed.

In practice, digital marketing might be divided into three basic steps, namely:

1. The attraction of attention;
2. The encouragement to visit your website;
3. The persuasion to perform a certain action.

While this ‘certain action,’ in its turn, depends on your digital marketing goals. Basically, it might be anything like:

• Subscribe to your email newsletter;
• Follow you on social media;
• Buy anything from you;
• And so on.

In order to make your digital marketing efforts successful, it is vital to define your target audience precisely. Only by means of creating a portrait of your ideal potential customers, you will be able to direct your digital marketing in the right direction.

Please note: There exists a wide range of digital marketing channels these days, starting from information on websites and ending with social media posts. Also, they include email newsletters, targeted ads, organic search results, and so on.

While the above-mentioned portrait of your ideal potential customers, in its turn, should answer the following questions:

• Where does your ideal customer live?
• How old is he/she?
• What gender does he/she identify with?
• What education does he/she have?
• Does he/she have any hobbies? And, if yes, what might they be?
• What socioeconomic status does he/she have?

By means of answering the above-mentioned questions, you will be able to gather unique marketing data and, therefore, differentiate your ideal potential customers from other internet users and create an efficient digital marketing strategy.

Top-5 Digital Marketing Strategies

Now, let us move to the overview of digital marketing strategies. In general, there exists a great variety of them. Therefore, it might be challenging to define what digital marketing strategy will fit the needs of your business best. So, how about discussing the top-5 most successful (according to leading digital marketing strategists and their clients) digital marketing strategies right away?

Please note: It is possible to measure whether certain online marketing tactics are successful or not. Therefore, there is a high chance of you being able to identify which strategy works well and which has to be abandoned in your individual case.

#1: Search Engine Optimization

These days, search engine optimization (or SEO, as it is oftentimes abbreviated) is nearly the most effective digital marketing strategy for almost any type of business. It might be defined as a technique that involves specific language on a website in order to lead it to the top position on a search engine results page.

Please note: Google, Bing, Yahoo, or any other prominent search engine has its own complex algorithms that define the order of websites on their response pages. So, it is the aim of an SEO strategy to adjust a website to these algorithms and, thus, move it to the top.

Here is how SEO works. In most cases, it employs keywords and keyphrases your potential customer might use when looking for something with the help of a search engine. This way, a qualitative SEO of a website increases the possibility of it being organically found by its target audience.

#2: Pay-Per-Click Advertising

While the above-mentioned SEO primarily deals with organic website traffic, pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising is the one that employs (as its name suggests) paid ads. So, it is an online advertising strategy in which a business pays a search engine for every click on its advertising. While a search engine, in its turn, guarantees a business that its website will make it to the top of search results.

Please note: The fee a business will have to pay for each click is formed with the help of the so-called auction. Namely, it assumes the process of bidding for a certain keyword or keyphrase. Therefore, the price for pay-per-click advertising is strongly individual and depends on the type of your business, the popularity of keywords you use, and the number of your competitors.

The working principle of PPC advertising (like Yahoo, Bing, or Google ads) is pretty straightforward. As soon as your bid for a certain keyword wins the auction, a search engine will display it at the top of search results. In consequence, your website will get paid traffic.

#3: Email Marketing

One more widely spread and efficient strategy of online advertising is email marketing. It is a method that assumes the process of sending commercial letters to people that are on the email list of your business.

Please note: In recent years, email marketing has proven to be the most cost-efficient digital marketing channel. On average, it tends to provide a business with a $40 return for every $1 spent on it.

Depending on your digital marketing plan, you might make use of different types of emails, such as:

• Promotional;
• Informational;
• Newsletter;
• And so on.

In most cases, email marketing works best if the above-mentioned types of letters are either alternated or combined.

#4: Social Media Marketing

Out of around 7.8 billion of the world’s population, there exist 4.5 billion users of social media. Therefore, it is needless to say how important is social media marketing (or SMM, as it is often shortened). While being a popular digital strategy of advertising, it employs social media platforms to reach the marketing goals of the business.

Please note: Planning is an especially important stage of social media marketing. Therefore, each post on a business’s social media has to be carefully prepared and scheduled for the right time and with a proper frequency.

Here are the simple steps you will have to accomplish to make your social media marketing work:

1. Decide what platforms you would like to involve in your SMM strategy. Namely, you might advertise your business on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any other social media;
2. Come up with the type of content you want to create. You might make up photos, videos, or texts that will promote your business efficiently;
3. Schedule the frequency and time for your publications.

Apart from the above-mentioned steps, it might also be worthy to communicate with your social media audience by means of responding to their comments on a regular basis.

#5: Content Marketing

One more online advertising strategy that is worth being discussed is digital content marketing. While focusing on the creation and distribution of high-quality content, it is capable to multiply the success of your business.

Please note: The stress in content marketing is put on HIGH-QUALITY content. While ‘high-quality,’ in its turn, implies a whole bunch of factors, such as relevancy, consistency, originality, engagement, and value.

The working mechanism of content marketing works as follows: high-quality content makes your website’s visitors like your product or service. As a result, they are likely to check out your website from time to time, share your blog articles with their acquaintances, and buy from you.

Other Digital Marketing Tactics

Apart from the above-mentioned strategies, any skillful digital marketing team might also make use of the following tactics:

• Local search marketing (a strategy of digital marketing that employs SEO in order to boost an online presence of a business in a local search);
• Video marketing (an online advertising tactic that involves video content as its main working tool);
• Mobile marketing (a digital marketing strategy that has mobile users as its potential customers and deals with the content that is specifically designed for mobile devices);
• And so on.

Please note: In order to simplify the time-consuming digital marketing process of working with any of the above-mentioned strategies, it is recommendable to employ special marketing automation tools. This way, you will be able to transform routine tasks into automated processes and, therefore, concentrate on truly important for your business assignments.

A Bottom Line

All in all, digital marketing is a generalized term that includes a wide range of promotional actions that are performed on the Internet. While being substantially different from traditional marketing, it makes use of its own online advertising strategies that help businesses to become visible in the online world and, therefore, achieve success. So, how about delving into the digitalized world in order to boost your company to a completely new level?