The What, Why and the Types of Online Marketing for Your Campaign: Digital Marketing Simplified

Would you believe that the number of internet users is still increasing by the day?

Yes, it is! According to Pew Research, there has been a rise in the number of adults using the internet constantly over the past few years.

The question now is; if this is the number of adults embracing the use of the internet, how about young people, how about the younger generation?

With this shift, it means that the way you get your products to your consumers has to change too. Traditionally, marketing was all about availing your products to your customer’s at the most convenient place, and at the right time.

Currently, this is not the case. It is rapidly changing. Businesses have been forced to meet their consumers or clients where they hang out most of the time: on the web or internet.

This is where digital marketing comes in.

Let’s dive in to find out what is digital marketing, why digital marketing, and the various types of digital marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

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Digital marketing is the act or action of promoting and selling your goods (products) and services using online tactics.

Digital marketing simply places you where your prospects and consumers hang out — so that they can see you (by this I mean your products or services), get to know you, ask questions and finally make that sale (which is your end goal as a business).

Mastering all the digital marketing tactics might seem overwhelming if you are new to internet marketing. Digital marketing is not magic, and you don’t have to be a computer expert to crack this whip.

Do not be dismayed for these tactics work together to build a strong foundation for your venture: attracting your target prospects, nurturing these new business relationships, and ultimately making offers that they will be attracted to and respond to.

As long as you are offering products and services that the market desires, it’s valuable to them-and you apply the strategies that are outlined here-you will make sales, monetize your existing leads, and get new prospects as well as advocates for your products.

How does digital marketing work?

There is no much difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing. In both, businesses and organizations seek to foster mutually beneficial relationships with leads, prospects, and customers.

However, digital marketing is tailored towards the digital era customer.

This has been necessitated by the fact that numerous purchasing decisions begin online.

For example,

You may have made a recent purchase of a house, land, car, or perishables. Irrespective of what you were buying, you probably began online.

You searched for the best products, the providers of the same, compared prices, checked reviews of the same product from others who have bought it, consulted family and friends before settling on what you wanted.

Your online presence as a business is crucial as we have seen. Learning the best digital marketing strategies and how to use them to your advantage is mandatory.

Why Digital Marketing?

Ø Online marketing enables your business to reach a larger target audience as compared to reaching them locally.

Ø You will be able to track the effectiveness of your marketing strategies immediately.

Ø You will be able to create brand loyalty by interacting with your customers and allowing them to know you personally.

Ø You will learn first- hand what your prospects are interested in thus improving your products’ effectiveness or your service delivery.

Ø It is easy and cost-effective — you reach a large audience on a smaller budget.

Types of Digital Marketing Strategies

A digital marketing strategy is a master plan or a system that defines how your business will attain its marketing goals through online channels.

Identifying a digital marketing strategy is critical-it guides as a map for your business to achieve its goals. Lack of it is like knowing where you want to go but you don’t know how you will get there.

The non-existence of these strategies often leads to the launch of digital marketing campaigns which do not bring in any results.

How to create a digital marketing strategy

Are you anxious to know how to build a digital marketing strategy? Follow these 8 steps:

Step #1. Outline your brand.

Make use of your brand guidelines to define your line as well as how it will come through in the online campaigns. This includes identifying your value proposition, your unique selling point, and your trademark voice.

Step #2. Create a customer persona.

This involves identifying your target customer, their demographics, plus the motivations that will make them select your company-buy your products or service.

Step #3. Define your Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely goals.

This is where you intuitively think about your organization’s goals — both short-term and long-term goals.

Step #4. Select digital marketing strategies that best conform to your business needs.

Select and focus on the best techniques that will add value to your business venture vs. your industry’s trending techniques.

Step #5. Set your internet marketing budget.

Explore online marketing pricing to determine your budget. Most companies use between $2500- $12,000 monthly on digital marketing.

Step #6. Plan your strategy.

This is where you brainstorm your strategy by carrying it out. If you will carry out advertisements- create the ads. If you will publish content- create content.

Step #7. Inaugurate your campaigns

After planning, launch your campaign over the channels ensuring that they have a tracking feature. E.g. your website should have a Google Analytics tracking code.

Step #8. Monitor your results.

Track and measure the performance of your plans and their ROI. Tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Ads come in handy for this kind of task.

Now that you have created and put in action your chosen online marketing plan, next is to focus on the types of strategies that you will use.

The types of digital marketing strategies that can be applied by your smart organization to reach your target audience include:

1. SEO-Search Engine Optimization

It is among the most effective internet marketing initiatives currently. It’s the process of improving your website so that it ranks hugely for the keywords and phrases that are associated with your business.

It operates on the notion that the higher you rank, the more people will be made aware of your business. The aim is to bring in more traffic — direct your target audience to your website.

As we saw earlier, consumers’ buying decisions begin by a search online. SEO as a marketing strategy intercepts all your audiences irrespective of where they are in your buying funnel.

Your business’ webpage landing a spot on the first page of the search engines is critical. The reason being; less than 10% of the searchers advance to the second page of search results while more than 30% of the searchers click on the first result.

An effective SEO and a leading digital marketing strategy are essential for your page to appear among the top on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

2. Pay Per Click

This is a way of sending traffic to your website by paying a publisher every time your ad is clicked on. The most common one is Google Ads.

Google Ads allows you to place your links on Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) at a price. You pay for the number of clicks your ad receives.

The other forms of PPC advertising include Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, and Sponsored messages on LinkedIn.

It’s quite a good and affordable way to market as statistics show that for every $1 a company spends on ads, it generates $8 in revenue.

3. Content Marketing.

In content marketing, your business mainly focuses on getting to, engaging, and connecting with your target audience through content.

It can also be defined as the process of creating and developing content so that the content can bring about brand awareness, the growth of traffic to your site, generate leads, and bring in new prospects.

Content marketing is achieved through the creation of whitepapers and ebooks, blog posts, videos, and infographics.

This strategy is effective in that it generates 54% more leads than offline marketing. Statistics show that 60% of web users prefer companies that use content to market.

4. Social Media Marketing

This is the use of social media channels to promote brand awareness, drive traffic and acquire customers. Some of the channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat

5. Affiliate Marketing

This type of marketing is where you pay another business or agency to advertise your products and services on their website. You pay them on a commission basis, depending on your agreement.

Affiliate marketing channels include: posting links to the agency’s social media accounts and using YouTube Partner Program to post video ads.

6. Marketing Automation

This is the automation of your marketing operations using specific software. It’s mostly used for repetitive tasks — social media post scheduling, email newsletters, lead-nurturing workflows, and campaign tracking and reporting.

7. Video Marketing

With this type of strategy, your business increases its reach, grows in revenue, and expands its operations. It’s a new channel of digital marketing. Just like social media marketing and content marketing, video marketing focuses on creating valuable and informative videos for your prospects.

Are you prepared to use digital marketing strategies?

Digital marketing is among the best ways that you can use to create awareness, reach new leads, and achieve your business goals. It’s also easier to track your marketing results and choose the best strategies to stick to or define the ones that need improvement.

Its success, however, depends on the way you will develop and execute the strategies that you will choose. Internet or online marketing is marketing for the future. Choose a strategy today and see your business grow.