We all believe we understand what “digital marketing” entails, but we can never quite put our finger on it. In the end, it’s unclear which forms of digital marketing we’re referring to.
Therefore, let’s use the straightforward phrase: “It is related to internet marketing” rather than something softer like “a term that encompasses all online marketing activities.” It goes like this:
Digital marketing is a kind of advertising strategy that takes place via the digital channels, which are usually through Internet connected devices.
To that end, there are activities including online marketing but also in the form of some other forms of advertising. It’s a good thing. Why? Because it would have been folly to treat the Internet as an autonomous branch of all other marketing activities. The best of both worlds will be combined with an excellent marketing campaign.
Here are the top 10 categories of digital marketing to help you fully comprehend what is meant by the phrase “digital marketing.” And before choosing which forms of marketing you’re going to use into your digital marketing strategy, you need make sure you are aware of them all. And don’t limit your attention to one kind of internet marketing. A multi-channel strategy is used by the majority of effective digital marketing strategies.
- Social media promotion
Marketing using social media is a key area of emphasis for The Social Ms. We’ll start our list of different sorts of digital marketing with that, then. The inclusion of social media in this list is unquestionably merited.
The term “social media marketing” refers to the practice of promoting a good or service through social media websites and platforms. Wikipedia as a source
All information sharing and interaction with followers, friends, partners, and competitors on social media platforms with the aim of promoting your products falls under the umbrella of digital marketing. Social media marketing, in its simplest form, is the deliberate use of online discussions to promote a company or item.
But be cautious—in order to succeed with social media marketing, you must fully comprehend the particular social network you choose to use for your marketing. Each social network has particular functions, communication guidelines, and content preferences. Some social media platforms will be excellent for your circumstance, product, and content while others won’t.
Nowadays, social marketing is incorporated in one way or another into practically all digital marketing tactics. And don’t worry, you don’t have to use EVERY social media outlet or perform a lot of manual work as part of your social media plan. Your activity will be far more effective if you concentrate on one or two social networks and incorporate marketing automation.
- Content Marketing
With the aim of encouraging your target audience to take a beneficial action, content marketing is the art of increasing brand awareness through narrative and useful information. In order to become a partner rather than an advertising, content marketing seeks to develop relationships with potential clients. As a result, content marketing is frequently incorporated into inbound marketing strategies through the usage of a content strategy that focuses on adding value to the target audience through the content.
Distribution of content is crucial to content marketing. It is rare to see content marketing completely separated from other forms of digital marketing that may handle the delivery of material.
- Search engine optimization
The process of optimizing content or websites for search engines like Google is known as SEO. The keywords that are mentioned on a website and links pointing to it are used by search engines to choose which webpages to display for a search term. This means that a large part of SEO is employing the appropriate keywords or key phrases in the copy of a website or within the content you want to appear in organic search, as well as obtaining links to this website or content.
There are numerous methods for making your website(s) search engine friendly, and it definitely entails much more than dubious link building. Google accepts some optimizations while considering others to be somewhat dubious and even penalizing your page.
- Search Engine Marketing
SEM refers to employing paid advertising to gain traffic from search engines, whereas SEO explains the method of getting unpaid traffic from search engines. Given that Google is by far the most used search engine, Google AdWords is perhaps the most popular type of search engine marketing.
In SEM, the marketer often gives the search engine a predetermined sum of money in exchange for the search engine displaying a marketing message at various locations within the search results for selected keywords or phrases.
SEM, often known as paid search, is a type of digital advertising that uses pay-per-click marketing.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Similar to SEM, PPC advertising refers to marketing strategies where the advertiser is paid for each time a customer clicks on a link to a website. Almost all social networks, aside from search engines, have the option for Pay Per Click advertising. The targeted social media users’ news feeds subsequently start to show these advertisements.
Be aware that many of these actions are not easily distinguished from one another. The distinctions between the many forms of digital (online) marketing are frequently hazy.
- Affiliate marketing
Digital marketing that is performance-based is known as affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing, the advertiser pays for conversions rather than traffic, in contrast to PPC advertising. Although the rates are often greater, the advertiser’s risk is constrained because he only pays for conversions.
Bloggers and website owners with high traffic levels that make money by reselling other people’s products to their audience frequently use affiliate marketing.
- Email marketing
One of the most effective marketing platforms for conversion is email marketing. You may establish and maintain a relationship with your email subscribers by delivering frequent updates. By adding value to your email updates, you may foster trust and eventually convert a portion of your audience into paying clients.
Keep in mind that email marketing is much more than just purchasing an email list and spamming it with advertisements or buying a one-time ad slot in another person’s email newsletter.
A list of subscribers you personally acquired and cultivated will always yield the best email marketing results. Then an email campaign can increase sales and your email list can quickly become your biggest digital marketing asset.