Learn how digital marketing efforts can drive business success in today’s world
From a general perspective, marketing is the practice of identifying and meeting customer needs. This is an especially important task in a business setting, as successful marketing efforts can generate inbound leads and attract a large customer case. The traditional marketing cycle involves analyzing market orientation, product mix and business environment. While marketing has deep roots in corporate history and culture, digital marketing is a relatively new practice.
With the explosion of digital technology, including the widespread and pervasive use of computers and smartphones, companies have begun experimenting with new marketing tactics. Thus digital marketing was born.
Fast forward to today and digital marketing is just as important, if not more important, than traditional marketing methods. This gap looks set to widen as more companies shift their funding from traditional marketing methods to digital. Overall, it is vital that businesses plan and execute a solid digital marketing strategy.
What are the basics of Digital Marketing?
In short, digital marketing refers to any marketing method that is implemented through electronic devices that use some form of computer. This includes online marketing efforts that take place on the internet. In the process of conducting digital marketing, a business can use websites, search engines, blogs, social media, videos, email and similar methods to reach customers.
Unlike traditional marketing – which is static and often referred to as “one-way” communication – digital marketing is a dynamic, ever-changing process. In other words, customers cannot interact with the business through advertising or print, although digital marketing provides a way for communication between a business and including its actual customers or potential customers.
From startups to enterprise businesses, a multifaceted digital marketing approach can lead to significant business benefits. A successful digital marketing strategy generally involves a combination of different methods, including online advertising, search engine optimization and marketing, social media marketing and management, and content creation, among others.
Are There Different Ways to Conduct Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a broad term that encompasses many different ways to present business interests to prospective customers. Depending on the business needs and goals, there are countless ways to do digital marketing. It’s not a cookie cutter exercise.
That said, there are several common ways to do digital marketing, such as:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — SEO is the practice of improving your position in major search engines to increase online traffic.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) — SEM allows paid online advertising to increase a website’s visibility in search engines. SEM is often used in conjunction with SEO.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) – PPC is an online advertising method where a business pays for its ad when someone clicks.
- Social Media Marketing (SMM) – SMM is the practice of using social media channels to promote the products or services of a business. Using influencers on social media, often called influencer marketing, is common in SMM.
- Email Marketing – Email marketing allows businesses to send detailed, promotional content directly to potential customers via email. The use of automatic newsletters is common in this context.
- Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is a transaction-based method that allows sharing and paying pay-per-purchase (PPS) within a common network.
- Content marketing — Content marketing refers to publishing and distributing text, video, or audio material to consumers online. Blogs, videos and podcasts are common ways for businesses to get involved in content marketing.
- Native Marketing — Native marketing connects marketing materials to a medium that makes the underlying message and marketing objectives equally important. Sponsored content, where a business posts its own content on another website, is a common form of native advertising.
As the list above shows, there are many ways to implement digital marketing strategies. For most businesses, the use of digital marketing methods is common.
What benefits can I get through Digital Marketing?
Due to the various methods of digital marketing, there are various benefits available for your digital marketing needs. At the digital level, companies can reach customers during their daily activities, such as checking social media, reading online articles, checking videos, and more about their business needs.
More specifically, digital marketing can help businesses meet some or all of these needs:
- Global Reach —Unlike traditional methods, digital marketing does not need to be tied to a specific region. The Internet is available to customers all over the world. This allows businesses to do business and sell to customers who live in other states or countries, eliminating many barriers to access.
- Low Cost of Entry — To Achieving the global reach of digital marketing through traditional channels, will have a serious price tag attached. On the other hand, some aspects of digital marketing can be achieved with a small investment of time and resources. For example, even small or startup businesses can build a website, manage social media and publish a blog without breaking the bank.
- Measurable ROI — In order to maximize profits, companies must carefully evaluate their return on investment (ROI). With traditional marketing, it can be difficult, sometimes impossible, to measure ROI. On the other hand, digital marketing provides real-time visibility into the effectiveness of each campaign, allowing business leaders to make well-informed decisions to increase revenue and increase profits.
- Improved Targeting — Digital marketing allows companies to target very specific demographics of potential customers. By engaging customers in a specific geographic area, industry or social channel, businesses are more likely to reach their target demographic.
- Dynamic Adaptability — Digital marketing strategies are extremely malleable and flexible, allowing businesses to adjust course when necessary. Unlike traditional long-term marketing campaigns, companies can adjust their digital efforts on the fly, enabling quick pivots when needed to realize the commercial opportunity.
- Immediate Connection — Before making a purchase, modern customers typically do online research and evaluate reviews. The first step in this process usually starts with a search engine. In this way, companies with developed SEO, SEM and PPC strategies can connect with customers instantly.
- Relationship Building — The rise of social media has turned it into a massive communication platform for many consumer demographics. Additionally, consumers are more likely to interact with businesses on their terms and on their preferred platform. As a result, businesses that engage in effective SMM practices can build long-term and loyal relationships with current and potential customers.
Overall, businesses of every shape and size can attract potential partners by using the right digital marketing channels. Furthermore, the value of digital marketing can be tailored to each business, removing many of the barriers to traditional channels of entry. With so many tools available for almost any budget, it’s understandable why so many businesses are finding success with digital marketing efforts.
How much is digital costing my business?
The simple answer is that there is a digital marketing strategy for every budget. The flexibility of digital marketing strategies benefits almost every business, from small to large. With such a wide variety of methods and strategies, it’s impossible to provide a one-size-fits-all price tag for digital marketing.
Instead, it’s useful to examine digital marketing costs for different business levels, as smaller companies will likely spend less than larger companies. For example:
- Basic Digital Marketing — Startups and small businesses don’t have a lot of money available for digital marketing. Therefore, these companies focus on low-cost methods, usually using websites, blogs and social media to generate income at a low cost. The cost for a typical digital marketing can be hundreds of dollars per month.
- Intermediate Digital Marketing — Small businesses have established revenue streams and the ability to spend more on digital marketing. This is where SEO, SEM, PPC and email marketing start to become popular. The price is for medium digital.
- Advanced Digital Marketing — Large or corporate enterprises will use digital marketing extensively and frequently around the world. These companies have strategies in most digital marketing channels. These companies often spend huge sums of money to implement their digital marketing strategy across the multiple channels available. Previous digital marketing spend can be in the tens of thousands of dollars per month.
As indicated above, digital marketing costs vary widely depending on business size, revenue and goals. Small companies often start with basic strategies and gradually develop intermediate or advanced methods. Ultimately, almost any business can create and implement a digital marketing strategy that fits their needs and budget.
How to create and implement a digital marketing plan?
The process of creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy involves many important steps and considerations. In this case, it is very important to devote time and resources to planning and creativity. The data, analysis, and research gathered during planning and construction can have a huge impact during implementation.
It is true that every business has unique needs and goals. Therefore, creating and implementing digital marketing strategies will change from business to business. But in general practice, most businesses use a similar process to create and implement digital marketing strategies, as outlined below.
- Identify Marketing Goals —The first step in this process involves identifying specific goals, such as driving sales, generating leads, building a brand or increasing subscriptions.ers.
- Solidify Sales Process — To maximize the benefits of digital marketing, it is important to understand the digital marketing process and exactly how customers will make digital purchases.
- Choose Marketing Channels — With the increasing number of people and users, it is important to find the best digital marketing channels to reach these ideal customers
- Set Clear Benchmarks —In order to evaluate your digital marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to establish clear metrics for success and measure progress along the way.
- Make Necessary Adjustments — After creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy, it is important to monitor progress toward goals and adjust as needed.
A good digital marketing strategy must take into account the needs of the individual and the goals of the business in question. Therefore, a digital marketing strategy that works for a small “mom-and-pop” store may not be appropriate for a global brand. The good news is that digital marketing offers many methods, channels and strategies. Therefore, businesses of almost any size and in almost any industry can use digital marketing to great effect.
