What is Digital Marketing

Posted by: Karunamoorthi P | Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is nothing but telling one’s brand/product story over the interconnected devices i.e, marketing over Internet. Interconnectedness is achieved through Internet connectivity and devices are anything that lets an individual connect with another individual like smartphones, laptops, tablets, smart watches, etc.

Digital Marketing is the umbrella term for all the marketing efforts done online. Businesses leverage Google Search, Social Media, eCommerce Platforms, Partner sites, Email, Mobile Applications and through their own website to connect with current and prospective customers. Check our digital marketing mba Program and prepare for digital future

What is marketing?

In order to grasp the significance of digital marketing, we need to take a look at what marketing is and the role of digital marketing channels in it. Marketing has always been about connecting with one’s target customers in the right place at the right time so that brand story can reach them and they become repeat and loyal customers. Good stories compel people to change their behavior that they start consuming the product mentioned.

“Marketing is about telling an awesome story so that target audience change their behavior which benefits the story teller”. For example, Horlicks successfully told their story of children becoming taller, stronger and sharper that mothers buy Horlicks in abundance.

Finding the right medium

In order to tell one’s awesome brand story, they need to find the right medium.

Marketers need to find the medium that target audience is comfortable with and spends considerable amount of time that a marketing message gets good chance of getting across. So, time spent in a medium is the most significant factor in deciding which Marketing channel to choose. This is where Digital Marketing Channel wins over other channels hands down, as time spent in Digital platform is the highest and it is increasing year on year, as captured in the image.

Average Time Spent per Day with Major Media by US Adults, 2012-2018

“Clearly, Digital Marketing Channels have become the most important marketing channels though Television is still relevant but lost its prominence”. It makes us to say Digital Marketing is the future.

Creating optimal Digital Presence

To clear any doubt in our mind, we check Google (search engines) and Google leads to a website which has answer to our doubts. So, website is the No.1 priority for any Digital Marketer. Most people spend considerable amount of time with Social Media or rather we could say content discovery platforms (content could be friend’s update, news share, information share, etc.,). It is No.2 priority to have optimal social presence. Then there are other ways to stay connected like email, online community, etc.,

Digital Marketing - Channel categorization

Define Business’s Digital Objective

It is important to define very clearly what is the digital objective for a business. The most common one’s are listed below. There could be more specific objectives for the business based on the nature of the business. Traffic Generation

Backbone of any online business is to have enough traffic to make the business viable. This is at the forefront of Digital Marketing funnel as this will be the fuel for the paid customers. Providing valuable & relevant content for the target audience helps business grow their traffic. For example blogs like wait but why gets huge amount of traffic because they produce high quality relevant content.

Increase Sales

Another important objective for businesses to be online is to increase their sales. This can be achieved through creating better brand awareness, getting in-front of customers when they are looking for the product, recommending products, etc., Businesses like amazon.com uses digital to increase their sales multifold.

Lead Generation

High value products are sold only after due consideration and mostly happen as direct sales. But if someone is interested in such products, there are lot of choices and it is important for businesses to know who is interested in the product so they can initiate conversation. For example, if someone is interested to buy a new house, it is relevant for the local builder, if he has the contact information, he can engage to close the sale. The same is applicable for Local Car dealership companies. They need to contact details of potential buyers and lead generation helps in this aspect.

Proven Digital Marketing Channels

Now that you understand what is digital marketing, objectives of business in digital media, lets look at the different digital channels and their use.

Organic Search (SEO)

When we have doubt, we check search engines on our own and read the website which answers our questions. It is estimated that Google answers 5.6 billion questions a day. Which directly translates to 5.6 billion organic traffic for the websites. If a business website plans to get the higher share of this large organic traffic, they should ensure that their content is of high quality, relevant and easily readable. So they have to optimize the content so that Google can rank their content higher for better share of organic traffic. Organic traffic is the most relevant and sustainable traffic for any website.

Social Media Marketing

Facebook is estimated to have more than 2 billion active users a day. That is 2 out of 7 people in the world and that is significantly large number. That is the reason it is one of the top companies in the world. Other social platforms like YouTube, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc., also have large customer base that spend considerable amount of time with the channels.

So it is essential for the businesses to have their presence in Social Platforms in terms of a Facebook page, or Facebook group or LinkedIn Company page, etc., Companies also can advertise in these platforms precisely targeting them.

Content Marketing

Content is everything in Digital Media. Customers are looking for information, entertaining contents or solving a problem they have. All this they do by discovering content that answers their query. Content could be an article, a video, meme, info graphic or a simulation, etc., Companies should focus on creating relevant content and also should focus on using the appropriate channel to distribute the content.

Display Advertising

There are lot of websites like blogs, newspaper sites, review sites, etc., which attract visitors for various reasons. This provides a good space to run relevant advertisements and they are called Display Advertising. Google has accumulated such display ad spaces and call them as Google Display Ad Network. This is a great tool to reach out to target customers, otherwise impossible to reach.

Email Marketing

Every individual has an email that they use for different purposes. It is a personal space for the individuals and they expect to find content that is relevant, meaningful and important to them. So they check it frequently and take action more often than other channels. It is also highly credible marketing method and it is outperforming all the other channels.

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