Digital marketing; the term became a buzzword around a decade ago, and it’s a part of almost all companies’ marketing plans today. Do you know that digital marketing has been existing for more than a century?
In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio and sent/received the first radio signal.
Yes! Digital marketing came into existence well before the first computer and the Internet. How is it possible?
It is because digital marketing is an umbrella term, and it involves more things that only smartphones, social media ads, and blogs.
In this guide, we will discuss everything that enlightens you about digital marketing and essential things associated with it. Let’s start from the beginning:
Digital Marketing: Definition
As discussed, digital marketing came into existence right after the birth of radio. But what exactly is it?
The term can be described as a method of advertising something using digital channels, which can be anything from social media to search engines and emails. In other words, it is a way of promoting something through electronic devices.
A significant reason digital marketing is older than the first computer is that it can be done both offline and online.
Need Of Digital Marketing
During a road trip, you must have noticed billboards featuring brands and products.
A few years ago, before the world entered into the era of technology, companies found billboards a reliable way to reach their potential audience and tell them about their new products without talking to them.
However, billboards aren’t as popular as they were a few years ago.
Today, brands have more cost-effective and powerful sources in the form of online platforms to grab the attention of people. These online sources earn by helping companies reach their potential customers. For example, Google and Facebook generate more money than other marketing sources by connecting companies to a broader audience.
With time, the most popular sources of digital marketing change. Online platforms replaced billboards because people prefer operating their phones rather than looking at billboards when they are traveling in a vehicle.
Types Of Digital Marketing
As discussed earlier, digital marketing is an umbrella term. However, it can be divided into two major categories: Offline marketing and online marketing.
Offline Digital Marketing
It is a way of advertising something using electronic devices that do not require a user to make use of the Internet. This type of marketing includes promoting a brand or product on radio, television, and phone.
Apart from that, many restaurants worldwide are using enhanced offline marketing to promote their services. In this, customers use digital devices like iPads to create their orders offline.
Offline marketing can be divided into four major categories: TV marketing, radio marketing, phone marketing, and enhanced offline marketing.
TV Marketing
It is a kind of advertisement technique that has been around us for a long time, and it is not going anywhere soon. Although the popularity of advertising through television has gone down in the last few years, blame the increasing popularity of YouTube-like platforms, many brands across the world still believe in showing their products on TV.
Radio Marketing
Radio marketing is the oldest form of digital marketing, and it is still a popular way of reaching the masses and making them aware of a product.
It is because many people worldwide still listen to the radio, thanks to mobiles with the radio as an app in them.
Phone Marketing
It is the method of contacting people by calling them and telling them about a product. Apart from that, companies offering phone marketing services also send messages to people to make them aware of a product.
Enhanced Offline Marketing
Not many people look at traditional billboards today, but electronic billboards are capable of grabbing the attention of people.
These billboards with LED lights are a part of enhanced offline marketing. Apart from them, brands, usually restaurants, use electronic devices like iPads to book orders or tell people about their services.
Online Digital Marketing
It is the most advanced and cost-effective way of reaching the global audience and making it aware of a brand or product. It is currently on the trend and comes in many forms.
They include search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing (SMM), content marketing, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), email marketing, and affiliate marketing.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
It is a part of digital marketing where efforts are made to bring a brand/product high on the search engine.
Here, experienced SEO professionals optimize the online content of a website in a manner that it appears on the search engine when someone types a particular keyword. SEO further breaks into many categories, including on-page and off-page.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Different from SEO, it is a method of getting traffic for a website from search engines with the help of paid and unpaid marketing.
In this type of marketing, keywords are an essential element. It gives an opportunity to market a brand or product through paid advertisements. These ads are visible to the audience on the search engine when they type something related to the product.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
As the name suggests, the type of digital marketing includes the use of social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others.
Apart from engaging the audience with posts, companies can run ad campaigns on these online platforms to grab the attention of more people and convince them to get their services/products.
Social Media Marketing is extremely famous these days because there are billions of people accessing different social media sites on their phones.
Content Marketing
When it comes to content marketing, the only things that come into people’s mind are blogs, articles, and social media posts.
A few also consider YouTube as a medium of content marketing. However, content marketing is more than that. It is also about engaging people with useful content in many ways.
They include videos, surveys, slideshares, ebooks, reviews, book summaries, webinar, guides, and press releases.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
This part of online digital marketing includes ads, which bring traffic to a website. In other words, PCC is a way of buying visitors for an online platform.
Search engine advertising is the most obvious example of PPC. These ads appear on the top of search engine results when a user tries to find something related to the product.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has been an effective digital marketing method for the last many years. In this, messages are sent to people via emails. These emails contain engaging and useful content that enlightens users about a product.
Affiliate Marketing
This is a rapidly-growing digital marketing technique, which is proving beneficial for companies worldwide. It is a performance-based marketing that includes four types of people: Retailer, network, publisher, and customer. Here, publishers and networks are paid only when customers are buying through affiliate links, and retailers are earning.
As you can see, advertising a product or brand online isn’t the only type of digital marketing. Although businesses should not miss the opportunity to promote their services online, they also need to make the most out of offline marketing to take their services to new heights.