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Digital Marketing – Everything You Need To Know To Ace It!


Digital Marketing, Is it something you should be aware of?

Is it important for promoting your business, services or product?

Hell yes, it is…

The world is moving towards digitalization with every new smartphone, tablet and more. Nowadays people spend more time on mobile and tablets rather than on newspapers.

Newspapers! Sounds old school right?

 

In this blog, I will guide you through the world of Digital Marketing,

 

Definition:

In simple words,

Digital Marketing is a process of marketing or advertising your products, services or business through an electronic medium such as radio, TV or smartphones.

It can be done by using both Online or Offline methods and both are equally important to a Digital Marketer for generating sales.

 

Let us take a look at both kinds of marketing one by one.

 

Online Digital Marketing

So why go online?

According to report on Statista, it is estimated that in 2019, there will be around 2.77 billion social network users around the globe, up from 2.46 billion in 2017.

This statistic shows the number of social network users worldwide from 2010 to 2021.

Digital Marketing, Social media marketing,

(Source: Statista)

I hope this statistic gives you an idea that how much opportunity is available online.

Online digital marketing categories are as follow:

  1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  2. Search Engine Marketing
  3. Social Media Marketing
  4. Content Marketing
  5. Pay-Per-Click Advertising
  6. Affiliate Marketing
  7. Email Marketing

Are these terms confusing?

Haha! Don’t worry I am here to help.

 

Let me explain each one to you step by step in simple words,

 

1. Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO is a process of optimizing your online content in such a way that it ranks up compare to your competitor’s content or other results when certain keywords are typed on search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing which also helps in increasing your online visibility.

 

2. Search Engine Marketing:

In simple words, Search Engine Marketing also known as SEM is a paid advertising process of generating traffic by increasing visibility of your website on search engines.

SEM Ads, PPC, Google adwords

 

3. Social Media Marketing

Social Media, Digital marketing

Ah! Finally, a term we all know.

A crucial part of our daily life.

Social media marketing provides you a broad exposure to the world. You connect with your customers directly.

This generates two-way communication, you get valuable customer feedback which you converts into feedforward by improving your customer service and product.

Social Media Marketing( Photo courtesy of Nichole Kelly via Flickr )

Social Media Marketing expand your reach to the customers, increase traffic and provide growth in business.

Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and LinkedIn are some example.

 

4. Content Marketing

Content marketing refers to how well you explain your product or services to your potential customer. You should make a quality content for your targeted customers which will put an impact on their mind and will eventually generate sales and business.

YouTube video and blogs are good examples of content marketing.  Content Marketing works even better when it is mixed together with SEO and Social Media Marketing.

Make sure that you keep your audience in mind while creating content. It is quite crucial that you understand your target audience to analyze their needs and interests.

 

5. Pay-Per-Click Advertising

PPC, also known as Pay Per Click advertisements are the ads you see running at the top and right-hand sides of the screen on search engine result pages as well as on various websites.

Google AdWords is the most popular and used paid search platform. The best thing about it is that Google does not charge any amount for running ads, you have to pay only when someone clicks on your ad…as the name “pay per click” clearly indicates.

 

6. Affiliate Marketing / Influencer Marketing

In affiliate marketing or Influencer marketing, online retailers pay a certain amount as a  commission to the influencers for generating sales from their referral. These influencers can be websites with heavy traffic or YouTube channels.

 

7. Email Marketing

Getting customer is not enough for the success of a business, retaining them is the key factor.

Email marketing helps you to update clients and customers of your company. By keeping in touch with your customers through email updates, you provide value to them. By this, you build trust, loyalty and create a brand image.

Don’t Let Them Forget You.

 

Now let us take a look at the other one…

 

Offline Digital Marketing

It is the marketing which does not require internet but uses electronic devices.

this offline method isn’t something new and a smart marketer will not leave any stone unturned to boost the reach for more customers.

Whether you are listening to your favourite radio show while driving or walking on a street, offline digital advertisements have surrounded you. 

Let’s have a look at Non-Internet Digital Channels.

Some offline mediums are as follows,

  1. Digital billboards
  2. Radio marketing
  3. TV marketing
  4. SMS marketing

 

1. Digital Billboards:

These are the electronic displays which play ads and are controlled by computers. You can also call them the next generation of those old boring billboards.

Digital Billboard

Digital advertisement can be sent electronically once you are ready to start your campaign. They have changeable displays, you can upload a special ad on a certain day to aware customers about ongoing offers.

Unlike traditional billboards in which you can do nothing more after once you’ve painted them. 

Not only on the outdoor street but these billboards are useful in indoor sports stadium as well.

Pepsi Digital Billboard, Digital marketing

(Source: LEDsynergy)

 

2. Radio marketing:

Who doesn’t like to listen to music or funny radio shows, I know I like it too, especially while travelling. And that is when the smart people behind the mike broadcast advertisements to reach your ears.

Radio Marketing

 

 3. Television commercials:

Oh! those commercials where they sing their catchy taglines to us put a great impact on our mind.

I’m Lovin’ It,”

“finger-lickin’ good”

I know you can tell which one is of McDonald’s and which one is of KFC.

So you see?

Also not only these taglines but watching your star celebrity promoting food, clothes etc. Makes you go for that particular product of that company as it gives us insurance and trust towards the brand.

Selena Gomez - Television Commercial

( Selena Gomez – Pantene Commercial )

 

4. SMS Advertising:

If used carefully SMS advertisement can help a lot in retaining and updating customer about new offers.

It can be used for,

  • Giving product launch information.
  • Providing promotional information.
  • Reminder to your client.
  • Discount code distribution.

Not only you but the willing customers can also contact you through SMS for more updates and notifications.

SMS Advertisement

                                                     (Source: tatango)

 

Traditional Marketing

It will be rude if I won’t give my regards to the prehistoric advertising method that is also known as Traditional Marketing.

Traditional Marketing

Let us have two minutes silence for the marketer who didn’t have the new advertisement methods…

Traditional marketing is the promotion or advertising done by using the print medium such as newsletters, billboards, flyers and newspaper ads.

Compare to the newer form of marketing it is very limited and cannot turn a local business into international business.

Newspaper - Traditional Marketing

Let us see what make traditional marketing less popular.

Main disadvantages of traditional marketing are:

1. Costly – It is an expensive method of advertising and marketing compared to digital marketing in which you can start marketing even through Facebook pages and an Instagram account

2. Less Informative –  New form of marketing provides more information to the customers compare to the old print medium marketing.

3. Rigid – Not flexible and cannot be updated quickly as per the situation.

4. Slow – Provides slow result which causes slow progress and it becomes hard for a marketer to change the strategy quickly.

5. Hard to reach target audience – It is difficult to know whether your ads are reaching to the right audience or not. Also, there’s no exact way to calculate the number of people it reached.

 

Advantages Of Digital Marketing

Now that we are done with the disadvantages of traditional marketing lets check out what wonders does digital marketing brings to our table.

 

1. Cost-Effective:

With digital marketing, you don’t need billions or trillions like big companies for advertising, just by spending few bucks you can promote your business and can compete with all.

Isn’t it cool? That how by investing a small amount, you can get a huge return!

 

2. Real-Time Results:

Unlike traditional marketing where you have to wait for months to see the results, with digital marketing you can know your result immediately in real time.

This is possible with the help of an amazing tool called “Google Analytics”. It helps you to know the reach of your content; With it, you can easily analyze that how many people, from where and for how much time had visited your website.

Similarly, with  Google AdWords you can monitor the performance of your ads, you can know how many people clicked your ads and showed interest in your product.

 

3. Can be easily modified or changed:

By getting quick results you can analyze your marketing strategies and can work on new tactics immediately to increase performance. No need to wait for weeks or months to try out something new.

You can easily adjust your advertising campaigns according to customer behaviour and needs.

 

 4. Increase Brand Value:

Due to frequent interaction with customers, you can work on their feedbacks take the necessary actions quickly. This will helps you build trust, image and reputation for your brand.

 

5. Easy to share:

You can easily share any information or update with your followers or subscribers on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube with just a few clicks.

 

6. Easy to reach target audience:

With traditional marketing, you cannot calculate your reach to your desired or specific audience. Which means out of 100 people, quite a few will be interested to know about your product and offer which will be total wastage of money and time.

Whereas, social media platforms use a smart algorithm that analyses user preferences and patterns. This helps you to start a campaign specifically for those customers who would be interested in your product and are more likely going to buy it.

 

7. Provide Global Exposure:

Your reach will not be limited to any boundary, you can reach as far you want to spread your wings. With every passing day the whole world is turning digital and thus the reach is also increasing with each passing day.

While working on your business in the United States of America you can show your ad to someone who is about to go to sleep in India.

 

8. Segmenting Customers:

Here’s another fun fact about digital marketing! It allows you to classify your customers. Segmentation is more dear to email marketers as it allows them to send particular set of emails to the particular set of customers. 

For example, if your company is having sales on women’s clothing then obviously there’s no need for you to send this update to men and children. So, here’s when segmentation will come to play which will allow your company to send the emails about the following update to women alone.

Gender, age, birthday months, nationality etc. you can classify your audience on whatever basis you want to!

Though for segmentation it is very important to collect the right and sufficient amount of information at the time of generating leads.

 

CONCLUSION:

So now you know about the massive reach of online marketing to the world and the potential that offline marketing holds, no wonder digital marketing is gaining tremendous popularity and with time it will keep on increasing.

In the end, every marketer out there will eventually turn to digital marketing as it gives immense exposure to the world.

I hope this blog has given you a glance at the vast world of Digital Marketing.

What’s your thought on digital marketing ? do you think it is way more effective than the traditional one? Let me know by commenting below!

By Rishabh K Sharma

Rishabh is a hospitality professional with a pinch of marketing.

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