It’s a big, complicated world in digital marketing these days, full of changing technologies, rising customer expectations, and omnipresent pressure to both grow and innovate. The importance of digital marketing cannot be overstated in today’s highly connected world. Consumers live online, and the battle for their attention–and their loyalty–has never been fiercer. 80% of marketers agree that customer experiences are the key differentiating factor, which puts tremendous pressure on marketing teams to deliver the best ones.
Where those experiences are happening has changed, too. Businesses used to reach customers exclusively through ads on billboards, newspapers, magazines, radio, or television. Now, businesses can connect with the 92% of Americans who use the internet through digital channels, and are exposed to social media, online advertising, content marketing, and email.
Let’s break down the core tenets of implementing a digital marketing strategy the right way.
Digital Marketing Guide: Table of Contents
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is any marketing action that occurs on digital platforms, regardless of whether the device is connected to the internet. Under the umbrella of digital marketing is online marketing, which includes email marketing, pay per click (PPC), affiliate marketing, social media, influencer marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO). There are new types of digital marketing activities and channels opening up all of the time, making it important for your marketing teams to keep up to date with the latest trends and how best to reach your customers.
The terms “digital marketing” and “online marketing” are often used interchangeably, but marketers should be aware of the difference. “Digital marketing” describes all marketing strategies that use digital services (like social media or television ads), while “online marketing” describes marketing strategies that are executed via the internet. While the line between them can become blurry, the current understanding of these terms defines online marketing as a type of digital marketing.
The Benefits of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is crucial for business growth in today’s technology-driven world. Consumers spend many hours every day online checking email, using social media, reading news, and shopping.
Using digital marketing can expand revenue potential and growth.
Unlike old-school tactics like billboards and radio ads, digital marketing helps organisations carefully target their ideal audiences, which results in a higher return on investment (ROI) than traditional, offline marketing methods.
In addition to reaching a targeted audience, there are other benefits of digital marketing, including:
It’s cost-effective
Small and midsize businesses often struggle to compete with big brands. Digital marketing helps even the playing field. With a clear digital marketing strategy, even a small budget can help drive leads and customers to your website, app, or in-person store.
It’s easy to measure
One of the most commonly cited benefits of digital marketing, is the measurability vs traditional marketing. Some marketing campaigns generate decent ROI, but it’s hard to attribute a sale to a specific ad or see clear success metrics. Using an integrated digital marketing strategy, you can track users across the entire buying cycle to better understand what works — and what could be improved. In fact, 72% of high-performing marketing teams analyse performance in real time.
It drives engagement at all stages of the buyer journey
With digital marketing, brands can interact with customers wherever they are in the customer journey. For example, you can educate, answer questions, even provide customer service all from one platform.
It’s personalised to customers
Digital marketing allows for segmenting customers based on their interests and engagement history to create personalised experiences at scale. This gives businesses the opportunity to impress customers at every step of their journey.
It’s possible to update and optimise
Once a direct mailer is in transit or a billboard goes up, you can’t make changes. With digital marketing, brands can test different headlines, fix typos, and tweak ads with the click of a few buttons, and changes appear immediately.
Now we’ve covered the main advantages of digital marketing, let’s explore the different channels, tactics and strategies.