Types of digital marketing
.jpeg)
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is technically a marketing tool rather than a form of marketing in itself. The Balance defines it as “the art and science of making web pages attractive to search engines.”
The "art and science" part of SEO is what’s most important. SEO is a science because it requires you to research and weigh different contributing factors to achieve the highest possible ranking on a serch engine results page (SERP).
Today, the most important elements to consider when optimizing a web page for search engines include:
- Quality of content
- Level of user engagement
- Mobile-friendliness
- Number and quality of inbound links
In addition to the elements above, you need to optimize technical SEO, which is all the back-end components of your site. This includes URL structure, loading times, and broken links. Improving your technical SEO can help search engines better navigate and crawl your site.
The strategic use of these factors makes search engine optimization a science, but the unpredictability involved makes it an art.
Ultimately, the goal is to rank on the first page of a search engine’s result page. This ensures that those searching for a specific query related to your brand can easily find your products or services. While there are many search engines, digital marketers often focus on Google since it's a global leader in the search engine market.
In SEO, there's no quantifiable rubric or consistent rule for ranking highly on search engines. Google and other search engines change their algorithm almost constantly, so it's impossible to make exact predictions. What you can do is closely monitor your page's performance and make adjustments to your strategy accordingly.
Content marketing
As mentioned, the quality of your content is a key component of
an optimized page. As a result, SEO is a major factor in content marketing, a strategy based on the distribution of
relevant and valuable content to a target audience.
.jpeg)
As in any marketing strategy,
the goal of content marketing is to attract leads that ultimately convert into customers.
But it does so differently than traditional advertising. Instead of enticing
prospects with potential value from a product or service, it offers value for
free in the form of written material, such as:
- Blog posts
- E-books
- Newsletters
- Video or audio transcripts
- Whitepapers
- Infographics
Content marketing matters, and there are plenty of stats to prove it:
- 84% of consumers expect companies to produce
entertaining and helpful content experiences
- 62% of companies that have at least 5,000
employees produce content daily
- 92% of marketers believe that their company
values content as an important asset
As effective as content
marketing is, it can be tricky. Content marketing writers need to be able to
rank highly in search engine results while also engaging people who will read
the material, share it, and interact further with the brand. When the content
is relevant, it can establish strong relationships throughout the pipeline.
To create effective
content that’s highly relevant and engaging, it’s important to identify your audience.
Who are you ultimately trying to reach with your content marketing efforts?
Once you have a better grasp of your audience, you can determine the type of
content you'll create. You can use many formats of content in your content
marketing, including videos, blog posts, printable worksheets, and more.
Regardless of which
content you create, it’s a good idea to follow content marketing best
practices. This means making content that’s grammatically correct, free of
errors, easy to understand, relevant, and interesting. Your content should also
funnel readers to the next stage in the pipeline, whether that’s a free
consultation with a sales representative or a signup page.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing means driving traffic and brand awareness by engaging people in discussion online.
You can use social media marketing to highlight your brand, products, services,
culture, and more. With billions of people spending their time engaging on
social media platforms, focusing on social media marketing can be worthwhile.
The most popular digital
platforms for social media marketing are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with LinkedIn and YouTube not far behind. Ultimately, which social media platforms
you use for your business depends on your goals and audience. For example, if
you want to find new leads for your FinTech startup, targeting your audience on
LinkedIn is a good idea since industry professionals are active on the
platform. On the other hand, running social media ads on Instagram may be
better for your brand if you run a B2C focused on younger consumers.
Because social media
marketing involves active audience participation, it has become a popular way of getting attention. It's the most popular content medium for B2C
digital marketers at 96%, and it's gaining ground in the B2B sphere as
well. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 61% of B2B content marketers increased their
use of social media this year.
Social media marketing
offers built-in engagement metrics, which are extremely useful in helping you to understand how
well you're reaching your audience. You get to decide which types of
interactions mean the most to you, whether that means the number of shares,
comments, or total clicks to your website.
Direct purchase may not
even be a goal of your social media marketing strategy. Many brands use social media marketing to
start dialogues with audiences rather than encourage them to spend money right
away. This is especially common in brands that target older audiences or offer products and services not appropriate
for impulse buys. It all depends on your
company's social media marketing goals.
To create an effective
social media marketing strategy, it’s crucial to follow best practices. Here
are a few of the most important social media marketing best practices:
- Craft high-quality and engaging content
- Reply to comments and questions in a professional
manner
- Create a social media posting schedule
- Post at the right time
- Hire social media managers to support your
marketing efforts
- Know your audience and which social media channels
they’re most active on
To learn more about how
Mailchimp can help with your social media strategy, check out the comparison of
our free social media management tools versus others.
Pay-per-click marketing
Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a form of digital marketing in which
you pay a fee every time someone clicks on your digital ads. So, instead of
paying a set amount to constantly run targeted ads on online channels, you only
pay for the ads individuals interact with. How and when people see your ad is a
bit more complicated.
One of the most common
types of PPC is search engine advertising, and because Google is the most
popular search engine, many businesses use Google Ads for this purpose. When a
spot is available on a search engine results page, also known as a SERP, the engine fills the spot with what is
essentially an instant auction. An algorithm prioritizes each available ad
based on a number of factors, including:
- Ad quality
- Keyword relevance
- Landing page quality
- Bid amount
PPC ads are then placed
at the top of search engine result pages based on the factors above whenever a
person searches for a specific query.
Each PPC campaign has 1
or more target actions that viewers are meant to complete after clicking an ad.
These actions are known as conversions, and they can be transactional or
non-transactional. Making a purchase is a conversion, but so is a newsletter
signup or a call made to your home office.
Whatever you choose as
your target conversions, you can track them via your chosen digital marketing
channels to see how your campaign is doing.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a digital marketing tactic that lets
someone make money by promoting another person's business. You could be either
the promoter or the business who works with the promoter, but the process is
the same in either case.
It works using a revenue
sharing model. If you're the affiliate, you get a commission every time someone
purchases the item that you promote. If you're the merchant, you pay the
affiliate for every sale they help you make.
Some affiliate marketers
choose to review the products of just 1 company, perhaps on a blog or other
third-party site. Others have relationships with multiple merchants.
Whether you want to be an
affiliate or find one, the first step is to make a connection with the other party. You can use digital channels designed to
connect affiliates with retailers, or you can start or join a single-retailer
program.
If you're a retailer and
you choose to work directly with affiliates, there are many things you can do to make your program appealing to
potential promoters. You'll need to provide those affiliates with the tools
that they need to succeed. That includes incentives for great results as well
as marketing tools and pre-made materials.
Native advertising
Native advertising is digital marketing in disguise. Its goal is
to blend in with its surrounding content so that it’s less blatantly obvious as
advertising.
Native advertising was
created in reaction to the cynicism of today's consumers toward ads. Knowing
that the creator of an ad pays to run it, many consumers will conclude that the
ad is biased and consequently ignore it.
A native ad gets around
this bias by offering information or entertainment before it gets to anything
promotional, downplaying the "ad" aspect.
It’s important to
always label your native ads clearly. Use words like “promoted” or “sponsored.” If
those indicators are concealed, readers might end up spending significant time
engaging with the content before they realize that it's advertising.
When your consumers know
exactly what they're getting, they'll feel better about your content and your
brand. Native ads are meant to be less obtrusive than traditional ads, but
they’re not meant to be deceptive.
Influencer marketing
Like affiliate marketing, influencer marketing relies on working
with an influencer–an individual with a large following, such as a celebrity,
industry expert, or content creator–in exchange for exposure. In many cases,
these influencers will endorse your products or services to their followers on
several social media channels.
Influencer marketing
works well for B2B and B2C companies who want to reach new audiences. However,
it’s important to partner with reputable influencers since they’re essentially
representing your brand. The wrong influencer can tarnish the trust consumers
have with your business.
Marketing automation
Marketing automation uses software to power digital marketing
campaigns, improving the efficiency and relevance of advertising. As a result,
you can focus on creating the strategy behind your digital marketing efforts
instead of cumbersome and time-consuming processes.
While marketing
automation may seem like a luxury tool your business can do without, it can
significantly improve the engagement between you and your audience.
According to statistics:
- 90% of US consumers find personalization either “very” or “somewhat” appealing
- 81% of consumers would like the brands they engage with to
understand them better
- 77% of companies believe in the value of real-time
personalization, yet 60% struggle with it
Marketing automation lets
companies keep up with the expectation of personalization. It allows brands to:
- Collect and analyze consumer information
- Design targeted marketing
campaigns
- Send and post digital marketing messages at the
right times to the right audiences
Many marketing automation
tools use prospect engagement (or lack thereof) with a particular message to
determine when and how to reach out next. This level of real-time customization
means that you can effectively create an individualized marketing strategy for
each customer without any additional time investment.
Mailchimp's marketing
automation tools ensure you can interact with your audience via behavior-based
automations, transactional emails, date-based automations, and more.
Email marketing
The concept of email marketing is simple—you send a promotional message
and hope that your prospect clicks on it. However, the execution is much more
complex. First of all, you have to make sure that your emails are wanted. This
means having an opt-in list that does the following:
- Individualizes the content, both in the body and
in the subject line
- States clearly what kind of emails the subscriber
will get
- An email signature that offers a clear unsubscribe option
- Integrates both transactional and promotional
emails
You want your prospects
to see your campaign as a valued service, not just as a promotional tool.
Email marketing is a
proven, effective technique all on its own: 89% of surveyed professionals named it as their most effective lead
generator.
It can be even better if
you incorporate other digital marketing techniques such as marketing automation,
which lets you segment and schedule your emails so that they meet your customer's
needs more effectively.
If you’re considering
email marketing, here are a few tips that can help you craft great email
marketing campaigns:
- Segment your audience to send relevant campaigns
to the right people
- Ensure emails look good on mobile devices
- Create a campaign schedule
- Run A/B tests
Mobile marketing
Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy that allows you
to engage with your target audience on their mobile devices, such as
smartphones and tablets. This can be via SMS and MMS messages, social media
notifications, mobile app alerts, and more.
It’s crucial to ensure
that all content is optimized for mobile devices. According to the Pew Research
Center, 85% of Americans own a smartphone, so your marketing efforts can go a
long way when you create content for computer and mobile screens.
The benefits of digital marketing
Digital marketing has become prominent largely because it
reaches such a wide audience of people. However, it also offers a number of other advantages that can boost your marketing efforts.
These are a few of the benefits of digital marketing.
A broad geographic reach
When you post an ad online, people can see it no matter where
they are (provided you haven’t limited your ad geographically). This makes it
easy to grow your business's market reach and connect with a larger audience
across different digital channels.
Cost efficiency
Digital marketing not only reaches a broader audience than
traditional marketing but also carries a lower cost. Overhead costs for
newspaper ads, television spots, and other traditional marketing opportunities
can be high. They also give you less control over whether your target audiences
will see those messages in the first place.
With digital marketing, you can create just 1 content piece that
draws visitors to your blog as long as it's active. You can create an email
marketing campaign that delivers messages to targeted customer lists on a
schedule, and it's easy to change that schedule or the content if you need to
do so.
When you add it all up,
digital marketing gives you much more flexibility and customer contact for your
ad spend.
Quantifiable results
To know whether your marketing strategy works, you have to find
out how many customers it attracts and how much revenue it ultimately drives.
But how do you do that with a non-digital marketing strategy?
There's always the
traditional option of asking each customer, “How did you find us?"
Unfortunately, that
doesn't work in all industries. Many companies don't get to have one-on-one
conversations with their customers, and surveys don't always get complete
results.
With digital marketing,
results monitoring is simple. Digital marketing software and platforms
automatically track the number of desired conversions that you get, whether
that means email open rates, visits to your home page, or direct purchases.
Easier personalization
Digital marketing allows you to gather customer data in a way that offline marketing can't. Data collected
digitally tends to be much more precise and specific.
Imagine you offer
financial services and want to send out special offers to internet users people
who have looked at your products. You know you'll get better results if you
target the offer to the person's interest, so you decide to prepare 2
campaigns. One is for young families who have looked at your life insurance
products, and the other is for millennial entrepreneurs who have considered
your retirement plans.
How do you gather all of
that data without automated tracking? How many phone records would you have to
go through? How many customer profiles? And how do you know who has or hasn't
read the brochure you sent out?
With digital marketing,
all of this information is already at your fingertips.
More connection with customers
Digital marketing lets you communicate with your customers in
real-time. More importantly, it lets them communicate with you.
Think about your social
media strategy. It's great when your target audience sees your latest post, but
it's even better when they comment on it or share it. It means more buzz surrounding your product or service, as well as increased visibility every time
someone joins the conversation.
Interactivity benefits
your customers as well. Their level of engagement increases as they become
active participants in your brand's story. That sense of ownership can create a
strong sense of brand loyalty.
Easy and convenient conversions
Digital marketing lets your customers take action immediately
after viewing your ad or content. With traditional advertisements, the most
immediate result you can hope for is a phone call shortly after someone views
your ad. But how often does someone have the time to reach out to a company
while they're doing the dishes, driving down the highway, or updating records
at work?
With digital marketing,
they can click a link or save a blog post and move along the sales funnel right away. They might not
make a purchase immediately, but they’ll stay connected with you and give you a chance to
interact with them further.
How to create a digital marketing strategy
For many small businesses and beginner digital marketers,
getting started with digital marketing can be difficult. However, you can
create an effective digital marketing strategy to increase brand awareness,
engagement, and sales by using the following steps as your starting point.
Set SMART goals
Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely
(SMART) goals is crucial for any marketing strategy. While there are many goals
you may want to achieve, try to focus on the ones that will propel your
strategy forward instead of causing it to remain stagnant.
Identify your audience
Before starting any marketing campaign, it’s best to identify
your target audience. Your target audience is the group of people you want your
campaign to reach based on similar attributes, such as age, gender,
demographic, or purchasing behavior. Having a good understanding of your target
audience can help you determine which digital marketing channels to use and the
information to include in your campaigns.
Create a budget
A budget ensures you’re spending your money effectively towards
your goals instead of overspending on digital marketing channels that may not
provide the desired results. Consider your SMART goals and the digital channel
you’re planning to use to create a budget.
Select your digital marketing channels
From content marketing to PPC campaigns and more, there are many
digital marketing channels you can use to your advantage. Which digital
marketing channels you use often depends on your goals, audience, and budget.
Refine your marketing efforts
Make sure to analyze your campaign's data to identify what was
done well and areas for improvement once the campaign is over. This allows you
to create even better campaigns in the future. With the help of digital
technologies and software, you can obtain this data in an easy-to-view
dashboard. Mailchimp’s digital marketing analytics reports will help you keep
track of all your marketing campaigns in one centralized location.
Digital marketing creates growth
Digital marketing should be one of the primary focuses of almost any business’s overall marketing strategy. Never before has there been a way to stay in such consistent contact with your customers, and nothing else offers the level of personalization that digital data can provide. The more you embrace the possibilities of digital marketing, the more you'll be able to realize your company's growth potential.