Ever heard about digital marketing?
If yes, then welcome to the future of marketing. But what do you mean by digital marketing?
In simple words, digital or online marketing is the promotion of product/service via different types of electronic media. It is different from traditional marketing as it provides real time analysis of your marketing projects. In order words, you can easily see the results of your strategies.
According to Kevin Green, Executive director (marketing at Dell), “Digital Marketing is similar to modern architecture in many ways. Form follows function. An object can take several different shapes and be adorned with a variety of different elements, but it’s up to the marketing architect to understand what will be acceptable to the masses and meet social expectations. If we go too far, we can be seen as interrupting, invasive and oversaturate the market. If we don’t go far enough, then we will not meet the expectation of our target audience, which is to provide them the value and utility they are looking for at the right time and in the right place”.
What are the various tools that digital marketing makes use of?
Here is a list of 8 tools which helps you go digital:
- Podcasts
- Internet
- Digital television
- Radio channels
- Mobile apps
- Wireless text messaging
- Electronic billboards
- Mobile instant messaging
What are the key components of digital marketing?
There are 9 main components of digital marketing:
- Website design
- Search Engine Optimization
- Pay per click
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Display advertising
- Affiliate marketing
- Content marketing
- Online reputation management
What are the challenges for digital marketing?
Security risk
Today, almost everything is done on the digital platform. This has increased more chances of hackers to steal your private information. We pay bills online, shop online and register for a variety of tasks online. This is a huge amount of information which can be useful for the hackers. I know you must have some security precautions such as antivirus, firewall etc but trust me guys you need some heavy artillery to protect your data.
Ad blockers
Ad blockers allows you to block advertisements online. A lot of people have started using this feature which has become a nightmare for all marketers. Now marketers have to come up with different ways to show the advertisements to their target audience.
Keyword
In the past, keywords were the focus point for SEO. If you have used the right keyword in your articles, then your article used to top the charts of the search results and get you more and more customers. Things were easy and fun for all businesses. But now Google has changed its algorithm and there is less focus on the keywords. Now, Google scans your whole website to know it’s scope and tone.
Why digital marketing is important for your business?
Its cheap
What is the most common problem that startups face? Limited funds of course. Traditional marketing involves use of billboards and banners which can be costly for a small business. Digital marketing is a cheaper option as compared to traditional marketing. With a small investment, digital marketing not only fetches you great results but it also leads to savings. Using email, blogs, SEO etc is much feasible option as compared to using traditional marketing.
Leads
A major benefit of using digital marketing is to get more leads. Just by getting more traffic on your website will not fetch you good results. That traffic needs to be converted into solid leads. This is where digital marketing plays its part. You can link your website with your social accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc) which can direct your followers straight to your website. On your website you can post different categories of content such as videos, infographics, blogs etc all of this containing relevant information about your products/services. Such content will educate your viewers about your products/services and will convince them to purchase your products/services. You can also use other types of conversion optimization techniques such as SEO and email marketing.
Fair competition
Earlier only big companies had the necessary resources to use digital marketing for their business but now times have changed. With online advertising, small entrepreneurs have a great chance to expand and promote their businesses. Such startups can go head to head with big companies in terms of needed traffic. Small firms can use digital marketing for proper engagement with the customers which earlier was not possible from their offline stores.
Today, digital marketing has become a necessity for every business. It is the best way for an entrepreneur to stay competitive and successful.