How are digital marketing types classified?
There are eight main categories of digital marketing. Search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, marketing analytics, and affiliate marketing are all areas of search marketing that have grown in popularity.
A company’s marketing strategy has become increasingly reliant on digital marketing in the last decade.
Marketing directly to people who are likely to be interested in a product is made possible by targeting messages to a specific audience.
Using digital marketing tactics and technologies to reach consumers online is referred to as digital marketing. Organisations can establish a brand identity through this form of online marketing, which has revolutionised the marketing industry.
Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
Paid search engine results and paid advertisements, known as pay-per-click are examples of pay-per-click advertising. It is a form of digital marketing that is meant to be used for a short period of time, so once you stop paying, the ad ceases to exist. As with SEO, PPC is one way to increase the amount of search traffic that a business receives through online searches.
As the name implies, pay-per-click advertisements pertain to advertisements you see at the top and sides of a page filled with search results, the ads you see when searching the web, the ads you see in mobile applications, and the ads you see before you watch YouTube videos.
There is another factor that differentiates pay-per-click advertising from SEO, and that is the fact that you only pay on results for pay-per-click ads. As a typical PPC campaign works in a similar way to a Google AdWords campaign, you will only be charged when a user clicks on your ad and lands on your website. In terms of pay-per-click advertising, you have the option of spending almost any amount of money you want. Investing a few hundred dollars in pay-per-click advertising can lead to results for some companies, but many large companies spend tens of thousands of dollars per month on this advertising method.
It is important to keep in mind that the cost of running an ad or promoting your search results is going to depend primarily on how much competition there is for your keywords. There is likely to be more cost involved in search terms with a high degree of competition (i.e. keywords that many people are seeking and that many sites are trying to optimise for) and less cost involved in terms with a lower degree of competition.
A pay-per-click campaign will allow you to also select whether the ads or promoted results you choose to appear in your campaign will be shown to users without restriction throughout the world, or only within a specific geographical area if you are setting up the campaign. This ability to tailor your ads based on your location can be extremely helpful if you are marketing a brick-and-mortar business in order to ensure that you are not wasting ad dollars on users who don’t even live near your business.
Optimisation of search engines (SEO)
Business owners use SEO to rank higher in Google search results, thereby increasing the number of visitors to their websites. The SEO marketer investigates what terms and phrases people use to search for information online in order to create content that contains these keywords and phrases.
An SEO strategy takes into account a variety of factors, from the words on your website to the links to your site on other sites.
The process of search engine optimization covers a wide range of factors, from the words on your web pages to the way other sites link to you on the web to the structure of your website itself
One of the things that make SEO so challenging is that the answer to this question is always going to depend on the search engine and the latest algorithm they are using to find the answers to this question. As a result of that, let’s take a moment to look at a few of the most important things on how SEO should work today, which are relevant to both marketers and SEO strategists.
- By adding alt text to images and transcriptions for video and audio content, you can make sure search engines can understand what your site content is.
- Good link structure – Your site structure must be crawlable by search engines so that they can find all your content easily. Link, URL, and sitemap formats can be customised by an SEO specialist to make them more crawler-friendly.
- Using keywords correctly in your content and headers is a fundamental building block of SEO – i.e. the search terms you want your site to be found for. Putting as many keywords and keyword variations in your content as possible is no longer a good practice. The writing of high-quality content that does not only contain keywords in the headers, but also in the crawler-friendly content of the page will make your search engine results appear better, so you can rank higher in the search results.
Social Media Marketing
The social media activities a business engages in are included in this category. There is no doubt that social media is something that almost everyone is familiar with, but marketers must approach social media from an integrated and strategic perspective. Creating posts on social networks and responding to comments on those posts are only some of the details of social media marketing.
In order for efforts to be effective, they must be coordinated and consistent instead of just being an afterthought. The following are a few of the many online tools available to help marketers automate and schedule social media posts, which will help keep their posts consistent. However, marketers should not rely on automation as a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution. It will not take long for users to figure out that there is no real person behind the posts if there is no real person. Marketers who work on social media shouldn’t be isolated from other marketing functions. It is important for social marketers to coordinate their efforts with the company’s wider marketing team platforms, online and off, so that every part of the brand is telling the same story.
In order to be successful in social media marketing, analytics play a crucial role. In addition to being able to analyse the performance of their posts on social media, social media marketers also have to be able to design strategies based on the results of those analyses. In order for your new social media strategy to be successful, you need to measure how well your current social media posts are performing before you continue to implement it.
In addition to Instagram and Twitter, there are many other free options that you can use to spread your message. Other options that you might be interested in investigating are Google My Business, eBay, Facebook Messenger, and the Facebook Marketplace.
It is very difficult to manage your personal Facebook or Twitter profile compared to the world of social media marketing. Professionals who enjoy combining creative thinking with objective, data-driven strategies may find this career path to be a very good fit for them. It requires a combination of creative thinking and objective, data-driven strategies.
Content Marketing
The purpose of content marketing is to increase brand awareness through storytelling and information sharing ultimately, the goal is to have the reader take an action towards becoming a customer, such as requesting more information, signing up for an email list, or making a purchase. “Content” can mean blog posts, resources like white papers and ebooks, digital video, podcasts, and much more. Consumers should receive value first and foremost, not just advertising or sales messages.
You can potentially grow many sales in the future by creating a long-term, trusting relationship with your customers through content marketing, instead of just making one sale at a time and then moving on to the next.
Consequently, content marketing becomes a necessity: With content marketing, you are able to incorporate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) criteria into fresh website content that is then shared on various social media platforms and in publications that will serve as email marketing campaigns that are designed to drive traffic to your website. When you look at your content marketing analytics, you will be able to get a good idea of what your customers are looking for on your website when they land on your site. What are they looking for on your site? Would you be able to tell me which type of content, in your opinion, makes visitors stay on your site longer and continue to browse around? Are there any types of content that make your visitors lose interest and navigate away from your website as a result?
Content marketing is an approach that is aimed at creating a long-term strategy instead of an approach such as Pay per Click (PPC), which is a short-term strategy. A key goal of marketing is to build a library of content that is composed primarily of text, video, podcasts, and other forms of multimedia, which will allow the site to be found through search engines, allowing users to find the content via search engines. Also, by creating a content library, you will be able to promote knowledge about your brand and increase your profile as a resource for information about your brand. Furthermore, if your site is geared towards providing information to your users, you want them to remember you as an authority when it comes to making a purchase from you in the future.
Content marketing can be a great avenue for people who enjoy writing, video production, and audio production, in addition to content marketing. However, it must also be noted that, like with any form of digital marketing in general, it also requires strong analytical and strategic skills.
Email Marketing
Email remains one of the most effective marketing tools, despite the emergence of social media, mobile applications, and other channels. A content marketing strategy that includes this kind of content can help consumers understand the value of the content, as well as convert an audience into a customer over time. Professionals in the field of email marketing are not only skilled in creating compelling campaigns, but they are also adept at understanding optimal audience outreach and in analysing customer interactions and data, based on which they make strategic decisions.
Marketers are constantly striving to improve their open rates – the percentage of recipients who open an email – and click through rates – the percentage of recipients who open the email and click on the link included in it. Email marketing software offers a variety of different analytical measures. Marketers can do a number of things to make their emails more appealing to users and more likely to be opened. Among them are:
- You can increase traffic to your website by sending out an email that creates a sense of urgency by telling your recipients that time is running out to get a special deal or that only a limited number of the offer is available.
- Increase open and click-through rates by personalising your emails and subject lines.
- Give recipients the option to choose how often they would like to receive your emails – This can make some of your subscribers more likely to stay subscribed and click your emails in the future.
Mobile Marketing
You can reach your target audience with this type of digital marketing by reaching them on their smartphone or tablet. Through text messages, social media, websites, emails, and mobile applications, mobile marketing reaches people through text messages, social media, and websites. Depending on the location or time where a customer walks into a store, a merchant can tailor offers or special content specifically for that location or time.
Facebook and Instagram hold the largest audience of smartphones in the U.S., with 75 percent of them spending around 40 minutes a day on social media apps.
There has been a tremendous growth in e-commerce in recent years, and it has now become an integral part of the global retail environment. e-commerce sales are expected to increase by over 4.2 trillion dollars in 2020 as smartphone users visit retailers’ websites more often.
Your potential customers are on their smartphones, which is obvious to anyone who works in marketing. You need to take your message to them where they are.
Marketing Analytics
As a result of the fact that digital marketing is highly trackable and measurable, it is considered one of the most beneficial marketing methods.
As far as marketing pieces are concerned, coupons are the only ones that can be tracked, as well as direct mail offers. You knew the message resonated with customers if they used the coupon. There is a vast amount of data available today that marketers can use to track user behaviour at a highly detailed level: for instance, how many times a user clicks a link, how long they spend on a webpage, how many times a user opens an email, and so on.
However, there is a great deal of information available about the performance of digital marketing. Marketers need to be able to comprehend what the data means, and how it should be used to inform their strategy as a whole.
In addition, marketers should learn what works best with consumers and tailor their marketing messages moving forward. This allows them to demonstrate their value to the company by giving them the chance to demonstrate their effectiveness. A digital marketer’s job is to understand all of the data that is available to them. They need to understand and use that data in order to make strategic decisions that will make them stand out from their traditional counterparts.
As digital marketing campaigns become more and more popular among marketers, there are a variety of tools available that can be used to measure their success. Depending on their needs and the audience they are trying to reach, many marketers will choose some combination of these tools. Google Analytics is one of the most commonly used tools for marketing analytics, which can be customised in nearly endless ways to measure how your site is performing, which keywords are bringing users to your site, how users are navigating through your website, and many other things related to marketing analytics.
It is imperative that marketers have reliable, accurate analytics and the ability to interpret them. This will enable them to waste no time cutting campaigns that are not working and building better campaigns around concepts that have a proven track record of success. Eventually, you won’t only be using analytics to measure your campaigns, but you will also be using analytics to inform your campaigns and improve them over time.
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Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is also known as influencer marketing. It has become extremely popular over the past few years among many organisations that are interested in building a bridge between their customers and their organisations. This is a way of bridging the gap between consumers and companies. However, what exactly is affiliate marketing and how does it work?
As the popularity of industry experts and social media influencers continues to rise, affiliate marketing utilises the growing popularity of these individuals. The purpose of working with these third-party influencers is for your organisation to collaborate with them in order to promote your products and services for compensation. By collaborating with influencers, your organisation will be able to bring in more business to your organisation by leveraging their audience with posts, blogs, and videos. This will enable you to reach out to more potential customers.
There are many factors that have contributed to the growth of affiliate or influencer marketing in recent years – especially with the use of new media like TikTok, Instagram, Youtube and blogs, which are becoming one of the mainstream forms of entertainment, news, and shipping. It is no secret that affiliate marketing is one of the most popular forms of digital marketing in the world today.
The importance of staying on top of the latest and emerging strategies for companies today cannot be overstated. This is due to the fact that digital marketing is constantly evolving. Companies can accomplish this in a variety of ways, some of which fall under the digital marketing department’s responsibility, and some of which fall under a different department’s responsibility.
The importance of staying ahead of the competition has never been greater than it is today. As businesses are facing such rapid changes across the landscape, looking at your competition for inspiration is one of the most useful strategies you can use to inform your own digital strategy.
There are a number of areas in which we can assist you:
Stage 1: Awareness
- Posts on a blog. Combined with a strong SEO and keyword strategy, this is an excellent way to increase your organic traffic.
- Create an infographic. They are also very shareable, which means your content will be found more often on social media when other people share it.
- Videos that are short in length. By hosting them on platforms like YouTube, you have the opportunity to reach a whole new audience and help your brand get discovered by a new audience.
Stage 2: The consideration stage
- Ebooks are electronic books. The advantage of this type of article is that it is intended to generate leads. This is because the content is generally longer and more comprehensive than a blog post or infographic, making people more likely to exchange their contact information to receive it.
- Reports on research studies. Again, this is a piece of content that has a lot of value to your prospects and can help you generate leads. There is also the possibility of using research reports and updated data for your industry specifically for the awareness stage. This is because the media or industry press are often interested in these reports and data.
- Host a webinar. A webinar offers more comprehensive content than a blog post or brief video because it is a more detailed, interactive form of video content.
Stage 3: Decision-making stage
- Studies of individual cases. You can positively influence the choice of your potential customers by offering detailed case studies on your website.
- Customer testimonials. The use of short testimonials on your website is a viable alternative if case studies are not a good fit for your business. Consider testimonials a little more loosely when it comes to B2C brands.
The first step is to define your digital marketing goals.
You’ll want to begin by identifying and defining your goals when you’re just getting started with digital marketing, since depending on what type of goals you have, you’ll need to craft your strategy differently depending on how you go about accomplishing those goals. Suppose for example, that you wish to increase your brand’s awareness through social media, in which case you would be wise to focus on reaching new audiences through this channel.
There is also the possibility that you may want to increase sales on a specific product – in that case, it would be more important for you to focus on SEO and optimizing content to get potential buyers on your website to begin with. Also, if you want to drive sales through paid ads on your website, you might want to try out PPC campaigns in order to drive traffic to your site.
Regardless of the case, when it comes to developing a digital marketing strategy, it’s easiest to do so after you have determined the top objectives of your company.
2. Identify your target audience.
A major benefit of digital marketing, as we’ve already discussed, is that it allows you to target specific groups of people. Obviously, if you haven’t identified your target audience first, you won’t be able to take advantage of this benefit.
There is no doubt that it is pertinent to note, your target audience might vary depending on the channel or goal that you have in mind. This can be due to a specific product or campaign depending on the channel.
If you are on Instagram, you may have noticed that most of your followers are younger and prefer funny memes and quick videos. However, if you are on LinkedIn, you may have noticed that most members are older professionals looking for more tactical advice. Depending on your target audience, you may need to modify your content in order to appeal to them.
In the event that you’re just starting out, take a look at How to Find Your Target Audience if you’re not sure where to begin.
3. It is good to establish a budget for each digital channel.
Regardless of what kind of digital marketing you decide to incorporate into your marketing strategy, the budget you determine is really determined by the type of elements you want to include.
As an example, if you’re planning to use inbound methods for your preexisting website, then you don’t have to spend a lot of money in terms of SEO, social media, and content creation. It’s critical to note that inbound marketing is based on producing high quality content that your target audience will want to consume, and the only investment you will need is your time unless you plan to outsource the work.
HubSpot’s content management system can be used to create content and host a website, so you can get started right away. If you are on a tight budget, you can start with WordPress hosted by WPEngine, as well as using the Elementor Website Builder for WordPress to build your website without having to know how to code.
There is no doubt that some outbound marketing techniques are liable to cost an organisation some money, such as online advertising and purchasing email lists. The cost of advertising is largely determined by the type of visibility you are looking to achieve as a result of your advertising campaign.
In order to reach the top of the Google search engine results for the keywords associated with your business by using PPC with Google AdWords, as an example, you’ll be competing against other companies in your industry to appear at the top of the search engine’s results page. In terms of the cost involved, there are many factors involved, such as the competitiveness of the keyword, which can make this relatively affordable, or extremely expensive. For this reason, it’s a wise idea to focus on increasing your organic reach as well.
4. Keep a healthy balance between paid and free digital strategies when developing your digital marketing strategy.
In order to be truly effective, a digital marketing strategy must incorporate both paid and free elements.
Depending on what kind of content you create to attract and convert your audience, you may be able to see positive results within the first six months if you build comprehensive buyer personas that identify their needs, and you focus on creating quality content to attract them, despite spending a relatively small amount of money on advertising.
The alternative is that if you make paid advertising part of your digital strategy, you might even be able to see results in a shorter period of time.
As a final point of conclusion, if you aim to make your website successful over the long run, it is recommended that you focus on increasing your organic reach (or ‘free’ audience reach) through your content strategy, search engine optimization, and social media campaigns.
In cases where you’re in doubt, your best bet is to try both, and then iterate your process as you find out which channels are the most effective in promoting your brand – paid or free.
5. Create engaging content.
You should know your target audience as soon as possible. You should also know your budget at this point in time. You can begin creating content for the different channels you are going to use. A form of content that can be used for this type of marketing includes social media posts, blog posts, paid search ads, sponsored content, email marketing newsletters, and more.
If you are planning to create content for your marketing campaign, then it of course has to be interesting and engaging to your audience. This will increase brand awareness and generate leads.
6. Optimise your digital assets for mobile.
Among the many components of online marketing, mobile marketing is one of the most critical. As a matter of fact, U.S. smartphone users consume digital media 69% of the time that they spend on the device, compared to desktop users who consume digital media less than half of the time – and the U.S. remains mobile’s least enthusiastic fan compared to other countries.
Consequently, if you want to grow your business on mobile devices, it is essential that you optimise your digital ads, web pages, social media images, and other electronic assets. As a business, if you have a mobile app that enables users to interact with your brand and purchase your products, your app is also covered under the umbrella of digital marketing.
The online experience for users engaging with your company through their mobile devices should be as positive as the one they would have on their desktops. In order to make browsing easy for those using mobile devices, a device-friendly website design is required. This refers to implementing a website design that is device-friendly or responsive. The use of lead generation forms may also need to be shortened if you want to create an easy-to-download experience for people who want to download your content on the go. In order to create social media images that are compatible with mobile devices, the dimensions of the images should always be taken into consideration when creating them. This is because the text can be cut off when images are viewed on mobile devices.
When it comes to implementing a digital marketing strategy, it is crucial to consider how the experience will behave on mobile devices. This is because there are a lot of ways you can optimise your digital marketing assets for these devices. When you keep this at the forefront of your mind, you’ll be creating online experiences that are tailored to your audience’s needs, and the results you’re hoping for will result as a result.
7. Research keywords for your website.
In order for digital marketing to succeed, it is imperative that targeted audiences are reached with personalised content – something that cannot be achieved without effective keyword research.
Researching keywords is one of the most effective things you can do in order to optimise your website and content for SEO. This will help you to make sure that your business can be found by people through search engines. As well as research into social media keywords, you can also use them to market your products or services on various social media platforms in order to reach out to an extended audience.
There is no doubt that keyword research is essential for your website, no matter whether you have an SEO strategist on staff or not. If you are interested in gaining more exposure for your products and services, you may want to brainstorm a list of high-performing keywords related to them, and you might want to consider long-tail keywords as well.
8. Adapt your strategy according to the analytics that you collect.
Additionally, it’s imperative that your team learns how to pivot based on analytics in order to create a long-term strategy for digital marketing that is effective and valuable on a long-term basis.
Maybe you notice after a few months that your audience doesn’t seem to be as interested in what you’re creating on Instagram anymore – but they are really loving what you’re creating on Twitter instead. You may see this as an opportunity to re-examine your Instagram strategy as a whole, but you might also be able to take this as an indication that your audience prefers to consume branded content on a different channel than Instagram.
As an alternative, you may find that an older page on your website is not receiving the traffic that it used to. To ensure that visitors are finding the freshest, most relevant content to meet their needs, you might want to consider updating the page or removing it entirely.
With the advent of digital marketing, businesses have access to a number of opportunities for continuous growth – but the responsibility lies with them to make the most of them.
You can convert leads or acquire customers by engaging with your audience at any time when you are able to connect with them. There are so many opportunities for you to reach prospective buyers through a variety of channels with the help of digital marketing. This provides a wide variety of channels through which you can reach them. No matter what type of online platform you use to promote your business, service, or product – social media platforms, websites, text messages, or whatever – it’s a valuable tool for promoting your creations.
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