As the online presence of businesses grows, so does the need to stay in competition and woo customers before competitors. In this regard, digital marketing has emerged as a crucial strategy for businesses to establish a unique identity and connect with their target audience effectively.
In fact, Statista reports that over 20% of global retail sales were made through e-commerce in 2023. This highlights the growing shift in consumer behavior towards online platforms and the significance of having a robust digital marketing strategy.
In this post, we’ll cover the fundamentals of digital marketing, shedding light on its importance, types, insights, and more.
Understanding Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is defined as all the marketing activities undertaken by businesses over the Internet. It is an umbrella term that includes marketing campaigns run over channels like social media, emails, SMS, instant messaging, websites, etc.
The most popular types of digital marketing are email and paid advertisements. Digital marketing may be classified into two categories, depending on the audience targeted:
- B2B: Business-to-business digital marketing typically targets other businesses to achieve sales through marketing efforts.
- B2C: Business-to-customer marketing is aimed at the general public as the end user of products or services by a company.
Why Is Digital Marketing Important?
Digital marketing is important to enhance the outreach of your business in the online space.
Traditional methods of marketing may give your business good visibility in the local regions. However, more people today prefer online shopping, which makes digital marketing one of the top priorities your business should have.
Some other benefits of digital marketing include:
- It is a measurable form of marketing that you can track through metrics like conversion rate, click-through rate, etc.
- Digital marketing strategies are more resilient to adaptation according to business needs.
- Digital marketing is a more effective method as compared to outbound marketing approaches. It is mostly non-intrusive and can be presented to customers in a way that they prefer (through dynamic content.)
- It helps to attract more meaningful leads that have a high likelihood of becoming loyal customers of your brand.
- Digital marketing gives brands the opportunity to engage with their customers at every digital touchpoint with the brand. It helps your brand create better relationships with its customers and nurture them to move forward into the sales pipeline.
- Digital marketing may be more cost effective as compared to traditional marketing methods, depending on the technologies you choose.
Types of Digital Marketing
There are six major types of digital marketing that you can consider as the starting point for your business:
1. Search Engine Optimization
Also popularly known as SEO, this strategy involves website optimization so that it can rank higher in search engine results. It helps your website receive more organic traffic. It involves three aspects:
- On-page SEO to improve your web content.
- Off-page SEO to improve your backlinks and associations.
- Technical SEO to improve the structure and architecture of your website.
2. Content Marketing
The second most important form of digital marketing is creating content that is authentic, authoritative, and relevant.
By creating blog posts, eBooks, whitepapers, infographics, and other types of content, your business can improve brand awareness online. Combined with the right keywords, it is highly likely that users’ search terms will lead them to your web content.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of the most popular channels online where audiences gather. It is an excellent destination to generate more leads for your business. Social media marketing involves posting content to SM channels so that the audience can interact with it (through likes, comments, shares, etc.) and visit your brand pages.
4. Paid Ads
Also known as pay-per-click campaigns, this digital marketing method involves paying the publisher of your ad for each click it gets. You can leverage PPC campaigns for all platforms, like social media, web search, and more. This form of digital marketing works best when you have your resources charted out meticulously.
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is perhaps the most popular type of digital marketing that companies use. It involves subscribing users to your brand content through newsletters, whitepapers, eBooks, etc.
Email marketing is also done when a user signs up for your services and chooses to receive offers and updates through email, etc. It is an excellent way to keep your users engaged and constantly thinking about your brand.
6. Online PR
Online PR is a digital marketing method where your brand engages with popular publications online (relevant to your niche) and publishes thought-leadership content. It helps enhance brand authority and visibility amongst online circles. It is especially helpful for B2B marketing approaches.
You can partner with online news media, publications, established bloggers, influencers, etc., to achieve this.
Is Digital Marketing Suitable for Your Business?
Digital marketing for B2B businesses generates more leads, whereas that for B2C generates more sales.
Digital marketing is suitable for any business across various industries. This is because the internet is an open digital space where any business can set up shop and attract customers. It all begins with identifying the right kind of audience to market to, the right methods that generate the best results for your business, and a balanced budget.
Freeparking: Building A Robust Online Presence
Digital marketing opens up various avenues for businesses to explore in order to attract more traffic to their websites.
However, the entire process begins with creating the right domain name and a well-designed website that helps with SEO and subsequent digital marketing methods. This is where Freeparking can help your business get started on the right foot.
Freeparking offers a variety of website-based services, like domains, hosting, email setup, website building, online marketing, and even security. This way, it becomes a one-stop solution for businesses aiming to establish and enhance their online presence.
Visit the website for more details and to get the best deals of the season!
