In this blog post, we are going to go back to the basic fundamentals of Digital Marketing. Digital Marketing allows you to advertise to people digitally. It uses different channels like social media, email, search engines, websites, and mobile apps. This process has a lot of associated terms and different types, as well as benefits, and we are going to talk about all of that in this post. 

Types of Digital Marketing

The following are the different types of digital marketing.

• SEO
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• PPC
• Social Media Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing

We are going to go over the definitions and uses of these types of digital marketing.

SEO

Firstly, we are going to start with SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO is a set of practices that aim to improve the positioning of your webpage on search engine results. Good SEO could do wonders at increasing the size of your audience and your engagement.

Content Marketing

Next is content marketing, which is a very common type of digital marketing. This marketing strategy is one that uses engaging content to intrigue your audience. The content is typically based around the product or service you are promoting. It is important to realize that it is better to write about the subject of your product or service rather than directly about your specific product or service.

For example, if you are selling orthopedic dog beds, then you can write about joint and muscle pain in dogs, rather than writing about your brand’s specific dog beds. This way, you are engaging the interest of your readers and educating them on why a dog may benefit from the type of product that you sell.

It is important to also mention that there are plenty of different types of content that you can use for this process:

• Case studies
• Blogs 
• Videos 
• Graphics

You can use all of these, one of these, or combine them together for one post. It is all up to you and how you want to promote your brand.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the next type of digital marketing that we are going to cover. It is another simple and popular form of marketing, but it is not always used in the most effective way. This form of marketing is used in order to continuously remind consumers of your brand or company, as well as increase your reach in sending information and promotions about your brand.

PPC

PPC, or pay per click,  is a form of marketing in which advertisers pay a fee to publishers when the ad is clicked. This is another form of marketing that increasing your reach. It isn’t the most common choice due to the cost, but it does work for larger businesses.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is another extremely common marketing style. It is a newer one, and far from traditional due to the popularity growth around social media. This marketing style uses social media platforms to promote and spread awareness around your brand and business.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the last form of marketing that we are going to talk about. It uses other business and brands to promoted your business or brand. You can hire whatever affiliates you are looking for.

Digital Marketing Conclusion

All of these forms of marketing are important, and they are effective. But, it is important to realize that you must combine as many as you can to get the best results. When you start promoting a brand, you start with your content. It could be writing, photos, videos, etc. It can move from publishing that content to optimizing it in order to increase your Google rating. Next, promote it on all of the social media platforms that hold a large portion of your audience.

You can employ pay per click if it is something that you can afford or you believe will help your brand. Same with affiliate marketing, if you have access to affiliates of your choice, and that is something that you can afford, you can implement that as well. Finally, email marketing. Once you have your audience and you are able to reach them, you will be able to create an email list. You can do this through pop ups, discounts, etc. Creating an email list will allow you to automate emails to every person who joins your list.

Implementing multiple digital marketing strategies to promote your brand and company is important to growing your business.

Digital Marketing Strategies

There are a ton of different digital marketing strategies, but no matter what strategy you use, there are always the same four principles that digital marketing comes back to. These are referred to as many different things, but for this article, we are going to refer to them as the Four M’s. 

• Model
• Market
• Message
• Media

Model

Going over these principles, we are going to start with the model. This is what you are offering or whatever you are delivering to the market. So, this could be your business, your product, whatever you are promoting and putting out there. 

Market

Next is your market, which is your target audience. You want to be focused on exactly who you are targeting, which is the ideal customer. The best way to do this is to make three theoretical customers that you want to serve. Include their demographic and psychographic attributes. For example, their age, gender, occupation, hobbies, beliefs, etc. 

Message

Then there is the message, which is where and how you are going to connect with your market. What are you telling your audience? How are you connecting with them and convincing them that they need your product or service. In order to do this correctly is through research on your market, what triggers them to buy, what they are looking for, where you can reach them, etc. 

Media

Finally is media, which is what channels you are going to use to reach your market. It is important to keep in mind where you are going to find your audience, where your message is going to fit, etc. You need to go through these four steps in order, because by the time you reach this step, you should know exactly where your audience is and where they will see your message. Don’t waste your time and energy on platforms where your audience is not. 

After you go through these steps, that is your strategy. Your tactics are more specific steps that use your strategy. For example, a tactic question would be what type of content are we using or what is the best time to post? A strategic question would be which platform should you be on?

Organic Vs Paid Digital Marketing

The next thing about digital marketing that is important to note is Organic vs. Paid. 

Organic digital marketing is everything that you do for free. So every time you make a Facebook or Twitter post, that is organic. Organic doesn’t mean that there is no money involved, because it is important that your content is the best that you can possibly put out. So the odds are that you put some money behind that content. But, you are not paying to promote it. 

Paid content is when you are paying to promote it to more people. You are running advertising to whatever content you are putting out there. 

There are pros and cons to both of these. 

Organic marketing is free, and obviously, not having to spend money to promote it is great. This is the content that is going to show up on your customer’s news feeds naturally. But, when it comes to the algorithm behind these platforms, they tend to favor paid advertising meaning that your organic digital marketing is not always going to show up the most and do as well as it could. 

Paid advertising is what is going to pop up on your feed whether you follow it or not, and most of the time, you don’t. You do have to spend money on it, but it allows you to reach so many people very quickly. 

Both organic and paid digital marketing will work, and they are great things, but it all depends on what you are looking for. 

Benefits of Digital Marketing

There are a few different benefits of digital marketing, and we are going to list them down below.

• Gives marketers the opportunity to interact with and better understand their audience
• Increase trust and credibility
• Show advertisements to audience based on search preferences and behavior
• Less expensive than traditional forms of marketing

Conclusion

There are so many basic points about digital marketing that are often forgotten. We go into deep information and strategic approaches to digital marketing without ever going back to the basics. We hope to have reminded you of the many different basics to digital marketing.

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