Did you know that eighty percent of Google’s revenue comes from its ad business? Clearly, companies recognize the value of digital marketing. But it’s important to note that there are many types of digital marketing.
And while one company might benefit from one kind of digital marketing strategy, that might not be the best tactic for another company. Luckily for you, we’re here to take you through the benefits of digital marketing and show you the many different types.
This way, you’ll be able to decide which digital marketing strategy will be best for growing a business for you.
Content Marketing
As the name implies, content marketing is all about making and publishing content. Content can be multimedia, pictures, text, and more. With content marketing, you’re not just advertising your company but distributing information that your audience will find valuable.
If your marketing is direct to consumers, then your content can include fun videos, blog posts, and social media posts. If your target audience is other businesses, then your content marketing strategy might involve reports or white papers, educational videos, and webinars.
Content marketing is great because it allows you to attract customers while also establishing your business as an authority figure on a subject. It’s versatile and can be very effective at building brand awareness.
Of course, if you really want to be effective, you’ll need to post regularly and make sure that your content is always relevant and valuable.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is all about getting your site to show up at the top of search engine queries. Google and Bing are going to be your main targets here.
When someone searches for a service on Google, you want your business to show up if it’s a service that your company is involved in. While Google is the world’s most popular search engine, Bing is installed by default on a lot of work computers.
Search engine marketing includes both paid and organic searches and is meant for mobile and desktop devices. The goal of this form of marketing is to make sure that consumers are able to find you.
SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. This is when you create digital content with the intention of ranking higher on search engines.
You can employ several tactics to optimize your site. This includes using primary and secondary keywords, backlinks, and more.
Because the algorithms are always changing for search engines, you’ll have to be constantly updating your SEO strategy to make sure that you continue to rank high.
Also, if you use tactics like keyword stuffing or plagiarism, you’ll be punished by the search engines and rank lower.
It’s best to work with a professional SEO company, like Grizzly Marketing (https://www.grizzlymarketing.com/our-services/search-engine-positioning/) so that you can rank as high as possible.
PPC
PPC stands for pay per click. It’s a form of paid search advertising. This can be something like Bing Ads or Google Ads.
With this tactic, your site will appear at the top of the search results but will say “Ad” next to it. By using auction-based demographics, locations, and keywords, you can buy top-ranking positions.
This can be an expensive but effective tactic. It’s certainly worth considering if you can afford it, but if your budget is tight, then it might not be worth it.
Display Advertising
Also known as banners, display advertising is like traditional print advertising but for the internet. You can target specific organizations and publications that you know your demographic engages with.
Thanks to programmatic advertising, display advertising has become a lot more sophisticated. Programmatic advertising is when ads are optimized, analyzed, and booked automatically using algorithms.
Retargeting is also part of display advertising. This is when you look up a product online, and then you see ads for that product on other websites.
This form of advertising allows you to effectively target and re-target consumers. These ads are also easy to track, and you can easily measure your conversion rate.
Mobile Marketing
By 2025, nearly three-quarters of the world will access the internet just through smartphones. Mobile marketing is becoming more and more valuable with each passing year.
In fact, mobile marketing is nearly as broad as digital marketing is. And they often overlap.
With mobile marketing, the goal is to do whatever marketing you do for desktop systems but optimize it for mobile devices. There are also strategies that are specific to mobile devices, like social messaging apps, sending SMS messages, and advertising in applications.
If your target demographic skews younger, then it’s very important that you utilize mobile marketing.
Practically everyone has a smartphone and uses it often. This means that you’ll have a very wide base of potential customers. You can also hyper-target mobile marketing.
There are some downsides to mobile marketing, however. First off, you’ll have the very little screen real estate. So you’ll need to figure out how to get critical information out there quickly and without using a lot of content.
Also, people tend to click less on mobile ads.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is great because it allows you to effectively and easily communicate with your clients. This is what makes it unique compared to print, television, and even display advertising.
With social media, interaction and engagement are taken to a whole new level. Now, you don’t just put your message out into a void and hope someone sees it and clicks.
You can interact with actual customers and hear what they have to say. Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest are all great for communicating with consumers. You can also make use of organic and paid posts.
Nearly 4.5 billion people are on social media. This means that your business should also be on social media. You don’t need to be on every single platform and spread yourself too thin.
But you should at least be present on a few popular platforms. You can use hashtags, paid ads, and more to reach a wider audience and convert more customers.
Email Marketing
There seems to be a belief out there that email marketing is a thing of the past. But thinking like that is a huge mistake. After all, there are more than four billion people in the world who use email.
Email marketing is a tried and true way of reaching your audience and getting straight into their inbox. Retail brands and e-commerce sites love to use email marketing. This allows your company to push seasonal discounts and promotions and use new letters to keep your brand at the top of the customer’s minds.
A big benefit of having an email list is that you aren’t left at the mercy of social media and search engine algorithms. Instead, you send a newsletter or promotion, and it will end up at the top of the user’s inbox.
Of course, if you send too many emails or the content isn’t valuable, your subscribers might choose to unsubscribe.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a fairly new but valuable form of digital marketing. With this kind of strategy, you partner with influencers who have an existing audience. An influencer is a celebrity or someone who is seen as an authority figure or expert on a subject.
These figures are trusted and liked. When they promote your product, the goal is for their followers to jump on the bandwagon and use your product too. It’s a surprisingly effective tactic that has helped launch a variety of start-up brands.
You don’t need to go after the Kardashians or someone with millions of followers. Instead, someone with a moderate but dedicated fanbase will likely cost you less and be more effective in the long run.
What’s great about influencer marketing is that you can capitalize on someone else’s social media success instead of investing time and energy into building your own.
However, if you pick an influencer simply because of their follower count and not because they’re a good fit for the company, you could end up wasting a lot of money in the end.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you outsource your marketing to other companies or people who will promote your services for a fee. This is often used with e-commerce sites and bloggers.
An affiliate will promote your service or product on their site. If a customer buys your product through the affiliate, then the affiliate will be given a commission automatically.
Let’s come up with an example. Imagine that you sell cases for smartphones. You might find a tech blog site that is willing to be an affiliate.
You would have the blogger include a link to your product in one of their blogs. If a site visitor reads the blog and clicks the link to your product, and buys it, then you’ll pay a commission to the affiliate.
This is a simple and useful way to convert customers. With that said, the affiliate is the one coming up with the content around your product. This can be risky, and it’s important that you educate the affiliate about your brand and products.
Video Marketing
Thanks to Reels on Instagram and the proliferation of Tik Tok, the internet seems to be obsessed with videos. This provides a great opportunity for small businesses to differentiate themselves.
Some businesses have found success solely through viral video content. This is perhaps best illustrated by Dollar Shave Club.
Back in 2012, Dollar Shave Club posted an online commercial on YouTube. It cost them $4,500 to make. The video was so popular that Dollar Shave Club was eventually bought by Unilever for $1 billion.
While your company might not be the next Dollar Shave Club, the story goes to show just how potent a good video marketing strategy can be.
All major social media platforms today support video and are doing their best to optimize video content. When you run a video campaign, make sure that you publish in different aspect ratios so that the content looks good no matter what screen it’s shown on.
Consider using captions, too, since many people watch these videos covertly while at work or school. Like Dollar Shave Club, you don’t need a huge budget to have a successful video marketing campaign. Instead, you need a video that’s catchy, simple, and fun.
These days, a good smartphone is usually good enough to start a video marketing campaign.
Audio Marketing
Radio might be on the way out. But podcasts are currently all the rage. This was solidified when Spotify paid $200 million to be the exclusive distributor of the Joe Rogan Experience.
Most podcasts are sponsored by companies. If you’re a sponsor, you can have your own ad played or have the podcast host talk about your brand.
You can even offer exclusive discount codes through the podcast.
This will encourage listeners to buy your products and will help you measure where you are getting your sales from.
Which of These Types of Digital Marketing Will You Use?
As we can see, there are many different types of digital marketing strategies out there. You shouldn’t aim to use every kind of digital marketing out there. At least at the start.
Instead, pick two or three strategies that you connect with and try them out. It’s best to start small and slowly build as your following and success starts to grow.
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