The Internet has turned our existence upside down. It has revolutionized communications, to the extent that it is now our preferred medium of everyday communication. In almost everything we do, we use the Internet. This shift has massively affected how people purchase products and interact with businesses.
Digital marketing is the use of the Internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels to reach consumers. Some marketing experts consider digital marketing to be an entirely new endeavour that requires a new way of approaching customers and new ways of understanding how customers behave compared to traditional marketing.
While traditional marketing might exist in print ads, phone communication, or physical marketing, digital marketing can occur electronically and online. Digital marketing is like any other type of marketing—it’s a way to connect with your potential customers. This means that there are a number of endless possibilities for brands to connect those customers online, including email, video, social media, or website-based marketing opportunities.
Here are some of the strategies most businesses are using:
Email Marketing: is the oldest form of online marketing and it’s still going strong. Most digital marketers use email marketing to advertise special deals, highlight content (often as part of content marketing) or promote an event.
Paid Search: Paid search, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, typically refers to the “sponsored result” on the top or side of a search engine results page (SERP). You only pay when your ad is clicked. PPC ads are flexible, visible, and most importantly, effective for many different types of organizations.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): you can also use search engine optimization (SEO) to try and rank pages or blog posts on your site organically. Ultimately, the goal is to attract visitors to your website when they search for products, services, or information related to your business. SEO can almost be viewed as a set of best practices for good digital marketing.
Social Media Marketing: Many people rely on social networks to discover, research, and educate themselves about a brand before engaging with that organization. Social media marketing is mostly a free, organic way to use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest or Twitter.. to market your business.
Content Marketing: Content marketing is another fairly broad digital marketing term. Content marketing covers any digital marketing effort that uses content assets (blog posts, infographics, eBooks, videos, etc) to build brand awareness or drive clicks, leads or sales.
Mobile Marketing: As mobile devices become an increasingly integral part of our lives, marketing on mobile incredibly is more and more important. From SMS and MMS to in-app marketing, there are many ways to market on mobile devices.
Affiliate marketing is essentially paying someone else to promote your products and services on their website.
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