In recent years, we have all been spending more and more of our time online, particularly on our phones and the marketing industry has truly transformed to reflect this. The latest report from Hootsuite and We Are Social (2019) shows us that on average, we’re online for about 6.5 hours every single day (source). This doesn’t sound like a lot but when you do the math, you can see that that adds up to more than 100 days of online time each year. Hootsuite’s report for 2020 hasn’t been released yet but chances are, it’ll be more this year thanks to global lockdown. It’s no wonder the digital marketing industry has exploded over the past couple of years. But what does ‘digital marketing’ really mean and why does your business need it?

What is digital marketing?

Marketing guru Neil Patel defines digital marketing as “advertising delivered through digital channels…such as social media, mobile applications, email, web applications, search engines, website, or any new digital channel” (source). Think about it – when was the last time that you picked up a newspaper to check the news or used a phone book to check local services? With the joys of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, you don’t have to watch tv commercials now either! The key to marketing your business is making your business visible, where your audience can see it – and in 2020, that means online.

Digital marketing is a massive, umbrella term for advertising in the digital world. This can be broken into 7 main categories:

• Search Engine Optimization

• Search Engine marketing

• Content marketing

• Social media marketing

• Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

• Affiliate marketing

• Email marketing

Sounds like a lot? We’ll break it down…

Search Engine Optimization

Need to know the best place to go for sushi? Or perhaps you’re in the market for a new laptop and want to compare specs/prices – where do you go? Google. Every single day there are more than 2.2. million google searches conducted (source). And that’s just Google; there are other search engines like Bing and Yahoo! that are used too. Search Engine Optimization or SEO simply means making your website more attractive to Search Engines so that you get a better ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Why does your search engine results page ranking matter? The first five results on google get 67% of all clicks. 70% of clicks go to organic results and 30% go to paid advertisements, at the top of the results pages. Most users find that organic results are more trustworthy than paid advertisements and they’re more likely to click on them. Similarly, the majority of people will not venture onto the second page of search results so you need your website to pop up in the top 5 spots.

Search Engines rank websites based on the best user experience because they want to advertise the best options to their users. By working with their guidelines and optimizing your content, you have a better chance of getting a better ranking, and boy does it pay off. A good ranking means your brand is credible, which also aids with reputation management. Optimizing your website can be done in so many ways like: well laid out website design, relevant content, well-labeled images, relevant links and references, good use of keywords, high-quality images and written content, and fast loading pages. Brick and mortar stores can claim their Google Business Listing or 'Google My Business' which means that their website, opening hours, location, and contact info will pop up on search pages. Search engine optimization includes anything that will add to the customer's experience! SEO is a lot of work and can be time-consuming if you’re not sure what you’re doing so many businesses choose to work with digital marketing agencies and professional content writers.

Search Engine Marketing & PPC  Search engine marketing or SEM was once the umbrella term for paid and unpaid (SEO). 

search engine marketing – now the term generally refers to paid advertisements. SEM is basically just paying for your website to be advertised at the top of search engine results pages! These ads are divided into PPC (pay-per-click), CPC (cost-per-click), or CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions). As we know, overall, organic search results tend to get more traffic but SEO is a long game and the benefits may not be seen immediately. Often PPC is used until SEO efforts start to pay off.

Content marketing

Content marketing is a long-term strategic marketing approach that focuses on building a strong relationship with your audience by providing them with high-quality content. This content needs to be relevant to your target audience and needs to add to the customer experience. By providing consistent, useful content for your potential customers, you build up a trustworthy relationship. Then, when potential customers are ready to make a purchase, they will be more likely to purchase from you. This also helps customers feel valued and they are more likely to become repeat customers. For example, you may see a ‘DIY’ or ‘Tutorial’ section on a home improvement company’s website. By showing customers how to use their products or giving them useful ‘hacks’, they’re adding to the user experience. This also works in tandem with SEO efforts!

Social media marketing…

Social media marketing or SMM is simply the use of social media platforms and websites to promote products or services. There are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide, and 91% of these users access their social media channels via mobile devices (source). The key to marketing is making sure your product/service is visible to your audience so digital marketing is largely focused on going where your audience is online. Different age groups tend to use different platforms and in different ways so it is important to do your market research. Many platforms have built-in analytics tools so it makes monitoring the behavior of your market is made even easier. These tools also help in monitoring the success and engagement of ad campaigns. Influencer marketing, a new form of marketing, has risen from SMM. Influencer marketing is working with people online who have a large audience and high engagement and either getting them to endorse your products or to create advertisements for them and then marketing them to their own audiences. Influencer marketing has proven to be very successful and the industry is ever-growing.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing process of earning a commission by promoting a product. Affiliate marketing ties in nicely with influencer marketing for example. Influencers, or people with a large online presence, can promote a product or service to their audience, using an affiliate link and they earn a small commission every time the product/service is bought.

Email marketing

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy based on sending emails to potential customers and existing customers. 

Email marketing is an excellent way to build rapport with customers by providing them with high-quality content (similar to content marketing), and by promoting new products or sales. Email marketing aims to convert potential customers into customers and first-time-buyers into recurring customers. Email marketing is also useful in retargeting customers who have left your website. An email can be sent to potential customers, particularly if they abandon their cart before purchasing, in a bid to reconsider your offer! 

So...

97% of consumers research a company via the internet before spending their hard-earned cash. Digital marketing, essentially, is the different forms of marketing online. The digital marketing strategy that a brand chooses is largely based on their target audience and can be extremely effective when done right!

Keywords as per Google keyword planner: 

Keyword Avg. monthly searches Competition

Website design 1k-10k High

SEO 1k-10k Medium

Social media marketing 100-1k Medium

Reputation Management 10-100 Medium

Business listings 10-100 Low

Digital marketing agency 100-1k Medium

Digital marketing 1k-10k Medium

We all live a massive portion of our lives online so it makes sense that marketing has evolved to reflect this. So, what is digital marketing, how does it work, and why does your business need it?

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