What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the marketing and advertising of a business, person, product, or service using online channels, electronic devices, and digital technologies. A few examples of digital marketing include social media, email, pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), and more.
How is digital marketing different from traditional marketing?
The difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing is simple. Traditional marketing uses offline channels, while digital marketing uses digital channels. A traditional marketing campaign, for example, may use billboards, print ads, and mailers, while a digital marketing campaign may use social media, blog posts, and email to promote a business and its offerings. In recent years, the line between “traditional marketing” and “digital marketing” has begun to blur as even traditional channels like billboards, TV ads, and direct mail have developed a digital component to them.
Why is digital marketing important?
For companies today, digital marketing matters because it offers:
Digital marketing offers multiple online marketing strategies
With online marketing, your company can pick from a range of tactics. Examples of digital marketing tactics include:
You have options, which isn’t always the case when using traditional marketing. With traditional marketing, you have fewer choices. You only have a couple of channels available, like radio, print, and TV, and many of these channels are expensive, which limits your choices further.
Choosing to use digital marketing gives your company access to a range of strategies. You can pick the ones that match your business, goals, and target market the best, which helps you maximize the impact of online marketing on your bottom line.
Digital marketing offers cost-effective marketing solutions
Price is another benefit of digital marketing.
Compared to traditional marketing, online marketing is extremely cost-effective. If you advertise online, whether on social media, websites, or search engines, you set your budget and bid for ad space. You have complete control over how much you spend, which isn’t the case when buying a billboard.
Flexibility is a big feature of digital marketing. Budgets and campaigns can be set to run anywhere from years to minutes. Coupled with precise targeting, businesses get agility that is often missing in traditional campaigns. If you launch a PPC campaign, for instance, and see that it isn’t performing, you can go ahead and pause that campaign. In comparison, once you buy a billboard, you have it for that entire duration of a contract, whether it works or not.
Digital marketing offers a level playing field
If you’re a small-to-midsized business (SMB), digital marketing also helps your company stand apart from larger brands. That’s because online marketing offers cost-effective solutions, like SEO, that can help your business reach its audience.
Large corporations are able to market themselves in ways SMBs often can’t. They take up prime real estate with company locations. They employ large numbers of cold-calling sales staff. They sponsor trade show and conferences with elaborate exhibits.
With digital channels, it is just as easy to click an ad for a large corporation as it is to click an ad for a small business. A Facebook Page for a Fortune 100 company looks the same as a Facebook Page for a 5 person company.
This even playing field can help your company bypass big brands and reach your target market.
You don’t have to worry about how your online marketing budget will compete with larger brands, either. Digital marketing offers several cost-effective strategies, including SEO, that you can use to get your products or services in front of your audience.
Digital marketing offers advanced targeting and personalization options
Making web marketing a part of your business strategy also gives you access to a range of advanced targeting and personalization options. Traditional marketing, which is broader, can’t compete with what digital marketing can provide you when it comes to targeting.
For example, with online marketing, you can use targeting options like:
These targeting options can help you amplify the other benefits of digital marketing, like its cost-effectiveness. If you launch a PPC campaign, for example, you could use targeting options like location and device to focus your ads on users most likely to convert, like by visiting your brick-and-mortar store.
Online marketing also makes it possible to personalize content with information like the following:
How does digital marketing work?
You know the definition of digital marketing, but how does digital marketing work?
Online marketing works by developing a coordinated, omni-channel strategy that supports your target audience’s unique buying journey. That means your business uses multiple channels, like social, email, and search, to support an overarching strategy, like generating brand awareness, leads, or sales.
For perspective, think about this digital marketing example:
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