What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is more than just a buzz word.

How do you learn about new products and services? Where do you go to find new products and services? Chances are, the first place you turn is the internet. Marketing has existed since people first had products or services they wanted to sell, but today’s marketing is done in an entirely new way: digitally.

What You Should Know About Digital Marketing

Simply put, digital marketing is just marketing that’s done digitally, whether it be through the internet, social media, mobile phones, or any other digital media. When you think of traditional marketing, you will likely recall an ad on TV or a billboard you’ve seen. Digital marketing works similarly, except it’s primarily driven by data and collecting data points. Because so many people rely on digital media and online resources to live their lives, we can collect data about a customer base faster and in a more precise way, essentially we all have the ability to become a digital marketer. The biggest difference from traditional marketing are that is that it goes beyond just knowing who your target customer is – data from digital marketing can tell you more about their behaviors, their engagements, their trends, and more, all so you can create better content that will track well with the people who are most likely to buy what you’re selling. If you want to sell something, you need an audience, and content marketing tells you how to capture that target audience‘s attention.

Why Digital Marketing Is Important

Clearly, more and more of our commerce is moving online. People are purchasing goods and services online every minute of the day and for a good reason. It’s easy to do, fast, and offers a much wider range of options. Since the consumer has gone digital, so does your marketing. But why is it so important?

Tracking Data

Today there are tons of ways you can track the data you gather from your digital marketing. With digital analytics, you can see every interaction a user has with your business’s content. With that, you can identify exactly how your customers journey through discovering your products and services and, ultimately, what leads to sales. Tracking the conversion process can help you decide what types of content to continue to produce and what you can leave out next time. The success of your digital marketing campaigns is completely trackable through analytics.

Optimization

Because digital marketing is done through digital media , you can easily optimize your marketing campaign, saving you time and energy along the way. The optimization of digital marketing allows you to purchase ad space across a wide range of platforms and websites, meaning your reach is far greater than with traditional advertising. Plus, as you track the data through analytics, you can quickly make changes to your marketing campaign. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, many brands had to quickly pivot their marketing channel campaigns to reflect the changes we were all-seeing. With digital marketing, it’s as easy as jumping on a computer. This level of optimization means efficiency and speed.

Combination of Wide and Targeted Reach

Think about how many people you know on your social media platforms. Now think about the fact that each of those people likely has a similar number of connections. The web of people online at any given time is huge. With digital marketing, you can reach all of them. A billboard on the side of the road is only effective if someone drives by. A digital ad can be shared and tagged, and spread across millions of people. But it’s important to remember that digital marketing isn’t only useful for a broad reach. Taking into account the analytics you are tracking and the optimization allowing you to make quick changes. These allow you to create highly targeted ads to exactly the type of user that will most likely buy from you. Having both a macro and micro approach to your digital marketing will lead to wider brand recognition while also generating tons of revenue as it effectively targets the right people – on the right social media platforms and digital channel.

Digital Marketing Strategy

Knowing everything about digital marketing is great, but you will flounder in a sea of other digital marketers without a strategy. And so, you have to also know about digital marketing strategy. At its core, a digital marketing strategy is simply a plan for your digital marketing that helps your business achieve the goals you’ve identified. This is done by strategically selecting which online marketing channels you want to focus on and give your energy to. Just as you would have a traditional marketing strategy, you also need a digital marketing strategy. Consider how many online ads you see every time you get online. Your customers and potential customers are seeing the same amount of content. Without a digital strategy, your ad will be more background noise, even if it’s the most well-thought-out ad out there.

Creating Your Digital Strategy

Finally, you know you want to focus on digital marketing. You know you need a strategy. What’s your objective? Perhaps you’re after more brand awareness? Or Would just like to optimize your reach on a specific social media platform? So, how do you make that happen? Here are a few easy steps to get started:

Know Your Goals

One of the key components of a digital marketing strategy is the chance to achieve your business goals. Therefore, the first thing you should do in creating your digital marketing strategy is to identify the goals you have for your business. Consider whether you want to increase website traffic, revenue, or maybe increase each sale’s dollar amount. Whatever your goal is, be sure to stay specific and clear. This will determine which media channels you choose and the funnel you create.

Know What You Already Have

You likely already have marketing materials at your disposal, whether they are digital or not. You can actually repurpose some of this content in your digital marketing campaign! Go through your existing material and see what content will help you achieve your goals for this digital marketing campaign. Knowing what you have will ultimately save you time and money when you don’t have to create a whole campaign from scratch.

Know What Tools You Need – Digital Marketing Tools

Once you have an idea of what you have and the goals you want to achieve with your digital marketing efforts, make sure you have the tools you need to reach those goals and to create the rest of your campaign. That may mean you have to get analytics software or hire a digital marketing agency to write your content. Whatever you need to make your digital campaign happen, gather those things now rather than scramble in the middle of your campaign creation. It’s always a good idea to incorporate social media posting software that incorporates marketing automation. This way you can schedule content for facebook, twitter, and really optimize your marketing efforts.

Create and Execute

Finally, it would be best if you did the work of making your campaign a reality. You’ll need to produce the content, have people tracking the data, and others to pivot the marketing campaign as needed. Be thoughtful as you create your content, always keeping in mind what the goal is – to reach your potential customer. As you start to finish your content creation and implement your digital marketing strategy, keep track of the data points, and pivot when necessary. Above all, keeping your goals in mind will help you as you create and execute your plan. Digital marketing is simply marketing in a digital age. As the world continues to become more and more digital, we must respond by changing our methods. During your transition into digital marketing, keep in mind your goals for the business, and always keep your target customer in the forefront of your thoughts. With the right strategy, you’ll see increased revenue, brand recognition and have greater success, likely sooner rather than later.

As a way to expand on digital marketing tactics – here’s a resource – The Ultimate Guide to passively getting leads for your business.