What Is Digital Marketing? Types and Examples

Digital marketing is the branch of marketing that promotes goods and services via the Internet and online-based digital technology, including smartphones, desktop computers, and other digital media and platforms. Since the 1990s and 2000s, it has drastically changed how companies and brands use technology for marketing. Digital marketing campaigns have grown commonplace, using a variety of techniques, as digital platforms have been further integrated into marketing strategies and daily life and as consumers have been using digital devices more frequently rather than going to physical stores.

Content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, email direct marketing, display advertising, e-books, optical disks, and games are a few of these techniques. Digital marketing includes non-Internet platforms that offer digital content, including television, mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callbacks, and mobile ringtones for on-hold messages.

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the process of promoting and selling goods and services through the use of websites, apps, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other digital tools. Many of the same concepts as traditional marketing are used in digital marketing, which is frequently seen as an extra means for businesses to interact with customers and comprehend their behavior. Traditional and digital marketing strategies are frequently combined by businesses. However, there are drawbacks to digital marketing as well. As the internet became widely used in the 1990s, digital marketing began to gain popularity.

Key Takeaways

• Digital marketing uses platforms like social media, mobile devices, and websites to advertise goods and services.
• There are several techniques available to digital marketers to gauge the success of their efforts.
• How to stand out in a world full of digital advertisements and other distractions is one of the most difficult problems facing digital marketers.

How Digital Marketing Works?

To increase their market share and advertise their goods and services to prospective customers, businesses might employ a variety of marketing strategies and media. It takes a combination of sales and advertising acumen to succeed. Either domestically at individual businesses or externally at marketing agencies that may cater to a wide range of clients, professional marketers handle these responsibilities. Because they had no other options, businesses used to concentrate on marketing through radio, television, and print. The internet gave businesses another way to reach customers and gave rise to digital marketing, even though those choices are still available.

Businesses were compelled to reevaluate their budgets and marketing tactics due to the new trends and technologies. In the early days of digital marketing, email was a widely used technique. After that, attention turned to search engines like Netscape, which let companies tag and phrase products to attract attention. Businesses are now able to analyze user data and target very targeted audiences with their messages because of the growth of social media platforms like Facebook. Nowadays, businesses may more easily sell their goods and services to customers wherever they may be, thanks to smartphones and other portable electronics. According to a Pew Research Center research from 2022, 76% of American people had used mobile phones to make internet purchases.

Types of Digital Marketing Channels

Since the 1990s, digital marketing channels have changed and are still changing now. These are the top eight channels that are currently in use.

1. Website Marketing

Businesses frequently use their own website as the focal point of their online marketing campaigns. The most successful websites provide a clear and memorable representation of the brand, together with its goods and services. These days, a website needs to be quick to load, responsive, and simple to use.

2. Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Marketers can use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to attract audiences on news websites and other digital channels. With PPC campaigns, marketers can display their ads to users who search for phrases associated with their goods or services on Google, Bing, LinkedIn, X (previously Twitter), Pinterest, and Facebook. Users can be divided into groups by these campaigns according to their geography, specific interests, or demographic traits (including age or gender). Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the most popular PPC services.

3. Content Marketing

Reaching potential clients with interesting written, visual, or video content is the aim of content marketing. After being posted on a website, the information is typically marketed via email marketing, social media, SEO, and even pay-per-click advertising. The sponsor’s product or service may or may not be prominently included in content marketing, which aims to be more understated than advertising.

4. Email Marketing

Even though many individuals mistakenly believe that emails are spam and handle them as such, email marketing remains one of the most successful digital marketing platforms. To get names for their email lists, many digital marketers utilize their other digital marketing channels. They then attempt to convert those leads into customers through email marketing.

5. Social Media Marketing

A social media marketing campaign’s main objectives are to increase brand recognition and foster trust. As you learn more about social media marketing, you can use it as a direct marketing or sales channel in addition to obtaining leads. Two types of social media marketing are tweets and promoted posts.

6. Affiliate Marketing

One of the earliest marketing strategies, affiliate marketing has seen a resurgence in the digital age. Businesses and individual “influencers” that promote the goods of another brand in affiliate marketing receive a commission each time a sale is made or a new lead is added to their list. Affiliate programs at several well-known companies, such as Amazon, pay out millions of dollars to affiliates who help sell their products.

7. Video Marketing

Before making a purchase, learning how to do something, reading a review, or simply unwinding, many internet users visit websites like YouTube. To launch a video marketing campaign, marketers can use any of the various platforms, such as Facebook Videos, Instagram, and TikTok. Video works best for businesses when combined with SEO, content marketing, and larger social media marketing initiatives.

8. Text Messaging

Text messages, usually referred to as short message services or SMS, are another way that businesses communicate information about their newest offerings and special offers. Texting is also used by political candidates and nonprofits to advertise and raise money. These days, a lot of marketing initiatives allow customers to donate or pay with just a text message.

Inbound marketing versus digital marketing

For good reason, inbound and digital marketing is frequently misunderstood. Email and online content are only two examples of the various methods that digital marketing uses that are also used in inbound marketing. Both are in place to draw in potential customers by capturing their interest throughout the buyer’s journey. However, the two methods have distinct perspectives on how the tool and the objective are related.

Digital marketing takes into account how prospects can be converted by specific tools or digital platforms. A brand may employ a variety of platforms in its digital marketing strategy, or it may concentrate all of its efforts on a single platform. For instance, a business can neglect other digital marketing channels in favor of producing content mainly for email marketing campaigns and social networking platforms.

Conversely, inbound marketing is a comprehensive idea. The goal is taken into account first, followed by an examination of the available tools to ascertain which would most successfully reach the target audience, and finally the appropriate stage of the sales funnel. For instance, let’s imagine you wish to boost website traffic in order to produce more leads and prospects. When creating your content marketing strategy, you can concentrate on SEO, which will provide more optimized blogs, landing pages, and other material.

As a marketing professional, you don’t have to pick between inbound and digital marketing. That’s the most crucial thing to keep in mind. Actually, they complement each other the best. Inbound marketing ensures that every digital marketing channel is working toward a common objective by giving digital marketing initiatives structure and direction.

Why is digital marketing important?

Any kind of marketing can contribute to the success of your company. However, due to the accessibility of digital platforms, digital marketing has grown in significance. As of July 2024, there were actually 5.45 billion internet users worldwide. Digital marketing strategies can be used in a variety of ways to interact with your target audience, from text messages to social media. Digital marketing is a cost-effective marketing strategy for small enterprises because it also has low upfront expenses.

B2B versus B2C digital marketing

Both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations can benefit from digital marketing tactics, while the best practices for each are very different. A closer look at the application of digital marketing in B2B and B2C marketing strategies is provided below:

• Sales funnels for B2B clients are typically longer due to their propensity for lengthy decision-making processes. While B2C customers typically react better to short-term offers and messaging, relationship-building techniques are more effective for these clients.
• Expert B2B digital marketers provide the logic and proof that often underpin B2B transactions. Making the buyer feel good about a purchase is the main goal of B2C content, which is more likely to be emotionally charged.
• B2B choices typically require the opinions of multiple people. Shareable and downloadable marketing assets are typically the ones that influence these choices the most. Conversely, business-to-consumer (B2C) consumers prefer direct interactions with brands.

Every rule has exceptions, of course. A business-to-consumer company that sells expensive goods, like computers or cars, may provide more serious and educational content. Therefore, whether you are a business-to-business or business-to-consumer company, your digital marketing approach must always be focused on your own clientele.

To develop educated and focused online marketing efforts, consider your existing audience. By doing this, you can make sure that your marketing campaigns are successful and that you can draw in new clients.

The benefits of digital marketing

Due in large part to its broad audience reach, digital marketing has gained popularity. It does, however, provide a number of additional benefits that might strengthen your marketing initiatives. Among the advantages of digital marketing are these.

1. A broad geographic reach

When you submit an advertisement online, everyone can see it from anywhere (as long as you haven’t set a geographical restriction). This facilitates expanding your company’s market reach and establishing connections with a wider audience through various digital platforms.

2. Cost efficiency

In addition to reaching a larger audience than traditional marketing, digital marketing is less expensive. Television commercials, newspaper ads, and other conventional marketing possibilities might have significant overhead expenditures. Additionally, you have less control over whether or not your target viewers will ever see those messages. As long as your blog is live, you can use digital marketing to generate traffic from a single piece of content. Email marketing campaigns that send communications to specific consumer groups on a predetermined schedule can be easily modified, as can the content, if necessary. All things considered, digital marketing offers you a lot more flexibility and consumer interaction for your advertising investment.

3. Quantifiable results

You must determine the number of clients your marketing approach brings in and the total amount of money it generates in order to determine its effectiveness. However, how can a non-digital marketing approach accomplish that? “How did you find us?” is the classic question to ask every customer. Regretfully, not all industries can benefit from that. Numerous businesses are unable to speak with their clients directly, and polls don’t always yield accurate answers. Digital marketing makes it easy to track results. Email open rates, home page visits, and direct sales are examples of targeted conversions that are automatically tracked by digital marketing platforms and software.

4. Easier personalization

In a manner that traditional marketing cannot, digital marketing enables you to collect consumer data. Digitally gathered data is typically far more accurate and detailed. Let’s say you provide financial services and would like to send out exclusive deals to online shoppers who have viewed your offerings. You choose to create two campaigns since you know that tailoring the offer to the individual’s interests will yield better results. One is for millennial entrepreneurs who have thought about your retirement plans, and the other is for young families who have examined your life insurance policies. Without automatic tracking, how can you collect all that data? How many phone logs would you need to review? How many profiles of customers are there? Additionally, how can you tell who has read the pamphlet you gave out?

You already have access to all of this information with digital marketing.

5. More connection with customers

Real-time communication with your customers is made possible by digital marketing. More significantly, it enables communication between you and them. Consider your approach to social media. Your target audience seeing your most recent content is fantastic, but it’s even better when they share or comment on it. Every time someone joins the conversation, it increases visibility and generates more buzz about your product or service. Your clients will also gain from the interaction. As people actively participate in the narrative of your brand, their degree of engagement rises. Strong brand loyalty might result from such a sense of ownership.

6. Easy and convenient conversions

Your customers can act right away after seeing your advertisement or content thanks to digital marketing. The most immediate outcome you can expect from traditional ads is a phone call immediately after the ad is viewed. However, how frequently does someone have time to contact a business when they’re updating records at work, cleaning the dishes, or traveling down the highway? They can immediately proceed through the sales funnel with digital marketing by clicking a link or saving a blog post. Even if they might not buy anything right away, they will still stay in touch with you and provide you with more opportunities to communicate with them.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Digital Marke

Like traditional marketers, digital marketers make use of key performance indicators or KPIs. KPIs enable them to assess the long-term results of their marketing campaigns and contrast them with those of their rivals.

Some of the most popular KPIs that marketers can use to assess their performance are as follows:

• Click-through rate: By calculating the proportion of individuals who clicked on a certain advertisement relative to the total number of potential viewers, this KPI is frequently used to assess the efficacy of online advertising.
• Conversion rate: This metric compares the proportion of individuals who completed a desired action, like buying something, to the entire audience that a certain advertisement or promotion reached. It goes even further than the click-through rate.
• Click-through rate: By calculating the proportion of individuals who clicked on a certain advertisement relative to the total number of potential viewers, this KPI is frequently used to assess the efficacy of online advertising.
• Conversion rate: This metric compares the proportion of individuals who completed a desired action, like buying something, to the entire audience that a certain advertisement or promotion reached. It goes even further than the click-through rate.

Digital Marketing Challenges

For marketers, the digital environment presents unique obstacles. For instance, digital channels are growing quickly, and marketers need to stay up-to-date and learn how to use them efficiently. The vast amount of data that these platforms can collect can also be difficult for marketers to evaluate and utilize effectively. Most importantly, it’s getting more and harder to get customers’ attention because they are constantly exposed to digital advertisements and other distractions.

What Is a Digital Marketing Agency?

An organization that focuses solely on marketing to businesses or consumers via digital platforms is known as a digital marketing agency. Among other things, this entails developing and implementing campaigns for customers using social media, pay-per-click marketing, videos, and unique websites.

What Is SEO in Digital Marketing?

The term search engine optimization (SEO) refers to a range of strategies used by businesses to try to improve their website’s visibility in search results and drive more traffic to it. Customers are more likely to see a website and possibly click to visit it if it is higher up on the search results page.

What Is Internet Marketing?

In technical terms, marketing that occurs exclusively online is known as internet marketing. As such, it is a subset of digital marketing, which can reach its target audience through a variety of digital media, including the Internet.

How Can You Become a Digital Marketer?

Strong writing and social media abilities are essential for digital marketers, as is a solid grasp of data analytics. For the majority of digital marketing jobs, a bachelor’s degree is necessary. Additionally, you may wish to enroll in digital marketing courses or attend a digital “boot camp.” Additionally, it can be beneficial to finish an internship while enrolled in school. Although it is not seen to be necessary, a master’s degree in digital marketing may be helpful.

What Skills Are Needed in Digital Marketing?

If a marketer wants to effectively explain the story of a business or product to prospective buyers, they must have strong communication skills. Proficiency in data analytics is also essential for determining the effectiveness of a marketing effort and areas for improvement. Lastly, social media proficiency is also essential.

What Is Implicit Bias in Digital Marketing?

Messages that inadvertently propagate unfavorable perceptions or attitudes against particular groups are referred to as implicit prejudice, sometimes called unconscious bias. It has drawn special attention in the domains of marketing and advertising in recent years. It could show up in something as basic as the selection of stock images for a marketing campaign in digital marketing.

For example, firms may unconsciously utilize photos of exclusively heterosexual white people, leaving out Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, as well as persons with varied body types and abilities. Digital marketers frequently employ purportedly objective algorithms to assist in the creation of their ads, yet these algorithms are human-made and may have unintentional biases of their own.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is the use of online platforms, tools, and strategies to connect businesses with their target audience in the digital world. It encompasses various techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email campaigns, content marketing, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing allows businesses to interact with their audience in real-time, measure performance with precision, and adapt strategies for maximum effectiveness.

It has become a cornerstone of modern business, enabling companies to build brand awareness, drive website traffic, and boost sales while maintaining cost efficiency. As more consumers spend time online, digital marketing provides unmatched opportunities for engagement and growth. Ultimately, it’s a dynamic and ever-evolving field that empowers businesses to stay competitive in a technology-driven marketplace. Embracing digital marketing is essential for businesses to thrive in today’s fast-paced, interconnected world.

FAQs

1. Can I do digital marketing myself?

Yes, you can start digital marketing with some basic knowledge and tools. However, hiring experts or agencies can optimize your campaigns for better results.

2. How much does digital marketing cost?

The cost varies based on the scope of campaigns, platforms used, and the type of services. Small businesses can start with a low budget for basic strategies like social media ads or email campaigns.

3. What is email marketing?

Email marketing involves sending targeted emails to a list of subscribers to promote products, share updates, or nurture customer relationships.

4. Is digital marketing effective for all industries?

Yes, digital marketing can be tailored to suit any industry, from retail and healthcare to real estate and education, ensuring relevance to the target audience.

5. What is PPC advertising?

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a model where advertisers pay a fee each time someone clicks their ad, commonly used on platforms like Google Ads or social media.