What is Digital Marketing and How Does It Work?
In recent years, digital marketing has exploded onto the marketing scene, and its effects have been anything but small.?Traditional marketers?and old-school companies have struggled to keep up with the ever-changing world of internet marketing while customers, leads, and clients have become more adept in this new landscape. But companies can’t afford to ignore changes in the way people look to buy, and that is why they have stepped into the modern way of marketing.?
What is Digital Marketing and How Does It Work?
Digital marketing?is the practice of promoting products or services with the help of digital devices and technology.
In simple words, digital marketing is any form of marketing that occurs online with the help of mobile, laptop, internet, etc. In addition to digital signage and technology that may not be connected to the internet. It can range from anything as complex as automated?email marketing?initiatives all the way down to the content choices on your website’s blog.
Now, you know what is digital marketing, so let's proceed and know the types of digital marketing.
Types of Digital Marketing
If you have a computer or a smartphone, as many of us do, you’ve experienced digital marketing. It could be an email in your inbox, a search result when using Google, an ad on Facebook, a text message sent to your phone, or a post by an influencer on Instagram. As you can see, internet marketing is an expansive field with many areas of specialization. The core forms of digital marketing, however, are:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Put,?SEO?consists of carefully structuring and optimizing your website’s pages to achieve the best position possible on search engine result pages (SERPs) when internet users perform a search on an engine like Google that’s related to your business.
2. Paid Social and Paid Search Advertising
Ads that appear on social media are paid social ads, and all that seems on SERPs when you enter a query are paid search ads. Advertisers create these paid ads and compete with others for positions on their chosen social platform or the SERP for their selected search engine.
3. Email Marketing
Any marketing that occurs through email is known as?email marketing, and it’s not just for newsletters and coupons. All marketing-related interaction over email fits into this category.
4. Content Marketing
Every effort to market through online content is considered?content marketing?(and often employs SEO, paid search, and paid social advertising). For example, all these content types (and more) are grouped under the content marketing category:
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing?is a?type of digital marketing?in which companies reach out to third party websites to advertise their products and services. These are also known as referrals. The target audience of the affiliate website becomes important in this aspect of digital marketing. Some of the ways that affiliates are incentivized are based on:
6. Mobile Marketing
Mobile Marketing is a type of digital marketing focused on reaching the target audience via mobile devices. We all are excessive users of mobile devices and there is a good chance of tapping on to their attention by following simple marketing strategies. Push notifications, emailers, social media posts, MMS, SMS, newsletters are a part of Mobile Marketing.?
7. Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is a practice that increases brand awareness, and helps brands achieve their marketing objectives. A wide range of content buckets are available for social media marketing like videos, memes, static posts, trending posts, testimonials, stories, reels, etc.. If you perform SMM properly, there is a high chance that your conversion rates will increase, you will be able to build a good top-funnel traffic, and your paid marketing cost will go down.?
Checkout:?How to do Social Media Marketing?
Other types of digital marketing include marketing automation, design, apps, and SMS, web analytics, and growth hacking.
Benefits of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing has become hugely popular in such a short period, and for a good reason. Today’s customers and clients spend an increasing amount of time online, and they expect their favorite companies to be online, too.
The internet landscape might seem intimidating, but effective digital marketing can be an enormous boon for business. With careful strategy and implementation, the benefits of digital marketing on business include the expansion of the audience, meeting target customers where they’re spending their time, and achieving this for a far more affordable price than traditional marketing methods allow.
For these reasons and more, more than?60 percent?of marketers?have moved their focus from traditional to digital marketing.
How Digital Marketing Works?
While the benefits of digital marketing are plentiful, understand that each form of internet marketing functions in its way. Companies would be wise to assess the bigger picture before determining which forms of digital marketing in which to invest and which platforms to use. It’s generally recommended to crawl before you walk–start small with your online marketing strategy and grow as the company becomes accustomed to different areas.?
Digital marketing is hugely helpful to firms in that it allows them to grow their audience as far as their budget allows. On the other side of the coin, internet marketing offers companies the chance to focus clearly on marketing to the right audience. In other words, a firm may reach the perfect target clientele on a local, national, or international stage, all while staying on budget.?
Why Choose a Career in Digital Marketing??
Unsurprisingly, the demand for?digital marketers?is on the upswing. As more and more companies learn the value of internet marketing, job opportunities in the area continue to rise. Career prospects for advertising, in general, are durable, with an above-average expected growth rate of?9 percent.
How to Start a Career in Digital Marketing?
To get started with your?digital marketing career, you need two main elements in your background: education and experience. The good news is that employers aren’t necessarily seeking job candidates with marketing degrees or years of experience, as they may need people with?skills?that aren’t yet taught in college. Luckily there are plenty of great resources online to learn the tools of the trade. If you lack experience, consider doing the following:
Digital Marketers Salary and Future
The prospects for the job market for digital marketers are very positive. With so many?areas of specialization?and lots of demand for content creation and curation, social media strategy, and analytics, it’s a great time to enter the field.?
A significant increase in demand for marketing professionals is projected as well. According to PayScale, the average salary of a Digital Marketing Specialist in India is?Rs.348,928, and in the US is?$50,111. The salary of a Digital Marketing Manager in India is?Rs.541,919, and in the US is?$66,808. Since today’s job market needs talent, no matter the industry, you can negotiate for higher salary and benefits depending on the job, skills, and expertise you bring to the table.
Digital Marketing Roles and Responsibilities
Job responsibilities for digital marketers will vary depending on experience and specialization.?
For example, an SEO specialist will understand all aspects of SEO, including the know-how to drive organic traffic, identify and evaluate high-quality content, and make competitor analyses.?
On the other hand, a social media manager will devise a social media strategy in line with the identity of the brand, define a communication style and a content strategy, create and adapt the content for each social media network, and stay up-to-date on the latest digital marketing trends.
Now, as you are well versed with the understanding of what is digital marketing, its type, benefits, roles, and responsibilities let's have a look at the difference between inbound marketing and digital marketing.
What’s the Difference Between Inbound Marketing and Digital Marketing?
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing?is a form of marketing that can apply to digital or traditional marketing. Inbound functions like a magnet. The marketer provides content that is attractive to the intended audience, and the audience finds it of their own accord. In other words, it’s a form of marketing that isn’t forced upon its target.?
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing can be inbound or not. If you create incredible content on your website that draws in readers and turns them into customers, you’re using an inbound marketing strategy. If, however, you run ads on social media or search engines, you’re forcing your marketing onto the viewer, which is not an inbound method.
What’s Happening in Digital Marketing Today?
It’s been over a quarter-century since the first clickable banner ads appeared online, and Yahoo went live. Times have changed, though, and these days it’s companies like Google and Facebook that rule the digital marketing landscape.
Digital marketing never stands still. It’s a field that’s always evolving, with?new internet marketing trends?like artificial intelligence (AI) and video marketing growing at rapid rates. Even more established areas like SEO continue to shift year by year, and digital marketers must never stop learning.
Get Certified Today to Become a Digital Marketer
I believe you would have understood what is digital marketing, how does it work, and the type of digital marketing. If you like what you’ve read here about digital marketing, check out Simplilearn’s?Digital Marketing Course, and start your career in the modern way of marketing. We offer more than 40 hours of lessons via video, online mentoring sessions, and exam preparation for the most widely-recognized certifications in the field. Our?Digital Marketing tutorial?will help you to understand the basics of digital marketing.
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FAQs
1. What are the 4 main types of digital marketing?
Digital marketing can be categorized into several types. The 4 most promising and popular types of digital marketing are -?
2. What skills do I need for digital marketing?
Here are some top skills that a professional for digital marketing needs:?
3. How do I learn digital marketing?
Digital marketing can be learnt easily from the comfort of your home. Enroll in Simplilearn’s??PGP in Digital Marketing?and learn top digital skills in just 6 months. You will get to interact with Purdue University in masterclasses and get hands-on experience on latest digital marketing techniques.