Every business whether small or big should adopt the channel of Digital Marketing in today’s era of e-commerce and online marketing.
The present generation of millennials is no exception. Their perception and lifestyle have changed evidently with a shift in marketing, promotion, and business methods.
With most of the population connected to the internet, enhancing businesses with digital marketing has become more of a necessity.
Online marketing has transformed the ways of doing business compared to the traditional ways.
Let’s understand what Digital or online marketing means.
Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is the channel or process through which businesses promote their products and services. It is carried out through various channels, such as social media, browsers, and websites, and can be accessed through various electronic devices, such as laptops, computers, mobiles, tablets, etc.
In other words, online marketing is about using different forms of channels such as email. Websites, social media to promote businesses and target their existing or new customers.
At present, with the constant technological and Artificial Intelligence advancements, it has become an important aspect for every type and size of businesses to opt for Digital Marketing.
Businesses can take advantage of E-marketing to curate products and services according to the potential customers. The large wealth of data available can be used to understand and analyze customer behaviour to provide personalized recommendations to the customers to influence their needs and desires and engage them with your business.
Website analytics tools also help to analyze customers’ or users’ browsing behaviour and factors such as time spent which provides significant data to learn about customers’ tastes and preferences.
The market has become customer- oriented unlike the traditional ways, in which selling was the only motive of sellers. Now, digital marketing gives a platform to provide maximum customer satisfaction and convenience, simultaneously increasing the growth of businesses.
Channels of Digital Marketing
Given the time people spend on the internet, promoting products and services through the same makes perfect sense. The old ways of promotion through billboards, banners and magazines have changed.
• Social Media Marketing – over 70% of internet users are on some type of social media platform such as Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin etc. hence, it has become one of the most popular channels of digital marketing to promote businesses. It can be leveraged to enhance businesses by creating relevant content, sponsored ads and collaborations.
Small businesses can make great use of it as social media marketing is almost free and an easy-to-use channel of Online marketing.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – it is a vital part of Marketing if businesses want to promote products and services through websites. SEO is concerned about getting the website on top of a search engine’s search results.
Using relevant keywords is also an integral part as it will make the website relevant to the user’s search and will rank the website on the front page. To make the best use of SEO, one has to either learn by themselves or hire a skilled person.
• Email Marketing – the returns on Email marketing are fair despite being a very simple method. Mails regarding products and services are sent to potential customers by acquiring their mail Ids. The promotion emails are shown at the top of the inbox which makes the engagement chances very high.
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC)– PPC has been a very fast effective way in terms of audience engagement. In this method, one has to choose and bid for the keywords they would like their ads to be seen when a user searches for those keywords and the money will only be payable when a user clicks on the ad and gets directed to the business website. However, PPC requires some investment which should be addressed before opting for the method.
• Affiliate Marketing– is a commission-induced marketing in which businesses reach social media users who have a significant number of followers or viewers. They are provided with affiliate or product links and if the sale is made through those links. The promoter takes a cut and the business gets a sale. Affiliate marketing has gained wide popularity as it has shown good results in terms of business promotion and marketing.
• Influencer marketing– involves reaching a social media personality who has a great number of followers and the businesses either display advertisements, promote products, or give reviews. The influencer charges a fee for these types of promotions.
Importance and Advantages of Digital Marketing
• Digitalization – customers are rapidly moving to internet-based shopping namely e-commerce. Thus, in order to keep up and apply new methods to thrive in the competitive market: a business has to consider online marketing to promote their products and services.
• Customer tracking– digital marketing helps businesses to understand the dynamic nature of customers, purchasing behaviour, taste and preferences which helps businesses to provide customized and personalized recommendations.
• Cost effective– online marketing is cost cost-effective promotion because it eliminates the need for physical factors and resources, channels such as email, social media marketing incur the least or no cost.
• Brand building– online marketing creates a brand for the business, choosing the right channels and applying skills to attract customers, leading to loyal customers and brand promotion.
• PR and reputation– setting up and optimal use of channels of digital marketing helps businesses to build good relationships with customers through quick address to customer grievances, complaint registration, after sales services: which is necessary to build credibility and reputation of business.
Digital or Online marketing is an inevitable aspect in today’s world, with the innovation of new techniques and strategies, businesses have to choose the right channels and methods to enhance their businesses with Digital Marketing. The growing competition in the business world requires others to be creative and have the skills to allocate resources for the maximum benefit of the business.
FAQs
• What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing or Online Marketing is the promotional activities of products and services of businesses.
• Key channels of Digital marketing?
Social media, SEO, PPC, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, email marketing.
• Which is the most trending channel?
Social Media is the most popular and trending channel of Digital Marketing as over 70% of internet users are active on social media.
• How businesses can measure or analyze the Digital Marketing campaigns?
It can be measured through various metrics such as website traffic, tools and analytics, conversation rates, engagement levels, return on investment (ROI).