Digital Marketing is the present and future of marketing. Universities have started offering it as an accredited degree program. There are different types of Digital Marketing that you need to know as a digital marketer.
What is Digital Marketing?
This is a term that many of us are familiar with, but not knowing what it actually means.
Digital marketing refers to all marketing activities that employs the use of the internet and electronic devices to promote products and brands.
Most traditional marketing means have adopted digital versions of their marketing strategies. For instance, print magazines now have digital circulations that people can subscribe on a monthly basis to read
11 Digital Skills You Need to Succeed as a Digital Marketer
Below are types of digital marketing that you should consider for your business
1. Content Marketing.
This is an umbrella term that refers to any form of digital marketing that utilizes content creation as its core marketing strategy. As a content creator, you come up with a content strategy (content series) that will empower your prospects, attract them to your website and compel them to take a desired action.
These actions vary from one business to another. For publishers, subscription to email lists is preferred. For ecommerce, discounted sales are more preferred.
The key to successful content marketing is provision of highly researched, quality, evergreen, useful and relevant content that is not salesly in anyway. The secret is positioning yourself as an authority in your field so as to earn loyalty from your customers
Examples of content types used in content marketing include whitepapers, case studies, blog posts, newsletters, infographics, videos, podcasts, etc.
2. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is not celebrity viral posts. To be an influencer, you need to be commanding a large social following. Social media influencers have seen the rise in the demand of their services in the recent past.
So, what is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing, (influence marketing) is a type of digital marketing where brands collaborate with influencers to market their products and services, or even to boost awareness.
Influencer marketing works because influencers have amassed high amount of trust and loyalty from their following. Thus their recommendations usually receive high traction which then translate to profitable customer actions
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization refers to all the undertakings that a content creator/webmaster undertakes so that their posts can be found by search engines, and rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages, (SERPs)
It is a process of getting quality (search-intent) traffic for free via organic searches from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.
SEO is thus one of the most important types of digital marketing as it allows your content to be found by people who are actually searching for it.
Some of the most important search engine optimization techniques that you can employ include relevant link building, keyword research, long tail keywords, loading speed optimization, guest posting for quality websites etc.
4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing is now used to refer to the act of promoting ones products and services through paid promotions in search engine results pages (SERPs). Ads normally appear as first three results in most search engines such as Google. The ads are also shown below search results and sometimes on the right sidebar.
Google utilizes platform called Google Ads (formerly Adwords) that allow you to run your campaigns, edit, monitor them and stop them as you deem fit. These are paid per click adverts. This means you are not charged per impressions but per clicks.
In order to optimize your search engine marketing accordingly, you need to take time to understand keywords and their respective cost per clicks. Google’s Keyword Planner tool will aid in this. However, there are other tools that you can use to better understand your audience and your marketing needs.
5. Pay per Click Advertising
This generally includes a form of marketing that utilizes paid promotions (PPC). Thus, search engine marketing falls under Pay per Click Marketing. Marketers are not charged on impressions but only if someone clicks on the ad. Charges vary based on keywords competitions.
It is a way of using search engine advertising to generate traffic to your website instead of earning those clicks organically overtime
Pay per Click marketing includes display advertising and affiliate marketing.
Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, is the most popular platform that marketers use for pay per click advertising. Other platforms include Bing Ads.
When running PPC campaigns, choose targeted keywords that have high click through rate and low cost-per-click rates
6. Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a term used to refer to activities that one takes to promote themselves and/or their businesses on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest Marketing etc. As a digital marketer, you want to focus on social networks that work for your business.
Sharing quality content that is relevant, useful and entertaining is a great way to engage with your audience/customers, build loyalty and boost your brand awareness. Social platforms also allow you to respond to your customers’ concern.
As a social media strategist, you’ll analyze your campaigns to know what is working and what is not, so that you can tweak your social media marketing strategies accordingly. Thus, you need to stay abreast of social media trends, so you always ahead of the game.
7. Email Marketing
Email marketing has been one of the most important types of digital marketing for a while. This is because email lists are owned assets, unlike other content distribution and discovery channels where you have no certainty that they will be there tomorrow.
Email marketing involves building an email list, often by offering an audience-specific incentive such as a free eBook in exchange for their email addresses. Once you have them on your list, then you work on earning their trust by sending them valuable content that will benefit them.
You can create an automated email sequence that serves a specific purpose/ leads to a specific call to action. There are several list-building tools that can help you build an engaging email list.
8. Affiliate Marketing
This is the type of digital marketing that allows digital marketers to substantially reduce their marketing workload by outsourcing it from other content creators and service providers.
Affiliate marketing is an effective approach to marketing since you do not have upfront costs. As a marketer utilizing this form of marketing, you get to decide commission rates that you want to pay your affiliates.
However, not everyone is able to run affiliate marketing successfully. You need means that allows you to empower your affiliates so that they can drive more sales. Success of affiliate marketing also largely depends on the landing pages where the referrals land as this have an effect on the conversion rates
9. Landing Page Marketing
A landing page is a page that visitors first land on when they arrive on a website. Homepages and squeeze pages are examples of landing pages.
Landing page marketing thus refer to the activities that digital marketers undertake to optimize their landing pages for maximum conversion.
An optimized page is engaging, easy to read, and compels a purchase or subscription decision.
So to speak, landing page marketing is at the heart core of digital marketing. While other types of digital marketing bring traffic to a website, landing page marketing is responsible for converting these visitors into customers and subscribers
10. Instant Messaging Marketing.
This type of digital marketing, though new, has become popular over the past year or two. With the advent of social media networks that make use of group and private chats, it was just but a matter of time before businesses could find ways to tap into this opportunity.
Instant messaging marketing utilizes social networks messaging such as Facebook messenger to deliver promotional and educational content to customers
11. Radio/Televison Advertising
This is perhaps one of the oldest types of digital marketing that is still popular to date. However, it is only utilized by big companies and brands since it is an expensive venture.
An average person spends 4.5 hours a day watching Television thus leveraging this type of marketing can help your business reach wider audience
