Digital marketing is one of the most popular and powerful ways to generate awareness, interest and sales for your products or services. As the name implies, digital marketing is conducted via digital avenues, including social media, websites, search engines, email and text messaging.
For optimal results, you must understand which digital marketing tactics will work best for your target audience. This post offers an in-depth look at the most effective digital marketing strategies and best practices for achieving your business goals.
key takeaways
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Social media is the go-to source for brand information for 78% of internet users.
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Paid advertising is a digital marketing service where businesses pay to display their ads across various online platforms.
Learn more about information you disclose to us.
Social media is the go-to source for brand information for 78% of internet users.
Learn more about information you disclose to us.
summary of key points
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What Is Digital Marketing?
Also known as online marketing or internet marketing, digital marketing communicates messages through digital channels accessed through electronic devices, including phones, computers and tablets.
Digital marketing and traditional marketing, such as print ads and direct mail, share the same ultimate goal: generating product awareness and influencing purchasing decisions to drive sales. The main difference between traditional and digital marketing is that digital marketing uses internet-connected technologies to communicate and engage with targeted audiences.
The launch of the World Wide Web in 1989 set the stage for the emergence of digital marketing. The proliferation of business websites, advancements in email technologies and the introduction of wildly popular social channels have sparked meteoric growth in digital marketing. Online marketing is now a key component in most businesses’ marketing plans primarily because of the widespread use of digital technologies but also because it can deliver outstanding results.
Social media is the go-to source for brand information for 78% of internet users. Nearly half of U.S. consumers report they’ve made a purchase through social media.
Types and Strategies of Digital Marketing
Creating a solid digital marketing strategy for your business begins with a better understanding of the types of digital marketing methods that yield the best returns. Below, we introduce you to six types of digital marketing: social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email marketing, mobile marketing and content marketing.
1. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is one of the most popular forms of digital marketing. In the United States alone, over 308 million people access a social network at least once per month. People of all ages use social media for entertainment, interacting with others, gaining information about specific interests and shopping.
For businesses hoping to gain visibility and sales, social media statistics reveal that incorporating social media into your marketing mix can be a sound strategy. Social media is the go-to source for brand information for 78% of internet users. Nearly half of U.S. consumers report they’ve made a purchase through social media.
Top social platforms include YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat and X (formerly Twitter). New platforms, such as BeReal and Poparazzi, are entering the market regularly.
2. SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital digital marketing strategy for businesses that benefit from driving traffic to their websites. SEO is the process of optimizing your website so search engines, such as Google rank your website high on search engine results pages (SERPs).
SEO is all about driving organic traffic to your site. Unlike paid advertising, with SEO, visitors who find your site come from unpaid searches. Approximately 8.5 billion searches are done on Google daily, which presents a lot of opportunities for businesses that want to promote their product and services. Ranking high on Google is key to driving more traffic to your website.
““When you embrace direct marketing best practices, you’re far more likely to achieve the stellar results you want”.”
Evgenia Wagner CEO at Delta Studio
3. PPC Advertising
PPC advertising is precisely what the name implies: you pay a fee every time someone clicks on your digital ads. The amount you’ll pay is determined by the platform you’re advertising on, the potential traffic for your promoted post and the number of competitors willing to pay for similar ads.
Google Ads is the largest PPC platform in the world. Many businesses who engage in SEO marketing also engage in PPC advertising on Google. Paid ads on Google appear above organic search results and that positioning advantage can drive even more traffic to your website.
Google Ads is not your only avenue for PPC advertising. You can also purchase PPC ads via the Microsoft Search Network on Bing and partner sites as well as on top social channels, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Amazon and TikTok.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is another top digital marketing strategy you’ll likely want to add to your marketing mix. According to Statista, businesses earn an average of at least $32 for every dollar spent on email marketing. For some sectors, such as retail, e-commerce and consumer goods, that number is $45.
To be effective at email marketing, you must develop a strategy for collecting email addresses from clients and prospects. Many businesses collect emails with every customer encounter, sometimes offering a special incentive for joining an email list. Your business website is also a terrific place to offer incentives to visitors so you can grow your email database.
Growing and nurturing your email list is vital to successful email marketing. You also must respect the communication preferences of your list and only send relevant information that your base
wants to receive. Also, failing to manage the legal aspects of email marketing, including staying compliant with CAN/SPAM Act mandates, is paramount for email marketing success. Rather than managing business email manually, most marketers acquire email marketing software. The best email marketing software makes it effortless to keep your email database updated, handling new subscribers and unsubscribes for you.
Social media is the go-to source for brand information for 78% of internet users. Nearly half of U.S. consumers report they’ve made a purchase through social media.
pros and cons of digital marketing
- You can focus your efforts on only the prospects most likely to purchase your product or service.
- It's more cost-effective than outbound marketing methods.
- Digital marketing evens the playing field within your industry and allows you to compete with bigger brands.
- Digital marketing is measurable.
- You can focus your efforts on only the prospects most likely to purchase your product or service.
- It's more cost-effective than outbound marketing methods.
- Digital marketing evens the playing field within your industry and allows you to compete with bigger brands.
- Digital marketing is measurable.
Digital Marketing Best Practices
While digital marketing can be very effective for building business results, you must understand the drivers of success. When you embrace direct marketing best practices, you’re far more likely to achieve the stellar results you want.
Establish Your Digital Marketing Goals
Before engaging in any type of digital marketing, you must establish SMART goals. Specifically, what do you want to accomplish? Examples of top digital marketing goals include:
- Increase website traffic
- Build brand awareness
- Boost brand engagement
- Become known as an expert in your industry
- Generate more qualified leads
Define Your Target Audience
You must have a well-defined audience in mind before selecting digital marketing channels and content marketing strategies. Otherwise, you risk creating messaging or using digital marketing tactics that are off the mark.
Defining your target audience begins with identifying shared attributes, including age, gender, income and education levels, geographic locations, interests and purchasing patterns. Next, you need to identify the specific problems your audience is facing or the pressing desires they have. Once your target audience is defined clearly, you can develop digital marketing messaging that highlights how your business solves their top problems or satisfies their needs.
Social media is the go-to source for brand information for 78% of internet users. Nearly half of U.S. consumers report they’ve made a purchase through social media.
Do United States Residents Have Specific Privacy Rights?
If you are a resident of the United States, you are granted specific rights regarding access to your personal information.
We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information. Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse
certain cookies is set out in our
| Category | Examples | Data Collected |
|---|---|---|
| A. Identifiers | Contact details, such as real name, alias, postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, and account name | Yes |
| B. Protected classification characteristics under state or federal law | Gender and date of birth | No |
| C. Commercial information | Transaction information, purchase history, financial details, and payment information | No |
| D. Biometric information | Fingerprints and voiceprints | Yes |
| E. Internet or other similar network activity | Browsing history, search history, online behavior, interest data, and interactions with our and other websites, applications, systems, and advertisements | Yes |
| F. Geolocation data | Device location | Yes |
| G. Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar info | Images and audio, video or call recordings created in connection with our business activities | Yes |
| H. Professional or employment-related info | Business contact details in order to provide you our Services at a business level or job title, work history, and professional qualifications if you apply for a job with us | Yes |
| I. Education Information | Student records and directory information | No |
| J. Inferences drawn from collected personal info | Inferences drawn from any of the collected personal information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual’s preferences and characteristics | No |
| K. Sensitive personal Information | ' | No |
CONCLUSION
Digital marketing helps you reach a larger audience than you could through traditional methods and target the prospects who are most likely to buy your product or service. Additionally, it's often more cost-effective than traditional advertising and enables you to measure success on a daily basis and pivot as you see fit.
There are a few major benefits of digital marketing:
- You can focus your efforts on only the prospects most likely to purchase your product or service.
- It's more cost-effective than outbound marketing methods.
- Digital marketing evens the playing field within your industry and allows you to compete with bigger brands.
- Digital marketing is measurable.
Wesley Quinn
Digital Hunch Author
RESOURCES
- "State of Inbound" by HubSpot: Annual report on inbound marketing trends, strategies, and benchmarks
- "Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends" by Content Marketing Institute: Data and analysis on content marketing trends and effectiveness.
- "The State of Digital Marketing" by SEMrush: An annual report analyzing trends in digital marketing across various channels.
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