Digital Marketing

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing includes all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Businesses influence digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with current and prospective customers.

How does a business define digital marketing?

Digital marketing is defined using numerous digital tactics and channels to connect with customers where they spend much of their time: online.

From the website itself to a business’s online branding assets — digital advertising, email marketing, online brochures, and beyond, there’s a variety of tactics that fall under the umbrella of “digital marketing.”

The best digital marketers have a clear picture of how each digital marketing campaign supports their overarching goals. And depending on the goals of their marketing strategy, marketers can support a larger campaign through the free and paid channels at their disposal.

When you get down to it, digital marketing is simply marketing.

It is how today’s businesses are getting their message in front of their best prospects and customers.

Rule #1 in marketing is to make the right offer at the right time and in the right place.

Today, must of your customers are online: hanging out in social media, staying updated on news sites and blogs, and searching online when they have a need.

Digital marketing puts you in those same channels, so your best prospects can see you, learn more about you, and even ask questions to learn more about you and your products or services.

And yes, there are different tactics you’ll need to learn. But they all work together to create a foundation for your business: attracting prospects, nurturing relationships, and making offers your audience will appreciate and respond to.

How Does it Work?

In many ways, digital marketing is no different than traditional marketing. In both, smart organizations seek to develop mutually beneficial relationships with prospects, leads, and customers.

But digital marketing has replaced most traditional marketing tactics because it’s designed to reach today’s consumers.

Here an example…

Think about the last purchases you made. Perhaps you purchased a car, hired someone to fix your roof, or changed paper suppliers at your office.

Anyway, you probably began by searching the Internet to learn more about available solutions, who provided them, and what your best options were. Your ultimate buying decision was then based on the reviews you read, the friends and family you consulted, and the solutions, features, and pricing you researched.

Most purchasing decisions begin online.

That being the case, an online presence is absolutely necessary—regardless of what you sell.

The key is to develop a digital marketing strategy that puts you in all the places your followers are already hanging out, then using a variety of digital channels to connect with them in a multitude of ways.

1. Content to keep them updated with industry news, the problems they’re facing, and how you solve those problems…
2. Social media to share that content and then engage with them as friends and followers…
3. Search engine optimization (SEO) to optimize your content, so it will show up when someone is searching for the information you’ve written about…
4. Advertising to drive Organic or paid traffic to your website, where people can see your offers…
5. Email marketing to follow up with your audience to be sure they continue to get the solutions they’re looking for.
6. Sales Funnel is a consumer-focused marketing model which illustrates the theoretical customer journey towards the purchase of a good or service.

When you put all these pieces together, you’ll end up with an efficient, easy-to-operate digital marketing machine.