The Main Types of Digital Marketing: An Informative Guide
With every year, more and more people jump online.
Almost 5 billion people used the internet in 2020, which is a huge leap from what it was just a couple of decades ago! As the world’s obsession with digital grows, so does the importance of digital marketing.
With a huge chunk of the population online, you’d be missing out on a huge audience if you didn’t start to market your brand on the world wide web. But, where do you start?
To help you out, here’s a guide on the different types of digital marketing, giving you an introduction to each technique you could start to use.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is somewhat self-explanatory; it’s the method of gaining business through search engines. With an average of 3.5 billion Google searches every single day, there’s a massive audience browsing the search engines, making it a prime spot to be in! Another key benefit of marketing in search engines is that the people searching are actively looking for your, or a business like yours, making them much more likely to be susceptible to your efforts if they do click on you.
But, getting those all-important clicks is the tough part! This is where SEO and PPC come in. They’re two different digital marketing types that fall under the umbrella of SEM, and they’re coming up right… now!
Search Engine Optimization
First is SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. There are tons of companies out there offering SEO digital marketing services and it’s a vital part of a successful digital strategy. SEO is the method of pushing your website up the results pages of search engines (SERPs), trying to get you into those coveted top positions.
Not many people bother browsing past the first few results, and barely any make it onto the second page after they’ve searched something. So, making sure that your site ranks highly for relevant keywords or phrases is vital. There are tons of techniques that can help with your SEO, including link strategies, keyword optimization, and local listings (check out listing management software to find out more!).
Pay Per Click
When it comes to digital marketing options, PPC (Pay Per Click) is one of the easiest ones to deploy. Unlike SEO which takes a lot of time and experience, PPC is almost instant! The idea is that, rather than using SEO to get you to the top of the search results, you can pay search engines to put you there as an ad.
To make sure PPC works for you, you’ll have to know the keywords and phrases to bid for and create enticing metadata that’ll hook your audience.
Content Marketing
If you’re creative, this will be your best digital marketing technique! Content marketing is just generating content for your business, like blogs, images, and videos, and sharing them with the world. The idea of content marketing is less about putting your brand in front of users and more about creating relationships with those you already have.
Good content should engage your audience, add value to your brand, and show you off as an industry leader. It should bring a personality to your business that your audience connects with, rather than directly selling products or services. Over time, your content marketing should build you a loyal customer base of people who believe in your brand.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is similar to content marketing. It involves generating content and putting it out into the world, but it’s a little bit more complex. Alongside valuable content, you can also attract a wider audience (by using hashtags, following other profiles, etc.) and engage with them.
Social media marketing is another great way to build lasting relationships. You can offer quick customer service through direct messaging, improve your branding with a consistent tone of voice, and show your audience more of who you are, not just what you’re selling.
Influencer Marketing
Social media marketing often goes hand in hand with influencer marketing, though the two can be done separately. Influencer marketing is when your business teams up with an influencer (someone with a large following, usually on social media) to promote your brand. For example, you could have an Instagrammer who posts about their home DIY frequently showing off your paint or flooring.
The idea here is that you’re marketing to an audience who’s interested in your niche through the influencer. This gives you access to a huge audience who trusts the person they’re following, making them more susceptible to your ads. Just be careful to pick an influencer whose morals align with yours and whose followers actively like and comment on posts!
Email Marketing
When it comes to the kinds of digital marketing out there, email marketing is one of the oldest in the book; but that doesn’t mean there’s no place for it in the modern world! Email marketing is a great way to get attention without spending much money (or none if you do it all yourself) and can bring in a lot of new customers while building relationships with old ones. Whether cold emailing or sending out newsletters to your mailing list, there’s always a place for email.
Explore the Types of Digital Marketing
These are just the main types of digital marketing, and there are plenty more out there! But, if you’re just starting to market your brand online, focus on these first until you find your footing. Each of these methods is tried and tested and, if you do them right, will bring you results.
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