Digital Marketing is any and all forms of marketing that use digital technologies and channels to deliver information about a product or brand.
Examples of Digital Marketing
Examples of digital marketing technologies include the public Internet as well as private networks, such as Microsoft’s Xbox Live service. Examples of digital channels include websites, paid search advertising, and mobile apps.
- Your website
- Email marketing
- SMS marketing
- Paid Search
- Blog posts
- Ebooks and white papers
- Social Media
- Mobile apps
- Podcasts and radio
- Electronic billboards
- Interactive television
We put ‘Your website’ at the top of this list. While it often receives the least amount of attention, but it is your #1 sales tool. In the State of B2B Procurement study report, 94% of business buyers do some form of online research and 84.3% start their research on the businesses website.
The key benefit of digital marketing, which is significant from non-digital marketing, is the ability to monitor, manage and measure.
Multi-channel marketing is key
Effective digital marketers are able to use numerous tools to manage all aspects of their digital marketing. This helps marketers quickly understand what works and what doesn’t. For example, digital marketing enables marketers to manage campaigns, determine how effective those campaigns are and then use techniques such as Conversion Rate Optimization, Search Engine Optimization and other techniques to improve performance.
Why is Digital Marketing Important?
Over the last decade, digital has made a significant impact, most notably to the retail industry. In 2017 the US retail industry is on pace to close more retails stores than the 6,200 closed during the Great Recession in 2008
The titanic changes in the retail industry are due in large part because consumers can easily access product reviews, discuss product experiences and price compare – all with their mobile phone.
These are both opportunities and challenges for marketers.
Opportunities and challenges
Opportunities because these are all ways that marketers can reach potential customers. However, these are also challenges. Competitors and too many channels and technologies can make for a chaotic, and ineffective, digital strategy.
What are Common Tactics for Effective Digital Marketing?
Below are some of the common tactics for effective digital marketing along with some meaningful statistics from our list of Digital Marketing Statistics, Data and Trends for 2017.
Email Marketing
Sending an email to potential customers or prospects remains that best ROI. A June 2016 survey of US marketers conducted by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Demand Metric found that email had a median ROI of 122% – more than four times higher than other marketing formats.
Search Engine Optimization
Organic search drives 51% of all visitors to business-to-business and business-to-consumer Web sites, whereas paid search drives 10% and social 5%. Search Engine Optimization should be part of your website strategy. This includes both creating content and writing content against keywords that your audience is looking for.
Paid Search (or Pay-per-Click Advertising)
89% of customers begin their buying process with a search engine. While organic search will help you get found, paid search will ensure your offer is found. However, the challenge with paid search is that buys know what is advertising and what is not.
Content Marketing
Year-over-year growth in unique site traffic is 7.8x higher for content marketing leaders compared to followers (19.7% vs 2.5%). Content marketing is a tactic used in all of your digital marketing strategies to create unique and compelling content for your visitors.
Native Advertising (Creating Viral Content)
Native advertising refers to your marketing content that is shared, such as on Twitter. A great example of this is Dollar Shave Club. In 2012, they used a viral launch video to drive awareness.
Digital PR
This is simply a tactic, similar to traditional PR, to build meaningful relationships with content writers, online journalists, and analysts. When they write about your industry or topic area, they reference you back helping to build your brand’s credibility.
What are Common Strategies for Effective Digital Marketing?
The digital marketing industry is abuzz about all the great tools to help digital marketers. Despite all the new channels from Twitter to Facebook, your #1 marketing asset is still your website.
94% of business buyers do some form of online research and 84.3% start their research on the businesses website
Your Website
One of our first recommendations, when we work with small businesses, is to invest more in their website. It is the foundation of the entire digital strategy and is also the most cost-effective and convenient way to educate prospective buyers.
Social Media
Once you have an effective website strategy you can increase awareness through the use of social media channels. This is part of the overall search engine optimization and content marketing strategy and you should use the variety of social media channels to re-publish any/all content.
