Digital marketing is more than just a trend. It’s a must if you want to thrive online.
With people spending more than six hours online every day, it’s vital to know what digital marketing channels to use to appeal to your target audience.
Digital marketing is constantly evolving, so you have to keep up with the latest developments. For example, three years ago, Threads didn’t exist, X was Twitter, and nobody knew anything about ChatGPT.
Want to become an A+ digital marketer?
In this article, I’ll explain what digital marketing is, the types of digital marketing channels available, and how to build a digital marketing strategy that delivers results.
Key Takeaways
- Digital marketing uses digital channels to promote a product or service.
- Examples of digital marketing include SEO, pay-per-click (PPC), social media marketing, and content marketing.
- Digital marketing techniques and strategies help businesses reach their target audience, engage with them, and convert them into customers.
- All businesses, regardless of size, budget, or industry, can use digital marketing to attract customers.
- To create an effective digital marketing strategy, research and understand your target audience, set well-defined goals, identify the right channels to use, and track your results.
Table of Contents
- Key Takeaways
- What Is Digital Marketing?
- Why Digital Marketing Matters
- Online Marketing Channels
- Omnichannel Digital Marketing
- 4 Steps to Build Your Digital Marketing Strategy
- Partnering with a Digital Marketing Agency
- FAQs
- Conclusion
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a method for promoting your business using digital channels. By digital channels, I mean any platform that lets you reach your customers online, such as social media or email marketing.
Effective digital marketing gets your brand in front of online audiences and enhances visibility to increase engagement, click-throughs, and conversions.
Why Digital Marketing Matters
Analysts predict global digital advertising spending will reach a staggering $870 billion by 2027.
This massive investment reflects the growing power and potential of online marketing. So, why else should your business invest in online marketing?
- It provides you with valuable data. Digital marketing gives you access to vital analytics about your customers, how they navigate the buying cycle, and what products or services they want. You can use this information to analyze what works and make data-driven decisions to grow your business.
- It helps you reach a wider audience. Digital marketing allows you to reach a wider, more global audience than through traditional marketing methods. For example, by 2028, there will be over 6 billion social media users.
- It’s cost-effective. Digital marketing is more affordable than traditional marketing methods like TV or print advertising. With platforms like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you only pay when people click on your ad. You can also create highly targeted campaigns with a better return on investment (ROI).
- It offers greater engagement. You can use a combination of digital marketing channels to keep your audience engaged and build brand loyalty. For instance, creating a blog with informative content can showcase your expertise, attracting visitors and making them more likely to buy. According to HubSpot, 56 percent of people say they’ve made a purchase from a company after reading a blog post.
Online Marketing Channels
You now know what digital marketing is and what the benefits are, but how do you use it?
Here are the digital marketing channels you can use to grow your business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website and content to perform better in search engines like Google.
Good SEO boosts your visibility, which can lead to increased website traffic and more conversions.
A well-structured SEO strategy involves:
- Detailed keyword research
- Optimizing pages for readability and user experience (UX)
- Creating high-quality content that generates backlinks
- Improving the layout, responsiveness, and speed of your web pages
SEO attracts visitors who are actively looking for your product or service, but it takes time to work. It’ll likely be months before you see results, but it’s well worth the wait and effort.
Here are some examples of what a solid SEO strategy can achieve:
- Universal Technical Institute (UTI) gained 982 number one rankings in Google, a 20% YoY increase.
- CNN grew its search audience by 91 percent over a YoY period.
- Verint increased clicks from organic searches by 32 percent year over year (YoY).
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing is all about promoting a website through paid advertising.
The most popular form of SEM is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, like the ads you see on Google, Facebook, and other social media sites.
SEM works through an instant auction process. Advertisers place a bid for a particular keyword or serve their ad to a customer that matches their key demographic.
The SEM platform then chooses which ad to serve based on a variety of values, including:
- Bid amount
- Ad relevance
- Ad quality
- How the ad will perform
- How much value the ad will provide to customers
The main advantages of SEM are that it delivers fast results and has many precise targeting options, making it easy to reach the people most likely to convert.
However, it can be costly, especially if you don’t have a well-thought-out strategy behind it, and it stops working when you stop paying.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating high-quality, valuable content that attracts and engages audiences.
This type of online marketing can come in many forms, including:
- Blog posts
- Case studies
- E-books and white papers
- Email newsletters
- Podcasts
- Infographics
- Quizzes
Rather than taking the direct sales approach, content marketing educates, entertains, or addresses consumers’ pain points. Over time, this develops a connection between a brand and its audience, making them more likely to become buyers.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 75 percent of respondents say content marketing is pivotal to building brand trust and awareness.
While content marketing is highly effective, it can take time to create great content that resonates with the needs of your target audience.
HubSpot is an excellent example of a brand that uses content marketing to its advantage.
It uses a combination of blogs, newsletters, videos, and podcasts to connect with its audience. It also provides free templates, e-books, workbooks, and courses that nurture prospective customers and encourage them to reach out when they’re ready to buy.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is when businesses use video content to promote their products or services—whether on a website, social media, or a platform like YouTube or Vimeo.
It’s easier than ever to make and upload a video—all you need is a smartphone with a camera and an internet connection, and you’re good to go.
Videos are easy to watch and highly engaging, and customers can watch them on the go—almost 70 percent of people who watch videos do so on their smartphones.
While videos are a fantastic addition to your online marketing strategy, there is a lot of competition online. This means you need to make sure your videos stand out from the rest.
Sephora does a great job with its video marketing. It creates videos that answer questions and provide value, involves relevant influencers, and uploads content regularly—many search engines and social media algorithms favor frequent activity.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing uses platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn to reach your target audience, create brand awareness, and promote products or services.
Regularly publishing content can drive website traffic, build customer relationships, and enhance sales. You can also use paid social advertising to precisely target users based on their demographics, interests, and behavior.
Social media marketing success depends on selecting the right platform for your audience, creating content that resonates with them, and engaging with them by responding to comments.
The main advantage of social media marketing is the vast audience base, which puts your brand in front of a global audience. You also have access to a wide range of analytics you can use to enhance your overall digital marketing strategy.
However, it can be hard to stand out because of the sheer amount of content on social media. Plus, a platform changing its algorithms or policies can significantly affect how you market your business.
Wendy’s is a brand that stands out on social media. The fast-food chain isn’t afraid to poke fun at its competitors and takes the time to engage with followers playfully.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is when a business collaborates with a high-profile, trusted, authoritative personality on social media to promote products or services.
People trust what influencers have to say, with 61 percent of Gen Zers and millennials saying they trust the recommendations influencers make.
There are influencers for every business, no matter what they sell or what their budget is. Micro-influencers, often niche experts with between 1,000 and 50,000 followers, are great. They’re cost-effective and take the time to engage with commenters.
While influencer marketing can build brand awareness and target new customers, it’s vital to plan a thorough campaign. Choosing an influencer who shares your values and has a track record of creating compelling content is essential.
Hootsuite recently ran a fantastic campaign on LinkedIn, recruiting multiple leading digital marketers to promote its Social Media Trends report. Hootsuite used influencer marketers’ authority to show that its report is credible and a valuable source of information.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketers promote products and services through mailing lists, website content, YouTube, and other online marketing platforms.
When a buyer clicks on an affiliate link and completes a purchase, the affiliate marketer earns a commission through a unique tracking link.
Affiliate marketing works hand in hand with influencer marketing—influencers can advertise products and services to their followers and receive additional income.
Affiliate marketing gives your products and services a much wider reach and is cost-effective, as you only pay when an affiliate makes a sale. On the negative side, affiliate schemes can be challenging to manage, especially if you work with many affiliates.
Shopify offers up to $2,000 to affiliates who persuade customers to sign up for a plan, but there are other affiliate marketing platforms out there, too. Here are some of my favorites to inspire your affiliate marketing strategy.
Email Marketing
Email marketing works by encouraging users to sign up for mailing lists through lead magnets, websites, and opt-in forms. Buyers might also sign up for a newsletter when buying a product or service.
Email marketing is one of the most popular, cost-effective digital marketing channels, with an average return on investment (ROI) of $36 to $42 for every dollar you spend. This is because you’re sending highly personalized content to people who have actively signed up to hear more about your products and services.
The biggest challenge of email marketing is legal compliance and ensuring that your use of email complies with regulations, including the CAN-SPAM Act and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Lush is just one company embracing email marketing. Its emails are bright and vivid, in line with its brand identity, and they feature recommended products and fun elements like videos and quizzes to keep customers engaged.
OTT Advertising
Over-the-top (OTT) advertising is when businesses advertise on streaming platforms or devices to reach prospective customers.
More people use streaming services than ever before—83 percent of U.S. households have at least one subscription. Twenty-five percent of all streaming sign-ups are ad-supported, meaning lots of advertising opportunities for businesses.
The key benefit of OTT advertising is that there are many platforms and advertising options to choose from—everything from Netflix and Hulu to smaller, more niche platforms.
However, it’s trickier to track the customer journey than on other digital marketing channels. This means it’s harder to see if your advertisements lead to sales and conversions.
SMS Marketing
Short message service (SMS) marketing involves sending text messages promoting your products and services to people’s phones.
As well as sending special deals and discounts, you can send appointment reminders and ask customers for feedback.
Ninety percent of people open a text within three minutes, making SMS marketing a fantastic way to reach your customers with marketing and promotional offers.
However, with the rise of spam and scam messages, people can be reluctant to share their phone numbers.
It’s essential to have a solid privacy policy in place that states what you will do with customer data, as well as a good incentive to encourage them to give you their number.
Clothing brand Monsoon embraced the power of SMS marketing and boosted online sales by 10 percent by offering discounts.
Omnichannel Digital Marketing
When it comes to online marketing, it’s not a case of choosing one digital marketing channel and sticking to it. Chances are, you’ll need to use multiple channels to attract your target audience.
Omnichannel marketing is the practice of creating a seamless experience across all the marketing channels you use.
For example, let’s say a prospective customer finds out about you through a Google search ad. They check you out on social media and then sign up for your email mailing list. The higher quality and more consistent the experience across all of these channels, the more likely they are to buy.
Digital marketers who use three or more channels in one campaign see a 287 percent higher purchase rate.
Mapping the customer journey is key. Identify your customers and the platforms they use, then optimize your channels to provide the best experience.
4 Steps to Build Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Whether you run an established business or a small start-up, a well-executed digital marketing strategy can help you achieve your marketing objectives and grow your business.
If you’ve never developed a digital marketing strategy, the process can feel intimidating. Fortunately, there are only four key steps to keep in mind.
1. Research and Understand Your Audience
Before getting started with digital marketing, you need to understand who your target audience is. This is the group of people most likely to buy your product or service.
Researching your target audience helps you identify the right digital marketing channels to use, the messages you want to convey, and how you can solve their problems.
I recommend starting with a general idea of your ideal customer. You can then use data to narrow down your audience.
For example, let’s say you initially identify that your target audience is young men working in sales. You then carry out market research and competitor analysis and discover that your target audience is men working in sales, between 25 and 35 years old, living in Colorado, with a monthly income of $4,000 to $6,000.
Once you’ve nailed down your precise target audience, you can determine what type of content they like to consume, which social media platforms they use, and which websites they get their news from.
Use tools like BuzzSumo or AnswerThePublic to pick up on trending content and for social listening to get content ideas for your target audience.
2. Set Digital Marketing Strategy Goals and KPIs
Setting goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) makes it easier to track your digital marketing channels and gives you something to work towards.
KPIs show how effectively you’re achieving your business objectives and help you measure your goals. Good examples of KPIs to track include:
- Conversion rates
- Social media engagement
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
Quality beats quantity. It’s better to monitor one or two KPIs thoroughly than several KPIs that you can’t do anything with.
When setting goals, make sure they’re SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely):
- Specific. What do you want to do?
- Measurable. How will you know when you’ve reached it?
- Achievable. Is it in your power to accomplish it?
- Realistic. Can you realistically achieve it?
- Timely. When exactly do you want to accomplish it?
For example, “I want to increase sales on my website” isn’t a SMART goal.
However, “I want to increase sales on my website by 20% by the end of the year, through the use of SEO and PPC advertising” is a SMART goal.
3. Choose Your Channels and Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
Once you’ve determined your target audience and goals (as well as worked out your budget), you need to identify which marketing channels to focus on.
If this step stresses you out, don’t worry. One of the reasons this decision can feel so intimidating is the fear of investing in a channel that won’t work.
I recommend starting with a small, hyperfocused campaign. This lets you see if a marketing channel is right for you without spending thousands of dollars.
For example, are you interested in paid social media ads? Set a goal, implement a small marketing push, and analyze how valuable paid social ads are to your brand.
If you see success, you can increase your paid social budget. If you don’t see success, you may want to adjust your strategy
4. Continue Improving
Digital marketing needs to be a constantly changing process.
Regularly reviewing and optimizing your campaigns and checking that they align with your goals and KPIs helps you consistently achieve the best results.
Savvy businesses know that it’s not about short-term gains but long-term wins. Growth is not always linear, and sometimes, experimentation is necessary to identify successful channels and campaigns.
The ultimate goal of a solid digital marketing strategy is to collect valuable data and develop a sustainable plan for continued success.
Partnering with a Digital Marketing Agency
Digital marketing can be rewarding, but it’s not without its challenges. For example:
- You might not have the time or resources to carry out effective digital marketing.
- You might have experience in SEO but don’t know where to start when it comes to social media.
- You may have a basic strategy in place but need help increasing your overall market share.
If you need a little extra support, a digital marketing agency can determine the right digital marketing solutions for your problems.
A digital marketing agency can:
- Provide deep expertise. Digital marketing agencies have expertise in specific roles or industries due to their specialization and experience with multiple clients. When hiring an agency, you gain access to a team with diverse skills and networks.
- Offer scalability. With an agency, you don’t need to worry about hiring new staff as you grow, which means you can upscale effortlessly and quickly.
- Grant access to enterprise tools. Digital marketing agencies have access to premium digital marketing tools that will help you gather powerful data and get an edge over your competitors.
Want to see if working with a digital marketing agency is right for your business? I have multiple agencies in various countries worldwide, all dedicated to helping businesses excel online.
FAQs
How do businesses measure the success of their digital marketing efforts?
You can measure the success of your digital marketing by monitoring metrics like website traffic, social media engagement, and conversion rates.
By analyzing this data using tools like Google Analytics, you can see what works, what needs to be improved, and how to grow your digital marketing strategy moving forward.
How can businesses get started with digital marketing?
Every digital marketing plan needs to start with clear goals and an understanding of your target audience.
From there, you can choose which digital marketing channels to use to appeal to your ideal customers and meet your targets.
Conclusion
Now you know what digital marketing is and how to do online marketing that drives clicks, leads, and conversions for your business.
No matter your ultimate goal or budget, you’re now well-positioned to put a digital marketing plan in place and start reaching new audiences.
Don’t forget that digital marketing requires continuous learning, and embracing existing and emerging tools is vital to stay ahead of the curve. Innovation and solid competitor research can help you stand out and build strong customer relationships.
