What is meant by Digital Marketing?
In the last couple of years, we can see a huge growth in the digital marketing sector. It used to be a sector where not many people were investing into and people never counted on it. But nowadays, it is becoming an important part for many companies and freelancers. So, in simple words, digital marketing is the use of technology (Internet, social media, mobile device, etc). That of course does not mean using your phone to chat with other people is still considered digital marketing. Experts mentioned that digital marketing is the way you approach customers and how you are attracting them to specific products and services based on their needs.
What are the different types of digital marketing?
There are various digital marketing types. Some of the main ones are:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- PPC (Pay Per Click)
- SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
- Email Marketing
- SMM (Social Media Marketing)
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search Engine Optimization is the part that search engines (ex. Google) check how well your website is optimized. Based on the optimization and structure of the website, search engine assign specific position to each website. This is of course very important because many people click on the search results that are shown on the first page only and never click on the second page. That means that it is more likely to get more traffic if you have a better position in search results.
But SEO is not something that can be fixed from day to day. It requires a lot of time and effort since the changes that are applied on a website may not take effect few weeks after. The main components that are important for getting high position in search results using SEO is content, website optimization and link building. The content has to be optimized and based on specific keywords you are looking to rank.
2. PPC (Pay Per Click)
Pay-per-click (PPC) is one way of advertising in search engines. It is the amount that will cost when a user clicks on your advertisement. This method helps your website appear higher on search results. Of course if there high competition and other companies are paying for advertisements, you will be first only if you are paying the highest amount comparing with the other competitors. So make sure that you know how much competition there is for your target keywords and be sure that you bid a fair amount daily so that you you get the appropriate traffic you are looking for.
3. SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Search Engine Marketing is mainly a combination of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Using the specific two ways, it helps driving both organic and paid traffic to your website. At the beginning you need to identify which keywords are worth targeting and how much potential traffic can they bring to your website. Sometimes there are keywords that have a lot of potential traffic but the difficulty to rank is very high so it may not be worth trying to rank for those keywords.
4. Email Marketing
Like the name mentions, this digital marketing way involves emails. Many companies nowadays are making sure that they keep track of their customers or potential customers emails. Having a large list of emails is for sure very beneficial since it allows the company to attract peoples attention. Most of the times, email marketing is used when people are purchasing something from a website and register on the newsletter as well. These customers are very important for every company since they are more likely going to be returning customers. In some cases there are companies which send out newsletters or advertising emails that include products similar with the products the customers bought or maybe visited through their website. This can also be tracked through the click through rate that can be checked from various analytic tools (ex. Google Analytics).
5. SMM (Social Media Marketing)
Social Media Marketing is of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) ways of targeting potential customers and keep good relationship with existing customers. It is a specific way of internet marketing that allows you to share content (ex. products) to various social media pages. Using social media and being active, it boosts the branding part of your company. Moreover, more people will start engaging with your posts (ex. content, videos, images, etc) which will then lead having more possible customers. Some examples of the most famous social media websites are Facebook, Twitter, Pinteest, Tumblr and many more.
