Digital Marketing also known as “Online Marketing”, “Internet Marketing”, or “Web Marketing” etc. is the promotion of brands or services to connect with potential customers by using the internet and by following some digital marketing strategies. It is very diverse and versatile. Digital Marketing is any marketing efforts that rely on electronic devices, and the internet.

The term “Digital Marketing” refers to using websites, apps, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other digital means to promote and sell products and services. Digital Marketing strategies may include the use of one or more online channels and techniques(omnichannel) to increase brand awareness among consumers. Learn More!!

It is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. Digital Marketing is often referred to as online marketing, internet marketing, or web marketing. In Digital Marketing, a reporting & analytics engine can be layered within a campaign which allows the organizations or brand to monitor in real-time how a campaign is performing. Consequently, what is being viewed, how often, how long, and other actions such as response rates & purchases made?

Digital Marketing is a broad term that encompasses all marketing efforts that use electronic devices or the Internet to connect with current and prospective customers. It involves leveraging digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, websites, and online advertising to promote products or services.

9 Types of Digital Marketing: When and How to Use Them?

10 Types of Digital Marketing

1. Content Marketing

2. Search Engine Optimizations

3. Search Engine Marketing

4. Social Media Marketing

5. Mobile Marketing

6. Email Marketing

7. Affiliate Marketing

8. Search Engine Marketing

9. Pay-Per-Click

Today, digital marketing is one of the most important strategic initiatives for businesses. Many people turn to the internet for information on businesses and products as consumers like to be educated about their purchases. Using different digital marketing strategies to promote your business and products digitally will help you reach your audience through the channels that they’re already engaging with. So before beginning our learning on the types of digital marketing, let us first understand what is digital marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to any marketing strategy that uses an electronic device that may or may not be connected to the internet. Even radio ads and television commercials are digital marketing strategies, though digital marketing has evolved, and new strategies can be much more effective. Digital marketing is important when it comes to being competitive and relevant within your industry. If your business has no web or digital presence, you’re missing out on countless opportunities to reach out to your target audience.

Today, digital marketing is one of the most important strategic initiatives for businesses. Many people turn to the internet for information on businesses and products as consumers like to be educated about their purchases. Using different digital marketing strategies to promote your business and products digitally will help you reach your audience through the channels that they’re already engaging with. So before beginning our learning on the types of digital marketing, let us first understand what is digital marketing.

09 Types of Digital Marketing

There are many types of digital marketing that you can leverage to increase your audience reach. Using multiple digital marketing channels can help you create a well-rounded strategy that will yield the best results.

To help you determine which digital marketing strategies may work best for your business, here are six of the most effective types of digital marketing:

1. Content Marketing

Content marketing refers to informational, valuable content like blog posts, how-to videos, and other instructional materials. This type of marketing helps you connect with your audience and answer their questions. It can also help to generate leads and close sales.

Content should be published regularly with the target audience in mind. Ideally, your brand would become a trusted voice within the industry by publishing quality, reliable content. You want your audience to come to you first for information on the latest industry trends.

Pros:

1. It’s free of cost. 

2. Content is a highly versatile option. It allows you to build your brand by educating, entertaining, and inspiring the audience. 

3. It fuels all the other types of digital marketing.

Cons:

1. The competition is high, it takes a lot of time to rank organically for target keywords.

2. Consistency and high is vital to be effective. Your content must meet your customers’ requirements while branding and achieving your business targets. 

The Next Steps

Designing a simple and effective content strategy is the key to a promising beginning: 

• Choose 4 to 5 core themes considering the customer needs and what your brand wishes to communicate to the masses. 
• Decide the formats: video, audio, articles, or others. 
• Finalize the channels you will use to post each piece of content. 

2. Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the strategy of creating content in such a way that search engines like Google will rank your page high on the search engine results page (SERP). 

Google uses algorithms to decide how relevant your page is to the keywords that the user is searching for. These algorithms update frequently, and SEO strategies must be adjusted just as regularly to remain effective.

When done properly, SEO efforts will put your page at the top of the SERP and bring in more organic traffic.

Pros:

1. It increases the brand visibility. 

2. It is cost-efficient, compared to PPC. 

Cons:

1. SEO depends on content and tech. 

2. Google’s changing algorithms might come in the way of your efforts. 

3. It takes time for SEO to work. 

The Next Steps

• SEO begins with good content. Follow a good content strategy and do keyword research to discover what people search for.
• Stay updated on Google’s recommendations for content. 
• Beginners opt for a plug-in that would assist them in optimizing their site (e.g. Yoast for WordPress).

3. Search Engine Marketing/Pay-per-Click

Search engine marketing, or SEM, refers to paid advertisements that appear at the top of the SERP. The cost of these ads typically depends on the number of clicks the link receives, hence “pay-per-click.”

When you pay for these top SERP slots, the “Ad” label will appear next to your URL. Despite consumer knowledge that these are ads, many still click on these links, and it can be a very effective digital marketing strategy.

Pros:

1. It helps attain a top rank quickly. 

2. It is time efficient. 

Cons:

1. It can often be expensive to target popular keywords.

2. Most people are skeptical of ads in the search results and prefer to trust the natural search results.

The Next Steps

You can opt for PPC to generate more leads. Do keyword research and then experiment with different targeting combinations to see what works. 

Run Ad Campaigns on Google, YouTube, and Facebook

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4. Social Media Marketing

With social media marketing social media platforms are used as a digital marketing channel. Ads can be bought to reach out to a new audience, or you can create a profile for your business on any social media platform and create posts to advertise new products, sales, or freshly published content.

Which social media platform you will use will depend on the type of audience you want to reach. For example, according to Pew Research, Instagram is best for reaching audiences between the ages of 25 and 29, while those 65+ can be best achieved through Facebook.

Pros:

1. It has high conversion rates. 

2. The efforts multiply quickly as people like, comment, and share your content. 

3. Facebook/Instagram ads allow you to target specific customer segments and convey your message to the right people.

Cons:

1. Social media is challenging. The algorithm changes now and then. Along with that, new content formats are introduced frequently. 

2. Although it sounds simple to post on social media, you require strategic planning and dedication of enough time to do it consistently and efficiently. 

The Next Steps

Make your social channels a part of your content marketing strategy. Decide your content creation, the format, and the channels you would distribute your ideas. This marketing technique requires you to create a calendar wherein you can mark the days for posting on a particular channel and the days for posting on the other. Since social media is an interactive platform, you must also respond to your customers in addition to publishing high-quality content. Real conversations help gain trust and improve brand loyalties.

5. Affiliate and Influencer Marketing

Working with an affiliate or influencer can help increase your audience reach by engaging with their existing audience. For an effective affiliate/influencer relationship, try to work with an individual who is well-known and respected within your industry. They can create content promoting your business or product and share a link to your website. Every time a sale is completed, or a link is clicked, the influencer/affiliate will receive a kickback. 

Pros: 

1. You get the privilege of the influencer’s existing audience. So, you need not wait to build one yourself. 

2. Associating with a popular personality allows you to earn genuine followers and customers. 

Cons:

1. It is not just about paying a high amount to partner with influencers. You have to decide on the right influencer based on your audience and brand and figure out authentic ways to partner with them.

2. The distrust of influencers is rising, and you need to be careful and transparent about paying them for promotions. 

The Next Steps

Finalize what you expect from your influencer marketing campaign. Create a list of possible influencers who seem to be a good match for your brand. Get in touch with them and negotiate your terms considering theirs.]

6. Email Marketing

When someone visits your website or business, invite them to join an email subscriber list. With their permission, you can send emails about sales, special events, or product releases. Email marketing is often underestimated, and according to Lyfe Marketing, approximately $40 of revenue is brought in for every dollar spent on email marketing.

The most important part of this digital marketing channel is that it should provide value to your audience. Offer them exclusives that they would not receive anywhere else, and you can build a mutually beneficial relationship that will increase brand loyalty.

Pros:

1. Amongst several types of digital marketing, this one is independent of any changing algorithms. 

2. Staying constantly in contact with your email list allows you to strengthen relationships, and they are likely to keep you in their minds when they plan to buy. 

Cons:

1. Often customers do not open emails. 

2. It gets difficult to find ways to add value so that the customers do not unsubscribe.

The Next Steps

• Select an email software such as ConvertKit, GetResponse, or Mailchimp. 
• Collect your target customer’s emails. 
• Give them a reason to opt for your emails, such as offering step-by-step PDF guides and free design templates. 
• Pay attention to the regulations.
• Maintain consistency and contact your list regularly via the weekly newsletter. Add value to your content rather than just the promotions and sales messages. 

7. Mobile Marketing

As per Google research, 27% of people worldwide use mobile voice search. The mobile consumer journey is on an exponential rise. Digital marketing requires immediacy as much as loyalty, and smartphones are one of the most immediate problem-solving partners anywhere, anytime.

Mobile marketing is mandatory for brands who desire to be with their customers, side by side. It requires the marketer to adapt everything he is doing on the desktop to mobile. You must also be efficient in mobile-specific tasks such as in-app advertising, texting, and social messaging apps. It is significantly important for brands that target a younger audience.  

Pros

1. Customers spend more time on mobile phones than on their desktops/laptops these days. So, mobile marketing helps in reaching where they spend most of their time. 

2. It can be super-targeted with geo-fencing or specific audience segments. 

Cons:

1. The space is small compared to computers. 

2. Mobile ads have a low click rate. 

3. People often dislike interruptions by marketing messages when they are communicating.

8. Pay-Per-Click

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model in which an advertiser pays a publisher every time an advertisement link is “clicked” on. Alternatively, PPC is known as the cost-per-click (CPC) model. The pay-per-click model is offered primarily by search engines (e.g., Google) and social networks (e.g., Facebook). Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Twitter Ads are the most popular platforms for PPC advertising.

How the PPC Model Works

The pay-per-click model is primarily based on keywords. For example, in search engines, online ads (also known as sponsored links) only appear when someone searches a keyword related to the product or service being advertised. Therefore, companies that rely on pay-per-click advertising models research and analyze the keywords most applicable to their products or services. Investing in relevant keywords can result in a higher number of clicks and, eventually, higher profits.

The PPC model is considered to be beneficial for both advertisers and publishers. For advertisers, the model is advantageous because it provides an opportunity to

advertise products or services to a specific audience who is actively searching for related content. In addition, a well-designed PPC advertising campaign allows an advertiser to save a substantial amount of money as the value of each visit (click) from a potential customer exceeds the cost of the click paid to a publisher.

For publishers, the pay-per-click model provides a primary revenue stream. Think about Google and Facebook, which provide free services to their customers(free web searches and social networking). Online Companies can monetize their free products using online advertising, particularly the PPC Model.