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The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
Table of Contents
The Fundamentals of Digital
Marketing
In the 1800s, there was a gold rush, and everyone was looking to get their hands on the next big thing. In the 1990s, it was the dot com boom, and everyone wanted a piece of the internet pie. Today, we are in the digital marketing boom, and businesses are clamoring to get their brand out there in front of as many people as possible.
While reading this paragraph, millions of people worldwide are scrolling through their Facebook newsfeed, checking Twitter for the latest updates, or watching a YouTube video. That’s the power of digital marketing: the ability to reach people where they spend most of their time – on their phones, social media, and the Internet.
As we move further into the 2020s, it is more important than ever for businesses to have a robust digital marketing strategy. Why? Because that’s where the consumers are. In 2019, there were 3.5 billion active social media users – nearly half of the world’s population! And according to Hootsuite, that number is only going to grow, reaching 4.41 billion by 2025.
So, what exactly is digital marketing? And how can businesses use it to reach their target consumers? Let’s take a look at the basics of digital marketing so you can develop a strategy for your business.
What is Digital Marketing?
Simply put, digital marketing is marketing products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet. It includes mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.
Digital marketing is a broad term that contains digital media, analytics, display, engagement, and marketing. It is a subset of the larger marketing field, the process by which businesses create desired customer experiences and outcomes.
This marketing branch is used to create customer relationships through various digital channels. The aim is to build brand reputation and customer loyalty through consistent interaction. For a business, this means that they will have to focus on creating valuable content and managing their digital channels.
Digital marketing is crucial because it allows businesses to reach a larger audience with less effort and expense than traditional marketing methods. It also provides customers with an easy way to find and purchase products and services.
Some of the most common goals of digital marketing include:
- Increasing website traffic
- Generating leads and sales
- Creating brand awareness or engagement
- Improving customer retention or loyalty
The Basics of Digital Marketing
Traditional marketing is a one-way communication, often referred to as static. However, digital marketing constantly changes and keeps customers engaged. Customers do not interact with your business through print advertisements, as digital marketing provides two-way communication between you and potential customers.
Digital marketing re-purposes how people search for information on the Internet for your benefit; it helps you promote in different ways. For example, you can see where people spend most of their time and reach those people based on your target audience.
Start-ups and large conglomerates all take the same approach regarding online advertisement. Usually, these strategies include various methods, such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and content creation.
Why Do Businesses Need Digital Marketing?
There are a variety of benefits that businesses can take advantage of by implementing digital marketing into their overall strategy. Some of the most common include:
- Relationship Enhancement: Social media is a powerful communications tool that is becoming more popular with customer demographics. Clients want to interact with businesses on their terms and their preferred platform. Companies that engage in effective SMM practices can create strong relationships with current and prospective customers.
- Higher Return of Investment (ROI): Businesses need to measure their ROI to make more money, and with traditional marketing, this isn’t easy. Meanwhile, digital marketing makes this process easier because it provides real-time visibility into the success of each campaign, so managers and owners can make better decisions to increase revenue and profit.
- Real-time connection: Before purchasing, most customers do their homework by researching online and reading reviews. The first step in this process typically begins with a search engine. SEO, SEM, and PPC can help businesses connect with customers more effectively.
- Wider reach: Digital marketing is not as localized as traditional marketing methods, which means that it can be used anywhere in the world. The Internet is accessible to customers in many different parts of the world. This allows businesses to market and sell to customers who live in a foreign country or state, significantly reducing the barriers between you and the average consumer.
- Specific targeting: Digital marketing allows businesses to target specific demographics of potential customers. This is a valuable tool that can help companies to reach their target market and increase sales. Interacting with customers in a particular geography or social channel can help enterprises to reach their target demographic more successfully.
- Smaller investments: Digital marketing is often more affordable than traditional marketing methods. This makes it a good option for small businesses and start-ups with limited budgets. Additionally, digital marketing can be done in-house, which further reduces costs.
- Flexible strategies: Online strategies are adaptable, allowing businesses to adjust their courses as needed. Unlike long-standing traditional marketing campaigns, companies can quickly adapt their digital efforts whenever necessary to realize business opportunities.
B2B vs. B2C Marketing
B2B and B2C marketing are two different marketing strategies. They both have their own unique goals, target audiences, and methods. Here’s a quick overview of each:
- B2B marketing is when a business markets its products or services to another business. The main goal of B2B marketing is to increase sales and revenue. To do this, companies must focus on creating long-term customer relationships.
- B2C marketing is when a business markets its products or services to consumers. The main goal of B2C marketing is to create brand awareness and engagement. To do this, companies must focus on creating an emotional connection with their customers.
So, which is better? Well, the answer depends on your business’s goals. If you want to increase sales and revenue, B2B marketing is the way to go. On the other hand, if you want to create brand awareness and engagement, then B2C marketing is the way to go.
Note the essential differences between B2B and B2C marketing:
- B2B marketing is typically more expensive than B2C marketing.
- B2B customers usually have more severe needs than B2C customers.
- B2B customers are more interested in technology products or services.
- B2B customers are more likely to be interested in long-term supplier relationships.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Marketing
B2C stands for business-to-consumer marketing, meaning that you are advertising or selling your service directly to the consumer, and it is usually one singular consumer. This is the most common type of marketing.
The consumer’s emotions and needs always drive B2C transactions. For example, they might need something sweet, so they buy a candy bar, or they might feel cold, so they buy a coat. Therefore, the interactions with a brand are usually direct and transactional. This makes the transaction efficient for both the seller and the consumer.
Marketing costs are usually lower than B2B because you don’t face the same challenges here, such as understanding your audience or creating compelling content. B2C is more straightforward for the buyer because the decisions are based on individual emotions, and there are fewer barriers and shorter buying time.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
B2C means business-to-business marketing, meaning you are selling your service directly to another service provider. B2B has more complex strategies and challenges because you are not dealing with a consumer at the individual level, so there are more factors to consider.
More Stakeholders – In B2C, you are dealing with one individual. B2B sells to entities representing multiple people within their organization. Sometimes you might interact with only one person, but this person is not the sole decision maker and usually is one stakeholder out of many.
More competition – Instead of dealing with millions of individual customers, you are simultaneously marketing to around 50-60 companies. This means increased competition and fewer opportunities. However, although the pool is smaller, the return is much bigger. This puts more pressure on you to complete a sale. With B2B, you also build brand awareness when working with big companies.
Longer waiting time – As mentioned before, B2C sales happen quickly because of their simplicity. However, in B2B, you deal with many people, so decisions take longer to make, especially since the price tag is much higher. Therefore, to keep the momentum of the sales cycle, marketers need to build trust with their consumers, create a fluid sales experience, and keep their leads consistent by being straightforward.
Similarities Between B2C and B2B Marketing
Although B2B and B2C marketing require different strategies, they are both based on emotion. B2C marketing is based on individual emotional decisions, but in B2B, you are still marketing to humans with the same feelings and goals.
To build a relationship with your customer, regardless of what you are selling, you need to understand their emotions. When you can understand this concept and connect with your customers on a human level, you will yield results no matter your strategy. Try to make their day easier, consider their needs and wants, and offer them solutions you would like to see yourself.
What Should Your Business Goals Be?
Setting and achieving goals is essential to running a successful business. Your ambitions can provide a clear focus, help motivate employees, and provide targets for your business to work towards. In addition, setting goals can help you control your company’s direction and achieve your more prominent industry targets.
You can set different goals for your business, depending on what you want to achieve. Some common examples include:
- Increasing sales or revenue
- Improving customer satisfaction
- Reducing costs or expenses
- Enhancing employee productivity
- Growing market share
- Developing new products or services
It’s important to remember that your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). This will ensure that they are realistic and attainable, so you can track your progress and assess whether you are on track to achieve them.
That's the power of digital marketing: the ability to reach people where they spend most of their time – on their phones, social media, and the Internet.
Some businesses set quarterly or yearly targets, while others might have longer-term ambitions. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what timeframe is appropriate for your company and what type of goals will help you achieve your desired outcome.
If you’re not sure where to start, here are some examples of SMART business goals:
– To increase sales by 10% in the next quarter
– To improve customer satisfaction scores by 5% within 6 months
– To reduce costs by 3% in the next financial year
– To increase employee productivity by 10% in the next month
– To grow market share by 2% within 12 months
– To develop a new product or service within 24 months
Digital marketing can bring you closer to these goals. They are a shortcut to a healthier and more sustainable relationship with your customer. But to really reap the benefits of digital marketing, you have to know exactly what objectives you want to achieve.
Common Objectives for Digital Marketing Campaigns
Some common objectives for digital marketing campaigns include:
- Increase brand awareness – Maintaining high levels of brand awareness is likely to be more successful for businesses. It will result in increased consumer engagement with the brand and, in return, increased sales of products and services. Companies that build on an existing understanding and appreciation of what their brand is about will make their marketing efforts more effective.
- Build customer loyalty – Businesses must foster a sense of customer loyalty that encourages customers to choose your service over others. So, choose what makes you stand out from other products and focus your effort on it.
- Increase interaction – It is essential to have a high interaction rate between your business and the customer, which will eventually lead to more sales. Even if at the start you don’t see any return in sales, increasing interaction will put your service on the map, and potential customers will come back or recommend your service to others.
- Acquire leads – You need to know who you are marketing for, understand your target audience, and then try to reach them in any way possible. Whether by engaging on social media, sponsored ads, or obtaining their contact information to send promotional emails, you should focus on acquiring leads that you can then turn into customers.
- Partnerships and sponsorships – To increase your reach, you might need the assistance of a more established organization similar to yours. Although this could seem expensive or reductive at first, it will increase the awareness of your brand. Looking for organizations to sponsor your products online can also increase customers’ trust in your brand.
Please remember that setting specific goals for your business depending on your service or product is essential to success. Without these, you will be unable to track your progress or return on investment (ROI). Additionally, it will be more challenging to maintain focus and stay on track if you do not have specific goals. Consequently, your digital marketing campaign is less likely to be successful.
Digital marketing can help businesses of all sizes to achieve their desired objectives. If you have not done so already, we recommend that you develop a digital marketing strategy for your business and invest in the necessary resources. Doing so will undoubtedly increase your chances of success.
Types of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a powerful way to reach your target audience, no matter who or where they are. Of course, your method depends on your budget, industry, and what you’re trying to achieve. Let’s take a look at some of the most common types of digital marketing:
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC is a form of digital marketing in which businesses pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. The purpose of PPC is to drive traffic to your website and increase sales.
PPC can be an effective way to reach your target audience, but it can also be expensive. That’s why it’s crucial to understand your goals and target audience before you begin a PPC campaign. If you do it right, PPC can be a great way to generate leads, build brand awareness, and increase sales.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process used to optimize content relevance, website’s technical configuration, and link popularity, so your website is more likely to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant queries.
SEO aims to improve your website’s visibility in organic (unpaid) search results. The higher your website appears in SERPs, the more likely people will find it.
SEO can be a complex and time-consuming process, but it’s worth it. A strong SEO strategy can help you build a sustainable online presence and drive organic traffic to your website.
Content Marketing
You know what they say: “Content is king.”
And it’s true. Content marketing is a powerful way to reach your target audience and build relationships with them. Creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and engaging content can attract attention and drive traffic to your website.
People are looking for answers to their questions online. You’ll build trust and credibility with your audience if you can provide them with the information they need. And when you have a loyal and trusting audience, you’ll be more likely to drive conversions and sales.
Content marketing aims to attract and retain customers by creating and curating relevant and valuable content. Content marketing helps businesses achieve their goals by building relationships with their target audience and creating brand advocates.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses email to promote products or services. The main goal of email marketing is to build relationships with your customers and drive sales.
This method allows businesses to send branded, promotional content directly to prospective customers. The most common way is to use automated newsletters, but you need to use leads and acquire your customer’s contact information.
An easy way to get contact information is by asking your customer to fill out forms at a time of visit or purchase. You can follow up with them and continue marketing your product or services to them.
Affiliate Marketing
This is a marketing arrangement where a business pays a fee to another website based on traffic or sales generated from referrals. In other terms, it is a method where a website earns a commission from promoting another company’s service or product. The website gets paid every time a product is sold or based on the number of referrals.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
SMM uses social media channels for marketing a service or brand. Influencer marketing is a common technique used in SMM; you see it on platforms such as Instagram or Twitter. It is an effective way to connect with your target audience and help them understand your brand better. The benefits of using SMM are tremendous for your business growth.
Influencer marketing
This method is very similar to social media marketing, but it involves connecting to your audience on a more personal level. Since people like to follow people who they think represent them the most, this type of marketing uses “influencers” or people with a large social media following to market your product or service.
The influencer’s job is to talk about your product or service in an organic way, so it seems like a recommendation instead of an advertisement. This type of marketing can be very effective because it feels personal and trustworthy.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing is a form of digital marketing that uses paid advertising to improve visibility in SERPs. This method allows businesses to bid on keywords relevant to their products or services, which makes their ads more visible on search results pages.
The goal of SEM is to generate traffic to your website through paid placements in SERPs. This method can be very effective because it puts your business in front of people who are already interested in what you have to offer.
Mobile App Marketing
Let’s face it; we’ve all been outraged by the sheer number of advertisements pushed at us while being stuck into our favorite game or app. Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, and Kim Kardashian: Hollywood are only a few examples of the blatant in-your-face marketing that has become par for the course on mobile apps.
And it makes sense! With people spending an average of two hours per day on their phones, and mobile devices accounting for 63% of all digital media time, it only stands to reason that businesses would want a piece of the pie. After all, mobile app users are a captive audience.
Mobile app marketing can be a very effective way to reach your target audience. The key is ensuring that your ads are relevant and not intrusive. You don’t want to ruin the user experience by bombarding them with ads.
Marketing Automation
Some online platforms can automate businesses’ marketing and sales engagement to generate more leads and convert those leads to sales.
Marketing automation is not meant to send unwanted emails to your contacts. Spamming is a lousy marketing practice, and it can reduce customer loyalty. Instead, marketing automation is most rewarding when sending customized and relevant content to your contacts.
Here at Adcore, we offer a marketing automation platform that has been tested and proved successful with our clients. Our services include feed creation, optimization, campaign management, strategy analysis, and maintaining any issues that might arise while running an active campaign. In addition, we offer a broad range of automated marketing solutions. Check it all out here for more information.
Now that you know the different types of digital marketing, it’s time to put them into practice! But first, which should you use? Let’s find out.
Which Digital Marketing Method Should You Choose?
The answer to this question depends on your business goals. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, then social media marketing or influencer marketing might be the best for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking to generate more leads and sales, then search engine marketing or mobile app marketing would be better.
It’s also important to consider your budget when choosing a digital marketing method. Some methods, like SEM, can be quite costly, while others, like social media marketing, are relatively inexpensive.
If you want to choose the proper method for your business, you need to consider the following:
- Define your goals and your results
- Do your research, know your target audience, and analyze your market
- Understand your company values and products
- Stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and your product features
- Consult your peers who specialize in their field, look at other portfolios and references
We can’t assure you that a particular method will work for you. You might need to try a few ways to see what works best for your business. Some businesses may even go all in and use multiple digital marketing methods to reach their goals. We’re not saying that this is the only way to succeed, but it’s definitely a strategy worth considering.
Digital Marketing Strategy
Creating and configuring a digital marketing strategy is a complex process that requires careful consideration. Therefore, we believe it is essential to devote time and resources to planning. In addition, information, analytics, and research help ensure your plan is executed successfully.
Digital marketing is an evolving field. The best way to approach it is to tailor a strategy specifically for your business. In most cases, companies use a similar process for creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy. This process is outlined below:
- Determine clear benchmarks – To evaluate a digital marketing strategy, it is crucial to set clear goals and track progress regularly.
- Identify target audience – Setting buyer personas that are tailored to your target market helps you identify the ideal customers who will benefit from buying your business services.
- Consolidate sales process – To get the most out of digital marketing, you need to understand how customers make digital purchases and the digital sales process.
- Select marketing platforms – With a target demographic and buyer personas, you can reach those ideal customers by identifying the best digital marketing channels.
- Choose your goals – Identifying your goals is an essential step in the process, such as driving sales, generating leads, and building brand recognition.
- Implement changes – After creating a digital marketing strategy, you must adjust your goals by tracking your progress.
A successful strategy takes into account the needs of the business. Therefore, some strategies that work for small companies and start-ups might not be effective for a global brand. However, digital marketing is a powerful tool that offers a wide range of methods and strategies which can be used by various types of businesses of all sizes.
Conclusion
Now that we have covered the basics of digital marketing and the benefits of utilizing this new marketing era to alleviate your business, you should be able to define your goals and create a strategy that works for you.
Remember that this is a modern 21st-century goldmine that everyone is exploring, and there is still a lot to figure out. The best way to stay ahead of the competition is to keep up with the trends and changes.
Digital marketing is not a one-time event but rather an ongoing process that should be revisited and updated regularly. As your business grows, so too should your digital marketing strategy.
If you need help getting started or want more ideas on taking advantage of digital marketing for your business, feel free to contact our experts at Adcore. We have been in the digital marketing business for quite some time and by now, have proven to be a formidable player in the field.
If you want to take your business to the next level, head over to our website to learn more. We offer market analysis, strategy determination, execution, and reporting, all at a competitive price. In addition, our team will generate a real-time analysis of your digital activity to identify your current state, gaps, and opportunities. From there, we will work with you to create a custom digital marketing strategy that is tailored to your business goals.
You can’t afford to wait; the time to capitalize on digital marketing is now. Let’s get started!
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