Types of Digital Marketing

Introduction

Digital marketing refers to any marketing done through electronic devices like computers, phones, and tablets. As technology has advanced, the methods for digital marketing have also evolved. There are now numerous online promotion channels for businesses to utilize, ranging from social platforms to search engine optimization to pay-per-click advertising. This proliferation of digital options provides greater marketing precision but can also overwhelm companies. In this article, we will survey the major forms of current digital marketing and summarize popular tactics within each category. Focusing discussion on the most widely-used techniques will hopefully simplify understanding of the digital landscape and key practices brands employ today for online promotion.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, refers to the process of improving a website’s visibility in search engine results. When people search for products or services online, SEO helps a company’s website show up higher in rankings so more people will click on it. There are two main areas SEO focuses on:

On-Page SEO

This type of SEO optimization takes place directly on a website. It includes tactics like:

• Optimizing page titles and meta descriptions
• Using target keywords appropriately throughout content
• Improving site speed and mobile optimization
• Creating semantic markup through HTML elements

In a nutshell, on-page SEO makes changes to how the content and code of a page is structured to help search engines understand the page better.

Off-Page SEO

While on-page SEO is focused internally, off-page SEO builds external signals to boost a website’s authority and relevance. Popular off-page SEO tactics include:

• Link building
• Social sharing
• Building citations
• Creating high-quality content
• Press releases

The idea is that external signals like other websites linking to you, social media shares, and mentions will endorse your brand and content to search engines.

PPC Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising, or PPC, is a model of internet marketing where advertisers pay a fee whenever someone clicks on their ad. The most popular PPC platform is Google Ads, where companies bid on ad placements and pay Google each time their ad is clicked.

PPC appeals to many advertisers because you have precise control over your spending. You determine the maximum bid and budget for your campaign, and only pay when your ad delivers results through clicks. PPC ads also allow for incredibly targeted reach thanks to Google’s extensive user data. Factors like location, demographics, search queries, interests and more can all filter exactly who sees your ads.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing refers to promotion done through social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. The major advantage of social media marketing is leveraging existing social communities to share your content and engage audiences. Common social media marketing tactics include:

• Posting valuable content, images and video
• Using hashtags related to your industry
• Running contests and sweepstakes
• Engaging followers by responding to comments, posts and messages
• Using paid social media ads to expand reach

The key with all social media marketing is publishing shareable content that sparks interaction. Images, infographics and video often bring the highest engagement levels.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a strategy focused on consistently creating and curating relevant, valuable content for your audience. Rather than directly promoting products or services, content marketing aims to attract and retain customers by delivering information they truly want and need.

There’s no one right type of content to produce. Common content marketing assets include:

• Blog articles
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Newsletters
• Case studies
• Ebooks or whitepapers

Whatever formats you choose, the focus should be on quality over quantity when it comes to content marketing. Well-researched, expertly-produced content builds trust and credibility with audiences more effectively than mass-produced, low-quality content.

Email Marketing

Email marketing refers to sending commercial messages to large mailing lists via email. When done properly, email is an extremely effective digital marketing channel thanks to its low costs and high conversion rates. Some best practices for email marketing success include:

• Collect email addresses ethically and ensure subscribers consented to receive communication
• Personalize messages with subscriber names and other details when possible
• Structure campaigns around automations triggered by user behaviors
• Design mobile-responsive templates so messages render beautifully across devices
• Test different subject lines, sends times and content types to optimize open and clickthrough rates
• Analyze performance data to continually refine and improve campaigns

As one of the oldest digital marketing tactics, email has stood the test of time thanks to its unrivaled access to your audience.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a promotional model where independent marketers (“affiliates”) partner with a company to advertise its products or services. Affiliates promote these products on their platforms, often via content creation. If an affiliate’s marketing efforts result in a sale or lead, the affiliate earns a commission.

Compared to more traditional advertising, affiliate programs offer two major advantages:

• Results-based compensation – Affiliates only earn money when their marketing delivers actual sales
• Expanded reach – By partnering with various affiliates, brands can tap into new audiences and customer bases

On the affiliate side, popular ways to drive commissions include:

• Writing product reviews and recommendations
• Creating comparison articles highlighting multiple brands
• Developing “best-of” style lists with related product suggestions
• Promoting deals, sales and special offers

Affiliate marketing can produce passive revenue streams for patience, persistent affiliates.

Conclusion

The digital marketing world has expanded exponentially in recent years thanks to rapid technological advancements. Brands now have access to more consumer data and advertising options than ever before to help them reach precise audiences and measure campaign performance. Yet even with all the innovations in digital promotion tactics, some core principles remain steadfast. At its heart, effective marketing is about creating value for consumers by solving problems and addressing needs. Content that educates, entertains or helps people is still king when it comes to engaging digital audiences authentically. Likewise, genuine interactions that respect the viewer will build more loyal followers than hard-sell product pitches. So while tools and platforms will continue advancing, brands should remember that relevance beats reach every time. Providing meaningful content tailored to your core customer leads to true resonance. With so many forms of digital marketing now in play, brands should resist the temptation to utilize every channel and instead thoughtfully develop integrated strategies concentrated on utility over promotional trickery or excess. The companies that build digital ecosystems around their audiences through helpful content and ethical data usage will surface above those focused on temporary visibility wins.