Digital Marketing is one of the most considerable, promising, and fascinating professions in today’s world. Companies of every scale are opting for digital marketing to make their existence online and develop awareness to attract buyers.
The strategy of companies toward digital marketing and the requirement of the unrestricted public to discover everything online has broadened career opportunities in the Digital Marketing domain.
Today, it would be right to say that anyone who isn’t pitching digital marketing in their effort to attract customers is either living under the rock or has forgotten to leave the stone age practice behind.
Much as almost everyone around here has heard about digital marketing too many times, not everyone knows the different types of digital marketing that exist out there.
For those who are intent and passionate regarding digital marketing as a profession, it is a career path with outstanding long-term opportunities.
It is a job where every day is additional for you. This industry demands deep passion and a craving to flourish.
So if you desire to master digital marketing, you are reading the right article as I promise to take you through the 8 different types of digital marketing you should know.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing envelops a wide variety of marketing strategies and technologies used to reach consumers online.
As a form of online marketing, it allows companies to establish a brand identity and has greatly revolutionized the marketing industry.
Reasons Why You Should Choose a Digital Marketing Career
#1. Digital Marketing is easy to start
If you are thinking of starting a career in digital marketing, then it is good I hastily tell you that it is easy to begin, go ahead, it’s a great choice! I can tell you this without an iota of doubt.
I have been practicing digital marketing for more than 11 years and it’s never too late for anyone to begin (with and without prior experience), to get into the fascinating world of online marketing.
The finest news is that you can learn digital marketing without following a digital marketing course at a college because there are plenty of options, you can pick where it suits you most.
You can begin a career in Digital marketing by building the required skills by leveraging online tools and resources and by serving clients around the World from the comfort of your home.
So you see, I was right when I said it is as simple and easy as learning A.B.C.D
#2. Great digital marketing blossoming prospects
Digital marketing is a great career choice, that is to say, without sounding too boastful. We are living in a digital world and marketing budgets are moving to digital advertising and away from traditional marketing methods.
Brands need to improve their online visibility and there is a heightened demand for digital marketing jobs worldwide.
The fact that you don’t need to be physically present in a particular location to conduct marketing makes digital marketing ideal for people looking to start their businesses or work as full-time freelancers.
#3. Digital Marketing does not mandate a distinctive academic background
Yes, it does not mandate one to first acquire technical knowledge before getting in. Honestly, when I began, I did not have a technical academic background.
I later chose to get a technical degree because I thought it would help with my career progression. But, believe it, it isn’t a necessity.
#4. There is a digital aptitude gap
After I graduated from High School, I had no clue about the next step, or which way to go.
Should I proceed with my Masters or get a job? ( This question arises in every fresher’s mind who has no strong interest in any domain)
One day, my uncle came to visit and he started asking me random questions about my plans and passions.
Then suddenly he mentioned the boom in the Digital Marketing industry and how the IT industry lack SEO, PPC, and Analytics experts.
Shortly after that eye-opening conversation, I started my research on digital marketing and found that truly those experts are in high demand in the industry, that was how I engaged the gears and drove into the digital marketing industry and I can sincerely tell you that it is what they say it is.
#5. Learn digital marketing without breaking your bank
If you are an aspiring digital marketer then you must have searched for a digital marketing course in various places.
The majority of the course will break the bank. But let me tell you something you need to know, digital marketing is not a theoretical subject that you can learn from textbooks. Nope, you need textbooks too but not the buck of them.
The best technique to learn digital marketing is through practice, and through practice, you don’t need to break the bank to get there.
#6. Immense remote work possibility in digital marketing
Digital marketing is a rewarding profession with many unique benefits.
One of the nicest benefits of a career in digital marketing is that there are plenty of opportunities for digital marketers to work from home.
Arguably, this advantage to working from home is both juicy, convenient, and profitable.
Even companies that have traditionally worked in-office are shifting their marketing roles to work-from-home positions.
#7. Versatility in Digital Marketing
Today, making a name for yourself in the sea of internet markets is quite a daunting task. Yes there are ways to help your startup or product in getting recognition from the public but truth be told, it depends quite a lot on your understanding of markets and the norms following the markets, in short R&D is a regular necessity.
It’s easy to throw in a bucket load of cash and get absolutely zero returns from the investment.
And even if you might have a high-quality proven product, it still won’t be easy to convince the customer to buy your product especially when you aren’t (yet) a household name.
Now success or failure is a matter of discussion for the later stages but whatever may be the result, you first have to get your name out there and make yourself popular among your target audience and the easiest way to do this is through digital marketing.
Digital marketing is the hot new cake on the plate that everybody seems to be jumping into these days.
Every new start-up, every existing business, and even companies that never thought that they would need such a thing are now coming to the table seeing the imminent potential of this web framework.
The thing that makes digital markets so exciting apart from the remarkable potential customer base, is perhaps the versatility of web markets.
Digital marketing can be used to specifically target groups of potential customers that hold high prospects for the sales and distribution of the product.
#9. The Digital Marketing industry is always growing
Digital marketing is an evergreen industry where change is constant. As we move into 2023, it’s crucial that we, as digital marketers, stay on top of the latest industry developments because the industry wheels keep revolving and evolving
This way, we can adapt our marketing strategies by embracing the latest technologies and tactics of tomorrow while phasing out the duds.
Types of Digital Marketing you should know
#1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The main goal of SEO is to get a business to rank higher in Google search results, ultimately improving search engine traffic to the business’s website.
To achieve this, SEO marketers research words and phrases consumers are using to search for information online, and utilize those terms in their content.
When you begin content production in your company, your prospects must be able to find it.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, enables your content to rank in the top positions of search engines. Thereby making your website to be found by a user who is actively searching for what you offer.
To apply SEO, you need to know the keywords that the target audience you want to reach is searching for. When you learn these terms, you must develop your content around the terms.
According to the Search Engine Journal, 91.5% of the web traffic is shared by websites listed on Google’s first page. The first Google organic search gathers 32.5% of the traffic itself.
And 51% of the total website traffic comes from organic search. Organic traffic is the one that you draw in through high-quality content found by searches in Google for example.
#2. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-per-click refers to paid advertising and promoted search engine results. This is a short-term form of digital marketing, meaning that once you are no longer paying, your ad no longer exists in the mind of Google for example.
Like SEO, PPC is a way to improve search traffic to a business online.
Pay-per-click can refer to the advertisements that appear at the top and sides of a page of search results, the ads you see while browsing the web, ads before YouTube videos, and in ads in mobile apps.
Another bold line dividing pay-per-click from SEO is that you only pay for the results in a PPC marketing situation.
In a typical PPC pattern like a Google AdWords campaign, you will pay only when a user clicks on your ad and lands on your site.
You can spend just about any amount of money on a pay-per-click ad. Some companies may see results from investing just a few dollars, but plenty of large companies spend tens of thousands a month on PPC.
How much it costs to run an advert or promote your search results will depend mainly on how much competition there is for the keywords you use. High-competition keywords (i.e. keywords that many users are searching for and that many sites are trying to be found for) will be more expensive and lower-competition keywords will likely cost less.
When you set up a PPC campaign, you will also be able to choose whether you want your ad or promoted results to be displayed to users all over the globe, or only within a defined geographic area.
If you are marketing a brick-and-mortar store, this ability to tailor by location helps you not waste ad dollars serving ads to users who don’t live anywhere near your business and do not have any reason to look at your ad twice.
#3. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media—the platforms on which users build social networks and share information to build a company’s brand, improve sales, and drive website traffic.
In addition to providing businesses with a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones, social media marketing has purpose-built data analytics that allows marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify even more ways to engage customers and prospects.
The power of social media marketing (SMM) is driven by the unrivaled capacity of social media in three core marketing areas: interaction, connection, and customer data.
An infographic with the text Salary.com reveals that a social media analyst with a bachelor’s degree can earn about $69,834.Statista reports, 88% of industry experts stated that an increase in exposure to their company was the leading benefit of social media marketing in 2022. Behind that, 79% of companies claimed an increase in traffic to their site was the largest benefit.
#4. Content Marketing
Content marketing uses storytelling and information sharing to boost brand awareness. Ultimately, the goal is to have the reader take an action toward becoming a customer, such as signing up for an email list, requesting more information, or making a purchase.
Content can mean blog posts, resources like white papers and e-books, digital videos, podcasts, etc.
In general, it should first and foremost offer value to the consumer, not just advertise the brand or try to make a sale.
Content marketing is about building a sustainable, trusting relationship with your customers that can potentially lead to more sales over time, not just making a single transaction.
Content marketing works in symbiosis (closely knitted relationship) with other types of digital marketing: It is a way to include SEO search terms into fresh site content, and the content created can be shared as social media posts and in email marketing publications.
Looking at the analytics for your content marketing can give you a lot of insights about your customers: what are they looking for when they land on your website? What kinds of content make them stay on the site longer? What kinds make them lose interest and close and walk away?
Unlike a method such as PPC marketing, content marketing is a long-term strategy. Over time, marketers build up a library of content that will continue to bring users to the site via search engines.
This content library also helps promote knowledge of your brand and improve your profile as a resource for information. And, if users are visiting your website for information, ideally they will view you as an authority when it’s time to make a purchase.
Content marketing is a great platform for people who enjoy writing and/or video and audio production.
But as with digital marketing in general, it requires strong strategic and analytic skills to succeed on it.
#5. Email Marketing
Even with the emergence of social media, mobile applications, and other platforms, email is still one of the most powerful marketing techniques around.
It can be part of a content marketing strategy, offering value to consumers and over time converting an audience into customers.
Email marketing pros not only know how to create compelling campaigns, but they also understand optimal audience outreach and are skilled at analyzing user interactions and data, and making strategic decisions based on that data.
Email marketing software can provide many different analytical measures, but two that marketers are always striving to improve are the open rate the percentage of recipients who opened the email, and the click-through rate the number of recipients who opened the email and also clicked on a link in the email.
#6. Mobile Marketing
Nowadays, mobile marketing is almost mandatory for every marketer that is out to reach customers.
Google research reveals that 27% of the global population use voice search on mobile, and the consumer journey is progressively becoming complex.
This research also revealed that immediacy is as crucial as loyalty. And nothing is more immediate than solving a problem with a mobile phone anywhere, anytime.
Mobile marketing is no longer just a trend. It must be a reality for companies that desire to be all the time side by side with their customers. Some great ways to invest in mobile marketing include:
#1. Create an app and spread push notifications when you want to talk to your target audience
#2. Adopt instant messenger marketing and speak to your public directly
#3. Offer products or services by geolocalization and be where your consumers are
#4. Explore SMS potential and keep your audience updated about their interests
#5. Offer mobile content to hold your public attention with engaging content such as videos, which they can consume anywhere.
#7. Marketing Analytics
One of the major benefits of digital marketing is that it is extremely trackable and measurable.
Once, the only trackable marketing pieces were coupons and direct mail offers. If a customer used the coupon, you knew the message resonated with them.
Today, analytics enable marketers to track user behavior at a highly comprehensive level: how many times they click on a link, how much time they spend on a website, how frequently they open emails, and much more.
But the huge amount of information available about digital marketing performance can feel like drinking from a fire hose, and marketers must be able to sincerely understand what the data mean and how they would use it to inform strategy.
Not only does this enable marketers to learn what resonates with consumers and adapt their marketing messages moving forward, but it also means they can show their value to the company.
Understanding all of this data and utilizing it to make strategic decisions is an important part of a digital marketer’s work and one that sets them apart from their traditional competitors.
There are many tools available for gauging the success of digital marketing campaigns, and many marketers will utilize some combination of these tools, depending on their needs and the audience.
One of the most leveraged tools for marketing analytics is Google Analytics, which can be customized in nearly never-ending ways to measure how your website is performing, which keywords are driving users to your site, how users are navigating through your site etc.
Having good, accurate analytics and the know-how to explain them can help marketers make more profitable marketing decisions quickly like cutting campaigns that aren’t working and building better campaigns around campaigns that have a proven track record of success.
Over time, you won’t just be using analytics to gauge your campaigns – the analytics will also inform and boost your campaigns.
#8. Affiliate Marketing
With the improved prominence of online marketing, affiliate marketing also known as influencer marketing has become popular among many brands in bridging the gap between consumers and companies. But, what exactly is affiliate marketing?
What if you could make money at any time, from anywhere even while you sleep
This is the idea behind affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing another person’s or brand`s products.
The affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes the product and earns a chunk of the profit from each sale they make. The sales are tracked via affiliate links from one site to another.
Affiliate marketing is an incredible way to drive sales and generate significant revenue online. Extremely profitable to both brands and affiliate marketers, the new push toward less traditional marketing tactics has greatly paid off.
Affiliate marketing spending in the United States increased from $5.4 billion in 2017 to $8.2 billion in 2022 which means there is plenty of room for those looking to get a piece of the pie as the market continues to expand and crave for more people to get in.
Conclusion
Digital Marketing is a distinctive way of animating a product on online platforms with the help of electronic devices like computers, laptops, and mobile phones.
Digital marketing can be broadly broken into 8 main types including search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Marketing Analytics, and Affiliate Marketing.
This article has in great detail explained the above-listed different types of digital marketing you should know, I hope this guide has done a lot of exposition on digital marketing types and you are a better-armed person whenever this topic comes up for discussion. It’s good to know you read to the end, thank you for coming this far with me.
