What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing includes any marketing effort that uses an electronic device or the Internet. Businesses use digital channels like search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with current and potential customers.
A seasoned inbound marketer could say that inbound marketing and digital marketing are virtually the same things, but there are some subtle differences. Speaking to marketers and business owners in the US, UK, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, I learned a lot about how these small differences are observed around the world.
What role does digital marketing play for a company? While traditional marketing can be in print, phone communications, or physical marketing, digital marketing can be done electronically and online. This means brands have far more ways to reach customers, including email, video, social media, and search engines.
At this stage, digital marketing is critical to your business and brand awareness. It seems like every other brand has a website. And if not, they at least have a social media presence or digital ad strategy. Digital content and marketing are so prevalent that consumers are now expecting and relying on it to learn more about brands.
In short, in order to be competitive as a business owner, you need to consider some aspects of digital marketing.
Because there are so many options and strategies associated with digital marketing, you can get creative and experiment with a variety of marketing tactics on a budget. With digital marketing, you can also use tools like analytics dashboards to better monitor the success and ROI of your campaigns than with traditional advertising content like billboards or print ads.
How does a company define digital marketing? Digital marketing is defined by the use of numerous digital tactics and channels to connect with customers with who they spend most of their time online. From the website itself to a company’s online branding assets – digital advertising, email marketing, online brochures, and more – there is a spectrum of tactics that come under the umbrella of “digital marketing”.
The best digital marketers have a clear picture of how each digital marketing campaign supports their overall goals. And, depending on the goals of their marketing strategy, marketers can support a larger campaign through the free and paid channels available to them.
