The marketing sector is responsible not only for promoting the products but also for generating boosted sales via campaigns and commercials. The marketing sector has not been shy about accepting technology and the different categories of digital marketing. Therefore, marketing is now referred to as Digital Marketing after including technology.
The modern world which we are living in is under revolution. The main factor behind this revolution is technology. This innovative technology has stormed every aspect of our life. Business is one of those aspects which have been greatly affected by the implementation of this technology. The old or traditional methods are all completely rooted out. New ways that prove far more efficient than traditional ones also increase profits. They enhance production as well as boost sales for any business entity. Every sector of the business industry has adopted the newly invented technology. One of the most beneficial ones of this adoption is the marketing sector.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is almost similar to traditional marketing in terms of function or objective. The motive is all the same. The ideology is identical to conventional marketing, but the change comes in the medium. Digital Marketing involves boosting sales, but the Internet is the medium. The Internet, a subtle element of technology, serves as the medium for Digital Marketing campaigns. They reach out to their customers via online platforms available on the Internet, and thus they generate sales for the business entity.
Digital Marketing has taken the world by storm. The old expensive and ineffective marketing strategies are all rooted out. Those techniques used to be quite expensive. The cost of running a television ad used to be relatively high. Furthermore, the rents for billboards were high as well. But ignoring the cost of those techniques, looking at the statistics, the traditional marketing ways were pretty ineffective. There was no concept of the target audience. The ads were shown to everyone, including kids. Thus, it became relatively weak.
Digital Marketing has the concept of targeting as one of the fundamental objectives. The ads and the marketing campaigns are designed so that only the relevant person who uses that product would see the ads, or the ad is shown to those who might buy such products. These are not shown to someone irrelevant or who does not fit the criteria for using that product. This reduces the cost per click, or pay per click, a type of online advertisement. PPC is a type of online advertising where the marketers only pay for the promotion whenever someone clicks on the ad.
Categories of Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is a vast term. It covers all of the online advertisements and commercials. It also includes marketing, where businesses approach some customers. There is always a debate going on about what are the categories of Digital Marketing. There is always a clash in the criteria for categorizing or identifying the types of Digital Marketing. That is why different marketing experts develop numerous types of Digital Marketing. This makes one wonder, if there are no criteria for the categorization of Digital Marketing, then how does one identify the types?
However, with this debate still open, marketers have agreed on certain types of Digital Marketing. These major categories of Digital Marketing are listed below as:
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, as the name suggests, optimizes your business page such that the ranking for that page is higher. SEO is one of the major types of Digital Marketing. The page ranks higher on search engines. This leads to an increase in the visibility of the page. The page is readily available, and thus the user does not need to face any difficulties. This is usually achieved by designing the content on the webpage of the highest quality.
Strategy
SEO is not a short-term process. Instead, it is a long-term process that requires working regularly. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most crucial aspects that bring success to any Digital Marketing campaign. It increases the visibility of a brand. Moreover, it is pretty efficient when it comes to cost.
Social Media Marketing
SMM is another major category of Digital Marketing. As the name suggests, SMM uses social media platforms for marketing. SMM’s success depends entirely on the fact that the number of social media users is constantly growing. This trend forced marketers to think of ways to reach these people. That is when the concept of SMM came into place. Digital Marketing campaigns are designed to gather maximum traffic from social media platforms. Some leading social media platforms used for Digital Marketing are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
Strategy
SMM can be both a short-term process and a long-term process. It is entirely dependent upon the needs of the business. However, running the targeted ads for an extended period is unnecessary while maintaining social media.
SMM has a reasonable conversion rate. Furthermore, targeting makes it a lot easier to reach only potential customers. Although SMM may seem easy, it requires proper planning and management.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is another leading type of Digital Marketing. It is a type of advertisement where the ad is shown to a user, and when the person clicks on it, the company has to pay. The cost of each click is dependent upon the quality of the website as well as the keyword that is selected. PPC also helps you to rank your page. The difference between SEO and PPC is that SEO brings the runner up by yourself. Meanwhile, PPC buys the ranking for you.
Strategy
PPC can also be both short-term as well as long-term. It relies upon the purpose of using PPC. PPC is quite effective as it saves a lot of time. However, the cost may be slightly higher, proving costlier.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the most prominent type of Digital Marketing. It forms a pathway for other classes to prevail. It refers to creating content such as videos, blog posts, and other material. The main objective is to educate the audience about the product. This type of Digital Marketing aims at connecting with the audience. Simply put, when Digital Marketing promotes a brand, the intention is not to sell. That is called Content Marketing.
Strategy
Content marketing should be aimed at the long term. This also requires you to post content regularly, just like SEO.
Unlike other types of Digital Marketing already discussed, content marketing does not incur any cost. It is free of charge, although the competition is relatively high. Therefore, the quality of your content should be increased as well.
Email Marketing
Another primary type of Digital Marketing is called email marketing. As the name suggests, this type of Digital Marketing involves email. What happens is that whenever a person visits any website, they get an invite. This invite is to join the newsletter or email subscription. Then the businesses use the information the person provides to reach them and inform them about new updates. It can be in blog posts, sales, discount offers, or special events. Therefore, the person then becomes a regular visitor of their website and may well turn out to be a loyal customer.
Strategy
The preference of email marketing is usually for the short-term. However, it can still be used in the long term. For short-term success, it is used in case of discounts or any special event. For long-term success, the newsletters and invitations for blog posts bring in extra traffic, which is always beneficial.
Email marketing is the only independent type of Digital Marketing. It is autonomous in terms of ranking algorithms being constantly changed. This creates a customer relationship and lays a foundation for regular customers. However, there is a strong possibility that the person may not even open the mail.
Conclusion
Digital Marketing is a vast term. It is not dependent on one or two things. Instead, it involves numerous elements. This has led to a constant argument about the criteria for categorizing Digital Marketing. However, some of the primaries, and most significant categories of Digital Marketing have been discussed above.