What is Digital Marketing?

 

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an electronic device

or internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social

media,  email  and  their  websites  to  connect  with  current  and  prospective

customers. This can also be referred as ‘online marketing’, ‘internet marketing’ or

‘web marketing’. Digital marketing is defined by use of numerous digital tactics

and channels to connect with customers where they spend much of their time:

online. From website to business's online branding  assets - digital advertising,

email marketing,  online brochures,  and beyond  -- there’s  spectrum of  tactics

falling under the umbrella of "digital marketing."

 

“Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services

using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also

including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other

digital medium.” 

 

Digital  marketing  methods  such  as  Search  Engine

Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Content

Marketing,  influencer  marketing,  content  automation,

campaign  marketing, data-driven  marketing,  e-commerce

marketing,  social  media  marketing,  social  media 

optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–

books,  and  optical  disks  and  games  are  becoming  more

common  in advancing  technology. Digital  marketing  now

extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media,

such as mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback, and on-hold

mobile ring tones.

 

II. A shift of Marketing from Traditional to Digital:

The development of  digital  marketing is inseparable  from

technology development. In 1971, Ray Tomlinson sent first

email and his technology set the platform to allow people to

send  and receive  files through  different  machines. In  the

1980s, storage capacity of computer was already big enough

to store huge volumes of customer information. Companies

started  choosing  online  techniques,  such  as  database

marketing,  rather  than  limited  list  broker.  This  kind  of

databases  allowed  companies  to  track  customers'

information more effectively, thus transforming relationship

between buyer and seller. However, the manual process was

not so efficient. 

 

In the 1990s,  the  term Digital  Marketing was  first coined,

with debut of server/client architecture and the popularity

of  personal  computers,  the  Customer  Relationship

Management (CRM) applications became significant part of

marketing technology. Fierce competition forced vendors to

include  more  service  into  their  software,  for  example,

marketing, sales and service applications.  Marketers  were

also  able  to  own  huge  online  customer  data  by  e  CRM

software  after  the  Internet  was  born.  Companies  could

update the data of customer needs and obtain the priorities

of their experience. This led to first clickable banner ad being

going live in 1994, which was the "You Will" campaign by

International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470

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AT&T and over first four months of it going live, 44% of all

people who saw it clicked on the ad. 

 

In the 2000s,  with more  and more Internet  users and  the

birth of iPhone, customers started searching products and

making decisions about their needs online first, instead of

consulting salesperson, which created a new problem for the

marketing department of a company. In addition, survey in

2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had

not registered their  own domain address. These problems

made  marketers  find  the  digital  ways  for  market

development. 

 

Digital marketing's development since 1990s and 2000s has

changed  way  brands  and  businesses  use  technology  for

marketing. As digital platforms are increasingly incorporated

into marketing plans and  everyday life, and  as  people  use

digital  devices  instead  of  visiting  physical  shops,  digital

marketing  campaigns  are  becoming  more  prevalent  and

efficient. 

 

In 2007, the concept of marketing automation was raised to

solve  the  problem  above.  Marketing  automation  helped

companies’  segment  customers,  launch  multichannel

marketing campaigns and provide personalized information

for  customers.  However,  the  speed  of  its  adaptability  to

consumer devices was not fast enough. 

 

Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s

and the 2010s, when the proliferation of devices' capable of

accessing  digital  media  led  to  sudden  growth.  Statistics

produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that digital marketing

was still growing. With development of social media in the

2000s, such as LinkedIn, Face book, YouTube and Twitter,

consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in

daily lives. They expected seamless user experience across

different channels for searching product's information. The

change of customer behavior improved the diversification of

marketing  technology.  Worldwide  digital  marketing  has

become the  most common  term, especially  after the  year

2013.  Digital  media growth  was  estimated  at 4.5  trillion

online ads served annually with digital media spend at 48%

growth in 2010. An increasing portion of advertising stems

from businesses employing  Online  Behavioral Advertising

(OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises

concern of consumer privacy and data protection.

 

III. Digital Marketing Tactics and Examples:

Digital marketers are in charge of driving brand awareness

and lead generation through all the digital channels -- both

free  and  paid  --  at  company's  disposal.  These  channels

include  social media,  the company's  own website,  search

engine  rankings,  email,  display  advertising,  and  the

company's blog.  The  digital marketer  focuses on  different

key performance  indicator (KPI)  for each  channel  so they

can properly  measure the company's  performance across

each  one.  Digital  marketing  is  carried  out  across  many

marketing roles today.  In  small companies, one  generalist

might own many of the digital marketing tactics described

above at the same time. In larger companies, these  tactics

have multiple specialists that each focus on just one or two

of the brand's digital channels. Here are some examples of

these specialists:

 

The best digital marketers  have  clear picture of how each

digital marketing campaign supports their overarching goals.

And  depending  on  goals  of  their  marketing  strategy,

marketers  can support  larger campaign  through free  and

paid  channels  at their  disposal. A  content marketer,  for

example,  can  create  series  of  blog  posts  that  serve  to

generate  leads  from  a  new  eBook  the  business  recently

created. The company's social media marketer might then

help  promote these  blog  posts through  paid  and  organic

posts on the business's social media accounts. Perhaps the

email marketer creates an email campaign to send those

who download  the eBook  more  information on  company.

Following  are  some  of  most  common  digital  marketing

tactics and the channels involved-

 Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This is process of

optimizing  website to "rank"  higher  in search  engine

results pages, thereby increasing the amount of organic

(or free) traffic your website receives. The channels that

benefit  from  SEO  include  Websites,  Blogs,  and  Info

graphics.

brand  and your  content  on social  media  channels  to

increase brand  awareness, drive  traffic, and generate

leads for  your business.  The channels  you can  use  in

social  media  marketing  include  Face  book,  Twitter,

LinkedIn, Instagram, Snap chat, Pinterest, and Google+.

 

 Content  Marketing:  It  denotes  the  creation  and

promotion  of  content  assets  for  the  purpose  of

generating  brand  awareness,  traffic  growth,  lead

generation, and customers. The channels that can play a

part in  your content  marketing strategy  include Blog

posts, EBooks  and whitepapers,  Info graphics,  Online

brochures and look books.

  Affiliate  Marketing:  This  is  a  type  of  performance-

based  advertising where  you receive  commission  for

promoting someone  else's products,  services on  your

website. Affiliate marketing  channels include  Hosting

video ads  through  the YouTube Partner Program  and

Posting affiliate links from your social media accounts.