We decided to write this article to help clear up any confusion as to what it is that our company does. It's been a long time coming, and with our new website completed, we thought now would be a great time to go ahead and publish it.
Digital Marketing, or sometimes also referred to as Online Marketing - unless you don't have a computer, tablet, smart phone or an Internet connection, you have been exposed to it in one form or another. It has become the best way for businesses of all sizes get and maintain Brand awareness as well as bring in new customers. It's the fastest growing and evolving form of marketing on the planet.
Why has digital marketing been expanding at a phenomenal rate? That's because other forms of marketing to the public have really lost their value and effectiveness in recent years. TV ads have become increasingly expensive and out of reach for most business owners. Regular radio has lost potential listeners to commercial free satellite radio and other platforms like Pandora. Even roadside billboards have lost their effectiveness because most passengers in a vehicle are on their smartphone checking out Facebook.
So exactly what is Digital, or Online Marketing?
Basically, it's an umbrella term used for several methods of reaching your audience or clients across the web. A few of the main platforms to reach your company's audience or clientele include:
- Your Website
- SEM, or Paid Ads
- Video Marketing
- Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.)
There is a lot more to marketing online, but these are the basics. Now we will cover how you can reach your audience or new customers with these platforms.
Your Website: In our opinion, and many other professional online marketers, this is the most important part of the equation. Almost all of your ads, social media outreach, emails and everything will send customers back to here to learn more about your services and products. Your website also gives the first impression of your Brand.
One of the biggest assets to your website is to have a blog. You can write content for your audience (like this post). Your viewers can learn more about your company, your services or your products.
Then Local SEO comes into play. You can get your website to rank high in the search results for terms that people using the internet use to find your company's services. This can also be applied to your blog posts as well.
SEM (Ads): Ads are everywhere! You've seen them on Facebook, Twitter and every social media platform, as well as your favorite browser when you search for something on the Internet, like a service or product. It's still a good way to expand your business and your Brand. There is some debate as to if they are still viable as most people skip the ads and get to the content they are after.We feel that it's still a great method and should be combined with SEO.
Video: This is a medium that is growing very rapidly! There are all kinds of estimates on different blogs as well as research that claim crazy numbers like 80% of all internet traffic will be through video by the year 2020. While we don't think it's will be that crazy, by looking at the past history of video, it will definitely take it's lion share of marketing!
Video is extremely engaging. People have short attention spans and would rather watch the internet than read it. You can quickly inform the viewer of who you are, your service, and why they should choose you over the competition.
Social Media: This platform is growing by leaps and bounds daily as well. It seems like there is a new platform every month. However, the tried and true giants are Facebook and Twitter. Others that are really paying off with an excellent ROI are Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Depending on what type of business you have and your projected audience will depend on which social network will work best for your company.
This is in no way an exhaustive list of all the different types of digital marketing. It is, however, our favorites and work the best for every business type that we serve and help grow.
There Are Almost As Many Different Explanations Of What Digital Marketing Is As There Are Digital Marketers!
To give you a great example, Lee Odden from the Top Rank Marketing Blog wrote an excellent article where he asked 9 Digital Marketers what it meant:
Have you noticed the phrase “digital marketing” being bounced around a lot more lately? Me too.
I admit that I’m one of the sources of that bouncing. With the rate of change occurring in the marketing world, I think describing what we do is something that isn’t really satisfied by just one phrase. Content, Search, Inbound, Multi-Channel, Integrated, all seem to have their place, but “Digital” seems to express what most companies are creating in their marketing right now.
What is digital marketing?Digital marketing is a term used to describe the integrated marketing services used to attract, engage and convert customers online. Digital marketing utilizes multiple channels such as content marketing, influencer marketing, SEO, social media and online advertising to help brands connect with customers and uncover performance of marketing programs in real-time.
As much as people toss around “digital marketing”, I get the impression that we’re not all on the same page in terms of what it actually means. Just a few weeks ago, we posted a digital marketing predictions post that now has nearly 8,000 social shares. Both the answers and the feedback were quite varied.
Read The Full Article And What They Answered Here...
If you read that article and saw all the different answers, you know what we mean!
But here is the kicker - with all of these types of online marketing, it is very easy to track what types are performing and giving your company a satisfactory ROI. This is explained in a fantastic, lengthy article written by Mike Tomita in his article "Measure the ROI of Digital Advertising Beyond Revenue Impact":
Return on investment (ROI) is an important part of digital marketing (and really, almost every part of marketing)—it tells you whether you’re getting your money’s worth from your marketing campaigns. And if you’re not, it’s critical to get to the bottom of it, and understand why so you can learn how to improve your campaigns. But first, you need to understand how you can effectively measure the ROI of digital advertising.
The most instinctive way to measure digital advertising ROI is to track metrics that tie directly to revenue and profit (think conversions, opportunities, etc.). While it sounds great on paper, in the real world, this oversimplified view can paint an inaccurate picture of your ROI, especially if your product is sold at a low price per unit. Big picture measurement often factors in soft metrics—things like brand impressions, impressions, website visitors, and downloads—which help tell a more complete story.
You need to take the time to read that full article if you are interest in some of the best ways to measure you digital marketing ROI.
So there you have the basics of online marketing. If you want to learn more about Digital Marketing, stay tuned to our website!
The post What Is Digital Marketing And What Does It Consist Of? Read more on: http://mdimsolutions.com/
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