Digital marketing or online marketing or internet marketing is the Holy Grail for modern-day business entities to attract more clients and increase sales.
It may come to you as a surprise, but the global digital marketing market was estimated at USD 350 Billion in 2020, and pacing at a CAGR of 13.8% to reach the USD 786.2 Billion mark by 2026.
You need a digital marketing plan in place if you want to keep one step ahead of your competition as more and more businesses move their operations online and new ones start up every day.
However, if you are thinking that all you have to do is to make a nice website, post a few blogs with optimized keywords, and the job is done – you are wrong.
Digital marketing is an ocean that is constantly expanding and the idea of “one size fits all” doesn’t apply here.
So, here in this article, we will tell you to want digital marketing is, how it works and what the best digital marketing strategies are, to begin with.
Digital Marketing: The Most Influential & Result-oriented Marketing Strategy
Digital marketing is itself a strategy that entails several sub-strategies under one umbrella to promote products or services via different digital platforms.
In digital marketing businesses of all types can use search engines, social media platforms, emails, and websites to reach a wide range of customers that transcends local and even national boundaries.
In simpler words, if you want to increase your company’s brand awareness at a greater scale and promote your products or services, the first thing you will need is to increase your online presence. The more people will see you online, the more they will want to use your products or services with you – and that’s the general idea of digital marketing.
And to become successful at that, you will need the following digital marketing strategies:
| 1. Content Marketing | 7. Instant Message Marketing |
| 2. SEO/ Search Engine Optimization | 8. Video Marketing |
| 3. SMM/Social Media Marketing | 9. Audio Marketing |
| 4. Paid Advertisement | 10. Mobile Marketing |
| 5. Influence Marketing | 11. Affiliate Marketing |
| 6. Email Marketing | 12. Virtual Reality Marketing |
1) Content Marketing:
If you want to educate your visitors about certain products or services, you need to write down the right points with an easy yet informative approach – and that is where you will need powerful content.
Businesses can only take charge of the market if they have the confidence of their customers, and you can do that with the right content marketing strategy in place.
When planning your content marketing strategy, remember the following 3 points:
2) SEO – Search Engine Optimization:
So, you are very good at creating content, but will it be enough to reach a wide audience? – Not without the SEO or Search Engine Optimization strategy.
SEO primarily works under the methodology of Keyword research.
When someone looks for something on the internet, they only type a few words, not the entire list of things. For example, if someone is looking for a tuxedo, they are most likely to write “tuxedo shop near me”.
So, if you own a tuxedo shop, you need to create content that is well-optimized with the most-searched keywords.
Though it needs continuous look-up, SEO is undoubtedly the best way to attract organic traffic.
3) SMM – Social Media Marketing:
As the term implies, marketers leverage social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to strengthen their online presence and raise the perceived value of their brands.
The success of a social media marketing strategy is based on the following factors:
With the right social media marketing strategy in place, businesses can influence the habit of their customers.
You can improve your Social media marketing strategy by using the following tactics:
4) Paid Advertising:
The top 3 digital marketing strategies mentioned above are free (as long as you don’t involve professional SEO services). But now comes paid advertising where you need to participate in an auction to buy online ad spaces on a specific platform.
While organic traffic is the most reliable way of increasing your conversion rate, it is very much competitive. So, it’s always better to have an alternative strategy that can place you at the top of the search results.
For example, if you type “jumpsuit” on Google, you will see several thumbnails at the top of the search results with Jumpsuit images, along with text results. These online retailers have invested in paid advertising. If you click on them, you will be redirected to these marketplaces that sell jumpsuits online.
5) Influencer Marketing:
Influencer marketing is related to social media marketing, which is collaborating with or paying social media influencers to promote your goods or services.
Estimated at USD 1.7 Billion in 2016, the influencer marketing industry has grown almost 10 times and in 2022, it is estimated at USD 16.4 Billion.
There are several social media channels or individual social media influencers that can promote your brand to its long list of followers.
6) Email Marketing:
While rumors can be heard about the inefficiency of Email marketing, you can still use it to keep your customers informed about your products or services.
Through Email marketing, you can send regular updates to your customers. You can also automate the email marketing procedure, but make sure not to spam them with irrelevant content.
7) Instant Message Marketing:
In this fast-paced world, instant messaging allows you to connect and communicate with your customers immediately and more conveniently.
The instant messaging strategy offers a more direct form of communication than sending emails. These days, most people use WhatsApp, Telegram WeChat, and several other online messaging apps, and companies must use them to share product or service updates, offers, and chat support.
8) Video Marketing:
One of the finest methods to more clearly convey your company’s viewpoint and ideas to the public is through video marketing.
Video marketing is nothing new, but since the inception of YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and several other social media platforms, businesses can now engage and educate their customers at the same time.
Besides, a Video marketing strategy can also boost your SEO strategy. Customers are likely to spend their time and trust a brand online that shares video descriptions and tutorials on their websites as well as on their social media platforms.
9) Audio Marketing:
Audio marketing is an extension of a nicely placed digital marketing campaign where you use audio ads through radio and Podcasts. Audio marketing also includes voice search optimization for your website.
One way of doing it is by buying ad slots from the most popular radio stations. Another way of doing this is to make Podcasts regularly and educate your customers about your products and services.
10) Mobile Marketing:
One of the most important digital marketing tactics is mobile marketing, which entails grabbing mobile device users’ attention.
With the right approach, mobile marketing can help you attain clients or potential clients with time and location-sensitive information. It will help your business to understand the needs of a customer and offer those particular services.
With more people using their mobile devices to buy products and hire services, mobile marketing is getting more prominence.
11) Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate marketing is an omnichannel strategy where you need to pay a nominal fee to others for promoting and advocating your products or services online.
Surely Affiliate marketing has its links with influencer marketing. In this strategy, influencers will promote your brand online with a buying link. If the visitors buy your products or services from that link, the influencer will get a percentage of the sale, while you will get a converted client.
Apart from influencers, there are several people out there who participate in such affiliate marketing programs to earn passive income, so you will never run out of options.
12) Virtual Reality Marketing:
Virtual Reality is on the rise and now it is being widely used by top business entities. Instead of reading the content or watching videos, viewers now can get a more interactive experience about your products through Virtual reality marketing.
By offering a more immersive and realistic simulation, Virtual reality has gradually become the face of digital marketing.
The Worldwide VR market is estimated to reach USD 6.71 Billion by the end of 2022, while the AR and VR market combined is expected to go as high as USD 220 Billion by 2028.
Conclusion:
We have mentioned above that the idea of “one size fits all” doesn’t work in digital marketing. But we have mentioned the key digital marketing tactics that can make or break your business in this digital era. Therefore, we strongly suggest you conduct studies and then implement the marketing methods that will work for your company.