Rakesh, one of my neighbors, had recently opened a ready-made garment store. Eye-catching interior design and a diverse range of quality products — it seemed like he had done everything to perfection. He expected good earnings from the store, but he could not.
Everything was fine, but there was one thing that was wrong. Guess what?
Rakesh does not have customers as he expected.
The reason? Very simple, very few people know about his clothing store.
Due to a lack of customers, Rakesh could not sustain the business. Eventually, he had to shut down the store.
Digital marketing could help Rakesh to get more customers, but he was unaware of the power of this contemporary marketing technique.
Every business needs customers. Customers are the main factors that decide the fate of your business. If your business has no customers, then you cannot sustain the business.
Having more and more customers is essential to success. The more customers you have, the more sales you will make, and the more income you will have.
Digital marketing is the best technique in this day and age. It is essential to success for any kind of business in modern times. This will spread awareness about your business and attract your target customers and encourage them to purchase your products or services.
Didn’t you get my points? Okay, don’t be puzzled.
I guess you are not aware of digital marketing. What is digital marketing? You might have this question in your mind. You may also be interested in knowing how it works.
Here is an easy-to-understand breakdown that will help you understand digital marketing without straining your mind.
What is digital marketing?
I would like to define the term “digital marketing” before I begin my digital marketing overview.
As the name points out, digital marketing that utilizes digital technologies to promote products and services. It uses both internet and non-internet channels. For example, television, SMS, callback, and on-hold mobile ringtones do not use the internet but also come under digital marketing.
In my overview of digital marketing, you will learn about digital marketing techniques that use the internet or online-based digital technologies.
Digital marketing is a groundbreaking contemporary marketing technique that uses the internet and online places to advertise businesses. Website, search engines, mobile apps, and email inbox are crucial online places where advertisements are shown by digital marketing campaigns.
One thing you must know is that digital marketing is not a single strategy. It is a marketing umbrella, and there come different strategies.
The main components of this contemporary marketing are as follows:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Social media marketing (SMM)
- Email marketing
- Social media optimization (SMO)
- Display advertising
- e-books advertising
- Content marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Video marketing
- Online Reputation Management (ORM)
I will discuss some of these strategies in more detail later. For now, I would like to shed light on why digital marketing matters.
Why do you need digital marketing for your business?
Marketing has different techniques. Why do you need digital marketing for your business? Why does it matter for your business?
The reasons are obvious. The internet offers the largest audience reach.
According to Statista.com, India has 560+ million internet users. It is the second-largest online market in the world, after China. It was estimated that there would be 650+ million internet users in India by 2023.
In modern times, digital marketing offers a variety of advertising strategies to help businesses reach more and more customers. You can reach your target audience from anywhere in the world through digital media like emails, social media, search engines, mobile apps, etc.
If you have a large target audience, then you will have so many options to explore more business growth ideas.
The key benefits of digital marketing are as follows:
- Provides access to a large target audience
- Offers better growth options for small businesses
- Helps to achieve a higher conversion rate
- Improves sales and increases ROI
- Keeps staying connected with customers
- Helps to solve customer problems
- Increases engagement with mobile customers
- Improves your brand and reach
- Can be started with a small amount
- Easy to onboard digital marketing
What are the different types of digital marketing?
Now that you have a clear understanding of digital marketing and online marketing basics. I have already stated that digital marketing is an umbrella term. There are several marketing strategies that fall under it. Here I will discuss four major types of digital marketing.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important components of digital marketing. In today’s cut-throat competition, people often need to keep their business up.
If your business website is not visible in search engines, you can lose the race. No one will visit your website even on the second page of the search engine result.
But if your website finds it place on the first page of search engine result, then you may get an increased volume of traffic that might convert into your customers.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best online marketing tools that help you increase the visibility of your website in search engines. It improves the ranking of your website in search engines.
There are various techniques and tactics that are used in an SEO campaign for effective results. Key SEO tactics are as follows:
- Keyword research
- On-page optimization
- Off-page optimization
- Link building
- Local SEO
- Blogging and guest post
2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a technique of internet marketing that refers to the promotion of websites in search engines. It helps websites increase their visibility in SERPs (search engine result pages) primarily through paid advertising.
PPC (Pay-per-click) advertising in search engines through Google Ads is the best example of SEM through paid advertising. Remember, SEM may also incorporate search engine optimization (SEO).
3. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
As the name points out, the term social media marketing (SMM) is an internet marketing technique that uses social media and social networks to market a company’s product and services.
Due to a large number of internet and social media users, social media marketing (SMM) has been one of the best digital marketing tools in modern times.
Popular platforms for SMM are Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, Reddit, Snapchat, Quora, Vimeo, Medium, Hubpages, etc.
4. Email marketing
Email marketing is a digital marketing technique that uses email to market a company’s products and services. A well-planned email marketing campaign can make the customers or potential customers on your email list aware of your new products and services. This has been one of the most used digital marketing technologies in the online business world.
In Conclusion
If you don’t want to be another Rakesh, then you must understand the power of digital marketing. Digital marketing techniques can turn your small business into an enterprise.
You may be a person behind a big brand. So, take the advantage of digital marketing strategies and see tremendous growth in your business.
