Digital marketing in a nutshell – all you need to know

Digital marketing – definition

These channels include, among others: search engines, websites, social media and mobile applications. Using these tools, digital marketing enables companies to promote their goods, services and brands online.

In order to realize the full potential of digital marketing, marketers must navigate the vast and complex world of cross-channel to discover the strategies that have the greatest impact on the so-called engagement marketing. Thanks to the involvement of customers in the digital environment you build brand awareness, become a leader in the industry and put your company on a pedestal when the readers are ready to buy.

In addition, marketers must implement an omnichannel strategy (actions focusing on making all customer reach channels interconnected).  As a result of this brands can collect valuable information on the behavior of target audiences, while opening the door to new methods of engaging them. These activities also have a positive impact on the retention of existing customers.

In the future, we can expect a further increase in the variety of wearable devices available to consumers. Forbes also predicts that social media will become increasingly conversational in the B2B space, video content will be refined for search engine optimization (SEO), and email marketing will become even more personalized.

Tools and channels of digital marketing

Internet marketing involves a huge network of digital channels with which the customer interacts. In order to properly use the potential of all online channels, you need to know and understand how each of them works.

Here are the most important digital marketing tools and channels:

Paid Search

Paid search, which is most often pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, refers to sponsored results at the top or side of the search engine results page (SERP – Search Engine Results Page). A fee is then charged for each click on the ad by the user. Advertisements of this type are directed primarily to recipients looking for specific products or services.

They can be very effective because they are based on data obtained from users’ online behavior and are used to increase website traffic by delivering relevant advertisements to the right users at the right time. These ads also include retargeting, which means that, depending on customer actions, marketing automation tools can create unique, personal cross-platform ads.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing the content, reach, and technical aspects of a website in such a way that pages appear at the top of organic search results for a specific set of keywords. Using SEO can effectively increase the number of visitors to your website.

While PPC and retargeting are paid activities that give quick results, increasing organic traffic by optimizing your website is a long-term process. Nevertheless, it is worth investing your time and energy in this process, as it has a huge impact on search rankings, and thus – total traffic to your website.

By using the right keywords and phrases, you can massively increase your visibility and start a lasting and long-term relationship with your customers. Strong SEO strategies have a huge impact on digital marketing campaigns as visibility is the first step to establishing a lasting customer relationship.

Content Marketing

Effective content marketing is not promotional in nature, but rather serves to educate and inspire consumers looking for information. When you offer content that is relevant to your audience, you are seen as an authority, expert, thought leader, and credible source of information, making other marketing efforts less likely to be missed.

In the era of the self-driven buyer, content marketing generates three times as many leads as paid search advertising, so it’s worth the extra effort and time.

Social media marketing

The key to successful social media marketing goes far beyond simply having active social media accounts. You also need to weave social elements into every aspect of your marketing efforts to create as many ways of peer-to-peer sharing as possible.

The more your audience is inspired to engage with your content, the more likely they are to share it, potentially inspiring their peers to become customers.

E-mail marketing

After more than two decades, email is still the fastest and most direct way to reach customers with critical information. Today, in order for email campaigns to be successful, they must be extremely engaging, relevant, informative and fun so that they don’t get buried in the customer’s inbox.

Your marketing emails should meet five essential attributes to be successful. They must be:

• credible,
• significant,
• conversational,
• coordinated between channels,
• strategic.

Mobile marketing

You keep your mobile devices in your pocket, put them next to your bed and use them constantly throughout the day. This makes mobile marketing extremely important, with ⅔ of consumers able to recall a specific brand they saw advertised on mobile devices in the last week. Such marketing is also very diverse given its intimate nature.

SMS, MMS, and in-app marketing are options for reaching customers on their devices, but beyond that, you need to consider coordinating your marketing efforts with other digital marketing channels.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation is an integral platform that ties all digital marketing together. Without it, your campaigns will look like an unfinished puzzle with a missing piece. Marketing automation software streamlines and automates marketing tasks and workflows, measures results and calculates the return on investment (ROI) of your digital campaigns, helping you grow revenue faster.

Marketing automation can help you gain valuable insight into which programs are working and which are not, and will provide metrics that let you talk about your digital marketing efforts in relation to your company’s performance.

Step-by-step procedure for creating a digital marketing strategy

Start planning your online marketing strategy by identifying your audience and goals, then implement metrics to ensure continuous improvement.

Identification and segmentation of recipients

Today, customers expect a personalized experience at every touchpoint. To achieve this, you need to understand their demographic, behavioral and technological characteristics, as well as how their questions and concerns can be addressed.

Setting goals and measurement strategies

Use audience information to identify personas and get a clear picture of their sales journey to set goals and measurement strategies. Important metrics include impressions, reach, clicks, Click Through Rate (CTR), engagement rate, conversions, cost per lead (CPL), cost per thousand impressions (CPM), as well as back-end metrics such as return on investment (ROI), return on ad spend (ROAS), first- and multi-touch attribution, and lifetime customer value (LCV).

Ad tech and channels setup

Navigating ad tech can take some time, so make sure you have the right Data Management Platforms (DMPs), Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), Supply Side Platforms (SSPSs) and Ad Exchanges before you get started. Gather your team, communicate your goals to everyone, and show how their channels fit into your digital marketing overall.

Commissioning and optimization

Digital marketing can be used to acquire, nurture, build customer loyalty and create a brand. Regularly analyze the metrics to know where you are best and where you need to work to become a leader in a high-impact, high-demand space.