What is Digital Marketing?

Sometimes the wealth of information available can make it difficult to understand what digital marketing actually entails. Maybe you’ve heard terms like SEO, B2B, B2C PPC and many other acronyms and are unsure what they mean? Below we will break these terms down and explain how digital marketing is key to maximising your sales.

With the global digital marketing market projected to reach $788 billion by 2026 and 66% of businesses increasing their digital budgets, there is no sign of the market slowing down.

So what actually is Digital Marketing?

It is the promotion of brands and businesses to connect with prospective customers using the internet and other means of digital communication. This can range from web based advertising, email, social media, paid ads and many other options.

 In summary, if a marketing campaign utilises any form of digital communication, it is classified as digital marketing. When it comes to digital marketing it commonly involves:

Content Marketing

The key goal of content marketing is to attract leads that ultimately convert into customers or clients. But the way in which it does so is different to traditional forms of advertising, it tends to include free info in the form of blog posts (like this one), Newsletters, Infographics and E-books.

One of the keys to content marketing is being able to ensure you rank highly in search engine results, which will hopefully lead to people engaging with the content and therefore increasing brand awareness further. To create content that people will engage with you need to capture your target audience and understand what type of content appeals to your audience the most.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

This is the process of getting your website found on the internet. For instance, there is no point in spending a fortune on a beautifully designed website if no one will find it, as it is hidden somewhere on page 7 of Google. Higher ranking sites dramatically increase the amount of organic traffic going to your website and therefore help to increase sales.

Ultimately the goal is to be on the first page of a search engines results page, mainly focusing on Google as the global leader. With SEO there is no consistent rule for high rankings as Google constantly changes their algorithm, so you must closely monitor performance and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing means increasing brand awareness and driving traffic by using various platforms to directly engage with consumers. With 4.6billion social media users worldwide focusing on social media marketing can be a huge benefit to your sales.

The most popular and therefore most beneficial platforms are Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube to name a few. Each of these platforms offer the advantage of targeting a different audience in a different manner, so ensuring you are maximising coverage. Social media also offers in build engagement metrics which are extremely beneficial in tailoring your marketing to your audience.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a proven and highly effective technique with 89% of businesses naming it as their most successful lead generator. To optimise your email marketing, you need to clearly state your unique selling points (USP), offer value in the form of discounts, promotions or educational value and individualise the content for the target.

Email marketing is at its most effective when utilised with other aspects of digital marketing such as automating your lists so that they will meet your customer’s needs better. Also using effective data analysis to monitor how well your campaigns have done.

There are also many, many other forms of digital marketing and due to the nature of being digital it is consistently evolving and growing. Therefore, it is essential to ensure your digital marketing strategy is maximised to increase sales, target new and existing customers and drive traffic to your website.

This is something we at Dream Directions Design Agency are masters at achieving using our business backgrounds and deep knowledge of data analytics to being your business the sales it deserves. If this sounds useful to your business, get in touch as we would love to help!