Digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of digital technologies to attract, engage, and convert customers online.
For a business to succeed in today’s Digital world, it is really important to have a strong digital footprint on the internet. With today’s sophisticated digital lifestyle, consumers are probably on Facebook, checking out Twitter, browsing their email inboxes, and searching for products and services on a search engine.
Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing as it leverages all electronic devices like PCs, Tablets, Smartphones, digital signage or billboards, and smart TVs to provide an experience in real-time, that influences a desired audience to buy your product / read your articles / engage with your content.
Marketers shall use these Omni-channels, which can track the customer’s journey and give them the ability to engage with the consumer online.
Various components of Digital Marketing:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – make your brand appear at the top of Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – paid advertisements like pay per click & Google AdWords allow your website to emerge on the paid listing of different search engines.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) – advertising on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Get a maximum number of Likes and Tweets on Twitter.
Mobile Optimization and Responsive Websites - When you take a look around a room, nearly everyone is on their Smartphone. The number of people browsing on mobile passed desktop users a long time ago.
Video Marketing - the best way to engage with millennials. Facebook live streaming, Periscope, Snapchat, and YouTube are on the rise now, more than ever.
Web analytics – collection and analysis of web usage data
Content Marketing - eBooks, White Papers and Infographics
Email Marketing – sending emails to customers directly
Here are some challenges for Digital Marketers:
Explosion of digital channels - Consumers use a variety of digital channels and devices to interact with brands in different ways and for different purposes.
Exploding data volumes - Consumers leave behind a huge digital footprint in these channels. It’s extremely difficult to get a handle on all that data and find the right data that can help you make the right decisions.
Increasing competition - Digital channels are relatively cheap, compared with traditional media, making them within reach of practically every business of every size. As a result, everyone is trying to capture consumers’ attention.
How do you succeed in Digital Marketing:
Avoid overwhelming “in your face” marketing
Respond to dynamic customer interactions.
Extract value from big data to make better decisions faster
Close loop the feedback into future digital campaigns for Cross/Up-Sell
People want brands they can trust, companies that know them as people, communications that are personalized and relevant and offers tailored to their needs and preferences.
Digital is now the first touch point for the consumer and a channel where the consumer has greater control over what they see and when they see it.