Jaswinder Singh
Digital Marketing is one word that has been buzzing ever since we got hold of the world wide web and internet became handy for the common folks. Most of us are well aware of what Marketing means if we go by the Wikipedia's definition, it says "The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." So basically in human language, marketing can be defined as a set of tactics which widely depends on customer's satisfactions and feedbacks which in course helps us to hike our products sale. We were making our cool with marketing and its new methods like radio, television and were pondering to come with innovative ways and ideas to endorse our brands but then digital revolution came and redefined the meaning of marketing and generalized the usage of the term "Digital Marketing".
What exactly Digital Marketing in simple words?
Digital marketing is any method of marketing products or services that merely involves any electronic devices. It doesn't summon to have internet connection on it but any marketing which is done through digital devices comes in this genre, from television to mobile phones. It's just that after the involvement of internet increased and we got introduced to world wide web we got used to the term Digital Marketing.
Why Digital Marketing actually matters?
We have heard many people praising and opting Digital marketing, Is it because of peer pressure or because their competitions are doing so? There isn’t a second thought that peer pressure does play an important role in turning our decision but there is a lot more in Digital marketing than following the herd. The number and amount of time people are spending using electronic devices is exponentially increasing. It is said that on an average a youth spends 11+ hours on his/her electronic devices, every single day, 11+ HOURS!! Do I need to say anything else to prove my point that electronic devices are ruling the world? And thus Digital Marketing not only matters but is an essential part of any business.
According to Socialnomics 2014, only 14% of consumers believe or trust advertising, while a whopping 93% of consumer’s buying decisions are influenced by social media. And the well-known 4Ps(product, price, place and promotion) of marketing have turned into 4Cs of digital marketing.
So, What are these must be followed 4Cs strategies of digital marketing?
Creating
Before the revolution caused by mobile devices, advertising was simply done by a simple guide to be followed and was neatly packed away into traditional marketing (e.g. television, print, radio and billboards). Creating content was formulaic for these mediums, and it used to work. Until there came a breakthrough in technology and targeted audiences no longer paid attention to the traditional ways and were diverted to the social network, spending their major time on World Wide Web. Rather than creating content to sell your audience something, think of content that will drive their attention and make them talk about it. Create your digital marketing brand voice and stay true to yourself.
Curating
In the past few years we have seen what actually Social media are capable of and how can community managers divert a vital traffic towards your brand and website, they are competent of much more than post content on social media channels, it all depends on how wicked are they and how efficiently they can follow youth’s trend. Similarly to art curators in museums, social media managers are curators of content. They determine which content are appropriate for which channels, when to publish and how best to engage targeted audiences. As new marketing strategies in the digital space arise, they decide whether or not it’ll be successful with their brand.
Connecting
Instead of using the 4Ps of marketing tactics, digital marketers are striving to engage consumers when and where they actually want to receive content (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc.). Outdated methods such as guerrilla marketing are no longer effective or appreciated. Consumers don’t want to be bombarded with unwanted messages. So, in an overly cluttered market, make sure to present your content in a meaningful and well-crafted manner to the consumer and in a channel.
Culture
Once a brand voice has been determined and distribution channels are selected, it’s up to the social media managers to maintain their brand’s culture. But, since digital marketing is constantly evolving, so should your brand. It’s okay to be a little quirky from time to time just make sure the occasion is warranted. Your followers are following you for a reason. They like the type of content you publish, channels and ingenuity of your brand.
There are two main foundations on which digital marketing relies and is developed on, Online Digital Marketing and Offline Digital Marketing, in this blog we’ll stress just on ONLINE DIGITAL MARKETING,
So, The 6 big strategies/categories of online marketing are:
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Content marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
Email marketing
As the topic of this blog suggests the blog to be a step by step guide to Digital Marketing. So, a brief introduction to the above mentioned strategies are done in the points below.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the vital modes for online business development which deals with optimizing the online content so that a search engine prefers to pop it as a top result for searches on certain keywords. SEO is an affordable way to get your business in the maximum number of eyes and to seek most traffic to your website and product.
Search engine marketing (SEM): SEM is basically a paid version of SEO, Marketers pays for displaying their advertisements together with Google and other search engines' search results and to drive bigger traffic, or rather people interested in the product.
Content Marketing: It is said that "Pen is mightier than the sword", in the digital era it can be quoted as "keyboard speaks louder than everything". Authentic content plays an important role in seeking the attention of required traffic. With the usage of required keywords, it really helps your website to seek organic traffic.
Social Media Marketing: Ever since social media found its way in our lives, we kind of knew that it's going to be the next big thing and would revolutionize our world but what still amuses some marketer that it has revolutionized the Digital Marketing to such extent and such a huge and potential traffic can be attracted using it.
You can also read: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING – A WIN-WIN STRATEGY
Pay-Per-Click(PPC): PPC is kind of similar to search engine marketing(SEM), but what makes it different is that it is not limited to Google and its competitors search engines. Most social media networks let you create your ads that integrate naturally into their feeds, allowing you for paying just a few pennies for every click to your website.
E-mail Marketing: E-mail marketing is just a modern way of SMS marketing though it is considered to be an old school method, but is still one of the most effective strategies. Once your customers have given you permission to contact them, you can email them at any time, providing value and asking them to buy when the time is right, letting them know about your current offers and much more.
Digital Marketing is creating an empire of its own in which new effective methods are being added to make it even more efficient every day. Online marketing is the real deal and is revolutionizing marketing for everyone.
RW Infotech is a web development firm based in India providing a wide range of web development services including the versatile genre of digital marketing. We stay in tune with all the current trends of digital marketing to keep our client’s business in sync with the forthcoming trends and to drive maximum and authentic traffic towards their website.