It can be difficult to get into digital marketing when you’re starting out. It’s a market that is much more diverse than it seems, especially if you want to create an effective strategy. To get a good idea of what’s available, we’ll go over the 10 types of digital marketing you can use on the net.
Social media marketing
Social media platforms have become an integral part of modern digital marketing. Creating an account on these platforms tends to be free, and there’s near-limitless access to an enormous audience.
Both ads and all kinds of content can be used on social media. The most important part is knowing your audience and what they want to see. With the right strategy, there’s lots of potential for growth on social media.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing is the strategy of getting traffic from paid ads on search engines. The marketer pays search engines to show the ads on various search results that are tied to particular keywords.
Since Google is the most popular search engine by far, this type of marketing is mostly done through Google’s AdWords platform.
Email marketing
While most people don’t think of email as a relevant marketing channel, it’s still a booming industry. Every business should utilize email for their advertising needs as much as possible.
Email is especially good for personalized ads and product reviews. It helps keep customers engaged with brands that they already like.
Viral marketing
Achieving virality online might seem like a spontaneous and random process, but that’s not always the case. Many brands seek to create a viral sensation out of a brand so that they can advertise to countless users at the same time.
While it doesn’t always work, it’s an extremely effective boost when it does. It often requires cooperation with various blogs, influencers, and social media personalities to achieve.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO can be considered a subset of SEM, but it’s one that has a different approach to marketing. Whereas search engine marketing requires paid ads, search engine optimization only requires that you stick to certain practices to improve traffic and results.
As search engines evolve, businesses need to adapt their website and pages to keep up with these changes, which are often made to better reflect the needs of the users. As a result, many of them are intuitive and require only a keen eye for customer needs.
Pay per click advertising (PPC)
PPC is a form of paid advertising that is pretty straightforward. As the name would suggest, a marketer pays for each and every click on their ad on a website. The ads appear on various channels on the search engine that the marketer has chosen to advertise on.
The cost of each individual click depends on various factors, including the keyword competition and the quality score of the website.
Mobile advertising
People use their mobile phones for various tasks throughout the day. It should come as no surprise that this includes tasks such as shopping and searching for various bits of information online.
Any effective marketing strategy needs to market to mobile and desktop users at the same time. It’s crucial that the ads fit and function on mobile platforms to attract visitors and convert them.
Content marketing
Content is still king among marketing strategies, as it provides users with information and entertainment on a regular basis. To create an effective marketing strategy, it’s important to diversify your content.
Written content and images are essential, but they’re not the only options that attract visitors. You should also aim to introduce content in the form of infographics and videos. A business will often commission an outside production company to create a professional corporate video to represent their company. This can be useful for promoting your brand or creating training guides, or it can even do both if produced well.
Influencer marketing
Customers don’t trust businesses as much as they used to, but they do trust fellow consumers. This is what makes influencer marketing so effective. They act as a link between the common user and a business.
If you’ve ever followed an influencer, you’ll know that they often market various products related to their content. Companies that want to advertise to a specific demographic can seek out influencers that have a similar viewer base. By marketing products this way, the business can increase trust in their brand significantly.
Affiliate marketing
In many cases, advertisers prefer to pay for results instead of just an influx of traffic. This is how affiliate marketing works. Payments are based on the number of conversions rather than views.
As you might expect, the rates for this type of advertising are higher than PPC. The most notable benefit is the fact that there’s less risk involved, as you pay for what you get.
Conclusion
There are many different marketing channels for businesses to utilize in today’s advertising climate. It’s not a matter of choice as much as it is a matter of diversification of strategies. Implementing as many of these tactics as possible will lead to increased results, but only if they’re implemented correctly.
Jack Kewell is writer, science editor, naturalist, entrepreneur. He is focused on writing and illustrating books. Also, he is a regular contributor on mountaintechblog