In the world of business development and branding, digitization is all that is hot. So what is digital marketing and how can we use it to grow our businesses?
Definition of digital marketing
Digital marketing is the advertising and promotion of companies and their brands through digital media channels. Digital media, at this time, includes websites, social media, radio, television, mobile devices, and even traditionally non-digital forms of media such as billboards and road signs. Basically, any marketing medium that is delivered electronically is considered digital marketing.
This leaves only various forms of person-to-person (P2P) marketing, print advertising, and direct marketing outside the framework of digital marketing. Even then, print ads, direct mail, print directories, billboards, and posters are beginning to connect with their digital counterparts. With things like URL landing pages, QR codes, web banner advertising, online directories, and text codes, traditional marketing and advertising almost always have a digital marketing connection.
Why the focus on digital media?
The shift to digital media is being driven by marketing agencies, business owners, and consumers alike. The ever-increasing demand to show measurable results makes digitization a dream for the digital marketing agency. Most digital media, including websites, social media, and mobile advertising, are much easier to track than traditional marketing media, such as print advertising.
For business owners, many forms of digital advertising have a very low cost. Having a web presence, engaging customers in conversations through social media, and email marketing are low-cost alternatives to print advertising and direct mail. These digital channels are available to companies of any size and help level the playing field for startups, small businesses, and independent consultants looking for new business.
For consumers, the fast pace of life makes digital advertising a must. When consumers need goods and services, the days of flipping through a phone book to find them are over. Now, we quickly pull out our mobile devices or head to our computers for answers, and we quickly find them.
Using digital media to develop your business and your brand
Regardless of the size of your company, be it a large company or a small or medium-sized company (SME or SME), you can market your company effectively through low-cost digital channels. The foundation of your marketing efforts will be your website. Invest wisely in your website and make sure you do the following:
- Properly represent your business and your brand (appearance, messages)
- Speak appropriately to your target audience
- It can be found by search engines on the major search engines.
- It is up to date and easily navigable
- Provides multiple channels for customer communication.
- Connects to other marketing efforts
It is recommended that you work with a professional web design company that has experience in web development and search engine optimization. Because your website is the foundation to and from which all other digital channels will lead, it should be considered one of your top business investments.
Once you have your website complete, the next steps would be to launch regular monthly or bi-monthly email campaigns and connect with customers through social media. If you really are on a tight budget, these are efforts that can be done in-house (by someone with the right knowledge) or for a low cost by an external digital marketing agency. Make sure all your efforts lead customers back to your website where they can fully interact with your business, products and services, and choose the channels through which they will communicate with you.
If you’re interested in being aggressive with search marketing, you can set aside a few digital marketing dollars for search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. Today, many businesses rely heavily on being found online to win new customers. A common misconception among business owners is that simply having a website means that customers will find it. Not so. Your site should be built with specific keywords and phrases, metadata, page content, and linking strategies to help you reach the top search positions.
Because many keywords and phrases face stiff competition for top search rankings, you’ll need to supplement your organic search engine optimization efforts with pay-per-click advertising. Getting established with pay-per-click ad campaigns can be a bit overwhelming, but with a little time, effort, and instruction, that can also be accomplished in-house or for a reasonable cost through an external digital marketing agency.
Beyond email, social media marketing, and search engine marketing, you can venture into a number of other digital marketing endeavors. Mobile advertising, radio, television, electronic billboards, and much more are available as marketing media. Regardless of which digital endeavors you choose, they all need to connect and link to your base – your business website.
If you have the means, a good investment would be to enlist the services of a digital marketing agency to assist you in your marketing efforts. Today, many digital agencies offer multiple levels of service to suit businesses large and small.
