Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing

October 23, 2024

By Thals R Volmar

Digital marketing is the use of digital tools or means to achieve marketing purposes. Digital marketing promotes products, services and brand awareness through digital technologies or electronic means. Digital marketing is a new theme in the sense that it contrasts with traditional marketing, which has been used long before the advent of the internet. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing allows marketers enormous control over their marketing campaign by having access to adequate and timely analysis measures. As a result, marketers are able to see what is working or not during the campaign.

Digital marketing is a rich theme that brings together various components, i.e., the channels used to promote the enterprise’s brand and even sell its products and/or services. Today, the more digital progress is made, the more components or means are grouped under the theme of digital marketing. In this article, we will see the most used digital marketing channels and some key concepts that should allow marketing professionals to better develop or frame their online marketing strategies for concrete results.

Content Marketing: Content marketing is not a digital marketing channel, it is preferably based on strategies and action plans to be undertaken to promote, sell and disseminate the enterprise’s products and/or services through value proposition and information that are attractive to consumers. Therefore, content marketing is a marketing strategy that consists of creating, distributing, and disseminating relevant, attractive and valuable content to attract and/or retain a specific audience. Content marketing is a reliable means of communication set up by the enterprise to promote and highlight its activities and brand, and to position itself on the market as a leader; it concerns above all the information and response elements dedicated to a particular audience, then come the other details.

Website: A website is one or several web page(s) that are grouped together and stored on a web server and can be accessed on the internet from a URL or domain name. Today, the existence of a website for an enterprise is essential to promote its brand, its products and/or services. This can be done through the published content, i.e., the attractiveness of the site itself, its configuration, its user-friendliness, and its usefulness. The enterprise’s website is its online face and, to a certain extend, its online gateway; a poorly designed and configured website, and having unsuitable content can generate adverse marketing effects.

Social Networks: Social networks are channels that help build brand authority, promote products and/or services, disseminate information through posts, tweets, videos, images, podcasts, etc., and allow for two-way communication. Depending on the activities conducted on the market, not all social networks seem appropriate to advertise your activities and promote your brand, therefore, one should choose messages tailored to each form of social network, and this is where content marketing is important again. Without this content strategy linked to the themes and messages dedicated to the targeted audience, marketing efforts can be fruitless, and even adverse. Social networks can help establish online presence, nevertheless, social network marketing deserves commitment.

Email Marketing: Email marketing is the act of sending marketing messages to segment(s) of customers or targeted audience through their email. It is one of the oldest digital marketing channels that remains one of the most successful channels to send important messages about products and/or services to the enterprise’s customers. Considering only sending marketing emails to the enterprise’s customers and/or subscribers, it is one of the safest and least expensive methods, nevertheless, it must be used professionally to avoid any collateral damage. Email marketing messages must be subject to reliable and relevant content and mobile-friendly. It is advisable to use email service providers, ESPs, to send emails to subscribers, as they allow managing all aspects of such emails, from composition to after sending through features and analysis tools.

Text Messaging Marketing: Nowadays, many enterprises tend to send short messages, SMS, to their customers about products and/or services. Like email marketing, text message marketing is very precarious as it can cause damage to the enterprise’s image; a message or number with contents that are not reliable and relevant can be blacklisted by the recipient. It is also advisable to use an SMS and or MMS provider in the field that can help marketing messages reach their destinations without much difficulty as it knows the environment and its application is developed to remain within legal limits.

Search Engine Marketing: Search engine marketing, SEM, is a global theme that takes into account all paid activities adopted by an enterprise to allow better visibility of its web pages in organic search lists. For quick online ranking more precisely on search engines and for profitability matters, many enterprises have paid search engines to rank their site or advertisement at the top of search engine result pages, SERPs. Search engine giants have set up various paid mechanisms to allow organizations to attract traffic to their site(s) and/or amplify their online advertising, this includes pay per click, paid search, paid for impression, and so on. To carry out these actions, the enterprise should have an adequate online presence, i.e., a good brand image and reliable and relevant content. The results of SEM are fast, but the effects are temporary; in point of fact, one can always aim for search engine optimization as well.

Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization, SEO, is the set of actions taken by an organization to allow better ranking of its website in organic search listings in order to attract more visitors. SEO contrasts with SEM in the sense that is not paid, and its results and effects are long term. SEO bets on keywords placed in dedicated sections of the website, having share buttons on the website’s home page, connecting the site with social networks and other websites if possible, …, because the more traffic a site attracts, the higher it ranks among search engine results pages. In addition, using performance indicators to analyze the website is essential to make decisions and correct shortcomings.

As a conclusion, we say that digital marketing nowadays is very important to promote better brand awareness. With the internet phenomenon, digital marketing is a sure way to gain huge national and international market share without needing a physical presence elsewhere once you have the appropriate tools. Therefore, adopting the right tactics to have a strong online presence and remain at the forefront on search engine results pages, SERPs, is a must for the profitability of the enterprise.