Looking for a digital marketing agency? Or a digital marketing company to help? Before ANY of that, know what digital marketing actually is.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is all the activities promoting and selling services and products using online channels. These channels include social media, paid advertising, email, messages, and search engine optimization. Digital marketing uses content (information), on channels, which are found on electronic devices.
To be effective you will need a digital marketing strategy. If you are unclear about your strategy, your marketing and sales will underperform.
The two biggest digital platforms are Google and Facebook. They have the most people spending time on their platform.
More and more people are spending time on electronic devices (that is why it is part of the definition of what digital marketing is).
When thinking about digital marketing we need to understand the 3 main categories:
#1 Digital Content
Content is created. Here are the main types of content:
- Blog / articles (words)
- Videos
- Images
#2 Digital Channels
Content is distributed or made available via digital channels:
- Social sites
- Video sites
- Websites (search engine optimization helps to be found when someone searches)
- Messages
- Paid ads (Google ads / Facebook ads)
#3 Electronic Devices
The content is seen (or heard) on electronic devices:
- TV
- Laptop
- Desktop
- Smart Phones
- Tablets
- Billboards
When you are working on your digital marketing strategy, keep these 3 main categories in mind.
Digital Marketing Functions
To support the main 3 categories above, there are specific digital marketing functions. These include:
- Lead Generation
- Email marketing
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Analytics
- Conversion rate optimization
- Paid marketing (ie Google ads, Facebook ads)
- Sales Funnels
- Content marketing
Where do you start with digital marketing?
A good first step is ensuring you have a digital marketing strategy. Your strategy will help determine what you will focus on.
With your strategy outline, you will have an action plan. Your action plan will be the items to be done detailed in your strategy.
When you start implementing your strategy, you need to measure the results. Tracking results will show whether you are reaching your goals or not.
Digital Marketing Always Changes
If you have not realised it yet, know this … digital marketing is always changing. The platforms change, peoples behaviors change, competition enters the market …
This means when working on your digital marketing it is important to have multiple channels or pillars.
For instance, if you rely 100% on Facebook for business and your account gets blocked, you will be in trouble.
However, if you have email marketing, Google ads, Facebook ads, ranking website, videos, and affiliates, you have spread your marketing risk between these channels. If one of these dropped in performance, or even worse stopped working, you will still have the other channels.
