Digital marketing is a term used to describe the use of digital channels to sell products and services to reach consumers. This type of marketing includes the use of websites, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other similar channels. Digital marketing became popular with the advent of the Internet in the 1990s.
Digital marketing incorporates some of the same principles as traditional marketing and is often seen as a new way for businesses to engage and understand consumer behavior. Companies often combine traditional and digital marketing techniques with their strategies.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Digital marketing includes marketing to consumers over any number of digital channels
- This form of marketing is typically done on websites, mobile devices, and social media platforms.
- This form of marketing is different from internet marketing, which is done only on websites.
- Digital marketing covers a wide range of areas, including email research, content marketing, search platforms, social media, and more.
- One of the biggest challenges digital marketers face is distinguishing themselves in a world saturated with digital marketing
Understand digital marketing
Marketing refers to all activities that a company uses to promote its products and services and increase its market share. Successful marketing requires a combination of promotional skills, sales, and the ability to deliver products to end users. This is typically done by a designated expert or marketer who may work with other marketing companies internally (in the case of a company) or outside the company.
Traditionally, companies have focused on marketing via print media, television and radio. While these options remain today, the rise of the Internet has changed the way businesses reach consumers. That’s where digital marketing comes in. This form of marketing involves the use of websites, social media, search engines, and apps. This includes marketing with customer feedback and two-way interaction between the company and the customer.
Increasing technology and new trends have forced companies to change their marketing practices. Email was a popular marketing tool in the early days of digital marketing. The focus has shifted to search engines like Netscape, allowing businesses to tag and keyword to get attention. The development of shared sites like Facebook has enabled businesses to track data to respond to consumer trends.
Smartphones and other digital devices make it easier for businesses to market their products and services to consumers. Studies show that people prefer to use their mobile phones to access the Internet. So it’s no wonder that 70% of people make a purchase decision (usually on their mobile phone) before actually clicking the buy button.
Special considerations
Advertisers are commonly referred to as sources, and members of targeted ads are commonly referred to as recipients. Sources are often targeted at very specific and well-defined recipients. For example, McDonald’s used digital advertising to target shift workers and travelers after extending night business hours. This is because the company knew that these people were the majority of the night business. The company encouraged them to download the Restaurant Finder app and target it with ATM ads.
