What is Digital Marketing ? The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing

When marketing is done by means of digital media, it is referred to as ‘ digital marketing’. It is comparatively a novel approach towards the promotion of brands and businesses. Though the tenets of marketing remain similar to that of traditional or ‘ offline’ marketing, digital marketing has some additional features.

Through this form of marketing, content relevant to the business is created and extensively shared online. This aids in identifying the potential client group, eliciting interests to make a purchase and ultimately expanding the consumer base. One of the most striking merits of digital promotion is that it creates a level playing field for business owners of all sizes and extends the reach in unimaginable ways.

Digital Marketing Over Traditional Marketing:

Traditional marketing is the conventional modes of marketing that are being used since the beginning of advertisements and marketing. It includes:

1. Newspaper
2. Television
3. Radio
4. Flyers and Billboards
5. Telephone
6. Ads in Magazines 

Whereas Digital Marketing platforms include:

1. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
2. Business networking site like LinkedIn
3. Blogs
4. Promotional ads via emails
5. Paid pop-ups
6. Advertising sites like YouTube 

Digital marketing is more advanced and versatile than traditional marketing. Let’s look into the advantages of digital marketing over traditional marketing:

Important Aspects of Digital Marketing:

Digital marketing is a vast canopy that shelters under it a bunch of opportunities. A particular skill cannot be recognized as the sole contributor to a successful digital marketing career. In order to generate desired results and propitiously promote a brand online, expertise in different professional areas is essential. However, there are certain aspects which can be ignored whenever ‘ digital marketing’ is the topic of discussions. Strength in those areas is sure to get a digital marketer grade on the higher side of the scale. Let’s get into vital aspects.

Search Engine Optimization:

It is one of the most crucial elements of online marketing. The much-heard Search Engine Optimization or SEO helps to enhance your online visibility and tells millions of internet users about your presence. Keyword stuffed, SEO-friendly content is easily chosen by the search engines like google and is displayed very often as search results to the audience. 

SEO is undoubtedly the most fundamental way of increasing organic traffic to a website. When a company’s page is exposed to a majority of people it broadens the opportunity to connect with the visitors and appeal to them to be their clients.

Social Media Marketing:

The present generation almost lives on the internet. Social Media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc with their enthralling features of enhancing global connectivity have emerged successful in keeping millennials hooked to them for hours. Thinking from a business point of view, what can be a better place to make your brand noticeable than one where almost the world sits the entire day?

Using social media platforms for professional purposes is extremely beneficial. Sharing interesting content with your brand details on these platforms as an attempt to spread brand awareness will not only win you a target audience but will also generate leads eventually which will obviously increase your market share.

Google Analytics:

Investing in promoting your brand online revolves around ROI, that is ‘ return on investment’. When you put money into marketing your brand, it is essential to keep a track of its performance. With the advent of technology, tools like Google analytics provide digital marketers neat dashboards with extensive metrics to analyze the performance of ad campaigns and traffic of the company’s website.

Once you are familiar with the tool, you can derive a lot of details from it. From measuring the ROI ratio to examining the success of your campaigns, this tool can keep you updated every minute. Besides, you can also draw conclusions about which areas on your website experience more engagement and where all your clients are scattered in this giant open space. Considering Google analytics as your personal examiner you can strive to improve every single day.

Content Marketing:

Content marketing primarily deals with two things. The first one being creative content creation and the second being the promotion of the content on different online platforms. It is extremely necessary for content creators to be imaginative with the content they create. Besides, having a sack full of keywords will drive more organic traffic towards the website.

Content marketing plays a significant role in spreading awareness of your brand. Content marketing not only grabs the target audience but also does wonderfully well in converting them into clients and retaining them for a longer period of time. In fact, leading brands, business tycoons and popular organizations have revealed content marketing to be their top secret. 

Search Engine Marketing:

Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the key factor for increasing your visibility online. It is done primarily through paid advertisements. Advertisers pitch on the keywords users search and which are relevant to their business. They get an opportunity to be displayed as search results to the niche audience and in turn pay for every click of the user. 

Search Engine Marketing stands out from all other modes of advertisements because it opens up an opportunity for you to appear in front of the potential clients only who can possibly make a purchase at that instant. From this it can be conceived how effective SEM can be for your business, provided, you know how to do it properly.

Email Marketing:

Email Marketing is the most emerging and effective form of marketing. Here, commercial emails are sent out to current or potential clients. This personal tone to the business strengthens the relationship with the customers and builds up the brand value.

It has to be kept in mind that proper email writing skills have to be implemented while marketing in this way. If the emails you send aren’t catchy enough, then the probability of the prospective clients opening it is negligible. Maintain proper decorum while corresponding through emails. The impression created through this will shape the image of your brand. So be careful.

Digital Marketing Careers:

The digital marketing sector stands on multiple pillars. It is an online cycle continuously revolving between the clients and business owners. To maintain it, a lot of skills are important as already said earlier. So it is practically impossible for a single person to master all the qualities at a time. Consequently, it fosters a lot of job opportunities. Individuals having different skills can contribute to one of the factors responsible for successful digital marketing and can earn a decent living. 

Here is the list of different Digital Marketing Careers:

1. Digital Marketing Manager
2. Content Strategist
3. PPC Executive
4. SEO Specialist
5. Social Media Marketer
6. Email Marketing Manager 

Why is Digital Marketing the best career choice?

The world is changing every single day. Nowadays there is a trend of diverting from conventional career choices. With rapid automation and digitalization, digital marketing is a career prospect that combines business, technology and creativity.

Unlike the traditional ways of earning, here your imaginative abilities won’t decay. Rather they will gain you handsome amounts. You can either work in an enterprise or promote your own business. The restricted work spaces won’t disappoint you anymore. Every other day you will get to connect with new people and learn about their needs and perspectives. No matter what your qualifications are, you can always choose digital marketing as a career. 

We are walking towards a digital era and are gradually witnessing the transformation of all offline methods to online ones. This ensures a consistency in your career and promises to open up amazing opportunities in the future. 

If you are trying to think better of it, then drop the idea. Nothing can be better than digital marketing for you. You can grow every day and enjoy your professional journey.

How to Know if Digital Marketing is suitable for you?

Though digital marketing is a challenging field with very high professional demands and without proper training it is not practical enough to expect impressive growth, there are certain things which must come to you naturally if you aspire to be a digital marketer. 

Take a look at the following questions:

1. Are you creative?
2. Do you like solving problems?
3. Do you love writing?
4. Do you like helping people and finding solutions to their problem
5. Are you analytical?
6. Do you enjoy conducting digital research?
7. Are you social?
8. Do you thrive on challenges? 

Ask these questions to yourself over a period of time. The more the number of ‘yes’, the more your possibility of becoming a successful digital marketer

Conclusion:

Digital marketing provides you with immense possibilities and promises to open up amazing opportunities in the future. A plethora of skills is out there, waiting to be explored. Find out what suits you the best, brush up your skills and touch the zenith doing what you love.