What is digital marketing, and why does it matter? That’s precisely what I plan to discuss today. I’ll cover everything you need to know to get started with digital marketing, but first, let’s discuss why it’s so essential to your business.
Today’s fast-paced digital marketing landscape is growing and evolving rapidly. This sector is projected to reach a whopping $786 billion by 2026. As such, traditional marketing strategies no longer hold the same weight they once did. More people than ever are using the internet, providing businesses with immense opportunities to connect with their audience.
Digital marketing has become more than just a trend; it’s now a requirement for businesses of all sizes to thrive in the competitive online market.
Imagine reaching a global audience with a single campaign, engaging with potential customers in real time, and driving conversions like never before. With a robust digital marketing strategy, you can!
Digital Marketing: Key Points
- Digital marketing uses digital channels to promote a product or service.
- Using digital marketing techniques and strategies helps businesses reach their target audience, engage with them, and ultimately convert them into customers.
- Examples of digital marketing include SEO, PPC, social media marketing, content marketing, and leveraging traditional offline media for advertising.
- Offline digital marketing includes out-of-home advertising, TV marketing, and radio marketing.
- Combining online and offline digital marketing is vital to any well-rounded strategy.
- Global digital advertising spending is on course to reach $835 billion by 2026.
What Is Digital Marketing?
You hear the phrase often these days, but what is digital marketing?
Simply put, it’s a method for promoting your business online using digital channels. It might be SEO, social media, email marketing, setting up a landing page or website, using mobile apps, or creating online ads to reach customers. This umbrella term also includes marketing using digital devices such as TV or radio.
Effective digital marketing gets your brand in front of an online audience and enhances visibility to increase engagement, click-throughs, and conversions.
Examples of online digital marketing include:
- Search engine optimization (SEO): optimizing a website to improve its visibility and ranking on search engines like Google.
- Pay-per-click advertising (PPC): paying for advertisements to appear on search engine results pages or social media platforms.
- Social media marketing: creating and sharing content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to increase brand awareness and engagement.
- Content marketing: creating and sharing valuable content, such as blog posts, e-books, or videos, thus attracting and retaining a specific audience.
- Leveraging traditional offline media for advertising: using radio and TV marketing, billboard advertising, print, and in-person events.
Analysts predict global digital advertising spending will reach $835 billion by 2026, with clicks and display ads among the most dominant forms.
Then there’s offline digital marketing like:
- Out-of-home advertising: This involves using billboards, transit ads, or other types of visual media to promote your brand or product. This can be a great way to reach a broad audience and create a strong visual impression.
- TV marketing: where you promote your products through adverts, infomercials, or even demonstrations.
- Radio marketing: Trailers and commercials promoting your product to listeners.
Another report by Expert Market Research shows the US digital marketing sector reached $363 billion in 2023.
You can do digital marketing online and offline, and using a combination is vital to any well-rounded strategy. These techniques and strategies help companies to effectively reach their desired audience, actively engage with them, and successfully convert them into loyal customers.
Why Digital Marketing Matters
My clients spent hundreds of millions of dollars on billboard advertising not long ago, but times have changed.
Today, most companies have moved to online (digital) marketing. That’s because Google and Facebook generate more revenue than traditional media companies. Then, there’s the use of mobile devices.
You can go just about anywhere these days. Whether you are at the grocery store, a restaurant, or even a movie theater, they have one thing in common: you’ll see plenty of people with their eyes practically glued to their phones.
Phone advertisements are like mini billboards, broadcasting adverts whenever we look something up.
Mobile usage is massive, and the figures are only heading upward.
