When you search for a product on social media or Google then land on a brand’s website, organically or through sponsored ads, and read through the brand’s blogs and other types of content within–that’s basically digital marketing at work.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the use of digital channels or technology to promote a product or service. Some types of digital marketing include SEO, social media ads, SEM, and content marketing, all of which were applied in the aforementioned customer journey.
Now, more than ever, more individuals integrate the internet into their lives, making digital marketing a necessity that every brand striving for online growth should have.
Since digital marketing is a crucial, modern approach to driving business growth, competition in this area could be quite fierce. To keep up with competitors, it is essential to learn about the four essential types of digital marketing.
4 Types of Digital Marketing for Your Online Growth Strategy
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The entire concept of SEO is simple: to increase brand visibility in search engines.
Here, you want the products or services you provide to be seen on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs)–on the first page, the better–using targeted keywords.
This digital marketing strategy is also ideal for those seeking to increase authority in their niche. Through SEO, businesses can ensure that the informative blogs or content showcasing their expertise are visible to people online, making them trusted and well-known players in their industry.
To successfully attract website visitors who will eventually be customers or clients through SEO, here are some common optimisations SEO agencies perform:
- Running a website audit before and after SEO strategy implementation
- Keyword research and tracking
- Competitor Analysis
- Backlinks monitoring
- Content optimisation (title tags, image alt texts, assigning header tags, etc.)
Depending on the strategy, specialists may also perform additional activities other than the ones mentioned above.
More so, brands can also add different types of SEO to their online strategy, according to the unique needs of their website and target market, or to the strategies their competitors are employing:
On page SEO
This SEO type handles the content on your website. For the audience to effortlessly find your website, your content must be helpful, easy to comprehend, and prioritise the people-first principle.
One-page SEO services may include revamping the structure of an old blog or page, optimising page titles to target specific keywords related to your niche, updating item descriptions (if you’re an eCommerce store), creating blogs, and devising a content plan for each customer journey stage.
Off-page SEO
In contrast with on-page SEO, off-page SEO deals with all the factors outside your website, influencing your website’s rankings. What are these factors off your website? They could be from your social media accounts, digital PR and outreach efforts, and content from other platforms that direct to your website.
Acquiring backlinks of high-quality is also one aspect of off-page SEO. Backlinks are simply links on other websites that lead or point to your website. For example, one brand used your content as a reference to their own content by adding our website link to their blog or pages. The link will become your backlink, making Google see that you are a credible website.
The more good quality backlinks you have, the more credibility and search engine results ranking you have.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is what happens on your website’s backend, relating to site speed, crawlability, and user experience. It ensures that you don’t have broken images, slow-loading pages, and other aspects that could hurt user experience. It operates on the simple idea that if people can’t navigate your site easily and conveniently, search engines can’t either.
Some technical SEO tasks include creating a clear sitemap, transforming your site to be mobile-friendly, optimising file size and code to avoid slow-loading pages, conducting a technical site audit, and more.
2. Search Engine Marketing (PPC)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and SEO both aim to increase visibility online. However, the difference is that SEM may include paid marketing, while the latter works organically. One of the types of SEM is PPC or pay-per-click advertising where advertisers or businesses pay every time a user clicks on the ads they launched online.
So how does it work? In PPC advertising, businesses can choose words or short phrases that they want their ads to show up for in search results. When someone searches for those terms, the business’s ad can appear in a prime spot, like at the top of the page. The business only pays a fee if someone actually clicks on their ad.
PPC advertisers can set a maximum bid for their targeted keywords. Platforms where you can perform this digital marketing strategy are TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram Ads, Google Ads, YouTube, and Twitter.
3. Content Marketing
One of the types of digital marketing that can bring you authority and visibility is Content marketing. It aims to create valuable and relevant content to attract, engage, and retain an audience.
Content types that you can craft and share with your audience include blogs, long or short-form videos, podcasts, photo carousels, and more. The ultimate goal of these content types is to drive customer action, build brand awareness, and establish expertise.
Rather than advocating for a pushy sales pitch that directly feeds customers your services, content marketing involves a more strategic approach where businesses publish more useful content that addresses customer pain points and helps them solve their issues personally or in the workplace.
Content marketing is one of the types of digital marketing that applies to or can even be interconnected with other strategies. After all, marketing your services will involve publishing high-quality copy, visuals, design, etc.
Other digital marketing campaigns that you can interweave content into are email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, PPC, inbound marketing, and PR.
4. Social Media Marketing
People are becoming more resourceful and creative over time when it comes to selling their products, offering their services, and building their brands. One of the types of digital marketing where they have employed such creativity is social media marketing.
Social media marketing is when marketers and brands leverage social media platforms to increase sales, website traffic, and brand awareness. They create content to promote their products or services and publish it on their social media business accounts. This digital marketing strategy is constantly evolving, with new features and platforms constantly appearing.
Marketers and brands love this strategy because it is one of the types of digital marketing that is cost-effective and offers easy and direct interaction with customers. Your brand stands a higher chance of reaching your audience due to the large number of people on social media who can engage with your social media ads.
The key to a more effective social media digital marketing campaign is to create a targeted strategy. Do this by learning your customers’ demographics, aligning your goals with your business objectives, conducting competitive analysis, auditing your practices, creating a content calendar, and crafting compelling posts that your audience can resonate with.
Digital marketing is no longer just a business’s ‘nice-to-have’
Almost everyone is adapting to the change and is already repositioning their brands to make the ‘online shift’. Consumers have fundamentally shifted their behaviour, actively engaging with brands online. Has your brand already made the switch?
With this, it may be safe to say that digital marketing is no longer optional, but an essential part of your brand’s strategy to grow in the online space. By implementing effective digital marketing strategies–SEO, PPC, content marketing, and social media marketing-businesses can reach their target audience, build brand awareness, and drive steady growth.
Whether you are planning to tackle the online industry or are currently navigating the digital space but wish to level up and be more, a digital marketing agency like iFoundries can perfectly assist you with your needs.
