What is Digital Marketing? A Simple Explanation & Summary

by OverHeadWatch Team | Jan 22, 2018 | Blog | 0 comments

Digital marketing is a broad concept that can be hard to define quickly. Briefly put, it refers to the advertising that is delivered through any digital channel. Moreover, it includes a vast array of marketing activities, and not everybody agrees with them being included in the definition. Today we are going to learn more about what is digital marketing and what does it consist of.

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to the promotion of brands, products, or services through one or more forms of electronic media. Just think of promotional efforts made through social media, the Internet, electronic billboards, mobile phones, TV, and radio, etc. The list here can go on and on if you include electronic devices (so it all goes back to the invention of the radio). However, not everybody agrees with this definition, since it’s rather broad. Moreover, the term in itself is a broad one, which is why many think of it as an umbrella term.

What Is Digital Marketing and How Does It Work?

This is a question many people ask when they first hear about digital marketing. Now that you know what is digital marketing (even though there is no universally-accepted definition), it’s time to see how does it work. Today we are going to touch two different aspects of this concept: the assets and the tactics.

Here you have a short clip that details this definition:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LUbqRwp8NXI%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Digital Marketing Assets

There is a huge array of assets that fall under this umbrella term Here you have some of the most common ones that are being employed today:

Blog posts;
Infographics;
Website;
Interactive tools;
Ebooks and whitepapers;
Online brochures;
Social media channels;
Branding assets (fonts, logos, etc.);
Earned online coverage (social media, reviews, PR, etc.).

Naturally, there can be many others if you stop and think about it, but these are some of the most used ones.

Digital Marketing Tactics

Here, there are several categories one can use when considering such strategies. We are going to go through each of them and see what does each of them do.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This refers to the process of optimizing the website to gain a higher rank in the results pages of search engines. In this way, you can increase the amount of organic (meaning free, natural) traffic received by your website. However, the downside of it is that it’s a very dynamic field, which makes it hard to use for someone who’s not an expert in the domain.

2. Online PR

Online PR is a practice that consists of securing some earned online coverage with the help of digital publications, blogs, or other websites that offer content. Basically, it’s the same thing as the traditional PR, only that it takes place in the online world.

3. Content Marketing

The third main asset we are presenting refers to creating and promoting content assets. Here, the goal is to generate some traffic growth, together with brand awareness, lead generation or customers.

4. Email Marketing

A digital marketing asset that was highly successful in the 1990s, email marketing hasn’t lost its power today either. Many companies use this tactic to keep in touch with the audience they want to reach. They use email often to promote content, events, or discounts. Moreover, they direct people to the company’s official website or other social media accounts.

5. Inbound Marketing

This is a term that refers to the entire process of bringing customers with the help of online content. It covers attracting people, converting them into customers, closing the deal and delighting them with the products or services you are offering.

6. Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is the name given to the software that helps business owners (or whoever wants to know what is digital marketing and how to use it) automate some marketing actions. For example, there are many marketing departments that need to handle repetitive tasks, such as social media, emails, website actions, etc. The software solves them automatically, which saves money and time.

7. Social Media Marketing

Our seventh entry on the list refers to the practice that is very common nowadays: that of promoting a brand and its content on social media channels. Once again, the purpose here is to increase the brand awareness, to generate some leads for the business, as well as to drive traffic to the website.

8. Native Advertising

The native type of advertising refers to the ads that are focused on content and presented on a platform together with other types of content that weren’t paid. For example, you may have seen plenty of sponsored posts on your social media feeds, which appear next to the non-sponsored posts of your friends. This raises a question for many people, who are asking themselves whether social media advertising is a native type as well.

9. PPC (Pay-Per-Click)

Pay-per-click is a method of bringing traffic to your website by paying a publisher. Every time someone clicks on an ad on your website, you will get a small amount of money. For instance, one of the most common examples of PPC is the Google AdWords program.

10. Affiliate Marketing

The last entry on our list is a type of advertising that relies on performance. You get a commission every time you promote somebody else’s products/services on your own website or social media page. If you think about it, this is a common practice that is adopted by many bloggers and online influencers.

Conclusions

Although it’s hard to pinpoint an exact definition of this concept, it’s safe to say that digital marketing is an umbrella term that covers any type of advertising done with the help of electronic devices. Many people think that this refers only to the modern ways, such as blogging, social media, etc. However, this also includes things like the radio and TV advertising. It is a confusing term also because it incorporates lots of different types of marketing: social media, affiliate, native, etc. Finally, this is a very useful tool that can bring your company lots of benefits if you know how to use it rightly.