12 Different Types of Digital Marketing For A Business

We will discuss the diverse types of digital marketing that businesses can make use of here in this article today. Digital marketing is the most effective way to promote a product, service, or brand to the mass out there. With the proliferation in the number of social media channels, people spend a major part of their time on these various platforms. So, promoting your business through these channels can yield the most effective results in the quickest time possible.

We do have a lot of ambiguity surrounding the term Digital Marketing. It is a very simple concept that involves a plethora of activities. But, at the core, it is simple and effective. Digital Marketing is the advertising of your brand, product, or service across different digital media so that it reaches your target consumers. Also, it has become mandatory for a company to have a considerable digital presence to make its mark and yield positive results where Return on Investments is concerned. (ROI).

Here, in this article, we have covered the list of 12 Types of Digital Marketing for you. 

Digital Marketing can be defined as the judicious amalgamation of the various online promotion methods that help to place a product or a service in a manner, to reach the potential customers in the most optimum ways to achieve the maximum results.

In short, digital marketing can be described as any method that uses devices such as phones, tabs, laptops and such electronic applies with internet connectivity to promote their products and services.

According to a study, more than 70% of the budgets for companies will incorporate types of digital marketing in the marketing mix and brand promotion. Yes, It is that effective. 

We have different types of digital marketing techniques that can be incorporated into our strategy to get maximum results. We will discuss the 12 most effective digital marketing types that can successfully be used to market a product or a service.

Types of digital marketing techniques are as follows:

• Search engine optimization
• Pay Per Click
• Social media marketing
• Content marketing
• Email marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Public relations content
• Mobile Marketing/Instant messaging
• Television
• FAQS
• Video/audio marketing

Digital marketing has seen an enormous amount of popularity over the last few years. It is the most sought-after strategy of businesses for reaching out to their prospective customers in the internet arena and turning them into leads.

Let’s have a look at the various types of digital marketing modules in detail. 

• Search engine optimization

Considering types of digital marketing, SEO or search engine optimization is one of the most important tools that can bring in leads that generate into clients over some time. It is the organic process of getting free quality traffic by driving potential customers to your website through different search engines like Google, Bing, yahoo. It is vital to rank in the SERP (Search engine results page) for better visibility, cognizance, and reach of your product or service.

The top ways of organic SEOs are

1. Writing relevant blogs
2. optimization of your content
3. Authenticity in a social media interaction.

Some notable techniques to optimize SEO to rank in search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc can be as follows:

1. Doing a thorough detailed search of relevant keywords
2. Including and optimizing them in your content writing copy
3. Improving the other aspects that help in SERP ranking like the optimizing of loading pages, error-free titles, and descriptions, building apposite backlinks to refer to.

• Pay Per Click

 Pay Per Click is another of the important types of digital marketing techniques that uses paid methods to attract traffic and visibility from the different search engines.

The main difference between Search engine optimization(SEO) and Pay Per Click(PPC) is that the former is unpaid and the latter is a paid form of digital promotion. Both fall under the category of Social Media Marketing.

PPC, after thorough research of its target audience, and relevant keywords uses a formula to determine the cost of an online ad. Advertisers then pay a fee each time a user clicks on that link regardless of the user’s probability of being turned into a potential lead customer.

PPC-driven sites are the first to be listed in a search engine. In the process, it gets the most visibility. They are called sponsored results and generally come with a very small dialogue box at the left to the website link with Ads written in it.

PPC is one of the most convenient types of digital marketing tools that helps in getting featured in the SERP without much hassle.

They are typically called sponsored results.

The formula for PPC calculation =

Advertising Cost ÷ Number of ad clicks

An example of PPC is Google Adwords or Google Ads as it is called now.

• Social Media Marketing

 Social media is an immanent part of our life now. You will rarely find anyone who doesn’t use any social media platform nowadays. Some use as many as available. So it is most feasible to use social media as one of the main components in digital marketing strategies.

Social media marketing is the most popular of all types of digital marketing. The various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, and Pinterest can be used very effectively in promoting your brand, product, or service. These platforms encourage direct communication with the user.

These are perfect platforms to publish compelling content about your brand or business. It empowers you with the power of appraising the people about your brand and helps in generating leads. There is always the added advantage of a one-to-one interaction which makes the medium reliable and trustworthy.

Some steps to ensure the optimization of these types of digital marketing is as follows:

1. Know your audience. Research your targeted customer. Only then will you be able to successfully pitch your service on these social platforms.
2. Choose an appropriate medium to showcase your business or brand. Some social media platforms are suitable for a particular product or service and some are not. You need to have an idea of the social media platform you would want to use for your business.
3. Post relevant content. Do not digress from your main key points.
4. Analyze and identify your Key Performance Indicators(KPI)- The key performance indicators can be the followers, likes, comments, shares, and mentions you get on your page. You have to further take into account the lead generation and the conversion of leads to customers. Merely generating a fan base isn’t enough if you are not getting ROI from the platform.
5. Update as much as possible with relevant changes if any, analyze and reanalyze. Use the different metrics to see how your channel is performing.

• Content Marketing

This is regarded as one of the most important types of digital marketing that creates relevant and valuable content, designing, publishing, and distributing it in different digital media for it to reach a specific audience group. It is one of the most important forms of digital promotion and online marketing and is probably the most relevant one. Because ultimately, as reiterated by any person in the writing world, content is indeed king.

Below are some of the forms of content

1. Long-form blog posts
2. Interviews
3. Surveys
4. Case studies
5. How to lists
6. Beginner guides
7. ultimate guides
8. Slides
9. Templates
10. Product reviews
11. Infographics
12. Vlogs
13. Press releases
14. Surveys

Do detailed research of your audience and brainstorm for unique and engaging materials that will keep the readers hooked to your content. Evolve constantly, use the tools to determine which content is working for your target consumer and which isn’t. Keep yourself updated about the content that interests people now. Be consistent and post twice a week. Ask for feedback. One very important tip, do write a long-form analysis of a topic when you are aiming for a lengthy blog article.

• E-Mail marketing

This is one of the most vital types of digital marketing which is successfully used by many companies to communicate with their users and leads who visit their website.

A newsletter on the landing page of your website is a great way to attract customers to your site.  It is the personal aspect of email marketing that has an appeal to the consumers of your business. The interactive feature of this model can enable a personal touch with consumers catering to their needs in a much more efficient way.

A well-designed signup form along with engaging and relevant content goes a long way to build the trust and reliability factor for your brand. Write your content in a way that lifts the spirits of your consumer. Give them authentic information and hope.

• Influencer Marketing

An influencer, as the word suggests,  is someone who influences. These are the types of digital marketing that have gained a lot of prominence in recent times. It is also a good way to get to know people of similar interests and work with them in tandem.

What do we mean by influencer marketing?

This digital marketing technique is a means of online promotion whereby a seller uses a known person with a considerable amount of followers to endorse your product or service. It is the means of leveraging the positive perception of the Influencer in the audience to win consumers for your business.

The main aim of investing in this technique is to create awareness around your brand, to give your brand the required push to be recognizable by your target leads.

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So, why should we invest in influencer marketing?

Influencer Marketing propels a brand towards better lead generation and attracting a new set of consumers.

This strategy is a part of the greater marketing mix that has been around for a very long. Now, it has permeated to digital marketing strategies as well. For e.g, we have often seen actors promoting a certain beauty brand or sportsmen endorsing healthy food. By involving an influencer to promote your brand, you make a connection path between their takers and yourself.

The different social media channels have a huge number of investors. For example, Instagram records the presence of the most influencers on its platform.

If you get an Instagram influencer or a Facebook influencer with a few thousand followers endorsing or recommending your product it can yield extremely beneficial results.

Some of the social media platforms that have great influencers are Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.

As in the case of all types of digital marketing, carry out a detailed research and know your audience before choosing a social media platform and its influencer to boost your brand, product, or service.

• Affiliate Marketing

This is quite a popular type of promotional technique in digital marketing in today’s time. With the influence of social media platforms on the rise (It will only go higher) publishers frequently adopt this type of online tool to earn some income.

Affiliate marketing is the method of digital marketing in which a marketer, a blogger or A vlogger sells or provides links of merchandise of a seller to their audience.

When a Youtuber  X gives a link to a product from Amazon, X gets a commission from Amazon if the product is purchased from Amazon, after being directed to the product by X.

It’s a win-win situation for both since X gets a commission and Amazon gets visibility and a new set of consumers for their products or service.

Affiliates help businesses with a wider reach and businesses provide monetary benefits to the affiliates.

There are a few risks associated with this online technique, most prominently the promotion of false or defective merchandise in the wake of which the reputation of the marketer suffers severely.

Both affiliates and marketers should have a detailed report of who they are dealing with within the business. There are a whole lot of scammers and frauds who can take advantage of the internet and make fraudulent claims.

Since this type of digital marketing is again based on the reliability of the marketer it is quite an organic form of online strategy.

Now you may think,  what is the difference between influencer and affiliate marketing?

A lot of you might be confused about how affiliate and influencer marketing is different from one another.

It’s simple.

Affiliates only get a commission in the event of a sale of their product or service whereas influencers get a fixed amount whether there is a purchase or not. Affiliate marketing is an approach in digital marketing to mainly generate revenue whereas influencer marketing emphasizes content creation and curation with collaborators.

Affiliate marketing is only providing links with a code or specific number to sell a product or a service through a known social media personality.

Influencer marketing is endorsing a brand, product, or service highlighting their qualities and accentuating their qualities by a combined effort to promote the particular product or service.

In both these methods, a marketer should be cautious and partner with products and services after thorough research.

• Public Relations Content

Public Relations is offline as well as an online type of digital marketing. Of late, it has become a very pertinent part of online marketing strategies for business development. It is an essential part of having an online presence.

Whether it is a small business or a big brand PR content is immensely beneficial for all companies irrespective of their turnover.

Public relations content in digital parlance is primarily the improvement in the results of the various digital promotion techniques and strategies employed for the success of a product or service.

Public relations content includes

• Honest reviews from people who have used and purchased their products
• Featuring your business, product, or service on relevant digital platforms thereby providing ample visibility and reaching out to a maximum number of potential customers.
• Backlinks from PR platforms and websites that have the reliability factor with the masses

Remember when we talk about reviews, they must not be bought or influenced in any way. The review for your business as given by users should be authentic and without motivation of any sort. That is a genuine PR strategy for the digital marketing of your brand or service. Word of mouth plays a very vital role and is one of the key elements in Public Relations content.

• Mobile marketing/Instant messaging marketing(IMM)

This is an emerging trend of online marketing that is fast gaining trust among its users. Almost every social media platform has apps curated and designed for a mobile phone. Be it Facebook, Instagram, or Whatsapp, all of these social applications have optimized mobile apps with messaging facilities available. Mobile marketing/IMM is a way to interact with potential customers via these messaging apps in digital marketing,

for example, a clothing line that is starting might want to promote their product through these apps to gain the trust and approval of customers. Instant messaging apps keep buyers and potential customers constantly in touch with the seller. It is interactive and innovative and establishes a direct informal link with the customer gaining confidence and goodwill.

This strategy has seen a boom over the last few years and it is only going to expand further in the coming years.

• Television

Let’s be honest here. Television was and still has to be one of the most influential digital marketing media for the effective distribution of news regarding your product or service. A huge amount of people still rely on television to know about different brands, products, services. This is one type of digital marketing that can never go wrong.

According to various studies people still trust Television over other media channels when it comes to different brands. Moreover, it has a far wider reach than most other media. The TV can be utilized in the most effective way to market your brand and position them accordingly.

Thorough research is required to make compelling influential content to bring in leads and ultimately turn them into potential customers.

Demography, language, age, gender, tastes have to be analyzed and then only content relevant to that product be curated and distributed to various channels on TV to gain maximum visibility to the targeted consumer. Position your product with the correct and precise copy to impress the viewers into buying from you.

• FAQs

These frequently asked questions are a type of digital marketing strategy that helps to allay and dispel any doubt or fears of users or potential customers regarding a particular product or brand.

They are to provide any information regarding a concern about the product. Organize a list of the questions that are frequently asked and compile them in a clear user-friendly format.

Publish the answers on your website or any other relevant digital platform and answer with as much clarity as possible.

Do not be vague and explain things clearly. Remember your end goal for creating a FAQs list is to disseminate information thereby answering the raised doubts of your customers whether existing or potential.

FAQs are a major part of internet business nowadays. Be prepared with a FAQ template. Let your product be glitch-free in the minds of your potential customers when they decide to finally buy from you. 

• Video/Audio Marketing

Video Marketing

It is one of the most coveted and successful types of digital marketing strategies. It uses attractive, engaging, and impactful video content to leave a positive impact on the users regarding your product or service. This is an advanced online marketing promotion meant to maximize the user experience to generate traffic, attract leads and convert them into customers.

Video marketing does not seem very complicated when we first hear of the term but it requires a thorough study of the market and potential customers to decide on a strategy that would result in positive lead generation.

Video marketing relies heavily on data acquired to cater to the specific target audience. The ultimate aim is to make sales.  Therefore various analytics and different metrics have to be keenly observed and researched to have a fair idea of consumer tastes, preferences, and their willingness to engage in your brand, product, or service.

Steps to develop a winning video marketing strategy

• Having adequate resources to make a good video is quintessential to video marketing as a successful tool in digital marketing. Invest in good equipment, use professional editing software, use the latest technology you can afford to make a quality video.

• Storytelling is an important aspect of video marketing. Make sure your narration is exciting and not monotonous. Let the user feel like they are interacting with you and not that you are reading out of a script.

• Engage your customers by providing interactive tools sporadically in your video. For instance, ask a question, let them think about it for 30 seconds before providing an answer. Though you are not there in a one to one interaction, the user will feel like they are interacting with you

• Brevity is very important, Keep your videos short and to the point. Make sure not to digress from the main topic.
• Publish your video and keep track of how it is performing. Analyze your video’s performance and keep updating.

What to include in my video to optimize it as an effective digital marketing strategy?

Video marketing should have an impressive combination of words, images and sometimes infographics all fitted aesthetically in the video to reap maximum benefits.

After filming is complete, make use of all the relevant social media channels. Upload your videos on the various sites and start engaging, ask for feedback. Respond to the most pertinent questions. Make alterations to your content as needed.

Why is Video marketing such a popular online tool?

Videos are filled with vast, insightful information which is an absolute delight for search engines. Videos are vast repositories of both audio and visual forms of content. They translate into search engine ranking in an astonishingly short amount of time. Click-through rates, conversions, and open rates increase in cases where video marketing is applied.

People tend to remember things with more clarity if audio is accompanied by visuals. Information retention is the highest when information is disseminated in a visual medium.

Videos have an emotional connection and can turn leads into customers with proper positioning and tone of the message.

The possibility of purchase is more as well since videos are far more accessible than any other media. An impactful video can propel a lead to invest in the product or service.

We move on to our final digital marketing strategy which is also a part of video marketing in almost all cases. However, it can be considered a different entity as well in the pool of different digital marketing strategies and techniques.

Audio Marketing

Audio is the most organic form of communication. Podcasts and Radio shows are an amazing source of information and have the unique perception factor in play. Audio marketing is simply the online marketing strategy that uses audio means to communicate a message about a brand, product, or service to its potential customers. With the advancement of technology now, we have at our disposal automated interactive devices in the form of Alexa(Amazon) Siri( Apple), Google Assistant (Google) which makes our everyday lives far easier to navigate through nowadays.

The different types of audio marketing are as follows

• Podcasts
• Voice search
• Audiobooks
• Interviews
• Audio advertisements

Podcasts 

The podcast is simply an audio file that can be downloaded to listen to at a later time. It can be an event, a show, a series that can be kept in a separate media file as it gets updated. They improve speaking skills and engage audiences better than most other forms of digital content.

Most podcasts are episodic and consist of several episodes. Once a listener is engaged in the content he/she will subscribe to the podcast and listen to it as and when it will be updated. They are high-quality audio content that is interactive, intuitive, and appealing to their niche audience.

Voice search

Voice search has now become a very prominent feature across apps, search engines, and web browsers. Use keywords from Adwords, SEMrush, and other such tools to analyze and make changes to optimize the feature.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks are books positioned differently, catering to a different set of audiences. Just like ebooks, this is a repositioning strategy. It enables book lovers to listen to their favorite books in an audio format. As a result, audiobooks make for another important marketing strategy in your fold.

Interviews 

A classic old-school strategy by which you make appearances in other shows ( radio shows, podcasts) to promote your product or service. Interviews and an in-depth conversation about your product on a streaming platform can be very beneficial to your numbers and lead generation. The information should reach a relevant group of people.

Audio Advertisements

We are not new to audio advertisements. With a renaissance in the radio genre, several private radio channels came into existence in the early 2000s. So, we have listened to innumerable ads placed between shows while we have listened to evergreen songs and talk shows on the channels.

Video/ Audio marketing is an essential tool in the business of digital marketing. However, a strategy that includes both the elements of audio and visual is far more successful than an online technique that only uses Video or Audio.

Important tip

Remember there is are several types of digital marketing techniques and plans available to optimize your strategy and technique effectively. A sound web promotion to market your products is one where you consider different factors, and brainstorm, listing down the most effective techniques to advertise your brand. Do your research well and be prudent while choosing the types and the media you are going to use to market your brand, product, or service.

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