What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing is any and all marketing that rely on electronic devices, and in extension, the internet. It’s the group of activities that a company (or individual) performs online to attract new business opportunities, create relationships, and develop a brand identity.

The internet is a beautiful place packed to the brim with information and cat videos.

The sheer size and scale of the internet are immense and almost incomprehensible. But the internet is more than a safe haven for adorable puppy videos and tutorials on how to boil water: it is any company’s marketing dream come true.

On a single platform, companies can connect with millions of people. They can communicate and share their messages effectively.

Companies have swarmed the internet in recent years to take advantage of this, a strategy known as Digital Marketing.

Now you may have heard of Digital Marketing along with various other hype words in seminars and other marketing-related events.

As much as you may not want to believe them, people overhyping the effectiveness of Digital Marketing are often right.

If you have been hesitant about using Digital Marketing, it can be overwhelming. This post will help you slide right into the scene.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing is any marketing efforts that rely on electronic devices, and the internet.

It’s the group of activities that a company or individual performs online. These activities attract new business opportunities, create relationships, and develop a brand identity.

From this Digital marketing definition you can understand that Digital Marketing is very diverse and versatile.

The sheer amount of tools, data, and channels available on the internet creates opportunities for marketers to deliver effective content to specific people, through personalization.

Are you looking for a more direct advertising strategy for a very particular audience, that will help your brand to grow?

Well, Digital Marketing strategies like using emails or ads in specific social media groups can attract a very niche audience. They deliver a tailored message based on their specific interests.

Are you looking forward to advertising your company to a mass market, garnering massive appeal and brand awareness?

Video ads and regular ads on social media applications and search engines should put your brand in front of millions of people.

Regardless of your audience type or how niche your product may be, there’s a way to reach them.

The Importance of Digital Marketing

By now, it might seem impossible that the number of global internet users is still steadily climbing, but that’s exactly what’s happening. According to recent research, there were approximately 5.4 billion web users worldwide in 2024.

That represents 66% of the global population. And, of course, those numbers have only continued to rise since and will do so into the future as more and more people get online.

Those statistics combined with the way the internet has already changed how people shop make digital marketing more essential than ever.

Successful marketing today involves reaching your target audience where they live and at the right times. Your customers are spending increasing amounts of time on social media, searching for information on search engines, and just being online in general.

That said, online digital marketing isn’t just a good idea anymore. It’s an essential part of any comprehensive marketing strategy. Because without it, it’s just about guaranteed that you’re missing out on valuable business.

Why Your Company Needs Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has been hailed as a game-changer for good reason.

It offers a singular platform where businesses can tap into an endless stream of information, leads, and potential customers.

Ignoring digital marketing means missing out on one of the most lucrative marketing avenues available today.

In essence, the internet is the primary driving force behind this necessity.

With billions of users online daily, digital marketing provides unparalleled reach and engagement opportunities that traditional methods simply cannot match.

The current digital marketing landscape

The online world allows brands to communicate with all of their clients and possible clients. You don’t even need to be in the same country to find and engage your public.

Technology has transformed simple phones, originally designed to make calls, into true computers. These provide all the access users need to connect with others. Apps, emails, and websites are literally in the palm of their hands.

Smartphones are incredibly popular, especially among Millennials and Generation Z. Applications like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok occupy hours of their day. Companies have thus found a direct link to their lives.

Facebook, a very famous social media site, has over 2 billion users. It is a popular choice among companies to market their products. Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and all social media can be beneficial to your business depending on your goal and audience.

With such a massive reach, advertising for companies is often like shooting fish in a barrel.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools for any company to use. And to prove our point, here are some of the benefits of using Digital Marketing.

1. The most measurable form of marketing

Let’s start with what is possibly the most obvious benefit of using Digital Marketing: you can track it.

We all know that to ensure a marketing strategy works, we must track its success over time. The internet’s reliance on numbers and algorithms makes it easy to monitor how effective a strategy truly is.

Although that may be a little difficult with more traditional mediums, it is very simple to measure the effectiveness of a strategy with Digital Marketing.

Digital Marketing analytics takes away the guessing games related to traditional forms of marketing.

Through these analytics, you can measure in real-time how many people are looking at your posts or ads, as well as how many users have opened your posts, along with all the people who have replied, liked, or shared your post.

2. The most cost-effective marketing technique

Other than being able to track all of your posts, along with all the likes, comments, and shares that it receives, it is also the most cost-effective marketing technique.

Now, it is important to note that Digital Marketing is comparatively cheaper than most traditional forms of marketing.

While there was once a paywall between major companies and smaller ones in terms of advertising and exposure, that is no longer the case. Nowadays, smaller companies can get the attention of people that they otherwise could not.

Competing with bigger companies for the ad space in most forms of traditional marketing can be almost impossible for smaller businesses.

This is something that they can cover with the help of Digital Marketing, as they can reach an audience of their choice with minimal effort.

3. Allows you to choose any audience

Speaking of choosing your audience, another great benefit of Digital Marketing is that it can be as specific or broad as you want.

You can find specific groups or forums on social media websites like Instagram or Reddit to market to a very niche audience.

You can also market to a very broad audience through internet ads or sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram. No matter who your target demographic is, you are sure to find them through Digital Marketing.

Other than directly marketing to your audience, you can also make use of influencer marketing, which allows you to directly tap into a specific market through mediators and familiar faces.

Sometimes influencers need the support of sponsors, and to help them, users will often follow the links they provide.

Moreover, getting a respected figure in the community you are tapping into can grow trust for your brand.

4. Everyone is already there

A common problem that people face with traditional forms of marketing is the question “Will anyone see it?”.

Most crowded places in the city are very expensive to rent. With Digital Marketing, you don’t have to worry about such a thing.

With billions of people using the internet and social media daily, the question is no longer will anyone see it, but rather when.

Print ads and other forms of traditional advertising also have a limit on just how many people they can reach.

No matter how big the network might be, there is a cap on just how many people a traditional marketing strategy can connect to.

On the other hand, Digital Marketing strategies have no peak of exposure and can grow along with the company itself.

5. Customers start their buying journey on the internet

Customers depend on the internet for everything, including their buying options and choices.

For more and more customers, the buying journey starts with research and insight into the product or service. What better place to find out more about something than the internet?

Since the term “Google it” has become such a common part of our language, the first instinct of most people is to search for something on the internet.

A study published by Orbelo in 2019 registered that 85% of shoppers consult the internet on purchases they are about to make.

That is the goal of designing a great Digital Marketing strategy: you can be the answer that these people are looking for.

6. The message can be customized

Another big advantage of Digital Marketing is that this strategy allows you to customize your message to the public.

Advertising today is different from the old days. Back then, when you wanted to talk to you public, you needed a generic message, that could be used in mass media such as billboards, TV broadcasts, flyers, etc.

The conversation with the public was not so effective, once you were talking to people of different genders, ages, and interests.

Now, you can target groups by their similarities, customizing the message and making it more real and directed to them.

Email marketing, online advertising, niche marketing: all of these strategies can be customized to reach the audience that you want.

The Difference Between Direct and Digital Marketing

Both direct marketing and digital marketing are forms of targeted advertising. However, while they can work together nicely, they are very different from one another.

Direct marketing is a form of traditional offline marketing that involves advertising a business, product, or service via physical materials like mailers, brochures, coupons, and pamphlets. Direct marketing materials can be helpful if your representatives ever need to present something physical to customers they interact with.

Meanwhile, digital marketing aims to reach people via social media, search engine optimization, content marketing, and similar tactics.

Online Marketing vs. Digital Marketing

Although people tend to use the terms “online marketing” and “digital marketing” interchangeably, the two are not the same. They are, however, connected, and digital-age marketers and brand reps need to be familiar with both.

Any type of marketing content that involves electronic devices counts as digital marketing. Online marketing, on the other hand, is actually a subcategory that covers marketing content delivered or published specifically through the internet.

In other words, all online marketing is also digital marketing and includes content marketing, SEO, email marketing, and more. However, digital marketing is a larger umbrella term that also covers marketing options like digital billboards, radio or television ads, and SMS advertising.

Inbound Marketing vs. Digital Marketing

Although you may occasionally see the terms “digital marketing” and “inbound marketing” used interchangeably, it’s essential to understand they’re not the same thing.

Digital marketing is a much more general term that applies to any marketing tactics involving digital media, platforms, or communication methods.

That said, inbound marketing is a type of digital marketing, especially as compared to outbound marketing.

Outbound marketing is probably what you think of when you picture a more traditional marketing approach. Think of marketing tactics that attempt to reach as many people as possible, regardless of whether they’ve shown interest in the advertised product.

Examples include offline approaches like trade shows and cold calls, as well as online tactics like old-school banner ads and untargeted email blasts.

On the other hand, inbound marketing is about focused strategies designed to reach an ideal audience of potential customers.

These are people who have either shown active interest in the type of solution being sold or are struggling with pain points the solution could address.

Inbound marketing content is designed to be helpful, entertaining, or otherwise valuable to this audience.

Popular examples of effective inbound marketing techniques include subject-specific blogs, ebooks, videos, social media posts, and web-based seminars.

How to Do Digital Marketing?

Creating an effective digital marketing strategy isn’t just a must in today’s increasingly web-based world. It’s easier to do than you might think, even if you’re brand new to the game.

Here’s a look at how to get started.

Set clear goals and objectives

Without a clearly defined goal, a digital marketing strategy is nothing more than a shot in the dark that may or may not hit the target.

So start your journey by figuring out what your goals are because they will be the focus of all your future efforts.

Keep in mind that solid goals are never vague. They’re not only reachable and specific but measurable.

Otherwise, you can never be sure you’ve even made progress toward your goal, let alone reach it.

Build your customer personas

In the past, all a digital marketer needed to create a solid campaign was enough information and collected data about their target demographic. (Think of details like age, gender, location, interests, or profession.)

But these days, your strategy really isn’t complete until you also have a set of buyer personas in your corner.

Buyer personas are semi-fictional identities representing one or more of your desired customers.

They make it easier for marketers to put themselves in the customers’ shoes and are best created by interviewing actual members of the target group.

If you don’t know where to start, the AI Persona Builder by Rock Content can aid you with that.

Conduct ongoing keyword research

Thorough ongoing keyword research is at the heart of any good digital marketing campaign.

It’s how you know what your target audience is out there searching for, so it’s naturally also the key to obtaining top ranking on Google, Bing, and the rest of the search engines.

Keyword research is an essential part of optimizing your social media marketing campaign, as well.

Start the process by choosing a keyword research tool that appeals to you and building a running list of options. Include both high-performing keywords and clever long tail alternatives to expand your potential reach.

Create and maintain a blog

Content marketing is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing today, and a blog is one of the most effective tools you can have in your corner.

Adding a blog to your company website gives you a terrific way to boost your site’s SEO and attract interested consumers to your site in the first place.

Set a content production schedule for your blog and stick to it, so your audience knows when to expect new content from you.

Fill your blog with content your target demographic would find useful, helpful, entertaining, or just plain interesting.

Think industry news and answers to burning questions someone shopping for products like yours might have.

Add variety with an omnichannel approach

Competition is fierce these days, so it’s crucial that you leverage your creativity to make your marketing material unique, engaging, and exciting.

Innovate using an omnichannel approach to digital marketing, learn where your target audience spends the most time, and meet them wherever that is.

And although written content is still the mainstay of a good content production effort, it’s far from the only type that yields results these days.

Modern consumers respond to dynamic imagery and exciting interactive content options, so be sure to include options like infographics, videos, professional-level images, eye-catching designs, etc.

Be open to diversifying your marketing strategies, as well, especially when looking to tap into brand-new demographics.

Energetic, clever marketing material and timely, helpful content that’s in step with a market’s current interests and concerns are crucial to meeting your marketing goals and growing your customer base.

Optimize for mobile

Another critical factor to keep in mind when putting together a digital marketing campaign is how prevalent the use of mobile technology is today.

Mobile devices are no longer just items people occasionally use to shop, consume content, or search for information.

According to research by Dynamic Yield, 76 percent of modern consumers say they prefer mobile shopping because it saves them so much time.

That means you’re losing a lot of potential business if your website and content aren’t optimized for mobile use.

So if your site isn’t mobile-optimized, change that as soon as possible. And if it is optimized, go over your current mobile-responsive web design, go-to email templates, and so forth to ensure they’re in step with the latest standards.

Make yourself available to your customers

It’s no longer enough to simply add a contact page with your email address and phone number to your website and call it a day.

Today’s consumers expect a more intimate connection with the companies they do business with.

Your customers need to feel like you’re not just reachable but genuinely available, and it’s vital to meet this expectation.

Make sure your website’s contact page is complete and easy to find. Your landing pages should be clear, concise, and free of any requests for unnecessary information.

Calls to action should be highly visible and crystal clear. Guarantee that your customers know they can reach you on social media, as well, and always respond to questions, comments, and messages in a timely manner.

Distinguish yourself from the competition

Although the digital market is filled with opportunities for great companies to connect with the right audience, there’s a lot of competition out there, too.

And your competitors have more in common with you than you think. They’re selling similar products with similar selling points, and they’re certainly looking to sell to the same demographics you are.

If you’re not standing out from the rest of the crowd, you’re bound to get lost in the shuffle.

So consider what makes your company different. Maybe you offer more variety in your catalog than your competitors do.

Perhaps your products are more reliable, more efficient, or better suited to a particular type of customer than anything else out there.

Do some research to confirm your differentiating factors and make them the focus of your digital marketing campaign.

Be creative, get personal, and always keep your eyes open for ways you can connect on an even deeper level with your customers.

Keep track of your results

No digital marketing campaign is complete without an airtight plan for gathering and analyzing data, so be sure to monitor your progress on an ongoing basis.

The sooner you can determine whether an approach is working, the sooner you can correct anything that isn’t working as it should.

Celebrate successes, but learn from failures. And don’t forget to gather and consider customer feedback as part of your process.

Ultimately, your customers’ responses to your marketing efforts are the most telling of whether they’re working.

Essential Digital Marketing Terminology

There’s a lot of information online covering every single aspect of digital marketing. However, to understand what it means, it’s helpful to get to know some terminology first.

Marketing terminology isn’t complex. Go over the following list a few times, and you’ll get the gist. You may even get ideas for ways to improve your digital marketing efforts.

Without further ado, here are some of the main digital marketing terms you need to know about.

A/B testing

A/B testing means comparing two digital ads promoting the same product. Marketers use this tactic to find the best font, keywords, landing page links, and more. A/B testing can also be used to choose site keywords and design email marketing campaigns.

Brand positioning

Brand positioning means creating a voice, brand colors, and logo to stand out from the competition. It also includes the core values that make your business exceptional.

Conversion rate

The percentage of consumers who complete a desired action on your site represents your conversion rate. The task could be making a purchase, signing up for emails, or liking and following you on social media.

Conversion rate optimization

This term refers to improving your conversion rate to increase the number of people buying goods or services from your website. It’s also known as CRO. It’s one of the best ways to improve results without spending more on digital advertising.

Cost per acquisition

Cost per acquisition (CPA) is also known as customer acquisition cost (CAC). This indicates the amount of money you spend on acquiring a new customer.

Cost per click

Cost per click (CPC) is one of the most common pricing standards for online ads. As the name implies, you only pay when someone clicks on one of your online ads.

Cost per thousand

Cost per thousand is better known as CPM. It’s another pricing standard for online ads. It means you pay a set amount for every 1,000 people who view one of your online ads.

Click-through rate

The click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who view your ad and click on the link.

Data-driven marketing

Data-driven marketing is a marketing plan based on information you’ve gathered from interacting with consumers. Your website stats and digital marketing stats are good sources of data. You can also use information you’ve collected from offline marketing efforts.

Engagement rate

Your engagement rate tracks how many people take action based on your digital marketing efforts. It includes not just sales but also likes, follows, and site views.

Lead generation

Lead generation means providing users with helpful information in return for their personal information. You can use it to identify and get to know your target audience. It’s also valuable for creating a data-driven email marketing campaign.

Return on investment

Return on investment (ROI) is the calculation showing the profit you earn for every dollar you spend on digital marketing.

SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s a term used to describe the process of boosting your site’s standing with Google.

There are many aspects of SEO. That’s because Google considers many factors when determining your site’s rank. Common SEO tactics include keyword selection, content creation, link building, boosting site speed, and ensuring your site is mobile-friendly.

Target Audience

Your target audience (or target demographic) is the group of people most likely to buy something from you. It could be people of a certain age, gender, ethnic group, or socioeconomic status. It’s also possible to have more than one target audience.

Digital Marketing Approaches For Each Stage of The Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s journey is the active research process a potential buyer goes through leading up to their purchase.

It follows them through four stages: becoming aware of a need, considering different solutions to fulfill that need, making a decision between the different solutions and becoming loyal to a brand.

The buyer’s journey is a very intricate process filled with doubts and many hassles for the customer.

To help your customers make more educated decisions through every step of the buyer’s journey, here is a small guide to what is relevant and engaging content at each of the steps.

Awareness

Awareness is the first step in every buyer’s journey, as they start to identify the problem that they are facing and the possible solutions to it.

This step often includes extensive research by the customer, as they are not quite sure what they want.

So, this is where you step in to help them make a much smarter decision.

Since your customers will be researching the problem, they will need content that is precise and helps them better understand their situation.

You can provide them with this information through various social media posts, research studies, eBooks, and even blog posts, among other things.

Of course, your priority in each of these cases should be to inform your customers of their situation, and not sell your product or service.

You must give the impression that you genuinely care about your audience, and this content is less like marketing a product and more like informational content.

Consideration

Consideration is the next step in the buyer’s journey, and by now they have graduated to buyers that know the solution to their problem.

That means they are now looking for sellers that can provide them with solutions. In this case, the buyer may know about your company but are looking at other options, or may not know your company at all.

For the buyers that got into the consideration stage, you will have to change the perspective of the content as well as the type of content that you are sending their way.

While in the awareness stage, you were referring to people that did not know much or anything about the source material, here your target audience knows what they want and is now looking for potential opportunities.

You will have to use videos, comparison papers, case studies, and expert guides to explain the best options.

Decision

The time has come. These customers are now willing to buy a product after doing plenty of research on its utility and more.

But now they are not just searching for products; they are looking for companies and brands that are willing to offer what they want.

Here you can take a more advertising approach to your customers so they can buy your products.

You will have to use content that represents perfectly your brand and the personality around it.

Content that works well with this specific step in the buyer’s journey are testimonials, product comparisons, product demonstrations, and even product reviews.

These types of content can be very effective in convincing your audience to get your product because of its unique selling point.

Loyalty

Once the customer purchases a product from you, this is a big win, especially with all of the competition in the market. However, your marketing to them does not end with their transactions.

In fact, this is the start of a new type of content marketing that will entice them to come back and make another purchase.

Indeed, some businesses do not follow up on their old customers, but these are often bigger companies like Amazon or Steam.

These larger companies have such a dominant market presence; it is often more convenient for customers to shop there exclusively.

On the other hand, smaller companies have to rely on these marketing techniques to make sure their older customers come back to the shop.

Moreover, keeping in touch with your customers after their initial purchase is a great way of showing that you care.

This care can generate loyalty among buyers, making them more compelled to spend on your site.

How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy in 6 Steps

The term “digital marketing strategy” refers to any marketing technique or approach that leverages the effectiveness of various online resources to reach a target audience.

The right digital marketing strategy plays a key role in a company’s ultimate profitability and success. Successful strategies invariably encompass both the values of the desired customer and the end goals of the business.

Knowing you need an effective digital marketing strategy in your corner is one thing, but actually creating such a strategy is another. Here are the key steps to keep in mind:

1. Do current market research

It’s important not to simply assume you know what your target consumer wants. Even if you knew months or years ago, a lot may have changed in the meantime. So always start every new digital marketing strategy with a round of fresh research.

Try using the SWOT method to get to the bottom of things. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats – all key factors to identify and assess before moving forward.

2. Clearly define your goals

Before you can reach a destination, you need to identify it, and this is just as much the case with online digital marketing as it is with anything else.

What are you hoping to accomplish with this strategy? How will accomplishing those goals help you realize your larger business objectives?

3. Know who you’re marketing to

Not everyone out there will be a good fit for your company’s services and products, so it’s important to make your efforts count with proper targeting. Developing well-rounded buyer personas based on your market research can help with this.

Buyer personas can help marketers and content creators better visualize their target customers, the better to tailor their efforts to match.

4. Take a closer look at your assets

Once you know who you’re marketing to and what you want to accomplish, you’ll want to decide how and where to do your marketing. Start with a careful assessment of the various assets you already have in your corner. Examples may include:

Owned media assets, such as your website, your branded imagery, your social media presence, and any original content you may have created
External digital assets that your marketing team has earned over the years, such as guest content on other brands’ websites or user-generated content
Digital assets you pay for, such as pay-per-click advertising, sponsored postings, and more

From there, decide how each of these assets fits into your larger strategy.

5. Set a schedule

Consistency is one of the most important factors in the success of a digital marketing strategy. While great content and clever marketing techniques are helpful, they’re not enough to get you there all by themselves. Marketing efforts need to be timed correctly and delivered consistently.

Come up with a schedule you’ll follow for developing, posting, and promoting new content. Do the same with key tactics like link outreach and progress audits, as well. Then stick to that schedule religiously moving forward.

6. Keep track of your efforts

Every marketing strategy should be based on what you’ve learned from previous strategies, as well as ongoing market research and feedback analysis. But if you don’t keep track of your efforts and their results, there will be no data to refer to in the future.

So, track every change, stage, and step when it comes to your strategies. Analyze the results. Then use what they teach you to make future campaigns even more effective.

14 Best Digital Marketing Strategies

Now that you have a deeper understanding of Digital Marketing and how it is important for your company, we can move on to marketing strategies.

There are various types of Digital Marketing, each aimed to help a company in a specific area.

Each type has a different objective and is based on specific channels. It’s really important to mention that they are not mutually exclusive.

Every company, before starting its marketing, has to come up with a proper marketing strategy.

A marketing strategy often consists of all sorts of planning, from the financial side of marketing to the more intricate planning of software that they will use.

A good Digital Marketing strategy can go a long way in getting your company and brand the attention that it needs.

Choosing the right Digital Marketing strategy can be very difficult, seeing how each of them has its specific utility as well as its downfalls.

Therefore, if you are wondering what some of the best marketing strategies to use are, here is a list of the most effective Digital Marketing strategies for any company.