What are the types of digital marketing?
Since the advance of technology, marketing has never been the same. Today, businesses and marketers have utilised technology to create digital marketing. Digital marketing is a form of marketing that uses online media to spread brand messages and content. Digital marketing distributes brand messages and content through search engines, social media platforms, applications, email campaigns, and websites. This form of marketing functions to reach the target audience with conversion-oriented messages to make more sales and grow brand loyalty. Marketers know that being innovative is a part of their job description, and this is why there are many different types of digital marketing. The most popular types of digital marketing are:
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is one of the most popular, and important, types of digital marketing. SEO functions to ensure that the brand’s website, articles, and/or products land at the top of the search results on Google when specific keywords and phrases are searched for. This process requires marketers to emphasise certain keywords and phrases, but it should be noted that they should not be overly emphasised. If marketers fill up a website or article with SEO keywords and phrases, it will seem unnatural and of low quality.
- Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
This form of digital marketing, as the name implies, sees marketers paying the publisher of the ad whenever someone clicks on the ad to increase website traffic. Google Ads is one of the most common forms of PPC advertising, while other examples are paid ads on Facebook, Twitter, and sponsored messages on LinkedIn. This is considered a short-term form of digital marketing because once the marketer stops paying the publisher, the ad is taken down. - Content Marketing
This form of digital marketing aims to create and promote a range of content to get website clicks, generate leads, and ultimately make sales. The created content can be blog posts, social media posts, videos, podcasts, and more. It is important the created content is SEO rich while still being natural to grab the attention of potential customers. Besides this, the interests, needs, and wants of the target audience need to be focused on when creating the content to make sales and build the desired brand loyalty. If this does not happen, it is likely that the content marketing will be unsuccessful.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM can be described as the paid form of SEO. This form of digital marketing sees businesses buy advertising space on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). With SEM advertisers pay for the impressions that lead to website clicks, and this also assists in a higher ranking for the website in organic search results. It is recommended to combine SEO and SEM to gain optimal traffic to a website. - Influencer Marketing
This form of digital marketing uses the services of individuals and businesses on social media platforms that have large followings. The aim of this form of marketing is to reach wider audiences and gain more customers. The ‘influencer’, once recruited, will become a brand ambassador of sorts and will be paid to post content such as photos, videos, or features on their website. It has to be noted that the influencers with the largest followings aren’t always the best choice. If the marketing is done well with a smaller scale influencer, the impact can be enormous.
- Email Marketing
This form of digital marketing sees marketers send emails to their subscribed clients. This stimulates engagement, reinforces brand loyalty, and aims to drive sales. A popular form of email marketing is curating a newsletter for subscribers. Newsletters would contain information about the business, announcements, and even special discounts. Marketers should strive to keep email marketing exciting and informative, without overwhelming their subscribers’ email inboxes. This will ensure that the subscribers stay subscribed.