What Is Digital Marketing?

The concept of marketing has been around ever since humans have started selling. We can say marketing is as old as human civilization itself. 

As technology advances, old marketing tactics become obsolete. However, some of those traditional marketing mediums are still pretty effective.

For example, signage and flyers still get the job done. 

Luckily, we are living in a digital age where businesses and marketers have the internet to reach their audience. Being an entrepreneur, influencer, coach, or marketer, you have to keep pace in this cluttered environment if you really want to get heard. 

This is where you need to take advantage of digital marketing. We also call it online marketing or digital advertising. 

At DM (digitalmarketing.org) we have talked a lot about online marketing and its different aspects. But there are still so many questions about digital marketing and digital marketing strategies that are left unanswered.  

Click the links below to jump to each section, or continue reading to learn more about digital marketing. 

What Is Digital Marketing?

Here is a simple definition: 

Digital marketing is the use of the internet to reach your ideal customers. 

Businesses use digital channels such as social media, email, and search engines to connect with their customers or clients. 

I also like the way Investopedia defines the term: 

“Digital marketing is the use of the Internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels to reach consumers.”

Digital marketing is an entirely new way of bridging the gap between brands and their audience. And it requires a completely new way of reaching and understanding customers. 

It’s about finding and connecting with your ideal people at the right time. It’s about figuring out your buyers needs and meeting them where they are. You have to figure out where your customers are spending time online and be very methodical in the way you engage with them. 

Different Types of Digital Marketing 

Digital marketing is a broad subject that covers a large variety of marketing techniques. I am going to highlight some of the major types of digital marketing: 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When you perform a search on Google, why do some sites show up at the top? For example, if you type in “the best pizza in New York”, some sites show up at the top of search results and many will not. 

Why is it critical for your business to focus on SEO? 

Let’s take a look at the stats to know why: 

25% of people click on the first Google search result. This means if your website isn’t the first on Google search result for relevant keywords, you will lose 25% of your customers straight away. 

The click-through-rate (CTR) falls sharply after position one. If your site is at the tenth position in Google, for instance, you will get a disappointing 2.5% click-through-rate. And you don’t want your pages to be on the second page because people rarely go there. 

SEO is the answer if you want to put your business at the top so you attract the most potential customers. 

Let me define the term SEO real quick: 

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a process of increasing your site’s visibility for relevant search terms. If you want to get more consistent and relevant traffic to your site through search engines, SEO is the way to go. 

When it comes to digital, things change rather quickly. Every week we come across a new method or hack that promises great SEO results. One thing effective today might become useless tomorrow. 

So, it’s hard to determine what deserves the most attention. And not all of the techniques deserve the same results. But let me give your some valuable SEO tips: 

• Increase your page speed: remove anything that is slowing down your website because a one-second delay in page load time leads to a 7% loss in conversion.  

• Encourage reputable sites to link to yours – inbound links are the lifeblood of search engine rankings. 

• Focus on on-page SEO because it helps search engines understand what your web pages are all about – write unique meta descriptions for every page. 

• Create unique content based on your targeted keywords

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Digital is a noisy world, no doubt about that. 

Millions of businesses are out there struggling to get their share of online attention. And it’s never been so important to market online. 

We talked about SEO which requires long-term efforts to produce significant results – SEO doesn’t produce quick results. And you can’t wait for a year to get your next clients through your business website. 

That’s exactly why you need to explore more about SEM. 

SEM is an effective way of marketing your business primarily using paid advertisements that show up on search engine results pages (SERPs). I am sure you have seen those ads popping at the top and at the bottom of Google search results. 

Often called pay-per-click ads or ppc campaign, these ads can be used in a variety of formats; for example, text-based ads, product listing ads, product-based advertisements, etc. 

The concept of SEO is based on an organic way of getting higher rankings. In the case of SEM, you pay search engines a fee to get clicks and traffic. However, both tactics are meant to help you dominate SERPs. 

Let me quickly list the types of SEM: 

• SEO (organic search)

• Paid search 

• Local search 

Keywords are the foundation of SEM 

SEM or search engine marketing comes in handy when you have to grow your business in a competitive marketplace. But it’s important to get it right to generate a good return. 

To get it right, you have to conduct comprehensive research to choose and target keywords. 

When I say keywords, this means the terms or words your prospective customers are likely to use when searching for your products or services. 

There are plenty of tools you can use to find valuable information related to keywords. 

To master the art of SEM, first, you need to learn how ad auctions work, how to identify the right keywords to bid on, and how to set the right budget.  

A common misconception 

People often think that whoever has the highest budget wins. If you are intentional, use the right keywords, and consistent then you can watch your organic search skyrocket over time without paying a dime for advertising.

We grew our blog to 50,000 monthly readers organically (without using ads) by using a highly customized content marketing and digital strategy.

Content Marketing

Content is vital in digital marketing. Whether you create a business website, social profiles, paid ads, or anything else, you need powerful content to get your message across. 

What does come to your mind when you hear the term “content marketing”? Blog posts? YouTube videos? Facebook? 

Surprisingly, content marketing has been around well before the internet. Some of the biggest brands in the world have used content marketing to become what they are today. 

Let me give you an example: 

Johnson & Johnson launched a publication called “Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound Treatment” in 1888. The company published that content to fulfill the informational needs of doctors to whom they sell bandages. 

The internet, however, completely revolutionized the way businesses utilize content to improve their bottom line. 

Many people call content marketing a trend. I believe content marketing is at the core of whatever you do to attract customers online. 

It’s all about storytelling

When you tell great stories, it helps you add human elements to your content. People are likely to love those brands that tell great stories. 

Storytelling is not just about fictional characters or imagination. It promotes the feeling of bonding, love, and well-being in your body.  

In case you are wondering how to learn the art of storytelling, here are some tips: 

• Engage your audience senses 

• Use curiosity, suspense, and tension in your stories 

• Don’t forget that you eventually want to sell a product or service 

• Leave your audience with a sense of awe 

Content marketing helps you build a strong relationship 

Content marketing is a long-term strategy that makes it super easy to build relationships with your target audience. Unlike a paid advertising campaign, content marketing shows that you care about your audience.

You craft individualized content just for their specific needs.

We know today’s consumers like to build relationships with brands that care about their problems and keep their audience engaged through compelling content. 

Content marketing is much more than blogging. Later in the post, I will talk more about the type of content you may use to deliver your message to the right people. 

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

I am sure you already know how big social media is and what kind of impact it can create for a business. 

Social media is one of the biggest digital marketing channels businesses have been using to achieve their goals. 

Did you know over 3.6 billion people used social media in 2020? This number is projected to increase to 4.4 billion in 2025. 

Do you want to miss the opportunity of connecting with more than half of the world’s population? 

Social media is a key part of any comprehensive digital marketing strategy. 

The widespread use of mobile phones and social media is an incredible opportunity for entrepreneurs and marketers to grow their following. 

But what is social media marketing and how it can benefit your business? 

Social media marketing or SMM is the process of creating unique and relevant content to boost social following and engagement. When done right, SMM can produce the following for your brand: 

• Audience growth – gain a dedicated loyal following

• Drive traffic to your website 

• Establish a reputation and build trust

• Build long-term relationships

Needless to say that digital marketing is essential to business growth, but you can’t implement all of the techniques and strategies.

I wouldn’t recommend you to try everything if you’re just getting started. But social media marketing is something you can’t skip. 

In fact, social media is a great place to start. 

Did you know an average American adult spends 38 minutes on social media every day? 

I understand how difficult it is to get yourself heard on social media. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are crowded places. And it’s not easy to reach your prospective audience through organic reach. 

Solution? Create the right message and put it in front of the right people at the right time.

Use ads to boost your reach, but make sure to find the right audience. That’s where the magic happens – Finding the right audience with the help of advanced targeting options. 

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

You probably have heard a little about PPC marketing, especially if you are an entrepreneur or a coach. You already know that PPC is one of the online marketing channels that can be used to market your business. 

Let me define PPC to help you better understand the concept: 

Pay-per-click or PPC is an online marketing technique where you pay a fee each time someone clicks on your ad. Or, you can say it’s a way of buying visits to your website. 

Instead of driving traffic organically (SEO), you try to buy visits. 

PPC is a popular form of SEM which enables you to bid for ad placement. Whenever someone searches something using a keyword that is related to your business, your ad will show up somewhere in Google results. 

For example, if you bid on the keyword “best business coaches”, your ad will be shown in Google results whenever your prospective clients search on that keyword. 

Google Ads is the most popular form of PPC

As I mentioned earlier, Google Ads operates on a PPC model: you bid on keywords and pay a small fee for each click on your ads. 

When a user initiates a search, Google looks into its pool of Ads and selects a set of winners to appear on the search results page. 

How does the giant search engine choose the winner? 

Well, it chooses to show certain ads based on multiple factors: the size of your keyword bids, the quality of relevance of your keywords, ad campaigns, and quality score. 

What is the quality score? 

Quality score is how Google rates the relevance and quality of your keywords and PPC ads. Here are some important factors that determine your quality score: 

• Quality and relevance of your landing page 

• The relevance of your ad text 

• The history of your Google Ads performance 

• Your click-through rate (CTR) 

• The relevance of each keyword to its ad group

Just like other digital marketing channels, it’s not easy to reach your audience using PPC. 

This information might be overwhelming especially if you don’t know much about PPC and how it works. 

But let me tell you one thing: when you get PPC right, it lowers your costs and leads to higher ad rankings. And this means more quality visits to your website. 

When creating ads, focus on attracting the right people because your audience is a set of specific people on the internet. 

Affiliate Marketing

Have you ever heard about making money while asleep? 

The idea behind affiliate marketing is that you promote others’ products or services and end up making a commission when someone buys them. 

You can say it’s a marketing model based on revenue sharing. You can either make money promoting others’ products or offer promoters a financial incentive to promote your business.

Let’s say you want more clients. Affiliate marketing allows you to get others to promote your products and services.

If you don’t have a product, you can simply find a product you like, promote it to others, and earn a commission for each sale you make.

For example, we offer a 50% commission to anyone who sells our Entrepreneur Community (TEC).

Let’s take a quick look at the four parts of a successful affiliate marketing system: 

• The merchant: the seller, brand, vendor, or the manufacturer. It can be an individual selling online courses or a big company like Dyson. 

• The affiliate: Also known as publishers, affiliates can also be an individual or a company that can earn thousands of dollars in commissions each month. 

• The consumer: The customer or consumer who actually buys those products or services. The affiliate tries to market to the consumers using multiple channels: social network, search engine, content marketing, etc. 

• The network: Most people don’t include this one in the equation. A network functions as an intermediary between the merchant and the affiliate. It handles the payment and product delivery, improving the way affiliate marketing works. 

So, where do you fit in this marketing system? 

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the oldest types of digital marketing. Some people think email marketing is no more effective in the age of chatbots, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. 

But I will beg to differ. 

Email marketing is still going strong today and ranked as one of the effective ways to reach your audience. 

Why? Because people use emails more than other digital communication platforms. 

There were 3.9 billion email users in 2019. And this figure is set to grow to 4.3 billion in 2023. Also, if you spend one dollar on email marketing, you can make an average return of $42. 

Email marketing is not dead. I think it’s better than most of the digital marketing channels out there. 

If you have something to sell, your prospects are using email. All you have to do is make them open your mail and do whatever you want them to do. 

But it’s hard to do so since people are bombarded with unwanted interruptions and ads. Even if your emails are masterfully created, they just look the same as the rest when they reach someone’s inbox. 

When you send someone an email, you become a guest in their inbox. You do whatever your host likes you to do. 

Most companies use email marketing as a channel to communicate with their audiences. You can promote your content, tell your audience about your new programs or events, or even direct them to your site. 

Here are some proven email marketing tips: 

• Build your subscribers list including only those who are really interested in whatever you offer. 

• Add a personal and fun element to your emails and make sure you create enticing subject lines. 

• Don’t let your emails go to the spam folder. Be sure your audience has opted into your emails. 

• Add interesting call-to-actions. Give your readers an opportunity to react and respond. 

• Segment your audiences and create lists based specific needs and requirements.

Inbound Marketing 

There are two ways you can connect with your online audience: either they come to you or you reach them using ads. 

Inbound marketing is about drawing your customers to your products and services through different techniques such as content marketing and social media. 

You attract and engage your audience at every stage of the buyer’s journey. 

Here are some examples of inbound marketing: 

• Blogging 

• Video marketing 

• Ebooks 

• Social media campaigns 

• Webinars 

Why Digital Marketing Is Important For Your Business

Digital marketing matters more than ever before. While traditional marketing is still pretty effective, digital marketing is poised to become the most powerful form of marketing. 

More and more consumers are buying products and services online. 

Over 2.14 billion people are expected to buy things online in 2021. 

Do you think it’s wise to ignore online marketing in an environment where people just love to find solutions online? 

Here Are Four Leading Benefits Of Digital Marketing: 

1. Reach Your Ideal Customers At The Right Time Where They Are

No other marketing platform gives you an opportunity to reach the ideal people at the right time and then track your results with great precision. 

Traditional marketing methods like signage or TV don’t give you that much control over who can see your message and when. Simply put, traditional marketing is like shooting in the dark or throwing spaghetti at the wall. 

This is where digital marketing puts you in control and gives you numerous tools to show your message to people who matter. 

First, you identify an audience and then send them highly personalized content. If you need additional help finding your ideal audience then download our Customer Avatar Worksheet that will help you craft your ideal buyer.

If you decide to use social media to expand your digital footprint, you can use plenty of tools like the one above to find your ideal people and then put your message in front of them. 

For example, you can run social media ads to a specific audience based on their characteristics and demographics such as age, income, gender, interests, behavior, and so on. 

Digital marketing enables you to identify your buyer persona and improve your strategy over time to ensure you are talking to the right people. 

2. Have Global Reach

You create a profile on Linkedin and all of a sudden you become a part of a global network with over 722 million people. 

If you build a website for your business, you create an online platform for a global audience. 

Isn’t it amazing to see how digital marketing expands your reach and lets you connect with your audience all around the world? 

Most importantly, digital marketing is cost-effective. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars unless you want t. 

3. Build Lasting Relationships

⭐Related Blog Post: What Is Mindshare? How To Stay Top Of Mind With Important People

Another great benefit of digital marketing is that it gives you plenty of opportunities to connect and build relationships with your audience. 

You can share your content and then respond to whatever your audience has to say about your business. Social media alone, for instance, is a great way to engage your people and start two-way communication. 

Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are not just to promote your business. 

Let me give you a quick stat: 

76% of consumers are likely to buy from a brand they feel connected to. 

When you focus on building customer relationships, it directly impacts your bottom line. In other words, your audience will increase their spending with your business if they feel connected to your brand. 

4. Grow Your Personal Brand

A personal brand is how you present yourself both online and offline. Long ago before the advent of the internet, only celebrities or big companies had personal brands. 

Only those popular actors, athletes, and musicians got all the attention. 

A small entrepreneur or influencer couldn’t think of building a personal brand 20 years ago. 

But hey, things have changed rather dramatically. 

You can be a thought leader if you are willing to put in the required time and effort. 

Thousands of ordinary people are using digital tools to attract countless people to their social media profiles and websites. 

Just look at TikTok, as an example. 

What Type Of Digital Content Should I Create For My Business? 

Many people ask this question because they don’t know much about their audience and their needs. 

To understand what type of digital content would be ideal for your business, first understand your buyer’s journey and the type of customers or clients you have. 

Your content strategy must be aligned with the buyer’s journey to engage your prospects with the right message. 

Let me make it simple! 

A buyer goes through a journey or steps before buying a product. That journey can look different depending on your business model or products. 

However, the basics remain the same: people realize a problem, consider different solutions, make a decision, and then evaluate their decision based on the outcome. We call them four stages of the buyer’s journey: 

• Awareness: Your prospects realize a problem and start searching to better understand it. 

• Interest: They have defined their problems and are looking for available solutions. 

• Decision: They find a few solutions and are ready to choose one of them. 

• Action: They finally choose one.

The real challenge is to deliver relevant content to your prospects that are in the four different stages of the buyer’s journey – you want to meet each one of their pain points and needs.

The content needs of a prospect at the awareness stage are different from that of those at the decision stage. 

The type of content you should be creating depends on where your prospects are in the buyer’s journey. At the awareness stage, your audience needs to identify and better understand their problems. 

So, you should be creating blog posts or any form of educational content. Likewise, at the decision stage, you can come up with more brand-specific content. 

But there is no hard and fast rule as to what type of content you need to create for each stage of the buyer’s journey. Your goal is to move your prospects from one step in the sales funnel to another. 

Also, you need specific dedicated content for each customer’s avatar to meet them where they are. In short, all of your online and offline content must speak to your audience in a way they understand.

Check Out The Popular Forms Of Digital Content: 

Video

This could be anything from youtube videos to Facebook Live.

While you can use video content to serve your audience at any stage of the buyer’s journey, it would be ideal if you use them at the interest stage when people have to evaluate different solutions. 

Here’s a simple and easy example of a Facebook Live we created for our entrepreneur community. When you create your Facebook Live you can make any style of video you want, but make sure you optimize for these key things:

• A strong title that grabs attention

• A clear message

• Clear audio and video

• A calm background with nice lighting

• Show your personality and make it YOU

• Engage with your audience and make them feel included

Blog Content

Blog posts can deliver great results when your prospects are at the awareness stage where they need to define their issues more precisely.

If you take a look at our blog, we usually focus on defining problems and basic digital marketing questions our audience might have. Just like this blog you are reading right now: it addresses one basic question. 

Webinar

Creating a webinar is another effective way to move your prospects down the sales funnel and make them buy your products.

It’s an event you hold exclusively on the internet to engage your online audience.

As webinar is a detailed and more interactive form of content, it gives you a chance to earn the trust of your people before asking them to buy or sign up for your services.

⭐ Related Post: Are Webinars Dead? Do Webinars Still Work?

Social Media Content

There are hundreds of social media platforms that encourage different content formats.

For example, Instagram is more about visuals, images, and videos.

Choose the right social media platforms for your business and then create unique content for each platform. But there are some must-have platforms no matter the nature of your business; for instance, Facebook and Linkedin. 

PRO TIP: If you haven’t checked out the new social media app Clubhouse I highly recommend you add this platform to your marketing strategy.

Within a couple of weeks (seriously like 14 days) of being on Clubhouse this happened: 

• Closed a book deal in 17 days with Hay House on Clubhouse that will be published early this year.

• Gained over 20,000 followers on CH.

• Closed over $250,000 in sales.

• Grew my Instagram following by over 10 thousand followers in a few days.

• Gained an extremely loyal following like I have never seen in the industry (which is over 20 years).

• Built relationships and worked deals with some of the biggest influencers and names in the industry.

• Got booked to speak on incredible stages with insanely brilliant people. 

Infographics

Infographics are quite helpful when the objective is to deliver complex information in a way that is easy to understand. They improve your chance of being found via social media. 

Testimonials

What your existing clients or customers say about your business can make all the difference. So, it would be a good idea to display what you have achieved for your clients so far or how your products have added value to your customers’ lives.

Testimonials are effective when your prospects are at the decision stage. Especially video testimonials, they are some of the most powerful testimonials a business or brand can showcase. 

Check out this video testimonial we got from Jesse Eker:

Case Studies

Showing case studies on your website can be a valuable form of content for those who are ready to make a purchase.

When you really want to influence your audience purchase decision, nothing can be more helpful than well-written case studies and testimonials. 

How To Do Digital Marketing 

An online marketing campaign has so many moving parts that must work together. Before you get your marketing campaigns up and running, do some homework. 

If you are not sure where to start, here is what you need to do: 

1. Define Your Goals And Roles

What do you really want to achieve? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Want more followers or conversions? Or want to be at the top of Google searches? 

It’s critical to answer this question especially if you are just getting started with digital marketing.

You can achieve endless goals when it comes to digital marketing. But it’s important to decide your main goal. This will help you identify the right marketing channel.

For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, you might want to reach new audiences via social media. 

Every online marketing campaign you create should have a goal. For instance, when you run a Facebook ad campaign, you should have a clear picture of your goals. 

2. Identify Your Target Audience 

Your digital marketing success largely depends on how good you are at identifying your target audience. 

Not everybody on the internet can be your ideal customer. So, be sure to identify the right people that are likely to be interested in your business. 

Let me share some proven methods to identify your target audience: 

• Study your existing customers or clients to evaluate their characteristics. 

• Create a customer avatar and collect demographic data on your target audience. 

• Send out customer surveys to learn more about your customers. 

• Create relevant content and see who likes to interact with it. 

• Research your competitors and their target audience. 

• Use a marketing positioning map to identify gaps in the market. 

• Think of people who would be most motivated to respond to your CTAs. 

• Use tracking pixels.

3. Set A Budget  

How much are you willing to spend on digital marketing? Set a budget and determine what type of digital marketing tactics you afford to implement. 

If you want to focus on inbound marketing tactics like SEO or social media, you need to set a budget covering all the content creation and management expenses. Similarly, if you are looking to run paid ads, you need to know how much you are going to spend on content creation, ads, and other expenses.

Also, do not hire someone to run your Facebook ads if you do not have any knowledge about how Facebook ads work – that is a sure way to get taken advantage of.

Always have a base knowlegde of something before you hire for any job. 

4. Perform Keyword Research 

Digital marketing is all about reaching the right audience with the right message. 

You can’t achieve this goal unless you perform keyword research. So, identify your targeted keyword if you want to optimize your content for SEO. That’s one of the ways to improve your search engine visibility. 

You want to create one piece of content per keyword or keyword phrase or essentially one piece of content per problem or solution. 

PRO TIP: Don’t forget to consider long-tail keywords to improve your online visibility. 

The good news is that you can do keyword research on Google for free. Google Keyword Planner is a great tool to research and discover new keywords. 

Ahrefs is another amazing keyword research tool that enables you to find thousands of keywords in seconds. 

5. Create A Piece Of Content 

It all starts from a piece of content. To test your digital marketing talent, create a piece of content and show it to your audience. It could be anything you are comfortable with. 

See how your audience responds to your content.

If you think the response is not up to your expectations, try something else.

If text-based content is not working, try video content. Go for Live video or hold a webinar. 

Keep testing!  

6. Run Digital Advertising 

Digital advertising is essential to business growth in the current business environment.

When it becomes difficult to reach the right people or get yourself heard on the internet, that’s where you must consider running marketing campaigns such as Facebook ads, Google ads, and lookalike audiences. 

That’s the way to reach your new audiences fast.

For example, creating lookalike audiences on Facebook is a simple technique to find people who are just like your existing customers or followers. 

7. Track And Measure Results  

Once you have created and implemented a digital marketing strategy, be sure to measure your performance. 

Test and track every aspect of your online marketing campaign from website ranking to Facebook ad conversion. 

Again, unlike traditional marketing means, digital marketing makes it easier for you to generate accurate data on your performance.

For example, Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to generate in-depth details about the visitors to your website. 

8. Repeat 

Digital marketing demands consistency and perseverance. Most businesses create a website or social media profiles and then forget about them. 

You have to be consistent in creating great content and posting it online. If you want to have a healthy social media presence, for example, you must keep your audience engaged with consistent content. 

Consistency ensures your brand has a clear, recognizable identity and you are able to meet the expectations of your people. 

How Do I Get Started With Digital Marketing?

I can understand how difficult it could be to develop and implement an effective digital marketing strategy, especially when you have to take care of other aspects of your business. 

You can’t be an SEO or social media expert in no time. Even if you know a lot about digital marketing, it’s probably hard for you to get started. 

But that doesn’t mean you should discard the idea of having a strong online presence. We are happy to help build your personal brand if you are ready to get started. 

Final Thoughts 

Of course, it would be foolish to miss out on the opportunities on the web. Eventually, every entrepreneur, marketer, coach, and influencer will have to master online marketing. 

That’s the only way to move forward in an excessively competitive environment. 

To fuel your business growth, take digital marketing as an opportunity to offer your audience what they are interested in. They don’t like to be sold; they like to be helped and entertained. 

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