Digital Marketing
What is Digital marketing?
Digital Marketing is a term defined to achieve your business objectives and goals using the online channels that include but are not limited to search engines, social media platforms, content creation & advertising in order to educate, engage & market your product or service to potential buyers.
Digital has become a part of our existence. From shopping apparel to groceries, furniture & getting laundry delivered everything is online. With this new shift, marketers did not waste anytime and quickly adapted to use social media & other digital tools to push & pull the consumer which gave birth to Digital marketing.
Digital marketing is the most effective way to grow and achieve your goals which could vary from any of the following: • Increase revenue • Build brand awareness • Market your product or service • Decrease cost • Improve efficiency • Increase productivity • High return on investment • Identify loyal customers.
The various Digital Marketing Tools are:
Website:
It is imperative in the digital age to own a website. If you are a business owner and don’t have a website you lose on the market opportunity. The information on a website helps in communicating to the customer about the product & overall business credibility. Think about it, any customer will do a basic research before making a purchase, hence having a user friendly and informative site is the first step in showcasing your authenticity.
The basic rule is to design a website that is user friendly, mobile friendly and loads quickly. Here’s a link where you can check if your website is mobile friendly.
Search:
A user uses the internet to look for various types of queries. Search result may vary as per the keywords used by the searcher. Search engines like Google have various ways and formats of showcasing results. As business owners, it is our responsibility to utilize the tools provided by search engines and present content to get the best possible outcome.
SEO
SEO is a system of generating traffic to your website through organic search. It is the result which appears when a website is optimized at the back end using the right keywords. This helps search engine to showcase the best possible result to a user. The most important factor to remember about SEO is that it is “organic” or “free”. When a user runs a query on Google, the results brought up on the page are a mix of website, blog, video, image, news depending to the keyword used.
There are 5 main types of SEO that we need to know:
On Page SEO: On page as the name suggests, is done for your own website pages. When you are creating a website, the data and technical aspects are completely in your control. For e.g: Blogs, personal website pages are optimized by following the right guidelines creating a user friendly website, rich content with relevant keywords. All this will help in ranking your website on top search results.
Off Page SEO: Off-page or Off-site SEO is done through external link. This basically implies, your website will rank better in search page if the traffic is generated through other sources that your website. For example—Social media links, features/mentions/links from a higher traffic website. For ex—If Times of India gives a link to your website
Universal SEO: Data is just not text. On SERP, we see information in the form of video, images, text & audio (VITA). Universal or blended SEO is a practice to optimise VITA to get maximum weightage and higher ranking. A few good practices are keyword rich content, quality title & description, crisp URL etc.
Local SEO/Google My Business: Local SEO is done to promote your business in a local area. If your business has multiple branches or even if it’s a small business/service it is essential to provide your address/location, phone number, timings etc. The idea is to make the user connect with your business easily and effectively.
Technical SEO: This is the most important type in SEO. In general the above practices are done to generate rich content that will rank on SERP. But in technical, SEO is advanced. This means the data on your website should be interpreted easily by search engine crawlers. The goal here is to upgrade the framework of your site to improve ranking on SERP.
Maps: Maps have become a big deal! Listing your business on Google maps is essential as it cost effective and helps in drawing local traffic to your website. Searching directions, review, phone numbers, images etc have all become an integral part in everyday life as nobody today uses Yellow Pages. Google maps is one of the most dominant map service we have.
Local Business Listings: Local business listings is nothing but your business directory. Traditionally we could list our business on Yellow Pages. But remember the pain of searching to pages to find the right contact. We now no longer have use of Yellow Pages as the digital platform allows you to easily list your business with Just dial, Sulekha or Yelp. With just a click, the searcher can locate your address, number, e-mail ID. In the long run, this helps in your ranking and online reputation.
Search Advertisement: Traditionally, as a business if you wanted to reach out to a wider audience you could place ads in newspapers, broadcast on TV/radio, use direct mailing or tele-marketing. All these options required huge budgets as they are expensive. It was difficult for startups or small business owners to use most of these mediums. But advertising in the digital age world has changed rapidly & has become cost efficient.
Online marketing consists of two main types of advertising:
1. Search Engine Advertising/Marketing: Search advertising aka PPC (pay per click) basically refer to text ads that are showcased on search engine pages. The results appear due to the keywords used by the searcher. Hence, it’s essential to use at least 12–15 important keywords in your ad. In order to advertise on search engine, you will need an Adwords account which is a very easy tool provided by Google.
2. Display Advertising: This is one of the most common type of ads you might have come across while browsing. It could be in a video or image format and is largely based upon user behaviour. For eg—You’re planning a holiday and want to book tickets on Make My Trip/ website. However, for some reason you didn’t make the purchase and close the website. The next time you login to any website such as Facebook/Youtube the exact same product/service will be flashed on your screen.
Advantages of Digital Marketing: It is no surprise that more and more people are devoting their time online to transact or research. According to a report by Forbes, about 82% consumers research online. Marketers today are applying digital marketing tactics to reach to the consumers & here’s why you should use digital marketing for your business too:
1. Cost Effective: Digital marketing is economical and most effective way to promote your business as compared to traditional marketing. With limited budget you can create content & start your campaign. It is you who decides the budget which can even start from something as low as Rs.50/- depending on your business.
2. Real time results—The moment your ad is live, you can view the performance. Additionally edits can be done in real time. This way you can understand the situation and take necessary action
3. PPC– PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It is a model where the advertiser pays the publisher each time their ad is clicked. Google Ads is the best and easiest platform for PPC.
4. Targeting—In case of traditional marketing there is no way to determine the number and the type of people who saw your billboard. With digital marketing it is not easy to target audience based on their interest, location, behaviour etc. You can create an audience based on your business model and push your ad to the right consumers.
5. Measurable results—Be rest assured about the analytics and reports through digital marketing. You will get the most accurate & realistic data that will help you in reaching your goals as well forecast your future sales
6. Conversion rates: It’s much simpler to get conversion online as the customer views the ad & takes action.
7. Easy Interface: Setting up ad accounts, building a website, managing social media have become straightforward and clear-cut with easy user interface.
Social Media:
Social media is the biggest aspect of Digital Marketing. Most of us have some footprint on social media platforms. It allows us connect with like minded individuals/groups, share ideas and build professional network. On a business level websites like Facebook & Instagram help to engage with the real time customer, provide valuable information and reach out to a huge audience at minimal costs.
Advantage of Social Media
1. Free Business page/channel—Creating a business page on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter is not only easy but its absolutely “FREE”!
2. Paid Ads—To reach out to target audience all social media channels requires paid ads
3. Social Media Advertisement—SEA is a straightforward and effortless way to target a wide audience, increase profitability & reach business goals.
4. Influencers Endorsement—Influencer marketing has gained a huge momentum due to digital channels. It has become a career path for many through endorsements and reviews.
5. Email—Email marketing plays a key role too. It’s way to stay connected & updated about the latest buzz in the market, your favourite brands, closing transaction deals etc
6. Content Marketing: Unique content is what works on social media. If you want to stand out and make an impression in the digital realm, then your content has to be top notch and versatile. Provide valuable information and educate the consumer through videos, images, text, audio, e-books, slide share etc.
7. Dynamic: Digital Marketing is dynamic and on-going. It keeps evolving day after day and as users & marketers we need to keep adapting to changes. Everyday there is a new app that’s launched or new update by Google to it’s existing feature. Keep this in mind we must understand that digital marketing is not the only practice. So while you might be an expert in using Instagram, you also need to know about Twitter or Snapchat and make use of it to grow your business. Do not restrict your business with just one platform
8. Brand Building—It is a known fact that brand building or brand reputation is a long-term process. While digital marketing gives you a push to create brand awareness, you must acknowledge that brand building with yield results with effort and continuation. So you might go viral in a day but how you sustain & use technology in the right way is the game changer for success.
If you like to get started in Digital Marketing, please give us a call 09705284251 or email to ravi@mediaproductions.in