Understanding Digital Marketing: Key Types, Channels, and Examples
Every discussion on digital marketing basics should cover how to do digital marketing — or how to create an online marketing strategy. If you’re not sure where to start, seeking digital marketing help from a trusted agency can make the process much easier and more effective. SEO is an online marketing strategy that improves your visibility or ranking in search results relevant to your business and target market.
Attract prospects. Build relationships. Deliver metrics that matter.
Online PR is the practice of obtaining coverage from online publications and blogs. This tends to require outreach to reporters and editors at relevant publications, which you can do through LinkedIn or Twitter. With digital channels, it is just as easy to click on an ad for a large corporation as it is to click an ad for a small business. As you track your campaigns, watch for trends and potential areas of improvement. Setting an unrealistic budget, for instance, can result in your business wasting money because you didn’t provide enough of an investment to support a strategy fully. Settling for cheap SEO (think $100 a month) is an excellent example because your company pays for a service without getting any results.
Native advertising was created in reaction to the cynicism of today's consumers toward ads. Knowing that the creator of an ad pays to run it, many consumers will conclude that the ad is biased and consequently ignore it. Whether you want to be an affiliate or find one, the first step is to make a connection with the other party.
Their level of engagement increases as they become active participants in your brand's story. Digital marketing software and platforms automatically track the number of desired conversions that you get, whether that means email open rates, visits to your home page, or direct purchases. While marketing automation may seem like a luxury tool your business can do without, it can significantly improve the engagement between you and your audience. Its goal is to blend in with its surrounding content so that it’s less blatantly obvious as advertising.
Search engine optimisation is a digital marketing strategy to help a website appear in results when users look up a word or phrase in search engines like Google and Bing. SEO is effective and imperative for all organisations, including small local companies, online-only brands, and enterprises. The goal of content marketing is to reach potential customers through the use of written, visual, or video content that interests them.
Remember to prioritize quality over quantity and focus on platforms where your audience is most active. Analyze your competitors' digital marketing strategies to gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge will enable you to differentiate your brand and identify unique selling points. In today's digital age, establishing a strong online presence and effectively reaching your target audience is crucial for the success of any business or brand. Yes, digital marketers can make good money depending on their expertise and the type of work they do.
Online courses and certifications from platforms like Google (Ads, Analytics), HubSpot, and Meta (Facebook Blueprint) can build your credibility and skill set quickly. Keep your brand voice, visuals, and messaging unified across all platforms, whether it’s your website, email campaigns, or social media. A consistent identity builds trust, reinforces your brand’s values, and improves recognition.
Blogs & Publications
In our Marketing Library, you can find numerous articles on all aspects of digital marketing. With digital marketing, all of this information is already at your fingertips. Use words like “promoted” or “sponsored.” If those indicators are concealed, readers might end up spending significant time engaging with the content before they realize that it's advertising.
Digital marketing, despite its numerous advantages, comes with its own set of limitations including over-saturation, privacy concerns, and a heavy dependence on technology. With many businesses competing for attention online, standing out in a crowded marketplace is increasingly difficult. Additionally, the growing apprehension over data privacy, compounded by new regulations like GDPR and CCPA, poses challenges for businesses in collecting and utilizing customer data.
Content Marketing
Show credibility with testimonials, customer reviews, trust badges, or logos of well-known clients. Use high-quality images or videos that reinforce your message and capture attention. The goal is to create a seamless user experience that persuades visitors to take the desired action, such as filling out a form, subscribing to a newsletter, or making a purchase. Refresh old assets, expand top-performing content, and adjust for different formats. Use real-time dashboards from tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Ads Manager, and Hotjar to identify drop-off points. Through A/B testing and small iterative changes, marketers turn more clicks into results – whether that’s a lead, signup, or sale.
Because social media marketing involves active audience participation, it has become a popular way of getting attention. Social media marketing offers built-in engagement metrics, which are extremely useful in helping you to understand how well you're reaching your audience. You get to decide which types of interactions mean the most to you, whether that means the number of shares, comments, or total clicks to your website. The most important thing to remember about digital marketing and inbound marketing is that as a marketing professional, you don’t have to choose between the two. Inbound marketing provides structure and purpose for effective digital marketing efforts, making sure that each online marketing channel works toward a goal. Marketing automation is when you use technology in your digital marketing strategy to trigger automated actions from your marketing platforms.
It’s particularly effective for building deeper relationships with existing customers and providing perks to your best shoppers. Only share necessary updates, relevant offers, or content that’s really valuable. Organic strategies like social media marketing and SEO can help you stand out against big-name brands that have millions of dollars to invest in advertising, and give you a competitive edge globally. Digital marketers need strong writing and social media skills, along with a good understanding of data analytics. You website might also want to take digital marketing courses or participate in a digital "boot camp." In addition, completing an internship while in school can be useful.