What is Meant by Digital Marketing?
By: Danny Bridgewater
Tags: Online Shopping, Social Media Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Audience Engagement, Digital Marketing

Marketing is telling the story of a brand or a product. Its is letting your audience know who you are and what you’re about. Digital marketing is the communication and connection with a target audience through the use of digital channels such as digital media (Google, YouTube, websites, forums, blogs) and social media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter). Digital media has the benefit of two-way communication over traditional media such as TV, radio, or newspapers. Through digital media, the target audience can tell you what they like, why they like it, and how weaknesses can be strengthened. Further, digital media can be shared by the audience of followers, meaning lower marketing costs.

Digital marketing is most easily done through search engine advertising (See why Google is the best search platform here). Simply sign up, create a campaign, fund your account, and choose who you want to target. Then, over time you can check analytics and see what campaigns are working, what platforms they are working on, and most importantly what campaigns or platforms are NOT working. By knowing this you can change your marketing strategy, the campaign, or the platform to maximise your return on investment. Social media marketing can be very similar, as there are two ways to advertise on a social platform. Firstly you can follow the same basic procedure as Google Ads, but through your chosen platform. This is why you see sponsored adverts on your Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat feeds.

The second way is a little bit more nuanced. Its influencer marketing. This means that you communicate directly with an influencer who has a following that overlaps with your target audience. By having your chosen influencer marketing your product directly to their following of X thousand you are ensuring that a large number of your potential customers see your product. This is backed up by having the seal of approval from the influencer. Now it may cost a little more upfront for an influencer to broadcast your product, but the number of people who see this are your audience, in the mindset of your product is much higher than trying to match AdWords to a campaign. Influencer marketing is WILDLY UNDERRATED!

I’ll give you an example

Imaginary influencer KathyK has a makeup and fashion Instagram page with 25,000 followers. In order for her to market your product on her page, she charges $5,000. That’s not a small amount of money, of course. BUT you have just guaranteed that 25,000 people might see your advert, meaning that every dollar of your campaign is now reaching 5 people! You can reach a customer for 20 cents in a competitive marketplace! AMAZING! Now Google ads are fantastic, but you can pay a couple of dollars per click-through Google, or pay one-tenth of that through influencer marketing. Plus, it feels really good to support your entrepreneurial Insta-friends who give you the free content that you enjoy so much!

Digital marketing is still young, and while it has changed greatly in the past few years with the rise of Web 2.0 and interactive digital media, you can bet that it’s going to continue to change as new platforms emerge and technology advances. The entrepreneurs will keep finding new ways to cash in and in such a diverse and competitive advertising marketplace companies better keep up with technology, or they’ll fall by the wayside.

#advertising #marketing #digital #socialmedia #digitalmarketing #onlineadvertising #copywriting #ads #socialmediamarketing #digitaladvertising #influencermarketing #Google #Apple #Amazon #Facebook #statusupdate #technology #apps