Running a business?
Even with the prettiest website and best products, you won’t find success until you learn the best marketing methods. With today’s digital landscape, you’ll want to focus more on digital marketing instead of old-fashioned print marketing.
That said, there are many types of digital marketing.
It’s a lot to handle and it can get confusing. Fortunately, our guide below discusses each type and how each one can help you succeed. Read our list to learn more:
Search Engine Optimization
While there are many digital marketing types to invest in, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization are your two biggest weapons.
SEM splits into all sorts of paid ads (which we’ll tackle below). SEO, on the other hand, focuses on driving traffic to your site via organic searches. If you sell summer dresses, for example, you want your pages to pop up on the Google search results when someone searches for those kinds of products.
How does SEO work?
It’s all about using the right keywords and curating content that uses those keywords to an optimal degree. Everything from your site’s design to where backlinks come from helps boost SEO efforts too.
However, don’t fall prey to the common mistake of thinking SEO is solely meant to increase traffic.
Smart SEO marketing ensures you get valuable traffic. This refers to visitors who don’t simply lounge and bounce. They subscribe, purchase a product, hire you for your services, or contact you.
Paid Ads
You can’t reap the benefits of digital marketing without investing money. SEO doesn’t cost as much since you’ll focus on good content and proper use of keywords on and off your site.
Paid ads, on the other hand, do require a significant budget.
There are pay-per-click ads (PPC) and pay-per-impression (PPM). PPC ads charge you each time someone clicks on them. PPM ads charge you per impression (every 1,000 views of that ad).
A paid ads campaign is tricky to manage. You need to know your business’s reach, demographics, the time and day people are up and online, and more.
You’ll want some help to get it done right. This is one case where it’s better to ask experts for help since they have the experience, tools, and skills. Fortunately, you can click here for some assistance.
Social Media Marketing
Who wouldn’t want to market on social media? Instagram alone has over a billion users. The digital marketing options available are too huge to ignore.
Keep in mind that a lot of the methods used in social media marketing relate to some of the other tactics on this list. You can use paid ads, content marketing, and influencer marketing on social media, for example.
Social media marketing utilizes a bunch of different methods. Run basic ads on Facebook or do live videos to answer questions or reveal new services and products. Use Stories ads on Instagram or create 30-second video ads for TikTok.
However, social media marketing requires a good study of hard metrics. You need to use analytics tools to know who your audience is on each platform and when they’re most active. Take advantage of tools like HootSuite to schedule posts for maximum engagement.
Affiliate Marketing
Ever seen blogs where the writer dedicates a whole blog post reviewing a product on Amazon? Somewhere in that review is a link to the product. If a reader clicks on that link and buys the product, the one who wrote the review gets a commission.
Not only did the business gain a new customer but the reviewer also earned a small cut. That’s affiliate marketing.
You can offer the same kind of benefits to encourage people to write honest reviews about your products. Start an affiliate marketing program but don’t abuse it. Don’t penalize people who write negative reviews; instead, use those reviews as fuel to further improve your products or services.
Yes, you’ll lose a bit due to the commission fees but this is a good method of building positive reviews and gaining more direct sales.
You’ll also gain more feedback if you also allow reviews on your site’s product pages. Customers love to leave reviews. Use affiliate marketing as a way to build your reputation and credibility.
Influencer Marketing
Social media marketing has one sub-type of digital marketing that, with the right investment, can quickly boost traffic, brand exposure, and conversion rates. It’s all about working with people who have a large following. By paying them to endorse your product, services, or brands, you get immediate exposure to thousands or even millions of people.
That’s the basics of influencer marketing.
People will large followings earn the moniker of influencer because one post can push so many to take action. If they say people should buy a product because they support it, you can expect followers to do so.
A micro-influencer is someone with 10,000 or so followers. They won’t charge much per post. Mid-level influencers have over 50,000 followers and they can charge a pretty penny per post. Those people have a wide reach and a large audience so it’s worth the investment.
Then there are the big influencers. Some have over 120,000 followers and others have millions. The more followers they have, the more expensive it is to collaborate with them.
Email Marketing
Email is one of the oldest forms of online communication but it still matters today. People still check their email since it’s where newsletters, voucher codes, confirmation codes, and promo announcements go. If you can build a list of people’s emails, you can keep enticing them to revisit your site and purchase something.
But, is it an effective tactic? According to reports, you can earn approximately $42 for every dollar invested in email marketing.
After all, the people who signed up for a newsletter already show interest in your business. You simply need to give them a push by emailing them. Let them know about a new product or a limited weekend sale!
That said, you need to curate emails specifically for each person on your list. Fortunately, some tools allow you to customize the content according to their shopping and website behavior. If they browsed gaming accessories, for example, the tool will highlight new products in your store instead of showing them new clothes or mugs.
Content Marketing
One of the biggest digital marketing benefits is the fact you can build your authority or credibility over a certain niche.
Do you focus on repairing HVAC devices for people in your local neighborhood? With content marketing, you’ll quickly become the go-to expert. They’ll check out your business before any of your competitors because most accept that you’re the one who knows what’s best.
Not sure how to achieve this?
This type of marketing is all about creating blog posts, videos, images, and other forms of informative or engaging content. You’ll want to put most of this content on your site, like in a blog section, to keep traffic coming. At the same time, there’s always something new on your website.
Mobile Marketing
Built an email list? Don’t stop there! If you also got the numbers of your site visitors, why not continue to market via SMS?
Use these short text messages to announce sales, voucher codes, limited promotions, or new products. You can also send SMS notifications in case your site is down for maintenance.
Mobile marketing goes beyond sending mobile notifications, however.
Create an app for your business and promote it on your site. People who download it on their phones or tablets will now get regular notifications even when they don’t subscribe yet for a newsletter.
Audio Marketing
Don’t underestimate the value of a podcast. Fewer people listen to traditional radio stations these days but that’s why podcasts shine. They took over the niche that radios once ruled.
Fortunately, there are a lot of podcast shows and directories out there.
You can opt to pay for a quick audio advertisement, similar to radio ads from back in the day. Collaborate with a podcast host to guest on their show and promote your business to their audiences.
Don’t hesitate to launch your own podcast too. It’ll be a good way to discuss topics in your niche with your audiences and customers.
Video Marketing
Video content already accounts for the majority of online traffic. When people get online, they spend the most time watching something. It could be on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, or anywhere else but it almost always boils down to watching instead of reading.
Create beautiful videos and post them on your site or social media pages. Don’t stick solely to video commercials either. Get creative with video infographics and skits.
Entertain as much as you inform. This can help make your content viral, further boosting brand recognition.
Use the Different Types of Digital Marketing Today
There are many different types of digital marketing but they all help you achieve the same goals: expanding brand reach, driving traffic, and boosting conversion rates. At the same time, you can use these methods to engage with your consumers and build credibility.
But marketing doesn’t end there.
