What is Digital Marketing, and Why Should Your Business Embrace It?
Take a walk down any busy street or a seat in your favourite coffee shop, and the chances are that many of the people around you have their eyes firmly fixed on a mobile phone. For the users, it is a convenient way to communicate with friends, order goodies online, or spend some time playing Candy Crush or Grand Theft Auto. For a business, the Internet offers a means to leverage a broad range of digital marketing services to promote its brand, gain more sales, and grow.
Nine out of ten US adults go online daily, many almost constantly. Similar figures will likely apply to most first-world countries. So, what better place could a business find to engage with new and existing customers than cyberspace? Hence, many now choose to conduct a substantial portion of their marketing efforts through various online platforms.
That said, traditional marketing methods remain an effective way to reach a broad consumer base. However, when the objective is to contact a specific target audience, the Internet wins hands down. Why waste time, effort, and money on a shotgun approach when you can engage directly with the people most likely to need and buy your products or services?
Exploring the Different Types of Digital Marketing
Digital or Internet marketing is a catchall term that covers a range of different media platforms and strategies, including the following:
- Social Media Marketing: One of the main reasons for venturing online is to post content and view content posted by others on popular sites like Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. However, merely posting and responding to comments is not enough when using these facilities for marketing purposes. Instead, a more integrated, structured, and ongoing campaign using appropriate data analytics to assess its effectiveness and make any necessary adjustments is essential.
A report published by Statista in 2023 states that 86% of industry professionals attributed their increased exposure to digital marketing campaigns on social media, most claiming their success was due mainly to increased website traffic.
- Email Marketing: While most leaflets and local advertising material posted through one’s letterbox tends to end up unread in a litter bin, we generally pause at least long enough to scan an email. Despite social media, mobile apps, and other options, email remains one of the most effective digital marketing tools.
The message should be worded to appeal to the target audience and include a call to action. Once again, analytics are essential. In this case, the open rate and the click-through rate (CTR). The former reveals how many opened the mail and might indicate the need for a more compelling title, while the latter shows how many responded to the call to action.
- Content Creation: When composing content for marketing purposes, how you write it is as important as what you write. A marketing message must be well-written, clear, and sufficiently compelling to prompt the reader to take action. Embedded images and video material add to the impact, and once compiled, the content can be posted on a website and any popular online platform. However, bear in mind that, given the number of cell phones in use, it is vital to ensure all digital marketing content is formatted for display by both PCs and mobile devices.
When looking for a widget or service online, almost everyone begins by firing up their preferred search engine, Google, for nearly 92% of users worldwide. When typing “quality clothing suppliers near me” or something similar, the response could be several pages of likely candidates, and most consumers will pick one near the top of the list. It’s, therefore, vital to ensure your content is optimised for Google search algorithms to ensure your message is one of them.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) involves including the keywords and phrases consumers are currently using in their searches and, in the case of a website, underlying adjustments like the content of image tags and other metadata, one of the many aspects of digital marketing that is best left to an expert.
A Professional Digital Marketing Service
With decades of experience, XCO Group is a South African leader in brand development and the ideal service provider for any business wishing to benefit from the effective online marketing strategies described above. Contact us to learn more about how we can leverage the Internet to transform and grow your business.
