When starting a business, building a brand, or just trying to create an online presence, there are many things to consider. There are so many pieces to the branding puzzle that it can often become overwhelming. From developing strategies and approving designs, several steps are needed to set your business up for ultimate success. If your business is attempting to thrive in the 21st century and beyond, you already know that digital marketing is an aspect of your business strategy that cannot be ignored. 

But what is digital marketing exactly? While the term marketing can sometimes be vague or even malleable in its definition, digital marketing refines marketing efforts even further. 

When we think of marketing, we think of all the promotional tools and pieces that come together to help increase visibility and spread messaging for our brand’s position in the industry. Digital marketing takes all of those essential traditional marketing tools and methods and brings them into the future – or online. 

What exactly is digital marketing? 

As mentioned, digital marketing takes traditional marketing activities and uses them in the digital space. Quite literally, actually. According to Hubspot, digital marketing involves all marketing efforts that use the internet or an electronic device. There are plenty of digital channels involved in digital marketing, including email, social media, search engines, and websites. 

All of your strategic activities to promote your brand or engage with your audience using these channels fall under digital marketing. The social media content you create for your different accounts? Digital marketing. That informative newsletter you are sending to your email list? Digital marketing. The ads you want to set up on Google or Facebook to broaden your audience reach? Digital marketing. What about the blog content you write weekly? That’s right – digital marketing. 

Why is digital marketing so important? 

Digital marketing isn’t rocket science. Audiences are increasingly shifting their activities and habits online. This means that to be seen where your audience is most active, you need to create a strong presence in the digital world. Even with COVID, we saw a push of people moving their daily lives online. This meant businesses had to hyper-focus their marketing efforts online to compensate for the lack of in-person communication.

But even after a global pandemic, digital marketing is still a critical component of any business and isn’t going away. The ability to reach wider audiences more cost-effectively than traditional advertising is an easy win for any business. Plus, it offers companies the ability to learn real-time data and make strategic decisions and changes as you go along. 

What makes up digital marketing? 

We mentioned earlier the various channels that are used in digital marketing. With the online world continuing to grow and develop, the platforms used could continue to evolve—however, several components of digital marketing function to create a solid digital marketing strategy. 

• SEO: This stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of optimizing your web pages and social channels for better search visibility and ranking for specific keywords.
• Content Marketing: Creating content via blogs or social content to help establish your authority and influence in the industry and increase search results. 
• Social Media Marketing: Focusing on the social media channels to engage with your audience through tailored content and advertising. 
• Mobile Marketing: SMS, MMS, and phone apps can work together to ensure that your brand is always accessible in reaching your audience in their most personal and prized possessions – their cellphones. 
• Paid Search: Also referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. This is the process of paying for sponsored results at the top of a search engine results page. 

How to monitor success with digital marketing.

One of the significant benefits of digital marketing is learning, adapting, and making changes in real-time. Unlike traditional advertising methods, digital marketing allows businesses to control their advertisements and make adjustments along the way. 

Another bonus is that every element of digital marketing helps increase SEO. With more visibility comes more engagement, and with more engagement comes better audience analytics and insights. 

Guidance from digital marketing experts. 

We understand that keeping up with all of the channels and changes with digital marketing can be a daunting task. While some businesses prefer to keep digital marketing activities in-house, others opt to include an agency to help manage and monitor a company’s digital marketing activities. 

At Laing Media, we’ve worked with businesses of all sizes and different industries to create successful digital marketing strategies. From web development to SEO and content marketing, our team of professionals can help you take your business into the future of the web. Visit https://www.laingmedia.com for more information.