A lot is said about Digital Marketing, but is it just another one of those new buzzwords that come into vogue, or is it something we should be paying close attention to?
In our opinion, it is undoubtedly a must-have area of marketing.
Consumers are at the heart of all marketing, but their nature is changing.
There is a massive shift from a Mass Market model to a Customer Network model.
The Mass Market model worked in the past, where the Company was at the centre and did mass, one-way communications, interrupting to get attention and trying to persuade the consumer who took a passive role – the only decision was whether or not to buy the product/service.
But the nature of the consumer is changing. They are now networked. The speed at which messages spread in this digital age means they can be a ‘problem/challenge’ or a ‘value-add’. In fact, for every comment made by a consumer, hundreds will read your interaction, shaping their opinions about the business based on what they read.
And that is why we believe working the Digital World well is fundamental to any business today.
Have you ever heard the expression: “if you’re not on the net, then you don’t exist”? You don’t want that to happen to your business, do you? But, being present is not enough, and there must be a strategy well-managed, or it can have catastrophic consequences.
Table of Contents:
1. The question that follows is: what is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the action taken to promote and sell products and services through online marketing tactics, such as social media marketing, search engines and email.
The best-known definition of digital marketing is advertising delivered through digital channels. Such channels as social media, mobile apps, email, web apps, search engines, websites, apps or any new digital channel.
That is where the issue gets complicated… what does any other digital channel mean? Is a phone call digital, or are there digital billboards and on-demand TV? What about when we link online strategies to offline contacts and sales? For this reason, several currents argue that digital marketing does not exist per se, marketing exists, and digital is one of the strategies of a detailed marketing plan.
In essence, digital marketing is simply marketing.
The number one rule in marketing is to make the right offer at the right time in the right place. Today, customers are online: surfing social networks, keeping up to date on news sites and blogs, searching online search engines…
Inside Digital Marketing, there are also two fundamental concepts: Inbound and Outbound Marketing. In a very simplified way, in Inbound Marketing, we want the client to be attracted and come to us, and in Outbound Marketing, we go after the client.
Over the years, the strategies that several companies have adopted to attract and retain their customers have changed. As Michael Porter used to say: “keeping a customer is always cheaper than getting a new one”. To keep a customer, we must first capture him, and there are two online strategies to do this. Either we pay for advertising to engage them, also known as outbound marketing, or we create content that we offer to attract them, which we call inbound marketing.
2. What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound Marketing is about creating quality content that attracts people to your business and brand. People are already looking for answers online, researching your industry, looking at your competitors and trying to decide if they need your service or product. So, the goal is to have content that speaks to people at different stages of the buying funnel to capture these potential customers and where they naturally are online.
By aligning the published content with your customer’s interests, you will naturally attract traffic, turning it into conversions and even becoming fierce advocates for your brand.
3. What is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound Marketing is the opposite of Inbound Marketing.
It refers to marketing where the company initiates the conversation and sends its message to an audience. Examples of outbound marketing include more traditional forms of marketing and advertising, such as TV ads, radio ads, print ads (newspapers, magazines, leaflets, brochures, catalogues, etc.), trade shows, outside sales calls (also known as “cold calls”) and email spam.
Outbound Marketing is generally harder to track and less profitable than Inbound Marketing, but ironically, organisations still spend around 90% of their marketing budgets on Outbound Marketing.
Within both strategies, there are helpful tools for any business:
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC / SEA)
Content Marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Affiliate Marketing
Email Marketing
You can review each tool or strategy in detail in the links above.
The great advantage of digital marketing is that it can help all types of businesses to have a presence with their target audience. Through these strategies, small and medium-sized businesses can compete with larger organisations in ways that previously were closed to them.
Nowadays, it is possible for a small clothing shop to sell in the same space as giants such as Zara or H&M, or even to have strategies that allow them to find unexplored areas by these brands, and above all, at prices that are within their capabilities.
Digital marketing is the marketing of the future. It has many benefits and allows you to track the results of your efforts with incredible accuracy, meaning it is easy to see which strategies have the best results and which ones need some work.
Do you need help creating your digital marketing plan?
Link37 digital marketing agency is the ideal partner! Get in touch with us! We can help, freeing up your time to dedicate to whatever is most convenient for you. We are specialists. We have experience.
LAST UPDATE ON JANUARY 2024
