Digital Marketing course in Multan ||Digital Marketing course Multan Pakistan

Digital Marketing

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a form of marketing for promoting and selling products or services on the Internet. It is the process of using various online marketing channels such as search engines, social media networks and email to reach your target audience.

Through digital marketing, you can find people who are interested in your offering, interact with them and build trust in your brand.

Digital marketing has many types, the most important ones include website marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, PPC advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, video marketing, and affiliate marketing.

digital marketing

How Digital Marketing Works?

The way digital marketing works is simple.

First you need to specify your digital marketing goals i.e. what you want to achieve with digital marketing. Some common examples are: increasing brand awareness, increasing sales, or expanding the community.

Then you need to decide which marketing channels can help you achieve your goals. For example, if your goal is to get more sales, running paid campaigns on Google and Facebook is a good starting point.

To make the whole process easier to manage, you can create a plan that specifies how much money you will spend, define your target audience, define performance metrics and other information to help you manage the process.

That's what a digital marketing campaign is all about. Don't worry if it's confusing now, there's a more detailed example of how to create a successful digital marketing campaign at the end of this post.

Before you create your first digital marketing campaign, you need to know the different marketing channels and how they work.

How digital marketing works?

Inbound marketing versus digital marketing

Digital marketing and inbound marketing can be easily confused, and for good reason. Digital marketing uses many of the same tools as inbound marketing – email and online content to name a few. Both exist to capture the attention of prospects in the buyer's journey and convert them into customers. However, the two approaches have different perspectives on the relationship between the instrument and the goal.

Digital marketing considers how individual tools or digital channels can convert leads. A brand's digital marketing strategy can use multiple platforms or focus all of its efforts on 1 platform. For example, a company may primarily create content for social media platforms and email marketing campaigns while ignoring other avenues of digital marketing.

On the other hand, inbound marketing is a holistic concept. He first considers the target, then looks at the tools available to determine which will effectively reach the target customers, and then at what stage of the sales journey this should occur. For example, let's say you want to increase website traffic to get more leads and leads. When developing a content marketing strategy, you can focus on search engine optimization, resulting in more optimized content, including blogs, landing pages, and more.

The most important thing to remember about digital marketing and inbound marketing is that as a marketing professional you don't have to choose between the two. In fact, they work best together. Inbound marketing provides the structure and purpose of effective digital marketing to digital marketing efforts and ensures that each digital marketing channel is directed toward a specific goal.

Why is digital marketing important?

Any type of marketing can help your business thrive. However, digital marketing is becoming more important because of how accessible digital channels are. In fact, there were 5 billion internet users worldwide as of April 2022 alone.

From social media to text messaging, there are many ways to use digital marketing tactics to communicate with your target audience. Additionally, digital marketing has minimal startup costs, making it a cost-effective marketing technique for small businesses.

B2B versus B2C digital marketing

Digital marketing strategies work for both B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) companies, but best practices differ significantly between the 2. Here's a closer look at how digital marketing is used in B2B and B2C marketing strategies.

B2B clients tend to have longer decision-making processes and thus longer sales paths. Relationship-building strategies work better for these clients, while B2C customers tend to respond better to short-term offers and messages.

B2B transactions are usually based on logic and evidence, which is what experienced B2B digital marketers present. B2C content is more emotionally based and focuses on making the customer feel good about the purchase.

B2B decisions usually require the input of more than 1 person. The marketing materials that best drive these decisions tend to be shareable and downloadable. B2C customers, on the other hand, prefer a one-on-one connection with a brand.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. A B2C company with a highly valued product such as a car or computer can offer more informative and serious content. As a result, your digital marketing strategy must always be focused on your own customer base, whether you are B2B or B2C.

Look at your current audience and create well-informed and targeted online marketing campaigns. This will ensure that your marketing efforts are effective and can capture the attention of potential customers.

B2B versus B2C digital marketing

Types of digital marketing

There are as many specializations within digital marketing as there are ways of interacting using digital media. Here are a few key examples of types of digital marketing tactics.

1. Search engine optimization
2. Content marketing
3. Social media marketing
4. Pay-per-click marketing
5. Affiliate marketing
6. Native advertising
7. Influencer marketing
8. Marketing automation
9. Email marketing
10. Mobile marketing

Search engine optimization:

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is technically a marketing tool rather than a form of marketing in itself. The Balance defines it as “the art and science of making websites attractive to search engines”.

The most important is the “art and science” part of SEO. SEO is a science because it requires you to examine and weigh various contributing factors to achieve the highest possible search engine results page (SERP) placement.

The most important elements to consider when optimizing a website for search engines today include:

1. Content quality
2. User engagement level
3. Mobile friendliness
4. Number and quality of incoming links

In addition to the above elements, you need to optimize technical SEO, which is all the back-end components of your website. This includes URL structure, load times and broken links. Improving technical SEO can help search engines crawl and crawl your site better.

The strategic use of these factors makes SEO a science, but the unpredictability involved makes it an art.

The ultimate goal is to rank on the first page of the search engine results page. This ensures that those searching for a specific query related to your brand can easily find your products or services. Although there are many search engines, digital marketers often focus on Google because it is the global leader in the search engine market.

In SEO, there is no quantifiable rubric or consistent rule for high search engine rankings. Google and other search engines change their algorithm almost constantly, so it is impossible to make accurate predictions. What you can do is closely monitor your site's performance and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Search Engine Optimization

Social media marketing:

As previously mentioned, the quality of your content is a key part of an optimized site. Consequently, SEO is a major factor in content marketing, a strategy based on distributing relevant and valuable content to a target audience.

As with any marketing strategy, the goal of content marketing is to attract prospects who will eventually convert into customers. But it does it differently than classic advertising. Instead of enticing potential customers with the potential value of a product or service, offer value for free in the form of written materials such as:

1. Blog posts
2. E-books
3. Information bulletins
4. Video or audio transcripts
5. White papers
6. Infographics

Content marketing matters, and there are plenty of statistics to prove it:

1. 84% of consumers expect companies to produce entertaining and useful content
2. 62% of companies with at least 5,000 employees produce content daily
3. 92% of marketers believe their company values ​​content as an important asset

As effective as content marketing is, it can also be tricky. Content marketing writers must be able to rank high in search engine results while engaging people who will read the material, share it, and further interact with the brand. When content is relevant, it can create strong relationships across the channel.

To create effective content that is highly relevant and engaging, it is important to identify your audience. Who are you ultimately trying to reach with your content marketing efforts? Once you have a better understanding of your audience, you can determine the type of content you will create. There are many content formats you can use in your content marketing, including videos, blog posts, printable worksheets, and more.

No matter what content you create, it's a good idea to follow content marketing best practices. This means creating content that is grammatically correct, error-free, easy to understand, relevant and interesting. Your content should also direct readers to the next stage of the process, whether it's a free consultation with a sales representative or a sign-up page.

Social Media Marketing

Pay-per-click marketing

Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a form of digital marketing where you pay a fee every time someone clicks on your digital ads. So instead of paying a set amount to constantly show targeted ads on online channels, you only pay for the ads that individuals interact with. How and when people see your ad is a bit more complicated.

One of the most common types of PPC is search engine advertising, and since Google is the most popular search engine, many businesses use Google Ads for this purpose. When there is a spot available on a search engine results page, also known as a SERP, the engine fills the spot in what is essentially an instant auction. The algorithm prioritizes each available ad based on a number of factors, including:

Ad quality

Keyword relevance

Landing page quality

Bid amount

PPC ads are then placed at the top of the search engine results page based on the above factors whenever a person searches for a specific query.

Every PPC campaign has 1 or more target actions for viewers to take after clicking on the ad. These actions are known as conversions and can be transactional or non-transactional. A purchase is a conversion, just like signing up for a newsletter or making a phone call to your home office.

Whatever conversion you choose, you can track them through your chosen digital marketing channels to see how your campaign is performing.

Pay-pet click marketing

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a digital marketing tactic that allows someone to make money by promoting another person's business. You can be a promoter or a company working with a promoter, but the process is the same in both cases.

It works using a revenue sharing model. If you're an affiliate, you'll earn a commission every time someone buys an item you're promoting. If you're a merchant, you pay the affiliate for every sale they help you make.

Some affiliate marketers choose to review only 1 company's products, perhaps on a blog or other third party site. Others have relationships with multiple merchants.

Whether you want to be an affiliate or find one, the first step is to establish a connection with the other party. You can use digital channels designed to connect affiliates with retailers, or you can start or join a single retailer program.

If you are a retailer and choose to work directly with affiliates, there are many things you can do to make your program attractive to potential promoters. You will need to give these affiliates the tools they need to succeed. This includes incentives for great results, as well as marketing tools and pre-made materials.

Affiliate Marketing

Native advertising

Native advertising is digital marketing in disguise. It aims to blend in with the surrounding content to make it less obvious as an ad.

Native advertising arose as a response to the cynicism of today's consumers towards advertising. Knowing that the creator of the ad is paying to run it, many consumers conclude that the ad is biased and ignore it.

Native advertising gets around this bias by offering information or entertainment before it gets to anything promotional, downplaying the "advertisement" aspect.

It's important to always clearly label your native ads. Use words like "promoted" or "sponsored". If these indicators are hidden, readers may spend a significant amount of time engaging with the content before realizing it is an ad.

When your consumers know exactly what they're getting, they'll feel better about your content and your brand. Native ads are meant to be less intrusive than traditional ads, but not deceptive.

Influencer marketing

Like affiliate marketing, influencer marketing relies on working with an influencer—an individual with a large following, such as a celebrity, industry expert, or content creator—in exchange for exposure. In many cases, these influencers will endorse your products or services to their followers across multiple social media channels.

Influencer marketing works well for B2B and B2C companies looking to reach new audiences. However, it is important to work with reputable influencers because they essentially represent your brand. The wrong influencer can erode consumer confidence in your business.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation uses software to power digital marketing campaigns, improving the effectiveness and relevance of advertising. As a result, you can focus on creating the strategy behind your digital marketing efforts instead of cumbersome and time-consuming processes.

While marketing automation may seem like a luxury tool that your business can do without, it can greatly improve the interaction between you and your audience.

According to the statistics:

1. 90% of US consumers find personalization “very” or “somewhat” appealing
2. 81% of consumers would like the brands they interact with to understand them better
3. 77% of companies believe in the value of real-time personalization, but 60% struggle with it

Marketing automation allows companies to keep up with the expectation of personalization. It allows brands to:

1. Collect and analyze consumer information
2. Design targeted marketing campaigns
3. Send and publish digital marketing messages at the right time to the right audience.

Many marketing automation tools use a prospect's engagement (or lack thereof) with a specific message to determine when and how to reach out next. This level of real-time customization means you can effectively create an individualized marketing strategy for each customer without additional time investment.

Mailchimp's marketing automation tools ensure you can communicate with your audience through behavior-based automation, transactional emails, data-driven automation, and more.

Marketing automation

Email marketing

The concept behind email marketing is simple – send a promotional message and hope your prospect clicks on it. However, the execution is much more complicated. First, you need to make sure that your emails are wanted. This means having an opt-in list that does the following:

1. It personalizes the content, both in the body and in the subject
2. It clearly states what emails the subscriber will receive
3. An email signature that offers a clear opt-out option
4. It integrates both transactional and promotional emails

You want your potential customers to see your campaign as a valuable service, not just a promotional tool.

Email marketing is a proven and effective technique in its own right: 89% of surveyed professionals identified it as their most effective lead generator.

It can be even better if you incorporate other digital marketing techniques, such as marketing automation, which allows you to segment and schedule your emails to more effectively meet the needs of your customers.

If you are considering email marketing, here are some tips that can help you create great email marketing campaigns:

1. Segment your audience and send relevant campaigns to the right people
2. Make sure emails look good on mobile devices
3. Create a campaign plan
4. Run A/B tests

E-mail marketing

Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy that allows you to engage with your target audience on their mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. This can be via SMS and MMS messages, social media notifications, mobile app alerts, and more.

It’s crucial to ensure that all content is optimized for mobile devices. According to the Pew Research Center, 85% of Americans own a smartphone, so your marketing efforts can go a long way when you create content for computer and mobile screens.

Mobile marketing

The benefits of digital marketing

Digital marketing has become prominent largely because it reaches such a wide audience of people. However, it also offers a number of other advantages that can boost your marketing efforts. These are a few of the benefits of digital marketing.

1. A broad geographic reach
2. Cost efficiency
3. Quantifiable results
4. Easier personalization
5. More connection with customers
6. Easy and convenient conversions

A broad geographic reach

When you post an ad online, people can see it no matter where they are (provided you haven’t limited your ad geographically). This makes it easy to grow your business's market reach and connect with a larger audience across different digital channels.

Cost efficiency

Digital marketing not only reaches a broader audience than traditional marketing but also carries a lower cost. Overhead costs for newspaper ads, television spots, and other traditional marketing opportunities can be high. They also give you less control over whether your target audiences will see those messages in the first place.

With digital marketing, you can create just 1 content piece that draws visitors to your blog as long as it's active. You can create an email marketing campaign that delivers messages to targeted customer lists on a schedule, and it's easy to change that schedule or the content if you need to do so.

When you add it all up, digital marketing gives you much more flexibility and customer contact for your ad spend.

Quantifiable results

To know whether your marketing strategy works, you have to find out how many customers it attracts and how much revenue it ultimately drives. But how do you do that with a non-digital marketing strategy?

There's always the traditional option of asking each customer, “How did you find us?"

Unfortunately, that doesn't work in all industries. Many companies don't get to have one-on-one conversations with their customers, and surveys don't always get complete results.

With digital marketing, results monitoring is simple. Digital marketing software and platforms automatically track the number of desired conversions that you get, whether that means email open rates, visits to your home page, or direct purchases.

Easier personalization

Digital marketing allows you to gather customer data in a way that offline marketing can't. Data collected digitally tends to be much more precise and specific.

Imagine you offer financial services and want to send out special offers to internet users people who have looked at your products. You know you'll get better results if you target the offer to the person's interest, so you decide to prepare 2 campaigns. One is for young families who have looked at your life insurance products, and the other is for millennial entrepreneurs who have considered your retirement plans.

How do you gather all of that data without automated tracking? How many phone records would you have to go through? How many customer profiles? And how do you know who has or hasn't read the brochure you sent out?

With digital marketing, all of this information is already at your fingertips.

More connection with customers

Digital marketing lets you communicate with your customers in real-time. More importantly, it lets them communicate with you.

Think about your social media strategy. It's great when your target audience sees your latest post, but it's even better when they comment on it or share it. It means more buzz surrounding your product or service, as well as increased visibility every time someone joins the conversation.

Interactivity benefits your customers as well. Their level of engagement increases as they become active participants in your brand's story. That sense of ownership can create a strong sense of brand loyalty.

Easy and convenient conversions

Digital marketing lets your customers take action immediately after viewing your ad or content. With traditional advertisements, the most immediate result you can hope for is a phone call shortly after someone views your ad. But how often does someone have the time to reach out to a company while they're doing the dishes, driving down the highway, or updating records at work?

With digital marketing, they can click a link or save a blog post and move along the sales funnel right away. They might not make a purchase immediately, but they’ll stay connected with you and give you a chance to interact with them further.

How to create a digital marketing strategy

For many small businesses and beginner digital marketers, getting started with digital marketing can be difficult. However, you can create an effective digital marketing strategy to increase brand awareness, engagement, and sales by using the following steps as your starting point.

Set SMART goals

Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely (SMART) goals is crucial for any marketing strategy. While there are many goals you may want to achieve, try to focus on the ones that will propel your strategy forward instead of causing it to remain stagnant.

Identify your audience

Before starting any marketing campaign, it’s best to identify your target audience. Your target audience is the group of people you want your campaign to reach based on similar attributes, such as age, gender, demographic, or purchasing behavior. Having a good understanding of your target audience can help you determine which digital marketing channels to use and the information to include in your campaigns.

Create a budget

A budget ensures you’re spending your money effectively towards your goals instead of overspending on digital marketing channels that may not provide the desired results. Consider your SMART goals and the digital channel you’re planning to use to create a budget.

Select your digital marketing channels

From content marketing to PPC campaigns and more, there are many digital marketing channels you can use to your advantage. Which digital marketing channels you use often depends on your goals, audience, and budget.

Refine your marketing efforts

Make sure to analyze your campaign's data to identify what was done well and areas for improvement once the campaign is over. This allows you to create even better campaigns in the future. With the help of digital technologies and software, you can obtain this data in an easy-to-view dashboard. Mailchimp’s digital marketing analytics reports will help you keep track of all your marketing campaigns in one centralized location.

Digital marketing creates growth

Digital marketing should be one of the primary focuses of almost any business’s overall marketing strategy. Never before has there been a way to stay in such consistent contact with your customers, and nothing else offers the level of personalization that digital data can provide. The more you embrace the possibilities of digital marketing, the more you'll be able to realize your company's growth potential.