2008 was the year when the popularity of the Internet started growing in India. This is when many started exploring search engines like Google or Yahoo! This was the time when companies gradually started establishing themselves on the internet.
Over the years, the Internet took over and companies saw a shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing.
Digital marketing is a part of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services.
Since its boom, businesses around the world are working on a strong digital marketing front. A robust digital presence of the company translates into higher ROI, wider reach, and customer retention.
Before we delve deeper into how digital marketing can boost your business, let us understand the various components of digital marketing.
There are 5-key focus areas covered under Digital Marketing:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Video Marketing
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- Pay Per Click (SEM)
- Content Marketing
Let’s take a look at each one of the components –
SEO – SEO is divided into two parts:
- On-page SEO – Optimizing Meta Title, Meta Description, Keywords, Alt tag, Canonical tag, H1 Tag, sitemap, robot.txt.
- Integrating relevant keywords into your pages.
- Creating user-friendly content.
- Off-page SEO – This includes
- Social Bookmarking
- Directory Submission
- Blog commenting
- Q/A, PPT Submission
- PDF Submission
- Image Submission
- Social Media Creative,
- YouTube SEO,
- Video submissions.
- Another important aspect of SEO audit is website load speed & page load time
Video Marketing – Video marketing consists of creating video content such as YouTube videos, Instagram reels, TikTok videos, etc. It has been observed that currently, video content has a better reach and traction. This is why companies are more focused on creating content that has the potential to attract a larger audience.
Social Media Marketing – Since one size does not fit all, having a social media strategy to target various demographic groups is essential. Social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and such provide targeted and focused efforts to reach the target audience.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) – This is a paid effort to bring traffic to your website, generate leads, or for branding. This includes activities like: Monitoring the digital campaigns based on
- Spends
- Quality score
- Keyword performance
- Ad strength
- Click-through-rate (CTR)
- Cost-per-click (CPC)
- Negative keywords
Content Marketing – Generating content for websites and other digital assets and developing marketing collateral is included under Content Marketing.
All these paid and organic digital marketing strategies are to generate traffic, and leads, reduce bounce rate, and most importantly connect with the audience. Communicating effectively with the group of potential customers is the core objective of all digital marketing efforts.
The benefits of digital marketing are –
- Measurability – Unlike traditional marketing, there is more accuracy in measuring the results of marketing activities. The audience persona can be better built with the aid of all the details collected. The results are quick and hassle-free to obtain and measure. Thus monitoring becomes easy, efficient, and effective.
- Reach – Specific targeting, customized messaging and wider reach as the advantages of digital marketing. There is no geographical barrier and the companies can leverage the data to reach their desired audience.
- Costs– The companies are in charge of deciding the budget and the costs to be incurred for any marketing campaign. There is no minimum cost and the spending can be directly mapped to the returns.
- Customization & localization – It is possible to customize the messaging strategy to suit each target group. Similarly, localization helps in appealing to the target audience productively.
- Analytics – Due to digital mediums measuring and monitoring become easy. The data generated can be analyzed to optimize the existing activities, predict future trends, map the spending, carefully plan budgets, understand the correct mix of mediums for its audience, and take corrective actions.
- Evolution – Since the digital world is constantly evolving, marketing strategies too need to evolve with it. This helps the company, develop multiple strategies and continually update itself to stay relevant. The constantly changing environment curbs ill effects of monopoly, market aggressors, and unfair practices.
Digital marketing is an effective way for businesses to expand beyond geographical boundaries without having to spend much.
This gives them the advantage of being visible to their audience, communicating effectively, and having transparency in their efforts.
However, since the world is changing rapidly due to digitization, it is important to stay relevant and update yourself. MIT School of Distance Education (MITSDE) is one such institute that understands the current skills gap in the market and strives hard to reduce it. For this purpose, MITSDE brings to you PG Certification in Digital Marketing (PGCM Digital Marketing). This course covers the latest concepts, gives hands-on training on the latest tools, and teaches you to create a virtual brand, analyze market trends, and design campaigns.