The term ‘Digital Marketing’ is a method of doing the marketing of the products and services through the digital media, such as email, social networking sites, SEO, content writing, pay-per-click advertising, and so on. It is another way of making the potential consumers aware of the fact that your products/services exist and you are ready to serve them. Other than the traditional mode of advertising such as through radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, digital methods nowadays play a crucial role because of the very fact that most people have an easy access to the internet. Obviously, anybody can be approached!
Example 1: Nutella Hazelnut chocolate spread once had a scheme in which the customers had to register their account, give their (own) name that they want to get printed, and they would be getting the parcel of the product with the exact name! This means your name would be written on the product if you register your account and then purchase it. It caught an instant attention right after when its advertisement showed-up randomly in front of the internet surfers.
Example 2: Pizza Hut started its own App in which the customer could drag and drop the chosen toppings he or she wishes to be there in his/her order on a graphical pizza base. They could make their pizza just as they would like to eat. The order would reach his/her house in the exact manner as he or she wanted. Within the first three months, the App was downloaded 100,000 times and the users ordered pizza that reached the mark of $1m. The marketing was spot-on and hence got the chance to be placed on Apple’s iPhone commercial! Innovative, isn’t it?
Did you get the point? The organization, no matter what kind of products or services it sells, is no more confined to just the television, newspapers, and magazines. Even YouTube commercials started taking place in the recent years which weren’t there previously. The advertisements are everywhere quite literally. The businesses, whether big or small, have to invest money in order to initiate and continue the sales. And it is not only about the expenses but the approach that ticks the minds of your target audience. A number of case studies and trial-and-error methods are the ways with the help of which the Ad becomes a hit.
Although there are many kinds of media, planning it the right way is the key element to be recognized. If it is not done appropriately, most people get annoyed and are unlikely get converted. Based on how the sales and marketing department of an organization likely target their potential customers, below is the list of the main types of digital marketing strategies:
Types of Digital Marketing Strategies
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
In order to rank higher in the search engines, such as Yahoo, Bing, Google, so as to attract the traffic and probability of visitors on your website, certain set of strategies are required. We call it Search Engine Optimization or simply SEO. The more visitors you get and the more they stay on your website, your site remains on the top. If the protocols are not correctly followed, it increases the bounce rates which are not welcome.
Content Marketing
Ever heard about ‘Content is King’? Yes, it truly is! It is important to follow the latest SEO rules but the main target is the potential consumers, and hence the writers who develop the contents must not forget the fact that their words must be impressive enough to attract the readers to find out more about your firm. Most professional content writers write the story in order to emotionally as well as intellectually connect with their readers.
For instance, if someone wants to sell something related to fitness and wellness of the body, he or she should include the journey where they started, the struggles they went through, and so on. The key to this is simple – Make the consumers want your products and services as if they truly need it. It should not appear as if you need to sell your items, and they most probably don’t require it.
The term content marketing is not only confined to writing just a few articles, press releases, and blogs, but there is even more to it. It involves everything such as articles, social media posts, video contents, and so on, with a common goal in mind which is none other than Promotion.
There is a misconception that the advertisers pay the search engines in order to appear higher, but that is far from the reality. Promoting a brand takes a lot of time and money investment and many firms are ready to do it. The search engines cannot get biased upon just a particular brand-name about who paid how much and these brands cannot be ranked higher based on that. It certainly cannot happen overnight and is only possible through the contents that bring the organic traffic, which usually takes at least 3 to 4 months to generate the desired results. Paying to reserve your space to display your own Ad is a completely different story from paying and bringing the visitors. The latter is not included in the protocol either. Learn more about this here.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
It is the method of promoting the brand and its items/services based on the high search engine ranking. It is extensively crucial to understand this concept in order to successfully carry the Digital Marketing campaign. It is necessary to increase the visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) so as to improve the pay-per-click listings. To know more about this you may refer here.
One of the remarkable examples to be addressed would be Archana Kochhar’s clothing collection at the New York Fashion Week which was represented (and ramp-walked) by an acid attack survivor Reshma Qureshi, along with other professional models. This event went viral in the social media, newspapers, and magazines. The content represented the seriousness of the Cause ‘acid attacks’ in South Asian countries like India, along with the fashion collection that was in trend. The content was up to the mark and the brand got a huge round of applause. It obviously caught instant attention in the digital world.
Pay-per-click Advertising
The promotional Ads that we see every now and then while surfing the internet wait for the moment when we actually click on them. These Ads belong to a particular brand and so the moment someone clicks on them there is a fixed payment that the brand owner pays to those third party sites and/or blogs which allowed them doing this in that limited space. Everything is managed by the Google Adsense.
It is not only restrained to third party sites or blog but also the Google’s first page, either at the top or the right-hand side. The Ads cease to exist once the firm stops paying for it. The competition is huge and so in order to be in the Google’s priority there has to be some rules that are required to be followed. Kindly refer here for the details on this topic.
SMM (Social Media Marketing)
The social media platforms are one of the most effective digital marketing strategies and an excellent method to bring the mainstream public’s instant attention. This is because of the sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. have a huge number of registered users and many of them most often use these sites at least once in a day. This is the key reason behind why the news channels and big brands have come forward to creating their own FB Page. If a business has a powerful content and the best strategies that could reach the target audience then it is definitely going to succeed.
Email Marketing
This is not uncommon that most advertisers send promotional emails to their subscribers in order to make everyone aware of the upcoming products, projects, offers, that are yet to come. It is possible that a few percentage of the population does not use the social networking sites, but those who use the internet most probably have at least one email account. The marketers know this and so they likely transmit the relevant contents to their target audience via the electronic mail.
Viral Marketing
Everyone is familiar with the terms “viral”, “trending”, etc. The video content that suddenly reaches a threshold beyond a certain limit which is usually overnight or within the first few days, is an example of Viral Marketing. This kind of promotion is intended to reach most people through the internet, whether it is through websites, messengers, or Apps.
The video “Charlie bit my finger” which was shared a few years back is the most viewed video on YouTube till date. This is the perfect example of viral marketing because it really grabbed immediate attention. And it is not only about the video sharing but any kind of post which gets viewed, admired, and shared by millions.
For instance, The Hike messenger went viral post its launching because it would recharge the phones of the customers who downloaded and used it. By knowing this, the downloads suddenly hiked and the messenger marked its presence soon after.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing is done by the brand ambassadors, who are usually influential so that the products have higher chances of getting sold.
If an actress that you admire has got flawless skin, or you are impressed by a sport-women due to her fitness regime, performance skills, you would be fascinated by those kinds of Ads that include these people. The advertisements would probably be like using a specific cosmetic, and an energy drink in the latter case. If it were a fairness cream marketed by the sportswomen, most people would most likely lash out the sponsor and the other involved individuals in the making.
Retargeting
Have you ever noticed that the website you had visited, whose products you found interesting, started showing up in the advertisement section of another site if you didn’t proceed to the checkout? For instance, you want to book the flight tickets but didn’t do that actually. Once you bounce to another site, the special deals and offers of booking the tickets would definitely show up!
The recently visited sites randomly appear in other sites that we access. It is the most practical and preferred approach by most businesses to let the visitors convert into your customers. The advertisement sort of ‘reminds’ them that their purchase is pending. Well, it does not successfully catch the attention of ALL the consumers but it definitely raises the probability of purchases and ultimately the expected sales.
The Digital Marketing Strategies may change with time, based on the latest trends and demands, but it will continue to grow because of the rise of the inter-network connectivity. The only thing that matters is reaching the audience, and that is done through the internet quite effectively. It just needs out-of-the-box innovation and prominent methods to be the standout. Rest all falls into place.