Going digital is the new buzzword in branding and business development. What is digital marketing? How can it help us grow our businesses?
Digital Marketing: The Future of Marketing
Digital marketing refers to the promotion and advertising of businesses and brands via digital media channels. At the moment digital media includes websites, social media channels, radio, television, and mobile, as well as traditional media like billboards or transit signs. Digital marketing can be applied to any marketing media that is delivered electronically.
There are still other forms of person-to-person (P2P), direct marketing, and print advertising that fall outside the scope of digital marketing. Print ads, direct mail, and billboards are now able to link to digital counterparts. Traditional marketing and advertising are almost always connected to digital marketing thanks to items such as URL landing pages and QR codes.
Why Digital Media Focus?
Marketing agencies, consumers, and business owners are driving the shift to digital media. Digital marketing agencies can fulfill their dream of delivering quantifiable results due to the ever-increasing need for them. Digital media, such as websites, social media, and mobile advertising, are much simpler to track than traditional media like print advertising.
Many forms of digital advertising can be very affordable for business owners. Engaging customers through social media and email marketing, as well as having a website presence, are all low-cost alternatives to direct mail and print advertising. This digital channel is available for all businesses, regardless of their size. It helps to level the playing field for small and start-up businesses as well as independent consultants looking to expand their business.
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Digital advertising is essential for consumers because of the rapid pace of modern life. Digital advertising is essential for consumers who are looking for goods or services. Gone are the days when they had to search through a phone book. We can now quickly find answers with our smartphones or computers by reaching for our computers.
Digital Media: Building Your Business and Brand
You can market your business using low-cost digital channels, regardless of how big or small your business is. Your website will be the foundation of all your marketing efforts. Make sure you invest wisely in your site and make sure it does the following:
- Your business and brand should be represented in a professional manner (look and Feel, Messaging).
- Your target audience will be able to hear you speaking in an appropriate way
- Searchers using the top search engines can find it
- It is up-to-date and easy to navigate
- Multiple channels are available for customer communication
- Connects to other marketing activities
A professional web design company that is proficient in search engine optimization and web development is recommended. Your website is the basis of all digital channels and should be considered a top business investment.
After your website is complete, you can launch e-mail marketing campaigns every month or bi-monthly and connect with customers through social media. These are tasks that can be done either in-house by someone who has the necessary knowledge or at a very low cost by an external digital marketing agency. Make sure all your efforts bring customers back to your website so they can engage fully with your company, products, and services. Choose the channels they contact you through.
You can allocate some digital marketing dollars to search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising if you are interested in being aggressive with search marketing. To gain new customers, many businesses today depend heavily on being found online. Many business owners believe that having a website will automatically mean that customers will find it. This is not true. It is important to use specific keywords, phrases, metadata, and linking strategies on your site to reach the top of search results.
Many key phrases and keywords are highly competitive for the top search results. You will need to add pay-per-click advertising to your organic search engine optimization efforts. Although it can seem daunting to get started with pay-per-click advertising campaigns, this can be done with little effort, time, and instruction.
You can also venture beyond search engine marketing and social media marketing to other forms of digital marketing. You have many options for marketing. These include radio, television, mobile advertising, and electronic billboards. No matter what digital channel you choose, all of them should connect to your company’s foundation – your website.
A digital marketing agency can help you with your marketing efforts if you have the resources. Many digital agencies provide multiple levels of services to cater to businesses, large or small.
Digitize, a Maryland digital marketing agency that offers services for small and medium-sized businesses. We offer a variety of digital marketing services in Maryland.
For more detailed manuals and advice about this topic, please see Magical Adventure.
