What is digital marketing and how is it used?

You probably already know what digital marketing is and what its purpose is. It is basically about trying to find effective ways to promote and sell products or services. But it is not as simple as it seems.

As digital media have become increasingly omnipresent, more opportunities have arisen for companies to launch products and become more visible. How? By using channels such as email marketing or social networks, through ads on mobile phones or chatbots, for example.

You will understand what digital marketing is when you understand that it is something progressive and evolutionary. In fact, its success lies in its being renewed daily. Currently, there are already future professions and even guidelines to follow the habits of market leaders.

But how do consumers behave? Today, users have access to all information at any time and place. That is why it can be difficult to create an impact and attract them, although that does not mean it is impossible mission.

The value of digital marketing

How does digital marketing compare with other strategies? What does it cover? Can you tell which are the most remarkable characteristics defining this term? Why should you dive head first into this wide world?

It is very likely you have grown with the famous 4 P’s under your shoulder: Product, Price, Distribution and Promotion. However, it is not a myth that constant renewal is the key to the success of digital marketing. And as a result, everything has evolved. Those 4 P’s have become 7 C’s, and today, thanks to these innovations, you can achieve all this:

• Measuring. One of the advantages of understanding digital marketing and knowing how to apply it is that measuring strategies will be much more complete and simple than measuring more traditional strategies.
• PersonalizationDigital marketing is what has allowed us to reach high levels of segmentation and personalization.
• Brand visibility. Getting to appear on Google’s top positions. As you already know, if a brand is not on the Internet, it will cease to exist.
• Customer acquisition, retention and loyalty is more effective.
• As a consequence, sales increase.
• The creation of a community in networks will allow you to humanize your brand and create closer emotional bonds with potential customers.
• It is possible for you to apply different strategies, on different channels and experience which one works best. Do you believe traditional marketing offers you that flexibility?
• You do not need to make large investments.

All these characteristics are supported by the most specific data on digital marketing as well as by the latest statistics.

So far, when it comes to answering the question of what digital marketing is, we have chosen to provide guides that explain every issue in depth. But, let’s do a review of everything that it means.

Do you know what digital marketing is?

In the beginning, this term meant including advertisements on web pages 1.0, as if it was a translation of traditional media advertising to the first websites. But, as you might imagine, it was very different from the current time.

Advertisers only placed their messages before the audience. There was no bidirectional communication process. Now, unidirectional communication is not included in any strategy.

When the 2.0 web was born, everything changed. The experience of exchanging content in an easy way became possible thanks to social networks. That is, today you cannot define what digital marketing is without talking about feedback between brands and consumers.

The main assets of digital marketing are:

1.- The website

It is not possible to understand what digital marketing is for a company if the company does not have a website that acts as a window display to the world.

In fact, having a professional website is essential to transmit the users the necessary trust. But, without a doubt, you should also think about the user experience when creating it, to make it simple, intuitive and convenient to use.

One of the great challenges of digital marketing this year is to make the user experience a priority. Consider this data provided by WARC: 53% of brands will prioritize the user experience in their digital transformation strategies during 2018.

2.- The corporate blog

As pointed out by the Content Marketing Study in Latin America and Spain, only 15% of companies are not familiar with the strength of content marketing. However, 60% has as a priority the creation of a blog, investing 32% of their total budget in content marketing.

Do you know what digital marketing focused on a blog is? Are you aware of how far it can go?

• You will improve your positioning in search engines.
• You will increase traffic.
• The importance that Google will give to your site will increase.
• You will generate more leads. In fact, as you can see in the infographic, brands that create and share content in their blogs frequently generate 67% more leads than those that do not.
• You will provide credibility to your company.
• You will humanize your brand.
• You will give an added value to your website.
• You will promote customers’ loyalty.
• You will generate participation, authenticity and differentiation.
• And also, you will have the possibility of monetizing your blog to generate more income.

3.- Search engine positioning

The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) guarantees that users automatically find you when they search for a product or service on search engines. How? Because you will be among the first options.

But if you want your website to be well positioned, you have to consider different factors:

• The structure of the web page itself.
• An effective link building strategy.
• Usability.
• Content and the way to show it. That is, the different formats.
• The correct choice of keywords for which you wish your website to appear positioned.

In this case it is most advisable to have in mind the different tips to position a site and that you stay away from the myths about SEO that you can find.

4.- Display advertising

Another channel that will help you understand digital marketing is, without a doubt, advertising, regardless of whether it is done in search engines with Adwords or in social networks.

It is possible to say that of all digital marketing strategies, this is what allows you to get faster results.

5.- Email marketing and SMS Marketing

Email is one of the most powerful channels in any digital marketing strategy. In fact, as long as you include a double opt-in and make sure the user wants to receive your messages, the results you can get are excellent.

It is best to follow the guidelines and tips to optimize this channel.

On the other hand, SMS is a channel that can be linked to emails to achieve better results. If you analyze the statistics, you will understand that launching strategies via SMS is a great choice.

Its advantages are many, but one of the best ones is that 90% of users understand that SMS marketing programs allow them to access benefits that they could not have otherwise. So consumers are receptive to these communications.

6.- Social networks

Today, as a brand, it is necessary you have presence in the main social networks in which your target audience moves. In this way, you will be able to create a community, establish emotional bonds with the users, and humanize your brand.

Additionally, these channels are ideal to create brand ambassadors who are responsible for talking about your business in a positive way and recommending it to others.

7.- Influencer marketing and affiliate marketing

Influencer marketing is the process of identifying certain influential profiles in social networks to use that power to promote a product or service. The characteristics of the most powerful influencers are:

• They have strong influence on your potential customers.
• They also have a significant audience reach on their website and a significant presence on social media.
• They have the ability to convey strong brand affinity.
• Credibility and trust with their audience as experts in a given topic.

However, most valuable of all is that users believe in their recommendations. On the other hand, in affiliate marketing a company joins affiliates (bloggers, publishers, companies, organizations, etc.) to promote its brand.

The two cases are used for the same purpose but they are different. The most advisable thing is for you to learn how to use each strategy in the proper way.

Now that you know more accurately what digital marketing is, you just have to start. If you want to start and still have difficulties with some strategy or channel, contact Antevenio. We are specialists in performance marketing and we will be able to launch your strategies in order for you to reach your proposed goals.