Digital Marketing Made Simple
Your Guide To Digital Marketing Today
Digital marketing is so much more than “marketing digitally” because what does that even mean anyways? Most marketing professionals don’t even truly understand how wide and deep digital marketing is because it encompasses so much more than what we can imagine! So, what IS digital marketing? How can one explain something that is so much more than advertising and search engine optimization? There is a lot to cover, but it isn’t as hard to navigate as you might think. In this article, we’ll show you online marketing made simple.
What Is Digital Marketing Made Of
Digital Marketing can be broken into two main groups, one being ONLINE marketing, and the other being OFFLINE marketing. But how can you market digitally if you’re offline is a question that you might be asking, but here is where we need to go back to the basics of what digital marketing is. The word digital does not exclusively mean online or with internet. Over the past few years, many people have gotten so used to life with the internet, that we have forgotten what the word “digital” actually means. Digital as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “electronic” or “characterized by electronic and especially computerized technology” This is what “digital” truly means! Digital goes back to when radios and televisions were invented, it goes back to the first computers, BEFORE internet existed. “digital marketing” goes back so much further than just “online” marketing. Digital marketing goes back to the first transmitted radio ad, or tv feature.
Then once we began utilizing the amazing thing called the internet, digital marketing began to grow, and grow quickly. All of the sudden search engines were born, ads began to gain popularity, and social media followed not to long after. The amount of people that use the internet daily is continually growing. According to Statista, there are currently 2.41 billion Facebook users as of the second quarter of 2019. This statistic easily proves where digital marketing has drastically shifted over the last 5 years. So let’s dive into both online and offline digital marketing so that we have a better understanding of what digital marketing actually is.
Offline Digital Marketing
Let’s start with offline digital marketing. Offline digital marketing as we stated previously includes any sort of marketing that includes a piece of electronic, but not the internet. This includes all radio and tv ads, electronic ordering machines at restaurants, telemarketing, electronic billboards, and other various non internet driven ideas. Offline digital marketing is often thought of as irrelevant in today’s day and age, but that is far from true. Although efforts and effectiveness has lessened, it does not mean that they have stopped being productive. Not to mention that new ideas and ways to digitally market offline are still being developed. Only within the last few years have electronic ordering machines really become a popularity, and they are widely used throughout restaurants everywhere! This just goes to show that offline digital marketing is still changing and being developed!
Online Digital Marketing
Although offline digital marketing still exists and even is successful in many aspects, online digital marketing has really been the one to steal the spotlight over the past 3-5 years. Online digital marketing has opened up hundreds of doors over the years. Encompassing everything from blogs, to search engine optimization, to email marketing, to paid advertising, to social media marketing, to paid social media advertising and so. much. more. Online marketing has of course gained popularity based on the direct correlation to users online. Businesses are smart to focus more time, energy, and money towards online marketing, that is where most of the world is! Online digital marketing efforts if done well can take any business to the next level. Things such as search engine optimization, can increase a businesses traffic exponentially increasing visibility, as well as likely reaping a higher conversion rate. Paid advertising has developed over the years into an incredible tool that people can use to target and retarget specific audiences such as people who have already been on their website or even someone who has already purchased an item from them! If you have questions about what online marketing services we offer, please refer to our marketing tab at the top of our website!
Simply Put
Simply put and defined by industry influence and leader, Hubspot, “Digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with current and prospective customers.” The idea and concept of digital marketing is really quite simple. It’s the bringing it to completion that is challenging. Within the two ideas of online and offline digital marketing there are many various avenues that you can take that all fall within those categories. There really isn’t a way to nail down digital marketing because it’s continually changing, and although it covers a wide range of ideas, it is quite simple. Feel free to contact us if you have any other questions about online marketing!