What Are the 8 Types of Digital Marketing?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-per-Click (PPC), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Content Marketing (CM), Email Marketing (EM), Mobile Marketing (MM), Marketing Analytics (MA), and Affiliate Marketing (Affiliate) are the eight primary categories that can be used to broadly classify digital marketing.

Over the course of the last decade, the incorporation of digital marketing into the overarching marketing strategy of a business has grown increasingly important. It makes it easier for businesses to promote directly to people who are likely to be interested in the product they are selling by allowing them to customize their messaging so that they may reach a specific audience.

Two members of the academic team from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) discussed how digital marketing fits with traditional marketing strategies and provided information on some of the different types of digital marketing that are now in use.

What exactly is meant by “digital marketing”?

The term “digital marketing” refers to a broad range of marketing strategies and technology that are used to connect with customers on the internet. The marketing business has been completely transformed as a result of this sort of online marketing because it enables organizations to develop a brand identity and has a significant impact.

According to Dr. Mark Hobson, a senior associate dean of business programs, digital marketing may appear to be an entirely new world; however, in reality, it is based on many of the principles that are already well known to traditional marketers. Digital marketing also requires foundational marketing knowledge in addition to technical know-how.

According to Dr. Jessica Rogers, who serves as the senior associate dean of business at SNHU, the two disciplines help to interact with different types of customers. “… Traditional media is an excellent approach to reach a broad consumer base, but digital media has the ability to target extremely particular audiences,” she stated. [Citation needed] “One of the most important things to keep in mind is that the effectiveness of various channels varies greatly depending on the audience that is being targeted.”

Different Varieties of Online Marketing

Rogers discussed a number of the digital marketing strategies that are currently the most widely used and provided an outline of each one:

Optimizing Results for Search Engines (SEO)

The end goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to improve a company’s ranking in Google search results, which will ultimately result in an increase in the amount of traffic that is directed to the website of the company. In order to achieve this goal, SEO marketers conduct research on the words and phrases that customers are using while looking for information online, and then they use those terms in the content that they create. In its “Beginners Guide to SEO,” the industry-leading SEO software company Moz explains that search engine optimization (SEO) encompasses a wide range of aspects, including the words that appear on your website’s pages, the manner in which other websites link to you on the web, and the organization of your website’s pages. According to Salary.com, the average annual income for an SEO specialist is approximately $70,999.

So, what are some ways that a website’s search engine optimization might be improved? It is essential to have a solid understanding of the fact that one of the aspects that contribute to the difficulty of SEO is the fact that the response to this question will always depend on search engines and the most recent algorithm that they use. With that in mind, the following information, taken from Moz’s “Beginners Guide to SEO,” is comprised of a few of the most crucial elements for SEO strategists and marketers in general to understand about how SEO works today:

Material indexing – It is essential to provide a way for search engines to “read” the information that is contained on your website. This can be accomplished by including alternative text for images and text transcripts for multimedia content such as video and audio.

It is essential that search engines are able to “crawl” the structure of your website in order to quickly and easily locate all of the material that is hosted on your domain. An SEO consultant can do a variety of things to ensure that links, URLs, and sitemaps have the appropriate formatting to make them as accessible as possible to site crawlers.

 Keywords and keyword targeting – One of the primary pillars of search engine optimization is making sure that your content and headers make effective use of your keywords, also known as the search terms for which you want your website to be found. It is not considered to be good practice to “pack” your content with as many keywords and permutations of keywords as is possible. It is currently regarded better practice to write high-quality content that incorporates keywords in the headers and a few times in the text that can be crawled on the page. This will cause pages to rank higher in search results.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Paid advertisements and promoted search engine results are referred to as pay-per-click, or PPC for short. Because this is a temporary form of digital marketing, if you stop paying for it, the advertisement will be removed and will no longer be visible. PPC is another method, similar to SEO, that can be used to boost the amount of search traffic that visits an online site.

Pay-per-click advertising can refer to the adverts that appear at the top and sides of a page of search results, the advertisements that appear while you are browsing the web, the advertisements that appear before films on YouTube, and the advertisements that appear within mobile apps.

One more factor that distinguishes pay-per-click advertising from search engine optimization is the fact that you only pay for the outcomes. If you run a typical PPC campaign using Google AdWords, for example, you won’t have to worry about paying anything until someone clicks on your ad and visits your website. In pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, the amount of money spent is completely up to the advertiser. Some businesses might be successful with an investment of only a few hundred dollars, but plenty of large businesses shell out tens of thousands of dollars every month on pay-per-click advertising.

The level of competition that exists for your keywords will be the primary factor that determines how much it will cost to run an advertisement or promote your search results. Keywords with a high level of competition, or those that are sought after by a large number of people and targeted by a large number of websites, will carry a higher price tag, while those with a lesser level of competition are likely to be less expensive.

You will be able to choose whether you want your ad or promoted results to be shown to people all over the world, or exclusively within a certain geographic area, when you set up a pay-per-click campaign. This option is available to you when you set up a pay-per-click campaign. According to Google, the option to personalize by geography helps you avoid wasting advertising dollars by delivering advertisements to individuals who do not live anywhere near your brick-and-mortar business. This is especially helpful if you are marketing a traditional brick-and-mortar establishment.

The Marketing of Social Media

This encompasses anything that a company does via the various social media channels. Although almost everyone is familiar with social media, marketers still need to approach social in a way that is integrated and strategic. The practice of social media marketing encompasses much more than only publishing content on various social platforms and responding to users’ comments.

Instead of being an afterthought, efforts need to be coordinated and consistent in order for them to be effective. Even while there are numerous online tools that can automate and schedule social media posts, which can help keep posts consistent, marketers should only use automation as a tool and not as a “set it and forget it” solution. There are many online programs that can automate and schedule social media posts. If there is not a real person behind the posts, users will discover this information very fast.

Marketers who focus on social media platforms should not operate in isolation from other marketing tasks. It is necessary for social marketers to collaborate with the wider marketing team of the firm in order to coordinate their messaging across all platforms, both online and off, in order to ensure that every aspect of the brand is communicating the same narrative.

The use of analytics is an essential component of social media marketing. Marketers who use social media must also be skilled at evaluating how their posts are performing and developing plans based on the information gleaned from this evaluation. Before moving forward with the implementation of your new plan, you should first determine the success of your existing social media posts by doing relevant analytics.

According to Statista’s findings, the majority of industry professionals (88%) believe that the primary benefit of social media marketing in 2021 will be an increase in exposure for their organization. In support of this finding, 79 percent of businesses cited an increase in visitors to their website as the most significant benefit.

In addition to Instagram and Twitter, you also have access to a number of other free distribution channels for your message. There are further choices available, such as using Google My Business, eBay, or Facebook Messenger or Marketplace.

In other words, managing your personal Facebook or Twitter profile is a lot less complicated than engaging in social media marketing for a business. It calls for a combination of creative thinking and objective, data-driven strategy, and it may be a good fit for individuals who appreciate combining these two areas of expertise. According to Salary.com, the average annual salary for a social media analyst with a bachelor’s degree is $69,834 dollars.

Marketing with Content

Storytelling and the distribution of relevant information are two of the primary components of content marketing. In the end, the objective is to persuade the reader to take some action that moves them closer to becoming a customer. This could include completing a purchase, seeking additional information, or signing up for an email list. Posts on blogs, digital resources such as e-books and white papers, digital video, podcasts, and a great deal more fall under the umbrella term “content.” In general, it should first and foremost provide value to the user, not only advertise the brand or try to make a sale. This is in contrast to the second main purpose, which is to try to make a sale. Building a long-term, trustworthy relationship with your consumers through content marketing is more important than earning a single sale since that relationship has the potential to result in multiple transactions over the course of time.

The following are some examples of different forms of digital marketing that operate hand in hand with content marketing: It is a method for incorporating SEO search phrases into recently published material on a website, and the content that is generated can be distributed as posts on social media and as publishes via email marketing. If you look at the analytics for your content marketing, you may learn a lot about your clients. For example, what are they trying to find when they visit your website? Which kind of content encourage them to remain on the site for longer and continue exploring its many pages? Which types cause people to lose interest and browse away from the page?

Content marketing is a long-term approach, in contrast to methods such as pay-per-click advertising. According to Marketo, a company that specializes in marketing automation, over the course of time, marketers build up a library of material (text, video, podcasts, etc.) that will continue to draw consumers to the site via search engines. This content can take a variety of forms. This content collection helps enhance awareness of your business and elevates your status as an information resource, both of which are positive outcomes of your efforts. In addition, if visitors are coming to your website for information, you should hope that they will keep you in mind as a reliable source when it comes time to make a purchase.

People that appreciate producing written content, as well as video and/or audio, may find success in the field of content marketing. On the other hand, just like digital marketing in general, it necessitates a high level of strategic and analytical ability.

Email Marketing

According to Rogers, one of the most effective methods of marketing, despite the rise of social media, mobile applications, and other channels, email remains one of the most effective marketing approaches. It is possible for this to be a component of a content marketing plan, with the goal of delivering value to customers and, over time, turning an audience into paying clients. According to the American Marketing Association, professionals in the field of email marketing are skilled not only in the creation of compelling campaigns but also in the understanding of optimal audience outreach, as well as in the analysis of customer interactions and data, and in the formulation of strategic decisions based on those analyses.

The open rate, which is the percentage of recipients who opened the email, and the click through rate, which is the number of recipients who opened the email and clicked on a link in the email, are two of the many different analytical measures that email marketing software can offer. However, the open rate and the click through rate are the two that marketers are always working to improve. According to Constant Contact, a renowned provider of software for email marketing, there are a variety of things that marketers can do to increase the likelihood that users will open their emails and make their emails more appealing to recipients. These are the following:

Generate a Sense of Urgency By writing email copy that informs your recipients that there is only a limited number of the offer available or that time is running out to get a special deal, you can increase the number of people who click through to your website. Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most effective ways to get more people to visit your website.

Increasing the likelihood that an email will be opened and clicked on by using the recipient’s name in the subject line and email itself is a tried-and-true strategy for improving open and click through rates. (Here’s an example of a good subject line: “Katie, an exclusive deal especially for you.”)

Permit Recipients to Set Their Preferences – Permitting users to choose how often they want to hear from you will assist maintain some of your email subscribers registered to your list and clicking on your emails. This can be accomplished by allowing users to specify how often they want to hear from you.

Mobile Marketing

This sort of digital marketing is centered on communicating with your target demographic through the medium of their mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet. Text messaging, social media platforms, websites, email, and mobile applications are all ways that people can be reached by mobile marketing. When a customer walks into a business or enters an event, for example, a marketer may choose to display a particular offer or piece of content tailored specifically to that moment in time.

In a poll that was carried out by Statista in February 2022, 46% of respondents stated that they spend between five and six hours per day on their personal mobile devices, specifically their smartphones. In addition to that, 22% of respondents said that they spend more than three hours every day on their mobile devices. Mobile users in the United States will spend approximately 40 minutes per day on social media applications by the end of the year 2020 and the beginning of the year 2021, with Facebook and Instagram holding the largest audience.

Over the course of the past few years, there has been a phenomenal expansion in terms of e-commerce, making it an essential component of the retail industry on a global scale. It is projected that by 2021, smartphone users would account for 70% of all website visits to retail establishments, and that by 2020, online retail sales will have increased to over 4.2 trillion dollars in the United States. Statista.

Marketers are aware of the necessity of bringing their message to the location of their customers, and it is abundantly evident that the location of their potential customers is on their mobile devices.

Analytics of the Marketing Process

The ease with which results may be tracked and measured is one of the most significant benefits offered by digital marketing. Coupons and other comparable direct mail offerings were once the only pieces of marketing collateral that could be tracked. You know the message was received when a consumer applied the voucher you provided them. The use of analytics in today’s world enables marketers to monitor user activity at a granular level, including the number of times users click on a link, the amount of time they spend on a web page, the number of times they read emails, and a great deal more. To properly understand what the statistics represent and how they can inform strategy, marketers need to be able to truly comprehend the massive amount of information that is currently available regarding the efficacy of digital marketing. This can feel like drinking from a fire hose at times.

Not only does this make it possible for marketers to find out what marketing messages resonate well with customers and modify the messaging they use going forward, but it also means that marketers can demonstrate their worth to the firm. One of the most significant aspects of the work of a digital marketer, and one that distinguishes them from their traditional marketing counterparts, is the ability to comprehend all of this information and apply it when making strategic decisions.

There are a variety of techniques that may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of digital marketing efforts, and the majority of marketers will use a mix of these tools in some fashion, based on the requirements of their campaigns and the characteristics of their target audience. One of the most popular tools for marketing analytics is Google Analytics, which can be customized in a nearly endless number of ways to measure how well your website is performing, which keywords are bringing users to your website, how users are navigating through your website, and a great deal more. Google Analytics is one of the most widely used tools for marketing analytics.

Marketers may “fail fast” by immediately removing campaigns that aren’t performing and constructing better ads around concepts that have a proven track record of success if they have access to good, accurate data and the know-how to evaluate them. Over the course of time, you won’t only be using analytics to measure your efforts; you’ll also be utilizing analytics to inform and enhance your campaigns.

You will learn about a wide variety of topics that are relevant to your marketing job when you enroll in a degree program in digital marketing. Some of these topics include marketing plans and strategies, branding, mobile marketing, and digital advertising.

Marketing Through Affiliates

Affiliate marketing, which is also known as influencer marketing, has been increasingly popular among many firms as a means of bridging the gap between customers and organizations as a result of the rise in importance of internet marketing. However, what exactly is meant by “affiliate marketing”?

Affiliate marketing capitalizes on the ever-increasing popularity of industry insiders and social media influencers to promote products and services. Your company will receive financial remuneration for any work done in collaboration with the third-party influencers with whom it collaborates to market the products or services it offers. Influencers will write posts, blogs, or videos to engage their audience as part of a collaborative effort to bring in additional business for your organization and generate new leads.

Affiliate marketing, also known as influencer marketing, has seen tremendous expansion in recent years thanks to the proliferation of new media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and blogs as standard means of disseminating information and providing entertainment. Affiliate marketing has become as one of the most well-liked approaches to online advertising in recent years. The affiliate marketing sector is projected to be worth $12 billion by the year 2022, as stated on the website InfluencerMarketingHub.com.

The demand for marketers in the employment market is expanding. The United States Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) projects a ten percent rise in the number of managers working in advertising, promotions, and marketing during the next several years. According to BLS data, the typical annual income for these types of positions in 2021 was $133,380.

Marketing Skills

According to Hobson, digital marketers contribute to the larger marketing team as well as the strategic goals of the entire firm by implementing marketing tactics within the context of the online world. According to Rogers, digital marketers should make it their goal to function as a voice for customers and the ways in which they want to interact with brands digitally. According to what she had to say, “(Marketers) take a strategic approach to the brand’s channels in order to maximize investments, increase traffic and conversions, and manage integrated digital content.”

Because digital marketers need to always be where their customers are, they have the huge responsibility of staying current with developments in technology, social media, and software. This is necessary in order to meet the demands of their customers.

The most popular social media app of today may be obsolete by this time next year due to the rapid advancement of technology; despite this, many of the fundamental concepts of marketing have not changed.