With the new and ever-evolving digital world, it can be hard to keep up with marketing trends. We have gone from print ads to radio ads, to television ads to now, any type of ad you can think of. You might be a new business that is looking to maximize its market reach, or an existing company looking for new ways to reach your target audience. Either way, there are more ways to do that than ever before. At Elemental Plans, you can trust that we will stay on top of trends and adjust your marketing strategy to what best fits you and your company. With so much changing in tech from month to month, it’s a good business move to outsource your marketing to relieve some of that stress.
You understand that there are new ways of advertising, but what does that mean exactly? What are these new ways and more importantly, how do you use them to benefit your business? We are here to bring you five types of digital marketing that you can use to help grow your reach and bring in new customers.
1. Content Marketing
This category is an all-encompassing one that covers anything that has to do with exceptional quality and useful content. You are not pushing to sell something to someone. You are providing them with information about the industry you are in. In this type of digital marketing, the goal is not to make a sale from the content itself, but to inform the customer. You want to convert visitors to leads. Get them more acquainted with you and your company. Get them to understand more about your industry, etc. That way, in the future they will be more likely to think of you when looking to buy a product. The consumer views you as a sort of “authority” in the industry. They trust you enough to potentially buy from you.
This can take many forms, some of which include but are not limited to:
- A blog post (such as the one you’re reading right now)
- Infographics
- Videos
- Datasheets
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a more “behind-the-scenes” approach to digital marketing. Your end users will not see any sort of advertisement but with SEO, your main goal is to get your content ranked higher on search engines by utilizing keywords. You find your keywords by conducting keyword research to determine what words and phrases your customers are using to search for products like yours. There are many ways to utilize SEO on your website and content. The following are just a couple of ways to utilize SEO:
Alt text - Adding alt text to images on your website can help increase your chances of being ranked higher on search engines. Search engines can scan your page and clearly see what your content is about. For anything that does not have text, like pictures, audio, or video, it is recommended to add alt text so that search engines can clearly see what that content is about.
Keyword Targeting - Using your keywords in headings and in the actual content of your website will help you rank higher. Avoid “stuffing” your content with keywords though, as that is seen as bad practice, and you may end up getting ranked lower or considered spam.
Links - Search engines “search” your content, so you want to make sure anything that has links to another site is easily accessible for these searches.
3. Social Media Marketing
This is one of the most popular forms of digital marketing. With the emergence of Facebook and Instagram, we saw a new way to advertise, through our social media profiles. This can take many forms, just like many other forms of digital marketing by:
- promoting your business and sharing information about your industry
- promoting new products and sales
- communicating directly with your customers.
The newest form of digital marketing in the social media space is influencer marketing. With TikTok becoming bigger, more people are using it to promote products. We have seen the emergence of the influencer role in digital marketing. These social influencers are exactly what they sound like. They influence their followers to buy certain products or try out new services. In turn, their followers view them as trustworthy sources and are therefore more likely to buy something that is recommended to them by that influencer.
4. Email Marketing
Some are quick to say that email marketing is dead, but it has been found to still be one of the most effective ways to market your business. However, there is a fine line between using email marketing effectively and coming across as spam. It is important to keep in mind when dabbling in email marketing to not spam your subscribers with content. Make sure the content is useful and informative.
5. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
The last type of digital marketing we would like to cover is pay-per-click or PPC for short. These are your typical digital marketing ads. You pay for these ads, mostly on search engines to be ranked higher. They can also take many other forms like:
- An ad before a YouTube video
- Ads in an app
- Ads that pop up while scrolling through social media
Once you stop paying for these ads, they are gone. But you are paying for results only. Hence the name, pay-per-click. You only pay when someone clicks on the ad.
To wrap up, these are not the only types of digital marketing out there. There are so many more ways to use mobile phones and the internet to market your business. If you’re interested in hearing how you can utilize digital marketing more effectively and grow your business, contact us at Elemental Plans. We can sit down with you and discuss your digital presence and how to enhance it to your advantage. We have seen success and hope to bring much more success to many other businesses!
Sources
Rockcontent, “What are the 12 Types of Digital Marketing?”, Rock Content Writer, May 5, 2022, https://rockcontent.com/blog/types-of-digital-marketing/, Accessed October 2, 2022
Southern New Hampshire University, “What are the 8 Types of Digital Marketing?”, Alexa Gustavsen, August 31 2022, https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/business/types-of-digital-marketing#:~:text=Digital%20marketing%20can%20be%20broadly,Marketing%20Analytics%20and%20Affiliate%20Marketing%20., Accessed October 2, 2022