Marketing is the practice of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including the selection of a target audience; the selection of certain attributes or themes to emphasize in advertising; the operation of advertising campaigns; attendance at trade shows and public events; the design of attractive products and packaging for buyers; and the definition of the terms of sale, such as price, discounts, warranty, and return policy. The seller, who is usually a merchant or manufacturer, is in charge of marketing.
Any marketing that uses electronic devices and can be used by marketing specialists to convey promotional messaging and measure its impact through your customer journey. In practice, digital marketing typically refers to marketing campaigns that appear on a computer, phone, tablet, or other device. It can take many forms, including online video, display ads, search engine marketing, paid social ads and social media posts. Digital marketing is often compared to “traditional marketing” such as magazine ads, billboards, and direct mail. Oddly, television is usually lumped in with traditional marketing.
Digital marketing uses a range of strategies to reach customers, whether the aim is to tempt them into making a purchase, increase their brand awareness, or simply engage with your brand. Modern digital marketing comprises a broad system of channels, including:
Consumers today rely heavily on digital means to research products. Some 77% of customers research a brand online before engaging with it, according to HubSpot Research. Meanwhile, 51% of consumers say they use Google to research products before buying.
Why is digital marketing important?
Any type of marketing can help your business thrive. However, digital marketing has become increasingly important because of how accessible digital channels are. In fact, there were 5 billion internet users globally in April 2022 alone.
Digital marketing continues to evolve. For example, the increasing variety of wearable devices available to consumers affords new opportunities to market to them. Forbes also forecasts that social media will become increasingly conversational in the B2B space, video content will be refined for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, and email marketing will become even more personalized.
From social media to text messages, there are many ways to use digital marketing tactics in order to communicate with your target audience. Additionally, digital marketing has minimal upfront costs, making it a cost-effective marketing technique for small businesses.