The word Digital Marketing has been a popular one ever since the business space came online. Also, referred to as internet marketing (as all activities are online or on the internet) the term refers to all the activities that involve promotion and building of a brand, business. With the growth of smartphones and internet users, businesses have understood the fact that the masses are online.
Digital marketing as a specialized and professional service is availed by businesses to develop their brand. Digital marketing agency , digital marketing experts, online marketing, etc are some of the common searches that you would find on search engines when you explore marketing online. If you are looking for professional digital marketers then you can see this site for quick reference.
As a concept Digital marketing can be seen as a transformation of the traditional brick & mortar, pamphlet type marketing to the digitized or online targeted advertisement and product-based marketing. With huge benefits for business and a degree of expertise and skill involved, digital marketing as a profession has attracted talent from across sectors.
To discuss more on the components and activities that come under the ambit of digital marketing let’s take our discussions further.
Digital Marketing: Its Extent And Components
Activities under digital marketing involve the whole sphere from creating awareness or visibility about the brand or business to driving in the potential users and turning them into clients. Activities like lead generation, reputation building, engagement creation, social media presence, etc form the usual set of activities in relation to a brand performed as a part of digital marketing.
To create visibility Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a specified area under digital marketing involves activities to rank the website among top searches when the relevant keywords are searched. Keywords or the targeted words are the core behind the SEO activities. To understand the significance of keywords take the example of a cake store trying to sell products online. For them, the keywords as a part of their online marketing activities would be best birthday cake, best chocolate cake, best cakes near me, etc to get mentions and visibility among users.
Search engine marketing (SEM), paid advertising, social media marketing, influence marketing, etc are other components of digital marketing. The whole gamut of the activities that are
focused on creating an image or visibility of the business which in turn attracts revenue and sales.
Targeted Approach
Imagine you are an HVAC service provider and want to attract customers in and around your city. Or let’s imagine you want to target the users who are searching for HVAC products online like heaters, air conditioners, etc. Now, if you go by traditional marketing the cost would be high and targeting would be poor. Digital marketing makes this task easier.
With digital marketing targeted advertisements and reminders are sent to such users and the chances of conversions are high. Targeting your HVAC business advertisement to someone looking to buy an air conditioner or heater can get you a call for heater or air conditioner installation services. This way businesses utilize the targeted approach of digital marketing to create maximum impact or output.
Online Marketing: The Numbers
Having talked about digital marketing in terms of activities involved and its components now let’s talk about numbers. The importance of digital marketing can be understood by the numbers that it hosts. As per studies over 90% of users prefer to read a review or watch a website before making a purchase or transaction online.
This means that 9 out of 10 potential clients can be turned into a customer if you have a good presence and website online. Further, when the users plan to buy a product or service 97% of them prefer to first search for the product or service online before looking for availability offline. In fact, to search for the product or service nearby they would type the respective thing say furniture repair service near me as a first thing.
If you are a local business and have in-store as your main source of revenue then let us tell you that over 80% of users look for the location of local shops and services providers online. This means if you have a store registered on Google Maps then you are 8 times more likely to attract customers. Further, if you have received feedback from the clients then it acts as a feeder for future clients as around 85% of people decide whether to make a move or not by reading the reviews. So, you see the numbers are big and they have an equally big impact in terms of business.
Concluding Words
We hope now you might have got a complete idea about what exactly digital marketing is and how it works. If you are a business, brand, or entrepreneur then digital marketing is something that you can’t miss to grow your presence. Don’t hesitate and make the move.