WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?

Digital marketing is the form of marketing that uses the internet to promote its brand. Digital marketing started gaining some momentum in 2010. Businesses started to shift from traditional ways of marketing to the digital world after realizing the power of the internet.

The world has 7.7 billion people of which 4.4 billion people use the internet. Customers these days use online shopping over going to the shops. It is feasible for both the customers as well as the brands, it is easy to target a large audience in one space. 

Digital marketing is a constant change as it evolves every fast, changes could happen because of technological advancement, consumer behavior, etc. It is important for companies to be updated with the latest trends and techniques for the survival of their business in the digital platform.

“If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business”  -Bill Gates

Why is it important?

There are many important elements of digital marketing. 

1. Large reach – The Internet is very vast. There are millions of people surfing the internet on a daily basis. There is a huge number of people who could be your potential clients. So digital marketing campaigns reach out to those clients at once.
2. Cost efficient – Digital marketing is cheaper and cost effective when compared to other means of marketing. Benefits the company in terms of lower cost and higher reach; it’s a win-win situation for them.
3. Customization – With the database of customers, it has been easier for companies to understand the psychology of the customer. As and when the customer visits the website you can customize it according to their need.
4. Brand loyalty – Customers tend to be more loyal if there is direct contact with the companies. Digital marketing bridges that gap. The reputation of the company hence is high.
5. Easy measurable – Many digital marketing tools help calculate the results of the campaigns. It analyses the whole campaign which gives references for planning out the future.

7. Conversion rate – Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website that accomplish the desired task you want from them out of the total number of visitors. Due to the higher reach and personalization, the conversion rate is higher than any other form of marketing.
8. Global audience – The Internet connects people from all over the world. So when you market your brand over the internet, you are actually marketing it to the entire world. People from all across the world can see your product. So it offers global trade with low investments.
9. Brand awareness – Nowadays people find it convenient to shop online so if a company has an online existence it can create an impact. 
10. Customers understand have a better understanding of your product. And are genuinely interested in buying the product. People have a better understanding of your brand and are interested in buying your products.
11. Easy to analyze competitors – With the help of technologies it is easier to locate who are the competitors is what all changes you can bring to outstand them

Rise in digital marketing

When the world was hit with COVID 19 and with the lockdown restrictions, businesses had to come up with urgent strategies to promote their product. And a different approach to reach out to the target audience, other than the digital platforms. Small as well as big companies found an urge for a digital presence. They started promoting their brand on various digital media platforms. According to the statistics, the social media market was the most convenient and effective medium for them to reach out to the masses.

There was a drastic change in consumer behavior and due to this, the percentage of internet sales went higher than the retail sales. Therefore, there was a sudden shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing.

Businesses seeking to expand their connections with consumers, therefore, can reap benefits by localizing their marketing on online platforms. Only in the last 20 years has digital marketing evolved to what it is today for which a lot of credit goes to the pandemic.

Different Types Of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing consists of different verticals and the businesses will have to strategically work on these verticals. Some of the effective verticals are as follows:-

Content Marketing – It is the online material that the brands use to create interest and entertain the customer. It’s not necessary that it generates sales cause the main motive is just to keep the customer occupied and not create sales. It is done for brand awareness purposes.

Searcg Engine Marketing – It increases the website visibility for promotion purposes.  Paid advertising is mostly used.

Mobile Marketing– It is the technique of reaching the audience through smartphone applications, emails, SMS, MMS, social media, etc.

Social Media Marketing – It uses social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, etc. to promote its business. It is termed as one of the efficient ways of digital marketing.

Email Marketing – Email marketing is the promotion of business through the means of email. It’s an old but effective mode of digital marketing.

Influencer Marketing– It endorses opinion leaders/influencers for promoting a particular business.

Affiliate Marketing– It uses a third party to generate leads or to drive traffic to your website. The company pays a certain percentage of sales to the sale which is done by them.

DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS

Here are 15 of the most popular digital marketing tools on the market right now (in no particular order) and why they’re indispensable to many.

1. Canva

Steve Jobs once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Canva makes creating design elements simple with a sophisticated platform.

If you can not draw a stick figure, don’t worry. The Canva repository of designs allows you to choose and edit a design without specific skills to create a stunning pixel-perfect design.

Additionally, Canva provides graphic animation, infographics and videos.

Canva offers a free plan, but if you want to upgrade to a paid plan, it is well worth the investment.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot provides a powerhouse of tools to help marketers, but the Hubspot CRMis particularly popular due to its powerful features.

The HubSpot CRM provides email tracking & notifications, prospect tracking, meeting scheduling, and a live chat option.

Furthermore, HubSpot’s ease of use makes the platform stand out from competitors.

The best part about the HubSpot CRM tool is the price point, which is free.

Unfortunately, the drawback of the free plan is that it only allows two users to access the CRM.

However, the paid plan has unlimited users, and you can add up to one million contacts.

3. VWO

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) can be somewhat esoteric, but it doesn’t have to be with VWO (Visual Web Optimizer).

VWO measures clicks on-site, page scrolling from users, time spent on site, and exit intent.

The power of VWO is the ability to test different angles for your site to increase your conversion rates.

Testing button colors, headlines, landing page layouts, and several other variables is straightforward with VWO.

You don’t have to be technically inclined to set up tests.

Non-technically inclined individuals without coding skills can set up tests just as easily as a developer.

4. Semrush

To drive traffic to your site, you will need competitive intelligence.

Semrush provides 50+ tools to help you compete against your competitors.

Semrush is widely regarded as an SEO tool, but that may be selling it a bit short as the software offers several other digital marketing features.

For instance, Semrush offers features for social media competitive analysis, CRO, PPC spying, and PR monitoring.

If you’re looking for a suite of tools to compete against the onslaught of competitors looking to drive you out of business, Semrush provides a good line of defense.

5. Slack

Once upon a time, carrier pigeons, smoke signals, and letters were the norm for communication.

Now, millions of people use Slack as the primary way of communicating.

Slack is the next evolution of communication Messages are instantaneous, and you can share several file formats through the platform.

Additionally, Slack connects you to video conference calls and allows you to create channels for a select group of contacts for group chatting to increase productivity.

It also integrate well with various other tools and productivity suites.

6. Asana

The path of least resistance is not always a linear progression.

Asanarealized this when they built this fantastic project management software.

Asana provides project managers, product managers, and executives visibility and accountability of team members.

You can break tasks down into subtasks and assign them to team members.

Additionally, you can set up milestones, and the entire organization can view the progression of projects through tagging tasks.

Through API integrations, Asana also integrates with CRM systems and several other third-party apps.

Furthermore, you can start to use Asana for free.

7. OptinMonster

OptinMonster bought to you by veteran WordPress aficionado Syed Balkhi, is sure to delight.

Whether you are a startup, small business, or even an enterprise-level organization with a WordPress site or blog, OptinMonster monster delivers advanced functionality hidden in simplicity to end-users.

OptinMonster provides a highly customizable lightbox popup for collecting emails, countdown timers, inline forms, content locks, and targeted campaigns based on Google Analytics data that seamlessly integrates with the platform.

8. ConvertKit

ConvertKit provides advanced multi-step email journeys called sequences to increase your email open rates.

In addition, audience segmentation called rules within the platform offers complex automation for your email sequences which take minutes, not hours, to build with ConvertKit.

Furthermore, all links inserted within your email sequences are tracked and reported within a user-friendly dashboard.

ConvertKit also enables you to copy and paste code within your articles to create beautiful email opt-in forms that can easily integrate with the CRM platform of your choice.

If you are looking for a cost-effective, user-friendly email marketing software that provides advanced automation and segmentation with a plethora of API integrations, try ConvertKit.

9. Unbounce

Landing pages can make or break the number of transactions you can drive to your organization.

For instance, if you are running PPC campaigns, Google ads assign a landing page quality score that could either help or hurt your efforts to drive sales.

Unbounce provides a cost-effective way to build responsive landing pages optimized for mobile and desktop traffic that happen to be aesthetically pleasing and functional.

No coding is necessary to create landing pages.

The drag and drop editor provides you with everything you need to make the experience you would like to create for your target audience.

If you would like to add advanced functionality, you have the option of adding custom HTML and Javascript.

Unbounce offers over 120 integrations with third-party applications.

AI technology called smart traffic can dynamically shift your traffic to the highest converting landing page variant, drastically increasing your conversion rates.

10. Buzzsumo

Buzzumo is a social media tool that has taken the marketing world by storm since its inception by James Blackwell and Henley Wing.

When you need a tool to get to the heart of social media analytics, look no further.

Identifying social media influencers, building trending journalist profiles, and viewing the most shared content are a few features that Buzzsumo offers that will give you a competitive advantage against your competitors.

11. Sprout Social

Have you ever needed to be in multiple places at one time?

Sprout Social gives you the ability to post to multiple social media platforms by automating your social media stories.

The best feature about Sprout Social is the analytics dashboard to gauge activity across each social channel once you have automated your posts.

Sprout Social is a no-brainer to add to your tech stack if you have multiple social media channels.

12. Deepcrawl

Deepcrawl  enables you to gather impactful metrics – and fast.

In addition, unlike several other technical SEO web crawlers, a clean user interface makes navigating the platform straightforward.

Deepcrawl makes automated SEO crawls and automated code audits seamless.

Furthermore, the platform offers a strategic partner to help you unlock all the powerful features of the platform.

13. Demio

Did you know nearly 70 % of webinars are for increasing sales and engagement?

If you are not leveraging webinars, you are seriously leaving money on the table for your organization.

Demio is a powerful tool that hosts live events and conducts product overviews.

Furthermore, Demio evergreen webinars that can increase your participation rate.

14. Loom

As a marketer in the 21st century, you are aware of the power of video – but personalization is critical now more than ever.

Personalization with video is accomplished with Loom

You can present a video recording or live video while displaying your face in a small circular box that is non-intrusive and sleek.

Loom is excellent for teaching students, providing general overviews and software product walkthroughs.

Fun fact: The SEJ team uses Loom internally.

15. Lucky Orange

Lucky Orange provides eight tools under one company umbrella.

Simply put, this platform is the closest match to a digital marketing Swiss army knife.

One monthly flat rate provides access to the following tools:

• Heat mapping.
• Video recording sessions.
• Live chatbox.
• Conversion funnel analysis.
• Visitor profiles.
• Pop up announcements.
• User surveys.
• Dashboard analytics.

Guess how much it costs for the starter plan?

Drum roll, please.

Plans start at $10 a month.

Startup founders, established business owners, or anyone with a web presence can gather a deeper understanding of your audience with Lucky Orange.

Google Analytics is always a go-to but take your analytics analysis further with this affordable and versatile tool.

Conclusion

During the pandemic, digital marketing became one of the primary aspects of a marketing strategy. Nothing offers the level of personalization that digital marketing can provide.

Continuously, monitoring of the data and the constant change in consumer behavior has always been crucial for planning strategies. Given the nature of the pandemic and the changes, there should be a digital shift to expand the marketing boundaries.

Talking about the future of marketing there will be a time where we not only see it as result-oriented but as a key factor of the business to survive. It will surely be essential to prosper in the digital sphere when the time is right as digital marketing sure remains the most effective way of marketing in the future, either business-wise or career-wise.