Principles of digital marketing 1-2
Digital marketing tools
Digital marketing employs various marketing tools to encourage customer engagement. Those tools include content, display and video advertising, social media, paid search, search engine optimization, email marketing, automation, and analytics.
Let’s start with content. Resonating with the nature of inbound marketing, there is a saying: content is king! Various pieces of content attract interested prospects because those prospects are actively searching for content to meet their needs. Therefore, content lies at the heart of inbound strategy, which digital marketing strongly relies on. Useful content tends to build trust with prospects and, in turn, convert them into customers.
Display and video advertising are formats that have been usually adopted in outbound-based strategy, which traditional marketing has relied on. However, they are still useful for driving brand (or product and service) awareness and consideration in customers. In addition, with advances in technology, they can target or retarget interest groups.
These days, audiences are connected on social media 24/7, and, therefore, social media platforms are great places to distribute content to drive social engagement and interactions with current and prospective customers.
Paid search is another great digital marketing tool. Considering that audiences are actively searching for information they are interested in, search engines, such as Google, are the first go-to places for audiences in search of information. If a brand can appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) will be a great competitive advantage for the brand. As paid ads show up at the top of SERPs, paid search is a useful digital marketing tool.
Although paid ads may take the top place, non-paid content can rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) under certain conditions. With search engine optimization (SEO), a brand can make content considered relevant by search engines and thereby manage to list it closer to the top of the page in the organic, non-paid search results.
Email marketing has a relatively long history and thus is regarded as an old digital marketing tool. However, as email marketing is basically based on the subscription by interested audiences, it is still a valid marketing tool.
Technological advances have enabled communication and campaignes implemented automatically, engaging current and potential customers at key times via email or social media.
Finally, with analytical tools on various platforms, marketers can adjust and optimize their campaigns on an ongoing basis for better marketing performance.
*Reference
Hanlon, A. (2021). Digital marketing: strategic planning & integration. Sage.
Digital Marketing Institute (2021). Introduction to Digital Marketing.