The term ‘Digital Marketing’ is trending heavily for some time now. But what exactly is Digital Marketing? Hi everyone, this is Digital Abhi, and today I will share what is Digital Marketing. Along with that, I will also share the different types of Digital Marketing and its basic concepts.
Also, if you are a video person, you can skip directly to the end of this post where I have embedded a video on the same. Or if you are quite busy, you can just listen to this content in a podcast form.
At the end of this post, I am gonna answer two questions that are asked most to me on Instagram: How to be a Digital Marketer? How to learn Digital Marketing?
What is Digital Marketing?
This term is quite a trending topic in the trending world for some time now. And especially in India, the search trend of this term has seen quite a sharp growth over the past 12 months. So, first of all, let us know what is digital marketing?
In the most simple words, when marketing is done with the help of digital mediums like smartphones, laptops, computers, etc, it is called Digital Marketing. Or in other words, it is having online visibility of your brand or business. You can do it with the help of a website or social media or online ads or any other online medium.
Types of Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is like a huge ocean. It has a lot of different aspects and elements. To help you understand better, this ocean is categorized into 9 major types. These major types are:
- Website Design & Development
- Search Engine Optimization or SEO
- Social Media Marketing or SMM
- Search Engine Marketing or SEM
- Email Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Online Reputation Management or ORM
- Display Ads or Banner Ads.
In this post, I have explained the basics of these different elements in short so that you can get an idea about them. Now let’s see each of these types one by one.
1. Web Design and Development
The first one is Web Design and Development. Web Design is the process of designing the visual part of a website, i.e., how the website will look and what will be the flow of the website. While on the other hand web development is the process of creating a fully functional website inspired by web design. These terms are often used simultaneously.
You can easily create a website with the help of WordPress. And if you want to learn WordPress for free, you can check out my free step by step guide on WordPress.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Next comes Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It is the process of optimizing the content of your webpage in order to rank higher and higher in search results. The goal of SEO is to increase the visibility of webpages or websites in search engines.
SEO is broadly classified into two categories: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. However, there are some other categories also, like Black Hat SEO, Gray Hat SEO, Technical SEO, White hat SEO.
One thing you need to know is that SEO is a time taking process. You cannot think SEO to start generating results within a week or something. It takes months for SEO to kick in. And sometimes, it takes years also.
3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
After SEO, comes its twin brother, SEM or Search Engine Marketing. It is the way of marketing in which the visibility of your website or webpages is increased on search engines through paid advertising.
How will you identify if something is promoted through SEM? Sometimes when you search on Google, you see ‘Ad’ written in small letters under some of the search results. Those are those who paid Google to show their results on the top. And thereby marketing themselves through Search Engine Marketing.
Contrary to its twin brother SEO, here, you pay search engines to show your webpages and website on the top of search results. But the advantage is that the results are instant. Also, SEM is pay per click-based advertising method where you pay for the number of clicks you get. If you don’t get any click, you pay nothing.
4. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
The next is Social Media Marketing. It is one of my favorite elements of Digital Marketing. I mean, in this fast-growing world of the internet, who doesn’t love social media? From school-going children to the senior citizens of our society, everybody is on social media.
And this is the reason Social Media Marketing helps businesses to reach out to their targeted audience. So, if you are a business you can easily reach your potential customers on the basis of age, interest, occupation, and a lot of other factors. All the sponsored posts you see on Facebook and Instagram are part of Social Media Marketing.
And let me tell you one important thing. If you need any kind of assistance for your business regarding social media marketing, web development, and SEO, you can mail me on workwithme@digitalabhi.com. Or you can contact me through social media also. All my social media profiles are mentioned at the end of this post.
5. Email Marketing
The next element is Email Marketing. Emails are there with us for ages now. And that’s why it is one of the highly effective digital marketing strategies. In email marketing, a business sends out emails to potential customers and prospects. You send out emails to promote your product or service, directly or indirectly.
Let me give you an example with which you can easily relate. Let’s say you bought something from Amazon. So, you will notice that after some time, Amazon will start sending you emails to buy more products from their website. But this is just a very generic example. You can use Email Marketing in a lot more different ways.
6. Affiliate Marketing
After that comes Affiliate marketing. In this, you register yourself as an affiliate partner with a business. And that company or organization pays you some commission each time you make a sale for their business. So, to understand this, let’s again take the example of Amazon. You go to Amazon’s website and sign up as an affiliate partner.
Now you will get an affiliate link from Amazon. And whenever someone buys a product from your link, you get paid. The commission you get varies from product to product. It can be 4%, 6% or 12%. Some businesses even pay their affiliates 30 40 and 50%. And some even pay a fixed price. Like in the case of Bluehost, you get $65 each time you make a sale.
But there’s one important thing you should note down. Before signing up as an affiliate for a company or a business, don’t forget to read the terms and conditions of their Affiliate Program.
7. Content Marketing
The next element of digital marketing is the one that I am doing right now at this moment. It is Content Marketing. It is the way of marketing that focuses on creating content and then sharing it or distributing it to the targeted audience.
Content Marketing is highly effective when it comes to engaging with your targeted audience and potential customers. In my words, it is the way in which you promote your products or services without promoting them.
8. Online Reputation Management (ORM)
The second last part of digital marketing is Online Reputation Management or ORM. As you would have already guessed from the name, it is the method or practice of maintaining or managing the image of a brand, business, organization, or individual.
We all know that when a brand starts getting some fame, there are always some people who try to defame it. So, in ORM, some techniques are strategized to shape the image of the brand in a positive way.
9. Display Ads or Banner Ads
The last one is Display Ads or Banner Ads. Display Advertising is advertising on websites and applications through different formats like text, image, video, etc. You may have heard this name for the first time, but I am sure you have seen display ads hundreds of times all over the internet.
Let me share an example. When you visit a news website, you see a lot of ads here and there promoting different ads and products. In the offline world, we have banners, posters, hoardings, etc. Similarly, in the online world, we have display ads.
Now the most asked question.
How can you learn Digital Marketing?
Look, it may be surprising to you but there are lots of resources available on the internet from where you can learn digital marketing for free. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel or blog where I consistently put content related to digital marketing.
Or you can check out other channels and resources also which are also putting great content related to digital marketing. I am mentioning a few sources from where you can learn for free:
These are sources which I use to keep myself updated with latest trends and updates in Digital Marketing. And now the other question.
How to become a Digital Marketer?
Being a digital marketer is like every other profession. You learn the theory, then you do the practicals and then you apply all that in the practical world. Yes, but the difference is, like every other profession, you don’t need to go to any kind of school or institute to learn digital marketing.
It’s not rocket science. People have just complicated it. Just look at me, I haven’t gone to any digital marketing institute or school to learn it. I learned it all from Google and Youtube. One more thing, as I previously told you, Digital Marketing is like a vast ocean spread all over. It is not possible for someone to swim all of it.
So, one needs to get their basics clear and then become an expert in a niche. And as I told you here is the video about all that which we discussed in this post.
Conclusion & General FAQ (What is Digital Marketing)
What is Digital Marketing?
It is the way of marketing in which digital mediums and methods are used to promote the products and services.
What are the different types of Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is a vast ocean. This ocean can be categorized into 9 major types:
1. Web Design Development
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
4. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
5. Email Marketing
6. Affiliate Marketing
7. Content Marketing
8. Online Reputation Management (ORM)
9. Display Ads or Banner Ads
So, this was my post about what is digital marketing and its different types. Thanks a lot for taking out time to read this post. I hope you got some value from this and if you did do let me know in the comments. Also, if you have any doubts, questions, or queries, you can shoot it in the comments section below.
Other than that, you can connect with me on social media. And share your doubts directly there. I will be happy to help you. And stay tuned to Digital Abhi as I am consistently putting valuable content for you.
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