"The future of advertising is the Internet" - Bill
Gates
Considered amongst the smartest men alive, Bill Gates
couldn't have put things more distinctly. Digital Marketing has taken the field
of marketing itself in a direction many didn't see coming some time ago. The
ubiquity of internet devices and social media connectivity has made this field
an indispensable today's advertising business.
On the outset, this does seem an easy enough concept. The
promotion of products and services online through peer-to-peer sharing and
other strategies seems simple enough to understand, but notoriously tough to
implement.
Before delving into techniques and strategies, the question
is- What is digital marketing?
The Essentials of Digital Marketing
The marketing of any product or service on a digital medium
is called digital marketing. The medium can be computers, mobile phones,
tablets or even iPods.
There is a reason why such marketing overpowered traditional
advertising. On televisions and billboards, advertising is a one-way street.
Customers don't have a platform to communicate with manufacturers and companies
themselves. This gap in communication is eliminated by the internet.
Online platforms selling products like Amazon and Flipkart
rank products based on consumer ratings and allow customers to give in-depth
reviews about the product in question. This creates a direct line of
communication between consumers and manufacturers as the latter is able to
grasp what the former truly needs.
Strategies and Techniques
As mentioned above, digital marketing might seem
straightforward but involves a large amount of planning. Some techniques used
by the individuals to increase the online visibility of a website are mentioned
below:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): It is
a set of guidelines set by search engines which if followed, results in a
higher position of a website on Search Engine Page Rankings (SERP). These
guidelines include factors like keyword density, back-linking, domain authority
etc.
2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Though
SEO is a subset of SEM, many experts use SEM while talking about paid
advertising online. To get higher rankings on search engines, companies often
purchase certain keywords on search engines. SEM deals only with paid results
while SEO is about unpaid and organic results.
3. Social Media Marketing: Seeing a chunk
of the online audience on social media websites, forming a solid social media
marketing plan has become essential for digital marketing strategies of
companies. Using trending posts and targeting specific groups of people online
who might feel interested in a product offered by a company are only some ways
of promoting products on social media.
The Legacy of Digital marketing
While there is no denying the importance of digital media,
there will come a time when companies will have to change their approach yet
again. Marketing is a very dynamic field. Considering the organic nature of
audience online, it is safe to assume the tide will turn soon. Whether digital
marketing chooses to swim or drown remains to be seen.
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