What is digital marketing?

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is the promotion and marketing of goods and services to consumers through digital channels and electronic technologies.

These digital channels can include the internet, mobile devices, social media platforms, webinars, search engines, online customer communities and other digital platforms.

Digital marketing also includes a range of approaches and tactics to reach and persuade the target audience through digital media, including email marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing and online advertising.

The goal of digital marketing is to improve brand awareness, generate leads, increase website traffic and, ultimately, drive sales and business growth.

The process can involve digital marketing tactics similar to traditional marketing. Organizations can combine both traditional and digital marketing techniques as a strategy.

Importance of digital marketing

The use of digital marketing has surged due to the widespread availability of digital platforms and plays an important role for businesses in the following ways:

Digital marketing helps an organization appeal to a much larger audience than it could through traditional marketing methods because the reach of the internet is worldwide.
This marketing method also lets organizations target prospective customers who are most likely to buy their product or service. For example, a company can advertise holiday sales by emailing past customers or by sharing news of the deals on social media.
Organizations have several different online methods they can use to reach out to customers, including emails, social media, mobile apps, text messages, banner advertisements or affiliate marketing.
Social media provides a common way for individuals to interact and communicate with organizations. Likewise, marketers can collect insights from their target audience on these platforms and increase customer engagement by communicating with them.
Digital marketing strategies can be quickly shifted as needed. The platform and format of communication can be changed if the target audience moves platforms, for example.
Digital marketing lets organizations use a variety of tools and metrics to understand the behavior and preferences of customers, prospects and leads.
From social media listening to predictive analytics and big data analytics, organizations can enlist a variety of resources to understand customer responses to their digital marketing efforts.

Types of digital marketing

Digital marketing applies to all industries and business types but requires a tailored approach to be effective.

As such, digital marketing can appear in many forms, including the following:

Email marketing. Organizations reach out to customers and prospects through email to promote current business practices such as sales or events.
Social media marketing. Organizations use social media marketing through social networks and platforms, including Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn and Pinterest to connect and communicate with customers and prospective customers, notifying them of updates or deals, as well as just communicating and building social trust.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. PPC advertising lets organizations advertise on different websites with paid ads. An example of such an advertisement is a banner ad.
If enough data or cookies are collected about a user, these ads can be targeted by characteristics such as age, gender, location or general interests. The ad publisher is paid every time a user clicks on the ad.
Content marketing. This digital marketing strategy tries to reach customers through content. Content refers to something an organization produces and publishes on a website with the intent to promote it through other marketing types, such as social media or email.
Sponsored content. An organization pays another business to create and promote content that highlights the marketer's product or service.
Affiliate marketing. An organization pays a commission to an influencer on a specific platform, such as YouTube or Instagram, to promote its product or service.
Short Message Service (SMS) marketing. Organizations might choose to use SMS messages to send promotions to customers. Political candidates running for office commonly send SMS messages as a part of their campaigning efforts.
Video marketing. Video marketing involves using video content to promote products, services or brands across digital channels. It can be used across different platforms, including social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, as well as on company websites.
Video marketing can also take the form of product demonstrations, customer testimonials or live-streaming events. It can engage viewers, raise brand awareness and drive conversions by using appealing visuals and storytelling.
Marketing automation. Marketing automation software has also become increasingly important to digital marketing, as companies try to reach a broader swath of potential customers and link customer behavior with potential new purchases.
For example, organizations use marketing automation to measure visitor behavior on their websites, and then target visitors to potentially sell products and services.

Digital marketer roles and the KPIs they measure

Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of roles and responsibilities. Some common digital marketing roles and the KPIs they measure include the following:

SEO specialist

An SEO specialist focuses on optimizing websites and content to improve search engine rankings. To increase organic traffic, they conduct keyword research, build backlinks, optimize on-page elements and analyze website performance.