What is Digital marketing?

If you Google this question to learn and understand what Digital marketing means, approximately 2,96,00,00,000 results, in around 0.54 seconds, fight with each other to deliver the best result to you.

Moreover, your quest to learn what digital marketing is could have economic, financial, knowledge-oriented, and social intent. But ‘intent’ to deliver the best web results (SERP – Search Engine Result Page) was never this good.

For most people born after 1995, Google means the Internet.

You might be hearing people in your network or family probably saying, “I Googled this. “Which is the best book on digital marketing? Google it!”

Ellen DeGeneres mentioned how an HR would have reached if you were to ‘Google‘ someone (assuming you were a working professional).

On a lighter note! as she mentions Yahoo (on 0:51 ), Bing must be having a sigh of relief 

And this was in 2012, mind you!

This was the early 2000s when the dot com bubble had already paved its way to transform how we ‘seek’ information.

In 2020, to quench the thirst for understanding digital marketing, this article intends to present the contextual relevance of digital marketing for both business and learning goals.

So, the article has been divided into two sections.

1. The 1st section talks about the early days of the Internet, which laid grounds for digital marketing.
2. The 2nd section covers what digital marketing is and how it fits into our daily life.
3.  

Or, in case you want to take a historical ride, please be with me.

Evolution Of Internet Web Era

The year was 1990.

Before the database of 2,96,00,00,000 results, digital was still not mainstream, and marketing was still revolving around the TV, Radio, and Press.

The web had yet to see a ‘digital’ office, magazine, dentist, shop, movies, or marketing, and the quest to understand and learn more about how digital marketing saw its humble beginning in the early 90s.

There was nothing ‘digital’ about marketing, and the World Wide Web (notice, I did not use the word ‘Internet’ here) was unseen.

The year was enjoying its fair share of pioneering moments of culture, commerce, and technology.

• The Simpsons came on air on Fox.
• The great Berlin Wall saw its demise.
• Morvan and Rob Pilatus of the famous duo Milli Vanilli ended up returning their Grammy Award (syncing lips was yet to be mainstream)
• John Major took over from Margaret Thatcher and became the next PM in the UK.
• Nelson Mandela comes out of Jail.
• The 62nd Academy Awards was all about Driving Miss Daisy as the Best Picture.
• Boris Yeltsin became the 1st president in the Russian Soviet Federation Socialist Republic.
• The train journey from Manchester to London Euston railway station made a young J.K. Rowling write on ‘Harry Potter.’
• The 1990 FIFA world cup, in Italy, for the first time broadcasted in HD
• East and West Germany combined their currencies.
• The Gulf war started.
• Pizza Hut opened its first store in China.

By this, the march of 1990 had reached October.

The very month when the world welcomes the first-ever website; live at CERN.

The out of ‘frustration’ Birth of the World Wide Web (www)

…by Tim Berners-Lee.

It was the Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist working at CERN – with over 11,000 employees, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, near Geneva, Switzerland, whose brainchild in the form of the World Wide Web came to life.

Tim was working at CERN as a contractor since 1980. His job roles would revolve around working in tandem with different researchers, sitting in different locations. With all this, he also was supposed to work with lots of information.

So, he would switch to different computers and log in to get the information he needed. Imagine the frustration, not on his computer at work.

“In those days, there was different information on different computers, but you had to log on to different computers to get at it. Also, sometimes you had to learn a different program on each computer. Often it was just easier to go and ask people when they were having coffee…”,

Tim says.

This was the sapling.

He wanted to solve this problem of access to information and do away with the frustration of logging onto the different workstation.

To fix the problem of the straitjacket of hierarchical documentation systems, he thought of a database of information (keep these three words – database, of and information in mind – will help ahead) so that information could send data and communicate over a network, without the fuss of emailing (Abhay Bhushan at MIT had already built File Transfer Protocol and Email protocols for the ARPANET).

Bingo! This was 1989.

March 12 1989 and he went to his Boss Mr. Mike Sendall, and in a typical style, he noted “Vague, but interesting” on the proposal cover.

The ‘Web’ document was not an official CERN project.

Despite this fact, Mr. Sendall asked Tim to develop and shape this idea of a distributed and automated information-sharing system for scientists in universities and institutes around the world.

Now, this idea of having a connected ‘hyperlinked’ database has a little background.

By the 1980s, Tim had already built a software program, written in Pascal programming language, called ENQUIRE (abbreviation of “Enquire-Within-Upon-Everything”).

Although the program never saw the light but its laid ground in storage information in the form of connections (links).

This was the prototype, an improved version of ENQUIRE, which led him to the bedrock of this document system of ‘Information Management: A Proposal‘ (which further became the World Wide Web) – basically a married system of hypertextual data.

Anyway! So, as asked by Mr. Sendell, by 1990, he was

By 1990, he was ready with a proposal named “Information Management: A Proposal.”

Do you notice ‘information management’ – how futuristic was that?

On November 12, 1990, Tim, along with Belgian systems engineer Robert Cailliau, revisited Mr. Sendell, and this time, the document was improvised and outlined with steps.

Called the World Wide Web, it talked about “hypertext project,” and the web comprised of documents that could be seen on ‘web browsers.’

So now the network effect or ‘stay connected’ leapfrogged to the idea of getting more from an interconnected network of computers.

the interconnected network of computers = Internet

“I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and — ta-da! — the World Wide Web.”

Tim Berners-Lee Answers for Young People

So, the Internet was already there.

The history of the internet roots back to 1960 already to have US military communication over a connected network. With the help of packet-switching, transmission of data/information founds a way to span across a network.

ARPA-interface-message-processor

Login was Internet’s first word, but the system crashed after typing ‘l’ and ‘o’.

So, the events continue.

The World Wide Web was on the horizon. So it was time to make ‘Vague, but exciting’ less vague.

Trivia:

The World Wide Web was not the first choice. Before www, different names were thought about.

Monikers like Mine of Information, The Information Mine, and Information Mesh were ignored before the World Wide Web was the chosen one.

Tim started working on this idea and began working on a. With his CERN partner, Robert Cailliau; he coded the world’s first web browser and web server – both running on Tim’s NeXT Computer – of Apple fame (Steve Jobs had left Apple by then, interestingly).

First WorldWideWeb Server

The First Web Server and the first web browser

Enter world’s first website:

http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

By the end of 1990, the world’s first website and web browser went live at CERN on his NeXT computer.

Tim called his browser World Wide Web.

Note, this was not to be confused by the World Wide Web. But he decided to keep confusion at bay and renamed his browser as ‘Nexus.’

Moot question and its importance in global economic, financial, and social connections after the pandemic were discussed.

The world’s first website, http://info.cern.ch, was launched on August 6, 1991

3 Stages Of Internet Growth

With browsers coming to the fore, the evolution of the Internet also saw how Archie, the first search engine pioneered the search engine landscape.

Web 1.0

Known as the first massive form of the world wide web, web 1.0 is retronym describes the first stage of how the Internet evolved. Before 1999, Internet was all about being the ‘read only’ web. Being the first stage of the Internet, its offering was one-sided, i.e., reading the content only.

There were not many content creators for basic-HTML websites, using Frames and HTML tables.

And this was the time when browsers were trying to secure their places while computers were becoming a household item.

Internet was growing, and browsers were trying to make their presence felt,

What Is A Web Browser?

If you are reading this article on Google Chrome or Firefox, you are already using a browser.

So, applications like Google Chrome web browser job are to be your guide on the web, show text, images, and video from anyone and anywhere on the Internet.

The most common internet browsers are

• Microsoft Internet Explorer,
• Google’s Chrome,
• Mozilla Firefox,
• Apple’s Safari, and
• Opera etc

People in the early 1990s were very much like beginners. Started with simple

world’s first website

It was the august day of August 6, 1991, when the world’s first website was live, with the DNS name info.cern.ch).

With this massive success, the website was open for people outside CERN to join this new web community.

Growth Of The Web

On April 30, 1993, CERN made World Wide Web (“W3”, or simply “the web”) software accessible for everyone – meaning it was open in public to access.

So, the basic function of a web browser is to renter HTML code to present HTML to a human-friendly language i.e., English.

Browser War

From a U.S.-dominated communications center to spreading across to Asia and Europe, the geography of the Internet was surging ahead.

New browser companies were coming up, and every browser wanted to be at the forefront of the internet revolution as the 1990s unfolded.

By 1993, the clash of browsers was swashbuckling.

By the late 2000s, HTML5 and CSS 3 were already visible, which led to fierce competition among Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera, etc.

So, what started with accessing documents remotely had made its entry to common people’s lives.

Search Engine Wars

Besides browsers, a separate war was unfolding, which started between 1994 and 1995. First, it was the advent of new search engines.

You must be using Google today to learn, research, and gather information.

But it was not the case back in the early 90s.

What started with Archie paved the way for:

• Veronica (1992),
• Lycos (1993),
• Yahoo! (1994),
• AltaVista (1995)
• Internet Explorer and
• Google etc.

As Google changed how people used Brower, its ability to deliver relevant SERP changes the search engine circuit in 1998

But before Google’s birth in 1997, the trinity of Yahoo, Infoseek, and Lycos were the popular choices.

History of search engines timeline

1. Archie – The first Search Engine: Archie used FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites
2. World Wide Web Virtual Library (VLib) – Tim Berners-Lee set up a Virtual Library
3. Veronica
4. Jughead
5. World Wide Web Wanderer
6. Infoseek
7. EINet Galaxy
8. Yahoo! Search
9. WebCrawler
10. Lycos
11. LookSmart
12. Excite
13. AltaVista
14. Google’s beginnings: BackRub
15. Inktomi: HotBot
16. AskJeeves/Ask.com
17. MSN Search
18. Google Launches
19. Overture (Formerly Goto.com)
20. AllTheWeb
21. Bing

What is the meaning of Digital Marketing?

This is the section where we discuss all things digital marketing.

Digital marketing is the online action or business on an electronic device or the internet. In other words, digital marketing is an umbrella term for online media channels, to promote all marketing and engagement activities done through online media channels. The role of digital marketing is to reach out to prospects, who are on internet, to make prospective customers.

As I have talked earlier, internet was the chief medium of marketing before ‘digital’ became the ultimate disruptor.

Here is the proof:

NB: Hover over the year 2012 and you will see ‘Digital Marketing’ as a search interest was nowhere. It was all about ‘online marketing’.

But in 5 years, things have changed

Do you know her?

Meet Cait Scudder, an American millennial woman and world traveler who earns six figures a year by coaching women to confidently own and use their gifts to create a profitable and purpose-driven business

Millennial. 6 figure business.

Ideal movie plot?

This is what made her turn heads online.

Is she like you? Of course.

Hailing from a small city in Ohio, she created a super popular clothing design business.

Is she rich now? Yes.

Many of us do not know who Cait Scudder is, but she is a successful internet entrepreneur. Raking a great amount of moolah, she earns six figures a year by coaching women and making it a reality for so many like us.

But how it happened? She understood the power of ‘digital’ and solving business problems.

This is what makes your laptop or desktop such a powerful tool to realize your digital

aspirations.

If you remember the times before the 1990s, promoting your business idea was revolved around print and TV media, primarily.

Keeping your business thriving and the cost of making ROI possible

Digital and Marketing

Since the advent of the web, digital marketing has become the all-encompassing term to inspire promotional activities online.

Although, we know how email and the Internet existed before 1991 and how computers, getting connected changed the world.

Meaning of Digital

All this happened because computers are becoming mainstream.

As we know, a computer is an electronic device whose job is to stores, retrieves, and processes data.

And the computer is a digital device, i.e.; it works according to just two values, 0 and 1, or off and on.

In short, Digital marketing is the subset of marketing wherein we use the Internet or digital ways to get potential prospects interested.

In other words, you use the web/internet to connect with people who might be interested in your product or services.

Sounds easy? Many think so, and this leads to fierce competition to outsmart each other. And every win has a cost involved.

Yes.

The importance of this is that as 2020 started, digital marketing spending saw a 13% increase.

Getting prospects interested is the core mantra behind the digital marketing thought process.

Besides, what is the meaning of having an online business and getting it visible via an ideal digital marketing channel is what the following person realized.

Since the past decade, the way technology moved globalization rode high owing to the value of knowledge and information in the form of data.

The way technology shook hands with marketing has been both challenging and brilliant. It was challenging because tech development surges much faster than execution.

And brilliant because of the birth and rise of GAAF (Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook) and all that jazz.

In a true sense, you are surfing the Internet using the Google search engine. You also chat or interact with news and your network on social media sites.

With emails, you love sending resumes to HR or simply sending/receiving emails.

The same Internet is used to watch videos on YouTube or other video sites.

If we talk about how many people, like you, have embraced the Internet, the following might help.

In 2020, here is what you see:

Statistics on Internet Usage 2020

• Search Engine searches on applications Google
• Social media users
• Usage of email
• Number of online videos
• how many internet users shop online?

Google Searches per Year on the internet

Google handles over 3 billion searches per day, i.e., over 40,000 search queries/second on average.

So becoming a regular ‘verb’ in our lives has made us wiser.

And “81% of people search online for a product or service.”

Social media usage on the internet

And it is assumed you must be using social media sites or platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat, etc., also.

In 2020, an estimated more than 3.5 billion people made social media usage part of their lives.

By 2025, the number is estimated to be almost 4.41 billion.

Number of global social network users 2017-2025

Let me show you how many people, like you, use social media.

Number of global social network users 2017-2025: source

Email users on the internet:

Besides Search engine like Google and social media sites, you might be using emails to send or receive mails on the internet.

So, the relevant question to include, in this trail of statistics is how many people use emails in the world?

As per record, n 2019, there were 3.9 billion email users and it is on its way to touch 4.48 billion mark in 2024.

Number of e-mail users worldwide from 2017 to 2025

Number of e-mail users worldwide from 2017 to 2025 : Source

Number of people watching videos online

Video has become part of the web. In fact, most popular video streaming services in the United States as of September 2019, by mobile reach

Number of people watching videos online

Online Shopping (e-commerce) on internet

Nearly 2 billion people do online shopping worldwide.

In fact, during this pandemic, 42% of the US population headed to the web to buy groceries online. This is double of eCommerce transactions that took place in 2018.

And it is being speculated that eCommerce will make up 22% of global retail sales by 2023.

Online Shopping (e-commerce) on internet

The Internet’s Impact on Marketing

Why is being online important?

What was the motive behind showing you the numbers above?

In this information and digital age, internet users like you have a great source.

For businesses, people like you who are active on using the Search engine, social media channels, video sites, email platforms, or simply making online transactions are important.

This is where digital marketing comes into the picture. Businesses need to be online to be visible for your eyeballs.

And in case you want to get into digital marketing, you need to understand the digital customer journey.

With initial engagement in the form of touchpoints on Google Search, Social media, emails, or video, etc., you lay down a process.

The process which, as expected, a prospect interacts with your brand and then thinks of deciding about your offering.

This gives a spacious feel of liberty and paves the way for a non-linear marketing approach.

Quite briefly, let us try to understand and dedicate a small section to non-linear marketing.

What is non-linear marketing?

Before getting into non-linear marketing, let us do the reverse-engineering.

Let us understand what linear marketing is. Before the pre-digital time, I mean before 1992, marketing was linear in nature.

Known as traditional marketing, TV, music, newspapers, billboards and radio etc. are examples of linear media as they are watched/read or heard on a fixed time. Pretty one-directional brand storytelling method it is.

There is no ‘on-demand’ concept and it looks linear in approach as there is one-way messaging only.

On the other hand, non-linear marketing – better known as interactive marketing – is about being part of lives of prospects and customers through events, stories, interactive content, and even ads etc.

Definition of Non-linear marketing:

Then the Internet broke this thought and changed advertisement forever. We as consumers see media and at the drop of a hat (referred to as web browsers).

Simple definition of non-linear marketing is all about reaching your audience or business prospects across multiple online channels.

When you read reports about more than 90% of users prefer the web before making choices about online Shopping, this is where Research Online Buy Offline

non-linear-marketing-definition

Definition of Digital Marketing

Before getting to the digital side, let me ask you. What is marketing?

The simple answer could be: Marketing is the technique to promote a product or service.

Add digital, and it becomes digital marketing.

Hence, the new definition would be:

Digital marketing is a marketing technique to promote a product or service by using digital channels or the Internet.

And what are the digital channels?

Search engines, social media, blogs, mobile apps, email, videos, and websites are prime examples of digital channels.

Why is digital marketing important?

It does not make any sense if you want to be a reader or user of the Internet.

But if the question is doing rounds in the mind of a person who wants to make a career in digital marketing or simply reach more people online, this is an extremely valid question.

Before getting into it, here is what is happening online:

Digital Marketing For businesses:

Businesses are and should invest in digital marketing campaigns because that is how and where they meet their prospects online.

Of course, there is a traditional way of reaching out to them in the form of TV, FM channels, newspapers, radio, etc., the online approach unfolds endless opportunities.

With the advent of web 3.0, the digital marketing landscape changed, and businesses started thinking of setting both short- and long-term commercial futures.

Why Digital Marketing is Important for Business

As Yogi Berra said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.”, times have changed.

And suppose you think about what the role of digital marketing to a company is. In that case, the answer is ‘aplenty.’

Since the advent of web 2.0, traditional sales and marketing paradigms have been undergoing massive change.

Right from finding doctors online to learning online, we have no qualms in nodding because convenience is highest on our priority list.

Of course, some businesses are still reticent to embrace (we are “too different” or “too unique”) web presence.

How businesses spread the word about their products and services can meet unlimited opportunities to find a relevant audience online – pitch or spread the news about products or services.

How digital marketing is carried out is a subsequent notion but before that, let us see why a business invests in digital marketing campaigns:

Digital Marketing Advantage #1 – Find Relevant People online

With the growth of the internet and communication devices, it has become super easy to be ‘on the go.

With Web 3.0, Internet has become to consume news and have connectivity.

We are in major cultural disruption.

With more than 7.5 billion people using the Internet daily, imagine the kind of traction a business can get.

Source

With a robust digital marketing strategy for Search, Social media, emails, mobile apps, and other channels, this “fingertip society” can get ROI-friendly consumers.

But this all is a reality only if you are visible to your prospects online.

Digital Marketing Advantage #2 : Cost-Effective than traditional marketing

Ask any businessman about a postcard and an Instagram social post.

In his answer, there is a high chance of the presence of a budget.

It is tough and strategic to market itself. So, for an entrepreneur who wants to gain visibility online, digital marketing stratifies can be much cost-effective than the traditional marketing approach.

Of course, there are great advantages in mass coverage and stronger impact, but with digital marketing comes the freedom to adjust the context.

Also, the difficulty of tracking the ROI of marketing campaigns is what makes digital marketing more cost-effective.

Also, there is no interaction with prospects as a linear, even if you pay heavily on Billboard or newspaper. Investments in printing ads, billboards, brochures, etc., are costlier than digital marketing channels to attract more audiences at a low cost.

Let us try to understand what is involved in a TV campaign for a Dentist in NYC

• Setup Process Design + Production
• Setup Cost in million
• Cost of Media Per 30 second ad
• Cost to Continue Cost of media + agency hourly rate
• Demographic Served Anyone watching TV
• Definitive ROI Tracking? No

Now, in such a setup, there is a great volume of exposure. No doubt about this.

But what sounds better?

Spending dollars on elaborate print or television advertising campaigns with

• no sure-shot formula of tracking who watched/read the ad as it was for everyone
• no idea about ROI (return on investment on the ad campaign)

Or a way to target a highly targeted audience with

• highly specific audiences
• customize messaging
• tracking parameters where is the money being spent
• ROI etc.?

I am not against traditional marketing methods, but I see a sweet spot between traditional marketing and digital marketing.

Still, when you see the following trend, you as a business owner who never tried hands in promoting your business online should check:

Global internet advertising spending from 2007 (in million USD)

Global internet advertising Source

So, what’s Shaping the Digital Ad Market?

The trinity of advertising technology, data, and ecommerce has a firm handshake with the growing trend of convergence within the total marketing and advertising landscape.

Last year, worldwide digital ad spending nearly secured nearly half of the global ad spend.

Here is what EMarketer suggested:

How many people are using internet?

As of December 2019, there are more than 4.5 billion people who are actively using the Internet. It means that more than 58% population in the world has internet access.

And which countries have the maximum shares?

China, India, and the United States, China, and India have many internet users.

Having mentioned all the above, we should not rule out using the Internet on devices. This is also important to look back at 2014. The shift of mobile web had already surpassed the desktops in the US.

Talking about developing nations, using smartphones to use the internet and run apps, hallmarks how they are the preferred devices are the most prevalent type of mobile devices.

Number of smartphones to use internet and apps

adults-using-smartphones

Source

What do these statistics indicate?

Businesses should be where their prospects are. Here are the four famous digital marketing campaigns which turned heads:

3 most successful digital marketing Campaigns

Digital Marketing Campaign Example #1 Heineken #BackTheBars Campaign

What was this? – Video campaign to support bars facing tough times in Corona pandemic

Type: Video

What was this? – Video campaign to support bars facing tough times in Corona pandemic

For the uninitiated, Heineken, the Dutch Food, Drink & Tobacco company, is the world’s 83rd most valuable brand in 2020 on Forbes. With more than $26.8B in sales, 2020 is shining for Heineken.

The Coronavirus pandemic has been hard-hitting on various industries. One of the most badly impacted industries is restaurants and bars.

Heineken also suffered a monetary blow in this pandemic by seeing a loss

Heineken’s #BackTheBars campaign is about supporting the aftermath of Corona’s impact on pubs, restaurants, and bars and stay them afloat.

The core message was “bars need life, as much as life needs bars.” It would help in battling the hardship during the testing time of social distancing.

So, to tackle the problem of buying beverages physically, the Heineken digital campaign was to push the advance purchase of combos.

This was in sync with the mention of Comprafutura, basically, a platform, who would transfer the 100% digital/online payment of beverages directly to the bars.

Digital Marketing Campaign Example #2 – Dollar Shave Club Digital Marketing Campaign

Shaving could be helluva of a boring chore.

But when you turn this epitome of a boring task into a subscription-based razor retailer company and succeed in soaring to a $615 million valuation in less than five years, Dollar Shave Club is the example you should read about.

Dollar shave club’s digital marketing strategy was simple.

Problem-solving approach: Dollar Shave Club, as the men’s grooming, has a simple value proposition. They paved the way to solving the difficulty and inconvenience of buying razor blades.

What they did– As one of the most inspirational start-up marketing strategies, the entrepreneurial inspiration to lock horns with established players, like Gillette, Dollar Shave Club embraced offbeat humor to make headlines about its launch.

How did they do? They launched a video on YouTube, and it became supernova-viral. The famous “Our Blades Are F****** Great!” video with its warehouse and humorous lines on the characters in the video.

The video took one day to complete, and the CEO had to cough up $4,500.

Result?

2,000 interests from people in the very first two days

5 million views in 3 months

37.2K subscribers (as I write)

Great brand positioning with comments like:

dollar-shave-club-digital-marketing-case-study

Digital Markeing Campaign Example #3. Swiggy Instagram Campaign

Swiggy in India is what GrubHub in the US.

A food ordering and delivery platform, Swiggy has the largest restaurant aggregation on its platform.

What was the Swiggy Voice of Hunger Campaign?

Background- So Instagram had recently launched its Voice Note feature as DMs.

Swiggy, as its marketing aim was, wanted to boost mobile app installations with loads of UGC (user-generated content) to boost social reach.

What was Swigggy VoiceofHunger campaign about?

So, its VoiceOfHunger viral social media challenge asked foodies to send noises, in the form of DMs, to match the shape of food.

With social media influencers taking participation in this challenge, the campaign’s reach got a massive boost.

Result? 1.5L DMs in 10 days.

Boosting its social reach by 7,700%.

7 Types of Digital Marketing Channels

7 Categories of Digital Marketing

Type 1: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is seo in digital marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your webpages and online content according to search engine guidelines.

SEO Explained: What Is SEO and How Does SEO Work?

A type of digital marketing, Search engine optimization (SEO),

SEO tactics can be categorized into two buckets:

• On-page SEO: Activities which you perform on yout webpages
• Off-page SEO: Activities which you perform off-site i.e. not on your webpage but on someone else’s website. This is more about backlink strategy for top rankings on Google.

Type 2: Content Marketing

Content marketing is the digital marketing strategy where different types of content are created and shared to attract target audience.

types of content for digital marketing

• Blogging
• Video
• Podcasting
• Infographics
• Email
• Visual content
• Ebooks
• Lead magnets
• Whitepapers
• presentations
• Quizzes
• Checklists
• Courses
• Webinars
• Slide decks
• Free apps
• Social media posts

Type 3: Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in Digital Marketing

“Search Engine Marketing” is all about paid search marketing.

In short, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), in Digital Marketing, strategy is using paid strategies to increase search visibility.

Type 4: Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Type 5: Email Marketing

Type 6: Video Marketing

Type 7: Affiliate Marketing

Future of Digital Marketing : Trends in 2021

More and more are going to embrace  Digital Darwinism. Talk of the Future of Digital Marketing and with leading technologies like the following are going to be the game changers. Here is the list of such technologies:

1. Artificial Intelligence,
2. Programmatic Advertising,
3. Chatbots,
4. Conversational Marketing,
5. Personalization of content
6. Video Marketing
7. Influencer Marketing
8. Social Messaging Apps
9. Voice Search & Smart Speakers
10. Social Media Stories
11. A/B Split Testing
12. Interactive Content
13. Omnichannel Marketing
14. Augmented Reality (AR) & Immersive Technologies
15. Predictive & Augmented Analytics
16. Geo-Fencing
17. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
18. User-Generated Content (UGC)
19. Blockchain Technology
20. Big Data and Deep Learning
21.  Automation (& AI)
22. Smart Bidding
23. SERP Position Zero
24. Website Security
25. IoT Advertising

Conclusion:

Now, for a long-term effective digital marketing strategy, having an idea of your audience online will pave the way of targeting prospects through digital ways of marketing online. Personalized marketing campaigns, coupled with the most relevant content for your prospects, will help you practice what you know about digital marketing and how it works.