Digital Marketing

Web 2.0

Web 1.0 was the first form of digital marketing—traditional marketing but on an online platform. There was no feedback between companies and customers, just outgoing messages. Web 2.0 is the result of technological advancements. It allows communities to exist online, which form their own opinions about products, brands, and the media. More importantly, perhaps, it enables a feedback loop between companies and the customers they serve.

Channels

There are a wide range of digital marketing tools that allow business to communicate with their target audiences effectively and efficiently. These include:

• Website or blog. A website is a necessity for any brand, allowing it to use content marketing strategies, affiliate marketing, inbound marketing, and more.
• Social media marketing (SMM Social networks are an extremely effective means of marketing, enabling easy community feedback.
• Email marketing. Email marketing currently offers the highest return on investment (ROI) when done successfully.
• Search engine optimization (SEO). This involves leveraging techniques that will help your website rank higher in search engines. People rarely move beyond the first page on an engine search, so ranking higher will significantly increase the chances of getting quality traffic.
• Search engine marketing (SEM). This involves monitoring popular and trending keywords and performing online marketing campaigns in social networks, search engines, and websites with banners or videos.
• Video platforms. Much like social media, video platforms make sharing content efficient and allow for easy feedback.

Benefits

Digital marketing has many advantages over non-digital means, which makes it the safest investment when trying to grow, improve your positioning, and/or deepen your engagement with an audience.

1. Universal. No other means make it as easy to take your brand to the other side of the world, whether you're a small business or a big company. Digital marketing allows you to carry your brand, products, and services anywhere—and for minimal cost.
2. Easy segmentation. Digital Marketing makes it possible to select each individual you want to target with your marketing campaign, enabling you to focus your efforts on the exact desired audience. It is also possible to create a different campaign for each segmented profile, something that was nearly impossible using offline means.
3. Measurable. Due to the nature of digital communication, it is possible to track real-time interactions between audiences and your websites or advertisements. You can measure the success of your campaign and pull back at any time if you don’t get the results you’re looking for.
4. Less intrusive. Many traditional means of advertising involve discomfort for the targeted individual, like with telemarketing. With digital marketing, audiences only interact with an advertisement if they’re interested. Segmentation also makes it possible for only people who are interested in your product to see your campaign.
5. Interactive. Thanks to social networks and other platforms that allow two-way communication, you can create a community around your brand. Communication is critical to know your customers and followers, and to know where to improve.
6. Economical. With few exceptions, it’s easier for businesses to afford digital advertisements than ads using traditional means. It also allows you to adjust your strategies to fit your budget and manage your campaign more efficiently overall.

Conclusion

With the number of people who spend time online, digital marketing is the obvious choice for businesses today. Digital marketing is easier, more cost effective, and often more effective than traditional means—and it allows for some unique opportunities that traditional means just can’t compete with.