What is digital marketing?

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a universe that brings together multiple practices using digital channels in order to achieve specific and, if possible, measurable objectives. But what exactly is digital marketing and what does it include?

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing refers to all marketing techniques used on digital media and channels to promote products and services. In digital marketing, an essential concept emerges: interactivity. We can also talk about webmarketing since the difference is mainly related to the environment, here internet.

Digital marketing, unlike traditional marketing, puts the customer at the heart of its strategy. Digital marketing is the result of two developments: marketing applications related to the Internet and those related to new information and communication technologies.

In this article defining digital marketing, we will present it in its different forms. We can mention among others, emailing, natural or SEO referencing, commercial links etc..

Emailing marketing

Emailing is a form of digital marketing that includes all the uses of email in the field of online advertising. The use of emailing is nowadays linked to customer loyalty issues, customer activation, etc.

This practice includes relational, transactional (newsletters), prospecting or sponsorship practices.

There were 131 billion emails sent in 2016 for a turnover of 105 million euros on the 22 routers that are members of SNCD.

Emailing always keeps an important place in the field of digital marketing.

Natural referencing or SEO

Natural SEO is one of the branches of search engine marketing. This notion of digital marketing refers to all the techniques used to optimize a website or pages.

In other words, this use aims to position itself at the forefront of natural results on search engines, including Google, following targeted requests from Internet users.

Natural referencing or SEO includes the optimization of a site's pages and the search for external links. The financial stakes associated with this practice can be considerable since they depend to a large extent on the visibility of a structure on the Internet.

Remember that there are 2 possibilities to find a company on the Internet:

1. Either you know her and enter her url or name directly on Google,
2. Either you enter a query on a search engine and you find the company among the results.

Thus the goal of any company is to appear on the first page of Google, anticipating the requests of Internet users and working on frequent searches for keywords related to its expertise. The content produced by the company will have to answer the questions that Internet users ask themselves about your business... and more.

Commercial links in digital marketing

In the field of digital marketing, commercial links represent the second branch of search engine marketing. Commercial links are advertising links in text format, displayed on the pages of search engine results. We are talking here about Google Adwords ads to promote it on the Internet.

These links are also used as text and image ads on Facebook or editorial sites. The advertiser is charged on a per click basis. In 2010, Google generated 97% of its revenue through commercial links.

In the USA, mobile search accounts for 16% to 22% of advertising spending.

Display advertising

Display advertising refers to all forms of digital marketing using graphic elements or videos as media.

There are several forms of display advertising:

• The classic display
• The video display
• The display displayed on the computer
• The display on mobiles and tablets

Among all these fields, video displays have dominated this market in recent years.

The affiliation

The purpose of affiliation is to promote products and services by using the services of affiliated partners. In general, the merchant site provides its partners with banner ads or text links.

Affiliates are paid by commissions on sales, visits, or if business contacts to be processed are generated via their affiliate links.

Content marketing

Content marketing, or content marketing, refers to all practices aimed at providing prospects or customers with a number of important content. The work around content marketing is relatively focused, because it is about meeting specific needs by attracting the customer to oneself.

The company will then create specific marketing content based on a product or service by addressing the issues surrounding it. The aim is for the consumer to easily find the product/service he needs thanks to the content broadcast, wherever the content arrives at the right time according to scenarios established upstream via automation marketing solutions.

The exhibition and distribution of content has become more popular thanks to the development of the Internet.

In this digital marketing market, content marketing strategies are generally developed as part of B2B or B2C marketing. The content is then exploited through marketing automation solutions in some cases.

Content marketing has several objectives:

• Generate more visits and leads
• Provide customer support
• Promote a lot of sales thanks to product descriptions and videos
• Enhance a brand etc.

Social marketing

In digital marketing, the notion of social marketing has two definitions depending on its context of use. In the first context, it concerns marketing actions aimed at promoting social causes.

This type of action is generally carried out by NGOs, associations or brands that seek to promote responsible behaviour among their consumers.

But social marketing is taking on a new connotation today, these marketing practices are much more common on social networks.

Mobile marketing within digital marketing

Mobile marketing is a growing form of digital marketing. It refers to all marketing techniques based on the use of mobile devices, including smartphones and multifunction tablets.

In a broader sense, mobile marketing could be defined as all marketing actions aimed at people in a mobile situation.

Marketing via social networks

Digital marketing via social networks is all the online sites that allow you to build a network of friends or professionals. We talk about communities as long as they are hosted within social networks, and are generally managed by an internal community manager or a freelance community manager.

These conversational platforms provide their members with interactive communication tools and interfaces.

The most popular social networks used by us are: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap, Linkedin and Youtube. Their high audience makes them essential marketing and advertising tools for many digital marketing players.

We can also highlight here social selling and all that concerns the promotion of its products / services or the search for potential customers via social networks.

Marketing SMS

Marketing SMS refers to the sending of short messages to prospects and for commercial purposes. It is one of the 3 pillars of digital promotion.

With similarities to emailing, SMS (Short Message Service) is a communication tool widely used by companies, wishing to communicate quickly with a specific target group. SMS is also used as a reminder solution on shopping carts abandoned in e-commerce.

In 2009, more than 1 million marketing SMS messages were sent during Christmas and New Year's Day. SMS messages are getting ahead of emailing.

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