How does digital marketing work?

 The number of people using the internet has been on the rise ever since it's invention and of recent times, that number is increasing rapidly with more persons spending time on the net and the digitalization of almost everything, It's safe to say the internet is one of our greatest asset of the modern world.

What is marketing

According to the English dictionary, ' marketing is the promotion, distribution and selling of a product or service'. When you see a billboard  of a real estate company along the road promoting their monthly sales discount, or a sales person hands over a flyer for their company's new branch opening, all that should come to your mind is "this is simply Marketing' and the good thing is almost every product or service is being marketed today hence the access we have to the product or service.

What is digital marketing

Wikipedia defines it as the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. 

I simply define digital marketing as the use of the internet and it's tools to market and sell a product/service.

  There are so many definitions of digital marketing but one thing that is a constant in all these definitions is the "use of the internet". Knowing digital marketing is an aspect of marketing that uses the internet,one would ask why so? Why ditch the traditional form of marketing? 

Why digital marketing?

Marketing has always been about connecting with your audience in the right place and the right time. And today that means you need to meet them where they spend the most time or where they're already spending time which is the internet!.

  Unfortunately traditional marketing isn't as effective as it used to be and digital marketing is not just a effective but has become a tool for market penetration and businesses leverage digital marketing channels such as social media, Email, search engine etc to connect with current and potential customers.

How does digital marketing work?

Personally I think of digital marketing as a company,there are different departments in the company with different employees doing different thing but all the have a particular goal which is MAKING THE BUSINESS SUCCESSFUL. In this case digital marketing is the company and the different digital marketing strategies work together to attain one set of goals which are 

Generate leads

Create awareness

Transform leads into loyal customer

And makes sales.

  With this being said the next question that should follow is "what are these digital marketing strategies? And how do they work?"

Forms of Digital marketing

They include

* Email marketing

* Search engine optimization (SEO)

* Pay-per-click Advertising (PPC)

* Website marketing

* Content creation

* Social media marketing

* Affiliate marketing

* Mobile marketing

* Marketing automation 

These different forms of Digital marketing dives into different routes in the digital marketing world but all have one main goal which is business growth. With that being said let us dive into them individually.

1. Email marketing

Email marketing is a typqe of direct marketing that uses personalized, mass emails to educate and convince a lead to take a specific action, like making a purchase. 

There are 4 types of emails in email marketing;

-Email Newsletters. One of the most common and popular email marketing campaigns are Email Newsletters.

-Acquisition Emails

-Retention Emails

-Promotional Emails

Email marketing may not be the primary 

source to generate fresh leads to your business but it is more often used as a form of communication with your customer who has liked your services or products and has chosen to subscribe to your business updates.

2. Search engine optimization (SEO):

Search engine optimization is a process designed to drive traffic to ones web page and also improve position and appearance of web pages in organic search results. 

Everytime  you need to look up or purchase something on the net,you go-to is searching it up on Google search engine and the result of what you want usually comes up in the first or second page of Google search, that is where SEO comes to play. 

Making your website SEO friendly is a very key part in digital marketing, it does take time and effort to organically generate leads to your website but it's worth it and also if you can't pay to appear on the first page of Google search engine then SEO is the answer because it is free.

3. Pay-per-click Advertising (PPC):

This is simply a form of lead generation where you pay Everytime a user clicks on your advertised ad. It is the easiest way to drive traffic to your website

4. Website marketing: 

A website is a business biggest asset. It could help potential customers find you,know what you offer and find what they want.

 The more time a prospective customer spends in your website the more likely they will take an action/make a purchase so your website has to be very user friendly and make sure you put up a good impression for your site visitors. 

Your website should be mobile friendly,user friendly, detailed about your products and services and also the appearance of your website in terms of graphics plays a huge role in convincing your visitors to take an action.

5. Content creation:

This is a very key and important aspect of digital marketing.

 This is one of the most effective ways to convert leads to customers. Basically, content marketing is about promoting your business through interacting with your customers and convincing them to make a purchase. Some forms of content marketing are: Videos, Testimonials, Ebooks, Podcasts, Infographics, Blog posts, Social media posts etc.

 Creating meaningful and relatable content will do wonders for your business.

6. Social media marketing: 

It is almost impossible to find a person with out one or two social media accounts,infact we spend most of our time on different social media platforms,it is only wise for your business to have a social media presence too.

 You can create valuable content for your business, product or service,engage with your audience and customers,run campaigns, and even contest, there is truly no limit to what you can achieve for your business using social media.

7. Affiliate marketing: 

In simple words this is helping someone make sales and getting paid a commission anytime you make sales. Affiliate marketing can also be said to be being paid to advertise someone else's service or product on your website or social media.

 This is where brand influencers,brand ambassadors and paid content creators fall into. And the results are always impressive 

8. Mobile marketing:

 Almost everyone has a mobile phone. Our phones are always in our hands,pockets,bags or just nearby, we are never always far from it. 

Taking your business the mobile route helps a whole lot, you can send messages and updates via text message or any messaging platforms or they can reach you business through the customer care lines. Many service provider use this method and it is effective.

9. Marketing automation: 

Marketing automation refers to the software that serves to automate your basic marketing operations.

 Many marketing departments can automate repetitive tasks they would otherwise do manually, such as: Sending email newsletters, sending text messages, posting contents, product or service updates etc.

With all these forms/aspects of digital marketing we can all agree digital marketing is spontaneous and its results are impressive.

You should also note that every business should have a unique strategy to it, because each business has it's own unique buyer or customer persona, for example a potential customer for a baby clothing store isn't the same for a teenage clothing store. So it is best to create your own unique digital marketing strategy and apply the right form of digital marketing to help execute your goal.