The digital marketing also known as online marketing, marketing 2.0, internet marketing, cybermarketing, is the combination of actions and business strategies in digital media such as web sites, email, and social networking applications.
As you may already know, digital marketing is the most effective advertising and the highest return on investment today. Throughout the article you will learn about the advantages of digital marketing over other types of advertising and the most famous online marketing techniques.
Today, digital marketing is characterized by offering the user an attractive, personalized and people-centered content.
History of digital marketing
The digital or online marketing is released in the 90s In the beginning, the digital marketing was little used by large companies and derivative techniques used in traditional marketing.
Thanks to technological advances and the arrival of web 2.0 and 3.0, online marketing grew in popularity until today it became the most profitable type of advertising of the moment.
It all started with web 1.0, which were web pages with images, formats and colors that could only be seen, and did not have much interaction with users. In these years, digital marketing was based mainly on brands offering information about their products on the web and on the insertion of the odd banner on third-party web pages.
In 2006, web 2.0 was introduced, bringing a new evolution to the Internet and a wide range of tools such as social networks, blogs, wikis, etc. Web 2.0 made it easy for users to share information such as photos, videos or texts. This caused the internet to stop being a place where people agreed to search for information to be a community.
With the arrival of web 2.0, digital marketing evolved. It stopped being a replica of traditional marketing to take advantage of the entire digital ecosystem and generate new advertising models that would forever revolutionize marketing. During these years, the first interactive banners, the first social media actions and the first advertising campaigns with influencers, among others, arrived.
In 2010 the well-known web 3.0 was entered (still in force today). This evolution of 2.0 brought with it the use of databases on the web, the arrival of algorithms and the possibility of creating web content adaptable to smartphones of all sizes.
In the web 3.0 digital marketing has evolved to focus on satisfying the user. Two good examples of this are the evolution of the web (each day more intuitive and easy to use) and the use of attraction strategies, such as inbound marketing, which are becoming more popular every day in all companies.
It should be noted that the arrival of web 3.0 and responsive content has led to a boom in mobile marketing, becoming a priority for online marketers to offer content and products that can be purchased and even consumed from smartphones.
In the coming years, web 3.0 will give way its place to web 4.0. Everything points to the fact that artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing will play an important role in this new era of the internet.
We do not know how digital marketing will evolve in the coming years, what is certain is that it will continue to grow and offer great benefits
Advantages of Digital Marketing
- It is more economical and efficient: You can carry out a campaign with low cost strategies that can attract a large number of potential customers. With digital marketing you can get to advertise your products at 0 cost through virality strategies or pay amounts such as 0.10 cents per view thanks to Facebook Ads.
- It is international: Digital marketing can make your business or company known worldwide. Whether you have a large or small company, through digital marketing you can reach thousands of clients from very remote geographical areas and thus increase your sales. One type of business that shows that online marketing allows you to go further than ever by investing little money is dropshipping .
- Great segmentation possibilities: One of the great advantages of online marketing is that you can segment your advertising campaigns taking into account gender, age, location, interests, habits, etc. In traditional marketing, this is unthinkable.
- You are in control thanks to the metrics: One of the great advantages of digital marketing is that you can have control of your campaign in real time, if something is not going well you can stop without having to spend all your money. Analytics are the great asset of digital marketing compared to traditional marketing.
- You interact with your audience: Communication between the client and the company is essential to have a good campaign, that is why with the help of digital marketing a community can be created among all. Thanks to social media marketing, you can know what they think of you and what you can improve on your products or services.
- Profitability: As we have said, with digital marketing you can invest little money and obtain great benefits. This is because the cost of advertising on the internet is low compared to traditional marketing and, as we have mentioned, advertising on the internet is better segmented and allows us to know in real time the results of the campaign, so we can modify it as time to improve results.
Main techniques of digital marketing
SEO
The acronym of SEO in English means “ Search Engine Optimization ”. It is a set of optimization techniques, disciplines and strategies (such as content editing, site navigation and link campaigns) for sites, blogs and web pages that are in order to improve your position. You can make your website one of the first to appear in relevant searches, and make the public find the product or service you offer faster, increasing your business opportunities.
The main objective of SEO is to position the pages of a website in the first positions of search engines to increase organic traffic and ensure greater visibility of these websites.
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SEM
SEM stands for ” Search Engine Marketing “, and refers to all the strategies that help to have more visibility and accessibility of the sites and web pages generated by the search engines. Keywords and paid ad creation are related to these strategies.
The difference between SEO and SEM is that the first focuses on generating visibility at an organic (or natural) level in search results, and the second is based on advertising campaigns through paid ads on platforms such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads.
Content marketing and Inbound Marketing
The content marketing and inbound marketing is a technique of digital marketing that relies on the creation and distribution of content to draw the attention of the public, this technique is widely used by companies that want to create more visibility for your product or service. Its objective is to attract the user to develop a relationship that can be long-term.
The content that is created in this type of marketing techniques is not focused on advertising the product, but on attracting potential customers of the brand by creating high-quality content that can solve their problems.
Social media marketing
The Social Media Marketing is the set of actions carried out to promote products or services through social networks or blogs, and thus build a bond with the public.
Its objective is to establish a relationship in the interaction with its customers, at the same time increasing the visibility of the brand and thus indirectly increasing its sales.
Display Marketing
It is an online advertising format in which images, texts, videos or audios are displayed on a web page, through which an advertising message is transmitted . It can usually be seen from the top or side.
If your objective is to improve the perception that the user has of the service or product that is being promoted, one of the best formulas to increase the notoriety of your brand or product through online marketing is display marketing .
Affiliate Marketing
The marketing of affiliates and based on offering a commission someone to promote your products or services. In some cases (especially when working with influencers), in addition to a commission for product sales, a fixed amount is paid to the person who will promote your products.
The affiliate does not have to be just one person or influencer, it can also be a company or group of people.
The affiliate marketing is a type of business that today has become popular, and has allowed people who have influence on the Internet can earn money without investing and from home.
Email marketing
The email marketing is based on sending a message or series of messages using only email, is communication between the company and its prospects. In the mail you can send announcements, donations, requests or try to close sales.
Its main objectives are to create loyalty and trust with the user in order to improve the relationship between the public and the company, and to try to increase the sales of your company through techniques such as lead scoring or lead nurturing.