Digital Marketing Guide: What is Digital Marketing?

What is Digital Marketing?

Technology has become such a prominent aspect of our lives and the 21st century has seen the development and growth of the digital world. How we function, act and interact with our peers, colleagues and clients has become centred around this new digital realm. One aspect that has grown and developed in leaps and bounds as the internet and digital sphere has taken over is marketing! It is no longer a simple matter of interacting with clients and making sure that you have promotional features in your store window, it is now all about getting your brands’ name out there through the use of what we now call digital marketing. 

The definition of digital marketing can be quite large as there are many different facets and parts of this industry that intertwine with others. Broadly speaking, digital marketing refers to the process of promoting a brand and interacting with clients across several different digital platforms. Creating awareness of your brand or business by using different digital platforms is now seen as the most effective way to promote your brand or business and sell your commodities or services. With this new digital marketing world we live in, a brand can interact not just within a small group of people but has access to a much broader scope of customers! This new type of marketing uses various channels, platforms and strategies to draw in customers and relate to their intended target market. Whether this is done through a website or on social media, each interaction on an online platform is considered to be a form of digital marketing. 

What are Digital Marketing Channels?

Digital marketing channels refer to the different platforms that are used to reach a certain target group. There are many different kinds of digital platforms that are available and new ones coming out nearly every single day! It is incredibly important that digital marketers are up to date with the latest channels and platforms to be sure that they are reaching their certain target audience. Understanding each of the platforms is extremely important as each different channel has different target markets that they are associated with. Digital marketers and digital marketing agencies have many different facets that are specifically designed to reach and use these channels to the best of their ability. 

What is a Digital Marketing Funnel?

A digital marketing funnel is a model that outlines a potential customer’s experiences as they make their way through the purchasing process, from the initial introduction stage all the way through until they make a purchase. A marketing funnel has several different stages and relates to how a customer interacts with a certain brand. The digital marketing funnel for each of the brands will be different as they have different goals, outcomes and target markets that they are hoping to engage with. 

How to Prepare a Digital Marketing Plan?

It is extremely important to be aware of your digital marketing plans and come up with a strategy that highlights the goals and times frames in which you are hoping to achieve these goals. One of the best ways to stay on top of your digital marketing goals and objectives is to create a digital marketing plan. This plan will outline the objectives, goals and targets that a specific digital marketing strategy should reach and the time frame in which it needs to be delivered. This kind of digital marketing plan is important for both the digital marketing team and the client as it outlines the strategy for the content, when it will be delivered and the targets that it should meet over a certain time. Having this information on hand ensures that both you and the client will know and fully understand the intended outcomes of the strategy. 

The first step of the process would be to set out the objectives and goals. This will ensure that everyone involved has a clear idea of what they are trying to achieve and who the intended audience or target market would be. The next step of the process is to research the topic, the intended group of customers and the different strategies that could be used. A big part of this step is creating a SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and analysing the digital trends that are associated with each of these facets. This step is incredibly important and if not done correctly it can be detrimental to the entire process. Next, you and your client should set out the dates and time frames in which the work should be completed, after having done your research you should have a good idea of how long it would take you to put together and complete this digital marketing plan. Finally, you write and implement the content and then monitor and analyse the response! 

How to Define Digital Marketing Goals?

One of the best ways to define your digital marketing goals is to create a SWOT analysis. SWOT refers to the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that a business has and knowing and understanding each of these facets will ensure that you can outline exactly what a brand needs to be successful. Making sure that iron out the threats and weaknesses while extenuating the strengths and opportunities, a digital marketer can come up with a clearly defined set of strategies that lead to certain goals and final objectives. 

Digital marketing goals should be measurable and carefully outlined. This will ensure that both the digital marketer and the brand that they are helping know and understand exactly what objectives should be reached within a specific amount of time. The different goals can be set around having a certain amount of sales or even be an increase in the traffic that passes through a website or on social media. 

What is a Digital Marketing Calendar and How to Prepare It?

A digital marketing calendar is a clearly defined timeline in which certain goals and objectives should be met. Not only is this type of calendar used to set out goals and timeframes, but it can also be used to strategically plan every step of the marketing process, including setting up the dates that certain content should be released and the time that it takes to prepare the content. Having a clearly defined and specific digital marketing calendar can serve as an important tool to make sure that you are progressing with a marketing plan that is working. If specific targets are not being met, you then know that the strategy you are using will need to be tweaked and adjusted. 

What Does a Digital Marketing Consultant Do?

A digital marketing consultant is a person who specialises in developing and implementing marketing strategies across a variety of different online platforms. A digital marketing consultant has to be able to carefully analyse and examine the different digital trends and be able to pick up on and use the different platforms to create brand awareness. These types of digital marketing jobs are incredibly important and are very often made up of an entire marketing team, each person on the team responsible for a different aspect of the process. 

If you have a brand or a business that lacks recognition on digital platforms, hiring a digital marketing consultant or team would be the best way to improve your online presence. Being able to interact on the different digital channels is more important than ever as the market grows and the amount of competitors increases. Having a good digital marketing presence will go a long way in ensuring that your brand or business remains relevant. 

What Are The Four Types Of Digital Marketing?

• Content Marketing: The first of the four different types of digital marketing is content marketing. Content marketing is mainly focused on the creation of different content or material that is used across various platforms. This kind of digital marketing is incredibly important as this is the step that is responsible for instilling a desire to pursue an action, whether it is to read a blog post or purchase a product. 

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO and digital marketing walk hand, as optimising content to attract a certain group of people is what SEO has been designed to do. SEO focuses solely on how the content is structured and ways that this can organically help to get a better ranking on a search engine page. Here at Markethinkers, our SEO consulting and SEO copywriting packages have been specifically designed to contribute to the digital marketing of a brand and help a businesses website attract more traffic through better search engine placements. 

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): While SEO marketing uses organic methods and ways of attracting traffic to a webpage, SEM Marketing uses paid methods to achieve a better ranking on a search engine page. 

• Social Media Marketing (SMM): SMM marketing is the promotion of a brand over any social media platform. Be it Facebook, Twitter or even Tick Tock, any marketing that occurs over a social media platform is considered to be Social Media Marketing. 

What are the 5D’s of Digital Marketing? 

• Digital Devices: Digital devices refers to the interaction that your target audience has across multiple platforms and a variety of different devices. This is an important consideration to think about as a specific target audience would tend to use certain devices more than others. This influences whether or not a brand would focus on channels that are used more regularly on mobile devices or if they should consider using a platform that is better displayed on a computer or TV screen. These kinds of preferences are found out by screening your target audience to find out what is preferred. 

• Digital Platforms: This is again looking at what a specific target group would prefer to use. There are several different digital platforms that are more commonly used by certain groups of people, for example, younger generations would more likely use platforms like Instagram or Twitter while older generations typically use platforms like Facebook or Linkedin. It is important to find out which platforms your target audience more commonly use so that your brand can focus on putting as much digital marketing content on that platform as possible. This does not mean that you have to exclude other platforms, it just means that more focus should be placed on a certain one! 

• Digital Media: Digital media refers to the different owned forms of content that are used to interact with potential customers. This type of content could be a video for digital marketing campaigns, emails sent to advertise a product or service or even posts over social media platforms. Digital media is what is released to the public on different digital platforms and is a brands main form of interaction and communication with its customer base. 

• Digital Data: Digital data is what we use to analyse a customer base and create the correct kinds of digital marketing tools, content and strategy. This information is what we use to create profiles and buyer personas. This type of information can be collected through things like questionnaires and by analysing engagement patterns with your clientele. 

• Digital Technology: Digital technology refers to a brands ability to create different interactive and informative spaces across many different platforms. These platforms and information should be able to be reached across multiple devices to ensure easy accessibility for potential clients.

How We Use Buyer Persona in Digital Marketing?

Buyer persona in digital marketing is extremely important as it represents your ideal customer and who exactly you are hoping to target with the content that your brand is releasing and how this information is released. A buyer persona is used to structure the content a brand creates, identify the platforms that should be prioritised and create a strategy that will draw in traffic from the correct target market. Without a buyer persona, it is difficult to understand your target audiences and be able to properly create content and digital marketing platforms that draw in your target market. 

What is the Digital Marketing Matrix?

A digital marketing matrix is a plan that outlines a customer’s key desires and requirements when it comes to the product or service that your brand is promoting. The following are a few different features that are important to remember when creating a digital marketing matrix for your business. 

• Target audience: When creating a digital marketing matrix it is important to think about your target audience and who you are hoping to attract with your digital marketing content. If you are for example promoting something that is specifically geared towards university students, it is important to consider exactly what are the most important factors that they want to highlight. In the instance of a university student, the price would be extremely important to this specific group of people, so it is, therefore, something to be highlighted. By using digital marketing examples on groups of people to analyse reactions, brands can see exactly what works and what does not.

• Highlight the journey of the customer: The journey from a potential customer’s first interactions to them making a purchase is important to consider when creating a marketing matrix. Being able to identify both the strengths and weaknesses in this journey will ensure that a brand can adjust the customer experience accordingly. Making sure that potential customers are being relayed with exactly the right information at the exact point throughout the buying process is an incredibly important aspect of digital marketing and the marketing matrix. 

How Long Does it Take to Learn Digital Marketing?

For those who are looking to take a few digital marketing courses or get a degree and are then hoping to never have to learn anything new again, this career path may not be for you. Digital marketing is a career that changes with every new app that is released and every new update that comes through on our most used digital platforms. This ever-changing career requires digital marketers to be constantly developing their skills and learning about the new changes, both when it comes to the strategies used and the different platforms. Learning about digital marketing can therefore not be given a time stamp, and while there are several different courses, degrees and online sources where one can learn the ropes, it is incredibly important for digital marketers to be constantly adapting their methods of analysis and continue learning about all of the new digital marketing trends! 

Is Digital Marketing a Good Career?

There are many different benefits of digital marketing and having this as a career. Along with being an adaptable and ever-changing career choice that is fun and interesting, there are a number of different types of digital marketing suited to a wide variety of different people! Whether you are more technically inclined and are hoping to get involved in the coding side of the business or are rather looking to flaunt your writing skills as a copywriter, there are several different facets and types of digital marketing jobs out there. 

What Skills Do Digital Marketers Need?

• Good time management: Each piece of content that is released will need to be completed within a certain time frame and when this time frame is not met, you may be disrupting an entire system that would otherwise work like a well-oiled machine. This is probably one of the most important things to acknowledge when thinking about the different skills needed to be a good digital marketer. If you are unable to meet deadlines and manage your time well,  digital marketing may not be the ideal career choice for you.

• Being able to analyse content and trends: Being able to spot trends and adjust marketing strategy according to these trends is an incredibly important skill to have. Digital marketing is fast-paced and with so many different strategies, channels and types of content being produced, having a good eye for analysis and trend spotting is a tool that can help you within the ever-changing world of digital marketing! 

Is Coding Required For Digital Marketing?

While it may come in handy in certain situations, being able to apply and understand code is not necessarily a requirement when it comes to digital marketing. Digital marketers are usually within a team, who each bring different types of skills to the group. While one member of the team may be better at analysing trends and adjusting strategy, another member may be more comfortable working behind the scenes on the different codes that need to be built into websites. 

Here at Markethinkers, our team is made up of many different digital marketing experts, each with different roles and a very different skill set. This variety is one thing that makes our content unique and diverse, with many different people coming together from different countries and walks of life, each with a passion for producing good content! 

How Can You Start Digital Marketing?

One of the best ways to learn about digital marketing and get access to the various strategies, latest methods and different examples is to join an academy where you have access to all of this information. The Markethinkers academy has a number of different sources to help budding Digital marketers learn about the market and the different aspects of marketing! This academy is suited to all kinds of people with any amount of previous training, from those just starting out to those who are just hoping to improve their skills. 

Digital Marketing Blogs to Follow for Beginners?

One of the best digital marketing blogs to follow for beginners is the Markethinkers blog. Not only is this blog page filled with an assortment of different materials and a wide variety of digital marketing tips, but it is also a place where potential digital marketers can learn about the latest in the world of digital marketing! One of the reasons why blog posts have become such a popular form of information is because they are written and adapted in real-time, which is incredibly important with something like digital marketing, which is constantly changing! 

Important Digital Marketing Tips for Beginners

• Digital marketing ideas should be unique and interesting: With a number of different digital marketing strategies and tons of information, brands and platforms out there, it is becoming more and more important to be sure that the content you are putting out there and using to represent your brand is unique! 

• Understand the platforms you use: Having content that has been strategically designed for certain platforms will ensure that the information you are putting out there will catch the attention of the right audience. Keeping up to date with the various platforms and understanding exactly how they work and how to best use them is a way to make sure that your content is one step ahead of the competition! 

• Make sure you know who your target audience is: Many digital marketers create such amazing content that is then streamed to the incorrect target group. This kind of mistake happens often in marketing and it is important to remember just how impactful it is to make sure that the content you are producing gets to the right people!