The digital world is moving at a rapid pace. What’s relevant today could be obsolete tomorrow. The past few years have taught us that the digital realm is free from any bounds. So as all of the brands are jumping on the digital elevator, it is crucial to make timely branding pivots. Twiddling your thumbs and trying the generic marketing strategies will not make a huge impact in the world of Metaverse.
With competition producing engaging campaigns across several social media channels, brands are grinding teeth in envy on how to top that effort. To begin the “Digi-wars”, you must first understand the basics that can become confusing when developing effective marketing strategies.
“Digital Marketing” and “Social Media Marketing” are often interchanged. However, in reality, both of them are very different. As an umbrella term, Digital Marketing refers to all types of marketing activities, and Social Media Marketing is one aspect of it that focuses on marketing on social media platforms.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is the process of disseminating brand information to build awareness, increase sales and retain clients through all digital channels. We can divide these into two categories:
Online Marketing Channels
- Website Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing
- SEO
- Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising
- Mobile Marketing
- Google Play
- Apple Store, etc
- Email Marketing
- Online banner Advertising
- Affiliate Marketing
- Influencers
- Bloggers
- Resellers
- Video Marketing, and
- Social Media Marketing
Offline Digital Channels
- Radio
- SMS
- TV
- Streaming Services (Netflix etc.)
- Digital Billboards (Indoor and Outdoor)
Key Benefits of Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is the most effective form of marketing that gets the attention and converts the leads.
According to Statista, as of 2022, 85% of American families own a smartphone and a range of other electronic devices, providing digital marketers with some incredible advantages.
Additionally, as of 2022, the number of smartphone users globally was 6.648 billion, which equals 83.72% of the world’s population.
These numbers have resulted in incredible advantages such as:
Expansion in Reach
Brands can reach their potential customers by placing strategic ads across different channels. For instance, Google Ads constantly provides digital real estate to businesses that can pop up when certain keywords are entered. Digital marketing empowers marketers to fine-tune their audience, remove all the static, and target them accurately. From Superbowl ads to digital banners, opportunities are endless.
Affordable
Previously, print media was the hero in terms of marketing, and it wasn’t cheap. However, in this modern age, it’s okay if a business is not on the front page. Countless digital means give access to a much wider audience and are cost-effective compared to the traditional marketing methods.
Take the example of a website. Yes, there are up-front costs, and some of these are recurring. But, once you have it, think of it as your studio. You can run countless shows. In marketing words, a website enables you to put up several campaigns and encourage the visitor to take action. It is way more powerful and affordable than publishing in a newspaper.
Accessibility and Personalization
Small businesses with limited budgets can use digital platforms more easily than any traditional channel. For instance, tons of brands have used online channels to promote their niche products and services. Take the example of Amazon and Shopify. These giants have granted both new and established brands access to broad audiences.
In addition, these brands can personalize their messages according to the target segments. Since the response time is less than the traditional means, the consumer data can provide unique insights that can help a business tweak the marketing campaign to make it more appealing and engaging.
Analytics
In the past, traditional media like print and television ads weren’t very effective at helping businesses determine what marketing efforts brought them more customers or conversions.
In contrast, you can easily know the activities that drove traffic to your brand with digital marketing. Take the example of your website. The analytics can tell you which one of your ads had the highest click rate, and this insight can help you see why the other ads aren’t performing.
By measuring marketing campaigns and metrics, such as email open rates, home page visits, and direct purchases, companies can often estimate new numbers of customers gained accurately.
Social Media Marketing
Consider social media marketing as a chunk of digital marketing. Out of all the components, it can be the most effective one in gaining customers and maintaining loyalty when done right. It isn’t a secret that brands that constantly engage with customers are likely to position themselves positively and become a part of the discourse in the current business-consumer environment. So, social media platforms are an excellent way for consumers to interact with brands more personally.
Here are some of the most popular channels:
- Facebook (now Meta)
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Quora
- Snapchat
- Discord
- Tumblr
Major Goals of Social Media Marketing
Though social media marketing is a component of digital marketing, it is a complex and large field when observed critically. The complexity majorly rests upon the fact that the platforms that offer the limelight to the brands are constantly evolving. They are continually providing new ways in which brands can reach customers.
Although creative access gives fantastic opportunities to steal customers from competitors, understanding and producing the right content on these platforms can be very challenging. So, it is a literal race across these channels regarding creating compelling content.
Here are some goals that businesses should look forward to achieving through social media marketing:
Conquer Competition
Think of social media as a goldmine of competitive information. You can keep track of everything, from your competitor’s target markets to marketing strategies. In addition, by engaging in keyword research, you can know what they are ranking for, which can help you improve your position.
Moreover, social media listening tools can provide further insights. For instance, you can check out what people say about you or your competitors. Sentiment analysis can tell you how customers feel about the brand. And, if you go deeper, you can find out what is hurting your brand and making your competitors shine. In short, by tracking comments, shares, mentions, and the tone of social posts, you can gauge how customers perceive the brand.
Content Promotion and Brand Image
You can provide value to the audience by creating and providing content that might help them. These offerings can include free services or information such as blog content that you can push easily through social media marketing.
This drives website traffic and builds a loyal brand following, which is a great way to increase authority and visibility for the brand. Social media channels allow customers to connect directly with your brand on a more personal level. You can achieve this by maintaining a consistent brand voice, e.g., friendly, helpful, or trustworthy.
Advertising
Most businesses majorly focus on advertising and make it the sole goal of their social media marketing strategy. Some of the most famous platforms for ads are:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
These online platforms provide tons of digital real estate where you can put up your brand message and provoke action. This is how these channels make money. They keep enhancing the reach and adding more features to keep the users glued to the channel while making it attractive for businesses to advertise.
It’s literally a “Sell More, Sell Everywhere” kind of a situation.
Here are the most common type of ads that can amp up your campaign:
- Photo Ads
- Video Ads
- Stories Ads
- Messenger Ads
Digital Marketing or Social Media Marketing?
Now that we have cleared the air, it is clear that these forms of marketing are not the rivals of each other. Instead, they are contemporaries that both require attention.
Since brands are increasingly shifting to online spaces and closing their brick-and-mortar presence, they will need more than just ads and videos to compete with their rivals.
By uniting all forces of digital marketing, you will be able to nail segmentation, targeting, and, most importantly, positioning. The best consumer-brand interactions happen when they see an ad on all platforms and then receive a personalized email from you that includes a video. Now that’s powerful and persuasive!
Contact Be Eminent
Are you thinking about expanding your marketing strategy? Be Eminent uses multiple digital marketing techniques that aim to capture the attention of the target segment and convert them into loyal customers.
The team constantly keeps an eye on the social media channel upgrades and the complex digital marketing practices that can turn your brand into a winner. Contact us at www.beeminent.com to plan your digital marketing mix to stand out in the space.