About Digital Marketing - Digital Marking 101

Marketing is a fundamental part of any business. It shows the world what your business is about and what it can offer them as consumers.

It’s a way of attracting new customers, and retaining current customers alike. A perfectly executed digital marketing campaign can pay dividends when it comes to profit.

In the ever increasing digital age we all find ourselves in, any business owner worth their salt will realise that marketing digitally is essential.

Facebook alone has 2.38 billion monthly users whilst Google processes a staggering 3.5 billion searches every single day.

These are just two examples of numerous digital platforms out there that businesses can use to advertise to the masses.

Any business that isn't using at least one of these platforms is missing out on a huge audience and faces being left behind by the competition.

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is no different from traditional marketing, except it utilises the internet and technological advancements to promote the products and services being offered by businesses.

If you’re browsing the web, and you see an advertisement for a new pair of trainers, that’s digital marketing.

On Facebook, and you see a promotion for a local restaurant? That’s digital marketing.

Even receiving an email that is encouraging you to sign up for a newsletter is digital marketing.

Why Should I Use Digital Marketing?

Since the smartphone revolution, the way we consume media has changed.

Every major newspaper and magazine now has an online version of their printed copy, as a means of communication with their audience. As a result, businesses who traditionally relied on advertising through print, have had to adapt to digital advertising.

Below are just five reasons why your business should be using digital marketing today.

Expand Your Audience

Nearly 4 billion people across the world use social media.

That's more than half the world's population using easily accessible media platforms on a daily basis.

Combine this with nearly 60% of the world being active online, the internet is your gateway to a huge market for business.

Whether you're using social media, search engines or something as simple as email, these methods can help expand your business massively.

Increase Profits

74% of people use social media when making a purchasing decision. Users actively looking for products are online and actively waiting to be shown what your business has to offer.

Some businesses have seen an increase of 150% return on their investment simply by utilising digital marketing.

Improve Efficacy

Marketing can take up a lot of your businesses time and resources.

Hiring a digital marketing agency can help save time and money by allowing you to focus on other areas of your business whilst the experts take care of marketing.

Audience Insight

Using online platforms enables you to gather lots of data and monitor customer trends, which can allow you to personalise your approach to retaining customers, and attracting new ones.

Specific Targeting

With digital marketing you can make your adverts and who they target as broad or as specific as you like.

Age, gender, location, interests, even something like someone's job title can all be targeted in ways so specific that were never available in more traditional means of advertising.

What Types Of Digital Marketing Is Available?

Like traditional marketing, digital marketing has many avenues and platforms to be utilised by your business.

Social Media

Not just for uploading pictures of your breakfast or reading conspiracy theories in the comments section on news articles.

Social media is an extremely effective way to market your business to a huge audience.

So much so that 97% of digital consumers have used social media in the past month, with more than half of them using it specifically to research products.

Whether it's; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn or whatever the next big thing is in the social media world, advertising on these platforms is a great way of improving your businesses success.

These typically will charge you per impression (CPM).

This means that regardless of customer interaction with your ads, so long as the ads appear on somebody's screen, you will be charged.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click, commonly abbreviated to PPC is a digital marketing method which involves paying a third party platform every time that a user clicks on your link or ad.

This is mostly used when advertising on search engines such as Google and Bing.

You essentially enter a bidding war against your competitors for keywords and phrases.

This will then determine where you rank on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

75% of people won't click past the first page on a search engine, so your ranking is very important for when it comes to standing out against your competition.

On average for every £1 spent on Google, £2 will be earned. That's an average return on investment of 200%.

This is mainly down to the fact that you are advertising to people who are actively searching for your product/service which increases the likelihood of a completed purchase.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO, like PPC is a method of trying to place your website at the top of a SERP.

Unlike PPC, however, this is done without paying for clicks, it is done ‘organically’, as it’s known in the digital marketing business.

This is done by integrating keywords into your content. These will be the words that are most commonly associated with your product/service.

The more natural and effective these keywords are, the higher your website will chart in the SERP.

The main benefit of SEO is that it is absolutely free to implement.

Third party software such as Google Analytics or SME rush are essentials to effectively keep track of performance.

Email Marketing

Good old fashioned email.

It's been around longer than all of the newer and more fashionable platforms and will probably be here long after them.

With over 4 billion email users worldwide, emails can be an extremely effective form of digital marketing.

The ROI on a well-executed email campaign can be staggering with a return of £42 on every £1 spent.

This can be a great way of organically distributing content and even message those who have abandoned their online shopping carts in order to encourage them to complete the transaction.

Some studies even suggest that email marketing is 40x more effective than social media digital marketing when it comes to customer acquisition.

Display Advertising

Also known as banner ads, your ads will feature on another website to encourage users to click through to your site.

These are most common on news and entertainment articles often set just above and to the side of the article.

Display advertising allows you to use some of the busiest sites in the country to advertise your business. The higher the traffic, the greater the likelihood of a click.

This can also lend well to people's perception of your business. If they see you advertising on a reputable website then your legitimacy will increase.

How Much Does It Cost?

It's impossible to give a definitive off the cuff answer as agencies will charge based on the specific requirements of the client. No two clients are the same and this is reflected in the price.

Typically, you could be looking at anything from £50 - £10,000+ per month depending on your needs.

This will allow you access to experts in the digital marketing field and put you on the right path to seriously grow your business.

How Can I Take Advantage Of Digital Marketing?

Hopefully that's cleared up some questions that you may have regarding how digital marketing can help your business.

Now the last one you most likely have, is "how can I take advantage of digital marketing"? Well the process couldn't be simpler; all you have to do is click the "Start FREE QUOTE" button to start comparing prices.

This is an absolutely free service and there's no obligation to commit, so click the button, follow the prompts and get comparing now.