Digital Marketing Explained Simply: Types, Importance & Scope

My Geek Score: Digital marketing, popularly known as online marketing, is no longer a new term for marketers. To understand better, break the word “digital marketing” into two periods, i.e., ‘digital’ and ‘marketing,’ which means marketing happening digitally? 

In simpler terms, digital/ online marketing is where means of digital technology such as mobiles, computers & more are being used to promote the brand & its services.

Curious to Know How?  

A digital marketer will create the e-content around a targeted brand and later publish it on the internet on multiple platforms like social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) or send it via email, etc., to reach the maximum number of people. 

In addition, Internet marketing is not synonymous with one meaning as it is quite a broad term. Some examples of internet marketing are content marketing, displaying ads, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and social media marketing (SMM).

History of Digital Marketing 

With the word “digital,” it is impossible to understand technology’s role. Precisely, digital marketing and technology have a proportionality ratio with each other. 

Since it has come a long way, it is quite impossible to mention the list of significant events happening in history. 

For example, the first-ever email was sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971 & he is regarded as the father of email marketing. 

However, the father of modern marketing is Philip Kotler, who provided us with the critical current digital marketing strategies.  

Technically, internet marketing history start from the 90s, but the reality is different. 

Until 2000, only 0.5% of the world’s population was actively using the internet, and later when smartphones got popular in 2005, the internet became more accessible. 

Between 2005 – 2008, internet services reached the masses, using search engines like Google. Much later, in 2008, India has witnessed the boom of digital marketing. 

Types of Digital Marketing 

Since the pandemic, ranging from small businesses to multi-level companies, all of them have started to prioritize their online presence. Thus, digital marketing has become a highlighted component in the organization’s overall marketing plan. 

One significant benefit of internet marketing is that it enables the seller & consumer to use/ take advantage of every platform you want or doesn’t restrict either of them in using the single platform to promote the business. It enables the user to target a vast & specific audience. 

For example, seller “A” can simultaneously use email, social media, & third-party websites (paid) to sell its products without hindrance. 

Now, it’s time to talk about the different digital marketing platforms or categories.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Content Marketing 
• Email Marketing 
• Mobile Marketing
• Marketing Analytics  

So far, by learning about digital marketing and its types, you must be curious to know the reasons behind the hype. Not later, in the next segment, you will get to know about the importance of digital marketing. 

Importance of Digital Marketing

With the digital age, when everyone is trying to build a solid online presence, every marketer’s focus is on digital marketing due to the given-below reasons as they are:

• Cost-Effective 

Compared with the traditional methods of advertisements, digital marketing barely requires an investment. 

For example, you don’t waste money printing the pamphlets every day or paying the advertisers to publish the ads on TV or newspapers.  Conversely, most digital marketing tools offer free services and are ideal for small-scale or new businesses. 

• Greater Reach 

Since digital marketing is the global term & hence its reach also – it enables the businessman to take orders from the international market. Imagine yourself as a business owner, and how cool will you feel about that? 

• Helps to build the brand image

How can you expect orders from the customers if they don’t know about your business? And to tackle this issue? A digital marketer is here. 

With SEO, pay-per-click, and other paid advertisements, you can attract customers. Hence the more customers, the bigger the brand image. 

• Gives best ROI

As already discussed, digital marketing is way cheaper. For example, on specific platforms, you can run ads online for less than 1$.

The ROI ratio in digital marketing is 5:1, which is very fruitful as anything below 2:1 is not considered profitable. Hence, digital marketing is the cheapest yet reliable marketing source to start. 

• Data Analysis 

There are legit open-source digital marketing tools that allow you to record the results and present you with the graphs & codes for analyzing the progress. This way, you can explore what strategies have worked better in the previous campaigns and plan future strategies accordingly. 

• Customer Loyalty 

Customer loyalty is a massive factor whether the business is small or big. Customer loyalty means that the customer continuously buys stuff from you and doesn’t go anywhere else. The main goal of internet marketing is retain the customer’s loyalty. 

Thus, the above conclusions are enough to prove the importance of digital marketing to adopt for your business. 

Scope of Digital Marketing

 Digital marketing scope in the future is undoubtedly towering as in today’s internet world; online marketing is seen as the most preferred way of marketing to carry on the communications. 

If you closely observe the statistics, internet marketing boomed between 2005 and 2008 and has never stopped growing ever since. So, you can analyze what future businesses will look like in digital marketing. 

By following today’s trend, five key channels play a vital role in deciding the scope of digital marketing in the future, and they are:

• Video Marketing 
• Email Marketing 
• SEO
• Mobile Marketing 
• Social Media Marketing 

Conclusion

The future of digital marketing is irrational as the world is shrinking & coming closer with the internet. The same applies to businesses, schools, and restaurants as well. 

Compared to the traditional methods of marketing, digital marketing comes with a lot of several advantages such as:

• Easy on pocket 
• Gives faster + effective result 
• Practical approach 
• Change is the only constant 

To conclude, it will be worth it if you climb the stairs of digital marketing and will remain an effective marketing strategy in the future.