Different Types of Digital Marketing

Are you looking to expand your business’s digital presence? Did you know there are many different types of digital marketing that can help you reach your target audience, and achieve your goals while maximizing your ROAS(Return on Ads Spent)? Yes, now achieving a double return on your ad spend is possible if you know the different types of digital marketing and how to leverage them to scale your business.

In today’s digital landscape, having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses of all sizes and industries. According to a recent study, Ad spending in the Digital Advertising market is projected to reach US$701.20bn in 2023, and for good reason. With over 5 billion internet users worldwide, the potential customer base for businesses is vast. 

To take advantage of this opportunity, it’s essential to understand the different types of digital marketing available. In this article, we’ll explore 9 powerful digital marketing strategies, including search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing, and more. 

Before getting to know how many types of digital marketing are there, let’s understand what is digital marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing is an electronic form of marketing that is deployed to advertise any kind of product or service. Companies use digital marketing to leverage their business and broaden their brand identity.

If you’re running a business, it’s very crucial to use digital marketing to stay relevant in the industry. Be it a small business or a large one, everyone is relying on ads to reach their target audience and with the consumer shifting from traditional forms of media to digital media, it’s right to say that digital marketing will continue to evolve and expand in the coming years as well.

9 Types of Digital Marketing Strategies

You can tap into a larger target audience space if you know the correct digital marketing channel. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing channels have many different types of digital marketing channels which can help you increase your audience reach depending on the channel.

So, if you deploy the right digital marketing strategy to reach your target goal, your business is bound to grow by a leap. Keep reading to learn about the 9 types of digital marketing and how they can benefit your business.

1. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a form of digital marketing that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a specific target audience.

The goal of content marketing is to drive profitable customer action by providing information that addresses the needs and pain points of the target audience. This can include blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, social media posts, and more.

Content marketing is often used in conjunction with other digital marketing strategies such as search engine optimization and social media marketing to increase visibility and reach.

There are several pros and cons to consider when it comes to content marketing:

Pros:

• By providing valuable content that addresses the needs of your target audience, you can build trust and credibility with them, ultimately leading to increased brand awareness and loyalty.
• Compared to traditional forms of advertising, content marketing can be relatively low-cost, making it a cost-effective way for small businesses and startups to reach their target audience.
• By regularly creating and publishing high-quality content, businesses can improve their search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to their website.
• By providing valuable content that addresses the needs and pain points of your target audience, you can increase engagement and lead generation.

Cons:

• It’s time-consuming to create quality content that resonates with your target audience takes time and effort.
• It can be difficult to measure the ROI (return on investment) of content marketing, making it hard to determine the effectiveness of your efforts.
• With the vast amount of content available online, it can be challenging to stand out and make an impact on your target audience.
• Creating high-quality content takes time and resources, which may not be available for small businesses and startups.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)/Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Ranking a website on the first page of Google or Bing’s search results is a dream of many marketers. This is only possible through SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If you’re a business owner of a small flower shop that specializes in black roses, and someone types “Black Rose” and find your website top on Page 1 of the search result, he’s your target audience and that person will more likely click your website.

SEO is implemented to attract traffic and bring a targeted audience to your website. When you boost SEO on your website, you’ll enhance your online visibility and can reach out to a mass reach. 

Both SEO and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) are used to refine your website by bringing traffic to relevant keywords targeted through organic search and paid advertisement. 

There are a few pros and cons to SEO:

Pros:

• Increase brand visibility, and organic traffic while improving website usability and supporting content marketing.
• SEO is cost-effective compared to PPC.

Cons:

• Search engine algorithms change very frequently. So you’ve to keep updated with the latest updation and make changes accordingly.
• It’s difficult to rank on certain keywords due to the heavy competition in the market.

3. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

With Over 3.96 billion social media users across all social media platforms, social media has become the go-to channel for businesses to reach out to targeted audiences. Beauty soap brand Dove did a social media campaign called #SpeakBeautiful Effect which not only increased their brand visibility but also credibility and engagement.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and others are great ways to have two-way communication, and businesses can connect directly with their target audience and retain a customer base for a longer time.

There are a few pros and cons to Social Media Marketing:

Pros:

• You can reach out to a larger base audience and directly communicate with them which will help you understand their likes and dislikes. It will result in delivering more relatable, personalized, and valuable content.
• You can get access to paid advertisements to get more views, engagement, and followers.

Cons:

• The time, money, and effort that goes behind content curation for social media are not only lengthy but also futile sometimes.
• You might not get quick results even if you are consistent with customer engagement and retention.  
  

4. Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC)

PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click which means every time you advertise your product/service and someone clicks that online display ad, you’ll pay for every click. If done correctly, PPC Marketing can bring terrific ROI and earn quality leads.

Google Ads is the most popular used tool for PPC marketing. With Google Ads, you bid a maximum amount you’ll pay for a click against an ad. If you’re confused about PPC ads, they’re ads that are shown on the first page of search engine results.

There are a few pros and cons to PPC Marketing:

Pros:

• PPC can get your ad on the top of the first page of search engine results, resulting in traffic right from Day 1.
• You only have to pay for clicks you get on your online display ads. So this way you’re not losing out money.

Cons:

• PPC is costly if it’s done for the long term. You need to pay every day just to stay in the top spot.
• Click won’t be equal to sales. You might not get the expected ROI on the ad you’re marketing. 
• Once you stop paying, your online visibility will tank down.
• You need to invest your time to set up a campaign and monitor and optimize them accordingly.

5. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is action-based marketing in which an affiliate (person) makes an effort to market the product of other businesses for a commission and that business gives a reward or commission to that affiliate for each customer or visitor brought through his own marketing efforts to the business’s product and services. In short, promoting other products based on a commission. 

When the user clicks on the link given by the affiliate and purchases the product with that referral link, the affiliate earns a commission for that purchase through his referral link.

There are a few pros and cons to Affiliate Marketing:

Pros:

• It requires low-cost staff
• No money is required to start this business
• You’ll get commissions based on your sales
• Ability to work from anywhere in the world
• You can generate massive passive income if done the right way

Cons:

• Heavy competition 
• Income may be inconsistent
• Requires a significant time investment to build a successful campaign
• Reliance on commissions can lead to low income
• High risk of fraud by merchants or other affiliates

6. Mobile Phone Advertising

Today whatever can be done on a desktop can also be available on a mobile device. Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy to reach the target audience on their smartphone via the website, email, SMS, and social media. 

These are some Digital Marketing Strategies, instead, there are a few more strategies such as SMS Marketing which uses short message services to reach customers, and Conversion Rate Optimization in which website visitors transform into loyal customers, etc.

Here are the pros and cons of mobile phone advertising:

Pros:

• Many people see it because almost everyone has a mobile phone
• Can target specific groups of people
• Can be engaging because it’s on a personal device
• Has different ways to show the ads
• Can track how well the ads are doing

Cons:

• People might see too many ads on their phone
• Some people might not like targeted advertising
• Ad-blockers can make the ads not work
• It can be expensive
• There’s limited space for ads, making it hard to stand out.

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing is a direct marketing technique that uses email to reach out to a target audience with the goal of promoting a product, building brand awareness, or driving website traffic. 

It includes sending newsletters, promotional emails, transactional emails, and automated sequences. It allows businesses to reach a large audience quickly and at a low cost and also allows personalization and targeting of specific groups of people.

Here are the pros and cons of email marketing:

Pros:

• Low cost and high return on investment (ROI)
• You can target specific demographics through email list segmentation
• You can also track and measure the success of campaigns through analytics
• Potential for high engagement, as email is a personal and direct form of communication
• Able to automate email campaigns, saving time and increasing efficiency

Cons:

• The email might be marked as spam
• Not everyone may open or engage with the email
• People might unsubscribe if they don’t find it valuable
• A lot of competition for inbox space
• Takes time to create a successful campaign and email list.

8. Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing is the process of promoting a product and service by researching, engaging, and supporting the influencers or those famous personalities who can create a great impact on the audience or customers about your product, services, and, brand. Influencer’s fans can be easily influenced to try the product to which their ideal is speaking. The influencer creates content, such as sponsored posts, videos, and stories, to promote the brand to their followers.

Here are the pros and cons of influencer marketing:

Pros:

• This type of marketing has high reach, as influencers have a large following on social media platforms
• Potential for high engagement, as influencers, have a strong connection with their followers
• Potential for increased credibility, as influencers are perceived as experts in their field or niche
• Ability to target specific demographics through influencer selection
• Potential for organic and authentic content creation

Cons:

• High cost, as influencers command high fees for sponsored content
• Risk of influencer fraud, where influencers inflate their follower count or engagement metrics through fake follower apps
• Risk of low engagement if the influencer and brand are not a good fit or if the content is not relevant to the influencer’s audience
• Risk of negative impact on brand reputation if the influencer engages in scandal or behaves in a way that is not in line with the brand’s values
• The audience of the influencer might not align with the target audience of the brand
• The audience might not take the sponsored post seriously.

9. Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing refers to the spreading of messages or information quickly from one person to the other person by using existing social networks via the Internet or email. As a result, customers spread information about the product and services in their social networks. And we can say as a virus spread quickly, word of mouth is also spread quickly and works more to influence or make a decision to buy the product than any other advertising strategy.

Here are the pros and cons of viral marketing:

Pros:

• You can reach many people quickly and at a low cost
• Viral marketing can be engaging and increase brand awareness
• It can create buzz and generate interest in a product or service

Cons:

• It can have low engagement if the content is not interesting
• It can have a negative impact on brand reputation if the content is offensive
• Lack of control over how the content is shared
• Difficult to replicate the viral success
• The viral message might not align with the brand or product
• Not consistent for long-term branding.

Wrapping Up

Digital marketing offers a vast array of options for businesses to reach and engage with their target audience. From search engine optimization and social media marketing to email and mobile marketing, each type of digital marketing serves a unique purpose and can be leveraged to achieve specific business goals. 

Whether you are looking to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, or boost sales, there is a digital marketing strategy that can help you achieve your objectives. With the ever-evolving digital landscape, it’s important for businesses to stay informed and adapt their strategies to stay ahead of the competition.

FAQs

1. What are the 8 types of marketing?

The 8 types of marketing are:

1. Product marketing: focuses on promoting and selling a specific product or product line.
2. Price marketing: focuses on setting the right price for a product or service.
3. Place marketing (also known as distribution marketing): focuses on making a product or service available to customers through the appropriate channels, such as retail stores or online platforms.
4. Promotion marketing: focuses on creating awareness and interest in a product or service through advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and personal selling.
5. People marketing: focuses on understanding and satisfying the needs and wants of customers through customer relationship management (CRM) and other customer-centric strategies.
6. Process marketing: focuses on the internal processes and systems that support the delivery of a product or service to customers.
7. Physical evidence marketing: focuses on the tangible elements of a product or service, such as packaging and branding.
8. Performance marketing: focuses on tracking and measuring the results of marketing efforts and using that data to improve performance.

2. What is the 3 major part of digital marketing?

The 3 major parts of digital marketing are:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
2. Social media marketing
3. Content marketing

3. What are the 7 P’s of digital marketing?

The 7 P’s of digital marketing are:

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place (distribution)
4. Promotion
5. People
6. Process
7. Physical evidence

4. Which type is best in digital marketing?

The best type of digital marketing depends on the specific goals and objectives of a business and its target audience. Different strategies may be more effective for different industries or types of products or services. A comprehensive digital marketing plan that includes a mix of different strategies, such as SEO, social media marketing, and content marketing, is often the most effective approach.