What is Digital Marketing in Simple Terms?
Digital marketing encompasses a wide variety of marketing tactics and technologies used to reach consumers online. As a form of online marketing, it allows organizations to establish a brand identity and has revolutionized the marketing industry.
A senior associate dean of business programs at SNHU, Dr. Jessica Rogers, said digital marketing requires marketing savvy, strategic thinking and handling a great deal of data. It’s based on many of the principles familiar to traditional marketers and requires both foundational knowledge and technical know-how.
According to Rogers, the two disciplines serve to connect with distinct groups of consumers. “Traditional media is a great way to reach a broad consumer base, whereas digital media has the ability to reach very specific audiences,” she said. “A key point is that depending on the target audience, some channels are more effective than others.”
Learn more about the fundamentals of digital marketing.
What Are the 8 Types of Digital Marketing?
Rogers talked about some of the most popular types of digital marketing, providing a brief overview of each:
Affiliate Marketing
With the increased prominence of online marketing, affiliate marketing — also known as influencer marketing — has become popular among many organizations in bridging the gap between consumers and organizations. But what is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing utilizes the ever-growing popularity of industry experts and social media influencers. In working with these third-party influencers, your organization will collaborate to promote your products or services for compensation. In collaboration, influencers will engage their audience with posts, blogs or videos to bring in more business for your organization and create new leads.
Within the last few years, affiliate or influencer marketing has grown immensely with new media like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and blogs being a mainstream form of entertainment and news. Affiliate marketing has become one of the more popular forms of digital marketing. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the affiliate marketing industry was estimated to be a $13 billion industry in 2023.
The job market is growing for marketers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) predicts a 6% increase through 2032 in the number of advertising, promotions and marketing managers.* In 2022, the median salary for those positions was $156,580, according to BLS.*
Content Marketing
Content marketing uses storytelling and information sharing to increase brand awareness. Ultimately, the goal is to have readers take action toward becoming a customer, such as requesting more information, signing up for an email list or making a purchase. “Content” can refer to blog posts, resources like white papers and e-books, digital videos, podcasts and much more.
In general, it should first and foremost provide value to the consumer — not just advertise the brand or try to make a sale. Content marketing is about building a sustainable, trusting relationship with your customers that can potentially lead to many sales over time, not just a single transaction.
Content marketing works in symbiosis with other types of digital marketing: It is a way to incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) into fresh website content, and the content created can be shared as social media posts and in email marketing publications. Looking at the analytics for your content marketing can tell you a lot about your customers:
- What are they looking for when they land on your site?
- What kinds of content make them stay on the site longer and keep looking around?
- What kinds make them lose interest and navigate away?
Unlike a method such as PPC, content marketing is a long-term strategy. Over time, marketers build up a library of content (text, video, podcasts, etc.) that will continue to bring users to the site via search engines, according to Adobe Experience Cloud, an organization that specializes in digital experience tools. This content library also helps promote knowledge of your brand and increases your profile as a resource for information.
And, if users are visiting your site for information, ideally they will remember you as an authority when it’s time to make a purchase.
Content marketing is a great avenue for people who enjoy writing and/or video and audio production. But as with digital marketing in general, it also calls for strong strategic and analytic skills.
There are tons of website-building platforms and blogging sites you can use to get into content marketing. For free and low-cost options, you can consider:
- WordPress
- Medium
- Hubspot CMS
- Wix
Some of these tools include features that provide tips on how to incorporate SEO, social media, email marketing, website design and more, so you can get the full digital marketing experience.