What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is the process of using the internet and mobile devices and online marketing channels to market a business, brand or products and services.
Channels include SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), Social Media, Email Marketing, Video, Digital Strategy, Analysing and Monitoring Campaigns.
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So what is digital marketing? Well, digital marketing is the practice of marketing brands, businesses, products, and services online using the power of the internet.
Now, within internet marketing or online marketing, we have an array of channels.
Looking at channels such as search engine optimisation, appearing in Google, looking at social media and using popular tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. We have email marketing, content marketing.
Great marketing is impossible without content.
We also have key tools that we use within content marketing, like video. When we look at video, what’s surprising is that 83% of traffic today on the internet is going to that medium.
Now, when we look at digital marketing as a whole, we have to also consider advertising and also free marketing, which is often referred to as organic.
We’ll also be looking at this in my latest marketing masterclass, which is free to attend, some of the key terms that are banded around, some of the jargon used in digital marketing today.
In this article we will also take a deeper dive into what digital marketing is and all of the different elements.
Because in digital marketing, I have identified that there is about eight powerful ways of marketing your business online.
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8 Key Digital Channels
Now, if you break it down into these eight key channels, and it’s easy to decipher and understand the order of digital marketing, the processes and strategies used.
So, what we will do is I’m going to take you through everything you need to know to be a proficient digital marketer in today’s business world.
Now, we’re going to start with some of the key channels, and I’m going explore in a deeper level exactly what the tools are that are working right now in business today.
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Dynamic Digital Marketing Model
First of all, if we look at what is digital marketing. Well, as I said, I’ve identified that it can be broken down into eight key areas.
If we look at the model here, the Dynamic Digital Marketing model, this was a model that I created to really explore digital marketing and also help marketers really understand what elements and processes they have to do to be able to run successful online marketing campaigns.
SEARCH – SEO & SEM Marketing
The first one, if we look at search, this is all to do with search engine optimisation. Now, search engine optimisation is the process of appearing on page one in Google or in high-ranking areas within search engines.
This is something that will be used by marketers to not only be visible when people are searching in search engines for a pain, a problem, a questioning, et cetera, or for a product or service, but also to drive traffic.
So when they find that search result, in turn, the higher up the ranking, the more visibility, the more traffic that that brand will get.
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SOCIAL – Social Media Marketing
Now, then when we look at social media, this is a key platform in today’s business world and one that’s not to be missed.
Because it can be one of the highest returns on investment in terms of lead generation and one of the quickest ways of getting exposure.
There is no monopoly online and any sized business, brand, or industry in any niche can absolutely harness the power of online marketing.
SEND – Email Marketing
Now next, we look at send, which refers to email marketing. Another popular channel used today in business.
Now, we’ll not only explore email marketing as a principal but also what email marketing is.
When somebody sends an email out, what actions do we want them to take?
If you think about this channel as a way of reaching a broad base of customers or prospects or suspects, it is a quick, easy way that at a push of a button that you can send your marketing campaigns out.
It often has a very good return on investment, which means that because of its efficiency and its speed and the low cost for it, you can see results dramatically and very, very speedily.
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SUBSTANCE – Content Marketing
Substance, this refers to content marketing. When we talk about content marketing, we know that marketing is impossible without great content.
It’s all of the content that your potential customers will see from social media posts to video.
When we look at the fact that video is driving 83% of traffic online in today’s business world, we know that it’s an essential part of every digital marketers tool kit.
When we look at substance, we also look at content in terms of the writing and writing for the web.
And then we have sell. Sell is about how you actually generate business online, looking at keeping those relationships with customers in place.
This is about also utilising customers to refer and reward them for that referral, to have affiliate schemes and partnerships, other means that are driving business to you while you sleep.
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SPONSOR – Online Advertising
And then we have sponsor. Now, sponsor is all to do with advertising online.
This is essential because when we look at, say, a new business or you look at the fact that you maybe want to increase lead generation, it is the quickest, fastest, and most cost-effective way of driving leads instantly.
You can set up social media advertising campaigns, you can set up search engine marketing campaigns in Google.
The way that these work are that you can reach a broad audience but targeted, and pay a very small fee to attract those people in.
And so it tends to be the most popular way of getting results in online marketing.
Dawn McGruer (06:06):
STRATEGY – Auditing & Planning
Then we have strategy. Every business needs a digital marketing strategy.
And also we need to make sure that we audit where we are, look at how we’re going to plan going forward, set some key objectives and ways of measuring that.
SCORE – Measuring & Analysis
This us onto the final one, which is score. And this is all to do with measuring and analysing campaigns so that you can draw tangible insights to take action to keep improving these marketing campaigns.
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Now, my name is Dawn McGruer, and I have been working in digital marketing since the internet began.
I formed Business Consort – Digital & Social Media Academy over 20 years ago.
The key thing for me is that when we started as an agency back when I was 21, that we were utilising lots and lots of different tools.
Now, as we’ve evolved, the speed of digital marketing has been vast and often daunting for some people.
I released my book, Dynamic Digital Marketing to bridge that gap, to really take some of these key terms and make digital marketing accessible for any age and any stage.
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What is a KPI in Marketing?
As we go through, we’re going to be looking at what these terms are. So think of it like a glossary of online marketing.
What is a KPI in digital marketing? Now, a KPI stands for a key performance indicator.
Now, you’ll see from here, it refers to the fact that it’s a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives.
So when we look at a KPI, could be the cost per lead, you’ll see here the cost per session, cost per view. These are things that you have to have in place so that you can actually understand whether you’re achieving your objective successfully.
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ROAS – What is ROAS in Digital Marketing?
Now, the next term we’re going to look at, and again, it’s a popular term in the world of digital marketing.
What is ROAS in digital marketing?
It means return on advertising spend. Basically, what we’re doing is we’re quantifying how much it’s costing us to get a paying customer and what the profit is.
EXAMPLE – ROAS CALCULATION
If it costs you, say, £20 to do an ad to sell a product that you sell for £100, your ROAS is five.
So for each pound you spend on advertising, you earn £5 back.
It’s quite similar to the term return on investment. You can see the calculation here.
Calculating your return is basically what your product value is that you’re selling, divided by the cost of your ad, which equals return on ad spend.
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What are Conversion Rates?
Now, you’ll see further down, what is conversion rate in digital marketing?
Now, this doesn’t always mean someone physically buying something.
A conversion could be someone who signs up for a free guide or download something, who takes an action.
It’s basically whatever your desired goal is, is your conversion within an online marketing campaign.
Why is SEO important?
Now, moving on to SEO, this is from the most misunderstood aspect of the world of digital marketing.
When we think about what is digital marketing, it’s really important that we consider what is SEO in digital marketing.
Because SEO is an important channel and one that can really reap some high results.
What it is, it the process of ranking and driving traffic from search engine.SEO stands for search engine optimisation,
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We know that 75% of searches for a brand or a business are people who are actually searching for a pain or a problem. Only 25% of those searches are people looking for a brand or a specific business or product or service.
So there’s a vast array of opportunities here to really drive traffic and appearing on page one is going to drive a huge amount of traffic because only a small percentage of people go to page two.
So in the world of SEO, it’s important to consider how visible you are on search engines like Google. Utilising the tools that Google creates so that you can optimise your content to be able to rank in the highest positions and get your competitors onto page two, so that you’re dominating the search engines.
What is SEO v’s SEM Marketing?
Now further down you’ll see, what is SEM in digital marketing? and what is search engine marketing in the world of digital marketing?
Well, search engine marketing involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engines through paid advertising.
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The difference here is SEO is free, will not cost you anything, but will take some time. But search engine marketing or search engine advertising is quick, and you can get onto page one and appear and start driving traffic if you haven’t got any organic ranking.
The difference is that when SEO is available and you have your content appearing organically in search engines, unpaid, it means you’re there forever.
If you’re doing search engine marketing, you’re paying to be on page one. So as soon as you stop paying, your visibility disappears.
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What is 360 Marketing?
What is 360 Marketing?…Well, 360 marketing is an all-encompassing view of your entire customer journey from discovery to purchase across multiple devices and touchpoints.
This includes things like SEO. It will include pay-per-clicks, so paid advertising within Google, customer communications, the way that you to them and send emails, for instance, website, content you’re creating from videos to social media posts.
Inbound & Outbound Lead Generation
And so the way that you communicate within these channels, looking at inbound lead nurturing and also outbound email.
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When we talk about inbound lead nurturing, this is when somebody inquires, and you have an automated series that is aligned to the customer’s journey, that’s driving them through to purchase. And it’s all about creating desire and also handling any sales objections and frequently asked questions.
What is Copywriting?
Now, what is copywriting? Well, this is probably the most important aspect of marketing because creating killer copy and creating persuasive copy that really sells is one of the biggest converters.
If an online marketing campaign is not working, it’s down to the fact that your copy is not getting the message across. It’s not resonating with your potential customer.
It’s not relating with them enough to push them across to take that decision to purchase your product or service, or indeed work with your business. Now, this can be on your website, can be on a landing page.
The process of copywriting can be anything from creating a social media post, an advert, an email. It is anything that you write or speak or create within your business.
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This process has to really understand or align to your customer needs, wants, and demands because the customer is the person that you are trying to sell to.
Often when you’re copywriting, you will showcase the features but you will focus on the benefits to the customer of that product to survey, so that they can really understand why they need to take action, why they need your product or service, and what to do next.
The copywriting process is often neglected in digital marketing, and I would strongly encourage that copywriting is an essential skill that any proficient digital marketer will need in today’s business world.
What is a Landing Page?
Because when we look at what is a landing page in digital marketing, a landing page is basically where you will take somebody. And this could be a landing page on a website, it could be a standalone page. But a landing page is often around one concept or one topic. It could be a landing page that’s a sales page about one specific product or service. It could be a landing page for a free download or a free guide.
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What happens is, is that the online journey from that person landing on that page is consistent. So they might see a social media ad, and then that is advertising, say, a free guide all around the world of social media.
They land on the landing page, it’s their free guide. Having a landing page that really, really keeps that consistency, that drives the intrigue of the user will have a high conversion rate.
It needs to be simple, and it needs to be to the point. Now, marketing is impossible without great content, and as I say, content writing is often the most important.
But on the landing page, it’s also important to have some white space, not having everything too cluttered.
Because when we scroll through content online, we’re actually scrolling six times quicker than we would be consuming content offline.
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Think about when you read your own copy, does it really sell to you? Does it speak to you? Does it create that desire? And does it really address the challenges that your key customer would have?
Think about what is copywriting in digital marketing and put it at the centre stage.
What does CPA mean?
Now, what are CPA and CPM in digital marketing? Well, let’s address the first one, what is CPA in digital marketing?
Well, it’s the cost per action. When we look at different strategies, if you’ve done any advertising in the past, you will have heard the expression pay-per-click or pay-per-action or cost-per-action.
This means that you’re only paying for whatever the desired action is. So if, for instance, you did an ad, and you wanted them to click on a link to visit a webpage, you would pay cost per action. So they would see the ad for free, and it wouldn’t cost you anything, but you’ll only pay for when that customer actually does what the objective of the ad is sets up for.
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What does CPM mean?
Now, what is CPM in digital marketing? Well, this refers to cost per a thousand impressions, CPM.
This means that you are actually paying for the luxury of being in front of somebody on, say, a newsfeed in social media.
If they appear in your newsfeed, it doesn’t mean that you even stop, look at it, or read it, and you will be charged for that.
So often, the lowest risk and the most cost-effective way is the cost per action. It tends to be the most popular because then you’re getting cost per impression free, and you’re only paying for the result that you actually wanted that ad to do and the result intended for the customer as the goal.
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What is ORM in digital marketing?
Now, what is ORM in digital marketing? Well, online reputation management, this is all about the reputation of your brand online, so how well your brand is perceived and also how well it’s trusted. So does Google think your website is high authority?
Does it think that it’s a great website that’s got good content, drives traffic? When you send an email campaign, do the search engines and also all of the email providers think that that email is low risk, that you’re not spamming people?
This is all about how you’re mentioned online, so any of the brand mentions, any of the business mentions about you. So what does your look like to consumers online? Reputation, reviews, the actual tools and the standing of your business within them.
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What is RTB in digital marketing?
Now, the last one, what is RTB in digital marketing? Well, if you look at the bottom here, real-time bidding, this is a popular option for many businesses who are doing a lot of advertising. Because real-time bidding, RTB, is the automated process of buying ads.
It’s real-time buying. It’s automated, so it’s constantly looking at the best price, and it’s doing these actions automatically for you. This is often used for larger businesses who are bulk-buying their advertising. You’ll often hear the term programmatic.
Basically, programmatic is this automated process of real-time bidding to purchase large volumes of ads for large spends.
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What is cross-channel digital marketing?
Now, what is cross-channel digital marketing? I think this is probably one of the most exciting aspects of online marketing. When we look at what is cross-channel marketing, it is referring to omni-channel or multiple channels, okay? It’s when your brand or your business, okay, is using other channels like social media, mobile apps, websites, email, and word-of-mouth, these multiple channels, so that people might be, for instance, seeing or brand on LinkedIn and then moving from LinkedIn, clicking on a link to your website, going from your website onto your Facebook page, omni-channel, or cross-channel marketing, going from one channel to the other. Any good marketing plan or any online marketing campaign tends to have multiple channels in the mix. Because cross-channel digital marketing can refer to somebody going onto your website and using an online channel, but then picking up the phone and going through a traditional offline channel.
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Online Marketing v’s Offline
So often are the two mixed. Online marketing and traditional offline marketing will also cross as well. It’s not just all of the channels online, so when we look at things like SEO, going from Google, from a search engine onto a website, that’s crossing the channel. When we look at the website to social media, that’s crossing the channel. Cross-channel marketing provides customers an integrated and consistent experience across the brand, so everything will look and feel the same. What is content syndication in digital marketing? Well, content syndication can be really, really misunderstood. Because when we think about it, it’s any piece of content, this could be a blog post, an article, an infographic, or video that is then republished by a third-party website.
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What is Content Syndication?
Now, it’s not duplicate content because what you need to do is if you are utilising this process, it can drive lots of traffic to you. Because it’s creating links from third-party sites back into your own, which means that you’ve got more visibility, and you’re attracting traffic from third parties. That could be great, as long as you make it obvious that it’s syndicated content by crediting the author on the actual piece of content so that Google can clearly see that it’s not duplicated.
Because Google does not like duplicated content. But syndicated content can have a really positive impact on your SEO if it is done correctly. But also if it is not done correctly, and you don’t make it obvious it’s syndicated, it could have an inverse effect on you. Think about these different strategies in the world of digital marketing and how they can really work for your business.
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What is Social Media Marketing?
What is social media marketing? It’s probably the one that most people are familiar with. When I think about what is social media marketing in digital marketing, social media marketing is one of the channels in the digital marketing mix.
It is one of the channels that we can utilise to really build a community, to reach our audience, attract our audience, and turn them into paying customers.
Often with social media, where this goes wrong is that people are posting content, brands and businesses are pushing content out there but not measuring return on investment, and they are not quantifying whether their content is actually generating leads.
Often the mistake here is, is if the content isn’t actually geared to the business goals and aligned to achieving those goals, then lead generation doesn’t happen, or customer connections do not turn into clients.
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These connections that you have, these all-important audience, community, social networks are brilliant, assuming that you actually have a focused plan on how to turn connections into clients.
Think about it, as the ultimate digital marketing system, the whole Dynamic Digital Marketing model, these eight powerful ways to market your business online, we constructed these because one of the pitfalls that businesses have is that it’s difficult to understand what to do, when to do it, and what the priorities are that are going to drive the biggest returns on investment.
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Fast Track Digital Marketing
When we developed our Fast Track Digital Marketing course, it did just that.
Think about what your ultimate digital marketing system is and think about how you are going to utilise digital marketing channels within your business and harness this amazing power of online marketing and the internet.
Now, as I said, digital marketing and the speed of it, it’s ever-evolving. It can feel quite daunting and sometimes quite tricky to feel like you’re keeping up-to-date on the latest tips, tools, and trends.
You have to think about being immersed in digital marketing so that you can understand what is happening and what it means to your business.
Because subtle changes in your customer behaviour will mean that your digital marketing has to reflect that, as is the changing environment of online marketing.
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Essential Digital Marketing Skills
If you think about what the key skills are that you need, the essential skills that you need as a digital marketer, think about things like SEO.
- 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine, content marketing
- 70% of marketers like a consistent, integrated content strategy, social media
- Three billion people will be members on social networks in 2020 driving forward.
So if you think about it, as we’re moving into ‘2021, ‘2022, ‘2023, ‘2024 and our businesses have moved, you can see the shift in the past couple of years of how important social media is.
Video will make up to 80% of consumer online traffic in the years of 2021
Dawn McGruer (24:42):
What is Organic Digital Marketing?
So what is organic digital marketing? Well, organic digital marketing is the content you create that is free. It’s the visibility of your business online.
You don’t pay to appear in search engines, that’s free, that’s organic. So search engine optimisation, you don’t pay to use social media, to post on social media and build a network.
You only pay for advertising. You don’t pay to appear on YouTube. You don’t pay to create video. So a digital marketer can create a very encompassed digital marketing plan without a huge budget and getting great returns on investment as well.
Advertising is something that you will see many businesses utilise, and it’s something that I think is an important consideration.
Dawn McGruer (25:30):
What are the types of Marketing?
When we talk about maintenance marketing, this is all about maximising and sustaining online presence and positioning.
When we think about digital campaign marketing, this is all about lead generation and conversion strategies to really achieve the maximum return on investment.
So think about where your business is and start thinking about what gaps you have in online presence.
What is a Customer Persona?
Go on to different channels and search for your random business and try and see it from the consumer’s view. Digital marketing and digital marketing made easy.
If we summarise what digital marketing is, it encompasses identifying ideal customers and really understanding who your customer persona is.
When we look at what a customer persona is in digital marketing, a customer persona is a characterisation of who your ideal client is. Because you don’t sell to a business or a niche, you sell to a person.
This is truly understanding what the characteristics and behaviours, the interests and the sources of information are for your ideal clients, so you can align your marketing appropriately.
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Relationship Building using Content
Looking at consumer behaviour trends, needs, and opportunities to reach your audience and generate more leads and really develop content that converts these customers.
Utilising influencers, harness the power of partnerships to attract more of your audience and connecting with your target audience and building that relationship using social media to really drive that relationship forward so that you’re not just relating and resonating with them, you are actually building this bond.
Building relationships and nurturing leads, it is crucial because the closer you can feel to your consumer, the easier it is to understand them, but also the easier is to help them convert.
Also keeping in touch with them so that you can get repeat business and loyalty and referrals from that customer.
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Dynamic Digital Marketing Digest
So come and sign up for the Dynamic Digital Digest. It’s free. It’s just weekly tips that will really help you keep your finger on the pulse.
These types of videos are constructed so that you can understand what digital marketing is and the amazing opportunities for you, your business, and your brand, and so that you can develop your digital marketing skills in a really positive manner.
So if you’d like to take advantage of the free resources, sign up for the Dynamic Digital Digest, come and find out more about me.
Connect on Social Media
My name’s Dawn McGruer, you can connect with me on social media and also Business Consort. Learn more abou tme and my story here.
If you type in Business Consort into Google or any search engine, you’ll see us at the top, and you can come and visit us on all social media channels.
We’d love to talk to you, so if you’ve got any comments about this video, and you want to share your experiences in the world of digital marketing and talk to me about what digital marketing is for you, please leave your comments below and come and join the conversation.
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Join the Conversation in Comments
So have a great day, and I will see you on our next video. If you have found something positive from the world of digital marketing, let me know below.
As I said, digital marketing is something that is extremely powerful for you as a business or as somebody who is looking maybe to get into the industry.
If there are other content or topics that you’d love to know about, feel free to share them below.