What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital MarketingDigital marketing encompasses any marketing activity that requires using electronic devices such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Today, digital marketing has many different facets and does not simply consist of doing business through one’s website. There are many factors that go into a company’s digital marketing campaign at this point in the history of the Internet. Digital marketing includes not only a company’s website, but also other factors of a company’s online presence like social media profiles, blogs, and e-mail campaigns. Any company – no matter how small or large – can benefit grateful from a thorough digital marketing campaign that’s just right for the particular industry in which a company works.

Understanding what is not considered digital marketing is perhaps the best way of grasping the true definition of digital marketing, according to SAS. The term digital marketing excludes all traditional marketing forms, such as marketing through print publications and through radio. Digital marketing is marketing in the context of the Internet age, when the public has become extremely likely to look up information on a given product or service online before looking anywhere else.

Types of Digital Marketing

Some marketing authorities distinguish between two main types of digital marketing: “push” digital marketing and “pull” digital marketing. Pull digital marketing refers to marketing that attempts to draw in a consumer who is already seeking out a given product or service. On the other hand, push digital marketing involves reaching out to customers and contacting them, hopefully arousing their curiosity in a company. While pull digital marketing techniques may consist of websites, streaming videos, and maintaining blogs, push techniques involves e-mail lists and online advertisements.

In recent years, there have been constant developments and changes in the world of digital marketing. Several new concepts have become popular, such as segmentation and influencer marketing. Segmentation, or “niche” marketing, involves targeting a specific market whether one works with business to business transactions or business to consumer transactions. Influencer marketing involves finding significant nodes within a community related to a certain market, product, or service. Using influencer marketing, companies can more easily target the potential clients they’re looking for out on the Web.

History and Development of Digital Marketing

While the idea of digital marketing has been around since the 1990’s, digital marketing experienced major changes starting in 2000, according to Smedio. As recently as the years 2012 and 2013, digital marketing has shown itself to be a field of increasing significance. The terms online marketing and Internet marketing are often considered to be interchangeable with the term digital marketing. However, the growing attention placed on digital marketing has increased the competitiveness of this form of marketing. While digital marketing techniques such as pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization were initially fairly accessible and affordable, it has become increasingly more difficult to publicize a company’s online presence through these techniques as the number of competitors has skyrocketed.

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In the business world, digital marketing is now a very important concept that has been able to generate fantastic opportunities and publicity for companies who have learned to grasp its potentials.