What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a marketing method that uses computers and the Internet, often in combination with traditional media such as newspapers and magazines. It also includes social media. With digital marketing, companies target their customers with online ads that appear on search engines, social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, or even your favorite blog! In fact, if you’re reading this post on Google Reader right now then you’re seeing digital marketing at work! I’m trying to market my blog for free by posting about digital marketing on my Google Reader feed. This is called “inbound” marketing because I’m attracting new readers through Google’s search engine results instead of going out and finding them by using “outbound” methods like emailing a newsletter to a list of subscribers who have opted-in to receive it. No doubt some of these people will click over from Google Reader and be enticed enough by what they read here to subscribe themselves. That’s just one example of how digital marketers use computers and the Internet to capture your attention so that they can create relationships with their potential customers. I have an online presence that includes my blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, Google+ page and YouTube channel. I use these tools to communicate with people who are interested in what I have to say about digital marketing. These are just some of the ways that digital marketers use computers and the Internet for marketing purposes.
How Digital Marketing Works
Digital marketing aims to reach potential customers through many different channels. For example, if you search for “digital marketing” on Google using their search engine you’ll see a bunch of results above the first organic one (the line of text is called an “ad”). How did those ads get there? Digital marketers paid money to Google so that their ad would be placed at the top! In other words, these advertisers used outbound methods rather than inbound ones like blogging or social media platforms. Digital marketers might also advertise on Facebook, Twitter or one of the other social media platforms. They do this through the use of ads as well as organic content (content posted by a real person, not an advertiser). Organic social media content is more effective for digital marketers because it seems more “real” to potential customers. In addition to paid ads and organic content, digital marketers use search engines like Google to market themselves. For example, if you type “digital marketing” into Google’s search engine you’ll see a list of web pages that include those words somewhere inside them! This means that someone has optimized their website with those keywords in order to rank highly in Google’s search results. When people click on a website that appears towards the top of Google’s results they are brought there so they can learn more about what the business has to offer them. This is called search engine optimization (SEO), and it is one of the most important strategies digital marketers use when using computers and the Internet for marketing purposes.
Why Digital Marketing is Important
Digital marketing is important for many reasons. First of all, digital marketing can be very cost effective compared to traditional advertising techniques like television advertisements or direct mail. For example, if I’m a business owner in Atlanta and I want to target potential customers who are interested in the city’s real estate market, I might decide to advertise on local television channels. While this approach might work for me most of the time, it could also backfire if my target audience isn’t watching TV at that particular time or doesn’t subscribe to cable service at all! With digital marketing, this isn’t a problem because my customers are probably right there on their computers whenever they’re looking for information about Atlanta real estate! Digital marketers can collect data about their customers’ interests and then tailor their online content accordingly. If you’re really into Atlanta real estate then maybe one day you’ll see an ad from me on your computer as you’re surfing around Google looking for stuff related to that topic! This makes it easier for digital marketers like me (and you) to reach our intended audience without having to spend as much money as we would have had we chosen a more traditional method of advertising like television ads (for example). This means we don’t need as much money upfront before we start making sales.