What Is Digital Marketing?

The
Ultimate Guide For Small
Businesses
Is your business struggling to get more customers?

Are you frustrated with less sales in spite of spending a fortune on your
marketing?

Tired of your business getting bad reviews and negative feedback?

Worried that your business might fail and be taken over by your
competitors?

If the answer is yes, then there’s a problem.

Don’t worry the best part is the problem isn’t with your business at all,
but with your approach of marketing.

Here’s why.

Understand that the world has gone digital.

Almost every company on the planet has brought its presence to the
online world.

This has not only changed how people buy products and services but
also how businesses market them to their customers.

In short, it has become easier for companies to bring their business in

good shape and achieve all their goals seamlessly.

What has made this happen?

A new form of marketing which is known today as the buzzword digital

marketing.

Let’s understand it better.

WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?

As you might’ve guessed by now digital marketing, or online marketing

as it is popularly called, is a way of marketing your products and
services digitally using technological or online mediums.

It involves any type of marketing that is carried out using the

internet or through an electronic device to connect or engage with
existing or prospective customers.

For starters, think of it as a rich toolbox.

You can take advantage of its numerous tools to market your product
just the way you want.

You can measure every single effort, monitor it in real time, A/B test it
to see what works and what doesn’t, and even optimize it to leverage
your sales. There are digital marketing solutions for pretty much
everything!

Imagine tracking your every single effort and getting an update on how
things are working right before your eyes in real time!

This is what makes online marketing a preferred choice over traditional

marketing mediums like print ads, direct mail, broadcast media like
television and radio, etc. where you don’t have enough control over
your marketing efforts.

Did we tell you that it’s all the rage right now in pretty much every
industry?

And if you thought online marketing is some overrated buzzword

without any significant benefits, think again. It brings some serious
benefits to the table.

No kidding, here they are!

It’s used by businesses from every industry you can think of whether
you’re looking at retail, entertainment, healthcare, or lifestyle.

Whether you are big or small business, there are plenty of benefits of
using digital marketing for your campaigns. Some being:

1. It’s cost-effective:

This is the number one benefit of using digital marketing. It helps you
save money!

How?

Let’s say you are a small company that deals in apparels for kids. You
have plenty of mediums to market your products but decide to spend a
lot of money on a billboard ad in the most populated area of the city.

The ad gets you little to no sales but drains a lot of money from your
budget.

However, with digital marketing, it’s the other way around.

Think parents of 6 to 12-year-old kids living in Washington interested in

Gini & Jony. What’s more, if your campaign isn’t working, you have the
option to stop it without having it spend your money.

You have full control over your digital campaigns. You get to target a
specific set of people whom you think are relevant to your business and
only they see the ad.

Savings, savings!
2. It lets you track your marketing activities:

One thing traditional marketing doesn’t allow is performance tracking in

real time. This means you don’t get enough control over your
campaigns.

With digital marketing, you can track almost every aspect of your
campaigns with ease.

Let’s go back to our previous example and understand how.

If you are running a campaign for your online kids’ store to boost sales,
you can not only track who visited your website but also where those
people came from, their location, interests, age, engagement, duration
on your website and a lot more.

By testing such data and optimizing your efforts, digital marketing can
help you experiment with different techniques to leverage your sales.

3. It builds engagement with your audience:

Due to the growing usage of smartphones and the internet, customers

have grown used to buying products and services online.

This has forced businesses to come online and interact with their
customers, engage with them in numerous ways to maintain a good
relationship and customer satisfaction.

Digital platforms in this context give you an opportunity to engage with

your audience.

Not like a typical business but as a friendly personality.

With social media websites like Facebook and Instagram, you can host
contests/giveaways, connect with your audience on forums like Reddit
or Quora, and address feedback with customers through online
reviews.

All in all, digital marketing can help you build engagement with your
audience in numerous creative ways.

4. It widens your reach:

You can also discover other underrated niche marketing channels like
AngelList to reach out to your audience.

Remember, the ideal ones will bring out the best results.

One advantage of choosing a digital medium over more traditional ones

is that you get to reach out to your audience on a global scale.

Not your city, not your country, but the entire world!

This means you can create an ad in your office and use it to market
your products to multiple people around the world.

Think your products and services in the United States might appeal to
someone from Japan or the UK? Then all you have to do is create an
advertisement on a digital platform, target your relevant audience in
Japan or the UK, and once they come to you, convert them into
customers.

Simple.

Digital marketing allows you to break the boundaries and connect with
a wider audience by maximizing your reach.

5. It helps you outperform your competitors:

Believe it or not, with digital marketing tools you can literally spy on your
competitors.

Whether it’s figuring out top ranking keywords used by your competitors
or gathering research data to understand their strategy, you can
use dedicated tools to outrank your competitors.

Not only that, some tools literally give a binocular view of what’s
happening on your competitor’s site. These show you everything from
the number of clicks on their ads to impressions, and even traffic.

All in real time.

6. It boosts your ROI:

Admit it.
The most important thing businesses are concerned with is getting
higher returns for their marketing efforts.

Right?

Digital marketing strategies such as email marketing, social media

marketing, and content marketing have shown to bring significantly
maximum ROI than other channels.

For example, according to a study by Data and Marketing Association

(DMA), it was found that email marketing alone is capable of generating
a median ROI of about 122%. This proved that email is still a great
channel to leverage sales.

Another feature and benefit of digital marketing is that it generates

leads far quicker than traditional channels. This helps you improve your
conversion rates over time.

Cool.

So you know about digital marketing and the benefits it offers to your
business. But how does it actually work? In order to understand the
process behind digital marketing, we have to dive in further.

It’s important for you as a business owner to know the inner workings
of digital marketing as knowing it will help you make better decisions
during your next digital campaign.

Understanding the Buyer’s Journey

To begin with, you have to first understand each aspect of digital
marketing and how it helps your customers in their buying journey.
Awareness Stage:

This is the initial stage from where your customers start their journey.

In the awareness stage, your customers have just known you for a while
and aren’t keen on making any purchase from you. Your job is to make
your customers aware of possible solutions to problems they might
have.

This is where digital marketing comes in.

Digital marketing helps create awareness about your company through

various awareness strategies using content, online ads, email
marketing, and PPC.

As businesses are usually looking for solutions online during this stage,
businesses have a high possibility of getting found using different
awareness strategies.

Consideration Stage:

In the consideration stage, your visitors take their first step.

They might have clicked your ad or interacted with your website but are
still looking for likely solutions from different companies as they still
aren’t convinced to make a purchase from you.

Here digital marketing helps engage and convince these customers

using different approaches.
Using mediums like email and social media, you can further engage
with your customers and highlight the benefits your products have.

Purchasing Stage:

Through automated emails, SMS reminders, and retargeting strategies

digital marketing takes the customer ahead of its journey by helping
them make a purchase.

Now your customers have made it past the consideration stage but still
haven’t completed a sale. This could be in the form of abandoned carts
or incomplete forms yet to be submitted.

Once the purchase is done it means that you have converted your lead
(visitor) which you then have to retain.

Retention Stage:

Once your customers have reached this stage it means they have tried
out your product and are looking for a great performance out of it. Not
to mention, a good customer service from you too.

All in all, this stage is crucial as it will give you the opportunity to retain
your customers.

Digital marketing in this context helps the customer to learn more about
the product through informative articles or blogs and provide support
through communities or forums.

Digital strategies like online reputation management also help establish

your business’s reputation online and build a positive engagement with
your customers.

Advocacy Stage:

This is the final stage in the buyer’s journey and highlights the post-
purchasing experience of your customer.

If your customers have reached this stage, there is a good chance of

them becoming advocates or avid followers of your brand to further
spread the word of your products.
It is also likely that your customers might be interested in buying more
products from you.

Marketers use multiple digital strategies to make their customers

become advocates. They take the help of email newsletters, blogs, and
social media to promote their products thus keeping their existing
customers happy and coming for more.

In such a way, digital marketing fuels the journey of your buyer in every
stage.
There are various types of digital marketing you must know as each
aspect has its own purpose and use in different stages of the buyer’s
journey.
They are also offered as different digital marketing solutions by digital
marketing agencies which makes it more important to understand them.

As we’ll be covering each topic in-depth, we’ve created an index to

make it easier for you to jump between different topics.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

INDEX

• Search Engine Marketing

• Social Media Marketing
• Social Media Optimization
• Email Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Online Reputation Management
• Viral Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing

1. Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing is a way of promoting your website on search

engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. using paid and organic
strategies.

It is one of the most important and widely used digital marketing

techniques today.

Here’s why:

When someone searches for a keyword or a set of keywords in a search

engine they are shown those websites which rank on top for that
particular keyword.

Search engine marketing techniques help you rank for specific

keywords you are interested in and that are related to your business so
that your website appears on the top of SERPs (Search Engine Results
Pages).

This makes it easier for your prospective customers to find your

business website when they search for such keywords on the web.
You can improve your search ranking organically using Search Engine
Optimization or through paid strategies like Pay-Per-Click Advertising.

Search Engine Optimization:

You may have asked yourself what does SEO really stand for? Why it’s
so popular? Here’s the answer:

In simple words, Search Engine Optimization is a technique of driving

visitors to your website by organically ranking it in the top
position of search engine result pages without spending a single
penny on ads.

SEO has gained significant importance over the past few years and it’s
not surprising to see why: It is able to generate 300% more traffic than
social media.

Not only that, SEO is effective in building authority of your website and
can help you generate trust and credibility for your business.

It also helps improve your website’s performance and boost growth in

the long run.

PPC Advertising:

PPC or Pay-Per-Click Advertising is a method of advertising in which

a marketer places ads on digital platforms like a search engine and
gets charged only when someone clicks it.

That’s why it’s called ‘Pay-Per-Click’ as you pay only when someone
clicks on your ad.

Marketers use PPC on different advertising networks like Google or

Bing, especially in search ads to rank their website on the very first
position in search engines. It works on a RTB or Real-Time-
Bidding principle where advertisers bid on keywords in real time.

PPC helps you bring quality traffic that is likely to convert. It is also
highly measurable meaning you can see which of your PPC campaigns
are actually performing well and which aren’t.

You can track everything from total number of views your ad received
to the performance of your ad and even the conversion rate.
Learn more about PPC Advertising.

Pro tip: If you are new to SEM and want to carefully manage your
budget then it is recommended to hire a SEO Agency or Pay-Per-
Click agency. They can help you plan a good marketing strategy
and bring more ROI.

2. Social Media Marketing:

Ever seen your favorite brand host a contest on Facebook or market

their products in creative ways on Instagram or Twitter? Welcome to
the world of social media marketing!

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a digital marketing technique that

utilizes social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
etc. to help marketers target relevant people and promote
products and services.

It is a great way to reach out to prospective customers and ensures that

your ad reaches the right people at the right place, and at the right time.

A social media marketing strategy is ideal for both small and large
businesses and comes with plenty of benefits. It helps increase the
exposure of your business on social media platforms. Not only that, it
helps you engage and connect with your audience through fun
contests, engagement posts, and quizzes.

With SMM, you can also acquire useful insights through customer
interaction and get to know your target audience better, enabling you
to further strengthen your marketing efforts.

3. Social Media Optimization:

Using social media advertising to leverage your marketing already?

Your job is not done yet until you optimize your profiles so that people
recognize it’s actually you! This brings us to social media optimization.

Social Media Optimization (SMO), in simple words, can be defined as

a technique of streamlining your social media profiles so that they
get discovered on the web.
It is a technique of building and promoting your social media profiles
not only on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter but also on
social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Reddit, Tumblr, etc.

Optimizing and presenting your social media profiles help you come
across as a brand and makes it easier for people to find you on both
the web as well as search engines.

You can optimize your social media profiles by keeping the same profile
photo on different social networks. Another way you can do it is by
maintaining consistency of language in your posts on different social
media platforms and creating content relevant to your niche.

Social media optimization companies use such strategies to help

businesses build their online presence on social networks and help
them get discovered by prospects.

4. Email Marketing:

If you thought emails are just used for communication, think again. They
can also be used as a powerful marketing channel with email
marketing.

To put it simply, Email Marketing is a marketing technique that uses

emails as a medium to promote products and services online.

It’s one of the most popular and cost-effective ways of promoting your
business online and comes with plenty of benefits.

5. Content Marketing:

If you are familiar with digital marketing, you may have come across the
word ‘content’ at least once.

It includes anything from informative blogs, to rich infographics,

whitepapers, podcasts, and videos.

Content marketing is all about creating such valuable and useful

content and then promoting it to attract a certain type of audience.

Creating content helps you build trust with your audience which then
helps them become your customers.
Content marketing is also widely used by big and small business.

6. Online Reputation Management

How often are we concerned with maintaining our own reputation?

Always right? Well, the same is also important when it comes to your
business.

Your business online is vulnerable to negative reviews and comments

from customers which could negatively impact the reputation of your
business.

In order to maintain a positive reputation, online reputation

management techniques are used.

Online reputation management is a set of digital marketing

techniques and strategies that protect a company’s online assets
like a digital store or social media profiles from negative publicity
and promotes positive reputation and engagement.

It’s estimated that about 85% of customers trust reviews posted online
as personal recommendations. Not only that, for local businesses 97%
of customers read reviews online before they make the move.

These factors make online reputation management more important

than ever before.

7. Viral Marketing

You may have seen some funny or bizarre videos clogging your social
media feed every once in a while with thousands of likes, shares, and
comments.

This phenomenon of content spreading faster on the internet is called

‘going viral.’

Viral marketing or viral advertising can be defined as a type of internet

advertising intended to make customers spread information about
a company or a brand in order to generate interest and popularity.

With more than 80 percent online firms adopting viral marketing

strategies it makes sense to pick a viral marketing campaign to reach
your audiences faster.
Viral marketing is a great strategy if you want to raise brand awareness
and create a buzz in your industry. You also get a great opportunity to
reach a global audience with the right viral marketing strategy.

8. Affiliate Marketing

Ever seen links on review sites or blogs that take you to a particular
product page for buying? These links are affiliate links which are given
by a seller to a blog or a review website to promote their products for a
commission.

These website owners become affiliates for the seller and the seller
gets to promote their products.

Affiliate marketing is hence a type of performance-based

marketing where a business gives a commission or a reward to
affiliates for every customer or sale they bring by their marketing
efforts.

By using an affiliate marketing strategy, you can bring some great

amount of website traffic, make a lot of sales, or both.

It’s also quite cost-effective as you pay only for the sales or the desired
conversions your affiliates bring. Affiliates can even boost your
reputation and promote your business even further.

Affiliate marketing is also popular on Facebook, Instagram and even

Pinterest.

At ATop Digital, we can provide all the various digital marketing

services to small and medium-sized companies and help them to grow
their business digitally. We are one of the leading digital marketing
agencies for small businesses dedicated to provide 360-degree digital
marketing solution.