Content marketing involves creating and distributing content—text, pictures, multimedia— that adds

value for your audience, instead of just broadcasting an advertising message. If you’re in B2C (business
to consumer), ‘content’ can mean social media posts, blog articles and fun videos; if you’re in B2B
(business to business), it might be more white papers or reports, webinars and educational videos.

The pros

It’s free in the sense that it’s about attracting customers to you and your brand instead of paying to
push your message out to a cold audience

Content is incredibly versatile and can help you build your brand as you educate, entertain and inspire
your audience; it’s what fuels all the other types of digital marketing, driving search engine optimization,
social media, email, etc.

The cons

With everyone now waking up to the importance of content and pumping out blog posts, videos and
whatever else, it’s a very cluttered space that makes it hard to stand out

To be effective, you need to come up with consistent, high-quality content that meets the needs of
your customers while also representing your brand and achieving your business objectives

Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing is all about getting your website to appear at the top of the results when
someone searches for your brand, your products and services and other relevant words and phrases.
Think Google (let’s face it, that’s the main one) but also Bing (often installed on business computers, so
good for B2B!). It includes both organic or natural search (search engine optimization, or SEO) and paid
search (pay per click, or PPC) and both desktop computers and mobiles (as well as smart home
assistants these days—see number 10—audio marketing).

SEO

Search engine optimization does what it says on the tin: optimizing for search engines! This means
creating content that people are actively searching for as well as making sure that this content, and the
platforms where it’s sitting, is optimized from a technical point of view as well. Everyone should be doing
this, no matter what business or industry you’re in.
The pros

It’s free!

When your brand appears in the organic search results, it comes across as being more ‘authentic’ and
objective in the eyes of your customers

The cons

You may not have to pay specifically for the search results, but it does take time and effort to create
amazing content and do the technical optimization of your website

You’re at the mercy of Google’s changing algorithms and with all the content that’s out there now it’s
very hard to rank highly in the organic results

PPC

Pay per click is paid search advertising, for instance, Google Adwords or Bing Ads. It looks almost the
same as the natural search results, except that it appears at the top of the page with a little box that
says ‘Ad’. You can buy a top-ranking position via an auction based on keywords, geographical location
and demographics—it’s especially useful for e-commerce and for local businesses.

The pros

PPC can quickly buy you a top ranking if you’re willing to pay for it

You only pay when someone clicks (hence the name!)

The cons

It can get expensive, especially when you’re targeting popular keywords

A lot of customers are skeptical of paid ads and are more likely to trust the natural search results
Display advertising, also known as banners, is a lot like the traditional print ads you’d get in magazines,
except that they are online, and you can target specific publications that you know your audience reads.
It has become much more sophisticated now with programmatic advertising (where ads are booked,
analyzed and optimized automatically using algorithms) and retargeting (like when you look at a pair of
shoes on your favorite department store website and then those shoes follow you onto every website
you visit for months afterwards).

The pros

You can target, and re-target, customers very effectively

Display ads are really easy to track and allow you to measure conversion in real time

The cons

Customers can suffer from ‘ad blindness,’ ignoring your ad to focus on the content they are trying to
read

You need to find a way to maximize impact, so that people notice you, but not so much that they get
annoyed!

Social media marketing

illustration for an e-book cover that represents an influencer

Social media creates a unique opportunity for you to have a two-way conversation with your customers.
Design by DesignVero.

Compared to other channels like TV, print and even online display advertising, social media adds a whole
new dimension of engagement and interaction. Instead of just broadcasting messages out at a mass
audience, you can really interact with your customers and listen to what they have to say. There are all
sorts of channels—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat—and options
ranging from organic—for example, Facebook groups, page posts, stories and Messenger—to paid—like
Facebook ads. Pretty much every business should be on at least a couple of these social channels.
The pros

The effort you put in can be multiplied as people like, comment on and share your content with their
friends and connections

Facebook ads, in particular, have become very sophisticated and you can target specific customer
segments with your content to get your message seen by the right people

The cons

The Mark Zuckerbergs who are behind these social channels are constantly making changes, adjusting
their algorithms or finding new ways to make money, and it’s hard to stay on top of all these changes
and to keep your marketing working effectively

It may sound simple to do a bit of posting on social, but you need a proper strategy and a lot more
time than you think to do it properly and consistently

Email marketing

Email may seem old school in a world where everyone is instant messaging or Snapchatting, but email
marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing tools. Especially e-commerce sites and retail
brands are seeing a lot of success with pushing seasonal promotions and discounts (think Black Friday
deals or Mother’s Day), while you can also use email newsletters to ‘nurture’ your prospects by giving
them a lot of value beyond just pushing your products and services.

The pros

Having an email list means you can stay in touch with your followers independently of any changing
algorithms (say, if Mr Zuckerberg suddenly decides to close down your Facebook group)

Staying in regular contact with your email list will help you build relationships and will keep you ‘top of
mind’ when they’re ready to buy

The cons

A lot of emails are left unopened, so you’ll need to come up with strong subject headings to grab
people’s attention away from their cluttered inboxes

You need to find a way to keep adding value so that they stick with you and don’t unsubscribe