DEFINATION

Digital marketing, also called online marketing, is the promotion of brands to connect with potential
customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. This includes not only email,
social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and multimedia messages as a marketing
channel.

Essentially, if a marketing campaign involves digital communication, it's digital marketing.

MEANING

Any marketing that uses electronic devices and can be used by marketing specialists to convey
promotional messaging and measure its impact through your customer journey. In practice,
digital marketing typically refers to marketing campaigns that appear on a computer, phone,
tablet, or other device. It can take many forms, including online video, display ads, search engine
marketing, paid social ads and social media posts. Digital marketing is often compared to
"traditional marketing" such as magazine ads, billboards, and direct mail. Oddly, television is
usually lumped in with traditional marketing.
A digital marketing strategy allows you to leverage different digital channels-such as social
media, pay- per-click, search engine optimization, and email marketing-to connect with existing
customers and individuals interested in your products or services. As a result, you can build a
brand, provide a great customer experience, bring in potential customers, and more.

WHY IS DIGITAL MARKETING IMPORTANT

Digital marketing helps brands reach their target audience and promote their product or service.
While that’s the goal of a traditional marketing campaign too, digital marketing allows brands to
target a more specific or niche audience. Connecting with customers digitally helps build a
wider audience that trusts your brand. It’s particularly useful for small businesses, which can
easily leverage digital marketing tactics without the help of a marketing department or agency. 

With global e-commerce sales expected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2021, it's clear that there's
significant potential for online promotional activity. What's more, 51% of shoppers research their
purchases on Google before making them.
With around 4.5 billion internet users worldwide, digital marketing gives businesses the chance
to reach people on platforms where they spend a lot of time and money. It also gives smaller
companies an opportunity to compete with their huge rivals, allowing them to use data and
insights to target customers.
We've also seen how vital online shopping is in the first half of 2020. At the peak of the COVID-
19 lockdown in the UK, online orders were up 200% compared to the previous year. For all
kinds of companies, digital marketing and the sales it generated were a lifeline when stores were
closed.

FEATURES OF DIGITAL MARKETING

• MEASUREABLE
One of the most important features of digital marketing campaign is that it helps you measure at what
percentile your product has reached the audience. So, whether you put up an ad or a post on social media,
you should be able to measure how many people saw the ad and how many people responded to it. Digital
marketing makes gathering this kind of information easier, which can be used for future marketing. It helps
to narrow your target audience, how well your copy worked, and which strategies didn't work in the past.
Machine Learning Training can benefit you in analysing the data of your customers to find out their interests
and advertise their essential needs.

 Targeted
Every online or digital marketing strategy is targeted, which means it is aimed at a specific group
of people. The information gathered helps marketers target strong demographics. For example, a
vegan cosmetics brand would target women between the ages of 16 and 45 who have been
known to search for vegan brands and a particular region if the company only delivers in those
areas. It also helps get a number for how many times the ad has been seen and figure out what
works best.

 Remarketing
Remarketing is another important features of digital marketing. It comes from the company's
previous marketing campaigns, which show ads only to people who had been to its page before
or shown interest. It's primarily used for services or products where customers frequently visit
the website. The remarketing is based on the audience, their behaviour and the situation.
For example, you may have noticed that you see ads for the goods you have seen but not bought.
It's one of the ways to get people to visit your website and learn more about your brand by
sending them to the page you want them to land on. You could add more product information
and details in the form of answers to frequently asked questions and descriptions.

 Personalisation
When the copy of your digital marketing strategy is measurable, you can also keep track of what
your customers buy, how often they look at certain products, and what they like. It lets you make
personalised product suggestions and suggest goods or services that go well with the customer's
preferences. You can also send a user personalised, one-time-use discount vouchers based on
their "Watch list" or "wish list," which they cannot share with anyone else. The Internet lets you
meet customers' needs, so digital marketing is accessible on the wallet and easy to use.

 Multi-Channel
A digital marketing strategy should be used on more than one channel. Not everyone in the
audience uses all of the social media platforms. The goal is to get in touch with the possible
buyer through different online communication methods. The way people talk to each other
should be easier and simpler to use.

For example, you should consider whether your audiences like a reminder on Instagram or a
personalised checkout link sent through email to finish the process. It keeps the prospect
interested in the brand over time and cuts down on printing and mailing costs. The aim is to
produce information that is easy to find an answer.

 Adaptability
Features of digital marketing require being flexible and able to adapt to changes in technology,
customer needs, and media needs. The campaign is meant to change with the needs of the people
it's aimed at for marketing. It can be hard to be a digital marketer, and you must be creative to
track and match buyer signals and make a call-to-action to your product promotions. In a
constantly changing world, companies need to be able to change with the times.

HISTORY

Who first started digital marketing?

In 1995 CSNL launched its internet services in India, which was the origin of digital marketing
in India. It did not perform well initially, as only 0.5% of the population used the internet till
2020.

Evolution of Digital Marketing - The Timeline

 The 90s
Archie, the first search engine, debuted in the early 1990s, heralding the birth of search. SEO, or
Search Engine Optimization, quickly followed.
The first clickable web-ad banners were introduced in 1994. The first identifiable social media
site was launched in 1997, with 3.5 million users. In the 1990s, a slew of websites still in use was
found, including Google and Yahoo's web search, both of which debuted in 1998.

 The Millennial Generation

A massive economic bubble grew in the new millennium. However, the bubble's peak and burst
between 2000 and 2002 harmed many businesses. Many new sites were launched in the 2000s as
the economy recovered from the boom, including the beginnings of LinkedIn in 2002, Myspace
and WordPress in 2003, and Facebook in 2004. In the early 2000s, mobile text messaging
marketing became increasingly popular.

 THE MOBILE ERA

The latter half of the decade saw increased marketing and sales, with Amazon's e-commerce
sales surpassing $10 billion. Over the next few years, mobile app culture expanded with the
introduction of Whatsapp, Instagram, and Snapchat to the digital world.

 The Present
Today, 65% of an individual's digital media time is spent on a mobile device. The digital
advertising industry is now valued at around $200 billion, with Google Ad Words accounting for
96% of the company's revenue. With an estimated 3.1 billion online users, social networking has
led the digital marketing revolution. The rise of bloggers and Instagram has resulted in a $1
billion industry for influencers, which are anticipated to grow. Digital marketing is expected to
grow in the coming years, with many new developments and changes in this exciting marke6

What Are the 5 Ds of Digital Marketing?

The five D's of digital marketing are as follows:

1. Digital device
Digital device means an electronic device that can create, generate, send, share, communicate,
receive, store, display, or process information, and such electronic devices shall include, but not
limited to, desktops, laptops, tablets, peripherals, servers, mobile telephones, smartphones, and
any similar storage device ...
 2. Digital Content Platforms
Content Marketing Platform is a centralized system that enables your marketing organization to
plan, author, collaborate, and distribute different content types from one place, empowering your
brand to streamline the execution of a content marketing strategy and go to market faster.

3. Digital Media

Digital media is information shared through a digital device or screen. Essentially, it’s
any form of media that relies on an electronic device for its creation, distribution,
viewing, and storage. Companies often use this media to advertise their businesses
and brands. In fact, a majority of modern marketing involves some form of digital
content to create and display advertisements—including social media posts, video
advertisements, and blogs or research articles.

4. Digital Data
Digital data is the electronic representation of information in a format or language that machines
can read and understand. In more technical terms, digital data is a binary format of information
that's converted into a machine-readable digital format. Data about your target audience used to
achieve a marketing goal is called digital data. You can generally collect data about your target
audience through surveys, apps, and other means.

5. Digital Technology
Digital technology refers to electronic tools or automatic systems designed to store and
process data. Thousands of processes every day are possible due to digital technology.
Examples of digital technology include smartphones, social media, online games, and
multimedia. Digital technology is all about using technology to achieve a marketing goal.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) are a few
examples.

What makes digital marketing so crucial

for your business?
With more and more people relying on online sources to get information and purchase products,
digital marketing has become crucial for every business. It's of dire importance to your business
since: It

o can help your business reach a wider audience as there are no geographical boundaries on
the internet. With the help of digital marketing, your company can reach every corner of
the world anytime.

o It helps you to target the right audience at the right time due to the ease of personalization
offered by digital marketing.

o It helps you reach more customers at lesser costs than traditional marketing.

o Digital marketing can help you communicate with your potential customer during each
stage of the buying process

o It can help you build a loyal customer base; you can use the input you get about your
customers to serve them better every time.

o It can help you measure your marketing efforts numerically, providing scope for
improvements in your future marketing strategies.

What are the most effective digital

marketing strategies for your business?
Whether you're just starting out or already have an established business, there are plenty of marketing
strategies to help you build your brand and grow your business. A few such strategies are as follows:

1. Marketing automation
Marketing automation uses software to carry out routine marketing activities without requiring the
involvement of humans. This strategy helps save time, generate new leads, and nurture them, all at a
lowe cost.

2. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a vital marketing strategy that every company, especially small businesses, must
follow. Influencers have a loyal fan base on social media platforms. These fans look up to them for
specific personal recommendations. Due to its high engagement rate, this becomes an ideal marketing
strategy for small businesses to generate leads and build brand awareness.

3. Referral marketing

It is a powerful marketing tactic that uses word of mouth to grow a business clientele through networks
of its existing customer base. In simple terms, your customers become your brand advocates here.

4. Personalized email marketing

Email marketing is one of the best ways to acquire and retain customers. Here, personalized emails
containing specific offers, relevant content, and essential information are sent to specific customers.

5. Digital event marketing

Events that occur online, like podcasts, live discussions, and online conferences, can help your brand to
generate leads. These events also allow your company to gather data regarding your audience's
preferences and curate specific marketing strategies that cater to them.

6. Google my business listing

GMB can help your business gain visibility and credibility. Google Business Profile will help you provide
in-depth details about your business. It is vital since it can increase your ranking in search results and
provide potential customers with opportunities to find you.

ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL
MARKETING
  Better Reach
Nowadays, many people across the world are spending their time online. They are browsing the
internet and looking for your products. In order to benefit from this massive audience base,
maximising your online presence is key. This is where digital marketing comes into the picture.
Digital marketing is all about reaching the right people at the right time. Hence, to begin with,
one must have an engaging online store with easy navigation to improve audience reach. 

In this process, various mediums within digital marketing can eventually help in brand building –
Pay Per Click Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Content
Marketing, and many more.

 Can compete with large corporations

Analysing the competitor is a key activity in digital marketing. The activity is essential to keep
up with the competition especially amongst fast-growing brands such as Myntra, Amazon, Big
basket, Walmart. 

Businesses also try to push the envelope with multichannel marketing which comprises of
PPC, SEO, social media, and many more mediums. The approach helps both small and large
businesses to achieve their respective goals, leveling the field.

 Increase in Brand Awareness for small businesses

Digital marketing is a boon to businesses. Large companies use digital marketing so that they
could stand steady in a competitive environment. In contrast, small businesses use online
marketing to make headway into a booming market and create brand awareness amongst large
companies.

 Increase in Sales
One of the key aspects, when it comes to the importance of digital marketing, is that one can
measure their CRO (Conversion rate Optimisation) in real-time. The data can help understand
the overall percentage of searches that get converted into leads by buying products. PPC, Social
media marketing, SEO services, affiliate marketing are some of the active channels to
communicate and get high conversions.
  Return on investment
If you want to know the value of digital media, look at the measurement metrics of profit and
loss it drives for business. The ROI in digital marketing defines the worth of your marketing
campaigns. For example, when compared with other mediums like e-mail marketing, content
marketing, PPC, social media campaigns; SEO has been known to generate higher ROI. From
basic metrics such as sessions and bounce rate, the organic traffic generated by the SEO shows
40% more revenue growth than any other marketing strategies.

 Maintaining The Brand Reputation

Developing a strong brand reputation in the online world has become very important as the
brand’s reputation cements its ability to sustain in the market. Thereby, further reiterating the
importance of digital marketing in this aspect too. 

 Your Customers are Online

The internet has become a fundamental necessity of everyday life, with more than 4.66 billion
internet users globally. Your customers, targeted customers and competitors are all online, and
they are looking for businesses like yours. When they cannot find you, the chances are that they
will see your competitors. You risk losing your customers if you do not have an online presence
and exposure.

Your online business will feel digital marketing importance when it requires the right kind of
exposure and visibility to generate leads and improve sales. When your customers do not find
you online, it is possible that they might not value your products and services.

 Can target ideal audiences

Imagine, reaching out to the right audience for your business’s niche is such a great opportunity.
That is exactly what digital marketing helps to achieve. You can analyze your audience’s
behavior online and take measures to deliver optimal fulfillment. When you reach the right
audience group, you drive more traffic, and that results in better campaigns.
  Get Ahead of Your Competitor
The digital market is incredibly competitive when it comes to online business, in particular.
Hence, you would want potential customers to find you with your best reviews and other
measures initiated by various digital marketing services. These measures can you and your
customer to work towards the right business goals in the end. 

Also, for any successful business, one needs to make a track of their competitor’s activities. How
do they communicate with customers? What makes them unique? Competitor analysis can help
you understand all the aforementioned queries and develop strategies that work best in your
favour. 

 Different Channels To Boost Your Traffic

One can use multiple different avenues to make their business successful in the marketing world.
Business owners have the freedom to avail SEO services, PPC Services, content marketing
services, and even social media campaigns to boost traffic on their website.

 Engagement with Mobile Customers

We are engaging ourselves in a portable world, as these days people carry their devices like
smartphones and laptops, on the go. After Google’s mobile-first update, almost all the websites
are developed in a manner that they are easily accessible on the mobile as well. 

Perhaps, mobile users are more common now than ever before, and the chances are that mobile
users are likely to purchase.

 Take Your Business International

The importance of digital marketing comes into play in a big way when it comes to taking
the reach of businesses overseas. With the help of digital marketing services, you can connect
with international customers and work with them to expand your business worldwide.

Change is Constant! The scope of digital marketing continues to develop with incredible

flexibility and competitive technologies. But how does your website measure up on the digital
marketing front? Get answers to your pertinent queries by the best SEO company – Infidigit.
  Digital Marketing Strategies are Cost-effective and Faster
For every business, being cost-effective is one of the most critical priorities. Unlike traditional
marketing, digital marketing is cost-effective. Besides, small businesses feel digital marketing
importance as it brings in faster results at a considerably limited budget. Additionally, digital
marketing also has the capability to reach a wider audience regardless of location. 

You can also target a broader target market by developing multiple marketing strategies to cater
to specific consumer groups simultaneously. Running a digital marketing campaign utilises a
significantly lesser budget while giving a higher ROI. It is always better to mix traditional
methods and digital marketing solutions to develop an optimum marketing plan for business.

 Helps in Tracking & taking Actions

One of the most common issues that the market faces is finding ways to track and measure the
success rate of various digital marketing mediums. But there are tools such as Google Search
Console, Google Analytics, Ads manager, etc. that pull in data and help gauge the performance
of search engine campaigns among different audiences. 

Also, there are various tools that help define measurable metrics to aid performance tracking and
taking the necessary steps. Prominent examples of such tools are Screaming Frog, Ahrefs,
SEMrush. These tools help in analyzing the competitor’s activity as well and provide data that
helps businesses in making more informed decisions.

 Affordable:
A digital marketing strategy is considerably less expensive than offline marketing. The latter
involves spending money on hoardings, newspaper ads, and the hire of a sizable marketing staff.
But, in digital marketing, you will only need to invest in a few tools that come with annual
subscriptions. There are various free tools as well that you can use to get quality leads and
improve sales. You may also wish to invest in employing an SEO company to achieve the
desired outcomes.

 Better customer relationship:

A variety of strategies are used in digital marketing. Content creation, conducting podcasts,
webinars, etc., are all essential for addressing the consumers’ pain points and building
relationships with them. Another marketing strategy is integrating chatbots into your website. It
is a strategy that makes your site user-friendly and easy to navigate. It further helps you reach out
to customers who visit your site but leave without making a purchase. 

 Competitors are doing it:

If you have any qualms about digital marketing importance, then remember your competitors are
already doing it and getting results. You will easily find many of your peers who have created a
well-designed website, proper social media channels, etc. Your competitors create evergreen
content and market it in both paid and organic ways. The significance of digital marketing also
remains in the fact that it helps to boost your reach and get new prospects, digital marketing is
crucial.

Disadvantages of Online Marketing

Now that we’ve seen the merits of online marketing, here are its disadvantages.

1. Time consumption
The biggest demerit of online marketing is its time-consuming nature. Over time, you’ll
understand what works for your brand and what doesn’t. Then you can organize your strategies
and use the right techniques to lower time consumption. So, before you enter online marketing,
you should have a proper plan with strategies that work. 
2. Security and privacy issues
Security and privacy are major concerns when it comes to digital marketing. It is crucial for
businesses to safeguard customer data. When customers aren’t confident that a brand or business
doesn’t care about their data security, they won’t engage with it. 

3. Inaccessibility
Although online marketing gives brands a global reach, not all regions or people of the world are
reachable through it. For instance, in rural areas where internet service providers aren’t available
or internet connection is poor. Further, illiterates and elderly people who do not use the internet
aren’t reachable through digital marketing.   

4. Reliance on technology
Online marketing entirely relies on modern gadgets, internet technology, and technological
devices. So, you need to invest in these to do online marketing. Further, you can’t reach those
people who aren’t adept at using these devices. 
5. Technological issues
When you face technological issues such as a crude website design, slow page loading speed,
website downtime, poor site navigability, poor search engine optimization, and more, you tend to
lose web traffic.  When such issues are faced, people go to your competitors who are technically
sound and offer a seamless experience online. 
6. Global competition
Online marketing gives every business a global reach. This also means that you’d have to face
global competition. You’ll have to find and apply tactics to fight numerous competitors who are
also targeting the same audience. For you need to stand out from the crowd to attract the
attention of your consumers. 

7. Maintenance Cost
Although online marketing helps cut off many expenses, it can also increase your expenses. For,
you need to bear expenses related to investment (in technological gadgets) and maintenance.
Besides, you also need to hire technical specialists and developers to manage your online
marketing channels.

8. Facing negative feedback and reviews

Unlike conventional marketing, online marketing faces the risk of instant spread of a bad
reputation. For, any negative comment, review, feedback, or criticism about your brand can go
viral quickly, damaging your brand’s image. So, your customer service team has to be quick in
effectively handling customer issues.

9. Anti-brand activities
Also known as cybersquatting, the possibility of anti-brand activities is another demerit of online
marketing. In such cases, an individual or a group of individuals can affect a brand’s reputation
by falsely spreading rumors about your brand with the intent of spoiling it. 

10. Internet Fraudulence

Established brands face the risk of internet fraudulence, where an unauthenticated party can use
unethical and fraudulent practices such as using a brand’s trademarks and logos in their
marketing. This can defame the concerned established brand. Besides, it can also lead to some
financial loss. Such occurrences can also take things out of your control.

11. Likelihood of your promotional strategies being copied

When an online business does well by coming up with innovative tactics, its competitors tend to
copy those. This kind of piracy of a brand’s promotional techniques and strategies is another
disadvantage of online marketing