What is Digital Marketing?

Before defining digital marketing let’s define the marketing process in general.
Marketing is the activity of promoting, selling, communicating & delivering your products or services that will meet a customer’s needs with a profitable way.
Digital Marketing is about promoting your services or products through digital devices like mobiles, tablets, computers & other electronic devices. It includes online channels this is why Digital Marketing is also called online marketing or internet marketing.

Traditional Marketing is another form of marketing that uses offline channels to reach an audience & promote the products or services.

Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing

Importance of Digital Marketing

Any type of marketing can benefit your business but due to technology & internet digital marketing become a very important & powerful tool for your business.

Some benefits are:

• Reach More People Globally.
  About 5 billion are using the internet today & more than 3 billion are active on social media. On average people spend 7 hours a day on the Internet & numbers are increasing every day.
• Cost Effective
  Online marketing is very cheap compared to traditional marketing. The average cost to reach 1000 people in online advertising is 5$, while the average cost in traditional advertising is 25$ & it can even go higher with ways like magazine or tv Ads.
• Two Way Communication
  Unlike traditional ways, customers in online channels can participate by commenting, sharing, or giving reviews. This would increase loyalty, engagement & satisfaction for customers.
• Specific Targeting
  Now you can deliver your content & ads to specific target audiences. You can also measure exactly your efforts to detect points of strengths & weaknesses.
• Deep Analytics
  You can exactly measure your efforts to detect points of strengths & weaknesses. Online channels generate huge amounts of customer data.
• Real-Time Data
  We can easily measure our tactics’ results in real-time & even make real-time changes. This will make our strategy more effective, detect faults fast & flexible to any new trends.

Importance of Traditional Marketing

Traditional Marketing also has many benefits for your brands:

• Reach Old Audience
  Old people have no presence online. They have no social media accounts & don’t care about technology. The only way to talk to them is thorough traditional ways like TV, Radio & Newspapers.
• Longer Exposure
  Due to the huge amount of content & Ads online, it’s difficult to grab people’s attention for a long period, unlike traditional ways. For example, a person can watch a billboard or read a brochure for minutes. Besides that, content on traditional channels will be easier to digest & focus on so your message will be more likely understood by people.
• Reach Local Audience
  If you want to target the local audience in your area then traditional marketing will be the key. Tools like TV, Magazines & Direct Mailing will be very effective.
• Increase Credibility
  Due to the high cost of traditional channels not all businesses can afford them. Only reputable businesses with good financial resources can promote their products on TV or Newspapers. That’s why people trust more brands using these channels.
• Diverse Audience
  In traditional marketing, you can’t target a specific type of people. This could be an advantage in some cases like creating awareness in a wide range of audiences or in products that are consumed by all people Ex. Soap & Toothpaste.

Which one to use?

There is no quick answer to this question because It depends on your current situation, your target customer & goals you want to achieve.
My advice to you is, If you have a budget aim to combine both of them for a more effective strategy. This will help you benefit from their strengths & avoid their weaknesses. But if you have a small budget then digital marketing will give you better results with a small amount of money.

Digital Marketing Domains

Digital Marketing has been developed recently & became very broad. It now consists of many tools & domains. Some of these domains are:

• Search Engine Optimization
  It’s about increasing your visibility & ranking on search engines organically. SEO aims to increase both the quality & quantity of your traffic.
  Know More About SEO.
• Search Engine Marketing
  Like SEO, SEM is used to increase your website traffic & visibility on search engines but through advertisements either search or display ads.
• Conversion Optimization
  Aims to increase the number of audiences to do specific actions like signup email, fill out a form, or make a purchase.
• Web Analytics
  It’s a very important domain. It’s about tracking your customer’s interactions on your campaign’s different channels like website & social media platforms to measure your efforts & find mistakes.
• Content Marketing
  It’s the process of creating valuable, relevant & consistent content to attract profitable customers. Content Marketing helps you to make your message go viral & reach suitable audiences.
• Email Marketing
  How to write fantastic & more engaging emails that can increase your traffic & sales. If it is done well, emails can be very effective in your campaign with a very high ROI.
• Mobile Marketing
  The activity of promoting your products & services on smartphones, tablets & similar devices through websites, e-mail, SMS and MMS, social media, or mobile applications. Mobile is a very important channel as more than 90% of Internet users access Internet via mobile phones.
• Social Media Marketing
  The usage & harnessing of social media platforms’ capabilities & powers either through ads or free tactics. These platforms can help you reach big & relevant customers to your business.

There are also some channels like Influencer Marketing, Affiliate Marketing & others.

Is Digital Marketing a Good Career?

In my opinion, It is a great career for many reasons:

• There was a high demand for it in the past few years & this demand is expected to increase in the years ahead.
• Besides demand, salaries in this field are very good & increasing every year. According to Glassdoor average digital marketing specialist is $62,093 in the US, while the average manager’s salary is $89,857 in the US.
• Digital marketing can provide many sources for you to make money. For example, you can work as a freelancer, you can create your blog or store. Of course, you can create a store without digital marketing but learning these skills will give you a great advantage.

Skills Needed For Digital Marketing

There are many skills you need to acquire as a digital marketer. These skills will help in promoting products & run successful campaign effectively.
Most important skills are:

• Search Engine Optimization
  Increase your ranking in results page for specific keywords or search terms.
• Website Development
  Designing a great-looking & user-friendly website that can help your brand & business.
• Data Analysis
  To measure your efforts & find that best content or channels for your business
• Copywriting
  Creating accurate, engaging and error-free writing for various media channels.
• Social Media Marketing
  Being creative & understanding powers or social platforms can help you greatly in your campaign.
• Email Marketing
  Writing valuable emails to drive more traffic & increase your revenue.
• Graphic Design
  Of course graphic design is beyond your responsibility but having basic designing skills will be rewarded by employers.

Of course, there are many other skills you should learn. You can learn more about 10 Essential Digital Marketing Skills.

Jobs in Digital Marketing

There are many job titles in digital marketing probably the most common ones are:

• SEO Specialist
• SEO Manager
• Social Media Coordinator
• Social Media Manager
• Copywriter
• Content Manager
• Email Marketing Specialist
• Product Marketing Manager
• Paid Search Specialist
• Digital Marketing Manager
• Digital Marketing Director
• Chief Marketing Officer

Conclusion

Digital Marketing is used to promote products & services through digital devices. Due to technology & development digital marketing become a very powerful tool. It can help you reach big & suitable audiences. Businesses & brands are looking for skilled people in this field nowadays. This is why this career has high demand with very good salaries. In addition, It gives you the ability to make money online from many sources. But digital marketing also comes with many skills & responsibilities.

I hope you enjoy reading this post & I’m looking forward to your comment.