There is a big difference between surviving and thriving, and as a business owner, you may already be familiar with it. But are you familiar with the role of digital marketing in your business? In today's world, where the internet is intertwined with everything we do, the importance of digital marketing has become very clear. It has become an integral part of what the business means to its customers. This blog about What is digital marketing? will guide you through the following topics-

. What is Digital Marketing?

. The 5D of Digital Marketing

. Why Digital Marketing?

. How does digital marketing work?

. Marketing channels in digital marketing

. What is the role of digital marketing for your business?

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that promote your product or brand using electronic devices or the internet. It leverages online marketing tactics like search marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing to connect with current and prospective customers.



Now that you have understood what digital marketing is, let's take a look at the 5Ds of digital marketing.


The 5D of Digital Marketing

The 5Ds in digital marketing define the opportunities for consumers to interact with brands and for companies to reach their audiences in different ways. The 5D of digital marketing are:


Digital Devices – Your audience experiences your brands as they interact with websites through digital devices, including mobile phones, desktops, tablets, TVs, and gaming devices.

Digital platforms: Most of the interaction on digital devices is done through browsers or applications of the main platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Digital media: different owned, paid and earned communication channels to reach and interact with your audience.

Digital data: information that companies collect about their audience and their interaction with companies.

Digital technology: Businesses use it to create interactive experiences from websites and apps to in-store kiosks and email campaigns.

Why Digital Marketing?

While traditional marketing can exist in print ads, phone communications, or physical marketing, digital marketing occurs electronically and online. This means there are endless possibilities for brands, including video, email, social media, or website-based marketing opportunities.

Since digital marketing has so many options and strategies associated with it, you can get creative and experiment with a variety of marketing campaigns. With digital marketing, you can also use analytics tools to monitor the success and ROI of your campaigns.


How does digital marketing work?

Digital marketing is no different from traditional marketing. Both require smart organizations to develop mutually beneficial relationships with prospects, leads, and customers. However, digital marketing has replaced most traditional marketing tactics as it is designed to reach today's consumers.


Think about the last major purchase you made. Before buying, you probably would have searched the internet to find out what product you wanted and what your best options were. And your final purchase decision would have been based on the customer reviews, features, and prices you researched.


Buying decisions start online today. Therefore, an online presence is absolutely necessary regardless of what you sell.


You need to create a marketing strategy that puts you in places where your followers are already hanging out and connects you with them in many ways, such as:


. Provide them with content to keep them up to date with industry news.

. Social networks share that content and engage with the audience as friends and followers.

. Search engine optimization optimizes your content, so it shows up when someone searches for the          information you've written about.

. Advertising drives paid traffic to your website, where people can find your offers

. Email marketing tracks your audience to make sure they continue to get the solutions they're                  looking  for.


When you put all these pieces together, you get an efficient and easy to operate digital marketing machine. As intimidating as it may seem to build that machine from scratch, it's as simple as learning and integrating one digital marketing tactic at a time.

Marketing Channels in Digital Marketing 



search engine optimization

SEO is the process of optimizing your website's content, technical setup, and outreach so that your pages appear at the top of a search engine's results for specific keywords. The ultimate goal is to attract visitors to your website when they are looking for products or services related to your business.

SEO imposes the need for a user-friendly website, valuable and engaging content, and credibility for other websites and visitors to recommend you by linking to your website or by tagging you in their social media posts. There are several ways to approach SEO to drive traffic to your website. These include -

. On-page SEO: Focuses on the content that exists “on the page” of a website. By researching keywords for their search volume and intent (or meaning), you can answer questions for readers and rank higher on the search engine results pages (SERPs) that produce those questions.

. off-page SEO: It focuses on all the activities that take place "off the page" when looking to optimize your website. What are these activities that are not on the page but affect your ranking? The answer is "backlinks". The number of publishers linking to you and the relative "authority" of those publishers affect how you rank for your specific keywords. You can get the backlinks by networking with other publishers, writing guest posts on these websites, and generating external attention.

. Technical SEO: Focuses on the backend of your website. Image compression, CSS file optimization, and structured data are all different forms of technical SEO that can increase the loading speed of your website, which is an important ranking factor for search engines.

Content Marketing

Have you heard the saying, "Content is king?" Quality content is the fuel that drives your digital marketing strategies. Content marketing denotes the creation and promotion of content assets to drive brand awareness, lead generation, traffic and customer growth. Channels that play a role in your content marketing include:

. Videos – YouTube is now the second largest search engine on the internet and videos are completely taking over the world of digital marketing. The use of video in content marketing is on the rise and definitely demands a leadership position in your content marketing plan. The numbers one reason for this is that videos convert more customers. A recent report shows that 71% of marketers say video conversion rates outperform other marketing content.
. Blog Posts – Writing and publishing articles on a business blog helps you demonstrate your industry expertise and drive organic search traffic to your website. This gives you the opportunity to convert website visitors into leads.
. E-Books and Whitepapers – Long-form eBooks, whitepapers, and similar content help educate website visitors. It allow you to exchange content for a reader's contact information, generating leads for your company.
. Infographics – Infographics are a form of visual content that help your website visitors visualize a concept that you want to help them learn.

Creating content that is not promotional, but educational and inspiring, is difficult but worth the effort. Offering relevant content helps your audience see you as a valuable source of information.

Social Media Marketing


Some of these social media channels are-

. Facebook 
. Twitter
. Linkedin
. Instagram
. Pinterest

People rely on social media these days to discover, research, and educate themselves about a brand before committing to it. For marketers, it's not enough to just post to your FB or Twitter accounts. You should also weave social elements into all aspects of your marketing activities and create more sharing opportunities. The more your audience interacts with your content, the more they will want to share it. This ultimately leads to them becoming a potential customer.

Email Marketing


Companies communicate with their audience through email marketing. Emails are used to promote content, events, and discounts, as well as direct people to the company's website. The different types of emails you can send in an email marketing campaign are:
. Blog subscription newsletters
. Customer welcome emails
. Christmas promotions for members of the loyalty program
. Advice or similar series of emails for customer support.

Online PR 

Online public relations is the practice of securing earned online coverage with blogs, digital publications, and other content-based websites. It's almost like traditional PR but in the online space. Channels you can use to maximize public relations efforts include:

. Reaching out to journalists through social media: Talking to journalists on Twitter, for example, is a great way to develop a relationship with the press that could lead to earned media opportunities for your company.
. Attractive Online Company Reviews – Attractive company reviews help you humanize your brand and deliver messages that would protect your reputation.
. Engaging comments on your personal website or blog – Responding to people who read your content is the best way to spark a productive conversation with your industry audience.


Mobile marketing

Mobile devices are becoming an integral part of our lives, therefore it is vital that marketers understand how to communicate on this channel effectively.

From SMS and MMS to in-app marketing, there are many ways to do mobile marketing. Finding the right method for your business is the key to success.

What is the role of digital marketing for your business?

Having a digital marketing strategy for your business allows you to be a dynamic part of the inevitable and lucrative online marketing framework. Let's delve into the important role of digital marketing for business growth.


Higher Exposure

Digital marketing give a fair chance to all business that prefer online brand and advertising.

Website Traffic

Digital marketing allows you to see the exact number of people who viewed your website page in real time through the use of digital analytics software.

Content performance and lead generation

With Digital Marketing, you can measure how many people exactly saw the page where it is hosted, and you can also collect the contact details of the people who download it through forms.


Attribution modeling

The attribution model is an effective strategy for digital marketing that allows you to trace all your sales back to a customer's first digital touchpoint with your business. It helps you identify trends in which people are researching and buying your products, helping you make informed decisions about which parts of your marketing strategy deserve attention.

Ending…

So that's the scoop on digital marketing that makes it clear that businesses in the modern economy need digital marketing to compete. It is a huge domain that is not going away anytime soon and is expected to outperform conventional marketing strategies. One of the favorable circumstances of leading your marketing through digital means is the simplicity with which you can follow and observe the results. Digital marketing helps you observe customer response rates, measure the achievement of your advertising goals, and allows you to plan your next digital marketing campaign more accurately.

If you have any queries on this topic, please leave a comment below and we will get back to you.

If you want to enroll in a full digital marketing certification training course, Edureka has a specially selected PG program in marketing with a specialization in digital marketing that will help you gain experience in various aspects of digital media like keyword planning, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Affiliate Marketing and Google Analytics.