When it comes to digital marketing, trying to figure out which path you should take can be tricky. With numerous options available, sometimes businesses can be spoilt for choice. Unfortunately, businesses have to make a decision at some point, and they need to make sure it’s the right one.
7 Types of Digital Marketing to Promote Your Business
To help you and your business make the right decision, we’re looking at the best digital marketing methods to promote your business. From the classic press releases to the more modern video advertising, we’re exploring the best of what digital marketing has to offer.
To get things started let’s take a look at one of the most popular digital marketing methods, search engine marketing.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is by far the most popular choice when it comes to digital marketing. Having been around for countless years, search engine marketing is an obvious choice for many businesses. Not only is it simple to understand, but it’s also very easy to measure your return on investment. With a vast array of statistics available from the number of clicks, to visitors and conversions, search engine marketing is an excellent tool for businesses.
The good news about search engine marketing is that unlike other entries on our list it can be done entirely for free. However, that doesn’t mean you should do it yourself for free. Attempting to optimize your website for search engines such as Google should be left to the professionals.
However, there are plenty of quick and easy steps businesses can take to make sure their website is in tip-top shape. For tips on how to improve your website, be sure to read our How to Improve Your Search Engine Visibility and How to Improve Your On-Page SEO.
Pay Per Click
The next type of digital marketing on our list is pay per click, also known as paid advertising. Although this type of marketing has been around since the early 2000’s, it’s not the most popular method on our list because of its price. Unlike other methods, pay per click can cost anything from a few pence per click up to tens of pound. However, the advantages of using pay per click mean you can easily beat other competitors who don’t.
Pay per click works by paying for adverts that are then placed on popular websites to attract users. Depending on what website you use depends on what traffic you can target. The biggest pay per click platform out there is most certainly Google that handles billions of clicks a year.
Advertisers pay Google to display their advert on their search engine which then attracts customers. For every click a businesses ad receives the advertiser must pay Google for passing them the user. As expensive as this might sound, PPC does have several advantages.
To learn more about PPC and its numerous advantages, be sure to read our post on How PPC Marketing Can Benefit Your Business.
Content Marketing
Next up on our types of digital marketing list is content marketing, a classic that has been around before the internet became popular. Originally known as copywriting, content marketing has evolved over time to focus on attracting users to a particular website. By creating original and unique content, this content draws users into a website and turns them into buyers.
Unlike traditional copywriting, content marketing combines several arts of writing engaging content, writing for search engines, and writing for users. All of these combined produce an excellent piece of content that users will love. Not only will this lead to more traffic, but ultimately more conversions.
Still not convinced content marketing is worth it? Be sure to read our post on Why Your Business Needs an SEO Copywriter.
Social Media
One of the most popular types of digital marketing in recent years is most definitely social media. The growth of social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram have made them the perfect tool for marketing. Not only do they include paid adverts, but they also give businesses the ability to create their own business profile.
This profile can be used to post content (some from content marketing and some from other websites) which in turn attracts visitors to your profile. These visitors are then likely to visit your website and hopefully turn into a conversion.
One of the most important things about social media is making sure you get the interaction right with customers. There’s no point posting messages about football when you’re trying to target business owners. Making sure you get the right posts out to the right users is what makes a social media campaign successful.
Looking for ideas to post on your social media accounts? Our post on Social Media Content Ideas has got you covered.
Email Marketing
Another popular type of digital marketing that has become very popular in the last few years is email marketing. Unlike other methods of advertising, email marketing often has a much higher conversion rate.
This is primarily because users who join a mailing list are usually interested in a product or service but aren’t ready to buy. This means they usually need some more proof or persuading before they convert. Having an email list is the perfect way to do this by regularly sending them updates about your product and business.
The best way to build your marketing list is to offer users free giveaways in exchange for their email. If a customer is interested in your product or service, then they will often be willing to give you their details for more information. Free guides and PDF downloads also attract users and can grow your list exponentially, giving you a nice list of active customers.
Press Releases
One of the oldest types of digital marketing on our list are press releases. This form of digital marketing might not be as high tech and savvy as the other methods, but it still works. The aim of press releases are to inform industry newswires about updates to your products, services or business in general. This is usually done by sending a press release statement to several newswires which then write articles or post the press releases on their website.
By sharing and writing articles about your press release, this helps you to share your message with the world. Perhaps you’ve just released a new product or are updating one of your old ones. Whatever the reason, press releases are a fantastic way to get the message out online and attract new users to your website.
Video Advertising
The last (but not least) type of digital marketing on our list is video advertising. This relatively new method of advertising hasn’t been around for that long, but recently more and more businesses are taking to it.
Unlike traditional paid advertising methods such as display advertising, video advertising is a lot more effective. This is because video advertising is much more engaging and helps capture a user’s attention easier. One of the most popular platforms to run video advertising is actually on YouTube as it’s already a well-established video platform.
The only downside to video advertising is that it is exceptionally expensive and is only really suitable for businesses with large budgets. However, the results are definitely better as they offer a much higher conversion rate compared to other types of digital marketing.