To an outsider, the world of digital marketing might seem a bit mysterious.
After all, when was the last time you heard of a sales representative being called a ‘marketing person’?
While the fundamentals of marketing remain largely the same, the digital world has changed the way we do business. Thanks to platforms like Google Analytics and HubSpot, marketing data is now abundant and easily accessible, which means that marketing decisions can be supported by data rather than hunches and assumptions.
Why Bother With Online Marketing?
The popularity of digital marketing is such that even small businesses can have an online presence, and large companies can afford in-house marketing teams to drive their digital strategy.
In today’s digital age, traditional advertising methods are being disrupted by more innovative strategies, which is fuelling the growth of online marketing.
As a form of marketing that relies heavily on internet-connected devices, such as smartphones and tablets, online marketing is particularly useful for reaching a wide audience.
Thanks to its digital versatility, online marketing is ideal for content creation, whether you’re a traditional magazine publisher looking for content to post on your website, or you use your own staff to produce content for various platforms.
Further to this, with the click of a button, you can test different market messaging and see how it performs in comparison with traditional forms of marketing.
The Evolving Landscape of Online Marketing
While the fundamentals of marketing remain largely the same, the digital landscape is constantly changing, with new platforms and techniques emerging to compete for our attention.
Thanks to the ever-evolving array of devices (most notably, smartphones) that we carry with us at all times, it’s now much easier to access information and engage with consumers wherever we might be.
This truly is a global village, and with the click of a button, you can connect with people across the world, whether they’re in Australia or Spain, or Malaysia or Mexico.
The combination of all these factors makes online marketing a form of marketing that is both versatile and effective.
Defining Online Marketing
While the scope of this entire book isn’t geared toward teaching you how to become a digital marketer, it can’t hurt to know the basics. So, let’s dive right in and take a look at the terminology associated with online marketing.
Marketing Channels
Depending on your technical know-how and whether you’re using specialized software to help you manage your marketing efforts, you might also consider yourself a ‘marketing technologist’.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to learn the basic terminology associated with marketing, simply check out these marketing terms. Learning to define and utilize various marketing channels will greatly enhance your digital marketing prowess.
Digital Marketing
Also known as ‘inbound marketing’, digital marketing is an umbrella term used to describe all online marketing. In simpler terms, if your company sells products or provides services online, then you are engaged in digital marketing.
As with any evolving field, there are a number of specialized terms that you should become familiar with, such as SEO, which we’ll discuss in a bit.
Social Marketing
Also known as ‘social media marketing’, ‘digital marketing’, or ‘online marketing’, social marketing is all of the various marketing activities that take place online, on social media networks. These activities include branding, advertising, marketing research, etc.
As with any evolving field, there are a variety of specialized terms that you should familiarize yourself with, such as SEO, which we’ll discuss in a bit.
SEO
SEO, which is short for ‘search engine optimization’, is the process of getting traffic from the search engines, like Google.
Depending on your technical know-how and whether you’re using specialized software to help you, you might also consider yourself a ‘marketing technologist’.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to learn the basic terminology associated with SEO, simply check out these SEO terms. Learning to define and utilize various SEO tactics will greatly enhance your digital marketing prowess.
Email Marketing
Also known as ‘remarketing’, email marketing is all of the various marketing activities that take place via email, such as sending out newsletters, marketing emails, etc.
As with any evolving field, there are a variety of specialized terms that you should familiarize yourself with, such as ‘lead management’, which we’ll discuss in a bit.
PPC (Pay Per Click)
PPC, which is short for ‘pay per click’, is a type of advertising that involves paying people to click on your ads. So, rather than paying for actual ad space as in traditional advertisements, you pay whenever someone clicks on your ad.
Depending on your technical know-how and whether you’re using specialized software to help you, you might also consider yourself a ‘marketing technologist’.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to learn the basic terminology associated with PPC, simply check out these PPC terms. Learning to define and utilize various PPC tactics will greatly enhance your digital marketing prowess.
Display Advertising
‘Display advertising’ is all of the various marketing activities that take place when you place ads on the page or in the side-bars of a website, rather than in the content itself. This includes ad banners on blogs and social media, among other things.
As with any evolving field, there are a variety of specialized terms that you should familiarize yourself with, such as ‘A/B testing’, which we’ll discuss in a bit.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is all of the various marketing activities that take place on mobile phones, such as sending out text messages and making calls, etc.
As with any evolving field, there are a variety of specialized terms that you should familiarize yourself with, such as ‘in-app purchases’ and ‘mobile analytics’, among others.
Content Marketing
As with any evolving field, there are a variety of specialized terms that you should familiarize yourself with, such as ‘content marketing’, ‘voice of the customer’, and ‘thought leadership’.
Content marketing is all of the various marketing activities that involve creating and sharing content, whether that’s blog posts, videos, infographics, etc., for the purpose of attracting, engaging, and inspiring customers.
Voice of the customer is all of the various marketing activities that involve getting inside the heads of your customers and creating content based on their needs and desires. This content is then used to educate and excite potential customers about your product or service.
Thought leadership is all of the various marketing activities that involve educating your customers about your industry and creating content to either promote your company or solve some of your consumer’s problems.
The above terms may not mean much to you right now, but as you begin to learn about online marketing and spend more time in the field, you’ll find that understanding these terms will greatly increase your productivity and improve your effectiveness as a marketer.
The Role of Marketing Technology In All of This
As with any evolving field, the role of marketing technology is to make the job of the marketing professional easier.
Since we’re a tech-savvy world, marketing and technology go hand-in-hand. This is especially true for those of us in the inbound marketing space. We’re constantly innovating and trying to make processes more efficient and less error-prone.
As an example, let’s say that your technical SEO person looks at the keywords and tags that are most relevant to your product and service and creates a simple keyword list. Thanks to the power of automation and digital marketing, you can now take that simple list of keywords and create a long-form SEO plan, which includes all of the various tactics that you’ll use to rank for those keywords.