The modern age is the age of the internet. People can easily access world news from their homes. Everything is just a click away. To attain success in business through digital marketing, we should first know what digital marketing actually is.

In simple terms, Digital Marketing refers to promotion or advertisement of any product or business or brand digitally (i.e., using electronic media and the internet.). Social Media has become the largest platform for digital marketing. In 2022, there are 62.5% of people’s worldwide population uses the internet and around 75% of them are active social media users which make it an important tool for our business as well as personal growth. Digital Marketing is much more cost-effective than traditional marketing and gives maximum profit with a little investment.

Digital Marketing services list

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Search engine marketing  (SEM)
• Content marketing
• Social Media Marketing(SMM)
• Digital Display Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the practice of optimizing a website’s content and keywords so it can rank highly on search engine results pages. When you Google the term “What is SEO?”,websites link one, two and three take the proportionally highest clicks for that search term. The process of getting your website at the top of search engines such as Google is called SEO.

SEO is generally three Types :

• White Hat SEO 
• Gray Hat SEO 
• Black Hat SEO

1. What is White Hat SEO

White Hat SEO is the practice of using ethical and legitimate means to optimize a website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves making sure that the overall design and structure of your site is accessible to search engines, follows the guidelines provided by search engines, and provides value-adding content for users. The primary goal here is long-term growth which does not employ any deception.

2. How White Hat SEO Works

White Hat SEO is the practice of optimizing websites or pages to rank naturally or organically on search engines. It optimizes a website for users with a strategy and techniques within search engine guidelines to gain higher rankings.

a. Keyword Research and Optimization

Process: White Hat SEO begins with comprehensive keyword research to identify the most relevant, high traffic keywords for your website. These keywords are then seamlessly incorporated into the content, meta tags, headings and URL’s.

This is the practice of optimizing a website’s content with keywords and phrases that provide context to help search engines understand the intent behind the query and content being published.

b. Creating High-Quality Content

Write, edit, produce and/or curate a wide variety of high-quality, original content. This can include blog posts, whitepapers, videos, infographics and other forms of media.High quality content naturally keeps people on your website longer – engagement and lower bounce rate are ranking factors after all.

c. On-Page SEO Optimization

White Hat SEO involves optimizing on-page elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, headers (H1, H2, H3), and image alt text. Internal linking is also part of this process as it helps users and search engines to navigate through your site.

It is a crucial element of off page SEO. This strategy is used to create multiple links for the website on other external sites without getting penalized by search engines and because only those websites are chosen which have high PR or does the bookmarking, blog posting, forum creation, backlink from the spamming, etc., then it can harm your website’s reputation and may get penalized.

d. Building Quality Backlinks

You can earn potential backlinks from high-authority, reputable websites through content marketing, outreach, or relationships with influencers/other niche websites. High-quality backlinks signal search engines that your site is authoritative and relevant. This improves both your search engine rankings and increases the visibility of your site as a whole.

e. Improving User Experience (UX)

Making sure your website is easy to navigate, loads fast and provides a good user experience falls under White Hat SEO. It includes responsive design, fast loading times and clean user friendly interface. A great user experience will lead to increased engagement and satisfaction, which in turn will result in higher retention and better rankings.

f. Mobile Optimization

With mobile-first indexing, it’s essential to optimize your website for mobile users. That means ensuring that the website is mobile-friendly, loads fast on a mobile device and provides a great browsing experience.Ranking Improvements – Search engines have been taking note of the increase in new, fresh and regularly updated content that they have never seen before.

g. Content Freshness and Regular Updates

Content should always be fresh and updated so it is relevant and continues to provide value to users. Search engines will also read new or updated posts so adding new content or refreshing old content on your website can also help with rankings.Fresh content tells search engines your site is current and offering the latest information in search results, fresh equates to better visibility.

h. Avoiding Black Hat Techniques

White Hat SEO does not involve in unethical methods that are against search engine guidelines such as keyword stuffing, cloaking and buying backlinks et cetera which could lead to search engine penalties.

3. Final Goal of White Hat SEO:

The ultimate goal of white hat SEO is to improve the user experience, and to do it effectively without cheating or cutting corners. The ultimate goal of White Hat SEO is to improve organic rankings, drive more traffic to your website and build an authoritative online presence that search engines will reward over time.

2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM is a form of marketing that is comprised of tactics that help get traffic to your business via paid search engine advertising. It’s also commonly referred to as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Cost-Per-Click (CPC) marketing. Google Ads, Bing Ads and Yahoo Ads are some examples of the most well-known SEM platforms.

3. Content Marketing

Content marketing refers to the practice of delivering a quality piece of content(usually contextual to your product or service being offered) on your web pages thereby attracting visitors who are actually interested in what you have to sell. 

Keyword relevancy is one of the key factors influencing the ranking of your content. Make sure to include relevant keywords.

Best practices for content marketing:

• Ensure your content includes relevant keywords.
• Regularly update multimedia content.
• Use automation for social media posting.
• Customize content for different platforms.

4. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media is a great way to get more traffic, make sales, build your list, increase your visibility and exposure online. There are also a ton of social media platforms out there. For example:Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest.

About 75% of internet users are on social media. It’s no wonder digital marketing is so popular, companies are using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter for their marketing.

Popular social media avenues per region:

• South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan) – YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, IMO, Viber, Tiktok
• USA & Europe – Pinterest, Reddit, Twitter
• Russia – VK, StumbleUpon, Twitter

5. Digital Display Marketing

Digital display marketing is graphic advertising on Internet websites, apps or social media through banners or other advertising formats made of text, images, flash, video, and audio. The main purpose of display advertising is to deliver general advertisements and brand messages to site visitors.

What You Can Find In A Digital Display Marketing: 

• Visual appeal – It uses catchy images, animations, and videos to get users’ attention.
• Multiple Formats – Banner ads, pop-ups, video ads, slideshow ads.
• Placement on Websites & Social Media – Advertise on platforms where your target market frequents.
• LED Displays for Marketing – Used in public spaces for offline digital advertising.

Marketing with the aid of digital LED (light-emitting-diodes) display enhances the brand exposure and helps to engage customer by displaying interactive visual content.

6. Mobile Marketing

As per GSMA, there are 4.92 billion mobile connections worldwide and 50% of them have smartphones. So, through SMS, MMS or mobile optimized ads, you can reach out to customers.

Types of Mobile Marketing:

• SMS Marketing – Short text messages promoting products/services.
• MMS Marketing – Multimedia messages with images/videos.

Fun fact: 97% of mobile users open text messages within 3 minutes. Businesses must strategize their SMS campaigns wisely to avoid annoying customers.

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing is a direct marketing strategy that uses email to communicate with potential or current customers. It’s an effective method for promoting brand, products, offers, generating leads and increasing sales.

As recipients have opted-in to receive emails from you, the conversion rates from this marketing channel can often be higher than others. Email marketing consistently has the highest ROI among other digital marketing channels and is an essential component in any inbound marketing strategy.

Modern email marketing is all about permission, cadence, segmentation and personalization. The better you know your customers – their interests and behaviors – the easier it is to build a long-lasting relationship.

Some marketers may think personalization takes too much time or that they don’t have access to the necessary data to truly personalize their messages. But with the right tools like marketing automation software and email software combined with a well-thought-out strategy, those challenges disappear.

The effort will be worth it when you generate repeat sales while also creating that loyal community every business needs.

Email marketing is an essential component of almost every online business, regardless of its size or niche. Emails are a direct line of communication with customers. Potential clients visiting your website usually aren’t ready to buy yet; they’re just looking for information. By using emails, you can regularly reach out and provide them with the information they are searching for.

Emails also let you build a relationship with your subscribers by providing engaging and relevant content as well as making offers that your readers will love.

Key Benefits of Email Marketing:

1. Direct Communication – Reach customers instantly in their inbox.
2. Cost-Effective – More affordable than traditional marketing methods.
3. Personalization – Customize emails based on customer preferences.
4. Automation – Schedule and send bulk emails efficiently.
5. High ROI – Generates better returns compared to many other digital marketing methods.

Steps for effective email marketing:

1. Email Template – Create engaging content with attractive designs.
2. Email Collection – Build a large and relevant email list.
3. Email Delivery – Use an SMTP server for mass email distribution.

Also, most email service providers (ESP’s) allow you to tag people on your list based on their behavior when reading your emails or interacting with the links inside those emails. This gives you multiple ways to deliver some conversational hypnosis!

-One study found that for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return is $38. -You have full control of everything. -Your list grows in value over time. (Marketing Land)

8. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or companies’) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make. E.G. When you promote Amazon, Alibaba, eBay or Themeforest product etc & you will get the commission on every successful sale.

It’s one of the low investments but high rewards giving business model & Amazon Affiliate Program is one of the world’s most popular program.

Final Thoughts

Digital marketing is a vast field and there are endless concepts and techniques to learn. The digital world is changing at a lightning fast pace so it’s important for any business to adapt the newest effective digital marketing trends, or hire a professional that does! Every platform is unique in its own right and with optimal strategy, you will have more success than you ever imagined.

There are agencies that can help you with this. The likes of Knowix Agency offer reliable digital marketing solutions for business growth. The secret to success when it comes to digital marketing is knowing every platform and using the right strategies.

FAQs

1. What is the best digital marketing platform?

It depends on what you are looking for your business. If you want more organic traffic then SEO is best. For paid ads SEM works well. For brand awareness social media marketing is great.

2. What is the cost of online marketing?

The cost of digital marketing depends entirely on your strategy. For example, PPC and display ads will usually cost more than SEO oriented content marketing.

3. Is email marketing still effective?

Yes! Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways of reaching out to potential customers, especially through personalized campaigns.

4. What does the future of digital marketing hold?

The future of digital marketing will be a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based decision making, conversational interfaces like voice search optimization or chatbots and more interactive rich content.

5. How can I get into digital marketing?

Learn the basics of SEO, Content Marketing & Social Media Marketing and put in some efforts using free tools like Google Analytics and Free Social Media Platforms.