Top 10 types of digital marketing to promote your business online

I downloaded this article from the internet to show us the types of online marketing that exist.

As people spend more and more time in front of screens, digital marketing has become the most important tool for effectively reaching customers. Digital marketing targets users of all kinds of electronic devices from desktop computers to smartphones. To successfully promote your business online and attract an audience, you need to use various types of digital marketing.

These days, just having a website is no longer enough if you want to qualify. You also need to be visible on as many digital marketing platforms as possible, from search engines to social media websites and smartphones. To build a successful online business and stand out from the crowd, you need a complex digital strategy based on detailed market research, detailed business analysis, and constant feedback.

Top 10 types of digital marketing

Ideally, you should use a combination of different types of digital marketing to reach your audience through various channels. In this article, we have compiled the most common types of digital marketing of our time that can help you achieve the highest success rate. They are as follows:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
3. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
4. Content Marketing
5. Email Marketing
6. Internet Advertising
7. Landing Page Marketing
8. Mobile Marketing
9. Affiliate Marketing
10. Viral Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is probably the first thing that comes to mind when people think about different types of digital marketing. Internet companies essentially live at the will of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. If you do SEO correctly, you can attract significant organic traffic to the website. The goal of SEO is to optimize content in a way that it appears among the first results on the search engine results page (SERP).

There are several methods by which you can rank on the SERP, such as building a mix of inbound and outbound links or optimizing content for specific keywords. Probably the most challenging part of SEO is constantly monitoring search engine algorithm changes and updating strategies and methods accordingly. SEO is essential for any website because these days every business optimizes their content for search engines. Therefore, without SEO, it is basically impossible to remain competitive in the market.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEO is not the only way to increase incoming traffic from search engines. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) allows you to advertise products in search engines and have them appear among paid search results. Search engines usually display paid results above organic results on SERPs. They look almost identical to organic results with only small differences in appearance, for example, Google displays a small “Ad” label next to the related URL. In the screenshot below, you can see paid search results for a web hosting query:

The most commonly used paid search services are Google AdWords and Bing Ads. They allow you to purchase ad space based on targeted keywords, location, viewer demographics, and other data. In fact, search engine marketing is quite an effective method because search engines only display your ad to the audience you want to target. In most cases, you need to pay for SEM results according to the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model, which means you are charged only when someone clicks on your ad.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Undoubtedly, social media are the queens of digital content in the 21st century. Therefore, it is also one of the most important types of digital marketing you should focus on, especially if you want to promote a B2C business. Social media are not only a marketing channel but also a way for people to stay in touch with their friends and family, get the latest news, or follow topics that interest them. There are many social media platforms to choose from, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and many others. You need to find those that are relevant to the niche you are targeting and promote the business there.

Sharing quality content on social media websites is a great way to engage viewers and position the brand as an authority in a particular niche. It is also important to place social media sharing buttons below each blog post and content page so visitors can share it across their network. Additionally, each social media platform offers various solutions for organic and paid advertising. Paid ads on Twitter and Facebook, hashtag campaigns, and influencer marketing are among the most popular methods of social media marketing.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is another type of digital marketing you can use to promote your business online. In fact, content marketing is an indirect way of marketing because you publish content that the audience naturally finds while browsing the web. The main goal of content marketing is to allow viewers to interact with the content by reading, sharing, and commenting on it. You can use it together with other types of digital marketing such as SEO or SEM. For example, you can build content around targeted keywords to achieve the best result.

Quality content also allows you to convince the audience of the business's expertise in a particular niche. Gaining customers' trust is one of the most important long-term goals of digital marketing. Shared content can be published either in the form of blog posts, white papers, reports, or webinars or through guest blogging in popular publications in the same niche.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a different type of business because you connect with customers within their mailboxes. Although email marketing is one of the oldest types of digital marketing, it is still very successful. It is a great way to increase brand loyalty and upsell to existing customers. According to the latest email statistics report by the Radicati Group (2017-2021), the number of emails companies send and receive daily continues to grow, with an average rate of 4.4%.

There are many different ways you can contact customers through email marketing. Besides creating newsletter campaigns, you can also send them email confirmations, thank-you notes, and product update emails. If you are promoting a local business, event invitations are also a great way to attract a local audience. These days there are many great tools you can use to run professional email marketing campaigns, from marketing automation platforms like MailChimp to newsletter plugins for popular content management platforms like WordPress.

Internet Advertising

Digital marketers have been using internet advertising since the early days of the web. Displaying banners or ads on other websites that belong to the same niche is the most common form of internet advertising. You can use online platforms like Google AdSense that allow you to automatically display ads on other websites with content. Ad networks usually allow you to configure the parameters of the website where your ads will be displayed based on keyword, location, audience demographics, and other data.

Larger online magazines often have their own advertising departments. Therefore, it can also be a good solution to contact them and purchase ad space on their website. Some niche magazines, such as the web design magazine A List Apart, also have sponsorship programs that allow you to display your brand, logo, and other visuals on their platform for a certain period of time (usually weekly).

Landing Page Marketing

Targeted landing pages can work excellently with other types of digital marketing and significantly increase conversion rates. In a broader sense, a landing page is any web page where visitors first land when they come to the website. In this sense, home pages often function as landing pages. However, many brands also create specific landing pages for their marketing campaigns.

Digital marketers link landing pages to ads displayed as banners on other websites or appear on search engine result pages. Therefore, when users click on the ad, they are redirected straight to the landing page designed for the particular marketing campaign. There are several tricks you can use to create a converting landing page, such as compelling headlines, a clean and adaptable friendly design, and highly visible call-to-action buttons. Below you can see the Slack app's landing page for sending where you can see all the necessary elements of a well-executed landing page:

Mobile Marketing

People use their smartphones all the time, so these days mobile marketing is also among the most important types of digital marketing. This is especially true if your target audience is the younger generation. In fact, you have many opportunities to reach your audience through their smartphones. According to a recent report by business communication provider Esendex, text messages had a 94 percent global open rate in 2018. As a result, mobile marketing represents an incredible opportunity to promote your business online.

Besides sending text messages to subscribers, you can further engage the audience by providing them with free mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. Your app can also perform certain actions that increase visibility. For example, it can send real-time push notifications to users' smartphones when new content is available on the website. Popular messaging platforms, such as Messenger and Telegram, also allow you to create marketing bots you can use

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing allows you to reduce your marketing workload by outsourcing to external service providers. With affiliate marketing, you only pay for conversions after your affiliate has closed a deal and the customer has purchased a product. Affiliate marketers perform all related marketing activities from banner placement to landing pages. Probably the best thing about affiliate marketing is that there are no upfront costs, and you can decide on the terms and rates you pay to affiliated partners.

Probably the most prominent internet affiliate program is Amazon Associates which allows anyone to promote Amazon products and earn a commission after closing deals. Smaller businesses can also use affiliate programs - it is a particularly popular type of digital marketing in the tech sector. However, you should only start an affiliate program if you have the resources to properly supervise and educate affiliates.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing uses all the types of digital marketing mentioned in this article. The essence of viral marketing is in creating a post, video, meme, or other types of short-form content that spreads across the internet like a virus. To create a successful viral marketing campaign, you need to promote the same content on multiple channels such as Twitter, YouTube, blog posts, newsletters in a short period.

Conclusion

To achieve the best business results, you need to decide which types of digital marketing you want to use. There are some types that you should use anyway, such as search engine optimization and social media marketing, while others depend on the industry. When planning the types of digital marketing, you will use not only software but also hardware. If the target audience uses a particular type of device, you need to be present on that type of device as well. Also, collect as much feedback as possible from existing customers, as there is no better way to build trust and engage them on a personal level.