Introduction
Digital marketing is one of those terms that’s shrouded in confusion and seems to mean something different to everyone. It’s also been made to seem way more complicated than it actually is, which is a shame really, as it’s really pretty straightforward.
So what exactly is digital marketing?
As simple as this is going to sound, digital marketing is just marketing using digital tools.
Marketing is nothing more than communicating value to your customers so therefore, digital marketing is communicating value to your customers using digital tools.
Now that we have covered what digital marketing is, the real question should be, what digital tools are available and how do they differ from traditional marketing tools?
Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing?
The first thing that we need to do is to understand the difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing.
When you’re talking about traditional versus digital marketing, you’re talking about the tools more than the strategy behind them. More accurately, you’re talking about which form of media you’re going to use to communicate your message on, a traditional one, or a digital one?
Traditional marketing relies on the following tools:
- Print Media such as newspapers, magazines, brochures etc.
- Radio
- Television
- Direct mail
- Billboards
- Referrals aka Word of Mouth Marketing
Digital marketing is made up of tools such as:
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest TikTok etc
- Content marketing like blogging, articles, or video creation
- Email marketing
- Online pay per clicks advertising (PPC)
Does traditional marketing still work?
Absolutely!
When done well and strategically designed and executed on, traditional marketing can still provide good results however when compared to digital marketing, more often than not, traditional marketing does not stand a chance.
Digital marketing on average is more cost-efficient, effective and allows you to measure, monitor, analyse and test at a much better and faster rate.
Conclusion
As consumer media consumption trends continue to shift dramatically away from traditional and towards more and more digital content, there will be a time in the near future where we no longer refer to it as digital marketing and simply call it what it is. Marketing.
Now that you have a clue about digital marketing, would you like to learn more? The International Institute Of Digital Marketing™ offers a wide variety of in-depth courses that will teach you all about the ins and outs of digital marketing. Visit https://thedigitalmarketinginstitute.org today to find out more.