Are you new to the world of digital marketing and looking to learn all types of digital marketing campaigns?
If you’ve answered yes then you are in luck. In this blog, I am going to explain all the different types of digital marketing with their examples.
And, if you are still having second thoughts about stepping into digital marketing then allow me to convince you to start it right away.
With the recent advancement of technology, everything is available online i.e. on the Internet.
Consequently, the majority of consumers or customers have started purchasing or employing services available on the internet with just a push of a button.
So, if you are someone who aspires to start earning via online business, it is highly advisable for you to set up digital marketing channels & strategies and start tapping-in new business opportunities.
But that’s easier said than done. Luckily, I am here to help you with this…
Let’s begin our journey by learning –
What Is Digital Marketing?
Any kind of marketing that is done on digital platforms and electronic devices is known as Digital Marketing.
The digital platforms included in this could be websites, social media, podcasts, emails, etc. At the same time, it’s obvious that electronic devices are desktops, laptops, mobiles, and tablets.
For example, if you are a business owner who is selling mobile phone covers via an eCommerce app, you are said to be doing digital marketing. As simple as that.
Now that you know what is the definition of digital marketing, let’s move forward and discuss –
Benefits Of Digital Marketing
- Viable – Since there are more than 3 billion active internet users, your online business venture, backed with effective digital marketing campaigns is destined to succeed.
- Global Reach – Have you ever dreamt of taking your business on an international level? If so then digital marketing would allow you to connect with customers from around the world.
- Cheaper – Gone are the days of expensive billboards and newspaper advertisements. With digital marketing, you can start promoting your business on digital channels for free.
- Measurable – Unlike traditional marketing practices, digital marketing provides actionable insights on your growth or decline of your performance. This way, you’d have all the data required to improve your digital marketing practices.
- Targeted Customer Base – Digital marketing will help you target and attract customers with similar needs and requirements.
… and a lot more than these..!!
Let’s move further and take a quick peek at –
Overview Of Types Of Digital Marketing Campaigns
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Marketing
- Pay Per Click Advertising
- Social Media Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
As you can see, digital marketing is a complete segment that incorporates many types of digital marketing campaigns under it.
In a way, it can be said that if digital marketing is a wheel then its spokes can be regarded as different digital marketing strategies or campaigns.
With that being said, it’s finally the time to start exploring each digital marketing campaigns in detail. Let’s start with –
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the broadest types of digital marketing campaigns. It includes all the other types of digital marketing strategies to work as a complete campaign.
As the name suggests, it involves the creation and promotion of different types of content for your users or readers.
The content could be anything like a blog, documentation, video, ebook, social media posts, or even infographics.
The main purpose of this type of marketing campaign is to create detail-oriented and value-packed content so as to persuade your readers to take action. And, these actions could be sign-up, purchase, sharing, etc.
Just to give you a clearer idea, here’s an example – Suppose you have launched a website and are planning to post some blogs. For that, you’d need a keyword research tool so that you can target a specific keyword for best SEO results. Consequently, you’d go on a hunt for finding the “best keyword research tool”. And, you’d then find tons of blogs, videos, etc. that tell how a keyword research software is ideal for your needs. Naturally, after reading, you would want to purchase or sign up for that particular tool.
2. Search Engine Optimization or SEO
Search engine optimization is one of the most crucial types of digital marketing campaigns. It’s safe to say that if you have a website or even a YouTube channel, you’d be performing SEO for your content.
SEO is basically a series of steps that you need to perform in order to rank high in search engine results. It is the best way to bring organic traffic to your website and definitely the cheapest among all.
It is of two types – on-page SEO and off-page SEO. The on-page SEO consists of researching keywords, adding them in a blog post, adding meta title & description, internal linking of blogs, etc. At the same time, off-page SEO asks you to create backlinks (adding your own links on other websites), optimize site structure, and your site load time.
Let’s understand this with an example. Take this blog for instance. I am targeting the keyword “types of digital marketing campaigns” and hence, I would be performing the required SEO for it. And, I’ll also make sure to get this blog posted on other websites (backlink) for maximum exposure and also to build domain authority.
3. Search Engine Marketing or SEM
Among other different types of digital marketing strategies, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is hugely used by small to large businesses. The reason being, it attracts the most targeted and focused customers and readers.
But the question you’d be pondering over right now is how does it work? Well, as the name suggests, it involves you to promote your products, services, or anything on search engine results pages through paid advertisements.
Simply speaking, SEM allows you to get a premium ad space on search engine results pages. These ad spaces are earned via a process called keyword bidding and placed above all the organic search results. Sometimes, you can find these ads at the bottom of the SERPs too.
In spite of having several search engines, it is primarily practiced on Google and Bing. And, it requires online SEM applications like Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Mind you, you will be only charged if someone clicks your ad.
Allow me to explain this with an example – Suppose you feel the need to start with email marketing campaigns. So you head over to the search engine and look for “email marketing software”. It’s hard to notice initially but when you’d look closely, the first 1-3 search results will have a tag of “Ad” over it. This means that the advertiser has paid search engines to display its ads at top spots. That’s search engine marketing for you..!!
4. Pay Per Click Advertising or PPC
It is a subset of search engine marketing as it incorporates the same advertising model i.e. paying when someone clicks on your advertisements. There’s no cost of displaying your ads.
But it doesn’t mean that PPC campaigns are the same as SEM. In search engine marketing, your ads are limited to search engine result pages. While in the case of PPC, you can extend your advertisement limits by displaying your ads on different websites.
Although, for displaying your ads on other websites, the other party must be using ad scripts of Google AdSense.
Lastly, cost-per-click is dependent on the niche of your displayed ad. If the niche is highly competitive, your cost-per-click is high. At the same time, if your niche is not so competitive then cost-per-click is low.
Here’s an example of where you might have seen a PPC ad – when you browse through YouTube, you are shown ads at the starting of videos. That can be classified under PPC ad campaigns.
5. Social Media Marketing or SMM
SMM or social media marketing is also one of the most-used types of digital marketing campaigns. “Why”, you ask? Well simply because it would enable you to market to an uncharted global audience.
You’d be amazed to know the power of SMM as it can allow you to potentially get in touch with 1.6+ billion Facebook users, 300+ million Twitter users, and 500+ Instagram users. In a way, this type of digital marketing campaign allows you to access that audience/traffic which can’t be accessed by SEO or SEM.
In Social media marketing, you’d have to create viral content (focusing your business, product, or service) that can be liked and shared by the audiences. These content could be posts, images, videos, or anything else. Also, if you are lacking ideas for content, you can always add social media sharing buttons on your blogs. That way, your readers can share your articles for you.
Apart from this, you could also create various types of social media advertisements to amplify the reach of your business. And, believe me when I say video ads works wonder for every businesses.
Here are some free online video editing software to help you create videos for your ads.
Allow me to share an example of these social media ads – Have you ever seen an ad post from Amazon or an eCommerce you recently visited? Well, that’s social media marketing for you.
6. Affiliate Marketing
At this point, I am sure that you must be wondering, what are types of digital marketing that I have not covered yet… Well, sit tight and brace yourself as I have saved the most popular types of digital marketing strategies for last.
Let’s talk about my personal favorite, Affiliate Marketing. Usually, if you already have a business, this can be considered as a side hustle for passive income. However, if you are new to the digital marketing world, you can employ this as your primary business model.
In affiliate marketing, all you have to do is promote the products and services of other businesses. You will be rewarded with a hefty commission share for every sale you make.
But beware, if you decide to step into affiliate marketing, you would be greeted with cut-throat competition. Having said that, you could easily beat this competition by employing other digital marketing campaigns & strategies with your affiliate marketing strategy.
Also, if you have not realized it yet, affiliate marketing is everywhere. For example, after reading this blog, you may want to start a website. And, in order to start a website, you’d need a domain and hosting service. So you’d search for hosting services by referring to other blogs and articles. In that blog, the author convinces you to purchase any of the mentioned hosting services. If you make the purchase, you’d get what you want, the author gets his commission, and the service provider gets a customer.
7. Email Marketing
Among all the types of digital marketing campaigns, the strategy that offers the best return on investment is email marketing. Such is the power of this digital marketing campaign.
Email marketing is the most direct way of communicating with your customers or subscribers. With the help of this, you can promote your new products, inform them about important updates, seek reviews or feedback, and ultimately build long-term relationships.
But in order to do so, you should first build an emailing database by collecting important details of your customers. Remember, more data means better email personalization.
I hope email marketing is quite simple to understand. If not then here’s an example for you – Do you shop for clothes at eCommerce stores? Well, after purchasing, that store sends you an order confirmation email. Moreover, your first purchase automatically adds you to its emailing list. Meaning, you will be receiving emails related to new offers, discounts, new arrivals, etc.
Note – If you want to learn more about different types of emails used in email marketing, check out this article by SendPulse.
8. Influencer Marketing
The latest buzz of the digital marketing world is Influence marketing. But it doesn’t mean that the ideology behind is also new. Have you seen television ads in which a well-known celebrity is featured to promote a certain product? That’s old-school influencer marketing.
In the present technological era, influencer marketing has shifted its focus to digital platforms, mainly social media. Here, a social media celebrity with a huge fan following is contracted to promote and influence its audience to buy certain products.
You could very well say that influencer marketing is a subset of social media marketing. But in this type of digital marketing campaign, instead of promoting your own business, you employ others to do it for you.
Here’s a fun example of influencer marketing – Recently, Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a $1 billion deal with Nike. So if you see any Instagram posts from him about Nike, consider it as influencer marketing. Apart from this, Kylie Jenner promotes her own makeup series via social media.
All Covered Up. Now What?
Now that you know what are types of digital marketing, it’s time for your start practicing it.
Remember, all the digital marketing campaigns mentioned above will obtain maximum output when they are used in conjunction with all other types of digital marketing campaigns.
Take this blog as an example. I will be using Content Marketing, SEO, and Social Media Marketing initially.
Then I will mention a few more blogs (at the end) and introduce Affiliate Marketing. After a while, I’ll make sure to fire up my email marketing campaigns and add this blog in my newsletter.
And, at last, I may opt for SEM or PPC ad campaigns for additional exposure.
That’s it..!!
Here are some more blogs that will help you with your digital marketing endeavors –
- Master the skill of making money with ClickBank.
- Know which of the Payoneer alternatives you can use to collect international payments.
- Learn 13 effective marketing tips and strategies for small businesses.
- Know how to start a blog on WordPress.
- Explore all the top digital marketing tools.