There is no doubt that the terms “digital marketing” or “online marketing” is familiar to you, but what is digital marketing? How has it evolved over the last few years? Which trends and aspects of digital marketing should you pay more attention to? We’ll cover everything you need to know about web marketing in this post.
Digital marketing (or online marketing) encompasses all of those advertising or commercial actions and strategies that are implemented through the media and internet channels. As a result of this phenomenon, offline marketing techniques have been transferred to the digital realm since the 1990s as a way to expand their reach.
Throughout the development and evolution of digital technology, online marketing has been experiencing profound changes, progressively and very quickly, both in terms of the techniques and tools used (and in terms of their complexity) as well as in terms of the possibilities available to recipients. Let’s see how.
Initially, online marketing was based on the 1.0 version of web pages and was used as a translation of advertising from traditional media (television, radio, newspapers…) to the first web pages, which did not allow for a bidirectional exchange of information with users at the time. Advertising agencies controlled the content of the advertisement and were only allowed to expose it to their target audience.
Additionally, advertising during the web 1.0 phase was limited in most cases to reproducing a catalog of products or services as a result of an online catalog for an online store in the form of a showcase of products or services. In spite of this, this type of advertising already provided some interesting advantages, including the possibility of updating content and combining text, images, and, gradually, multimedia formats.
It wasn’t until a few years ago when the revolution happened – a frenetic technological development enabled the massive introduction of a higher-level internet. Web 2.0 was born, along with marketing 2.0 (as it is commonly called these days). And what a change it was!
It was only from that moment on that it became possible for users of social networks, forums or platforms to easily share information with each other. This made it almost instantaneous for pieces that were formerly impossible to share, such as photos and videos, to be exchanged.
It has become much more than just a way to search for information on the Internet. It has become a very active community as well. As of right now, it is understood as merely a way to exchange information in two directions. Therefore, feedback is a fundamental part of the brand-user relationship, and it entails many pros and cons as well.
The industrial revolution does not allow us to lower our guard once we have adapted to web 2.0. A new type of web is already emerging: web 3.0. But what is this next-generation web marketing format based on and how does it differ from web 2.0?
There are several types of search engine optimization, but the most commonly used search engine is Google. Google is the search engine that indexes web pages, which allows us to find what we are looking for. It is the only search engine that is well-known, but it is not the only one. The two biggest competitors of Google worldwide are Yandex (Russia) and Baidu (China).
According to José Facchin, search engine optimization can be described as “the application of a series of strategies, both inside (On-Page) and outside (Off-Page) of a particular website, with the intention of optimizing and improving its visibility in organic results”.
Getting organic traffic to our website is a helpful way for us to be able to gain an understanding of the algorithms behind search engines. This will enable us to make sure our pages appear in the first results of these search engines. While SEO requires a lot of time and effort, in the long run, it is possible to achieve the same results with a much lower financial investment. When compared to other channels, we have much less control over SEO because we are dependent on search engine algorithms and the good practices we apply to our website.
There is no doubt that SEO is still one of the most widely used strategies in digital marketing, with almost 64% of marketers spending time on organic search engine optimization each month (Source: HubSpot).
There are several main differences between Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The main difference between SEM and SEO is that, as it is a paid advertisement, the possibilities of segmenting are much higher. We also have more control over it and we are able to see immediate results.
Those of you who have ever closely followed the services of an online marketing agency will know that the main tool used to do search engine marketing (SEM) is Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords).
It can be said that marketing campaigns aimed at publishing ads on Google are affected by a number of factors. These factors include the quality of the ad, the quality of the landing page to which it redirects, and the relevance of the ad to the search of the user.
A content marketing strategy is one that involves creating content that will attract the target audience and is used as part of a digital marketing campaign. Most of this content comes in the form of blog articles, eBooks, infographics, or videos. It is also a long-term online marketing strategy with little control over the audience, just like SEO. Web developers tend to work on landing pages to offer downloads, or on blogs to offer content.
This is related to the inbound marketing methodology, which is based upon providing value to the user in order to attract them to the marketing funnel. In many cases, this value can be provided through content. It has been found that content marketing is present in most companies: 78% of them have between one and three people dedicated to this strategy (Source: HubSpot).
The term social media marketing refers to the use of social media platforms to connect with the audience and achieve the following three objectives:
In part, social media marketing is like content marketing: it must capture the attention of our target audience in the medium or long term. But, on the other hand, it can also be supported by Social Ads. These are advertisements on Social Media platforms, with Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads or Youtube Ads being the most popular platforms.
During the past few years, there has been a real explosion in terms of ads on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, and even TikTok. As the formats and tools to manage these campaigns have been mastered, it is possible to be able to achieve very interesting results and returns.
A type of internet advertising, display marketing, is distinguished by well-known banners. Surely, you have seen many of these ads in one of their various forms, such as text, image, video, audio, or even games. They are especially valuable due to their high level of creativity.
Oftentimes, display marketing and advertising is also managed from the Google advertising platform, Google Ads. Reportedly, Google’s Display Ad Network reaches approximately 90% of the world’s internet users (Source: Hubspot).
Basically, affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy that allows an affiliate to promote a company’s product by taking advantage of its website traffic. In this case, if you would like to advertise on a specific website that has a target audience, buyer person, or target similar to yours, then you will have to contact the administrators of that specific page directly.
It is not a secret that email marketing is an online marketing strategy that is based on the use of a company’s database to send communications. Yet, despite being a highly exploited strategy, if one follows the right habits, it remains one of the most effective and with the highest returns.
Email marketing tools, such as Mailchimp, SendinBlue, Zoho and Clever Reach, are some of the most widely used and well-known in the field. As a result of its popularity, the number of tools continues to grow, as it is one of the most profitable strategies: it is the second most effective strategy for brand recognition and the first most effective for return on investment (source: HubSpot).
