What is Digital Marketing?

When asked about “what is digital marketing”, the most common answer that we generally get is, “to market products and services digitally,” which is often referred as “web marketing”, “online marketing”’ and “internet marketing” as well. Digital marketing is an umbrella term for marketing various products/services using digital platforms, devices and digital mediums like – using internet, e.g. applications on a computer, websites, laptops, mobile phones, display advertising to name a few.

An Overview

Today’s generation which includes modern customers as well, spend a lot of time “online”, have access over various digital channels/platforms and have a lot of choices for most products/services. Digital technologies help companies/businesses to personalize their marketing efforts and target relevant segment with more precision. It also provides a cross-channel, continuous personal experience for their customers. In layman term, Digital Marketing is the use of digital technology for carrying out various marketing activities. Firms and businesses across the world have woken up to this new tool which is available to them to reach out to more customers in a number of ways.

Digital Marketing Tools

Digital marketing involves various tactics, tools and channels, like – content marketing, blogs, website designing, Search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, Search engine marketing (paid ads), mobile marketing (SMS, MMS, in-app marketing), web banner ads, social media marketing, email marketing, etc. The most important thing to keep in mind is to know that this digital marketing domain is still evolving, i.e. continuously coming up with more such tools and platforms where the marketers are both spoilt and confused with so many powerful options at their disposal.

Role of a Digital Marketer

 Digital marketers are responsible and in charge of driving lead generations and brand awareness through all the digital channels, both paid and free, that are at a company’s disposal. These channels include the company’s/brand’s own website, company’s blog, social media presence (Facebook, Twitter), search engine rankings, display advertising. The major role for any digital marketer is to focus on different “key performance indicators (KPI’s)” for each channel so they can effectively measure and manage the company’s/brand’s performance across each platform. Suppose a digital marketer who’s in charge of SEO and his job is to measure website’s “organic traffic” – traffic (viewers) coming from website visitors who found the brand’s website page via a Google search. Digital marketing is carried out across various marketing roles today. In a small company, one generalist might own and manage many digital marketing tactics at the same time. However, in large companies, each tactic has multiple specialists each focusing on just one or two of the brand’s digital channels. Digital marketing can work for any business in any industry/sector. Digital marketing involves building out a buyer’s persona to identify your audience’s needs, and creating valuable online content, regardless of what your brand/company sells.

Career Opportunities in Digital Marketing

The world is going more and more digital day by day, and all the companies/brands are now aiming to have digital presence creating a lot of career opportunities for students pursuing digital marketing. According to industry search reports, the digital economy is expected to grow about 10 times faster than the traditional economy in the next 3-5 years. Brands that operate with digital presence are the ones who are going to create more employment. Digital marketing caters a plethora of career options and opportunities. One of the plus points is you don’t have to mug up crazy formulas and definitions which you never going to use in your life, and its fun at the same time. If you have a good command over English and can write better than others – content marketing is the right choice for you, if you love coding then go with web designing and other related options.