Murali Digital

Digital Marketing is one of those terms with which we all have a feeling that we know what is means, but when it comes to nailing it down we somehow get stuck. In the end, it is not clear which types of Digital Marketing we are talking about.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of optimizing content or websites so that they show up in search results in search engines like Google. Search engines decide which websites to show for a search term based on keywords mentioned on the website and links that refer to this website. That means SEO has a lot to do with using the right keywords or keyphrases in the copy of a website or within the content you want to show in organic search and getting links to this website or content.

There are multiple strategies for optimizing your website(s) for search engines, and it certainly involves a lot more than shady link building. Some optimizations are accepted by Google and others are regarded rather shady and may result in Google penalizing your website.

2. Social Media Marketing

The Social Ms has a strong focus on social media marketing. So that is where we are going to start our list of types of Digital Marketing. Social Media certainly has a rightfully earned place in this list.

Social Media Marketing is „the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service.“ Source Wikipedia

That means all sharing of information and engagement with followers, fans, partners or competitors on social media platforms with the goal of promoting your products is part of Digital Marketing. In essence, social media marketing is the targeted use of social media conversations to increase awareness for a brand or product.

But be careful, to be successful with social media marketing you have to fully understand the one social network you want to use for your marketing. Each social network has unique features, communication best practices, and content they like. Some social networks will work great for your situation, product and content – others won’t.

Today, almost all Digital Marketing strategies utilize social marketing one way or the other. And don’t worry, your social media strategy does not have to use ALL available social channels or take a lot of manual action. Focusing on one or two social networks and adding marketing automation to your activity will make it much more efficient.

3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

While SEO describes the process of getting unpaid traffic from search engines – SEM refers to using paid advertising to get traffic from search engines. The most common form of search engine marketing is probably Google Adwords for the simple reason that Google is by far the most used search engine.

In SEM the marketer usually pays the search engine a predefined amount of money for showing a marketing message at various places within the search results for specified keywords or phrases.

Paid search or SEM is a form of Pay-Per-Click advertising and is part of digital advertising.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best converting marketing channels. By sending regular updates to your email subscribers you can build and nurture a relationship. By providing value with your email updates you can build trust – eventually, you will be able to turn a percentage of your audience into customers.

Note that email marketing is far more than buying an email list and bombarding them with promotional messages or a one-time advertising spot in someone else’s email newsletter.

The best results from email marketing will always be achieved with a list of subscribers you personally earned and nurtured. Then your email list can easily turn into your best Digital Marketing asset and an email campaign can drive sales.

Many articles on Digital Marketing stop with the above 7 types of Online Digital Marketing. But then we could simply name it online marketing.

5. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based type of Digital Marketing. In contrast to PPC advertising with affiliate marketing, the advertiser does not pay for traffic but rather for conversions. The rates are usually higher but the risk on the side of the advertiser are limited since he only pays for conversions.

Affiliate marketing is popular with bloggers and high-traffic website owners who make money from selling other people’s products to their audience.

6. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Similar to SEM other forms of PPC advertising also describe marketing methods where the marketer pays for each click on a link to a website. Apart from search engines, almost all social networks offer the opportunity for Pay Per Click advertising. These ads then appear in the feed of the targeted social media users.

Note that many of these activities cannot be clearly separated. The lines between the various types of digital (online) marketing are often blurred.

7. Content Marketing

Content marketing is the art of using storytelling and valuable information to increase brand awareness with the goal of getting your target audience to take a profitable action. Content marketing aims at building relationships with potential customers and becoming a partner rather than an advertiser. That means that content marketing is often used in inbound marketing strategies through a content strategy that focuses on providing value to the target audience with the content.

8. Mobile Phone Advertising

Of course, many of the above types of Digital Marketing can take place on your mobile phone. That is called mobile marketing. You are probably using Facebook, Instagram, and Google on your mobile phone after all. But there are some other types of marketing on your mobile phone that so far would not fit into any of the mentioned categories: mobile advertising.

SMS advertising has been around for some time now. WhatsApp as a marketing channel is growing. And with technology like Bluetooth still on the rise, the marketing and advertising options for mobile especially in local marketing have by far not yet been fully leveraged.

9. Television advertising

It is not dead yet: The spot that breaks up your favorite television program. While we are more and more getting used to finding ways to omit having to actually watch TV commercials there is still some marketing success in TV advertising.

In fact, some spots like the ones created for Super Bowl make it to some notable marketing fame. Some of the best Super Bowl spots even make it to social media fame and get a ton of shares that the advertisers do not have to pay for – or rather which is probably calculated into the price of advertising space for Super Bowl anyway.

What you need to keep in mind is that advertising via TV offers very limited targeting options.

Edit: Since there have been a couple of comments on this post why radio and television are included here, let me explain. There has been a huge development in radio and television in recent years and there are such things as digital radio and digital television. The options for marketing with digital adds a ton of options that former non-digital radio and television did not provide. That is the reason why I think digital radio and digital television have a rightful spot in this list of Digital Marketing types.