6 Types of Digital Marketing You Should Know

A blue background featuring a word cloud related to digital marketing, showcasing various relevant terms and concepts.

Digital marketing has become the centerpiece of many companies’ advertising strategies in the past decade. With more people shopping online and getting product information from the internet, a solid digital marketing campaign is essential to reach new customers and retain existing ones.

Digital marketing is often lower-cost than traditional advertising streams, yet offers ample opportunity for targeting and customization. In addition, many digital campaigns integrate with traditional campaigns, enhancing full-fledged brand identity. Due to the growth of this sector, there is tremendous career potential in digital marketing. From working for an agency, to running in-house digital campaigns, digital marketing professionals have significant career options. Read on to learn more about the types of digital marketing available.

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the use of digital or social channels to promote a brand, product, or service that engages customers. Since there are numerous types of digital marketing strategies that companies can pursue, this field is a dynamic one offering professionals many opportunities to be creative, analytical, and strategic.

For many brands, a digital marketing campaign is developed prior to the traditional campaign, allowing the brand to tease a new product launch, gain buzz in the marketplace about seasonal products, or even to simply build brand awareness. From working with Instagram influencers, to planning an effective email campaign, a solid digital marketing strategy is essential for companies to remain relevant and top of mindshare with their audience.

Digital marketing is constantly changing and growing, making it an exciting professional pathway for people seeking a new career. As part of an overall digital marketing strategy, many companies have embraced a generational approach to social media. For example, TikTok campaigns to reach Gen Z customers, Facebook to reach Gen X, and Instagram to reach Millennials are all part of overarching digital campaigns targeting generations which are less receptive to traditional mass marketing than Baby Boomers.

In addition, digital marketing campaigns are often less expensive than traditional ad buys and allow companies to try new strategies at a relatively low cost. Customers feel more connected with the companies they interact with online and can even feel as if they are part of a fan community. This not only opens up possibilities for companies, it also makes digital marketing an exciting career for those interested in implementing creative marketing ideas and strategies.

There are many entry-level digital marketing jobs with upward potential where you can learn how to become a digital marketing manager and achieve long-term career success. With the training and skills to succeed in digital marketing, you can hit the ground running.

Ready to learn more about the types of digital marketing and how to become a digital marketer? Read on to discover the six types of digital marketing and find the focus area that’s right for you.

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6 Types of Digital Marketing

There are several key types of digital marketing that companies use to maximize brand awareness, customer engagement, and advertising return on investment (ROI). From the federal government to a local small business, digital marketing skills can be the key to making a brand become a viral sensation.

An image highlighting six different types of digital marketing.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine results are essential for business success online, which means that search engine optimization (SEO) is one of a digital marketer’s key tools. Moving up even one line on a Google search engine results page (SERP) can impact product sales by thousands of dollars every day.

Key SEO principles include identifying the words and phrases consumers use to search for a specific product or service via search engines like Google or Bing. This is often accomplished by using software such as Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Trends, just to name a few. And, since research shows that the number one listing on the first page of a SERP receives 34% of all organic traffic, an SEO strategy that helps your company rank highly can make all the difference.

The SEO process can be challenging because ranking highly on search engines is about more than just producing great content. Although providing high-quality content is still the top SERP-driver, there are technical factors search engines weigh when determining what appears first on their SERPs, including mobile-first indexing, enhanced page experience, and optimized page speed.

Some additional key SEO concepts that can lead to SERP success include

  • Keyword targeting: Make sure that the keywords that your customers are searching for appear on your website as part of high-quality, meaningful content that expresses your brand’s voice and vision. Your customers are asking, and SEO can help ensure your answers are accurate and useful.
  • Link structures: Search engines are automated, so structuring your site in a way that is easy for search engines to “crawl,” or evaluate, helps ensure great content on your site is visible to search engine algorithms.
  • Content indexing: Not only do transcripts for video and audio content and alt text for images make your site more accessible, but they also help to ensure better search engine results.

An image highlighting three key concepts of SEO.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click advertising, or PPC advertising, refers to advertisements run at the top of SERP pages located just above the actual results returned to the user. These listings usually include the word “Ad” in bold at the far left of the text. Every time the user clicks on one of these ad links, a fee is paid by the product or service company to the search engine (e.g., Google, Bing).

Many pay-per-click ads come through ad networks like Google Ads and, in general, companies pay for these ads by the click and can set a pay-per-click marketing budget in advance. A one-person business might set a budget of a few hundred dollars, while major corporations can afford to spend millions to ensure that their pay-per-click marketing messages top SERP results across multiple search engines.

A wide range of specific targets for PPC ads can be designated as well. For example, a retail clothing brand might want to focus on PPC ads for keywords associated with women’s athleisure, as well as a range of fitness and lifestyle-oriented website queries.

PPC advertising can also be targeted to specific locations. For example, companies may want to focus on consumers in certain countries or specific areas within a country or region to maximize sales or brand awareness. It’s even possible to target customers by zip code to promote a local event.

Affiliate Marketing

With the rise of social media has also come social media celebrities, or influencers. Influencer marketing campaigns are nothing new; celebrity actors have been paid for decades to promote products ranging from household cleaners to beauty items to new foods. The affiliate marketing definition, often referred to as influencer marketing, brings those celebrity endorsements online and closer to home.

Unlike traditional celebrities, many customers feel closer to social media influencers, who may live more attainable yet inspirational lifestyles. Whether you’re reaching out to TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube favorites, influencer marketing can be a great way to reach out to the audiences connected to these content creators.

Affiliate marketing often involves an up-front payment of some type to the creator, with the company having final approval on the results of the advertisement to post on the influencer’s social media page. On Instagram or TikTok, the entire photo or video may be an ad, while a brand sponsorship may be just one part of a longer video.

In addition, influencers often receive an affiliate code or link offering their followers a discount or additional benefit. The influencer may then receive further compensation based on the number of customers that use the code or link to make a purchase.The resulting data provides insights on how successful each portion of an affiliate marketing campaign is for the company in relation to their digital marketing strategy KPIs (key performance indicators).

Content Marketing

One of the best ways to build long-term loyalty and industry relevance is through a solid content marketing strategy. The content marketing definition, according to the Content Marketing Institute, is “A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

It’s important to note that content marketing isn’t about directly pitching your products or services. Rather, it’s about providing truly relevant and useful content to prospects that helps them solve issues, take advantage of opportunities, or enhance their lifestyle. Some content marketing methods include

  • Webinars on topics related to a tech company’s software, such as data visualization
  • How-to guides offered by a DIY home improvement company
  • Tourism podcasts produced by a travel aggregation website
  • Listicles created by a beauty retailer highlighting products for certain skin conditions

Content marketing is about building a long-term relationship with the customer, where they see a company as an information resource and a trusted authority in the space. It can also improve SEO by creating more organic information that produces higher-ranking search results.

Email Marketing

Almost every company has some type of email marketing strategy. Even though many businesses use social media and messaging apps as primary forms of communication, email is essential to remain in touch with customers. A creative email marketing campaign not only reaches new customers, but also provokes new interest among existing customers.

An effective email marketing campaign isn’t simply about bombarding your audience with marketing messages, as that can often be perceived as spam. Email marketing software offers a range of analytics to help determine how effective a particular campaign may be and offers the opportunity to divide an email database into a wide range of demographics and customer segments.

Finding a brand’s most loyal customers and those most likely to respond to urgent messages are just a few of the possibilities when effectively using email marketing software. It’s even possible to alter marketing messages to reach different audiences or test different slogans — sometimes referred to as an A/B test. Skilled use of email marketing software and effective customer segmentation are essential skills for success in digital marketing.

Social Media Marketing

A social media marketing plan is essential for the majority of companies entering the digital space. Most companies have some kind of social media presence and, while it’s important to be responsive to customers, social media marketing goes beyond that.

Successful social media marketing requires a strategy — from posts across a variety of platforms, to ensuring swift responses to customer content. In addition, social media marketing efforts should fit in with the overall digital marketing strategy of the brand rather than creating a siloed function. While some companies have found success with Twitter accounts, many more are successful by linking marketing and customer service and maintaining a consistent voice on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.

From ad buys across social media platforms, to developing original brand content, social media marketing is a great opportunity to flex creative skills while reaching new audiences. Even classic products have found new markets through successful social media campaigns, such as Clinique’s Black Honey lipstick, which strongly appealed to Gen Z viewers on TikTok.

Learn Digital Marketing Today

Mastering these digital marketing skills can put you on the path to success in this growing industry. A digital marketing bootcamp is a great way to gain in-demand skills through an employer-driven curriculum which offers real-world, project-based learning experiences to practice your skills and populate professional portfolios. You’ll gain experience with key tools in the digital marketing industry and learn from instructors who have actually been successful in the industry. In addition, digital marketing boot camps offer schedules that fit your work and life schedule, and you can complete your boot camp in as little as 18 weeks.

Types of Digital Marketing FAQs

What are some email marketing tools?

There are many different email marketing tools that companies may use. MailChimp is one of the most well-known, but you may also use contact management tools like Salesforce or competitors like Klaviyo, Sendinblue, ActiveCampaign, and others. Email marketing skills are highly transferable in that once you understand the concepts in one system, you can quickly adapt to another.

Are there social media marketing services?

Some companies outsource their social media marketing services to an agency. In addition, automation options like Buffer, HootSuite, Sprout Social, and HubSpot allow companies to schedule their campaigns to launch across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and other services, even when you’re not actively online.

How does pay-per-click work?

Pay-per-click marketing requires a set a budget for the pay-per-click campaign. The search engine ad, banner ad, or video ad will be featured to the demographic requested through Google Ads or a similar service. But how does pay-per-click work in terms of payment? Companies pay a pre-arranged amount each time a person successfully clicks their ad and visits their website. Then, the ad stops running once the company’s budget threshold is reached.

Summary

In short, digital marketing is a dynamic industry with a significant upside for people looking to explore a creative career that offers new challenges daily. You can launch your digital marketing career with a digital marketing boot camp. With hands-on training designed to make you job-ready in only 18 weeks, your digital marketing future is closer than you think. Consider taking the next step and beginning your future career today.

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