We all know how COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on business worldwide, leading to challenges and closure. While pandemic compelled some businesses to shut the doors, others found new doors opening. The businesses that quickly adapted the digital marketing strategies recovered and thrived. All thanks to Digital Marketing!
What is Digital Marketing?
Image Source: https://copilot.microsoft.com/
Digital marketing is basically marketing through various digital platforms using different tools and strategies to promote and grow business . These platforms include websites, Social media, search engines, email and the tools like SEO(Search Engine Optimization), Google Ads and Analytics to keep the track of marketing efforts of businesses.
There is a common misconception that digital marketing is just about creating a post or running an ad. You might have seen people showcasing their product or services through tiktok and instagram posts or people boosting the posts, however does this approach alone results in a high ROI?. No, it is just a part of the equation, success of digital marketing goes beyond it
The key is to know which platforms to use, what tools to leverage, what kind of strategies and when to use it based on market data and research driven insights with consistent effort and discipline.
Key components of Digital Marketing
Image Source: https://copilot.microsoft.com/
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
It is the process of optimizing the website to rank your website or content higher on the search engine result page. The higher your website ranks, the higher is the incoming organic traffic to the website and thus more online visibility.
- Content Marketing
It is the process of creating strategic and valuable content across digital channels like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube etc. to promote your business, product or services. It not only builds brand credibility and attracts new customers but also helps in customer engagement.
- Social Media Marketing
It involves using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and Tiktok to promote products or services, build communities by creating content, strategies, targeted ads and campaigns.
- Email Marketing
It involves using email to deliver your content, offers updates and services to the right audience through email campaigns. It is one of the most effective ways to directly communicate with your customers.
- PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising
It is a digital marketing model in which businesses pay for their ad when the ad link is clicked. Its mission is to appear and drive traffic on search engine result pages or social media platforms using targeted ads. Thus, attracting the right audience.
Nike and Local Businesses: Winning with digital marketing
Nike, one of the most popular brands, followed by a wide range of audience from teenagers to adults. Their ability to connect with customers through engaging contents, brand awareness, campaigns and targeted promotions is simply commendable. I remember Nike running a campaign called “ You can’t stop Us” , the powerful blend of brand storytelling and inspiration which resonated well with their customers during the pandemic. They emphasized fitness apps and online workouts to customers to keep them active and motivated. They smartly leveraged different campaigns for emails and ads using advanced analytics and insights. This helped Nike to improve conversion rates, customer engagement and maintained high customer retention.
But it’s not only big brands like Nike that benefited from digital marketing. Many local businesses who smartly embraced digital marketing strategies recovered and spiked up their revenues. You might as well have noticed, the user generated content, different post contents and sponsored ads in your social media feeds. Every ad or post is displayed according to your interest making you more likely to click through or even purchase the product or services. Whether it’s through sponsored ads or different content forms from websites, emails to social media, all are crafted using different strategies and campaigns based on the data analytics and insights.
This is the essence of digital marketing, using data to create personalized targeted campaigns that engage, inform and convert the prospects into customers. Thus, allowing businesses of all sizes to reach their customers in meaningful ways.