William recently searched for “Best quality headphones” on Google. However, he has recently observed that the majority of the advertisements on his Facebook page pertain to headphones. Although he hasn’t bought a headphone yet, it’s not just on Facebook that he’s seeing these ads. Even when he goes to Instagram, all the ads he sees are flashy collections of headphones. This has been helpful for William, as he’s learned about different brands and their offers, but he’s also a bit concerned. He believes that these ads didn’t appear on his timeline before he searched for headphones on Google.

Event Analysis: The incident with William happens to all of us to some extent. If you pay a little closer attention, you’ll realize it too. The reason behind this is digital marketing.  Smart digital marketers have repeatedly researched and targeted William. As a result, they were successful in bringing these types of ads to his timeline. In today’s post, we will discuss digital marketing. We will learn about:

What is digital marketing? 

Digital marketing is the process of conducting online marketing campaigns for a product or service using digital media and technology. Simply put, digital marketing is the promotion of online business products through advertisements. Digital marketing originated in 1990, when the first search engine was launched. There are various platforms for digital marketing for online businesses. These platforms can include social media, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, or content marketing.

Additionally, digital marketing can be done through electronic media such as TV and radio by using advertisements. Among electronic media, smartphones play a significant role. Mobile marketing, or SMS marketing, can be done through smartphones. All these methods are used to promote a business. All of the aforementioned methods are included in digital marketing. So you can understand what digital marketing is! And through this digital marketing, you can smartly reach everyone with an online business.

Why is Digital Marketing Necessary?

Any business needs marketing for promotion and expansion. The days have changed, and the nature of marketing has changed. Marketing has now been digitalized. Whether it’s a business or a product, there is no progress without marketing.

In the current era, digital marketing has become an essential component. This is because people now research products online before making a purchase. Moreover, instead of shopping in physical stores, most people prefer to shop online.

So, if you are a business owner, it is crucial to use digital marketing to reach your target audience. Let’s explore the necessity of digital marketing in today’s world.

Globally, approximately 2 billion people use social media, and this number is continually increasing. The more people use the internet, the more opportunities you have to market your products to a larger audience. From our previous discussion, you should already understand the significance of digital marketing for online product promotion.

Around 5.11 billion people worldwide use mobile phones, and this number is rapidly increasing. Many individuals use multiple mobile phones to maintain their communication networks. Mobile phones are a key means of collecting customer information since almost all mobile users are connected to the internet. Thus, as the number of users increases, so does the necessity for digital marketing.

You might be surprised to know that, according to a user survey report, about 84% of sellers and marketers use social media to gather customer information.

Additionally, another survey result showed that 55% of people worldwide rely on social media for purchasing decisions. This means they gather information and reviews about their desired products on social media. Buyers tend to purchase online from sellers whose presentations and products they like.

About 43% of e-commerce customers come to their preferred e-commerce website through a Google search. Globally, approximately 51% of shoppers make their necessary purchases online via mobile phones, and this number is also increasing day by day. 70% of buyers search online to evaluate a product before making a purchase. If they like the product, they order it online from the comfort of their home. Interestingly, 82% of customers want to speak with the seller via live chat within just 5 minutes.

Digital marketing is much more specific, allowing marketing to be directed towards those people who want that particular product, which is not possible in traditional marketing.

In traditional methods, marketing a product involves using print ads, phone communication, and physical marketing. However, it is not as easy to reach people as it is through online means. Another major problem with traditional marketing is that it is very expensive. In this context, digital marketing has come as a savior. If someone wants to reach their targeted audience easily, there is no alternative to digital marketing.

Using digital media, ads can be shown according to the audience’s interests, which is impossible in physical marketing. Even if it were possible, it would be very expensive.

In physical marketing, an ad is shown to many people at once or through print ads. In this case, it is seen that not everyone present shows equal interest in the product, which is to be expected. What happens here is that those who are curious about the product fall under the category of productive marketing. The company cannot expect much from the rest, who are not interested. The more people who show no interest, the more marketing will fail.  

Types of Digital Marketing –

Digital marketing can be divided into two categories: online marketing and offline marketing.

Online Marketing

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Email Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search engines can generate the most traffic, and the most popular marketing strategy is search engine optimization. Simply put, SEO involves structuring a website in such a way that search engines can understand the content and optimize the site to match the keywords of those who are searching. 

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Search engine marketing is often referred to as search marketing. It is a process through which traffic is gained through both paid and unpaid means. When you search on Google, two types of results appear: paid results, which have a small (ad) label (SEM), and unpaid results, which fall under SEO.

Content Marketing Many people think of blog posts when they hear content marketing, but it’s not just that. Many products are presented to us through storytelling. Promoting through storytelling is essentially content marketing. We will discuss these in more detail in future posts. For now, here’s a bit of brain food: Content marketing first began in 1885 with a magazine called “The Furrow.”

Social Media Marketing The most popular aspect of digital marketing is social media marketing. People currently spend most of their time on social media, making it the most suitable place for sellers. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the easiest and most cost-effective ways to reach targeted audiences.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) Pay-per-click advertising is a reliable method of marketing, especially for those who market to generate traffic to their websites. In this method, you pay for ads based on each click. Those who do affiliate marketing can also benefit from this method. However, it is an expensive process.

Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing is a strategy that involves referring others. Those who engage in affiliate marketing typically do not have their own products. This marketing strategy has evolved by generating traffic via backlinks. Affiliate marketing is one of the most discussed and effective means of digital marketing.

Email Marketing Simply put, email marketing is the process of marketing through emails. When we create accounts on various websites, they collect our email addresses. Later, they can easily reach us through those emails. Although checking email is less common in Bangladesh compared to other countries, you cannot judge the world of email marketing by the concept here.

To put it more simply, imagine if you checked your email daily the same way you check your Messenger messages, and marketers sent you promotions through your inbox. They could easily reach their customers. Many believe that email marketing is the most effective method.

You now likely have a basic understanding of online marketing. Next, we will try to provide some insights into offline digital marketing.

What Are the Advantages of Digital Marketing?

If we ask ourselves about the benefits of marketing using digital methods, most of us already have an idea. Let’s explore the advantages for a business, company, or brand.

Low-Cost Marketing Choosing digital means for marketing allows you to reach more people at a lower cost compared to traditional marketing. Additionally, it requires fewer personnel.

When done correctly, you will get a much higher ROI compared to your marketing budget. One reason for this is that you can target specific customers. For example, while doing social media marketing, you can target people aged 20-25 who live in a specific area, work in a particular field, or have certain interests, which is not possible with traditional marketing.

Global Reach Running a business online incurs lower costs, and you can advertise or market your products to any audience worldwide. This allows us to sell products and services from Bangladesh to anywhere in the world. Even from an apartment in Dhaka, we can sell products to any corner of Bangladesh. Customers can contact you online, visit your page, order products, and leave comments.

Measurable Results Your efforts are much more trackable than traditional marketing. You can see who and how many people like your product advertisements, who visits your site to learn about the services. You can use tools like Google Analytics for this purpose.

Keeping Up with the Competition From a remote village, you can keep up with what your competitors in big cities are doing online, how they are promoting their products to customers, or what offers they are providing.

You might be surprised to learn that, like analog marketing, digital marketing allows you to understand customer needs, competitors’ weaknesses, and market analysis. This helps you create and implement strategic marketing strategies.

Personalization You can do one-to-one marketing based on the interests and experiences of your customers.

Digital Marketing vs. Analog Marketing (Similarities and Differences)

There are many differences between digital marketing and analog marketing. In the past, people used analog methods to promote their businesses. However, now everyone is choosing digital methods for marketing to increase their sales. Let’s look at the differences between digital marketing and analog marketing.

Differences in Marketing Methods: For digital marketing, the internet, social media, search engines, email, and other methods are chosen. In contrast, analog marketing used leaflets, banners, posters, and similar mediums.

Faster Business Growth and Profit: Analog marketing is a time-consuming process. It takes a lot of time to grow a business using this method. Digital marketing, on the other hand, is much faster and can be done from home, which is not possible with analog marketing.

Easily Reach Targeted Customers: Digital marketing makes it easy to advertise products and businesses to targeted customers, leading to increased sales at a lower cost. However, with analog marketing, it is difficult to find targeted customers, and it is a more expensive marketing method.

Additionally, there are many other differences between digital marketing and analog marketing. By adopting digital methods for marketing, businesses can find targeted customers more easily, conduct promotions at a lower cost, and increase sales.

In contrast, analog marketing requires a lot of expenses and time, and even then, it may not yield the desired results. Considering the current times, it is most effective to try to grow a business through online marketing.

Conclusion: In today’s world, it’s impossible to stay competitive without marketing your business. You might have started an online business and are waiting for success, but your competitors are achieving success through digital marketing. If you also want to succeed, start marketing your business through digital marketing today. For any type of digital marketing service, you can contact YappoBD. We are a digital marketing agency that offers services ranging from ready-made websites for your online business to keyword search SEO-friendly content and Facebook advertising. So, to achieve business success, contact us today.