What is Digital Marketing? Definition and Meaning

Digital Marketing encompasses the promotion of products and services through the use of digital channels, primarily the Internet. This modern marketing approach has expanded rapidly with the rise of the Internet. Today, most marketing professionals use technology to promote their companies, goods, services, and brands.

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Image: Market Business News ©

Digital marketing media may include adverts and promotional material sent via the Internet, smartphones, tablets, electronic billboards, and social media. The term also includes sending promotional messages and videos using screens in train stations, bus stations, stores, lobby areas, and waiting rooms, i.e., places where people stand still for a while or in line.

According to A1 SEO Glasgow, a major part of digital marketing includes these three objectives: “improving keyword rankings, increasing traffic, and increasing leads.”

Online marketing

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The term online marketing has virtually the same meaning as digital marketing. In a Market Business News article about online marketing, we wrote:

“It comprises a significantly wider range of marketing elements than pre-Internet marketing approaches. This is because there are so many marketing mechanisms and extra channels available online.”

The term online means connected to the Internet. It has the opposite meaning of offline.

Commercial online channels

We refer to websites that broadcast or push requested content to subscribers as online channels. Typical channels offer information, entertainment, shopping, and email services to their customers.

With online channels, unlike, for example,  via radio or TV, a company can measure the impact of its strategies or campaigns. It is also possible to determine how visitors arrived there and how they behave online.

Digital marketing professionals can determine which channels were best at converting visitors into customers, i.e., which ones have the best conversion rates. Before the Internet, this was virtually impossible.

Main advantages of digital marketing

  • Cost – companies can reach lots of people much more cheaply than they could if they use traditional marketing approaches.
  • Geotargeting – it is possible to target customers, prospects, and consumers according to where they live. A prospect is somebody or a company that a business believes could turn into a customer.
  • Many options – there are numerous advertising tools, such as PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, local search integration, social media platforms, and email marketing.
  • Metrics (analytics) – marketers can gather vast quantities of statistical data without extra costs.

Digital marketing professionals

We refer to digital marketing professionals as digital marketers. Their qualifications, knowledge, and skills go significantly beyond traditional marketing strategies and tools. They are in charge of, for example, building brand awareness and generating leads using digital channels.

According to the Digital Marketing Institute:

“The digital marketer must also use measurable analytics to identify weaknesses and find ways to improve performance across these channels. In this role, you can be responsible for all aspects of a company’s digital strategy or just focus on one.”

“Smaller companies tend to have one general specialist or manager while corporations can spread the responsibilities around to an entire team or even across several different departments.”

Internet Marketing

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Image: Market Business News ©

Internet marketing is nearly the same as digital marketing, but does not include closed network ads in, for example, waiting rooms. As the name implies, Internet marketing only applies to marketing campaigns done via the Internet.

As most of digital marketing activities today occur online, most of the time the two terms are identical (but not always).

Digital marketing vocabulary and concepts

In the world of digital marketing, there are many compound phrases. Let’s have a look at some of them, their meanings, and how they are used in a sentence:

  • Digital Marketing Strategy

A plan that outlines how a company will use digital channels to reach marketing goals.
Example: “Their digital marketing strategy focused on social media to increase brand awareness among younger demographics.”

  • Digital Marketing Campaign

A coordinated set of actions conducted online to drive engagement, conversions, traffic, or revenue.
Example: “The new product launch was supported by an aggressive digital marketing campaign that included influencers and targeted ads.”

  • Digital Marketing Tools

Software and platforms used to execute and manage digital marketing efforts.
Example: “To optimize their online outreach, the team utilized a variety of digital marketing tools for analytics and automation.”

  • Digital Marketing Analytics

The measurement, analysis, and reporting of web data for the purpose of understanding and optimizing digital marketing effectiveness.
Example: “Digital marketing analytics revealed that the campaign’s ROI exceeded initial projections.”

  • Digital Marketing Agency

A business that delivers marketing services and campaigns on digital platforms.
Example: “We outsourced our online advertising to a digital marketing agency to improve our digital presence.”

  • Digital Marketing Channels

The avenues through which digital marketing efforts are deployed, such as social media, email, and search engines.
Example: “The company spread its budget across various digital marketing channels to test which yielded the best response.”

Video – What is Digital Marketing?

This interesting video presentation, from our YouTube partner channel – Marketing Business Network, explains what ‘Digital Marketing’ is using simple and easy-to-understand language and examples.