There are just shy of 32 million small businesses operating in the US. Even if you break it down by industry, that is a fierce level of competition.
Add on the mass adoption of eCommerce in response to the pandemic. An already challenging situation becomes murkier as businesses must adapt to digital marketing options with which they likely have little experience.
If this sounds like your situation, keep reading for our guide to some of the major types of digital marketing.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is literally marketing directly to customers through emails. It’s a direct line of communication from your business to your subscribers, which means a direct line to warm leads. The people on your email list are the most likely candidates to buy your new product, service, or take advantage of a sale.
You can even take steps that will help boost the response to your email campaigns.
Content Marketing
Content marketing focuses away from the traditional approach of pitching a product or service directly. Instead, it aims at creating content that proves relevant and valuable to visitors. By attracting visitors with high-value, useful content, the business builds trust.
The ultimate goal is that the combination of useful content and trust will convert regular visitors into regular customers.
SEO
At its core, search engine marketing helps you attract organic traffic. It does this by helping you adjust your website and content so site pages perform better on search engines.
Some elements of SEO delve fairly deep into the technical aspects of your website. So, it’s not shocking that SEO is one of the more common services offered by digital marketing companies.
PPC
Pay per click is one of the more common paid marketing strategies. You create ads built around a keyword following the rules set out by the search engine. Then you put in a bid for each click.
Every time the search engine displays your ad and someone clicks on it, you pay for that click. The catch is that a poorly targeted ad won’t generate leads or sales.
Social Media Marketing
You can think of social media marketing as a kind of hybrid of content marketing and PPC. Social media sites let you post original content, but many also let you display ads to site users. Getting those ads right is often as tricky as getting PPC ads right.
Many businesses find that getting the right mix is complicated enough that digital marketing services prove helpful with it. You can learn more here.
Picking from the Different Types of Digital Marketing
You might want to try all the types of digital marketing at the same time. Resist that urge. Getting the benefits of digital marketing means understanding what each type can and can’t do for you.
For example, PPC can guarantee you traffic, but not customers. Content marketing can convert customers, but not quickly. Take some time to research each type, understand its pros and cons, and then make your choice based on your needs.
Looking for more digital marketing tips? Check out the posts in our Digital Marketing section.