What is Digital Marketing?
The best way to understand digital marketing is by getting a handle on some definitions and examples of different types of digital marketing.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is when brands work with persons with a following, sometimes called influencers, to promote a product. Usually, the brand gives a product to the influencer to trial, and through that trial, the influencer communicates with their audience the positives and possible negatives of the product. Additionally, the influencer receives a contracted revenue from the brand to purchase the product through either referral, code, or link. The influencer is thus affiliated with the brand because they become advertisers of the product and receive payment for products purchased.
This is an example of Affiliate Marketing because Kevin of Epic Gardening talks about a product that he uses. The brand has partnered with him and sent him a product to use, and he, in turn, markets it. He’s thus affiliated with the business because he gets a portion of items sold through the links he provides in his video description. It’s separate from a video advertisement because the brand itself does not produce it.
This is effective because you can see the products within the linked video and other videos. This shows that he does use the products he talks about. You can also see how his garden is lush and flourishing, prompting viewers to believe that the products shown contribute to the plant growth shown, and thus, by purchasing the products, they too can have such delicious plants.
According to this article from Affiliate Marketing Navigator:
“During 2016 U.S. affiliate marketing spent nears $5B,” which shows that companies acknowledge the power of personal connection that influencers have with their prospective audiences.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is advertising done through a social media platform. This could be branded producing content through their own social media pages (i.e., coca-cola creating an ad on their coca-cola Facebook page) or individual advertising their product (a YouTuber tweeting that they just posted a youtube video). Lastly, there is a slight overlap with affiliate marketing because brands could work with social media personalities to promote their products.
This is an example of social media marketing because Hilary Hahn, through her official Instagram social media page, is marketing her new album “Paris” by showing an animated music video of one of the pieces she plays on the album.
It’s an effective form of social media digital marketing because those who follow Hilary Hahn on Instagram are already fans. This promotion of a sample of the album would inspire those fans to purchase the entire album to hear the other amazing music from the album.
Social Media Marketing itself is very inexpensive. An article from Forbes found
“of businesses using Twitter that resolving issues through social media was $5 cheaper than through traditional call-center means.”
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing is either paying for or engineering a website to appear closer to the top of a search engine search.
This is an example of search engine marketing because several websites have purchased the ability to be shown near the top of the google search engine result for “Digital Marketing Breakdown.” As shown, three websites are designated as “Ad” to indicate that they have purchased that space.
Display Digital Marketing shows ads in the digital space, whether they are banner ads on the tops and sides of websites or additional links at the bottom of blogs, news media, or other websites.
This is a form of search engine digital marketing because people are lazy and won’t spend time looking through the different descriptions of the websites. This is especially true when crunching, such as searching for restaurants nearby after a movie or sporting event.
According to the marketing research firm Sistrix,
the top search result on Google has a 28.5% rate of being clicked and that number decreases to 15.7% and then 11% for 2nd and 3rd respectively. The 10th result only has a 2.5% chance to be clicked.
Display Digital Marketing
This is an example of Display marketing because ads such as this one for a python course offered through the University of California at Santa Cruz are displayed when scrolling through Reddit.
Overall digital marketing helps products, services, and websites to be prominently placed at the top. Thus help businesses generate revenue.