As time goes by, technology is seeing more and more use by marketers, and we’ll be looking at a few crucial ways tech is now being harnessed in this domain.
Throughout the past 100 hundred years, we have seen more technological innovation than in most of human history combined, and it feels like things will only keep moving faster. Keeping up with technological developments is key to succeeding in whatever field you work in, and the same rings true in marketing.
The term “digital marketing” is usually used to refer to strategies that make use of technology to get the word out about a product or a service, and there are many subcategories of digital marketing. Success in the field of digital marketing is mainly about using all of the tools at your disposal.
Marketing firms like MDG Advertising are taking advantage of strategies that include social media and digital advertising while blending them with more traditional techniques. This is known as a 360-degree approach, and it ensures that marketers are getting to as much of their potential audience as possible.
Today, we’re going to be looking at what comprises this 360-degree approach and the huge role that technology plays in getting ahead in the marketing world.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a form of digital marketing that consists of creating things like blog posts or videos and then sharing them as a form of marketing with an audience. You will typically find these videos or blog posts on the sites of the businesses who are trying to market their products or services.
Michael Del Gigante has written extensively about content marketing, and MDG Advertising makes extensive use of the technique to spread awareness. This is a solid strategy for most marketing firms, as content marketing is a very effective way to build up a rapport with your customers.
There are two primary benefits to content marketing. The first advantage to this technique is that it will give your brand credibility and it will help build up trust with potential customers. Who would you be more willing to trust? The company that sells you a product, or one that also explains how to use the product with a helpful blog post?
The other advantage of content marketing is that it can tie into a strategy that prioritizes search engine optimization (SEO). For example, a blog post about the differences between different kinds of mops can bring in curious visitors who may end up leaving the site having purchased a mop too.
Social Media
For about the past two decades, social media has revolutionized the way people interact, but it has also created unprecedented opportunities for marketers. There aren’t many platforms where you have someone’s full attention as you do on social media, and it makes marketing all the more effective.
Marketing is the reason that social media has been immensely popular for the creators of sites like Facebook and Instagram. While marketing on social media can get pricey, especially when you go large-scale, you’ll be hard-pressed to find other methods that can promise a comparable return.
Social media marketing gives you the freedom to advertise to as many or as few people as you would like, depending on your budget. The scalable nature of this marketing technique means that it is as useful for firms that are just getting started as it is for those that are already established.
With the amount of time social media users spend browsing their preferred network, your message will gradually get across. Being established on social media also means that people will be more likely to take a product or service seriously, which leads us to the importance of internet branding.
Internet Branding
Branding is one of the fundamental philosophies behind marketing: as your brand grows in prevalence in the customer’s mind, they will become more likely to prefer it. As one would assume from the name, internet branding takes branding strategies online and allows marketers to reach a new audience.
As we just mentioned, internet branding often includes social media efforts, but it can also go deeper. Having a website is perhaps the most basic form of internet branding, and the quality of that site can affect the perceived legitimacy of a brand either positively or negatively depending on its quality.
A company’s combined online presence will determine whether or not they’ve done a good job of internet branding. Keep in mind that there is no singular approach to this kind of branding, as every digital marketing agency will use a different strategy based on the client that they are working with.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Finally, digital marketing firms also have to account for SEO, as it will largely determine how much exposure they’ll be able to drum up for their clients. SEO is a catch-all term that refers to all of the algorithms that go into determining what pops up on a search engine and in what order.
When people search for something on Google or Bing, then they will rarely travel past the first page, and the goal of SEO is to ensure that you rank high enough for people to see you. Many digital marketing firms specialize in improving or optimizing SEO for their clients, either directly or indirectly.
For example, SEO ties into content marketing, and many services will use it as a vehicle for keywords or other things that can help improve search engine rankings. Getting acquainted with SEO is one of the foundational aspects of working in the domain of digital marketing.
A crucial role of SEO is that it makes a brand more accessible to the average person. If potential customers have to search far and wide to find a product or service, then it is not being marketing properly. However, SEO can’t create demand out of thin air, so people need to be searching for what’s being sold in the first place.
Conclusion
While these are four crucial aspects that demonstrate the importance of technology in marketing in the modern day, there are many more examples that we haven’t mentioned. We hope that this short guide has been able to enlighten you about how and why digital marketing works.