What is Digital Marketing? A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners

Maybe you are wondering what digital marketing is? This term is very interesting, not only because it sounds pretty cool but also because it has a significant impact on your business.

There have been enough people talking about this, but some are still a little confused about digital marketing.

Now this Digital Marketing Guide will help you understand it more deeply. The meaning and the ins and outs of digital marketing that you need to know.

What is Digital Marketing

Some of you may have searched and found the meaning of digital marketing provided by Wikipedia(opens in a new tab).

There is nothing wrong with this understanding. Some people will be delighted with this understanding. But Dave Chaffey(opens in a new tab) from smartinsights.com offers a broader definition of digital marketing, namely:

Then Dave Chaffey explained that digital marketing includes managing various forms of your presence digitally, such as company websites, smartphone applications, and company pages on social media and others.

Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing includes techniques used such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media optimization (SMO(opens in a new tab)), social media marketing (SMM(opens in a new tab)), various types of online advertising, e-mail marketing, and partnership arrangements with other websites.

These techniques are used to acquire new customers and provide services to existing customers. Don't worry, and we will gradually and slowly discuss all of these terms so that they are easy to understand.

Digital marketing also includes developing customer relationships through E-CRM and marketing automation.

However, for digital marketing to be successful, there is still a need to integrate these techniques with traditional media such as print, TV, and direct mail as part of multichannel marketing communications.

There are many types. Here are some of them

Social Media Marketing

At first glance, it was explained that digital marketing tools that can be used and are among the easiest and cheapest are social media. Who is the person who doesn't have a social media account these days?

From children to the elderly, they have at least 1 type of social media, and this is the right "shop" to sell because it reaches all people and is easily accessible to anyone.

You can use social media that is well known and widely used by people in various countries to do digital marketing. These social media include Facebook (FB), the largest and most commonly used platform globally.

You can also use Instagram (IG), where people will find it easier to see it through the hashtag (#) you use for the products you sell. Twitter is also the media of choice for many business people.

Besides being able to increase sales, social media can also increase customer loyalty. This is evident from the data hubspot.com(opens in a new tab) b the 71% of consumers who had good social media services and are likely to recommend it to others.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You must also have often heard the term SEO along with this internet era. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

Did you know that according to internet live stats (opens in a new tab)sources,(opens in a new tab) there are more than 4 billion Google searches performed every day?

And according to bright local(opens in a new tab),  98% of searchers will choose a business that is on the first page of a search engine.

Using SEO, you can make your business appear on the first page of search results like Google. You can use some best affordable SEO services(opens in a new tab) to your business growth.

If your product can appear on the first page, let alone be in the top row, more people will open and find out about it. That means the more open the possibility that people will buy your product.

Learn more about search engine optimization and its ins and outs in the following article

Read: Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search engine marketing is also known as paid search. SEM(opens in a new tab) is the practice of marketing a business using paid advertisements that appear on search engine result pages (or SERPs).

This type of advertising has many advantages. In addition to better targeting, it also applies a Pay per Click system in terms of costs.

In the world of digital marketing, it is also known as Pay per Click or PPC, which is a method that calculates advertising costs according to the number of clicks you get on the advertisements installed.

PPC makes our advertising costs very affordable. We can appear on the first page of Google according to the keywords we want without bothering. The cost is relatively light.

E-mail Marketing

Nowadays, almost all forms of correspondence and communication are done via electronic mail or better known as e-mail or e-mail. Electronic mail or electronic mail can also be used as a means of doing digital marketing.

You may be one of those who often get e-mails containing promos from brands or brands that offer their products. That is what is called digital marketing.

Usually, the e-mail comes from an account or website that you have followed or subscribed to before. Or products where you are registered as a member. Examples of products that commonly use e-mail as a means of digital marketing include fast-food restaurants or leading online stores.

You should know that the average ROI(opens in a new tab) from e-mail marketing is 3800%. Yes, you read that right, 3800%. This means that for every $1000 marketing investment in e-mail marketing, you will get an ROI of $38,000. This is in accordance with the release delivered by emailmonday.com(opens in a new tab).

This method is also quite effective because people are usually required to write down their e-mail addresses when they fill out the member card form and the like. In this age of Android, everyone has e-mail and uses it a lot.

Content Marketing

You can also do marketing by creating digital content such as blogs or videos. When talking about digital blogs or videos, it cannot be separated from the SEO issues previously discussed.

The content on the blog or video that you create can be found and seen by many people, making it that has high SEO.

You can create your own content to fill your blog or use existing SEO writing services. Creating content or content for attractive blogs and can appear at the top of the search results will help open up opportunities for the product or service you offer to be seen and attract people's attention.

Meanwhile, according to research that has been conducted, the results show that those who live in the United States watch or view at least one video per month.

And the frequency will be much higher among young people. That way, advertising on video channels is also a fairly effective digital marketing method. Another form is Videotron as a tool to advertise a product or service.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

There are many benefits when you use digital marketing.

Be connected

With digital marketing, your business relationship with consumers is very close, even in real-time.

1. Can serve customers anytime, anywhere. It can even be done automatically, for example, with a chatbot or just an automatic order form.
2. Able to reach a wider range of consumers. For instance, with only minimal costs with FB Ads, it can reach any province we want or even any country that we want to make our target market.

Data

The most important benefit of digital marketing is data. Digital marketing allows us to access various data.

Starting with data related to marketing. This makes it easier for us to answer questions such as, how effective was the marketing that was done during the month?

How well has a brand awareness campaign been doing for our business? And many other questions that are difficult to answer when using traditional marketing.

Data can also be in the form of more detailed information about customers and potential customers. Starting from demographic data to behavior that is almost impossible to get except with digital technology.

Much different from conventional marketing. Which, of course, will make it easier for your business to adopt data-driven marketing (data-based marketing).

Effective

Armed with this data and in-depth analysis, every decision taken will be effective.

Efficient

After making every decision to be effective, it will undoubtedly impact the efficiency of your business organization.

At this point, I hope you understand it easily, but if you have questions, you can enter them directly in the comments box at the bottom of this article. Ok, then we will try to discuss Dave Chaffey's 5D concept.

Asset for Digital Marketing

In business, in order to get optimal results, what we have to do is maximize our digital assets. Maximizing digital assets is done to strengthen our products' branding so that they will be easier to remember and not easily forgotten by others.

The digital assets used for marketing these products consist of:

• Website

• Content on the blog

• Identity of products such as logos

• Digital footprint, for example, is a review or testimonial from consumers

After you know what ways or paths you can take to do effective digital marketing, you need to know the essential terms in this regard. Because one day, you may encounter terms commonly used in digital marketing. For more details, read the following description.

5D Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is essential. Maybe everyone agrees. But to understand how crucial digital marketing is for the future in any business, we need to think about the various audience interactions that need to be managed.

In his book entitled Digital Marketing: Strategy, Planning, and Implementation, Dave Chaffey explains the 5D concept in digital marketing.

Digital Devices

Audiences can interact with your business on various devices such as smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, smartwatches, TVs, and even gaming devices. And the list of these devices will continue to grow.

Digital Platforms

There are also more and more platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Line, etc.

Digital Media

This digital media includes various types of advertising media, e-mail, messaging applications, search engines, and social media.

Digital Data

A business can collect data about their audience profile and the interactions they have with the business.

Digital Technology

This includes technology used by a business to create interactive experiences for its audience.

History of Digital Marketing

If we want to discuss the meaning of digital marketing, we have to realize the origin of the term.

The term digital marketing is not from India. Therefore, to get a proper understanding, let us try to refer to external sources.

Referring to Wikipedia, the term digital marketing was first used in the 1990s.

But if we take it back, the practice of digital marketing has been carried out by SoftAd Group, now ChannelNet, since the mid-1980s.

They receive replies from readers that they print out in their magazine. In return for the card, they will receive a floppy disk containing promotional content about cars and a free test drive.

That is the first digital marketing practice recorded in history.

history of the world's first digital marketing

Today, the ChannelNet company is still around, and they are proud to post that history on their website's front page.

Advantages of Digital Marketing

Here are some of the advantages of digital marketing

1. Can reach a much wider consumer is not limited to distance and time.
2. The products or services offered can reach overseas in a relatively easy way.
3. The proper use of social media and other digital platforms will make the results better quite easy to do.
4. Digital marketing is relatively easy and cheap to do, and the results can also be felt relatively quickly.
5. With digital marketing, we can find out the approximate number of potential customers and make maps related to this.

Those are some of the advantages or advantages of digital marketing when compared to conventional methods.

Previously, we discussed what media and tools are effective and appropriate for doing digital marketing. Below we will discuss this in more detail. This is a method or medium that is effective enough to do digital marketing or digital marketing.

The Ins and Outs of Digital Marketer Work

The following is a discussion about digital marketers or digital marketers.

Definition and Responsibilities of Digital Marketers

Actors or people who carry out digital marketing activities are called digital marketers. They have duties and must be responsible for several things, including:

1. Build brand awareness in consumers so that consumers will always remember products.
2. Creating lead generation, which is collecting consumer data using free or paid media that is owned. This includes websites, social media, e-mail, advertisements, and the like.
3. Create and arrange work steps that must be done for digital marketing.
4. Manage and take care of all things related to SEO, such as monitoring traffic on your site or blog(opens in a new tab).

Position or Role in Digital Marketing

Even though the business is conducted online, there are still specific roles or "positions" whose purpose is that all tasks can be carried out in a planned manner to be better. Some of the positions or roles commonly held by digital marketers include:

1. The SEO manager is in charge of ensuring that the owned content will always get the top ranking on the Google search engine. Another task is trying to keep their website, site, blog, or video up in rankings.
2. Marketing Content Creation Specialists are responsible for creating digital promo content or materials in the form of text, images, or videos that can attract many people. Content can be in the form of He is also in charge of making digital promo media traffic arrangements such as blogs and others.
3. Social Media Manager's job is quite simple, namely posting on your social media. He is also responsible for creating an effective digital marketing strategy on social media.
4. Marketing Automation Coordinator, whose task is to select and manage software or software that will be used to measure and monitor potential customers' behavior trends.

At first glance, indeed, being able to do digital marketing or become a reliable digital marketer requires process and time. Learning by doing, practice makes perfect, so the terms that might be used. It must be done gradually while learning so that you will find out how digital marketing is effective and profitable for your business over time.

Then will this digital marketing strategy be effective and successful in all types of businesses or businesses? Actually, everything returns to the way it is applied because each of them has a different character. For more details, see the explanation below.

Types of Businesses Using Digital Marketing Strategies

Business to Business (B2B)

Types of businesses that use the B2B or business to business model, digital marketing, or online marketing strategies are focused on efforts to collect consumer data (lead generation).

So, because the goal is to map potential customers, an attractive marketing strategy is needed to bring in potential customers for your business. Applying a digital marketing system for this type of B2B business can also be made using business-specific social media such as Linkedin.

Is that what is meant by this type of B2B business? Namely business activities carried out by 2 parties who are both business actors.

Transactions carried out are electronically in the form of exchanging business documents between companies using an application via a computer with the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) format.

Business to Customer (B2C)

The concept of digital marketing will have a different strategy and application if your business model is business to consumer or business to customer (B2C).

The striking difference between B2B and B2C types of businesses is their purpose. If B2B focuses on consumer data collection (lead generation), then B2C is not 100% focused on this.

This type of B2C business focuses more on making an attractive journey for potential buyers or consumers ( customer journeys ) who have visited the web, blog, social media, and other company-owned online marketing media.

It kind of gives off a pleasant impression from the moment consumers enter the web until they make a purchase transaction.

In this type of B2C business, you don't need an intermediary or salesperson to sell products to buyers or consumers. All you need is interesting digital marketing content and then make a call to action (CTA) or an invitation to buy or use your product to potential consumers.

Simply put, this business is a type of business where consumers interact directly with consumers using electronic media. An example of common digital media that can be used is Instagram (IG).

Orders or purchases by consumers to buyers in this B2C business model are carried out directly. Usually, the sellers or business actors have provided or stated the price of the goods or services being sold.

Meanwhile, transactions are carried out using electronic cash methods or electronic payments such as bank transfers. You can also use a secure payment system method such as a gateway.

The last is how to create good content to do effective digital marketing and bring many consumers to your business. It is undeniable that content is the "soul" for the digital marketing that you do. People will not be interested in content that they think is just "junk."

What To Consider In Creating Content

Do a Mapping

The objectives of this mapping are as follows:

• Understand the characteristics of potential customers to find out which marketing methods are suitable for use.

• Estimating how potential people are to buy or see potential customers' position on the customer journey.

Create Appropriate Content Types

After doing the mapping, it's time to determine and create the type of digital marketing content that suits potential consumers' character and segment.

Start by creating a profile on the target or consumer segment that you want to reach.

This can be done only by using a free template, so there is no cost. After that, find out what your customers want. That way, consumers will be happy and interested in your digital promos.

This is our discussion about what digital marketing is and its ins and outs. I hope it is useful.