Digital Marketing
Marketing. We hear that word pretty frequently nowadays, but do we actually know what it means and why it is useful? Today, I want to help you understand what marketing is and why it is so essential in large and small businesses.
What is marketing?
By definition, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” In short, it is the action of promoting or selling products or services.
When marketing was first ‘invented,’ it was pretty basic - word of mouth, a few sentences in a newspaper, and maybe someone waving you down on the street. The Industrial Revolution is what first pushed marketing to really start up - companies began mass producing and cared more about quantity to sell over quality. This led to a ‘war’ between companies. Whoever could produce more product for the cheapest price was the so-called winner. Since then, marketing has changed quite a bit over time. What started as something simple has now turned into something very complex. Now, even marketing professionals have to constantly learn new techniques and tactics just to stay in the marketing game.
Why is marketing important?
If you are a business owner, no matter large or small, you know that marketing is essential. Why, you ask? Well, picture your big businesses. You’ve seen them everywhere - on TV and on the internet in ads, people talk about them, they have giveaways, etc. Now picture small businesses - how are they supposed to keep up and compete without marketing? It’s impossible. Marketing exposes your product to consumers, which allows you to compete with the bigger brands. People already know about the bigger brands, so small companies have to work extra hard to make sure they have the best, captivating marketing techniques possible in order to get the word out there that they have awesome products or services!
(A few) types of digital marketing:
There are many different types of marketing, so I want to limit this to digital marketing for you (and I have not even included ALL of the different types of digital marketing). Digital marketing is essential today because people are constantly on their phones, computers, and watching television. Long gone are the days where you could promote your business via word of mouth. Of course, that still exists, but most of the time, digital marketing is used more than word of mouth marketing.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of getting organic (or free) searches on search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. SEO is extremely beneficial to companies because it works behind the scenes. Are you more likely to choose a company that ranks on the first page of Google, or a company that ranks on the last page of Google? For me, I typically do not even look on the last page. This is why it is so important to use SEO as part of your marketing plan. Once it is implemented, it is just part of your normal routine and it is not anything that you have to pay for.
PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising)
Pay per click advertising is the process of buying your advertising. Have you noticed the websites on the top of Google that say “ad?” This is a part of PPC. These are listed with the same non-paid search results, so it fits in more, but it is typically on the top of the page. These companies pay per click, hence the name, and it goes hand in hand with SEM (below).
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
According to Search Engine Land, SEM is “the process of gaining website traffic by purchasing ads on search engines.” This includes paid search ads, paid search advertising, PPC, CPC, and CPM, which are all virtually the same type of process.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is insanely popular right now. It is pretty simple - businesses gain attention through social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest), which will hopefully lead to new customers and sales.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing is the creation of ‘ads’ shared through influencers on blogs, Youtube channels, and social platforms. This is very popular right now because of the popularity of blogs and Instagram. People trust their ‘friends,’ more than advertisements, so this is why this type of marketing is so successful.
How do I implement digital marketing into my business plan?
Digital marketing is so important for all businesses, including blogs, but the one issue is that it is so complex to learn. It takes a lot of time and effort and sometimes, you will not understand it enough to use it correctly. If you are having trouble understanding how to implement digital marketing into your marketing tactics, then I highly recommend checking out a full service marketing agency in your area to help you out. They will save you time and effort and do it right the first time around. This is where NJ SEO and Matt Anton enter the picture. NJ SEO will implement some of the most hard to understand marketing tactics, like social media marketing, advanced web analytics, search engine optimization, email marketing, content strategy, pay-per-click marketing and more for you.
The family-run company takes a holistic approach, with their main focus and emphasis on conversions: “Generating new traffic is important, but converting that traffic is critical. Our full service search engine marketing plan and execution, coupled with website tweaks or redesign will ensure you reach ultra targeted traffic, with the highest contact rates in your industry whether phone call or contact form requests.” Matt Anton started the New Jersey location of NJ SEO, while his brother, Dan Anton started the Georgia location. Matt was the previous online marketing manager for Liberty Travel, where he managed a 250k marketing budget each month. He gives his all each day to help his clients, and now he says: “Today I am a son, brother, husband and father. Two little girls are my biggest “why”. I also am a “marketer”.”
Marketing can be hard to understand, but it doesn’t have to be hard to implement with the help of Matt Anton and NJ SEO.
