Understanding types of digital marketing might seem like an overwhelming concept, and if you think about it as a whole, it can be. However, at Beanstalk, we try and make digital marketing easy to comprehend.
We’re looking at the top 9 types of digital marketing and telling you how to use them. Some of these types will overlap, but since a good digital marketing strategy incorporates more than one, overlap will work in your favor.
9 Common Types of Digital Marketing:
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Display Advertising
- Mobile Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Audio Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
So, let’s get into the top 9 types of digital marketing and how to use them!
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is based around just that — content! This includes text, images, multimedia, etc., which provides value to your target audience. This can take the form of social media posts, blog posts (like this one), videos, webinars, case studies, and more. These are what we consider inbound marketing tactics and are beautiful because they are free. The goal is to draw customers in and provide them with valuable content. You can also utilize various pieces of content across different channels; you can chop up a video to use as a social media post or transcribe a webinar to use as a blog post.
How to use content marketing in your digital marketing strategy:
Content is the most important thing behind your entire digital marketing strategy, so start with designing a content strategy. You’ll want to dive into your company goals and your target audience before deciding on a few formats that make sense for both. If you struggle with video, stick to blog posts, and if you’re a very visually creative person, start creating some graphics! You’ll now want to decide where you’re going to post that content, be it your website, social media, other relevant sites, etc.
2. Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing (or SEM) is all about playing Google’s game to get your site to appear at the top of a search engine results page (SERP). Unlike search engine optimization (SEO), SEM includes both organic search (SEO) and paid search (PPC) on both desktop and mobile. SEO is exactly what it says it is, optimizing your website, or your content, for search engines. The best part about SEO is that it’s free and can improve brand authenticity, but it isn’t the quick strategy that a paid search campaign can be. PPC is similar to SEO in the sense that you’re trying to appear at the top of a SERP, but this includes buying your way to the top rather than working hard to get there. The beauty of PPC is that you can show up ahead of your longer-tenured competitors, and you only pay when someone clicks your ad.
How to use search engine marketing in your digital marketing strategy:
SEO
While we will split SEO and PPC up for this section, both begin with keyword research. Research the relevant keywords to your industry and utilize Neil Patel’s keyword tool, or our favorite, SEMrush, to identify keywords with the most organic opportunity. Specifically, search for relevant keywords with low keyword difficulty, high monthly search volume, and commercial intent. You’ll then want to create a content calendar including the focus keywords and any longer tail keywords that might be more difficult to rank for, but you still wish to sprinkle in your content. Then it’s simple — write! Okay, maybe it’s not that simple, but you have to start somewhere. Some best practices for writing content for SEO are to write between 1,500-2,500 words, contain two internal and two external links, a graphic (don’t forget an image alt tag), and most importantly, a 2-3% keyword density. For example, in a 2,000-word blog post, your focus keyword should appear 40-60 times.
PPC
You can utilize the same tools listed in the SEO section (our favorite is SEMrush) but you will now want to look at the monthly search volume and CPC columns rather than the organic-focused columns. Once you have determined the keywords you want to run paid ads for, you will set up your google ads account, write your headlines and descriptions, insert your UTM code (track your data!) and turn them on. But wait — what about a budget? A best practice is to calculate your budget by averaging the CPC of the keywords you’ve selected; let’s say that’s $5/click. You’ll then multiply that by 100 clicks because, at a minimum, you need 100 clicks to make a data-driven decision on the success of your ads campaign.
3. Display Advertising
Display advertising has many similarities to the old-school traditional marketing techniques such as print ads, magazines, billboards, etc., but they’re just online! While people used to drive down the highway or flip through the telephone book and see ads along the way, now people are buzzing along the internet highway and seeing ads everywhere, sometimes without even noticing! Over the years, this has become more sophisticated in how your ads are shown to specific individuals and not others and how retargeting works to follow users around the internet. The beauty of display ads is that you can target certain sites, retarget landing pages, and easily track them along the way. They’re also super effective, especially for e-commerce businesses!
How to use display advertising in your digital marketing strategy:
Like content marketing, you will need to develop the creatives rather than just text. While the text and calls to action are essential, make sure to create impactful, memorable creatives. Once you have your creatives, decide on your placement. Google’s Display Network and Facebook Business Manager are two of the biggest that allow you to target specific individuals geographically, by age, interest, etc.
4. Mobile Marketing
With mobile marketing, there is tons of overlap with all other types because you will see every other type of digital marketing on mobile devices. However, it also involves making sure your digital marketing strategy is optimized for both desktop and mobile devices.
Mobile-specific digital marketing tactics exist, such as app advertising, text marketing, and social media app advertising. If your target audience is of a younger demographic, this is vital! The beauty is apparent as soon as you look up from your phone and notice that everyone else is on theirs! People spend more time on their phones in 2022 than ever before, which won’t slow down anytime soon. Geofencing, a tactic we love here at Beanstalk, is another mobile marketing tactic that allows you to draw a geofence around locations during certain times and specifically serve ads to only those mobile IDs.
How to use mobile marketing in your digital marketing strategy:
Making sure your website and all of your content is mobile-friendly is the absolute minimum here. Whether your site was built in Wix or WordPress, your site can be easily optimized for mobile. Once your site is mobile-friendly, begin to look into app advertising, text message marketing, geofencing, etc.
Odds are you’ve seen some social media marketing on Facebook, Instagram, YoutTube, LinkedIn…you get the point; there are tons of social media platforms. Similar to SEM, social media marketing includes both organic and paid marketing. The organic side of things includes:
- Posting on your businesses page.
- Joining Facebook groups.
- Posting stories.
- Utilizing messenger to connect with your target audience.
As far as the paid side goes, this is very similar to PPC, but you can decide on your pricing model between cost per mile, cost per click, cost per view, or cost per engagement. Whether or not your business has the budget to run social media ads, every business should be active on at least two social platforms. Figure out where your target audience is, and be there! Don’t spread yourself too thin; instead, focus on the most important channels. The beauty here is that if you go viral on social, your efforts will be multiplied tenfold by your community as people like, share, and comment. Facebook ads allow you to target by specific interests, job title, and much more, making them very useful!
How to use social media marketing in your digital marketing strategy:
As stated above, figure out where your target audience is and be there! Once you’ve selected the 2 or 3 platforms you want to be active on, decide what kind of messaging you want to use that aligns with your brand. Then, begin creating the content! Try and change the format and implement stories, polls, and other tools to increase engagement with your community. Your social media goal should be to build a community, and getting them involved can help do just that.
6. Email Marketing
While email marketing might seem like an old-school tactic, this is still one of the most effective digital marketing tools. You can utilize newsletters or drip campaigns to nurture existing clients and prospects. Marketing automation, or drip campaigns, has come a long way over the last few years. You can set intricate triggers and workflows that serve emails as the user reaches different steps in the automation. The beauty here is that after years and years of collecting emails via newsletter and contact forms, you amass a list where you can regularly stay in contact with thousands of people with the click of a button. That little touchpoint in their inbox can re-introduce them right back into your sales cycle!
How to use email marketing in your digital marketing strategy:
If you haven’t got an email list, your first step is to get a newsletter sign-up and contact form on your website. If you have an email list, utilize email software such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc., to send weekly newsletters. Don’t just send emails to send emails; make sure they’re valuable to your email list. Coupons work well for e-commerce businesses, and tips and such work well for B2B.
Do make sure you’re following all the rules, though, before you jump into the email marketing game. Depending on how long you’ve been gathering emails for your list, the regulations might have changed. Now, users must opt-in to a newsletter.
7. Video Marketing
Video has come a long way and has taken over digital marketing. The beauty of video marketing is that it can be anything from short clips to longer format webinars and any length in between. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn push video quite heavily, so you’ll get more reach and impressions with video than with a traditional graphic. TikTok is a platform that started with 7-second video clips similar to Vine but now has increased to 1 and 2 minutes.
How to use video marketing in your digital marketing strategy:
Video should be in your digital marketing strategy in 2022, no debate. What kind of video is up to you, but there is no question whether you should do it or not. Determine whether an inspirational, educational, or entertaining video makes sense for your business’ image. You don’t have to spend tons of time or money on recording equipment; there are teenagers making millions of dollars each year using an iPhone camera.
8. Audio Marketing
While video killed the radio star, the truth is radio has just changed. You can listen to the radio on the internet, and with that, traditional radio advertising has changed to Spotify ads, podcast ads, and even smart home assistant advertising.
The beauty is that you don’t have to be a podcaster or create a podcast to take advantage of audio marketing. You can advertise on a podcast show that speaks to your target audience. Like video marketing, very successful individuals record entire podcasts or record whole EPs on iPhones. If you do wish to get into podcasting, Anchor.fm is a platform for you to record, edit, and publish your podcast to all platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.) from one app.
How to use audio marketing in your digital marketing strategy:
Figure out what it is you want to do here. Is your audience listening to the radio online or in the car? Are they listening to podcasts, and which ones? Do they want you to start a podcast? The answers to these questions, and tons of others, will drive what you do with audio marketing. Determine where your audience is spending time and be there —- I know this is a theme you’ve heard us say before, but it’s the best way to initiate a digital marketing strategy in 2022. If starting a podcast isn’t for you, contact podcast shows that your audience is listening to and ask to be a guest or advertise with them!
9. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is what it sounds like, and this is a serious digital marketing strategy that you should consider. Remember those millionaires I told you about on TikTok? They can sell product! Not every influencer has to be Will Smith or Justin Bieber. There are tons of more niche influencers, some of whom communicate directly to your target audience. Smartfluence and influencer are some platforms that allow you to get in touch with influencers of all sizes, with all different types of audiences.
The idea behind influencer marketing is that after getting the cosign from the influencer, the audience goes and buys your product, calls you, downloads your app, etc. The beauty is that you’re essentially piggybacking off of the years and years that influencer has taken to build a beautifully curated audience, and you instantly get the brand authenticity.
How to use influencer marketing in your digital marketing strategy:
Determine whether influencer marketing makes sense for your brand. This is the newest of the top 9 types of digital marketing in 2022 list, so keep an open mind and do your research, but it’s not for every business. If you are interested in influencer marketing, determine your goals for your campaign and utilize one of the above platforms to connect with influencers who have the right audience and are a good match for your brand.
Remember, don’t just focus on their audience size, but instead look at engagement rates. If they’re talking to your audience and get a 70% engagement rate on every post or video, it doesn’t matter whether they have 100 followers or 10 million, and pricing will be MUCH higher for the latter. Lastly, contact them and negotiate the campaign!
Let’s Wrap Up
Digital marketing CAN be an overwhelming idea, but hopefully, with this list of the top 9 types of digital marketing, we’ve helped you develop a digital marketing strategy.
The order of our list is the order that we would examine when looking to create a digital marketing strategy. Content marketing, SEM, display advertising, mobile, and social marketing round out our top five, and if you’re limited on time, we would tell you to only look at the top two and run with them. You can always add various other digital marketing types to your strategy as you see what works for your business. This is nothing against email, video, audio, and influencer marketing, but they’re time-consuming, newer, and more work.
The beauty of this list is that you can’t go wrong, and many digital marketing types overlap, making it easier to develop a more well-rounded digital marketing strategy for your business.
Want some help developing your digital marketing strategy? Get in touch with Beanstalk and let’s grow your business together!