6 Types Of Digital Marketing You Need To Understand

If nothing else, the COVID-19 pandemic has solidified the need for businesses of all kinds to lean even harder into the digital space, from retail purchases (which were already projected to reach $4.5 trillion next year, BEFORE coronavirus shutdowns struck) to how B2B brands reach their prospects in a world without in-person events and conferences.

Digital marketing—which encompasses every way businesses reach customers using an electronic device—is only going to grow in importance moving forward. That means it is essential that all marketers, from the newest grads to industry veterans, understand the 6 essential types of digital marketing outlined here by Point Blank Digital.

(Want to dig deeper? Check out other posts on the Inbound Accelerator blog for more in-depth details on 5 of these types:

• SEO
• Content Marketing
• Social Media
• Video
• Email Marketing

A few key statistics jumped out at me from this infographic:

SEO

• The average Google first page result contains 1,890 words. What does this mean? It means high quality content is essential! Your website needs content that answers questions and provides value in order to rank high in search engine results.
• Between 70 and 80 percent of search engine users are only focusing on the organic results—you can’t just buy clicks with sponsored results. You have to earn them the old-fashioned way.

Content marketing

• Content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising.
• One compounding blog post creates as much traffic as six decaying post. We’ve seen that firsthand right here on the Inbound Accelerator blog — our three most-read blog posts over the last 6 years were published in 2018 and 2016, and all three are still in the top 5 posts every month.

Social media

• 59 percent of Americans believe that customer service through social media has made it easier to get their questions answered and resolved. This means your social media can’t be just a “post and leave” billboard concept—you have to commit to monitoring comments and messages and responding accordingly.

Video marketing

• Video drives a 157 percent increase in organic traffic from search engine results pages. Including video on your website—in blog posts, as part of a resource library, and on product or service description pages—can help draw in those prospects who want to learn through video.
• 64 percent of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision.

Email marketing

• Three-quarters of companies agree that email offers “excellent” to “good” ROI. In other statistics I’ve seen, essential to that success is segmentation and personalization so that emails are targeted to specific contacts with relevant information that is less likely to get lost in the sea of email we all receive each day.
• 86 percent of professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes.

Whether you consider yourself a digital marketer, content marketer or inbound marketer (check out this breakdown of the differences), understanding the current state of communications and how consumers and B2B decision-makers gather information to guide their purchase decisions is essential. You’ll find a steady stream of helpful advice and insights here. Subscribe today to the Inbound Accelerator to have the latest posts delivered directly to your inbox each week so you won’t miss any.

If you have a more specific concern about your digital marketing program and are seeking resources or advice to help you deliver results, I’d be glad to chat. Schedule a meeting on my calendar for a one-on-one discussion.