The role the web plays in our everyday lives is so commonplace that even individuals with no previous knowledge in online marketing have a basic understanding of concepts like SEO, the importance of keywords and search engines. However, with technology constantly changing and evolving, it is no surprise that the marketing world is now focused on the latest strategy for generating results: digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
Experts in the field are quick to point out that digital marketing is something that many people tend to define too narrowly. To illustrate, Jared Reitzin of Mobile Storm explains:
Digital marketing is a term that has been around for quite awhile but hasn’t been very well defined, encompassing things like banner advertising, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click…what about email, RSS, voice broadcast, fax broadcast, blogging, podcasting, video streams, wireless text messaging and instant messaging?
Jared goes on to say that at its heart, digital marketing centers around the Internet…Digital marketing, therefore, can be thought of as the combination of push and pull Internet technologies to execute marketing campaigns.
Digital Marketing in Daily Life
To understand how powerful digital marketing is, think about the ways we encounter it on a daily basis. For decades, we’ve been exposed to TV commercials, radio jingles and magazine advertisements. These mediums have been the mainstream ways the general public has learned what brands and companies to turn to for common products and services. With the introduction of the Internet, the way we receive such marketing messages has changed dramatically. The average consumer is now used to seeing web banners, pop up advertisements and receiving newsletter and promotional messages in their email inboxes.
The introduction of blogs, vlogs and social networking sites has helped to expand these new marketing technologies in ways that we’ve all become accustomed to seeing, without even realizing that we’re being marketed to. That says a lot for the large numbers of companies eager to generate more web traffic and convert website visitors into paying (and returning) customers.
The Impact & The Demand
This growing phenomenon is gaining steam—so much so, that websites like Technology Review devoted special online reports and articles in October of 2011 to digital marketing alone in order to “explore how companies are fusing technology with psychology to influence brand choice, to alter behavior and to change attitudes.”
As far as the importance digital marketing has for companies, Neil Patel, co-founder of the blog
Quick Sprout, believes that anyone wanting to start their own business needs to master this concept in order to be successful. As Patel states on his site, “The Web is changing and you can’t just leverage one strategy to succeed online anymore. From search engine optimization to social media marketing, you have to look at the whole picture…you have to make sure your email, social blogging, SEM, SEO and even video marketing all line up.”
Digital marketing has a significant role in how businesses communicate with its audience and the sooner companies come to understand the ways to use this technique, the sooner they’ll be able to enjoy great results and lasting business.
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Nohel Corral – is an educator that spends a lot of his time freelance writing on many topics of interest. He fills his days with researchingonline, writing, and providing original and quality content to readers. Writing, in general, is a passion that is fulfilled when he is able to engage readers with up-to-date and informative articles.
