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09/10/2023

09/10/2023

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digital marketing
Alexander S. Gillis, Technical Writer and Editor
Lauren Horwitz, Cisco
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is a general term for any steps a company takes to connect with customers through electronic technology. Digital marketing promotes and sells products or services to prospective customers through online platforms such as email, social media, mobile marketing, online customer communities, webinars and other video-based content.

The digital marketing process involves similar tactics as traditional marketing. Organizations can combine both traditional and digital marketing techniques as a strategy.

Importance of digital marketing
Digital marketing helps an organization appeal to a much larger audience than it could through traditional marketing methods because the reach of the internet is worldwide. This marketing method also enables organizations to target prospective customers who are most likely to buy their product or service. For example, a company can advertise holiday sales by emailing past customers or by sharing news of the deals on social media.

Organizations have a number of different online methods they can use to reach out to customers, including through emails, social media, text, banner advertisements or affiliates.

Five pillars of social media marketing: strategy; planning and publishing; listening and engagement; analytics and reporting; and advertisingThe five pillars of social media marketing represent the steps an organization must take to connect with potential customers.
Social media provides a common way for individuals to interact and communicate with organizations. Likewise, marketers can collect insights from their target audience on these platforms and increase customer engagement by communicating with them. Digital marketing strategies can be quickly shifted as needed. The platform and format of communication can be changed if the target audience moves platforms, for example.

Digital marketing has become more complex because of the various new communication channels that have emerged, but also in terms of the analysis required to make sense of customers, prospects and their preferences. Organizations use a variety of tools to understand the behavior and preferences of customers, prospects and leads. From social media listening to predictive analytics and big data analytics, organizations enlist a variety of resources to understand customer responses to their digital marketing efforts.

Types of digital marketing
Digital marketing can appear in many forms, including the following:

Email marketing. Organizations reach out to customers and prospective customers through email with the goal of promoting current business practices such as sales or events.
Social media marketing. Organizations use social media marketing through platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to connect and communicate with customers and prospective customers, notifying them of updates or deals, as well as just communicating and building social trust.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. PPC advertising enables organizations to advertise on different websites with paid ads. An example of such an advertisement is a banner ad. If enough data or cookies are collected about a user, these ads can be targeted by characteristics like age, gender, location or general interests. The ad publisher is paid every time a user clicks on the ad.
Content marketing. This digital marketing strategy tries to reach customers through content. Content refers to something an organization produces and publishes on a website with the intent to promote it through other marketing types, such as social media or email.
Sponsored content. An organization pays another business to create and promote content that highlights the marketer's product or service.
Affiliate marketing. An organization pays a commission to an influencer on a specific platform, such as YouTube or Instagram, to promote its product or service.
Short Message Service (SMS) marketing. Organizations might choose to use SMS messages to send promotions to customers. Political candidates running for office commonly send SMS messages as a part of their campaigning efforts.
Marketing automation software has also become increasingly important to digital marketing as companies try to reach a broader swath of potential customers and link customer behavior with potential new purchases. For example, organizations use marketing automation to measure visitor behavior on their websites, and then target visitors to potentially sell products and services.

Inbound marketing vs. digital marketing
Inbound marketing is a strategy that focuses on attracting customers using company-created internet content. The goal of inbound marketing is for customers to come to the organization rather than having marketers compete for customers' attention.

Examples of inbound marketing content and tactics include the following:

blog posts
photos
infographics
videos
podcasts
presentations
e-books
white papers
e-newsletters
webinars
search engine optimization or SEO
social media marketing
The difference between inbound and digital marketing is that digital marketing doesn't differentiate between inbound and outbound methods. Digital marketing is used as an umbrella term for all marketing that encompasses a digital outreach.

Inbound marketing targets customers through online platforms, such as social media or search engines, and is intended to create content that shows up in these places to drive organic traffic to an organization's website.

While outbound marketing can potentially reach a wider audience, it also runs the risk of barraging uninterested consumers. Inbound marketing is designed to reach interested prospects through audience segmentation, but by its nature, it might reach a much narrower group of potential customers.

Inbound marketing is also an important tool in retaining existing customers. Creating more regular communications with customers and enabling organizations to engage with customers by providing informative, educational content and promotions helps keep customer attention.

B2B vs. B2C digital marketing
Digital marketing from business to business (B2B) is focused on online lead generation with the goal of an organization finding another business that will purchase its product or service.

Digital marketing from business to consumer (B2C) is focused on attracting individuals and having them become customers. B2C digital marketing also pays more attention to creating an accelerated buyer's journey for customers.

B2B clients typically have a longer decision-making process, as it requires more than one person's input. B2C customers, on the other hand, only need their own input -- and could also make purchasing decisions based on emotion or mood. B2C customers might also respond better to social media marketing or the short-term deals and offers that appear in email digital marketing.

B2B vs. B2C digital marketingWhile B2B marketing focuses on relationship building and positioning, B2C marketing targets brand recognition.
Digital marketing benefits
Benefits of digital marketing include the following:

Global and local reach. Individuals can see the same ad in different time zones or across the globe. Digital marketing also improves local ad visibility, so organizations can customize their locally targeted ads.
Targeting specific audiences. Customers and prospective customers can stay connected to brands through email or social media platforms, where organizations can then communicate with them or test offers to gain insights.
Cost-effectiveness. Digital marketing is less expensive than traditional forms of marketing, such as TV spots. It costs almost nothing to promote through email campaigns and social media.
Customized channels. Digital marketing channels can be marketed differently, depending on the organization and the platform it's on. Marketing teams within an organization can find their best and strongest forms of marketing and modify those methods as needed.
Digital marketing challenges
Digital marketing does have the following challenges, however:

Time-consuming. Organizations must continually create content and optimize their marketing campaigns, which takes time.
Competitive. This can occur when prospective customers are inundated with too many competing ads. Marketers must make their brand stand out, which can be challenging.
Data privacy. If an organization is using an individual's data to target them for advertising, then it should understand how to handle that data and follow data privacy laws.
Technology. Digital marketers must ensure websites are set up for mobile users so that the customer journey can quickly lead a prospective customer from learning about an organization to making a purchase.
Learn more about the four steps involved in creating a digital marketing strategy, including building a website, attracting customers, retaining customers and evaluating the strategy's success.

This was last updated in October 2022
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Related Terms

09/10/2023

What is Digital Marketing?

Learn How Digital Marketing Efforts Drive Business Success in the Modern World
Marketing is the practice of identifying and satisfying customer needs. This is a particularly important task in the business context, as successful marketing efforts can drive leads and conversions. Even though marketing has deep roots in business history and culture, digital marketing is a relatively new practice.

It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic.

Jeff Eisenberg
With the explosion of digital technology, including widespread use of computers and smartphones, businesses began to experiment with new marketing tactics—which is the origin of digital marketing.

Fast forward to the present and digital marketing is as important, if not more so, than traditional marketing methods. Depending on the business there is a growing divide between traditional and digital marketing, while others have found novel ways of bringing the two closer together. Regardless of the approach, it is vital for businesses to plan and execute a viable digital marketing strategy.

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What Are the Basics of Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing refers to any marketing methods conducted through electronic devices which utilize some form of a computer, including online marketing efforts conducted on the internet. In the process of conducting digital marketing, a business might leverage websites, search engines, blogs, social media, video, email and similar channels to reach customers.

Unlike traditional marketing—which is static and often referred to as “one-way” communication—digital marketing is an ever-changing, dynamic process. Stated otherwise, customers cannot interact with business through a billboard or print ad, whereas digital marketing provides an avenue for two-way communication between a business and its actual or prospective customers.

These days, screen time is at an all-time high for many people. Digital marketing takes advantage of this reality, promoting business products and services across the internet. In this way, businesses ensure that their marketing efforts are more likely to reach customers, by targeting them where they spend most of their time.

From startups to enterprise businesses, a multifaceted digital marketing approach can lead to significant commercial benefits. Successful digital marketing strategy generally involves a combination of various methods, including online advertising, search engine optimization and marketing, social media marketing and management and content creation, among others.

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Are There Different Ways to Conduct Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a broad term that encompasses many different channels for promoting business interests to prospective customers. Depending on the business needs and goals, there are countless ways to conduct digital marketing. It is not a cookie-cutter exercise.

That being said, there are several common methods for conducting digital marketing, including:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — SEO is the practice of improving ranking within major search engines to increase online traffic.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) — SEM leverages paid online advertising to increase website visibility within search engines. SEM is often used in conjunction with SEO.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) — PPC is an online method for advertising where a business only pays for its ads when a person clicks on them.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) — SMM is the practice of using social media channels to promote business products or services. The use of social media influencers, often referred to as influencer marketing, is prevalent in SMM.
Email Marketing — Email marketing enables businesses to send branded, promotional content directly to prospective customers via email. The use of automated newsletters is common in this context.
Affiliate Marketing — Affiliate marketing is a performance-based exercise that enables revenue sharing and pay-per-sale (PPS) compensation within a common network.
Content Marketing — Content marketing refers to the publishing and distribution of text, video or audio materials to customers online. Blogs, videos and podcasts are common ways for businesses to engage in content marketing.
Native Advertising — Native advertising involves blending marketing materials into a medium, making the underlying message and marketing purposes equally important. Sponsored content, in which one business posts its own content on a different website, is a common method of native advertising.
There are numerous ways to execute a digital marketing strategy. For most businesses, successful inbound marketing involves the use and application of multiple digital marketing methods.

What Benefits Can I Achieve Through Digital Marketing?
What Benefits Can I Achieve Through Digital Marketing?
Given the diversity of digital marketing methods, there is a similarly diverse set of benefits available for digitally savvy benefits. On an overarching level, digital marketing enables businesses to reach customers during everyday activities, such as scanning social media, reading online articles, watching videos, etc. When customers are exposed to marketing in this type of natural and regular manner, it can yield a variety of commercial benefits.

“Digital marketing is defined by using numerous digital tactics and channels to connect with customers where they spend much of their time: online.”

Hubspot
More specifically, digital marketing can help businesses achieve any or all of the following benefits:

Global Reach — Unlike traditional methods, digital marketing is not necessarily bound to a specific geographic area. The internet is available to customers across the globe. This allows businesses to market and sell to customers who live in a different state or country, removing many traditional barriers to entry.
Low Cost of Entry — To achieve the global reach of digital marketing through traditional channels, there would be a serious price tag attached. On the other hand, certain aspects of digital marketing can be achieved with a small investment of time and resources. For example, even small or startup businesses can create a website, manage social media and publish blogs without breaking the bank.
Measurable ROI — In order to maximize profits, businesses must carefully evaluate return on investment (ROI). With traditional marketing, ROI can be difficult, sometimes impossible, to measure. On the other hand, digital marketing provides real-time visibility into the effectiveness of each campaign, enabling business leaders to make well-informed decisions to drive revenue and increase profit.
Improved Targeting — Digital marketing allows businesses to target very specific demographics of potential customers. By engaging customers in a particular geography, industry or social channel, businesses have a much better chance of reaching their target demographic.
Dynamic Adaptability — Digital marketing strategies are extremely malleable and flexible, enabling businesses to adjust course when needed. Unlike long-term, traditional marketing campaigns, businesses can adjust their digital efforts on the fly, enabling quick pivots when necessary to realize commercial opportunity.
Immediate Connection — Before making a purchase, modern customers generally conduct online research and evaluate reviews. The first step in this process typically starts with a search engine. In this way, businesses with developed SEO, SEM and PPC strategies can connect immediately with customers.
Relationship Building — The rise of social media has turned it into a dominant communications platform for many customer demographics. Furthermore, customers increasingly want to interact with businesses on their terms and on their preferred platform. As a result, businesses that engage in effective SMM practices can build longtime and loyal relationships with current and prospective customers.
Overall, businesses of every shape and size can achieve powerful benefits through effective use of digital marketing methods. Furthermore, the cost of digital marketing can be tailored to each specific business, stripping many barriers to entry of traditional methods. With so many benefits available for just about any budget, it makes sense why so many businesses are succeeding with digital marketing efforts.

How Much Will Digital Marketing Cost My Business?
The simple answer is that there is a digital marketing strategy for every budget. The flexibility of digital marketing strategies yields benefits for just about every size of business, from small to large. With such a wide range of methods and strategies, it is not possible to provide a one-size-fits-all price tag for digital marketing.

Instead, it is helpful to examine the digital marketing spend for different levels of business, as small companies will spend less than larger ones. For example:

Basic Digital Marketing — Startups and small businesses do not generally have a large budget available for digital marketing. These businesses focus on low-cost methods, typically leveraging websites, blogs and social media to drive revenue at a low price point. The cost for basic digital marketing can be several hundred dollars per month.
Intermediate Digital Marketing — Medium-sized businesses tend to have established revenue streams and the capability to spend more on digital marketing. This is where SEO, SEM, PPC and email marketing start to become prevalent. The cost for intermediate digital marketing can be several thousand dollars per month.
Advanced Digital Marketing — Large or enterprise businesses will use digital marketing in a comprehensive and often global manner. These businesses tend to have developed strategies across most digital marketing channels. These businesses often spend substantial resources developing a digital marketing strategy across many available channels. The cost for advanced digital marketing can be tens of thousands of dollars per month.
As demonstrated above, the cost of digital marketing varies greatly based on business size, revenue and goals. Smaller companies will often start with a basic strategy and develop intermediate or advanced methods down the road. Ultimately, it is possible for just about every business to create and implement a digital marketing strategy that meets their needs and budget.

How Do I Create and Implement a Digital Marketing Strategy?
How Do I Create and Implement a Digital Marketing Strategy?
The process for creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy involves many steps and required considerations. In this context, it is critical to devote time and resources to planning and creation. Information, analytics and research collected while planning and creating can have a tremendous impact during implementation.

Digital Marketing Strategy
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MARKETING NEWS

Why You Need a Digital Marketing Strategy
You already know why marketing is important for your business, and digital is an essential component of your overall marketing strategy. Here’s what you need to get started.

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What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy?
A strong digital marketing strategy is crucial to organizational success in today’s business landscape. Companies thriving in the digital world typically allocate significant resources to the development of digital marketing strategies. In the process, organizations reach customers across various digital and social platforms, driving positive revenue gains, improved conversion rates and engage with their customers. […]

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How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
Most of our consumption of content today exists online. Because of this, companies have had to shift to digital marketing in order to get the word out about their products and services. However, you cannot simply make content for online platforms and hope for the best. You need to build a digital marketing strategy to […]

It is true that every business has unique needs and goals. Correspondingly, the creation and implementation of a digital marketing strategy will change from business to business. But in common practice, many businesses employ a similar process for creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy, as outlined below.

Identify Marketing Goals — The first step in this process involves identifying specific goals, such as driving sales, generating leads, building brand recognition or increasing subscribers.
Solidify Sales Process — To maximize the benefits of digital marketing, it is necessary to understand the digital sales process and exactly how customers will make digital purchases.
Isolate Target Customers — Creating a strong target demographic with refined buyer personas helps isolate the ideal customers to purchase business goods or services.
Choose Marketing Channels — Armed with target demographic and buyer personas, it is important to identify the best digital marketing channels to reach those ideal customers.
Set Clear Benchmarks — In order to evaluate a digital marketing strategy, it is advisable to establish clear benchmarks for success and measure progress along the way.
Make Necessary Adjustments — After creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy, it is important to monitor progress toward goals and adjust as needed.
An effective digital marketing strategy must take into the account the individual needs and goals of the business in question. Accordingly, a digital marketing strategy that works for a small “mom-and-pop” store is likely inappropriate for a global brand. The good news is that digital marketing offers a wide range of methods, channels and strategies. So, businesses of just about any size and in just about any industry can leverage digital marketing to great effect.

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09/10/2023

The term digital marketing refers to the use of digital channels to market products and services to consumers. This type of marketing involves the use of websites, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other similar channels. Digital marketing became popular with the advent of the internet in the 1990s.

Digital marketing involves some of the same principles as traditional marketing and is often considered an additional way for companies to approach consumers and understand their behavior. Companies often combine traditional and digital marketing techniques in their strategies. But digital marketing comes with its own set of challenges, including implicit bias.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Digital marketing involves marketing to consumers through digital channels, including websites, mobile devices, and social media platforms.
This form of marketing is different from internet marketing, which is exclusively done on websites.
Digital marketing relates to attracting customers via email, content marketing, search platforms, social media, and more.
One of the biggest challenges digital marketers face is how to set themselves apart in a world that is oversaturated with digital marketing ads.
Digital marketing comes with various challenges, including implicit bias.
Digital Marketing Definition
Investopedia / Mira Norian

How Digital Marketing Works
Marketing refers to activities that a company uses to promote its products and services and to improve its market share. To be successful, it requires a combination of advertising savvy, sales, and the ability to deliver goods to end-users. Professionals, known as marketers, take on these tasks either internally at companies or externally at marketing firms.

Corporations traditionally focused on marketing through print, television, and radio. Although these options still exist, the internet led to a shift in the way companies reach consumers. That's where digital marketing came into play. This form of marketing involves the use of websites, social media, search engines, and apps—anything that incorporates marketing with customer feedback or a two-way interaction between the company and its customers.

New technologies and trends forced companies to change their marketing strategies. Email became a popular marketing tool in the early days of digital marketing. Then, the focus shifted to search engines like Netscape, which allowed businesses to tag and keyword items to get themselves noticed. The development of sites like Facebook made it possible for companies to track data and cater to consumer trends.

Smartphones and other digital devices now make it easier for companies to market themselves and their products and services to consumers. Studies show that people prefer using their phones to go online. In fact, according to a Pew Research Center study, over 75% of American adults typically make shopping purchases using their phones.
1

Digital marketing can be interactive and is often used to target specific segments of the customer base.
Sources and Receivers
Advertisers are commonly referred to as sources, while recipients of the targeted ads are the receivers. Sources frequently target highly specific, well-defined receivers, as McDonald's did with shift workers and travelers.

The company used digital ads because it knew these people used digital devices and made up a large segment of its late-night business. McDonald's encouraged them to download the Restaurant Finder app, targeting them with ads placed at automated teller machines (ATMs), gas stations, and websites that its customers frequented.
Types of Digital Marketing Channels
As noted above, marketing was traditionally done through print (newspapers and magazines) and broadcast ads (TV and radio). These channels still exist and are used today. Digital marketing channels have evolved and continue to do so. The following are eight of the most common digital avenues that companies can take to boost their marketing efforts. Keep in mind that some companies may use multiple channels in their efforts.

Website Marketing
A website is the centerpiece of all digital marketing activities. It is a very powerful channel on its own, but it’s also the medium needed to execute a variety of online marketing campaigns. A website should represent a brand, product, and service in a clear and memorable way. It should be fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising enables marketers to reach internet users on a number of digital platforms through paid ads. Marketers can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, LinkedIn, X platform (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, and Facebook and show their ads to people searching on terms related to products or services.

These campaigns can segment users based on their demographic characteristics (such as age or gender), or even target their particular interests or location. The most popular platforms for PPC are Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Content Marketing
The goal of content marketing is to reach potential customers through the use of content that interests them. Content is usually published on a website and then promoted through social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, or even pay-per-click campaigns. The tools of content marketing include blogs, ebooks, online courses, infographics, podcasts, and webinars.

Email Marketing
Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels. Many people confuse email marketing with spam email messages, but that’s not what email marketing is about. This type of marketing allows companies to reach potential customers and anyone else interested in their brands and products.

Many digital marketers use all other digital marketing channels to add leads to their email lists. Then, using email marketing, they create customer acquisition funnels to turn those leads into customers.

Social Media Marketing
The primary goals of a social media marketing campaign are to build brand awareness and establish social trust. As you go deeper into social media marketing, you can use it to obtain leads and as a direct marketing or sales channel. Promoted posts and tweets are two examples of social media marketing.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing, and the internet has given it new life. With affiliate marketing, influencers promote other people’s products and get a commission every time a sale is made or a lead is introduced. Many well-known companies including Amazon have affiliate programs that pay out millions of dollars per month to websites that sell their products.

Video Marketing
YouTube is one of the most popular search engines in the world. A lot of internet users turn to YouTube before making a buying decision, to learn something, to read a review, or just to relax.

Marketers can use any of several video marketing platforms, including Facebook Videos, Instagram, and TikTok, to run a video marketing campaign. Companies find the most success with video by integrating it with SEO, content marketing, and broader social media marketing campaigns.

SMS Messaging
Companies and nonprofit organizations also use text messages (formally known as SMS, or short message service) to send information about their latest promotions or give opportunities to willing customers. Political candidates running for office also use SMS campaigns to spread positive information about their platforms. As technology has advanced, many text-to-give campaigns also allow customers to directly pay or give via a simple text message.

Internet marketing differs from digital marketing. Internet marketing is advertising that is solely on the internet, whereas digital marketing can take place through mobile devices, on a subway platform, in a video game, or via a smartphone app.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Digital Marketing
A key point to remember is that digital marketers use key performance indicators (KPIs) just like traditional marketers. KPIs are quantifiable ways that companies can measure long-term performance of marketing and compare their efforts to their competition. Areas of measurement include corporate strategies, financial goals and achievements, operational activities, and even marketing campaigns.

The following are some of the most common KPIs that marketers can use to help companies achieve their goals:

Blog Articles: Marketers can use this KPI to figure out how many times a company publishes blog posts each month.
Clickthrough Rates: Companies can use this KPI to figure out how many clicks take place for email distributions. This includes the number of people that open an email and click on a link to complete a sale.
Conversion Rate: This measure focuses on call-to-action promotional programs. These programs ask consumers to follow through with certain actions, such as buying a product or service before the end of a promotional period. Companies can determine the conversion rate by dividing successful engagements by the total number of requests made.
Traffic on Social Media: This tracks how many people interact with corporate social media profiles. It includes likes, follows, views, shares, and/or other measurable actions.
Website Traffic: Marketers can use this metric to track how many people visit a company's website. Corporate management can use this information to understand whether the site's design and structure contribute to sales.
Digital Marketing Challenges
Digital marketing poses special challenges for its purveyors. Digital channels proliferate rapidly, and digital marketers have to keep up with how these channels work and how they're used by receivers. Marketers need to know how to use these channels to effectively market their products or services.

It's becoming more difficult to capture receivers' attention because they're increasingly inundated with competing ads. Digital marketers also find it challenging to analyze the vast troves of data they capture and then exploit this information in new marketing efforts.

The challenge of capturing and using data effectively highlights that digital marketing requires an approach to marketing based on a deep understanding of consumer behavior. For example, it may require that a company use different techniques, such as website heatmaps, to learn more about the customer journey and new forms of consumer behavior.

Implicit Bias in Digital Marketing
Implicit bias has a way of creeping into digital marketing, even when marketers and companies do all they can to ensure that it doesn't. Implicit bias refers to attitudes and stereotypes that occur automatically without any conscious knowledge.

Algorithms are part of the foundation of digital marketing, which makes them very important when companies craft their marketing strategies. These algorithms are often created with the intention of being unbiased. However, the intention doesn't always match the result.

That's because algorithms are programmed by various individuals, including engineers, developers, data scientists, and marketers—all of whom come with their own implicit biases. This means they may program, input, and manipulate data in certain ways, without meaning to.

Something as simple as adding stock photos or videos to a campaign can come with implicit bias. For instance, companies may unintentionally use images and videos of heterosexual White individuals while excluding Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, along with those of different body types and abilities.

What Is a Digital Marketing Agency?
A digital marketing agency is a firm that deals exclusively in marketing to consumers through digital channels. This includes creating and launching campaigns for corporate clients through social media, pay-per-click advertising, videos, and websites, among others.

What Is SEO in Digital Marketing?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way that companies increase traffic to their websites, with the goal of pushing their sites and names to the top of any search results page. This can occur with search results obtained organically or editorially. When companies are able to successfully apply SEO to their digital marketing strategies, their names and websites become increasingly visible to more consumers.

What Is Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing is any marketing that takes place solely on the internet. This means it exclusively appears on websites. It is different than digital marketing, which includes internet marketing as well as marketing on social media sites, and mobile apps. These marketing campaigns can take place through smartphones, digital devices, and other platforms.

How Can I Become a Digital Marketer?
Digital marketers require strong writing skills along with data analytics and social media skills. A bachelor's degree is needed for most digital marketing positions. You'll find these positions in a business field such as marketing, or a related field such as communications. You may also want to take digital marketing courses or bootcamps. In addition, completing an internship while in school can be useful.
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A master’s degree in digital marketing may be useful but is not necessary to getting a job in the digital marketing field.

What Skills Are Needed in Digital Marketing?
Writing content is a required skill. So are communication skills, to effectively tell your product's story to your consumer base. Data analytics skills are important for understanding how well your marketing campaigns are performing and where they can be improved. Finally, social media and other online skills are a must.

The Bottom Line
Some of the world's biggest advertising campaigns were executed through traditional means. The Marlboro Man was very popular in print and on television, while people still recall Wendy's "Where's the beef?" tagline.

But changes in the way people consume media forced companies to shift their focus. Digital marketing is now just as big, if not bigger, than traditional advertising and marketing.

Implicit bias can occur in digital marketing, just as it can elsewhere. The main thing to keep in mind is that, as technology continues to change, you can also expect digital marketing to evolve.
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Brand Extension: Definition, How It Works, Example, and Criticism30 of 46
What Is Social Networking?31 of 46
Affiliate Marketer: Definition, Examples, and How to Get Started32 of 46
What Is Commercialization, Plus the Product Roll-Out Process33 of 46
Digital Marketing Overview: Types, Challenges, and Required Skills34 of 46
Direct Marketing: What It Is and How It Works35 of 46
Marketing in Business: Strategies and Types Explained36 of 46
What Are Marketing Campaigns? Definition, Types, and Examples37 of 46
How to Do Market Research, Types, and Example38 of 46
Micromarketing Explained: Definition, Uses, and Examples39 of 46
Network Marketing Meaning and How It Works40 of 46
Product Differentiation: What It Is, How Businesses Do It, and the 3 Main Types41 of 46
Target Market: Definition, Purpose, Examples, Market Segments42 of 46
Outside Sales: What They are, How They Work43 of 46
What Is a Sales Lead? How It Works and Factors Affecting Quality44 of 46
Indirect Sales: What it is, How it Works45 of 46
What Is Inside Sales? Definition, How It Works, and Advantages46 of 46
Related Terms
Marketing in Business: Strategies and Types Explained
Marketing refers to the activities of a company associated with buying, advertising, distributing, or selling a product or service. more
Cost Per Thousand (CPM) Definition and Its Role in Marketing
Cost per thousand or CPM is a marketing term that's used to denote the cost an advertiser pays per one thousand advertisement impressions on a web page. more
Social Media Marketing (SMM): What It Is, How It Works, Pros and Cons
Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms to interact with customers to build brands, increase sales, and drive website traffic. more
What Is Social Media Optimization (SMO), and Why Is It Important?
Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of social media networks to manage and enhance an organization’s message and online presence. more
Shapley Value Definition and Example of How It Is Applied
In game theory, the Shapley value is a manner of fairly distributing both gains and costs to several actors working in coalition. more
TikTok Dropshipping: Everything You Need to Know
TikTok dropshipping is a business model that uses the TikTok platform to generate sales by advertising products that are being offered through an online dropshipping store. Dropshipping lets people sell products from third-party suppliers without being required to hold or ship inventory themselves. more
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