The excellent Infographic below from the fine folks over at Pixaal.com goes a long way towards explaining this overused and misunderstood term. It would be totally appropriate, and yet totally inappropriate at the same time to simply state that Digital Marketing is a catch-all phrase that covers any type of marketing efforts that exist solely in digital form.
Marketing in any realm makes the best use of the tools, tactics, and channels to effectively appeal to and compel a target audience. This ALWAYS requires a working knowledge of all the mediums and channels used and a strategy designed to meet a goal or objective. Slapping a banner ad on a busy website or buying a few Google Adwords does not a digital marketer make. In all of marketing, it has been my observation that effective digital marketing requires the most intellect, experience, and intuition in order to produce satisfactory results.
Traditional marketing such as television, radio, and print ads are typically some type of broadcast message that is “pushed” out to a broad audience. These do not rely on separate advertising and marketing mediums in order to be effective. The marketing mediums are stand-alone pieces that either work or they do not…end of story. Digital marketing is quite the opposite, what’s more, the digital mediums that we utilize today sometimes have an eternal lifespan. Once it’s on the web, it’s always on the web. When you fudge a billboard it comes down in a month or two; launch a lousy infographic and push it out on busy social networks…it’s never going away. Just something else to consider.
Effective digital marketing requires careful integration of many tools, tactics, and channels that will shore-up and support one another. For example, just creating content on your blog alone won’t get you very far down the road. The content also needs to be optimized (SEO) and shared across social networks in order to attract those that will read and value your insights and advice. Please click around to some of the links included in this post and look over the infographic. It is my hope that you learn a little more about what is required in order to embrace and enjoy success from your digital marketing efforts!
Enjoy the digital marketing infographic. Click on the image for a larger view.