10 Types of Digital Marketing and How to Use Them

When a business decides to take their marketing online, this is referred to as digital marketing. While digital marketing has only exploded on the scene in the past few decades or so, it remains a valuable way for any business to connect with their audience, target different demographics, convert more leads, and build customer retention. 

In this article, we’ll cover ten different types of digital marketing, why they’re so impactful, and how you can utilize them for your business. 

1. Content marketing  

The Ordinary (Source)

Content marketing is one of the best ways to improve your online presence. Content marketing includes the creation of blogs, articles, case studies, infographics, and ebooks. 

While content marketing can help drive sales, this is not its primary purpose. The content that is produced should inform, educate, and entertain an audience. When a business has high-quality and insightful content, this can improve customer retention, increase their reputation and credibility, and showcase their expertise. 

How to use content marketing in your digital marketing strategy

• Find your niche within your wider industry.
• Understand your target audience and what they’re searching for (with SEO tools and analytics).
• Create content buckets and come up with topic ideas to produce content about.
• Make sure it’s shareable, informative, engaging, and showcases a positive aspect of your business. 
• Publish the content on your website, blog page, as a newsletter, or in paid ads. 

2. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Ahrefs (Source)

Publishing content on your website or blog is all well and good, but how do you know that what you’re producing is actually being seen? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving search engine rankings to increase traffic to your website, blog, and landing pages. 

SEO can be a complex topic, and can often require keyword research and analytics using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. 

How to use SEO in your digital marketing strategy

• Make a list of important topics relevant to your business. 
• Fill these topic buckets with keywords, understand how user intent affects keyword research, and analyze the strength of them.
• Utilize these keywords when producing content. 
• Include meta fields and internal page linking. 
• If needed, get in touch with a SEO agency for extra guidance. 

3. Email marketing

Adobe (Source)

Email marketing has been around for as long as email has existed. Most of us will check our emails at least once a day, so email marketing can be a clever way of showcasing special offers or promotions right where you know your audience will be.

Email marketing usually consists of email campaigns and newsletters that encourage the subscriber to purchase an item, drive traffic to a website, or build trust and credibility with the reader. 

How to use email marketing in your digital marketing strategy

• Repurpose existing content or write up new copy to include in an email campaign. 
• Highlight the CTA you want the reader to complete. Is it using a discount code to purchase a product? Or is it clicking the new blog post on your website? 
• Remember to come up with an eye-catching subject line — bonus points if you manage to personalize it with their name. 
• Utilize a CRM tool like Mailchimp or Hubspot to keep track of your leads and engagement. 

4. Social media marketing 

Starbucks Instagram (Source)

Whether you’re a fan of social media or not, there’s no denying the impact of social media marketing in the 21st century. With so many of the younger generation (and a surprising number of the older generation) liking, commenting, and following accounts across numerous social media platforms, it’s never been a better time to utilize this type of digital marketing.

Brand and business accounts can help build up customer loyalty by offering their followers limited-time discounts, special promotions, and even get them involved in campaigns. 

How to use social media marketing in your digital marketing strategy

• Do some research on similar brands in your niche, what they’re posting, and what gets the best results. 
• Link up your social media platforms to analytic tools to see what works and what doesn’t. 
• Post consistently, and remember to incorporate your brand voice and colors into every image, video, and caption. 
• Utilize hashtags and increase shareability by running promotions, competitions, or campaigns. 

5. Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing 

Google (Source)

When you search up most topics or products on Google, you’ll often get sponsored ads at the top of the search results. This is known as pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, and it involves the use of search engine advertising to increase traffic to a website.

PPC marketing is unique as every time an ad is clicked, the business will pay a small fee to the search engine. However, if the PPC marketing campaign is running smoothly, the sales from these clicks should outweigh the cost of the small fee. 

How to use PPC marketing in your digital marketing strategy

• Before you start, remember to optimize your website — there’s no point getting clicks if your website is poorly designed.
• Choose a bidding strategy and set an appropriate budget.
• Carry out keyword research to create powerful and compelling ads, with a strong CTA.  
• Test and analyze your ads before making them active. 

6. Affiliate marketing 

Men’s Health (Source)

Affiliate marketing works well in blog posts and articles, since the publisher is able to earn commission by promoting a business product or service. This type of digital marketing is known to be “performance-based” and the amount of commission earned is directly proportional to the marketing efforts of an individual or publisher. 

Some customers aren’t as interested in affiliate marketing due to its connotation with biased reviews, so care must be taken when creating content around the affiliate link. 

How to use affiliate marketing in your digital marketing strategy

• Choose a niche, and do some research about affiliate marketing in your industry. 
• Create an affiliate program that allows publishers or individuals to sign up. 
• Track conversions and analytics to see what products or services are performing the best. 

7. Paid advertising 

Forbes (Source)

Usually present on news websites, online publications, and social media platforms, paid advertisements are a simple yet effective way to get your brand or business in front of potential customers. 

The ad space is usually as a banner on the top of a page or a side box where your business and a CTA will be placed. As an advertiser, you will usually pay for clicks or impressions. 

How to use paid advertising in your digital marketing strategy

• Understand, research, analyze, and use keywords to find your ideal audience. 
• Create a compelling and informative landing page that visitors will click on. 
• Track your paid advertisement results and review when necessary. 

8. Video marketing 

Apple YouTube (Source)

If you think that digital marketing is all about the written text, think again. Video marketing has risen in popularity over the last few years or so, and it’s not hard to see why. With more people streaming videos online than ever before, video marketing is one of the more popular types of digital marketing. 

Aside from video ads like the ones you get at the start of a YouTube video, video marketing can include informative tutorials, case studies, webinars, and interviews. 

How to use video marketing in your digital marketing strategy

• Research your target audience and make campaign goals. 
• Establish a video budget, storyline, and CTA. 
• Keep your brand voice consistent across all videos. 
• Optimize your videos and test them out across various video platforms, before publishing. 

9. Influencer marketing 

Emma Chamberlain Instagram (Source)

Influencer marketing may be more expensive than the other forms of digital marketing, but when done right it can boost brand awareness and introduce a whole new demographic to your business. 

Simply put, influencer marketing uses mentions and endorsements from celebrities or other social media users with a dedicated following and high engagement. This form of marketing can work as the endorsement can increase business trust and credibility. 

How to use influencer marketing in your digital marketing strategy

• Take a look at your goals and the target audience you are trying to influence.
• Research influencers and compile a short list that could represent your brand and what you’re trying to achieve.
• Reach out professionally. 
• Brainstorm with the influencer and develop content that resonates with them and their audience. 

10. Messenger marketing 

Manychat (Source)

There’s something so satisfying about getting answers to your questions or completing a purchase almost instantly. This is where messenger marketing comes in. Just as handy as a customer service tool as it is for increasing sales, messenger marketing can help viewers complete the browsing and checkout process at the touch of a button. 

Like email marketing, messenger marketing meets your ideal audience where they already spend the most time — on their mobile devices. Most messenger marketing tools use Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and even SMS to communicate with your customers. 

How to use messenger marketing in your digital marketing strategy

• Sign up with a messenger marketing tool, like Manychat.
• Get clear about what you want your customers to do (CTA).
• Target every lead with personalized messages that can re-engage them to make a purchase or sign up for a newsletter. 

The bottom line 

There are various ways of attracting an audience and marketing a product or service online. To stand out on online platforms, digital marketing should be a must-have for any brand and business. 

With so many types of digital marketing to explore, establishing one, two, or a mixture of a few, is guaranteed to help any business grow and scale.