Category: Business

By digital marketing, we mean creating and distributing content across digital media channels such as websites, landing pages, social media, email, and mobile apps. It also includes promoting content through a variety of strategies across paid, established, and proprietary digital channels, including SEO, SEM, pay-per-click (PPC), content syndication, social media, email, text, and more.

The Importance of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing strategies help marketers set goals, identify a target audience, and develop a marketing plan that will reach and engage an audience. These strategies set the direction for a particular campaign or program and serve as a basis for evaluating results.

Digital technologies surround us everywhere, so digital marketing touches almost every aspect of business, having a huge impact on how companies communicate with customers and create profitable offers.

So, in order to compete in a rapidly growing global online market, your company needs a well-thought-out and correctly implemented digital marketing strategy.

Digital Marketing Strategies

Cross-channel marketing , multi-channel marketing, omni-channel marketing – these and other similar terms refer to communication with customers or potential buyers across all digital channels and from any device. With a variety of mobile devices, today’s consumers communicate on the go through their preferred channels (from email to social networks) and expect you to always be connected.

We want to help you build an effective cross-channel marketing strategy, which is why we’ve compiled detailed information on the most popular digital marketing channels below.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the first and most well-known types of digital marketing that provides communication both between companies and between companies and customers . Email marketing requires collecting data about customers at various stages of the journey, learning about the interests and preferences of potential customers, and finally getting permission to add them to your email list(s).

Emails may include information about your products and services, news about your company and upcoming events, personalized offers, customer success stories, links to case studies, technical or business reviews. The content of the letters should be relevant, because only in this way will people open and read them, and not delete them immediately upon receipt. To increase engagement, you can add personalized content and relevant offers .

Email marketing is part art, part science. Emails and digital content need to be really interesting, and you need to choose the right frequency for mailings – not too often, but not too infrequently.

Video marketing

Video is one of the most powerful digital marketing channels. People love to watch entertaining and educational videos and share the videos they like. According to YouTube , more than two billion viewers use the site every month. Effective videos often lead to purchases in both B2B and B2C segments .

Video marketing helps increase metrics such as brand awareness, digital traffic, and conversions. For many years, video in blog posts has been one of the main content marketing tools for both B2B and B2C.

When people share videos they like, more people watch them. That’s why we recommend posting videos on third-party platforms like YouTube and promoting the videos on your website and social media channels, and encouraging people to share your videos.

Videos should be concise and informative. People get distracted quickly, so try to present relevant content in a fun way.

Social media marketing

Social networks  are a great way to reach a specific target audience and establish communication with customers, including potential ones, and partners. The social network platform should be chosen based on who you want to reach. Facebook is still the largest social media platform in the world. Twitter is popular with B2B buyers. Instagram and TikTok are incredibly popular with millennials and Gen Z, and LinkedIn is the best place to connect with B2B buyers early in the buying cycle.

Each platform can offer different types of content, but visual content plays a key role in all social networks. Therefore, when creating content, always consider how you will distribute it through social networks, and then make adjustments accordingly.

More platforms may be coming in the future, so marketers need to keep an eye on the social media world and develop digital marketing techniques. For example, TikTok only appeared in September 2016, and these days, this social network has more active users than LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat.

Text messages (SMS and MMS)

Text messaging is another great way to reach out to customers directly. As with social media, effective messages need to be concise. Marketers can choose between short message service (SMS), which contains only text, or multimedia messages (MMS), which can include videos and gifs.

Content Marketing

Content marketing allows you to personalize communication with potential customers and buyers. The better the content is optimized for the recipient, the more likely it is to attract, intrigue and hold the attention of a person. At the same time, the content should meet the intentions and interests of the target audience and be of some value, which ensures engagement and increases conversions.

The different types of content include: email text, landing pages, infographics, ebooks, product benefit documents, banner ads, videos, text messages, infomercials, newsletters, press releases, articles, blogs, and digital postcards. Content can (and should) be launched through different channels, but all materials must be in the same style and carry a clear message.

SEO and PPC (or SEM)

A good search engine optimization ( SEO ) strategy allows you to plan your website content (landing pages, blogs, etc.) in such a way that it appears in search results more often and higher, driving traffic to your content. For high SEO performance, keywords and page optimization are indispensable. To improve SEO and ensure high traffic and conversion results, you need to add researched and long-tail keywords (3+ word phrases) in all page content. Organically posting links from high-authority third-party pages is another way to boost your page rank and drive potential customers to your content.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising involves paying for each click on a specific link. PPC is supported by search engines and most social networking sites. Such ads will appear in the feeds of your target and potential customers.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a fairly effective form of pay-per-click advertising. It involves paying a search engine to display advertisements (text) and links in a prominent place when visitors search for certain keywords.

Website development and marketing

A website is often the first point of communication between potential customers and your company and brand. Thanks to the excellent web design, users immediately pay attention to the desired digital objects. Also, web design allows you to make the site more visible to search engines, create a convenient user interface and increase the conversion rate (more clicks, registrations, etc.).

Display advertising

Marketers can place relevant ads on third-party sites to reach more potential customers. These ads include banners, sidebars, video ads, and interactive ads that redirect users to a website or landing page.

affiliate marketing

Many bloggers and social media influencers often promote various products and services on their blogs and accounts, so they can be an effective marketing strategy tool. This type of marketing is performance based. Advertising partners receive a commission for promoting certain products. The more visitors and customers such a partner brings, the more he earns.

Advertising

In recent years, the usual advertising tools have changed markedly. Modern technologies make it possible to purposefully purchase ads on new television platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and others. But broadcast television and radio should not be discounted, because despite the growing number of new types of entertainment, people still watch broadcast television and listen to radio.

Digital marketing can be effective for every business and every industry, but there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Different companies need to tailor different digital marketing tactics to achieve their unique goals. The choice of the optimal strategy depends on several factors such as marketing staff, budget, target audience and business goals.

Small to Medium Businesses (SMBs) can develop organic SEO strategies, build a brand on social media, run email marketing campaigns and blog calendars, all at low cost.

Learn more for build more quality links.

Larger companies are ready to invest heavily to achieve large-scale business goals. This includes syndication of digital assets, preparation of webinars or webcasts, key account marketing (ABM), and investments in paid media or PPC marketing through a professional ppc agency.

Digital Marketing and Digital Media

Digital marketing is a set of activities or techniques. By digital media, we mean a combination of various forms, formats and platforms, including:

• Email
• SMS and MMS
• In-app notifications / push notifications
• Social networks (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest)
• Audio (Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music)
• Digital advertising (banner advertising, pop-up advertising)
• Video (YouTube, Netflix, Hulu)

With the help of digital media, marketers can connect with customers. In other words, digital marketing is the strategy and digital media is the means.

Digital Marketing and Internet Marketing

Digital marketing and online marketing are somewhat different things, although there are some things in common between them. Digital marketing is a set of activities and techniques that use various digital media channels.

Internet marketing is a form of digital marketing that uses the Internet to communicate with potential buyers. All forms of internet marketing are classified as digital marketing, but not all forms of digital marketing can be called internet marketing. For example, TV ads, digital billboards, radio ads, and text messaging (SMS) are all digital marketing but not internet marketing.

Digital Marketing and Inbound Marketing

Compared to inbound marketing, digital marketing is a more holistic strategy consisting of a range of digital marketing tactics used to attract potential customers to the content or digital asset offered. Inbound marketing is based on metrics, ensures the attraction and then promotion of customers through the sales funnel. The ultimate goal of inbound marketing is to gather proven leads and increase conversions.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing allows you to build direct communication between companies and customers as part of their unique shopping journey. With digital marketing, innovative marketers can present relevant content and offers in an interesting way at the right time and through channels where customers spend a lot of time. Based on digital marketing KPIs, marketers can figure out which strategies worked and how effectively, allowing for continuous strategy improvement, increased customer engagement, and increased advertising ROI.

Done right, digital marketing benefits both customers and companies. Through thoughtful personalization of content and offers based on individual interests, customers feel that you understand their needs and can offer them a valuable service or product. Ultimately, this builds their trust, turning them into loyal brand advocates. Digital marketing has many benefits for companies as well, including the following:

• Expanding coverage. Most people start their shopping journey online through various digital channels.
• Precise targeting. SEO optimization and social media strategies allow marketers to attract more qualified leads. This in turn increases conversions, revenue and brand awareness.
• Flexibility. If you need to change your goals, it will not be difficult for you to adjust your digital marketing tactics.
• Convenience of measurement. Digital marketing provides quality attribution so marketers know which tactics are truly driving growth.

To select bloggers, contact an advertising agency, blogger exchange, or contact bloggers directly. Celebrities are more focused on personal brand advertising, while microbloggers are more product-focused.   

Decide on the platform: each of them has its own specifics. Instagram is suitable for a story about lifestyle products, YouTube for detailed product details, and TikTok for viral videos and short videos. 

Analyze the budget : it is important to discuss the terms of reference, format, timing and cost of publications. Try partnering with multiple influencers with different audiences and posting costs. 

Study the content : check if the blogger is winding up views and likes, ask for personal account statistics. Check if the blogger shares your brand values, analyze audience reactions to past promotional posts and videos. 

Track the conversion: do not forget to count the clients who came from the blogger using UTM tags or promotional codes, after selecting the system for analytics. 

We explain why brands collaborate with influencers and how to build the right advertising strategy.

Influencers are celebrities, bloggers and video bloggers with a loyal audience. Brands use their profiles to promote their products and services by coming up with thematic content for native advertising. Promotion with the help of bloggers helps to more accurately hit the interests of the audience.

Who are influencers 

Influencers are popular people with popular social media accounts: actors, experts, politicians, athletes. The number of their subscribers can reach millions, but there are those who work confidently with their small loyal audience. 

Influencers talk about their own experience of using goods and services, forming a certain attitude towards any product among the audience. The content is coordinated in advance and integrated with the format of interaction with the audience familiar to the blogger: post, video, photo, stories. Some large brands choose influencers for regular cooperation – they become brand ambassadors. 

Marketers and PR people are actively choosing influencers to promote: for example, according to the California influencer marketing agency Mediakix and Business Insider, American brands’ investment in influencer advertising could reach $15 billion by 2020. By comparison, in 2018, brands spent $8 billion to partner with them.  

The main social networks for working with bloggers in Russia are Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Brands and influencers create different advertising formats: 

• native advertising (direct use of the product); 
• product reviews;
• advertising insert, challenge or raffle (giveaway).

Influencers can also negatively influence brands: for example, in 2018, model Kylie Jenner posted a Twitter post in which she was interested in “is anyone else using Snapchat or is it just her who stopped.” The post brought the social network down 6.1 percent of its market value, amounting to $1.3 billion.

What’s new in the influencer marketing market 

Travel bans and lockdowns have forced bloggers to refocus on home-grown content: cooking, comfort, food, and self-care. The founder of the fashion house Jacquemus launched the #jacquemusathome Instagram challenge , inviting brand customers to pass the time by compiling still lifes from products, the Gucci brand created viral TikTok videos in which people turned into home furniture. Bloggers also create digital goods: courses, personalized emoji, masks for Instagram.

Brands are also more active on TikTok, where the number of users has grown during the quarantine. For this platform, creatives select bright short videos that can quickly get into the recommendations of users. Thus, the American cosmetic brand The Ordinary achieved a 426% increase in sales of Peeling Solution after one of their videos , in which a representative of the brand answers questions about the product with words from the track of rapper E-40, went viral.  

Due to the pandemic, many clothing brands have moved the fashion show online, limiting the number of guests. So, at the invitation of Prada, Charlie D’Amelho , a 16-year-old TikTok star , who has more than 76 million subscribers, went to Milan Fashion Week at the invitation of Prada. During the show, she managed to shoot 4 clips with the #prada hashtag, which in total collected 199 million views. And the popular singer Billy Eilish, who is followed on Instagram by 69 million subscribers, has become a Burberry ambassador. 

A variety of brands enter TikTok: in Russia, Sberbank , Kitchen on the District , Pyaterochka and Megafon and other large companies have accounts. Ideal adaptation to the social network format is a challenge that helps to bring the video to the top or increase brand awareness. Users shoot similar videos as part of the challenge and participate in sweepstakes. When launching a hashtag challenge, a brand can redeem a banner or hashtag on the app home page.

How influencers interact with advertisers  

Brands can negotiate directly with bloggers or contact a media agency that will select a platform for a product or service. The number of blogger subscribers, their activity and loyalty affect the cost of advertising and the success of the campaign. Decide what problem influencer marketing needs to solve to promote your product. For example, sometimes large corporations send products for review, as Intel does , and bloggers make a sponsor’s note, thereby increasing brand loyalty among a certain audience. Or the blogger simply tags the sponsor in the photo, as lifestyle brands such as restaurants or bars often do. 

Microbloggers have a small but highly engaged audience. Usually publications from such influencers are cheaper than from more famous ones. Subscribers of microbloggers analyze the content more closely, and the blogger himself is more involved in communicating with them. The low budget of publications allows you to work with several bloggers at the same time, which expands the reach of the audience. High audience trust helps to promote the product more actively and track customer reactions.  

Large bloggers and celebrities have a lower level of audience trust in publications with advertising, but the reach of such publications is much wider. Collaboration with them can give rise to mass brand recognition. Stars and bloggers with millions of followers mostly cooperate with large companies, and stars choose exclusive contracts and become brand ambassadors.

What sites and services are blocked? Where to transfer advertising budgets? Where to post content? How to save data? Great breakdown of changes.

Since March 24, 2022, some services and platforms for promotion do not work with users. Some sites are blocked: it is impossible to use them without a VPN. Here are the main events for mid-March:

• Blocked Facebook and Instagram;
• Meta disabled ads for companies on Facebook and Instagram;
• Google stopped advertising in Russia on all its sites, including YouTube;
• TikTok disabled the ability for users to post new content, closed access to foreign content for Russia, and disabled advertising in Russia.

We figure out what marketers should do in this situation.

• How to work with Direct and what to expect from auctions after stopping advertising on Google
• What to do with video content if TikTok is closed and there are no ads on YouTube
• Where to leave Facebook and Instagram and is it worth it
• Which marketing services no longer work and  how to save data  from the rest

There are many ways to run digital marketing campaigns. Digital marketers have a wide range of tactics, strategies, and channels at their disposal to connect with their audience. In general, digital marketing campaigns are carried out in several standard stages.

Definition of marketing goals

Digital marketing has many nuances and manifestations. Therefore, before launching a digital marketing campaign, it is very important to set clear goals. Perhaps you want to increase brand awareness Attract new customers? Ensure customer retention and loyalty? Properly set goals help to adjust the strategy and set the budget for success.

Definition of the target audience

What kind of people would you like to involve? The more you know about your target audience (age, location, income, etc.), the easier it will be for you to find effective ways to reach them.

Choice of marketing channels and tactics

After you choose your target audience, you need to decide how best to attract them and how much you are willing to spend on it. Let’s say you’re in B2C digital marketing and you’re trying to connect with young people. In this case, it is better to allocate the lion’s share of the budget to advertising in the most popular social networks among young people, rather than investing effort (and money) in the development of a blog.

Develop and optimize content and messages for each channel

Analyze the data and try to find out as much as possible about your audience. For example, if your customers prefer to view their sites on a phone rather than a laptop, their content should be optimized for viewing on mobile devices. But this is not always enough. Customers can meet and communicate with brands through different channels, at their convenience. Therefore, each piece of content should be in the same style and have a common message. A systematic approach will prevent people from getting confused about what your brand is and what benefits you offer.

Measuring campaigns by key metrics

Measure key metrics and optimize campaigns for re-launch based on those results. If you don’t measure performance against the key metrics you care about the most, you won’t know if a campaign is doing well or if it’s performing better day by day. Measuring results over time will help you achieve the results you want: connect with customers, build loyalty, and increase brand awareness.