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A crash course in digital marketing

Since I want this to be a crash course, I’m leaving aside discussions like: ‘Does digital marketing really work?’ or ‘Which businesses should go for digital marketing?’ for some other day.

Chirag Dagli 8 Stories

Wednesday July 05, 2017 , 4 min Read

Digital Marketing

Let’s jump right into the four key digital marketing channels:

- Search Engine Marketing

- Banner Ads on Display Ad Networks

- Social Media Marketing

- Email Marketing

1. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

When you are looking for a product you go to search engines. That’s what everyone does. Google gets close to 40000 search queries ever (hold your breath) second.

There’s one more reason search marketing is the most important piece of digital marketing jigsaw. People go to search engine when they are actively looking for a product or a service. Being found on search engine makes far more sense than forcing your ad on people via web banners or YouTube pre-rolls.

Let’s take a quick look at the popularity of search engines. When it comes to search engine popularity Google clearly takes away the cake and the bakery and the baker.

Search engine marketing can be broken down into two parts. Paid Ads (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Paid Ads on Search Engines (PPC)

I’m sure you’ve come across paid ads on Google and other search engines, which take precedence over organic search results.

When to use PPC

• Large search volume for keywords that describe your product/service

• You are running a short term campaign or looking for immediate results

• When you are promoting highly seasonal product or service

• You want complete control over marketing spend and ROI

• There’s low bidding competition

PPC success factors

• Effective selection of keywords for promotion

• Constant campaign analysis and strategy optimization

• Optimal ad placement

• Sufficient budget and aggressive bidding

• Smart, action-oriented ad copy

When to use SEO

• The search volume is constant and sizable

• You are looking for a better ROI over a longer run

• You are looking for brand building along with building sales

SEO success factors

• Work in sync with Google’s algorithms

• Effective combination of on-page and off page activities

• The Same team managing both website maintenance and SEO

2. Banner Ads on Display Ad Networks

These are graphical banners that appear next to content on web pages, search engines, social media sites, blogs, news websites etc. Generally, you pay on CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis or CPA (Cost per acquisition) basis.

When to use Display Marketing/Banners

• Brand building is as important as sales

• Your product has an inherent visual appeal

• You are promoting an established product/brand

• You are running a remarketing campaign

Display Advertising success factors

• Strategic banner placement

• Effective call to action

• Attention-grabbing design

3. Social Media Marketing

Facebook has over 125 million active users in India and Twitter has 18.1 million users. Other platforms like Pinterest, Snap Chat, Linked in have a huge user-base as well.

Social Media provides an opportunity to engage with their consumer and build a brand. I look at Social Media as more of a brand building than a sales generation platform. I’ve seen lot businesses badly fail at Social Media Strategy simply because they don’t realize this.

When to use Social Media Marketing

• When you want to build brand and better product recall

• When your business has content that’s likable & sharable

• B2C businesses with a popular appeal like food, fashion, cosmetics etc.

Social Media Marketing success factors

• Focus on right platforms

• Balanced communication strategy

• Aggressive posting

• Effective targeting

• Understanding your TG’s social media habits

4. Email Marketing

India is known as the Spam Capital of the World. Email marketing is used & abused by all major digital marketers. And the reason is, this is the cheapest way of marketing digitally.

When to use Email Marketing

• To keep in touch with registered users

• To announce new products, offers etc.

• To send triggered responses