Digital Marketing – What is it, and what does it eat with ?

Digital marketing is a marketing area that involves the promotion of services and goods using digital technologies used at all stages of interaction with consumers. It differs from Internet marketing in that it uses not only the World Wide Web but also offline tools (smart gadgets, POS terminals, etc.).

Digital marketing services in Dubai were especially in demand in the B2B and B2C segments. The use of advanced digital capabilities allows you to reach the maximum of target consumers and establish the effectiveness of interaction with them, which ensures the high efficiency of this approach.

Key Digital Marketing Tools: IT services in Dubai

Digital marketing tools include all the ways, means, and events that allow you to notify many people, attract the attention of potential customers to a company, brand, service, or product. Most often, several tools are simultaneously used, which allows you to reach the maximum target audience and achieve high promotion efficiency. The list of tools used depends on the goals of the marketing campaign, the stage of its implementation, the characteristics of the target audience, the product being promoted, etc. The main tools of digital marketing are the following.

• Contextual advertising: It consists of placing advertisements (text, graphics and in the form of links) on thematic sites.
• SEO promotion: Its purpose is to raise the advertiser’s website in the issuance of thematic queries, for which search engine optimization, etc.
• Banner advertising: On third-party thematic resources, graphic banners are placed with the offer of a product/service.
• Advertising windows: This is a way of online advertising, which implies the display of pop-up advertisements on thematic sites.
• TV advertising: It costs significantly more than online advertising, but it allows you to reach the maximum audience of various ages.
• Radio advertising: This is also quite an expensive but effective way to convey your offer to a wide audience.
• Native advertising: It consists of the publication on third-party resources of “natural” materials (reviews, expert opinions, etc.) that encourage the purchase of a product/service.
• SMS mailing. Advertising messages are sent to subscribers of mobile operators with the advertiser’s offer.
• QR codes offline: This method is often practiced to motivate installing applications, using other digital products or services.
• Viral advertising: It provides for the creation of content (most often multimedia) with provocative content, which is why users themselves will distribute it on the network (share on their blogs, with friends on social networks, etc.)

In digital marketing, other tools based on digital technologies can also be used: from an advertising offer when installing programs to sending to e-mail or melodies that are used to keep subscribers on the line. Such traditional means as newspapers or flyers, if they contain a QR code in an ad (i.e., involve the use of digital technologies), is also digital marketing.

The main channels of digital marketing

• The Internet: This channel provides for the use of any devices that have access to the global network: laptops, tablets, PCs, smartphones, etc. As part of digital marketing, advertise on the Internet (search, contextual, banner, teaser, etc.), create diverse content for passive or viral promotion (videos, text articles, etc.), engaged in the promotion of goods and services on social networks, publish expert opinions, perform search engine optimization of the site.
• Digital television: Gradually, it displaces analog TV from the market and integrates more and more with the global network. The most common digital marketing format for digital television is the creation of short videos broadcast during commercial breaks. In some cases, running lines and other features are also practiced.
• Local area networks: These include various local “associations” of computers. This can be corporate networks within the same office, local networks in individual houses, urban areas, etc. Through this channel, they usually distribute advertisements for goods and services aimed at an audience with a clear geographical location.
• Mobile gadgets: These are cell phones, smartphones. The most common way to promote through mobile devices is to send SMS messages with an advertising proposal. It can be performed both on the client base (i.e., on the numbers of people who have already used the services or bought goods from this company) and on independent telephone sets. Through the channel of mobile gadgets, you can use other tools, such as WOW-calls, branded offers, advertising in third-party programs.
• Smart Gadgets include various smart devices: Watches, scales, fitness bracelets, etc. that have a WI-FI Internet connection. For promotion, you can apply branded applications and other tools.
• Interactive displays: They can be installed in-store fitting rooms, cafes, and restaurants, on POS-terminals, chargers, etc. Digital displays, which are installed for advertising purposes, also belong to interactive exhibits. Mostly videos are distributed through this channel. Pop-up advertising windows are also actively used.
• Digital-art: This channel involves the use of any works of art that can be broadcast or created using modern digital technologies. It can be graphics, electronic music, games, etc. The main way to promote using Digital-art is the branding of works.
• Social networks: They are used to launch viral advertisements, “independent” opinions, and publications, discussions, the creation, and maintenance of thematic groups. Social networks can also broadcast contextual or banner ads.

Investing in Digital Marketing

Digital promotion can be done using various resources:

• Paid – sites paid by the customer company. It can be contextual advertising, a digital banner, etc.
• Own – Sites that the company uses for free (for example, a page on a social network);
• Established ones are communication channels that a company acquires as a result of its work (for example, users distributing its viral video).

How to choose tools, channels, and resources for digital marketing

Like other directions in marketing, promotion with the help of digital technologies begins with competent analytics. The following basic data must be collected and analyzed:

1. Target audience options. It matters the age, gender, social status, region of residence, interests, etc. It depends on what kind of digital technologies potential customers use. For example, if a product for youth can be promoted through almost any channel, then goods and services designed for older people should be popularized using TV or traditional methods;
2. Product Features For example, with the help of branding applications, games or other programs are most often promoted, and through e-mail distribution, products that are of interest to a wide range of people (for example, weight loss products).

Based on the analysis, they select channels and a set of tools that will most effectively convey the proposal to the target audience. Analytics should also be carried out during the campaign to evaluate the effectiveness of various tools and adjust the corresponding settings.