Digital marketing has changed a lot since the birth of the internet. It’s gone from primitive BBS’s where you could only market to a small number of people at once to today’s search engine and social media giants with their extremely lucrative traffic.
Digital Marketing In the Old Days
Back in the old days, when the search engines first became widely used, digital marketing was easy. You could post even the most poorly written slop, use your target keywords liberally throughout, and like magic, you’d get free search engine traffic from giants such as Google. People even used tools known as “article spinning software” to automate the production of 100’s of articles which could be used to rank highly in the search engines. Digital marketers of old would then direct that free traffic to buy their digital products and presto! Money started to pour in.
Today’s Digital Marketing
Times have changed and the search engines are far more sophisticated now. The simpleton strategies of creating poor quality content no longer work.
Savvy digital marketers today know that in order to be successful, they need to do more than post trashy, poorly written, and keyword-stuffed articles online. Here are some of the most important components of a thorough digital marketing strategy in today’s environment.
1. Post quality content to demonstrate your expertise.
Obviously human eyes can recognize quality content easily. But with advances in artificial intelligence and search engine algorithms, the search engines are getting better and better at recognizing quality content too. Sure, they still pay attention to keyword usage to clue them into what your content is referring to. But they also pay attention to other indicators of quality such as the amount of social sharing and interaction, plus how many prominent, well-respected websites link to your content.
2. Pay Per Click Ads
As the search engines grew in popularity, they started to sell ad space for search terms. This is a short-cut to the top of the search engine rankings, and for those who know how to play the game right, can be a very profitable way of getting traffic to the website where you make your money selling products or services. There are rules to follow regarding the quality and content of your landing pages, but these rules are easy to learn and implement.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media has gone mainstream – everyone and their mother now has a social media account. As a result, social media marketing is a great way to expose your brand to new prospects. Social media sometimes get a bad rap for being full of people who aren’t ready to buy. However, studies have shown that the more familiar a prospect is with a brand, the more likely they are to like that brand, and that likability factor can lead to sales down the road. Social media marketing through mediums such as Twitter and Facebook can be used to warm up your audience and familiarize them with your offerings. If you are able to keep your brand on your prospects’ radars long enough, eventually they will buy.
Digital Marketing Has Changed a Lot
Digital marketing has changed a lot over the years. While many of those changes were hard on digital marketers, the modern emphasis on quality content and products is a benefit to consumers over the long term. Smart marketers will jump onto the high-quality bandwagon to maximize the success of their digital marketing efforts whether they are targeting free search engine and social media traffic, or paid traffic via PPC advertising.