Nearly every brand uses digital marketing passively and proactively. What do you think of when you hear ‘digital marketing’? The term digital marketing encompasses a large number of tactics, all of which are deployed digitally.
- Website
- Paid ads on social channels
- Paid ads on search engines
- Chatbots on your website
- Email marketing
- Organic social media
- Blogging
- Display ads on websites
- Promoted articles in digital magazines or news sources
Digital marketing goes hand in hand with older, more traditional offline marketing tactics, like
- Print newspaper or magazine ads
- Direct mail
- Billboards (back of buses, in subways, or along a highway)
- Leaflets and door knockers
Recognizing that digital marketing is a huge umbrella and not a single tactic, it requires a strategy to deploy even after you’ve decided how much of your total investment should go into digital marketing and your other marketing buckets.
How does digital marketing work?
Digital marketing allows you to determine where and how your brand shows up. But more importantly, digital marketing gives insight into how your ads perform. This differs from traditional marketing tactics like print advertising, where you can select some factors, but others are beyond your control and visibility. In print advertising, you can choose publications whose readers align with your target audience. But once you place the print ad, you have NO idea how people interact with your placement. Do they even notice it? Are they putting your brand into consideration because of the ad? Take the same ad and place it in a digital publication, and now you can measure how many people click on your ad, how long people interact with it, and how many see it more than once. This powerful audience insight can quickly help brands assess whether their ad is working.
Does this mean brands should abandon non-digital marketing tactics? No! However, it does highlight the importance of incorporating digital tactics into your marketing strategy.
How is digital marketing different from traditional marketing?
In the most simplistic terms, digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in ad placement. In traditional marketing, brands show up offline in print or non-digital display ads (buses, billboards, and flyers). But they also differ significantly in terms of cost, ad size, and mediums.
Print magazines arrive in your mailbox at home. They are on the table at the nail salon or in the waiting room at the dentist. Printed newspapers are the same. You can buy a tiny text-only ad (don’t), a multi-page full-color spread, or anything in between. Glossy magazine ads will cost more than a newspaper ad, but they allow you to use colorful, eye-catching visuals or strategically place your paid content alongside complementary editorial content. If you sell auto parts, placing ads in automobile magazines gets your content to your audience!
Traditional marketing tactics often work best when deployed concurrently. The goal with any marketing is to create awareness; the more places your brand shows up, the more brand recognition grows. (This is why you often see the same television commercial play over and over and over.)
Unlike their digital counterparts, the traditional opportunities are more challenging to measure but could be highly impactful in putting your brand in front of your target audience.
Why is digital marketing important for your business?
Digital marketing is essential for your business because your target audience is online A LOT! Ignoring digital marketing means ignoring your audience, and that’s not a great strategy.
Digital marketing also makes it cheaper for brands to reach their audiences. Where the printed Yellow Pages were once how small businesses would market themselves, now brands thrive with good Google search results.
Digital marketing gives a lot of power to brands to control how they show up, where they show up, and how much money they spend to attract their audiences.
How much does digital marketing cost?
One of the most common questions clients ask is what digital marketing costs. Of course, that’s the million-dollar question!
Digital marketing tactics range from free to infinite dollars. A better question is, “How much do I need to spend on digital marketing to achieve my business goals?”
There are start-up costs, maintenance costs, and promotion costs for all forms of digital marketing. Let’s break down the basics of what digital marketing costs.
Website
You need a good website. That means it is easy to navigate, easy to find, accessible, and provides reliable and useful information that your target audience wants and needs.
Two pathways to developing a website
Build your own website
Yes, you can build a website for your business on your own. It can be a great way to save money if you are tech-savvy and have a good eye for design. But it can harm your brand if you aren’t. It would also take you a ton of time (and unless your business is all about building websites, perhaps you should leave it to the professionals!)
Hire a website developer
Engaging the services of a trusted website developer allows you to focus on running your business, but that comes with a financial cost. Website design and development fees vary widely – from a few thousand dollars for a simple landing page to more than ten thousand dollars for a custom site with typical functionality to tens of thousands for very complex sites requiring substantial technological integration.
Website maintenance
Websites are not a set-it-and-forget-it marketing asset (none are, in fact). Clients are usually surprised at how often their websites need updates or a full refresh. Depending on your business, the technology needs of your users change. The process needs of your business evolve, and your site requires you to keep the tech updated so that the front end works. At a minimum, you need to update plug-ins and security patches routinely. It is common for brands to do a design “refresh” every few years. Website upkeep is very much a marriage of technical maintenance and style.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Once you have a website, you should invest in full search engine optimization. This is a fraction of the cost of the site itself but is critically important if your customers use search engines (and who doesn’t use search engines?). Ongoing SEO also ranges widely in cost – from monitoring performance to aggressively adding new pages and doing ongoing technical optimization.
Social Media
Consumer-facing brands need to be on social media. The cost of this can range from virtually nothing to a substantial investment, depending on whether you do it yourself or hire a professional to establish your brand across various social channels. There are also hybrid models where a trained professional helps develop your social media strategy and coaches you or your team for the actual postings. Assuming you want to be active on three social platforms, you should invest in staffing for at least 30 hours per month to keep them active. To use them as a highly effective marketing tool, you could easily devote a full-time resource just to social media!
Google Business Profile
A strong Google Business Profile is one of the most overlooked digital marketing tools for businesses. It is relatively simple to claim your Google Business Profile and start posting. While not exactly “social,” this truly free and effective platform should be every brand’s FIRST account.
Paid Digital Ads
While the other tactics above are more about your digital presence, paid digital ads are a key consideration in any digital marketing strategy. Platform costs vary and the recommended ad spend is going to depend on a number of factors including the type of ad (display is less expensive than search), the platform (Meta is less expensive than Google and LinkedIn, for example), the size of your audience, and what action you are trying to have your users take. Ads that keep users on the platform where the ad is deployed can often be less expensive than ads that direct a user to your website.
A general rule of thumb for a new campaign is to invest at least $20/day for at least six weeks. As a digital marketing agency, we adjust the spend based on performance and campaign goals as needed. Bigger budgets mean we can target more audiences, run multiple campaigns, or use multiple paid platforms. The important thing about paid ads is not to spend too little to get results – this is more costly in the long run.
How to pick a digital marketing agency?
I’m not being coy when I say Google “digital marketing agency near me” – the ones that show up clearly know a thing or two about digital marketing. 😉
Referrals are also a great strategy. Ask around and contact at least two or three different agencies, as our approaches are often very different. Of course, we all access the same “digital marketing tool kit.” Still, you should select an agency you can relate to, one that is open and honest with what to expect, and one that treats your business as unique and important – not just another customer.
At Arlington Strategy, we work with businesses with every size of digital advertising budget. We don’t require a minimum spend or charge fees based on how much digital advertising you buy. First and foremost, we are consultants and strategists. We customize your digital marketing plan based on all of YOUR unique factors:
- Your business goals
- Your budget
- Your capacity to implement vs. the need to outsource
- Your industry
As a digital marketing client, you should expect your agency to:
- Take the time to answer your questions
- Provide clear reports on your monthly progress
- Proactively suggest alternative approaches
- Align expectations at the outset
- Stay ahead of changing best practices in digital marketing
Conclusion
Digital marketing is essential to any successful marketing strategy in today’s connected world. With its ability to provide in-depth insights and measurable results, digital marketing empowers brands to reach and engage their target audiences effectively. While traditional marketing still has its place, integrating digital tactics ensures that businesses remain relevant and visible to consumers who are increasingly turning to online platforms. By understanding the various digital marketing tactics and allocating the appropriate budget, brands can enhance visibility and foster stronger customer connections. Ultimately, embracing digital marketing is not just an option but a fundamental necessity for any business looking to thrive in the modern marketplace.