What is digital marketing? Understand everything

This ultimate guide to digital marketing covers what it is, its history, and how to start building successful digital marketing campaigns.
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Key Takeaways

You hear the term digital marketing all the time.

And that's not all, you do thedigital marketing experience every day.

Every time you go on the Internet, someone is trying to sell you a product or service directly or indirectly.

Today, businesses simply cannot thrive without internet marketing.

Brands need to take advantage of digital marketing strategies to generate sales, who are increasingly moving on the internet and towards consumers.

The global market for digital ads should reach more than 900 billion dollars in 2028. In the United States, advertising spending is expected to increase by 6.5% in 2023 alone and most of this spending is on the main advertising agencies.

growth in advertising network spending on digital marketing

And if we look to the future, the trend is towards upward mobility.

Les Global digital advertising spending will account for 60.5% total media spending:

With the explosion in the number of devices connected to the Internet, businesses are increasingly adopting digital marketing strategies, including SEO, social media marketing, paid advertising campaigns, email marketing, etc.

According to another study, 36% of marketers are trying to integrate traditional and digital marketing strategies.

Fortunately, this rise in digital marketing is beneficial for businesses, small and large. After all, digital marketing allows businesses to:

  • Reach their target audience wherever they are.
  • Use data to observe their online behavior.
  • Use analytics to Understand what marketing messages to send them.

Whether you are new to digital marketing or are just starting out in the world of digital marketing, this comprehensive guide is for you.

We will discuss Everything you need to know about digital marketing, especially what he is, its history and how you can start using it to your advantage.

Let's get started.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a generic term that refers to the promotion and sale of products or services using marketing strategies on the Internet.

Here are a few of core areas of any digital marketing strategy:

  • Content marketing
  • Email marketing
  • Search engine optimization (SEO)
  • Social media marketing
  • Pay-Per-Click (paid ads)
  • Affiliate marketing

These areas of digital marketing allow you to reach your customers wherever they are, to engage with them and to encourage them to buy something from you. You create brand awareness, generate leads, convert new buyers, build trust, and increase sales.

Types of digital marketing.

Essentially, digital marketing encompasses 6 different branches, including:

  1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
  2. Social Media Marketing
  3. Content Marketing
  4. Pay-Per-Click
  5. Email Marketing
  6. Affiliate marketing

Let's look at all of these types of marketing in a bit more detail:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your site through organic search engine results.

Your main objective is to attract as many visitors to your site as possible. At the same time, you want them to be genuinely interested in your products or services.

SEO helps you get organic traffic from search engine results (SERPs) - traffic that you don't have to pay for.

Search engine rankings take into account numerous factors such as content quality, page speed, mobile friendliness, and backlink profile.

If you want to know more about SEO, you can read my guides here:

2. Social media marketing.

Social media marketing is the process of using social media to connect with your audience and promote your products and services.

It allows you to reach new customers, to strengthen the reputation of your brand, to increase traffic on your website but also your sales.

Among the main social networks are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Instagram, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, SnapChat, Twitter, etc.

Facebook is in the lead - with nearly 2.8 billion active users in the world.

réseaux sociaux les plus populaires monde
Source: SEMrush

Your social media marketing strategy may include posting content on your social media profiles, engaging with your followers, reviewing your results, and running ads and campaigns.

But to do it right, you need to execute your social media strategy in 4 steps:

  1. Listen
  2. Influence
  3. Networking
  4. Loyalty and Sales

3. Content marketing.

Content marketing involves the process of planning, developing, distributing, distributing, sharing, and publishing relevant content to reach your audience.

It is also the tactic of inbound marketing on the internet the most effective used in a digital marketing strategy.

In a recent survey, 58% of participants placed content marketing at the top of their list in terms of effectiveness.

graphique des canaux marketing les plus performants

Businesses use the content marketing to achieve various goals, including:

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Feeding/Educating their audience
  • Building creditability/trust
  • Generating leads and sales
  • Engage with prospects in order to maintain leads.
  • And more

Some of the most popular content marketing channels that you can incorporate into your strategy include:

  • Blogs
  • Infographics
  • Social networks
  • Podcasts
  • White papers
  • Paid video ads

My favorite form of content marketing is creating traffic on a blog, like this one.

Check out my guide to learn to create and launch a blog for more details.

4. Pay-Per-Click (PPC).

Pay per click (PPC) is an internet advertising model in which advertisers pay a fee each time someone clicks on one of their ads. It's essentially a way to buy visits to your site instead of gaining organic traffic.

Businesses use PPC to get instant traffic and to target and retarget audiences. In addition, paid traffic allows you to control the direction of your traffic and to measure your efforts. Your audience also benefits from PPC because it's easier for them to find the information they're looking for.

In fact, statistics indicate that customers have 70% more likely to convert on your site after seeing your audience re-targeted.

Google Ads, Facebook, Pinterest, Pinterest, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, YouTube, Quora, and Twitter ads are some of the most popular platforms for paid traffic.

Google Ads is the most popular advertising network and allows you to pay for the most placed positions in Google SERPs at a fixed price per click based on auctions.

You can also use PPC on other channels, for example:

  1. Facebook Ads : With paid Facebook ads, you'll pay to personalize an image post, video content, or slideshow.
    Facebook will then post it to the news feeds of people who match your business's target audience. The main appeal of Facebook ads is their powerful demographic targeting, which allows ads to be shown to users based on geography, purchase history, age, gender, interests, etc.
  2. Twitter Ads : To use Twitter ads, you pay to place a series of messages or profile badges on the news feeds of targeted audiences.
    Depending on your goals, you can increase website traffic, Twitter followers, app downloads, and more.
  3. LinkedIn sponsored posts : By using LinkedIn sponsored messages, you are paying to send direct messages to LinkedIn prospects in order to elicit immediate action.
    Announcements that include case studies, white papers, and product demonstrations are a great option.

Ideally, you should start with Google and Facebook ads, as advertising networks together generate around 80% of total referral traffic.

5. Email marketing.

Email marketing is a form of direct digital marketing that consists of sending emails to prospects to promote your products or services. It can also play a critical role in improving relationships with current customers, keeping customers informed, or reaching out to prospects.

You can send a lot of different types of emails, including:

  • Newsletters
  • New product announcement emails
  • Customer welcome emails
  • Purchase confirmation emails
  • Abandoned cart emails
  • Emails loaded with information for customer follow-up
  • Follow-up emails
  • Promotional emails
  • Exam request emails, and more.

With a huge return of interest (ROI), email marketing is also one of the most profitable digital marketing strategies.

When using a email marketing software, you can expect an average return on investment of 4400% of what you spend.

As such, many businesses still make extensive use of email marketing, both for the acquisition and for the retention of their customers.

And if you add videos to your emails, you'll get even better results. Statistics show that dynamic emails increase click rates by 300%.

Here is a list of some standard email marketing practices:

  • Use welcome emails to build strong relationships with customers
  • Send emails at the right time (9-11 am and 15-5 pm, email open rates are generally the best).
  • Use a memorable sender name
  • Create engaging content to improve click-through rates
  • A/B test your email campaign before sending it
  • Avoid the spam folder
  • And more

6. Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing consists of promoting the products of other businesses and getting paid when someone makes a purchase through your affiliate link.

As an affiliate, you can search for an affiliate program or a product you love, promote it and earn a commission for each sale.

fonctionnement du marketing d'affiliation

Affiliate marketing is profitable for your business because it is based on performance, since you only pay your affiliates based on sales.

It also allows you to expand your audience, improve your reputation, increase your traffic, and ultimately generate sales.

The most common affiliate marketing channels include:

  • influencers
  • Bloggers
  • Email lists
  • YouTubers
  • Media
  • Comparators

Statistics indicate that 81% of marketers and 84% of publishers use affiliate marketing.

This digital marketing strategy is growing rapidly with no signs of slowing down to date.

History of digital marketing.

The history of digital marketing dates back to the 1990s, when the term was invented. That said, it cannot be uncorrelated with technological change.

A notable point in the beginning of was in 1971. That year Ray Tomlinson sent the first email. This technology established the platform that allowed businesses and individuals to send and receive files through various machines.

But digital marketing was officially recognized in 1990 - the same year the search engine, Archie, was created as an index for FTP sites.

1990 - Creation of the term “digital marketing”.

The term “digital marketing” was invented in 1990. In the same year, Tim Berners-Lee developed the Web 1.0 platform.

The Web 1.0 platform refers to the first stage of the World Wide Web that limited users to finding the information they were looking for. They were not allowed to share this information on the web.

1993 - The first clickable banner is put online.

The first clickable banner has been put online. After that, HotWired became the first company to buy banners to advertise their brand.

Approximately 44% of the people who saw the ad actually clicked on it. It is the beginning of a gradual foray into the era of marketing and digital advertising.

1994 - Launch of Yahoo.

New technologies have begun to enter the market.

In the same year, Jerry Yang launched Yahoo, also known as Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web, named after its founder. Yahoo was successful right from the start, with nearly 1 million visits in its first year.

As a result, businesses have started optimizing their websites in order to get higher rankings in search engine results.

1995 - LookSmart is introduced.

In 1995, Martin Hosking, Evan Thornley, and Tracy Ellery launched a new search engine called LookSmart. LookSmart is an internet and technology content and media management company.

1996 - Alexa launched.

Alexa was originally founded by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat as an independent web analytics company in April 1996.

The tool was hugely successful and started to provide valuable information for each site visited. Alexa also started archiving web pages after crawling them using automated “crawlers” or “bots.”

In 1999, Amazon acquired Alexa for around $250 million in Amazon shares.

1998 - Google is publicly launched.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin launch Google to market Google Search.

In the same year, Microsoft launched the MSN search engine, and Yahoo introduced Yahoo search to the web.

2002 - LinkedIn launched.

Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn in December 2002, making it the very first social networking platform focused on B2B. LinkedIn is mainly used for professional networking or for the publication of job offers.

LinkedIn has become wildly popular in the B2B marketing space. Statistics indicate that in 2017, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to deliver content.

2003 - Launch of Myspace and WordPress.

Myspace, launched in 2003, is an American social network.

It eventually overtook Yahoo and Google to become the most visited website in the United States. However, in April 2008, Facebook surpassed Myspace in terms of unique visitors worldwide.

In the same year, American developer Matt Mullenweg and English developer Mike Little presented WordPress. WordPress is one of the most used CMS in the world, used by over 75 million websites in the world.

2004 - Use of the term “Web 2.0" at a public conference.

O'Reilly Media uses the term Web 2.0 during a public conference. Web 2.0 allows users to participate actively by performing actions such as commenting on published articles, creating accounts or profiles of website users, etc.

In the same year, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook.

Facebook finally became one of the most popular social networks, with 2.50 billion monthly active users in April 2019.

Google also launched Gmail on April 1, 2004. Gmail is a free email service that allows you to receive and send emails up to 50 megabytes in size.

2005 - YouTube launched.

YouTube was started by 3 PayPal employees (Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim) as a video sharing website.

As of March 2006, YouTube had over 25 million videos uploaded and generated around 20,000 downloads per day.

Recognizing this huge success, Google bought YouTube on October 9, 2006, for $1.65 billion in shares.

Today, YouTube has 2 billion users worldwide.

2006 - Search engine traffic exceeds 6.4 billion per month.

The year 2006 was marked by significant advances in the world of digital marketing. Search engine traffic grew by around 6.4 billion in one month.

Microsoft also introduced Live Search to compete with Yahoo and Google.

In the same year, Jack Dorsey launched Twitter, one of the most popular social networks today.

Twitter - First Tweet

As of 2020, Twitter has 330 million monthly active users and 145 million daily active users. In addition, statistics indicate that Twitter users spend 26% more time with ads than other social media users.

2007 - Marketers started using automation tools.

Marketing automation has been promoted to keep up with the rapid pace of the Internet.

Around this time, businesses started using more sophisticated digital marketing products, like marketing automation software.

These tools have started automating traditional processes like segmenting leads, launching multi-channel marketing campaigns, and providing personalized information to customers.

2009 - Google made changes to AdWords.

Google has made substantial changes to its AdWords program. Now, you can measure your conversion rate that occurred within 30 days of placing your ad, but without getting clicks.

In the same year, Google introduced a new feature in its AdSense program, which allows you to “activate multiple networks to show ads.”

2010 - Launch of Instagram.

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram, a social media platform for sharing photos and videos, on iOS in October 2010.

Instagram gained around one million registered users in the 2 months after its launch and 10 million in a year. And as of May 2019, Instagram had 1 billion registered users.

Since then, Instagram has become a hub in the digital marketing space. Studies suggest that 200 million IG users visit at least one business profile per day.

In the same year, the growth of digital media was estimated at 4.5 trillion Internet ads broadcast each year. And at the same time, digital marketing spending grew by 48% in 2010.

2011 - Launch of Google Panda.

First released in February 2011, Google Panda brought a significant change to Google's search engine ranking algorithm.

It aimed to lower the ranking of “low quality sites” and to place “high quality sites” at the top of the search results. This measure would have influenced Google's ranking for around 12% of search results.

2014 - Surge in the number of mobile phone users.

This year, the number of mobile phone users has jumped sharply and is expected to reach 1.75 billion in 2014.

2014 also saw the launch of the Facebook Messenger app and iWatch.

2015 - Snapchat introduces its Discover feature.

Snapchat introduced its Discover feature, a daily feed that includes content from brands like ESPN, National Geographic, Yahoo News, and more.

In the same year, several other new technologies such as predictive analytics, content marketing, and wearable technologies were invented.

The cookie is another major breakthrough in the field of digital marketing. The first cookie was designed to record user habits. However, its use has changed dramatically over the years. Today, businesses and marketers use coded cookies to collect accurate user data in a number of ways.

The digital marketing sector is constantly evolving. Currently, some of the hottest technologies are chatbots, voice search, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) ads, AI, and machine learning.

Impact of digital marketing.

Digital marketing has a remarkable impact on customer interactions, purchases, work, and habits.

In this digital world, where the number Internet users in the world is around 4.13 billion, businesses can't afford to neglect internet marketing campaigns.

Digital marketing aims to connect businesses and their target audience through digital media such as internet content, social networks, email marketing, etc.

Here are some of the most significant impacts of digital marketing on businesses and brands:

1. Connect directly to the target audience.

Many digital marketing channels allow you to connect with your customers and prospects through private messaging and one-on-one conversations. This is in contrast to offline marketing, where you have to spend a lot of money to place banners and ads.

With digital marketing, prospects can see your content directly since you can promote your brand in their inbox or on their social profiles.

Naturally, small and medium-sized businesses are the biggest beneficiaries of digital marketing.

For example, social media marketing allows SMEs to promote their products and services by interacting with the public, publicly or through private messages.

Therefore, 96% of small businesses use social media in their marketing strategy.

Additionally, around 90 million small businesses use Facebook services such as Pages, Groups, and Facebook Messenger.

2. Evolution of brand transparency.

Today, more than ever, consumers are demanding transparency from a business. Fortunately, digital marketing makes it easier to be transparent and to highlight corporate ethics.

Here are some statistics that reinforce the importance of transparency in the age of digital marketing:

  • A study found that 94% of consumers are more likely to stay with a company that offers transparency.
  • 66% of consumers consider transparency to be one of the most appealing qualities of a brand.
  • 73% of customers would be willing to pay more for a product that offers transparency.
  • Customers are ready to recommend a brand to their acquaintances if the brand is transparent. In fact, 31% of online shoppers share something positive about brands that are transparent.

Digital marketers understand this and inform their audience with relevant and truthful information.

3. Create a new category of influencers.

Social media and video channels like YouTube have allowed ordinary people to become influencers.

These influencers on the internet have their own base of niche followers and have the power to encourage your target audience to buy your product.

influence des influenceurs dans le marketing digital par pays 2023
Source: Statista

As a result, businesses no longer need to pay millions to celebrities to support their products. They are now hiring micro-influencers to spread the word and get people interested in their products.

Influencers also add a touch of intimacy to a brand since they don't support a particular product. They are like friends who interact with their followers and recommend products in a personal way.

Even big brands are now taking advantage of these new influencers to persuade and engage customers.

4. Businesses have started to take a more personalized approach.

Digital marketing has fostered the need for authenticity and a human approach to marketing.

Here are a few quick stats that show the importance of a personalized approach:

  • 79% of customers only accept personalized offers that reflect past interactions they may have had with the brand.
  • 63% of millennials, 58% of Gen Xers and 46% of baby boomers are likely to share their personal data with a brand if they receive a personalized offer or discount.

Today, small and large businesses first try to gain the trust of customers before presenting their product.

For example, Apple organizes events that are broadcast live on social media channels, allowing millions of people to support its products even before they launch.

Apple livestream event

5. Customers now expect instant results.

Internet shoppers are eager, and they want quick information and results. And with so many options available, they could abandon your landing page if it doesn't load right away.

Studies indicate that a 100 millisecond delay in the loading time of a site can reduce your conversion rates by 7%.

In addition, millions of mobile users search for products on various e-commerce sites and make instant decisions. Studies indicate that 70% of smartphone users take action within the next hour.

So providing quick results is just as critical as providing relevant or valuable content.

6. Understand customers better.

Digital marketing allows businesses to acquire an incredible amount of knowledge about their customers.

Understanding customers better can help businesses optimize the customer experience, gain new customers, and keep them coming back.

According to statistics, 56% of customers remain loyal to brands that understand them better or “understand” them.

Fortunately, there are numerous dataviz tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook audience insights, and Zoho Analytics to get detailed information about your target audience.

Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing provides comprehensive reports with accurate numbers.

This allows businesses to determine how their strategies work and what they need to adapt to achieve better results. With measurable results, business owners can streamline their processes and focus more effort on areas that deliver the results they want.

Benefits of digital marketing.

Digital marketing is crucial today, regardless of the type of business you own.

It has a lot of different benefits, including

  • Profitable
  • Enables individual communication
  • Improves customer service
  • Enables businesses to target specific customers
  • Higher conversion rates
  • New marketing channels
  • Multichannel marketing creation and automation

Let's look at some of the significant benefits of digital marketing one by one:

1. Low cost and high efficiency.

Cost-effectiveness is one of the most important factors why digital marketing has an advantage over traditional marketing.

You can start with content marketing, even on a small budget. A business cannot consider doing digital marketing without implementing an excellent content marketing strategy.

First of all, start your blog and post content once a week. Writing your own blog posts would even save you a lot of money.

According to statistics, 90% of organizations use content in their marketing efforts.

Content marketing also costs 62% less than traditional marketing, while generating around 3x more leads.

statistiques des coûts du marketing de contenu

Like content marketing, businesses that use email marketing also benefit from a number of low-cost benefits. Email marketing makes it possible to generate leads, sales, broadcast targeted messages, increase revenue, create brand awareness, etc.

Statistics show that email marketing has a return on investment of 4200% (42 dollars for every dollar spent).

This is why many businesses are actively exploiting email campaigns. According to an Adobe investigation report, 52% of businesses say that email marketing is their main communication tool.

sondage sur les canaux principaux de communication effectuée par Adobe

2. Personalized communication.

Thanks to data analysis, digital marketing facilitates the publication of personalized content and the sending of messages adapted to the characteristics of customers.

Personalized communication is key to making customers happy, engaging them personally, and driving sales.

A Gartner survey shows thepositive impact of personalization on customers :

  • 62% of customers say personalization helps them get a better price.
  • 49% think personalization saves time
  • 46% of respondents were able to extract information that they did not have before
  • 45% say their buying process has become easier

3. Gain customer trust and build brand reputation quickly.

Offering high-quality products or services is not enough to earn the trust of your customers, especially if you are a new business. However, digital marketing can help you quickly gain the trust of your customers if you take advantage of the right channels.

For example, you can use social proof to convince customers to buy a product or service. Your social proof can be social media followers, blog posts, approval from an influencer or celebrity, and customer reviews.

BuzzSumo relies on customer testimonials to show how its existing customers are taking advantage of its products.

Exemple de Social Proof de BuzzSumo

This type of social proof not only popularizes your brand, but it also generates more quality leads and increases sales.

Today, customers read at least ten customer reviews before buying a product. Plus, customer testimonials are likely to increase your conversion rate by 34%.

4. Better customer service.

Customers will be more likely to buy from you if you provide quality customer service. A study found that shoppers are ready to spend 17% more for brands that offer exceptional customer service.

Another report states that 78% of consumers are likely to give up on a purchase due to a poor customer experience.

Digital marketing can boost customer service to a great extent. You can use social media and chatbots to communicate with your audience in real time and resolve issues quickly.

Plus, you can implement self-service and automation to meet growing customer demands. Self-service makes it easier for customers to resolve service issues on their own.

Here are some revealing statistics of the importance of automated self-service :

  • According to a report, 73% of customers want to solve their shopping problems themselves.
  • 70% of customers expect businesses to include a self-service application on their site.
  • Over 60% of American consumers prefer automated self-service for simple customer service tasks.

5. Higher ranking in search engines.

Your business blogs or pages can get a high ranking in search engines and a large number of readers by implementing the right content marketing and SEO strategy.

For example, you can target long-tail keywords and topics that your customers are likely to search for. Publishing relevant, high-quality content is just as important.

This is also why it is important to rank as high as possible in search engines to be visible through voice search:

3 faits sur la recherche vocale

Businesses are also turning to voice search optimization. In fact, it's one of the next big trends in the digital marketing industry.

And why not? Voice search is more convenient for some searches at home or on the go, and you can use it to search for local products and businesses.

6. Measuring the results of marketing campaigns.

An important advantage of a digital marketing strategy is the ability to measure the results of your marketing.

When you're running marketing campaigns, each campaign offers a tracking system. You can track the results and see if your efforts are paying off or not, whether it's a social media campaign, an email campaign, or a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.

For example, tools like Google Analytics allow you to monitor your SEO performance by tracking key metrics like impressions, clicks, shares, comments, conversions, and more.

So you can improve your campaigns and know what's working and what's not working for your business. Plus, knowing how your campaign is performing while it's in progress allows you to optimize it in the meantime.

7. Target a specific audience.

The ability to target specific audiences on the internet is another important advantage of digital marketing.

You can reach buyers who are specifically interested in your business, services, or products without wasting time persuading the curious.

Buyer Personas can help you in this area. You can gather buyer personas (invented representations of your ideal customers) from your contact database, using form fields, interviewing prospects and customers, advertising, etc. Once you've gathered these personas together, you can use them to target prospects.

Finally, you can implement digital ads to target a specific audience and get better results.

For example, if you use Facebook, you can be extremely specific and define your audience by characteristics such as age, gender, interests, hobbies, professions, etc.

Facebook Ads: ciblage de l'Audience

This allows you to better target your efforts and spend your budget more effectively to acquire quality leads.

8. Improve as you go.

With digital marketing, businesses can make changes as they go. You can also make changes when something doesn't work as expected.

For example, you can adjust PPC campaigns, optimize SEO campaigns, or change your content whenever needed to get the best results.

Disadvantages of digital marketing.

Digital marketing also has its drawbacks.

It is essential to know them in order to be able to implement digital marketing with full knowledge of the facts.

Here are some of the disadvantages of digital marketing:

1. Global competition.

Indeed, you can reach a global audience through digital marketing. At the same time, you will also have to face competition from global marketers, especially in English-speaking markets where the battle is very competitive and where advertising costs are more expensive.

Standing out from the competition and drawing attention among the many global brand messages is difficult.

2. Negative reactions and brand reputation.

When you put your business on the internet, the public doesn't fail to leave comments, whether positive or negative. Naturally, your brand reputation can go downhill if you get a lot of negative feedback.

A study highlights that a negative review drives away 22% of prospects, which represents around 30 customers.

3. Security and privacy.

You need to follow various legal rules and regulations when collecting and using customer data for digital marketing purposes. Plus, there's always the fear that your website and customer data will be compromised.

4. Patience.

Optimizing your advertising campaigns on the internet or creating a lot of content does not happen overnight. This can take a long time, so you'll need to stay patient to get results. Plus, you'll need to measure your results to get a great return on investment.

Future of digital marketing.

Digital marketing is constantly evolving. And your business may fall behind schedule if you don't keep up with the latest trends.

So what will be the future of digital marketing? Things like voice search, AI and automation, personalization, and influencer marketing are likely to take the lead.

Let's look at them one by one.

1. Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

Numerous surveys and research predict the importance of AI in digital marketing.

In a survey where participants were asked Why businesses needed AI, 84% answered that it allowed them to gain a competitive advantage, while 75% said that AI would open up new business opportunities.

Businesses are also increasingly using AI softwares to reduce costs and match supply and demand.

Marketing automation is already being used on a large scale, in 2022 nearly 83% of businesses already have implemented marketing automation strategies.

Marketing automation is useful for generating leads, converting leads, increasing sales, improving customer experiences, etc. Businesses just need to know when to use it.

2. Voice search.

Voice search is growing in popularity thanks to smart speakers and assistants like Siri and Alexa. As a result, many businesses are optimizing their businesses for voice search.

By 2024, the global market voice-activated smart speakers could also reach $30 billion.

Businesses must now focus on providing the most accurate answers. Right now, Google Home offers the most accurate answers - answering 81% of the questions correctly.

Other factors to consider are personalization, compatibility and integration, tactile interaction (merging voice and visual displays), and security.

3. Social networks.

Experts believe that marketers will be increasingly dependent on social media management tools to automate, adapt, and engage more effectively. But at the same time, they are striving to become more humane, more trustworthy, and more transparent.

Businesses that want to reach and engage with a vast global audience can no longer ignore social media.

Experts also predict that videos are going to be more popular than ever.

According to statistics, the average person will spend 130 minutes a day watching videos on the internet in 2023.

4. Chatbots.

The popularity of chatbot software or livechat is constantly growing, as is the demand to improve the customer experience.

Currently, there are over 300,000 chatbots on Facebook alone.

In addition to offering efficient service, businesses can save a lot of money in customer support expenses by using chatbots.

Likewise, voice robots are becoming widespread with the growing demand for messaging platforms with voice and text interfaces.

5. Influencer marketing.

Previously, brands had to pay celebrities millions to promote their products, which was technically impossible for small businesses to implement.

And that's where influencer marketing comes in.

Today, many businesses are turning to micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are influencers who have more than 10,000 followers in their niche. They have enough followers to be “influential,” but are easy to reach and don't need to be sponsored.

Businesses prefer micro-influencers because they're not expensive but they deliver results.

An investigation report showed that 61.9% of marketers are now working with influencers to generate content.

In addition, businesses are automating influencer marketing systems in order to find the right influencer to promote their image and message.

With the help of AI, businesses can perform an influencer brand affinity analysis. This allows them to quickly sift through millions of images and choose influencers based on specific characteristics.

FAQs

Why is the use of digital marketing services crucial for businesses?

Any business that aspires to grow in the current age should use digital marketing services. These services help you establish a presence on the internet, connect with customers around the world, and generate sales and profits through various channels and platforms. In addition, it allows you to communicate individually with your audience.

What are the best digital marketing tools?

Crucial digital marketing strategies include SEO, analytics, content marketing, content marketing, social media, email marketing, etc. Many digital marketers prefer tools that can provide an all-in-one digital marketing solution.

It's a great idea to use tools like HubSpot, Omnisend, SendinBlue, etc., to run different marketing campaigns seamlessly.

If you are looking for the best digital marketing tools, first read my detailed reviews on best marketing automation tools.

What is pay per click (PPC) in digital marketing?

Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model in which the advertiser pays for ads shown to the relevant target audience on platforms like Google and Facebook.

What are the best content marketing tools?

To excel in content marketing, you need both a great strategy and a talented team.

To get the job done faster, you can use some of the best content marketing tools like HubSpot, WordPress, Yoast, BuzzSumo, Google Analytics, and Ahrefs.

Summary.

That's it for my digital marketing guide. Many of the digital marketing strategies discussed will help you grow your digital business.

There's no ceiling when it comes to digital marketing - there's always more room for innovation and improvement.

Take the time to learn digital marketing. It is a sector that is evolving rapidly and constantly.

To succeed, you need to stay on top of the latest trends and understand the basic principles in order to gain visibility on the internet this year.

profil auteur de stephen MESNILDREY
Stephen MESNILDREY
Digital & MarTech Innovator

Your time is valuable... imagine:

Doubling your productivity in 30 days...Cutting operational costs by 40%...Increasing your ROI by 25% in 6 months...

Sounds too good to be true? Yet:

  • ✅ 71,000+ executives have seen their growth soar by 35% on average
  • ✅ 5 years guiding startups to success (valued at $20M+)
  • ✅ 100,000+ professionals draw inspiration from my articles every month

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