Advancements in technology have vastly transformed the relationship between businesses and consumers. In the past, marketers had great sway over the media that consumers engaged with because access to media was limited. Traditional mediums like print media, broadcast radio, and television made a huge impact because consumers were regularly interacting with these mediums.

Nowadays, however, consumers are interacting with many more media channels using many more devices. Widespread access to the internet via desktops, smartphones, tablets, and other devices has put the power in the hands of the consumer to be in control of what media they engage with daily.

The rise of the internet in consumers’ daily lives has led to the rise of digital marketing—the component of marketing that emphasizes the use of the internet and online platforms to promote products and services. Digital marketing is important because the internet is how people gather information today. Consumers regularly use the internet to research products and services before making a purchase, and it is the most popular way that people learn about new brands. Having a successful digital marketing strategy gives businesses more opportunities to increase brand awareness, make a positive impression on their consumer base, and generate revenue.

Businesses should be familiar with these common digital marketing strategies to increase their online visibility in 2023.

Search Engine Optimization

The practice of manipulating the visibility of a website or web page in a search engine’s unpaid results is known as search engine optimization (SEO). Earning a high ranking in SEO is important because consumers frequently use search engines to acquire new information, find answers to their questions, and research countless topics. BrightEdge found that 68% of all online activities begin with a search engine. Companies that manage to get on the first page of search results for high-traffic keywords greatly increase their chances of attracting new customers and expanding brand awareness.

There are many components to building a strong SEO strategy. To learn more about some important things to keep in mind, check out our post 5 Tips for Building an Effective SEO Strategy.

One of the major benefits of ranking high in SEO for businesses is the cost-effectiveness of the strategy. The only investment necessary in increasing SEO is the time it takes to write high-quality, relevant content that search engines will rate favorably. One of the potential drawbacks, however, is that the algorithms search engines use to rank content are constantly subject to change. This means that even if your website does reach the first page of search results, there is no guarantee that it will stay there forever. Effective SEO strategies require periodic upkeep of previous content to align with changes in search engine algorithms.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) typically refers to the designing, running, and optimizing of ad campaigns on search engines. SEM incorporates SEO but differs from it in that SEM leverages paid advertising as opposed to relying on the creation of unpaid original content. Search engine marketing deemphasizes content relevancy in favor of paid prominence on search engine results pages and can be a relatively easy and quick way to build traffic to a site when compared to SEO. Some have criticized SEM for unfairly elevating search results based on the financial investments a company is willing to make rather than the usefulness of its content for consumers.

Search engine marketing encompasses the use of various tools such as search analytics, web analytics, cost per impression, and pay-per-click. In a broader sense, search engine marketing is a wide discipline that includes search engine optimization and social media marketing.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to promote products or services. Social media marketing is advantageous because of social media’s vast cultural relevance. According to DataReportal, 59% of the world’s population is active on social media with an average daily usage of about two and a half hours. Young people are increasingly turning to social media as a source of information rather than search engines like Google. Taking advantage of the social media arena to market your business and increase brand awareness can be fruitful and relatively inexpensive. Many social media platforms contain built-in data analytics tools that deliver key insights into customer engagement with posts and ads.

Social media allows brands to reach wide audiences that include current and potential customers, current and potential employees, media figures and personalities, as well as the general public. One should consider their target audience when building a social media strategy. For example, older consumers are more likely to be reached via platforms like Facebook while young people are more likely to be found on TikTok.

Conclusion

Search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and social media marketing are three essential components of an effective digital marketing strategy. Businesses should try to leverage these three strategies in conjunction to achieve the best results. Businesses without the resources to do so should focus on the aspects that are feasible for their budget. SEO and SMM are generally more cost-effective strategies than SEM, for example.

Digital marketing can be extremely complex at times. It can be a huge help to enlist the assistance of a marketing agency to build your digital marketing strategy and set your business up for success. Zorbis is a top-rated SEO & SMM agency in the USA that delivers valuable SEM services to companies around the world. If you are looking to build a strong online presence for your brand, contact us today to consult with our team of digital marketing experts.