The 5 Types of Digital Marketing you should be aware 

 

If there is one line that aptly describes a brand’s image in the current decade it’s this – If it’s not online, it doesn’t exist.

The world is going digital. Netflix and Hotstar are trumping TV, retail outlets are long forgotten with Amazon and Flipkart, and the number of hands hailing a cab is getting lesser by the day, thanks to Uber and Ola. The obvious conclusion that comes out of these upcoming trends is that people today are turning to the internet for every single want and need. And if you or your brand isn’t present there, then my friend, where are you?

So let’s say I own a bookstore (yes, they still exist), and while my core business is still promoting the reading of actual hardbound books (offline), I’m definitely going to go online to find and pick up my target audience. The question is how?

Here are the 5 most trending forms of Digital Marketing that I would definitely look into:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Fact: Google services 3.5 Billion searches in a day. 3.5 Billion.

So as a bookstore owner what I would want is that every time a person searches “buy books in Mumbai” or “well-known bookstores”, my bookstore should show up as one of the first search results on Google. And for that, I need Search Engine Optimization.

In simple words, SEO is a process by which a website tries to get maximum users or traffic for itself, through organic search results. So basically, if you have a website, you would want interested customers to notice you, without having to spend thousands on advertising for your products. And, lastly, you will want the maximum number of people to click through your website. So, you optimize your website according to the search engine and customer requirement for Google to recommend it to your customers.

2. Social Media Marketing

Like. Share. Comment. The buzzwords of the 21^stcentury.

Another Fact: Approximately 17% of millennials in the country spend 2-4 hours on social media daily.

I would definitely want my tiny bookstore to reach out to that giant audience through Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and whatever another social platform exists out there. But Social Media Marketing is more than just posting on these platforms. It involves recognizing your target audience, finding out which social platform they use the most, creating ad campaigns for that audience and then analyzing what works and what doesn’t work for you. It’s art combined with analytics and it’s super powerful if you can harness its reach.

3. Mobile Marketing:

Fact #3: The number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019.

The first thing an average user does when he wakes up in the morning is checking his phone. Fast Forward. Washroom àPhone. TravellingàPhone. Office-àPhone. Proof enough that my brand must be on that godforsaken phone if I want some attention.

How do people advertise via Mobile phones? There are multiple options right from App Marketing to Missed Call Campaigns and Promotional SMS marketing. Advertisers are also getting innovative with IVR (Integrated Voice Recordings) and OBDs (Outbound Dialling). But don’t you worry yourself too much about these terms right now. When you delve into Mobile marketing you will discover its wonders one after the other (Blog coming up soon!)

4. Influencer Marketing:

It’s simple. If I somehow have Twinkle Khanna or Shahrukh Khan sitting in my bookstore with a bestseller in hand and a hot coffee by the reading table, and convince them to put up a picture of this on their social media handles, tagging my store, and recommending it, I’m going to have a line outside my door the very next day. That’s the power of Influencer Marketing.

You don’t necessarily need to have a celebrity recommending you. You just need people who are super active on social platforms to talk about you. Subtly. And before you know, your brand is getting attention from people in a way you never imagined.

Oh and forgot to feed you in with Fact # 4: Taylor Swift has more than 71.5 million followers on Instagram, which is more than the population of Australia.

5. Innovations

And while there are so many more popular forms of Digital Marketing such as Video Marketing and Google Ads that I could tell you about, I instead thought of leaving you with an innovation that is likely to be the future of digital advertising- and that is Augmented Reality, the one way to get your audience actually involved with your product.

 

 

My words will not be able to capture the essence of this form of marketing, and hence here is a video you should definitely check out, to get the gist of what I am talking about.

Crazy isn’t it? What technology is capable of.

So this was my list of some of the most popular Digital Marketing trends that I would have adopted, had I actually owned a bookstore. This list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive. Whatever your product or service may be, books or not, your brand needs an integrated Digital Marketing Strategy to get the attention it needs.

And hence, at All Stars Digital our goal is to help brands and individual leverage this massive reach by means of content, search and social marketing to promote, sell and ultimately make sure you are exactly where your target audience is.

So here’s one last fact that I want you to ponder about when you finish reading this article:

The television reached 50 million users in 13 years and the radio in 18 years. While It took internet just 3 years to reach the same number of users. The message here is loud and clear.