What Are the Different Types of Digital Marketing?

The incredible growth of the internet created many new industries and business practices, including digital marketing. Today, businesses use digital marketing campaigns to reach their target audiences and promote their products or services. 

Part of the reason digital marketing is so popular is that it's very versatile. Different digital marketing strategies can work for almost any business. This article will discuss the different types of digital marketing and how businesses can use them to enhance their online presence. 

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the process of promoting your business online through methods such as social media, emails, and search engines. It also includes sending marketing messages to mobile devices, for example, with text messages or direct messages on mobile apps. 

People often compare digital marketing to traditional marketing, which is very different. Traditional marketing includes direct mail, television, radio, and print advertisements. 

All digital marketing methods involve the internet or mobile devices in some way. Since these things only gained popularity in recent decades, digital marketing is still relatively new. Already, business leaders are recognizing the value of digital marketing and investing significantly in these strategies. 

Experts project that total global investment in digital marketing will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, around three times as much as what it was in 2022. 

Types of Digital Marketing

As with traditional marketing, there are many different forms of digital marketing. You can use just one of these methods or combine them as part of a broader campaign. Here are the six main types of digital marketing you should be aware of:

Content Marketing

A content marketing strategy involves publishing articles, blogs, ebooks, social media posts, and other content on your website to provide value to your target audience. 

Unlike with direct advertising, the content you publish as part of content marketing doesn't need to promote your brand's products or services directly. Instead, the goal of this content is simply to inform customers and increase their brand awareness. You're trying to build trust with the customers and show that you can provide value to them outside of just selling them something. 

One of the great things about content marketing is that it's easy to repurpose one piece of content for several different channels. For example, you could produce an ebook on one topic and convert that ebook into a blog, an email, a social media post, and even a podcast episode on the same topic. Creating different types of content allows you to reach more customers depending on their preferred information consumption methods. 

Before you start drafting content, ask yourself the following questions:

• What kinds of topics interest my target audience?
• What questions are our target customers asking?
• What topics are we experts in?
• How can we help educate our target customers?

Make sure any content you create is error-free and accessible to your average target customer. Try to include a call to action that will push readers to the next stage in your sales pipeline. 

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making your website more appealing to search engines. When someone searches a term in a search engine like Google, the search engine uses an algorithm to rank the websites that appear as results. The websites that the algorithms deem the best appear at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Ranking higher on the results page provides a huge advantage since it means people are much more likely to visit your website. That's why SEO is a popular digital marketing strategy. So, what does SEO entail?

Some practices involved in SEO include:

• Optimizing your website for mobile devices
• Including relevant keywords in your website text that customers are likely to search
• Creating unique, comprehensive content on relevant topics
• Including internal links between pages on your website
• Ensuring your page speed is as fast as possible
• Getting other websites to link to pages on your site (inbound links)

Keep in mind that SEO will not produce immediate results. The changes you make to your website take some time to affect how you rank in the SERPs. Be patient and consistent to get the most out of SEO. Ideally, your SEO efforts will eventually get you to the top of the results page, where you'll get the most clicks. 

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is any promotional work companies do on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It can include both organic and paid social media marketing. 

When companies have brand accounts on social media where they post content, interact with followers, and talk about their products, that's organic social media marketing. They don't have to pay the social media platform to show this content, but they do have to build their audience from the ground up. 

By contrast, paid social media marketing involves running paid ads on social media platforms. This also falls under paid advertising. With paid social media marketing, you pay the platform to show your ad to users who fall within your target audience. 

These ads appear within the social media users' feeds and typically say "promoted" or "ad" to distinguish them from organic content. 

Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is a marketing model in which brands pay to show ads to their target audiences. While paid advertising can also refer to TV or radio ads, most people use this term to describe internet-based ads. 

Pay-per-click advertising — a marketing approach in which advertisers only pay each time a consumer clicks on their ad — is a popular form of paid advertising. 

Generally, paid advertisements work on an auction system. Advertisers bid against each other for ad space on platforms like Google Ads or Meta ads. The platforms' algorithms determine whose ads are shown and when. 

Every ad platform has a unique bidding algorithm, so you'll have to adjust your practices to the platform you're using. That said, most platforms consider factors such as the bid amount, ad quality, and user engagement to determine which ads are chosen. 

If you plan to use paid advertising, research the platform you choose to find out exactly how they evaluate bids. 

Email Marketing

Email marketing is arguably the simplest form of digital marketing. It involves sending targeted messages to subscribers' inboxes to inform them of new products or services, boost brand awareness, and increase sales. Compared to other marketing strategies, email marketing provides an incredible return on investment, averaging a return of $36 for every $1 spent. That's a 3,600% return. 

The first step to implementing an email marketing strategy is building a list of customers who want to receive emails from your brand. Sending emails to customers without interest is generally ineffective and may even get your business labeled as spam, so don't risk it. Grow your list over time by allowing customers to opt-in to email messages. 

When you're writing your email, include a clear call to action that tells the reader what to do next. A strong, compelling subject line will increase the chances recipients will open the email, boosting its effectiveness. 

Affiliate/Influencer Marketing

Sometimes, brands work with prominent online figures to help promote their products and services. This is known as influencer or affiliate marketing. 

In affiliate marketing, someone else promotes your business to an already-built audience. Each time the affiliate successfully generates a sale, you pay them a commission. The advantage of affiliate marketing is you only have to pay for successful sales. You don't owe anything if the affiliate's promotion isn't effective. 

Influencers often participate in affiliate marketing campaigns, but not all influencer marketing is affiliate marketing. You can also pay influencers — social media users with large, engaged audiences — to create and post content about your business. 

If you use influencer marketing, be very careful about the influencers you choose to work with. Your influencer partners reflect back on your brand, and the wrong partner can hurt your relationship with customers. 

Promote Your Business With Digital Marketing Strategies

With so many different types of digital marketing, you will certainly find at least one that works for your business. Try various digital marketing methods to determine which is best suited to your needs. Effective digital marketing tactics will help you connect with your target audience and grow your business. 



At Optimize, we're here to assist with all your digital marketing needs. Whether you're interested in pursuing a paid advertising strategy or improving your website SEO, Optimize can help. To learn more about Optimize's digital marketing services, schedule your free consultation today.