Understanding the Who, What, Why & How of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has changed the marketing game across virtually all industries and businesses. The who, what, why, and how of digital marketing are now understood by a wide audience, making it much easier for marketers to hire, collaborate with or outsource these services. Digital marketing is no longer an obscure phrase that only tech-savvy people understand. There are many different ways to explain what digital marketing is and what it can do for your company or organization. But perhaps the most helpful way of thinking about digital marketing is as a mix of five key elements: Who we market to (audience), What we market (content), Why we market (mission), How we market (tools) and When we market (timing).

Digital marketing is vital for your business and brand awareness. It seems like every other brand has a website, and if they don’t, they at least have a social media presence or digital ad strategy. Digital content and marketing is so common that consumers now expect and rely on it as a way to learn about brands. Because digital marketing has so many possibilities, you can get creative and experiment with a variety of marketing tactics on a budget.

Overall, digital marketing is defined by using numerous digital tactics and channels to connect with customers where they spend much of their time: online. The best digital marketers have a clear picture of how each digital marketing campaign supports their overarching goals. And depending on the goals of their marketing strategy, marketers can support a larger campaign through the free and paid channels at their disposal.

Why is Digital Marketing Important?

Digital marketing helps you reach a larger audience than you could through traditional methods and target the prospects who are most likely to buy your product or service. Additionally, it’s often more cost-effective than traditional advertising and enables you to measure success on a daily basis and pivot as you see fit.

There are a few major benefits of digital marketing:

1. Global online reach and visibility

2. Effective targeting

3. Increases results of offline marketing tactics

4. Cost

5. Variety in digital marketing strategies

6. Multiple content types

7. Increased engagement

8. Speed

9. Analytics and optimization

10. Easy to start

Who is your target audience?

The first step in understanding the who of digital marketing is to identify your target audience. Defining your target audience is crucial for successful marketing, because you can’t effectively market to everyone. One great way to start to identify your target audience is by using a marketing persona. A marketing persona is a fictional person who represents your ideal customer. You can create multiple personas if your target audience breaks down into smaller segments. When creating your marketing persona, consider their age, gender, where they live, how much money they make, what kind of job they have, what their hobbies and interests are, what websites they visit, and what content they consume.

What do you want to market?

The next step in understanding the who of digital marketing is to identify the marketing content you want to produce. There are a lot of different types of content you can create to reach your target audience. Different types of marketing content include blogs, videos, social media posts, e-books, webinars, podcasts, and infographics. The type of content you create depends on your business and customers. How much content you create depends on your company’s marketing strategy. Some businesses prefer to create less frequent but longer pieces of content, like e-books, while others prefer to create smaller posts more frequently on their social media channels.

Why are you marketing?

The why of digital marketing is to understand the mission behind your marketing efforts. Why do you want to market your product or service? Why do you want to create a blog? Why are you investing time and energy into digital marketing? What is the goal of your marketing campaign? Are you trying to increase sales? Do you want to get more people to subscribe to your email list? Do you want to get more people to visit your website? The reason behind your marketing efforts is unique to your business and can’t be replicated by anyone else.

How will you market?

The how of digital marketing is the tools and strategies you use to actually market your product or service. The how of digital marketing is how you execute your marketing goals. How will you create your content? What social media platforms will you use? What is your email marketing strategy? What tools do you use for content creation? How will you track your results? These are all questions that fall under the how of digital marketing. How you execute your marketing efforts is unique to your business and what tools you prefer to use. There’s no one way to market that works for everyone. The important thing is to choose the tools that best fit your business and budget. You can always change your marketing strategies and tools in the future.

When is the best time to market?

The when of digital marketing is all about timing. When do you publish your blog posts? When do you send out your emails? When do you publish your videos? When is the best time to do all of this? The when of digital marketing refers to publishing your content and scheduling your marketing efforts based on your audience’s daily habits and patterns. What are your customers doing during the day? When are they most likely to engage with your content? How can you fit your marketing efforts into their daily routines so they don’t feel like marketing is interrupting their lives? The best time to market for your audience is when they’re ready to engage with you.

Conclusion

Marketing is a complex, ever-changing field. New trends emerge, new technologies are invented, and new strategies are implemented every day. Digital marketing is one of the most expansive and ever-changing fields. It’s constantly evolving, bringing new trends, new technologies, and new strategies. There’s always more to learn and more to understand about digital marketing. These Who, What, Why, and How of Digital Marketing articles provide a helpful overview of digital marketing and are a great place to start if you are interested in pursuing a career in marketing, or if you just want to learn more about it.