Digital Marketing: Online vs. Offline

Digital marketing is the umbrella term for all advertising delivered through electronic devices. When people hear digital marketing, it’s true that most identify it with channels such as email, social media, website, and search engines; basically, anything connected to the Internet via your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or PC. However, digital marketing can occur both online and offline.

Offline Digital Marketing

You’ve encountered offline digital marketing before and didn’t realize that’s what it was. Radio and TV marketing are categorized as offline digital marketing because they involve an electronic device, yet the connection to the Internet is not necessary.

Then there’s enhanced offline marketing; if you’ve ever been in a restaurant and ordered your meal using an electronic tablet, then you’re no stranger to offline marketing. It is an enhanced offline marketing experience with a digital device. Electronic billboards are a great example of enhanced offline digital marketing.

Lastly, there’s phone marketing otherwise known as cold calling. Many people believed that cold calling was dead, mainly since people now screen their calls. However, cold calling and telemarketers still exist and surprisingly, even bring in sales.

Online Digital Marketing

Online marketing is referred to as online advertising or Internet marketing. The following seven are the major types of online digital marketing:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO) – SEO is the process of optimizing your content so that it ranks higher in search engine results pages so that you drive more traffic to your website.
2. Search engine marketing (SEM) – With SEO, you’re using best practices to make traffic to your site organically. With SEM, however, you purchase ad space in paid search platforms such Google AdWords.
3. Content marketing – Content marketing involves content creation and distribution across all your online channels such as your blog, website, or social media. The content you create is not meant to be promotional but instead, stimulate interest and ultimately, improve brand awareness.
4. Social Media Marketing (SMM) – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn are some of the most prominent social media platforms. And social media marketing involves gaining traffic and attention from these channels.
5. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) – If you’ve noticed those ads that appear alongside your search results, then you’ve encountered PPC ads before. PPC is a model of online marketing where advertisers pay a fee each time a person clicks their ad.
6. Affiliate marketing – Affiliate marketing is a commission-based arrangement typically between an online retailer and an external website. The purpose is to generate traffic and sales through referrals.
7. Email marketing – Email marketing is a type of direct marketing that uses emails to deliver marketing messages to its audience.

Cost-per-click, backlinks, influencer marketing, and blogging - these are just some of the digital marketing terms that continue to confuse traditional marketers. While these practices have been around for more than a decade, in the last few years more and more industries, have discovered that they deserve a slice of the digital pie.

And in recent years, the manufacturing sector has also recognized how valuable digital marketing is to their overall marketing plan. Therefore, diving deeper into each of these strategies is worthwhile.