Here's a short review of some of the most popular digital marketing methods, as well as the channels involved in each.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is the process of optimizing your website so that it "ranks" higher in search engine results pages, increasing the amount of organic (or free) traffic to your website. Websites, blogs, and infographics are among the mediums that profit from SEO.

There are several approaches to SEO that may be used to drive quality visitors to your website. These are some examples:

On-page SEO : focuses on all of the material that appears "on the page" while viewing a website. You may answer queries for readers and rank better on search engine results pages (SERPs) by analyzing keywords for their search volume and intent (or meaning).

Off page SEO: This sort of SEO focuses on everything that happens "off the page" while optimizing your website. "What behavior outside of my own website might have an impact on my ranking?" You might inquire. Inbound links, often known as backlinks, are the answer. The amount of publishers who link to you, as well as their relative "authority," influence how highly you rank for the keywords you care about. You may get the backlinks you need to raise your website up on all the right SERPs by networking with other publishers, publishing guest articles on their websites (and linking back to your website), and creating external attention.

Technical SEO: is concerned with the backend of your website and how your pages are coded. Image compression, structured data, and CSS file optimization are all examples of technical SEO that may improve the loading time of your website, which is a significant ranking criteria in the eyes of search engines like Google.

2. Content Promotion

This word refers to the production and marketing of content assets with the goal of increasing brand exposure, traffic growth, lead generation, and customer acquisition.

Do you want to learn about content marketing and apply it to your business? Visit HubSpot Academy's free content marketing training resource page for more information.

Channels that can contribute to your content marketing strategy include:

Blog posts: Writing and publishing articles on a corporate blog allows you to display your industry expertise while also generating organic search traffic for your firm. This provides you additional chances to convert website visitors into leads for your sales staff.

Ebooks and whitepapers: Ebooks, whitepapers, and other comparable long-form information can assist educate website visitors further. It also enables you to trade content for a reader's contact information, creating leads and guiding individuals through the buyer's journey.

Infographics: Readers want to be shown rather than told. Infographics are a type of visual material that assists website users in visualizing an idea that you want them to learn.

Audio or video content: Television and radio are significant digital marketing mediums. Creating material that people can share online as a video or hear on the radio may dramatically expand your potential audience.

3. Social Media Promotion

This strategy promotes your brand and content on social media networks in order to raise brand recognition, boost traffic, and create leads for your company.

If you're new to social media, solutions like HubSpot can help you link networks like LinkedIn and Facebook in one location. This allows you to effortlessly plan content for several channels at the same time, as well as monitor metrics from the platform.

In addition to integrating social accounts for publishing, you can integrate your social media inboxes into HubSpot to receive direct communications in one spot.

You can utilize the following channels for social media marketing:

  • Instagram
  • Tiktok
  • Youtube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Snapchat
  • Pinterest

Many marketers will utilize these social media sites to launch a viral marketing campaign. A viral marketing approach involves collaborating with a prominent content producer or participating in a trend that is currently resonating with a large audience. The goal is to develop something shareable in the hopes that it will spread organically over a social media platform.

Don't know where to begin with social media marketing? Download our free social media content schedule to kickstart your social strategy.

4. Pay Per Click (PPC) (PPC)

PPC is a strategy of boosting traffic to your website by paying a publisher for each click on your ad. Google Ads, for example, allows you to pay for top places on Google's search engine results pages for a fee "per click" of the links you insert. PPC can also be used in the following channels:

5. Affiliate Promotion Program

This is a sort of performance-based advertising in which you get compensated for promoting the products or services of others on your website. Affiliate marketing channels include the following:

Hosting video advertisements via the YouTube Partner Program.

Using your social media profiles to share affiliate links, like this -> affiliate links sample

This is part of the relatively recent influencer marketing trend. Using influencers to create a campaign may be a highly successful method of affiliate marketing. Finding the perfect content creators may help your digital campaign reach new heights.

6. Native Advertising 

Native advertising is defined as adverts that are mostly content-driven and appear on a platform alongside non-paid content. BuzzFeed-sponsored posts are an excellent example, although many people perceive social media advertising to be "native," such as Facebook and Instagram advertising.

7. Automated Marketing

Marketing automation software is software that automates your core marketing processes. Many marketing teams can automate processes that would otherwise be done by hand, such as:

Email newsletters: Email automation does more than just allow you to send emails to your subscribers on autopilot. It may also assist you in shrinking and expanding your contact list as needed so that your newsletters only reach to those who wish to view them in their inboxes.

Social media post scheduling: If you want to increase your organization's social media presence, you must publish regularly. This makes manual posting a bit of a nightmare. Social media scheduling solutions automatically post your material to your social media platforms, allowing you to focus on content strategy.

Workflows for lead nurturing: Generating leads and turning those leads into customers may be a time-consuming operation. You may automate this process by delivering certain emails and material to leads who meet certain criteria, such as downloading and opening an ebook.

Campaign tracking and reporting: Marketing campaigns might comprise a wide range of persons, emails, material, websites, phone calls, and other elements. Marketing automation may help you organize everything you work on based on the campaign it's serving, and then track the campaign's performance over time depending on the progress all of these components make.

8. Email Promotion

Companies utilize email marketing to communicate with their target audiences. Email is frequently used to advertise information, offers, and events, as well as to send customers to a company's website. In an email marketing campaign, you could send the following sorts of emails:

  • Newsletter subscriptions for blogs.
  • Email follow-ups to website visitors who have downloaded something.
  • Welcome emails to customers
  • Members of loyalty programs might benefit from holiday incentives.
  • Tips or similar customer nurturing series emails

9. Online Public Relations

Online public relations (PR) is the activity of obtaining earned online publicity through digital periodicals, blogs, and other content-based platforms. It's similar to traditional public relations, yet it takes place online. You may maximize your PR efforts by using the following channels:

Talking to journalists on Twitter: for example, is a terrific method to create a connection with the press that leads to earned media chances for your brand.

Engaging in internet company reviews: When someone reviews your organization online, whether positive or negative, your first impulse may be to ignore it. Engaging corporate evaluations, on the other hand, let you personalize your brand and convey compelling messaging that safeguards your reputation.

Commenting on your personal website or blog: Responding to individuals who are reading your information is the greatest approach to start meaningful discourse about your sector, similar to how you would reply to evaluations of your organization.

10. Inbound Marketing 

Inbound marketing is a marketing practice that involves attracting, engaging, and delighting consumers at each stage of the buyer's journey. Every digital marketing method described above may be used as part of an inbound marketing strategy to create a customer experience that works with the customer rather than against them. Here are some classic inbound marketing versus traditional marketing examples:

  • Pop-up advertisements vs. blogging
  • Commercial advertising vs. video marketing
  • Email contact lists vs. spam emails


11. Advertised Content

You, as a brand, pay another firm or organization to generate and promote material that mentions your brand or service in some manner.

Influencer marketing is a prominent sort of sponsored content. In this sort of sponsored content, a firm pays an industry influencer to make articles or videos about the company on social media.

A blog post or article intended to emphasize a topic, service, or brand is another example of sponsored content.

12. Search Engine Optimization (SEM)

When a potential lead is looking for a product or service similar to yours, it's a fantastic time to promote. Paid advertising and SEO are two excellent ways for marketing your company and capitalizing on potential prospects. Another method for increasing website traffic is through sponsored advertisements on search engines. Bing Ads and Google Ads are the two most popular SEM services. These sponsored advertising appear at the top of search engine results pages, providing immediate visibility. This is also a good example of native advertising.

13. Marketing using Instant Messaging

Marketing your items via messaging platforms is a quick method to reach out to potential prospects, even if they haven't provided their mobile phone number. It's an easy method to inform your audience about flash deals, new goods, or order updates. It's also a quick way for your consumers to contact customer support if they have questions or need more information. Messages can be sent directly to a mobile phone via text or via platforms such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.


What is the role of a digital marketer?

Digital marketers are in charge of increasing brand exposure and lead generation using all of a company's digital platforms, both free and paid. Social media, the company's own website, search engine rankings, email, display advertising, and the company's blog are among these channels.

The digital marketer often focuses on a separate key performance indicator (KPI) for each channel so that the company's success can be appropriately measured across all of them. A digital marketer in charge of SEO, for example, evaluates the "organic traffic" to their website. In small businesses, one generalist may be responsible for several of the digital marketing approaches outlined above at the same time. In bigger organizations, these approaches are implemented by a team of professionals who individually focus on one or two of the brand's digital channels.

Here are a few instances of these experts:

  • Main KPIs for SEO Manager: Organic traffic

In a nutshell, SEO managers help businesses rank on Google. Using a range of search engine optimization techniques, this individual may work directly with content producers to guarantee that the material they create performs well on Google — even if the firm also distributes this content on social media.

  • Specialist in Content Marketing

Time on page, overall blog traffic, and YouTube channel subscribers are the primary KPIs.

Digital content creators are content marketing gurus. They routinely monitor the company's blogging calendar and devise a content plan that includes video. These specialists frequently collaborate with colleagues from other departments to guarantee that the goods and campaigns launched by the company are supported by promotional content on each digital platform.

  • Main KPIs for Social Media Managers: Follows, Impressions, and Shares

The title implies the function of a social media manager, however the social networks they manage for the firm depend on the sector. Above all, social media managers create a timetable for providing textual and visual material for the firm. This person may also collaborate with the content marketing professional to build a plan for choosing material to post on which social media platform.


How to Do Digital Marketing?

  • Goals

When you initially begin with digital marketing, it is vital that you establish and define your goals, since you will construct your plan differently based on those goals. For example, if you want to raise brand exposure, you should focus more on reaching out to new audiences using social media.

Alternatively, if you want to improve sales of a certain product, it's more crucial that you work on SEO and content optimization to bring potential consumers to your website in the first place. Furthermore, if sales are your aim, you may want to experiment with PPC campaigns to boost visitors through paid advertising.

In any event, it's simplest to develop a digital marketing plan after you've defined your company's primary objectives.

  • Determine your target audience.

We've stated it before, but one of the most significant advantages of digital marketing is the ability to target particular audiences - but you can't take use of that advantage until you first identify your target audience.

Of course, your target audience may differ based on the channel or goal(s) you have for a certain product or campaign.

For example, you may have observed that the majority of your Instagram audience is younger and enjoys hilarious memes and short videos, but your LinkedIn audience includes older professionals seeking more practical advise. To appeal to these various target audiences, you need alter your material.

  • Set aside money for each digital channel.

The budget you set, like any other, is determined by the parts of digital marketing you want to incorporate into your approach.

If you're focused on inbound strategies such as SEO, social networking, and content production for an established website, the good news is that you don't need a lot of money. The major focus of inbound marketing is on developing high-quality content that your target audience will want to read; unless you want to outsource the task, the only investment you'll need is your time.

Begin by hosting a website and producing content with HubSpot's CMS. For those on a low budget, you may get started with WordPress hosted on WP Engine, a basic StudioPress theme, and developing your site without coding with the Elementor Website Builder for WordPress.

There is obviously some cost associated with outbound strategies such as web advertising and acquiring email lists. What it costs is determined by the level of visibility desired as a result of the advertisement.

  • Maintain a healthy balance of paid and free digital initiatives.

To be genuinely effective, a digital marketing plan will most likely include both paid and free components.

For example, if you invest time generating complete buyer personas to determine your audience's demands and focus on providing great online content to attract and convert them, you're likely to see good results within the first six months while spending nothing on advertising.

If paid advertising is part of your digital strategy, the effects may be much faster.

When in doubt, try both and iterate on your approach as you discover which channels – paid or free – work best for your business.

  • Create interesting content.

Once you've identified your target demographic and established a budget, you can begin developing content for the different platforms you'll employ. This material can include social media postings, blog entries, PPC advertisements, sponsored content, email marketing newsletters, and other forms of communication.

Of course, any content you generate should be intriguing and engaging to your target audience, as the goal of marketing material is to boost brand recognition and lead generation.

  • Make your digital assets mobile-friendly.

Mobile marketing is another important aspect of digital marketing. In fact, smartphone usage accounts for 69 percent of time spent consuming digital media in the United States, while desktop-based digital media consumption accounts for less than half — and the United States is still not mobile's biggest fan in comparison to other countries.

This means that optimizing your digital ads, web pages, social media images, and other digital assets for mobile devices is critical. If your firm has a mobile app that allows customers to interact with your brand or shop your items, that app is also classified as digital marketing.

Those that interact with your firm online via mobile devices should have the same great experience they would have on a desktop. This entails developing a mobile-friendly or responsive website design to make surfing on mobile devices more user-friendly. It might also mean shortening your lead generating forms to make it easier for individuals to obtain your content on the move. When developing social media photographs, keep in mind the mobile user in mind, as image dimensions are lower on mobile devices and text might be cut-off.

  • Perform keyword research.

Digital marketing is all about reaching out to specific audiences with customised content, which can't happen without thorough keyword research.

Keyword research is essential for optimizing your website and content for SEO and ensuring that people can find your business through search engines. Furthermore, social media keyword research may help you sell your products or services on multiple social networks.

Even if you don't have a full-time SEO strategist on staff, you should still conduct keyword research. Make a list of high-performing keywords related to your products or services, and think about long-tail variants for further prospects.

  • Iterate based on the statistics that you collect.

Finally, in order to develop a long-term effective digital marketing plan, your team must understand how to pivot depending on statistics.

For example, after a few months, you may discover that your Instagram following is no longer as engaged in your material — but they adore what you're doing on Twitter. Sure, this might be a chance to rethink your whole Instagram approach, but it could also be an indication that your target audience prefers a different channel to consume sponsored material.

Alternatively, you may discover that an older web page isn't receiving the traffic it formerly did. You may consider upgrading the page or removing it completely to ensure that visitors find the most up-to-date, relevant material for their requirements.

Digital marketing offers businesses incredibly flexible opportunities for continuous growth — it's up to you to seize them.

I'm ready to experiment with digital marketing. What happens next?

If you're already conducting digital marketing, you're probably reaching some of your target demographic online. You can undoubtedly think of some aspects of your plan that may be improved.

That's why, whether you're a total newbie or have a bit more expertise, we've designed a step-by-step guide to help you construct a genuinely effective digital marketing plan.