Digital marketing has gained weightage with the rapidly increasing online globalisation. Apart from organic digital marketing and search engine marketing ventures, the global net spent on paid ads as of January 2021 is $389.29 billion. Also, 46% of marketing expenses is digital in nature – almost half of the entire marketing budget of a company.
It comes as no surprise then that the way forward is the adoption of digital marketing and search engine marketing endeavours in any business. Success is digital in the modern world. Wrapping our heads around this, let us dive into how digital marketing and search engine marketing shapes business growth.
The importance of digital marketing and search engine marketing
The process of converting any normal form of information or data into a digital format is called digitalisation. In a few words, digital marketing’s role in defining business growth implies that efficiency, quality, and consistency are all impacted positively.
Digital marketing and social/search engine marketing are just tiny branches of the entire digitisation process. Digitalisation extends far beyond the realms of marketing and sales. It includes:
- Automise business operations using tools such as enterprise resource planning software.
- Optimise sales using CRMs and automatic lead generation tools.
- Lubricating communications and team collaborations.
- Improving project management processes.
- Increasing productivity of manufacturing processes and error detection.
- Last but not the least, running marketing campaigns on a global scale.
Digital marketing is one of the most crucial branches of this digitisation process. It is paramount, no doubt, but it requires all the verticals mentioned above in a synchronised manner to achieve optimal results.
How Digital Marketing and Search Engine Marketing Improves Business Growth
Offline marketing is costly and requires a lot of overhead. Investments on a large scale are required and intricate strategising is the key. Although the latter is true for digital marketing and search engine marketing as well, automation tools are more widespread in this domain which lubricates the entire process. Digital marketing helps in:
- Saving costs
- Improving the efficiency of marketing campaigns and increasing ROI
- Reducing human error
- Keeping a digital print of marketing campaign history
- Increasing sales productivity and tracking sales and marketing
- Opening the opportunity to correct errors and analyse results
Digital marketing verticals that boost business growth
Some of the major verticals of digital marketing and search engine marketing play a crucial role in improving business productivity and boosting ROI. They are mentioned in the listicle below:
SEO – the most important digital marketing vertical
SEO or search engine optimisation is the process of developing text and media content in a manner that boosts the visibility of businesses on the digital platform. Search engine marketing heavily relies on SEO best practices for better results.
SEO helps businesses grow the rankings on search engines without shelling a single buck. SEO also optimises businesses’ web presence for a better paid campaign performance.
Pay Per Click – Another search engine marketing tactic that helps companies grow
Pay per click performs well when the website is already SEO compliant. It basically works on a budget and keyword competing model. The more you infuse cash into your campaigns, the better your reach is.
PPC allows businesses to work on their marketing strategies and push the competition away. It works hand in hand with other marketing best practices.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of the major entities of digital marketing especially with the immense rise of companies such as Google and Meta. Marketing organically and inorganically on social media platforms is a paramount area of digital marketing that has proven to be beneficial for business growth.
Affiliate Marketing
Just like referral programs, affiliate marketing involves the collaborative efforts of two or more entities. One of the most commonly used digital marketing and search engine marketing methodologies out there, affiliate marketing allows businesses to sell their products/services on third-party platforms wherein the latter earns a percentage of the entire sale. Affiliate marketing demands intensive analytics and an experienced team behind it to make things run smoothly.
Conclusion
Search engine marketing and digital marketing are proven methods to drive business growth and reach out to a wider market. By October of 2024, the amount of digital marketing budget is projected to be around $225.66bn.
With such a drastic projection, it is pretty safe to conclude that digitalisation in general and digital marketing specifically is bound to drive businesses forward. With the world moving towards a complete transition into a digital village, social media marketing and digital marketing will turn out to be one of the most important domains to operate or work in.
About the Author
Sharon Hookings is an expert IT marketing professional at Work4you. Having 9+ years of extensive experience in different Digital Marketing channels, she is passionate about elevating brands through creative strategies.