Digital vs traditional marketing

The first aspect to consider is the difference – in terms of cost and accessibility – with traditional media.

Most forms of digital marketing, such as content marketing, are absolutely free to the exclusion of production costs.

And even when it comes to advertising, online advertising costs much less than offline, with a much greater ability to track actual conversions, as we’ll see.

Furthermore, studying digital marketing is within the reach of (almost) everyone.

Today, all you need to become an expert digital marketer mobile number list is a computer, an internet connection and the desire to learn.

Maybe you could add plenty of energy drinks too, but that’s about it.

As of January  2021, there were approximately 4.7 billion internet users worldwide, and this number is steadily increasing.

It is the first time in history that we have the opportunity to reach so many people, so easily.

And unlike most traditional marketing methods, digital marketing allows marketers to accurately measure their activities in real time.

Just to give you an example, you can use a tool like Facebook ads to target only men between the ages of 22 and 25 in metropolitan areas, who have a strong interest in CrossFit, and dance music … and above all, monitor the effect of campaigns on your site in real time, with the Facebook pixel (do not worry if all this seems Arabic to you, we will get there in due course and you can always learn more about the various terms in the articles to which the links refer).

Digital marketing and web marketing: let’s be clear

In the Babel of information that is the internet, even the way of calling online marketing is confusing.

You will find internet marketing, digital marketing, web marketing, sometimes even social media marketing or ecommerce marketing used indiscriminately.

In reality all these terms have slight differences, some obvious (social media and ecommerce, for example), others less so.

In general, we talk about digital marketing in a broad sense, including all those communication and sales activities that take place online. Web marketing, in turn, is the part relating to the web, so the list we made earlier could include, for example, content marketing, SEM, email marketing …

But the boundaries are blurred and it often depends on which side you look at it. For this reason, even the way in which I will divide the arguments of this article is not absolute, and is aimed at making the information as clear as possible.

To this end, the time has come to talk about digital marketing strategy and what is the backbone on which any business is based: the funnel.

Digital marketing strategy: the sales funnel

The digital marketing strategy is based on what is called a “sales funnel “.

The idea is to see the sales process as a big funnel: a structure that is very large at the beginning and is gradually squeezed as you go down.

The aim is to use various strategies to reach the people we care about and get them into the funnel. Then, you work to level them down, moving from one strategy to the other hand by hand, until you convert them into customers, and later into supporters of your brand.

Here is an overview of the digital marketing funnel:

Step 1: Attract

At the start of the funnel, you need to grab people’s attention for us in target.

This could involve using pay-per-click advertising, optimizing your website for search engines (the famous SEO), or social media marketing.

In short, it is about reaching people who do not know us or who do not take us into consideration to solve their needs, and start putting a flea in their ear about what our product / service can do.

Step 2: Convert

Once you’ve exposed potential customers to your brand, they enter the discovery phase.

At this point, they begin to explore the offers available to them based on their needs or wishes. They learn about your brand and see it as a point of reference for finding useful information.

In the conversion phase we have an already more specific audience, which from a series of unknown visitors turns into a group of contacts that we can start profiling.

In this phase we can use a long series of tools for generating contacts: pop-ups, downloadable materials such as ebooks and infographics, webinars, events, newsletters … everything is valid, the important thing is that there is a form to fill in to get their contact details and then do lead generation (and maybe a landing page )!

Step 3: Close

Now people are ready to buy, but they are considering their options.

They are deciding what to buy and from whom.

And, if you’ve been good at the previous stages, they’ll probably pick you.

There are other techniques that you can use at this stage. All of which can be trace back to lead nurturing. Contact activities that lead the potential customer to become a customer: discounts, email marketing, various support activities, customer service , etc.