Blog TAMANNEALI December 23, 2025 0 Comments

what is digital marketing

What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing utilizes online platforms, including websites, apps, social media, and search engines, to promote products, establish brand awareness, and engage consumers. Emerging in the 1990s with the rise of the internet, it now works alongside traditional marketing. Marketers benefit from the data-driven insights of digital marketing, but also face challenges from the rapidly evolving digital channels and the pace required to keep up.

Key Takeaways

Digital marketing involves using websites, mobile devices, social media, and search engines to promote products and services, offering an additional approach compared to traditional marketing methods.
Since the 1990s, digital marketing channels have evolved, including key platforms like email, social media, and pay-per-click advertising. Each requires strategic planning to effectively reach target audiences.
Key digital marketing strategies include website marketing, content creation, email campaigns, social media, affiliate marketing, and the emerging trend of video and text message marketing.
Marketers face challenges such as the rapid proliferation of digital channels, the need for effective data analysis, and capturing consumer attention amid digital distractions.
Successful digital marketers need strong communication skills, proficiency in data analytics, and a solid understanding of social media dynamics to effectively craft compelling marketing narratives.

Digital Marketing Definition — Investopedia / Mira Norian

Understanding the Mechanics of Digital Marketing

Marketing includes various techniques and media to promote products and increase market share. To be successful, it requires a combination of advertising and sales savvy. Professional marketers take on these tasks either internally at individual companies or externally at marketing firms that may serve many different clients.

Companies once focused on marketing through print, television, and radio because that was all they had. Although those options still exist, the internet gave companies another way to reach consumers and gave rise to digital marketing.

New technologies and trends compelled companies to adjust their marketing strategies and budgets. Email became a popular marketing tool in the early days of digital marketing. Then the focus shifted to search engines like Netscape, which allowed businesses to tag and keyword items to get themselves noticed. The development of social platforms like Facebook made it possible for companies to track user data and deliver their messages to very specific audiences.

Smartphones and portable devices enable companies to market products to consumers anywhere, and research shows that a large majority of American adults now make online purchases on their phones. DHL’s 2024 Purchasing Behavior Report found that 52% of shoppers across the globe report buying online at least once a week.1

Important

Digital marketing can be interactive, unlike traditional print or television advertising.

Exploring Various Digital Marketing Channels

Digital marketing channels have evolved since the 1990s and continue to do so. Here are eight of the most common channels in use today.

Website Marketing

Companies often use their own website as the centerpiece of their digital marketing activities. The most effective websites represent the brand and its products and services in a clear and memorable way. A website today must be fast-loading, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising enables marketers to reach audiences on news and other websites and digital platforms through paid ads. Marketers can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, and Facebook and show their ads to people searching terms related to their products or services.

These campaigns can segment users based on their demographic characteristics (such as age or gender), or their particular interests or location. The most widely used services for PPC are Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Content Marketing

The goal of content marketing is to reach potential customers through the use of written, visual, or video content that interests them. That content is usually published on a website and then promoted through social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, or even pay-per-click campaigns. Content marketing attempts to be more subtle than advertising, and the product or service the sponsor is attempting to market may or may not be conspicuously highlighted

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what is digital marketing