Digital Marketing or Inbound Marketing: Which Strategy Is Best For Your Audience?
It’s like hearing only one side of a story. You know some of the essential information, but you only really know the half of it! Digital marketing is very similar. Everyone wants to delve in, but not everyone knows how to dig deep beneath the surface and learn all that this seemingly complex jargon has to offer.
You may find yourself asking questions like, “What is digital marketing? How does it differ from inbound marketing? How can I decide which is right for my business and my clients?”...and so on. It can be perplexing, but it doesn’t have to be arduous.
So, What Is Digital Marketing?
In simple terms, digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands that leverage electronic devices (PC, Tablet, Phone, etc). It’s purpose is to offer a unique understanding of consumer behavior while providing an experience that influences a desired audience to take an action.
Digital marketing is not simply the channel of delivery, but the way in which an experience comes to life. Social media, in particular, has been a great ambassador to the cause of digital media, given that 72% of internet users are now active on it. Other advertising mediums that may be used as part of the digital marketing strategy include promotional efforts made via the Internet (banner advertising, email marketing, websites), mobile phones, television, and radio channels.
If you are looking to utilize a digital marketing strategy for your website, here a few starting pointers you can take advantage of to ensure its success:
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Develop a strategy that delineates your target audience, goals, channels, methods, and metrics
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Make sure that your brand’s message is well defined and you can actively communicate to your consumers who you are
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Each piece of content that you create and publish is unique to your site and is backed by reliable data, therefore optimizing your content is a must.
- Monitor and track your progress, this way you will be able to see which techniques are working and which are faring behind.
And Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a more holistic, data-driven approach to marketing that attracts and converts visitors to your brand. It involves a great deal of content creation for a more dynamic and educational experience meant to appeal to prospects in all levels of the buying process.
Inbound marketing attracts qualified prospects to your business via blogging, SEO and website pages that keeps them coming back for more. Whether your intended goal is to spark awareness of your website or generate a sale, inbound captures the attention of your prospects and guides them to your website. Here are a few helpful tips if you plan to further your inbound marketing pursuits.
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A customer’s engagement on a website relies heavily on how it looks. Therefore, make sure that you present your content in an appealing manner, choosing the appropriate colors and layout
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Inbound is all about attracting prospects, and one of the best ways to do this is through blogging. Be sure that you are blogging regularly and keep a consistent performance so search engines have a greater chance of picking it up.
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Know who your target audience is and generate content based off of their needs and what they deem valuable
- Don’t overly “sell” your brand. Customers want ideas and information before they can trust your business.
Now, How Do You Decide What Is Best For Your Business, and More Importantly, Your Audience?
All said and done, digital marketing takes on a “Promotional” approach whereas inbound marketing takes on the “Content-focused” approach. While both approaches have a lot of similarities, their implementations and strategies are very different. Thus arises the question, “How do I know which is right for my business?”
Are you ready? Drum roll please……..it is REALLY knowing your audience! Without knowing your audience, what their pain points are or what they are buzzing about in social media, how do you really know what marketing strategy to employ: inbound or digital?
Inbound marketing is designed to generate leads. So, if this is your intended goal for your business and you are searching for a systematic way to to drive those leads, then inbound may be a better fit for your business. However, if your goal is to improve the visual identity of your company online and upgrade your brand, then pursuing a digital marketing strategy may be more your style.
The quantification of success isn’t always about which technique is right and which is wrong. A majority of the time it is about what works and what doesn’t. In a world where the intended target has unlimited choices, it’s up to marketers (inbound and digital) to understand the customer journey, their expectations and the desired outcomes from a multitude of scenarios.
Before you decide which is best for your company, scheduling a free consultation with a marketing agency to answer some questions may be beneficial while you are learning more about inbound and digital marketing.
