In 2024, it has become essential for businesses to focus on digital marketing, whether they are online or in a brick-and-mortar setting. Digital marketing has a wide range of marketing channels, each bringing unique opportunities and benefits in connecting with customers or prospects. As per 2023 internet usage stats, 5.3 billion people have access to the internet, which amounts to two-thirds of the world’s population. The data shows the potential of digital marketing to reach a wide and diverse audience.
The global market for digital marketing is estimated at US $740.3 billion in 2024 as per Statista. Using digital marketing strategies effectively, companies generate an estimated 40% of their revenues.
We will explore some of the top components of digital marketing, such as search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, affiliate marketing, social media marketing, and more.
Major Components of Digital Marketing
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the oldest components of digital marketing. It started much before Google when meta-search engines used to rule the Internet. The term “search engine optimization” was coined by Webstep Marketing Agency, which used the term in its marketing material in 1997. However, Danny Sullivan(founder of Search Engine Watch, now works with Google) popularized the term. Check out our article on top advantages of Search Engine Optimization where we discussed in depth the benefits of SEO.
SEO focuses on enhancing a website’s visibility for organic search engine results with a target to increase the quantity and quality of traffic. On Google alone, 5.9 Million searches happen every minute. The number shows the importance of SEO for businesses. On average, 53.3% of all website traffic is through organic search. As per Backlinko, the #1 organic result at Google generates 39.8% CTR followed by 18.7% and 10.2% for numbers 2 and 3. This shows how important it is to rank in the top 3 results on Google for relevant keywords.
Top SEO strategies include on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and technical SEO. SEO is very dynamic due to regular algorithm updates, primarily by Google. Businesses and SEO must adapt their strategies to maintain and improve their rankings.
2. Content Marketing
Content marketing encompasses creating valuable and relevant content to attract a defined audience. The primary aim of content marketing is to drive customer action at all points in a marketing funnel. As per CMI, content marketing generates 3x more leads than any other outbound marketing but costs estimated 62% less.
82% of digital marketers are actively using content marketing as per a report by Hubspot. Many confuse content marketing with blogging, but it is much more than that. It involves videos, podcasts, infographics, and much more. The success of content marketing depends on how effectively the generated content can deliver information that addresses their needs and interests. For example, websites with blogs receive 97% more backlinks and 434% more indexed pages. (BKAContent)
3. Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing utilizes social media platforms to connect with the target audience to build a brand, drive traffic, and generate sales. In 2023, an estimated 4.2 billion social media users will be worldwide. For reference, the total human population of the world is 8 billion. Below are some of the stats for social media to prove its effectiveness –
- 29% of social media users are likelier to make purchases the same day after discovering the product. (Delloite)
- 54% of users claimed that they are using social media more now than in previous years (Sprout Social)
- As per Statista, average user spends 151 minutes daily on social channels
- As per a report by Buffer in 2019, 73% of the marketers have said that their social media marketing was effective for businesses.
Social media marketing involves organic and paid activities. The top activities include creating content, paid advertising, influencer marketing, and follower engagement.
4. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising is an arm of Internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee to the platform each time somebody clicks their ads. Instead of earning organic visits through SEO to your website, you are buying visits through PPC. With Google pushing for paid ads on its search engine, where Ads take over the top four spaces of SERP, it has become nearly impossible to get traffic through organic activities in some categories.
Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is the biggest PPC advertising channel, followed by others behind it. It allows businesses to place ads on its search engine and its owned properties. As per Google, on average, advertisers receive a profit of $8 for every $1 spent on Google search and Ads. Some top factors on which the success of the PPC ads depends are the landing page’s relevance, keywords relevance, ad copies, bidding strategy, etc.
5. Email Marketing
Email Marketing is another effective digital marketing strategy that sends an email to prospects, potential clients, and customers or just as a newsletter. Email marketing is one of the major elements of retention marketing, and marketers use it to convert one-time buyers into loyal customers. As per the latest report published at Litmus, the ROI of email marketing is a whopping 3600%. That means that email marketing makes $36 for every dollar spent. As per Quick Sprout, email subscribers share more content on social media that from other channels which is estimated 3.9 times. 79% of B2C and 87% of B2B marketers rely on email marketing to distribute their content as per Kinsta. Email marketing can send direct business messages to users’ inboxes to drive sales and engagement. However, the campaign’s success highly depends on the level of personalization and segmentation.
6. Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing involves partnering with social media influencers with a large following to promote the products or services. The influencer audience trust and engagement are tapped here for marketing purposes. As per influencermarketinghub.com, the influencer market is expected to grow to $24 billion by the end of 2024. The report further states that 60% of marketers intend to increase influencer marketing spending in 2024. Campaigns for influencer marketing get an average engagement rate of 5.7%, which is one of the highest compared to other marketing campaigns.
Due to their authenticity and relatability, people can relate to influencers in the niche market more than celebrities. This is one of the primary reasons for the super success of influencer marketing campaigns. However, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish an actual influencer from a fake one, which can mar the campaign’s success.
7. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest marketing channels, older than Google. It is a performance-based marketing channel where businesses reward an affiliate for the visitors it brings. It differs from other marketing channels because it rewards conversions rather than eyeballs. Due to the link with the conversions, the per-conversion cost is higher than pay-per-click campaigns. However, it is a win-win for both the advertiser and publisher, as the advertiser gets a conversion and the publisher gets a high commission.
Affiliate marketing channels utilize the power of influence and network to drive conversions. As per Statista, the Affiliate marketing industry has grown to $8.2 billion in the US with a 10.8% increase YOY. Worldwide, the current affiliate marketing industry is worth $17 billion. It is among the top 3 revenue sources for 31% of publishers. The average commission rate is 3-5%, which goes up to 30% in some networks like Clickbank. Amazon is one of the favorite affiliate publishers with publishers.
8. Web Analytics
Web Analytics is like the backbone of digital marketing. The famous quote by Peter Drucker fits perfectly for this marketing component: “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.” Web analytics helps analyze how a visitor interacts with the website. It helps identify ways to improve the visitor experience. It helps understand the outcome of different marketing activities for conversion. Based on the analytics data, marketers optimize budgets and spending.
Google Analytics is the most widely used web analytics tool on the web, with more than 50% of the publishers using it for their websites and apps.
Components of Digital Marketing FAQs
How Do the Components of Digital Marketing Work Together in a Strategy?
Every component works together in a digital marketing strategy to reach the goal. For example, content marketing and SEO are inseparable. It helps by helping with inbound links and outreach, creating content, etc. Social media allows the generated content to reach a wider audience and generate leads and traffic to the website. PPC and email marketing then help to target these leads directly with a target of increasing sales and conversions. Non of the components in digital marketing work in isolation, but the synergy between them makes it efficient and effective.
What Are the Benefits of a Digital Marketing Plan?
A digital marketing plan offers numerous benefits that include but not limited to the –
- Increased Reach: Reach a wider audience.
- Better Targeting: Precise targeting of specific demographics, interests, and behaviors.
- Measurable Results: Clear, quantifiable results that help to measure the success of campaigns and adjust strategies.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Most of the components are less expensive than traditional marketing methods. This makes it accessible for businesses of all sizes.
How Can You Measure the Success of Digital Marketing Components?
The success of digital marketing components includes analysis of various metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for individual components:
- SEO: Rankings on search engines, organic traffic, click-through rates (CTR), and the quality of inbound links.
- Content Marketing: Engagement metrics such as time spent on a page, bounce rate, social shares, and lead generation and conversion rates.
- Social Media Marketing: Growth in followers, engagement rates (likes, comments, shares), and conversion metrics.
- PPC: Click-through rate, cost per click (CPC), conversion rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
- Email Marketing: Open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and email list growth.
A lot of expenses in executing digital marketing strategies go into a set of tools and analytics platforms to track these KPIs effectively. A lot of components require separate tools to track the data. Some of the top tools include Google Analytics, SEMrush, Hootsuite, Salesforce, and HubSpot. These tools provide necessary data that helps to understand digital marketing efforts’ performance and identify improvement areas. Without proper tracking platforms, there is no way of achieving better ROI.
What are all the Components of Digital Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Digital Out-of-Home Advertising (DOOH)
- Display Advertising
- E-commerce Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- Marketing Analytics
- Mobile Marketing
- Native Advertising
- Online PR
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
- Programmatic Advertising
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- Sponsored Content
- Video Marketing
- Virtual Events and Webinars
