Content marketing

Content marketing involves creating and distributing content—text, pictures, multimedia— that adds value for your audience, instead of just broadcasting an advertising message. If you’re in B2C (business to consumer), ‘content’ can mean social media posts, blog articles and fun videos; if you’re in B2B (business to business), it might be more white papers or reports, webinars and educational videos.

Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing is all about getting your website to appear at the top of the results when someone searches for your brand, your products and services and other relevant words and phrases. Think Google (let’s face it, that’s the main one) but also Bing (often installed on business computers, so good for B2B!). It includes both organic or natural search (search engine optimization, or SEO) and paid search (pay per click, or PPC) and both desktop computers and mobiles (as well as smart home assistants these days—see number 10—audio marketing).

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization does what it says on the tin: optimizing for search engines! This means creating content that people are actively searching for as well as making sure that this content, and the platforms where it’s sitting, is optimized from a technical point of view as well. Everyone should be doing this, no matter what business or industry you’re in.

Mobile marketing

Mobile Marketing is almost as broad as digital marketing itself and will overlap with a lot of the other types. It involves doing everything you’re doing on desktop but adapting it to mobile, as well as doing mobile-specific things like in-app advertising, sending text messages, and using social messaging apps. It’s especially important if you’re targeting a younger audience who spends all their time on their phones

Social media marketing

Compared to other channels like TV, print and even online display advertising, social media adds a whole new dimension of engagement and interaction. Instead of just broadcasting messages out at a mass audience, you can really interact with your customers and listen to what they have to say. There are all sorts of channels—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat—and options ranging from organic—for example, Facebook groups, page posts, stories and Messenger—to paid—like Facebook ads. Pretty much every business should be on at least a couple of these social channels.

Email marketing

Email may seem old school in a world where everyone is instant messaging or Snapchatting, but email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing tools. Especially e-commerce sites and retail brands are seeing a lot of success with pushing seasonal promotions and discounts (think Black Friday deals or Mother’s Day), while you can also use email newsletters to ‘nurture’ your prospects by giving them a lot of value beyond just pushing your products and services.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing involves partnering with influencers—celebrities, experts, authority figures—who have an existing audience. When they promote your product to their audience, often on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat or YouTube, loyal followers will jump on their recommendation and buy from you. You might naturally think of the Kardashians or some uber-cool young actress helping to promote your product to individual customers, but influencers can also be effective for B2B—it’s just that you’ll just be partnering with more serious and specific thought leaders or experts in your industry.

Affiliate marketing

means outsourcing to other individuals or companies who will promote your products in return for a commission. It’s especially popular with bloggers and with e-commerce sites (one of the biggest programs is Amazon Associates). The affiliate will promote your product on their website and if the customer clicks through and buys, then the affiliate will automatically receive a commission for driving that sale.

Video marketing

Video is the star of the show these days and if there’s one thing you should be doing, whatever your business, this is probably it! It can be a short clip or a longer format, educational or entertaining, pre-recorded or streamed live, in real time. It’s no longer just the case of taking a TV ad and putting that online but instead, you’re creating bespoke content for your digital channels.