The digital marketing definition is normally standardized - but should it be? By definition, digital marketing is very similar to direct marketing but done through a digital fashion. Marketing as a whole can be classified under two broad categories: Push vs Pull. But the real question when defining what is digital marketing comes from the word “digital”.
Push Marketing is where you promote or advertise a product directly to the target customer without really knowing what they want. Push marketing is based on trends and forecasts - and companies will tailor their marketing strategy based on these trends. For example; newspaper ads, emails, TV commercials, radio ads, cold-calling, etc.
Pull Marketing is done by means of a customer requesting information, or in other words, it is based on actual, current demands. The customer will pull the information that they’re interested in and only consume what they want. For example; search engine searches, email opt-ins, specific blogs, etc.
We all understand that marketing is about influencing and promoting a product or service to an audience, but when we look at Digital Marketing, we must define what we mean by digital. When I think about digital, I think about platforms that the end user can interact with through both push AND pull strategies. Social media, social bookmarking, search engines, mobile, email, text message - all of these platforms allow users to interact with the information that is provided to them and each platform serves a different purpose. Even under umbrella categories, like social media, we can find a variety of platforms that can be used for different marketing purposes. For example, if we look at Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn - each of these social media networks serve a different purpose when it comes to digital marketing.
Google Plus is used to promote your passions to anyone who is willing to add you to their circle, Facebook is used to promote directly to friends and family, Twitter is all about perspective and getting real-time insights, and LinkedIn is used for professional type promotion. Search engines, mobile marketing, and email marketing are the same - they are all interactive and they each have their place within the digital marketing sphere.
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