What is online marketing in 2020?
When we talk about online marketing, we are essentially talking about promoting a business online using a variety of channels.
These channels include search, social, video, e-mail, and display. Today’s customer lives across these channels and online marketing is about finding ways to be present the right way at the right moment. The internet is transforming the way that people buy products or services. And now, with rising mobile usage, that experience is everywhere. This means that the customer is in charge of the buying process. They have all the resources to conduct research, compare options in real time, share what they have found, and even ask their peers for recommendations, all digitally.
What was once the norm in marketing is now taking a backseat to its online counterpart.
Print is dropping in readership, people are leaving cable for on-demand shows served up by digital companies like Netflix. We’re distracted by a text message from our favorite online retailer while we walk the streets. So we will probably miss those advertisements in the windows and next to the bus stops. Streaming music is on the rise and paying for services eliminates advertising from interrupting our experience. Paper Yellow Pages booklet has been replaced by Google Local and Yelp, where the consumer can see reviews, customer ratings, comparisons and even pictures of the business.
While in store, people are holding their phones scanning barcodes, chasing deals, and deciding whether it’s cheaper to buy online.
And that’s where online marketing comes in. As a business, you need to stand out in all these channels. With so many customer interaction points and what seems like an endless amount of channels, online marketing can feel overwhelming but the logic behind is quite simple.
So to better understand it, let’s talk about the three types of media you will be using in online marketing.
Paid, Owned, and Earned.
Paid media includes channels like Google search advertising solutions, Facebook and Instagram paid ads, and display advertising solutions. Owned media encompasses channels like the company website, a list of customers to whom you can send out e-mails, and a blog with an active readership. Earned media is the world of organic press. Your social media accounts, mentions on other blogs, and articles written about you make up the channels within earned media. And all of these channels overlap, just as a user will overlap as they interact with each other.
And together, these make up the foundation of online marketing in 2020. So, at the end of the day, online marketing is the process of showing all your business value proposition and unique advantages along the journey your customer takes across all the funnel from awareness to purchase enabling advocacy.
