In our digital age, it’s important to know the best ways to reach your target audience and boost your marketing strategies. One great way to accomplish this is through digital media. Understanding what digital media is and how it’s used can help you make more strategic decisions for your marketing and attract more people to your business and brand. In this guide, we discuss:
Image via Unsplash by Marvin Meyer
Digital media is information shared through a digital device or screen. Essentially, it’s any form of media that relies on an electronic device for its creation, distribution, viewing, and storage. Companies often use this form of media to advertise their businesses and brands. In fact, a majority of modern marketing involves some form of digital media to create and display advertising content. That includes social media posts, video advertisements, and blogs or research articles.
Related: How To Create a Blog: The Complete Guide to Blogging
There are several benefits in using digital media for your marketing efforts, including:
Being able to share and modify media can help businesses solve challenges more easily. For example, if a company prints a faulty advertisement in the newspaper, they can’t make modifications once the paper has gone to press. But if the company purchased an online ad, it can contact its advertising department and have them pull the ad, make the necessary changes, and republish. This can also give companies greater control over their marketing efforts.
With so many people having access to digital forms of media, it’s an excellent way to reach a wider audience. This can help you increase your sales and revenue. For example, let’s say you want to market a new skincare line. You can easily inform your audience about it by posting on your website and social media channels. Potential customers can then click on the links that lead to your e-commerce store where they can immediately make a purchase.
Digital forms of media have allowed both businesses and individuals to maintain relationships and friendships across time and distance. That’s because it can easily connect your customers with each other and your business. Whether you’re posting updates on social media or responding to comments in your blog, having a way to interact with your target audience can help you build a community around your brand.
When all employees can easily access digital advertisements and information, it can boost the company’s workflow and productivity. The ability to use email, smartphones, and the internet has made it easier for working professionals to finish their tasks quickly, giving them time to get more done during the workday. This increased productivity then helps companies generate more sales and revenue, making them more competitive in their industries.
Many companies, and particularly hiring managers, use digital media to attract and source talent to their organizations. It especially helps them attract digitally savvy candidates. Rather than advertising an open job in a newspaper, a hiring manager can post about the position on the company website, the company’s social media accounts, and on various online job boards. This allows them to reach a wider net of candidates and increase their chances of hiring a qualified candidate who best fits what they’re looking for.
Even in today’s digital age, the debate on the effectiveness of print media versus digital media is still ongoing. That’s probably because of the beneficial results both forms of marketing can give your business. For example, the response rate for direct mail marketing is 37% higher than email marketing. But that hasn’t stopped companies from incorporating digital media into their advertising campaigns. As of June 2019, 91% of organizations worldwide used content marketing to promote their brands.
But really, to create the most effective marketing campaign, it’s important to combine both digital and print media strategies. Companies that used both forms of media found a 400% effectiveness rate compared to companies that used just one or the other.
Relevant: 30 Popular Content Marketing Tactics
Because digital media is so vast, many industries have different avenues where they can share information. This helps them deliver experiences and information to a wide range of customers across the globe. Here are some industries that use digital media:
Read more: A Guide To Content Syndication [Infographic]
Though there are several examples of digital media to consider, they all typically fall into the following categories:
This refers to media that you or a company controls and possesses. Some examples of owned media include an electronic device, a website, a blog, a video, or a social media platform. Increasing the amount of digital media you create gives your business greater visibility. This visibility then increases your brand’s authority and improves its ranking on search engines.
Want to learn more about creating and promoting your own forms of digital media? CopyPress has a newsletter that gives its readers key content marketing strategies and tips to boost your owned media’s performance. Sign up for our newsletter today!
Earned media refers to shared information via word of mouth, testimonials, social media, or another format. Essentially, it’s advertising from your own customers. For example, if a customer recommends your services on social media, this is media you earn because they liked your services enough to share them with others. Unlike owned digital media, you don’t have control over what people say about your business and its products and services.
Paid media refers to digital media that you’ve paid for in order to promote your products or services. Typically, paid media aims to drive traffic back to your owned media. You can pay for an online advertisement to improve your website’s traffic, increase sales, and drive a profit. Examples of paid media include display ads and paid search ads.
Now that you know more about digital media, consider the following examples to give you a greater understanding of the formats in which companies use it for marketing and advertising:
For example, CopyPress has a library of different eBooks you can download for free. One of our most popular is our eBook on the Content Marketing Pyramid, which describes how different forms of content work together to build your brand. Download your copy today!
Now that you know more about digital media, consider how it can benefit you and your business. When you use digital forms of media strategically, you can grow your business, build a better brand awareness, and increase revenue. Looking for even more ways to attract your target audience? CopyPress has a team of expert writers, editors, and quality assurance specialists who know how to create quality content that converts your readers into customers. Schedule a free call with us today to see how we can help improve your content marketing campaign.
Read More About Content Marketing
We all know how powerful blogging can be for your business, but, just like social media, it’s only as effective as your level...
The holiday season is undeniably ripe for fresh marketing efforts, but it’s also a prime time for harried shopping, overfilled schedules, and plenty...
For many people, dating is not pleasant. Dating involves putting yourself out in the dating world for strangers to see, but it can...