Category: Marketing Madness

Table of Contents

• The Power of Influencer Marketing – Why is It Essential for Business?
• What is influencer marketing?
• Benefits of influencer marketing
• Future Trends in Influencer Marketing
• Influencer Marketing as A Career Choice
• Conclusion

In today’s hyper-connected world, where attention spans are fleeting and traditional marketing tactics are losing their impact, there is a new force that has emerged as a game-changer for businesses.This force is called Influencers.

With the explosion of social media, influencers hold sway over thousands, or even millions of devoted followers.These influencers possess the unique ability to captivate, inspire, and shape the opinions of their engaged audiences. Now imagine what they could do for your brand.

In this dynamic landscape, a rounded digital marketing training program will make you understand the importance of influencer marketing for businesses is not just a choice; it is a strategic necessity. But first, join us as we delve into the world of influencer marketing and uncover why it has become an indispensable tool for digital marketing.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing refers to a strategic approach in which brands collaborate with individuals, known as influencers, to promote their products or services to a targeted audience. These are typically individuals who have established a dedicated following and possess the ability to influence the opinions, purchasing decisions, and behaviours of their followers. Influencers have an active and engaged community, and their endorsements can spark conversations, comments, likes, and shares, creating meaningful interactions around your brand. This gives brands a way to reach their target audience easily and have an enhanced credibility and trust.

By leveraging the power of personal and authentic connections, influencer marketing greatly benefits business. Let us see how.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has had such a strong impact on the business that today traditional advertising budgets are increasingly being reallocated towards influencer marketing. The Association of National Advertisers reported that 75% of advertisers use influencer marketing, and 43% plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in the coming years.

Let’s see why brands are choosing influencer marketing over traditional marketing:

• Increased Brand Awareness and Visibility: By partnering with influencers who have a significant following, you can expose your brand to a wider audience, leading to increased brand recognition and awareness.
• Impactful Content Creation: Influencers are skilled content creators who understand their audience’s preferences. They can produce authentic and engaging content that resonates with their followers, making your brand message more relatable and impactful.
• Access to New Markets and Audiences: Collaborating with influencers from different geographic locations or niche markets can help you tap into new customer segments and expand your brand’s reach to previously untapped markets.
• Measurable ROI and Performance Tracking: Influencer marketing campaigns can be tracked and analysed, providing valuable data on key metrics such as reach, engagement, website traffic, and conversions. This allows you to measure the success of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions for future marketing strategies.

Future Trends in Influencer Marketing

As influencer marketing continues to evolve, several exciting trends and innovations are shaping its future. These trends are driven by technological advancements, changing consumer preferences, and the need for authenticity and transparency. Here are some key trends to watch out for:

• AI-Driven Influencer Marketing Platforms: Artificial intelligence is revolutionising influencer marketing. AI-powered platforms can analyse vast amounts of data to identify the most suitable influencers for specific campaigns, automate content creation, and provide advanced analytics and performance tracking.
• Micro-Influencers and Nano-Influencers: While macro-influencers have been popular, the focus is shifting towards micro-influencers and nano-influencers. These influencers have smaller but highly engaged audiences and can provide highly targeted reach to specific niche markets. Brands are recognizing the value of these influencers’ authentic connections and high engagement rates, making them an effective choice for niche campaigns.
• Virtual Influencers and CGI Creations: Virtual influencers, in the form of computer-generated characters with lifelike appearances, are emerging as a new trend in influencer marketing. These virtual influencers offer complete control over their messaging, aesthetics, and brand alignment. Additionally, CGI creations can be used to produce unique and engaging content, pushing the boundaries of creativity, and capturing audience attention.
• Performance-Based Influencer Marketing: Brands are shifting towards performance-based influencer marketing, where influencers are compensated based on specific campaign objectives and measurable results. This includes promoting the brand and selling it via promo codes, wherein the influencer is compensated for each sale that used the promo code.

Influencer marketing is a growing field and is a great opportunity for students who are going for a digital marketing course. Let us see how influencer marketing can lead you to success.

Influencer Marketing as A Career Choice

According to an analysis by MarketsandMarkets, the market size for influencer marketing platforms worldwide is anticipated to reach 24.1 dollars billion by 2025,.

Influencer marketing has the opportunities for financial success and can be a great choice specially during your digital marketing training.

Here are few ways you can earn through influencer marketing: –

Sponsored Posts: Some brands pay influencers to create content promoting their products or services. This can include product reviews, endorsements, or featuring the brand in a lifestyle post.

Affiliate Marketing: Influencers can earn a commission for driving sales or leads to a brand’s website through unique affiliate links or promo codes in their own pages or feeds.

Brand Collaborations: Brands may collaborate with influencers on long-term partnerships, where the influencer becomes a brand ambassador.

Brand Partnerships: Influencers can partner with brands to co-create products or collaborate on exclusive merchandise lines.

Events and Speaking Engagements: Influencers with a strong personal brand and expertise in their niche can be invited to speak at events, conferences, or workshops.

Content Licensing: Influencers can monetize their content by licensing it for commercial use. Brands or media agencies may be interested in using the influencer’s high-quality photos, videos, or other creative assets for their own marketing campaigns.

Consulting and Coaching: Influecers who have established themselves as experts in their field can offer consulting services or coaching programs to individuals or brands looking to grow their online presence.

If you are looking for a successful career in influencer marketing, here is your way to reach new heights.

Conclusion

With these examples, it’s clear that influencer marketing holds immense potential for success in the digital age. As the field of influencer marketing continues to evolve, staying updated with the latest trends and innovations is crucial. This is where upGrad Campus digital marketing course shines. upGrad Campus provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge curriculum that equips aspiring digital marketers with the knowledge and skills to harness the power of influencer marketing and excel in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Let us suppose you moved into a new flat and decided to invite your friends to a housewarming party. However, your friends weren’t able to locate your home.Wouldn’t that put a damper to your plans?

Brands face the same challenge when their potential audience isn’t unable to locate them, despite their best marketing efforts.

Enter SEO, aka Search Engine Optimization.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about SEO best practices usually recommended by the best Digital Marketing courses, and how including these can take your website to the next level. So, buckle up, and let’s get started.

What is SEO: Why Is It Important for Your Career?

Imagine spending hours crafting a blog post or creating a stunning website, only to find that it’s buried deep in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Isn’t it frustrating?

You may have hired a website developer but the website is not properly optimised according to SEO norms. Hence, without the link or the name, no visitors can view your website. That’s why SEO matters.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a set of practices to optimise your content with the goal of increasing your online visibility, attracting more visitors to your website, and ranking your page on SERP.

Whether you’re a blogger, a business owner, or a digital marketer, mastering SEO is essential to stand out in today’s online world. But SEO isn’t important only for businesses.

As an SEO practitioner, you have an opportunity to earn as much as 15 LPA, provided you take the right Digital marketing course with placement training. Moreover, SEO is a constantly evolving field, and by staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices, you can maintain a competitive edge in your industry.

Now that you understand why SEO is important, let’s dive into some practical tips for mastering SEO.

Keyword Research and Analysis

The most important aspect of SEO is keywords. Keywords are phrases that website visitors enter in the search engine (like Google, Bing) to find your website.

In SEO, keyword research is a crucial process of identifying keywords that are relevant to your business and target audience. The goal of keyword research is to find the “right” keywords that will drive significant traffic to your website, while also having relatively low competition with other brands. Deep research in choosing keywords and rightly placing it can increase the relevancy, authority, and search volume of the content.

These tools will give you insights into the search volume, competition, and difficulty of different keywords, allowing you to choose the most relevant and valuable ones for your business.

Commonly used SEO terms – On Page & Off Page

On-page SEO refers to any activity on your website that directly improves the page to higher its ranking. It includes optimising your content, HTML source code, and website structure. It includes Page crawling and indexing which are activities that enable search engines to discover and analyse your web content. More on this will be covered in the next Digital Marketing blog.

Here are some factors that impact On-Page SEO:

1. Title Tag: The title tag is a critical on-page SEO factor consisting of around 55 characters that should accurately describe the content of the page and include relevant keywords.
   
2. Meta Description: The meta description is a short summary of the page’s content that appears in search engine results pages. It should be around 155 characters and provide a compelling reason for users to click on the link.
   
3. Header Tags: Header tags structure the content of a web page and make it easier for search engines to understand the main topics and subtopics covered with rightly placed keywords.
   
4. Content Quality: The quality of the content on the page can make or break your SEO efforts. It should be relevant, original within 4% of plagiarism, useful, and engaging for the user, and provide comprehensive coverage of the topic.
5. Image Optimisation: Images should be optimised for size and quality, and include alt text that describes the image and includes relevant keywords.
   
6. Keyword Usage: Using relevant keywords and phrases throughout the content, URL, meta tags, and image alt tags can help search engines understand the topic of the page. However, it’s important to avoid overusing keywords, as this can negatively impact the page’s ranking.
   
7. Internal Linking: Internal linking helps search engines understand the relationships between pages on a website and improves the user experience by making it easier to navigate.
   
8. Site Speed: Site speed is a critical on-page SEO factor that can impact both user experience and search engine rankings. Your website should open within 2 seconds to reduce the bounce rate.
9. Mobile Responsiveness: With more users accessing the internet on mobile devices, mobile responsiveness is an essential on-page SEO factor. Your website should feel as user friendly on phone screen as on laptop or desktop screen.

Now let’s come to Off-page optimization.

Off-page SEO refers to the plan of action to boost your content on other websites across the web. The goal is to get other sites to mention your website and increase the number of links to your website on the web.

Here are some important factors which impact Off-page SEO:

1. Backlinks: Backlinks, also called “incoming links”, “inbound links,” or “one way links”, are links from one website to a page on another website through an anchor text. The page that contains the backlink to your website should have relevance, quality, and authority for search engines to vote for it.
   
2. Social Media: When you’re posting on social media, include relevant information and keywords in captions, alt-text, subtitles, and closed captions of every post. This is a great way to direct traffic to your website through social media.
   
3. Online Directories: Listing your website in online directories, such as Yelp or Google My Business, can help increase the visibility of your website in local search results and improve your website’s authority.
   
4. Guest Blogging: Guest blogging involves writing and publishing articles on other websites which can help you establish yourself as an authority in your industry and earn backlinks to your website.
5. Brand Mentions: Even if a website doesn’t link back to your website through URL, a mention of your brand can still have a positive impact on off-page SEO.
   
6. Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking involves submitting your content to social bookmarking websites like Reddit, Pinterest,Tumblr, etc. which can help increase the visibility of your content and potentially lead to more backlinks.
   

Having a solid understanding of on-page and off-page optimisation techniques through a Digital Marketing course is essential for anyone looking to build a successful career in the Digital Marketing field.

Technical SEO: Site Structure, URL Structure, and Sitemaps

Technical SEO is the cornerstone of a high ranking website. A website with technical issues can lead to poor search engine rankings, low traffic, and a poor user experience.

Technical SEO involves:

1. Site Structure: The site structure refers to the way a website’s pages are organised and linked to one another. A well-organised site structure is essential for both search engines and users, as it makes it easier for them to navigate and understand the website’s content.
   
2. URL Structure: URLs should be short, descriptive, and easy to read for both search engines and users. URLs that are too long, contain unnecessary parameters, or use dynamic variables can be challenging for search engines to crawl and index.
   
3. Sitemaps: Sitemaps are essential for search engines as they make it easier for them to crawl and index a website’s pages. A sitemap should be submitted to search engines to ensure that all pages are properly indexed.
   

A well-optimised website is necessary to provide a better user experience, leading to increased engagement, lower bounce rates, and higher user satisfaction.

SEO Professional Career in India & Salary

SEO is a growing field in India, with many opportunities for professionals to build their career. With the right Digital marketing courses, SEO professionals in India can earn an average salary of 3.5 LPA per year, with senior professionals earning up to 15 LPA per year.

To build a career in SEO, it’s essential to have a strong understanding of digital marketing and SEO best practices. Pursuing a digital marketing course can help you develop the skills and knowledge you need to excel in this field.

Conclusion

Mastering SEO is an essential skill for anyone looking to establish a successful career in digital marketing. If you want to build a successful career in SEO, you should go for the upGrad Campus digital marketing course with placement training. One of the most comprehensive Digital Marketing courses, this program covers all aspects of SEO and equips you with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the digital marketing industry.

Table of Contents

• Introduction to Digital Marketing
• Market-review
• Career in Digital Marketing
• Opportunities in Digital Marketing
• Placement & Salary
• upGrad Campus Digital Marketing Course
• Salient features of the program
• Conclusion – Enrich your knowledge with upGrad Campus

Introduction to Digital Marketing

In our digital era, marketing has taken on a whole new meaning. Grey are the days of traditional advertising methods such as print media and radio spots. Today, even small-scale companies are turning to Digital Marketing in order to effectively reach their target audience. Digital Marketing isn’t just a powerful tool for businesses, but an essential skill for youth and working professionals of millennials and Gen Z. It provides a platform to build engaging relationships with customers, allows you to get creative with trends, and helps you stay in-the-know about the latest updates. In this blog, we will discuss how Digital Marketing has changed the landscape of advertising.

Digital Marketing – A Quick Fact Check

Having said how Digital Marketing is growing with the trends, let’s do a quick fact check on its demand. 

According to a report by Expert Market Research,the advanced advertising and Digital Marketing profession scope in the Indian market will be valued at $ 24.1B by 2028, which is currently valued at $ 4.5B. Indeed, the growth of Digital Marketing can easily be seen with the advent of ad platforms like Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Meta Ads, which are available to help in business growth by reaching their target audience. As compared to the conventional model of advertisement, Digital Marketing has proven to be the best advertisement tool with minimal budget and proper insights that will act as an important factor in planning long-term business growth strategies. 

Besides, the use of Analytics and Data Science allows marketers to gain insights into the effectiveness of their campaigns and target the right audience on the right channels. Also, the use of AI and Machine Learning technologies in Digital Marketing further increases the efficiency of campaigns. Brands now have access to a whole range of AI-driven marketing tools such as chatbots and Predictive Analytics to help them drive more engagement and sales. Altogether, it is obvious that Digital Marketing has come a long way in just a short span of time. As its growth continues, the implementation of Digital Marketing tools is becoming increasingly common among any business around the world. 

Getting into all the above facts, it’s easy to realize how the Digital Marketing industry is growing fast, and the demand for professionals is rapidly increasing.That’s why it’s important to select the right Digital Marketing courses, training and certifications which can help you succeed in this field and boost your career prospects.

Careers in Digital Marketing

A career in Digital Marketing is a great option if you want to work with a wide range of topics and technologies, and the pay can be very attractive. Some common roles in this field are: 

✔ Content Developer

✔ Digital Marketing Strategist

✔ Media Planner

✔ Campaign Manager

✔ Social Media Manager

✔ SEO Executive

✔ Email Marketer 

and many more. 

Here’s sky is the limit as you don’t have to gain the professional trust of 3 – 7 years to get the promotion with a good hike. Having productive insight can let you grow.

Job Opportunities in Digital Marketing

A great shift has been created due to this digital era in which every business wants to have an in-house Digital Marketing professional; but the availability of such professionals is lesser than the demand. Companies across all industries, from small businesses to large multinationals, are turning to Digital Marketing to promote their brands.

Placement & Salary

The salary packages for Digital Marketing professionals vary depending on experience and qualifications, but freshers can expect to earn between 4 LPA to 6 LPA. The right qualifications and Digital Marketing Course With Placement can make all the difference, leading to higher salaries and better job opportunities.

upGrad Campus Digital Marketing Certification Course

Are you interested in availing these opportunities and becoming a Digital Marketing professional? With upGrad Campus’ online Digital Marketing program, you can do just that! As a digital marketer, it is essential that you stay ahead of the curve. upGrad Campus’ Digital Marketing Course With Placement covers the entire spectrum, from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Social Media to Digital Analytics and more. As part of the program, you’ll be exposed to a range of topics and concepts. Listed below are some of the key benefits offered by upGrad Campus’ Digital Marketing course.

Salient features of the program

1. Comprehensive and Updated Curriculum

The upGrad Campus Digital Marketing Certification Course provides in-depth learning and offers comprehensive coverage of the fundamentals of Digital Marketing. The curriculum is regularly updated with the latest tools and technologies to ensure that you are fully equipped to tackle the challenges of the industry.

2. Accessible and Interactive Learning Platform

Every upGrad Campus student has access to a simulated online environment, providing 24/7 online assistance through mentor and expert assistance. Our courses are designed in a way so that each user learns at their own pace and in the comfort of their home.

3. Experiential Learning Opportunities

upGrad Campus’ Digital Marketing Certification Course also offers hands-on projects and activities to ensure experiential learning and to instill a comprehensive understanding of the Digital Marketing trends and strategies. Learning the nuances of digital marketing with our program includes the use of up to 46 different tools. This helps to further strengthen students’ knowledge and prepare them for the best possible job or internship opportunities. 

4.  Career Support System

Our Placement Plus and Internship Plus programs provide you with the necessary career support, including certified mentor guidance, industry expert advice and valuable tips for helping you to develop your career pathway. These add-on courses are aimed at helping you unlock job opportunities with leading companies all around the world. With Placement Plus, our experts will assist you with getting up to 3 assured interviews. Both Placement Plus and Internship Plus cover soft skills training, resume building, mock interviews and GD preparation that ultimately help you land your dream job as a digital marketer.

Enrich your knowledge with upGrad Campus

The Digital Marketing Certification Course at upGrad Campus gives you in-depth access to industry knowledge, tools and trends. Moreover, you will also have the chance to engage with industry veterans while taking the course.This is the perfect opportunity to build your professional network and connect with the best mentors around. They will help you hone your skills while giving you advice to compete successfully in the Digital Marketing world. On completion of this program, you will be able to do freelancing jobs, run business/start-up or have a stellar career in a good company.  

Ready to make your mark in the world of Digital Marketing? Take this next step in your career

and enrich your knowledge with upGrad Campus’ online Digital Marketing Certification Course. Enroll Now and upgrade your Digital Marketing skills!

At the cusp of 2023 – well into the 21st Century – there is almost nobody who hasn’t been faced by a piece of Digital Marketing. Be it a blog, a post, an advertisement on Youtube or even on Spotify. Whether you’re privy to it or not – this world is run by Digital Marketing.

Most of you might already know what Digital Marketing is, but for those of you who’re new here – let’s discuss.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the method of marketing products or services using digital platforms and devices. Digital marketing involves the application of techniques and sharing information for the purposes of promoting new products and services and engaging with customers through online platforms. So what does the Future of Digital Marketing look like?

The Future and Scope of Digital Marketing

At the pace at which Digital Marketing is growing, it is predicted that by 2025 there will be zero tolerance for poor Digital experiences. The Covid-19 pandemic really pushed the envelope for a better digital infrastructure – with Traditional Marketing out of the question, every company relied heavily on Digital Marketing.

But that’s not all. Read further to see what are the benefits of Digital Marketing.

Top 11 Benefits of Digital Marketing

By now you may have realised that digital marketing is vital for almost every company, industry, sector. You can no longer solely rely on traditional marketing to reach your audience – especially when you’re aiming for a global reach. If you’re not sold yet – let us show you the 11 best benefits of Digital Marketing.

Reaching a Global Audience

4.83 Billion people use some form of social media. That is more than half the world’s population.Throw in Content Marketing, Email Marketing and Search Engine Marketing and you can easily reach any corner of the world.

Marketing to a niche audience

Using tools like Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing, you can actually ensure that your Ad reaches the audience of your choice.

Increased ROI

ROI is calculated by measuring how much profit the company gained based on the initial investment. Running campaigns on digital platforms like Google Ads, Instagram, Facebook etc. are much more cost effective and ensure a higher view rate.

Trackable and Measurable Results

Using Digital Marketing and the tools that come with it – like Google Analytics – you can effectively track all your campaigns end to end.

Improved Conversion Rates

Since you can specifically target the audience that is interested in your brand, the chances of them actually purchasing your product is higher.

Increase Social Currency

Social media channels allow you to increase your influence as a brand and create a better reputation in the market.

Interactive Marketing

In Digital Marketing there is room for two-way communication between the brand and the consumer.

Scope for A/B Testing

Using Digital Marketing you can split your audience into different groups and test different Ads on these groups to check in one campaign itself – which Ad performs better.

Remarketing Opportunities

You can specifically market your products to the people who have already shown interest in your brand, using Digital Marketing. This technique is also called Rebranding.

Better Customer Experience

Digital Marketing gives you the opportunity to customise your marketing efforts to suit different groups of people. This calls for a better customer experience.

Higher Engagement

Digital mediums allow the brand to engage with the audience one on one.

Benefits of Digital Marketing for Students

Digital Marketing is one the most in-demand jobs right now making it the perfect time to start your Digital Marketing journey. upGrad Campus offers a holistic Digital Marketing course that can help you kick-start your career in this competitive field. Take a look at a few of the benefits of a Digital Marketing course with us and working in this field:

• No Specific Educational Background is Required
• Outrageously High Demand for Digital Marketers
• High-Paying Jobs
• Fast-Growing Industry
• Get Better Job Security
• Diverse Career Paths
• Entrepreneurship Opportunities
• Freelance Job Opportunities
• You Can Explore Different Sectors
• Work in a Diverse Environment

If you want a more comprehensive guide of what is the use of doing a Digital Marketing course you can check out our ‘Ultimate guide on Digital Marketing’.

Benefits of Digital Marketing in India

If you think you need to go abroad to flourish in Digital Marketing – you’re mistaken!
Digital Marketing is flourishing in India – here are the benefits of digital marketing in India:

• India is one of the top 4 internet users in the world
• More than 67% of Indians use Social Media
• Lucrative Salary packages for Freshers, with an average of 6 LPAs
• India’s has a stronger tech background compared to countries in the West
• The estimated market value of Digital Marketing in India is 567 Billion INR

In India the field of Digital Marketing is only going to flourish, as the government itself has been increasing its efforts towards this field.

Indian Government’s push for a Digital India

Digital India is a campaign launched by the Indian government, to ensure a better online infrastructure and better online services to the citizens of India. This push for digital literacy is going to increase the demand and scope both for Digital Marketers in India.

Conclusion

We hoped this article helped you understand the importance of Digital Marketing both as a student and as a company. If this article has got you interested in Digital Marketing you can check out our Digital Marketing certification course and kickstart your career in this field.

Table of Contents

• What is Digital Marketing
• What are the types of Digital Marketing
• Importance of Digital Marketing
• Digital Marketer Skills That Freshers Need
• Digital Marketing Career Opportunities
• Digital Marketing Job Trends in India
• FAQ
• Conclusion

Instagram reels, Facebook shares, Influencers. Do you think this is all there is to Digital Marketing? You’re in for a surprise, pal!

Luckily for you, we have the ultimate guide on Digital Marketing that will help you understand where you stand and where you need to go in the long and ever-changing field of Digital Marketing. This blog covers everything you need to know about Digital Marketing, starting with the most important question – what is Digital Marketing?

What is Digital Marketing?

In today’s world, it’s impossible to find a person who wouldn’t have been subjected to Digital Marketing at all. But while everyone has been exposed to it, not everyone understands the meaning of Digital Marketing.

Digital Marketing is an umbrella term covering a single or a combination of activities which allows brands to connect with their customers/target audience. Simply put, it covers any piece of online communication – email/social media ad/search engine result, etc. – that allows users to find and connect with a brand.

Sounds confusing? The best way to understand what Digital Marketing is is by exploring the different Digital Marketing channels.

What are the types of Digital Marketing?

There are many types of Digital Marketing channels. The most widely used ones are:

Social Media Marketing (SMM): A Digital Marketing type that is most recognizable is perhaps Social Media Marketing. Social Media Channels like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter, etc. are used to build brand awareness amongst your target audience and to interact with them, sometimes, in a one-to-one manner.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This type of Digital Marketing involves building searchable content on your website and other web pages. The end goal is that your brand name should appear on top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), when users search for particular keywords in Search Engines like Google, Bing, etc. Let’s face it – nobody really looks at any results beyond the third page. So the idea is that your brand should make an appearance as early as possible on the first page itself.

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC): You must have seen several ads in the form of images, banners and sometimes occurring as search results when you search for a particular topic. These are all forms of PPC. In this Digital Marketing type, the brand pays the website/search engine where the ad is displayed, only if the viewer clicks on the ad. Hence, the name Pay Per Click.

Email Marketing: Email has been and continues to be one of the most powerful tools in Digital Marketing. It has widespread reach, is easy to design and versatile enough to include all types of content. That is why brands make use of email marketing to communicate with their audiences.

Affiliate Marketing: In affiliate marketing, brands pay a commission to affiliates to talk up the brand’s product or service on the affiliate’s website. The affiliate could be an individual or another company itself.

Although there are new channels that are evolving every other day, most of them fall under one of the above 5 types of Digital Marketing.

But, we still haven’t addressed a very important question yet – why is Digital Marketing important?

Importance of Digital Marketing

To understand the importance of Digital Marketing, one must understand what are the benefits of Digital Marketing. There are many benefits of Digital Marketing, for brands and individuals alike:

1. Owing to the fact that the internet is accessible to everyone and is not restricted to locations, brands are able to reach a larger audience via Digital Marketing.
2. One of the most important benefits of Digital Marketing is the ROI. With even a small budget, you can reach a larger audience.
3. When it comes to traditional marketing vs. Digital Marketing, you can directly measure the results of a Digital Marketing campaign, which the former does not allow for.
4. With Digital marketing, you can perform A/B testing. You can run two campaigns – campaign A and campaign B – each across a small set of audiences and see which one performs better. You can then scale up the campaign to a larger audience.
5. Digital marketing allows consumers to find and connect with their brands on a one-on-one basis.
6. Digital marketing employs a diverse set of skills – creativity, communication, design, technology, problem-solving, data analysis and more, thereby offering a range of job opportunities.

The benefits of Digital Marketing extend well and beyond the above list. We will expand them further in our subsequent blogs. But first, let’s understand what skills you need to become a Digital Marketer.

Digital Marketer Skills That Freshers Need

For every type of Digital Marketing channel, there is a range of skills to learn. It can be quite daunting for a fresher to understand which skills to pick up, especially considering that Digital Marketing trends change by the day.

As a general rule of thumb, you should familiarize yourself with:

1. Data Analysis:
   As mentioned earlier, you can measure the performance of Digital Marketing campaigns. So data is something you will be constantly working with. You need to have the ability to clean data, analyze data (e.g. user demographics), derive meaningful insights and present them in a way that is easy to make marketing decisions.

   Tools & Platforms to know: Google Analytics, MS Excel, and more.

2. SEO & SEM: In their own right, both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) help brands to rank higher on Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Whereas SEO focuses on doing so with free content like the brand’s own website, backlinks, etc. SEM achieves this objective with paid promotions.

   Tools & Platforms to know: Google Ads, SEMRush, Google Analytics, SEPSitecheckup.com, Serpstat and more.

3. Social Media Marketing (SMM): In marketing there is a popular saying – be where your customers are. And that is exactly what social media allows brands to do. Social media initially began as a simple platform for people to connect with one another. But in the hands of Digital Marketers, it has expanded to so much more. Today, social media marketing includes regularly posting quality content on the various (and relevant) channels, running YouTube/Instagram/Facebook/Linkedin ads, collaborating with influencers, online reputation management by way of responding to comments and queries, and so much more.

   Tools & Platforms to know: Facebook Ads Manager, Twitter Analytics, Hootsuite, Mention,
   Tweetdeck and more.

4. Content Creation: What is a digital marketing strategy that is more important than the others? In a word, content! There is a reason why they say Content is King. If your content doesn’t have the ability to attract your audience, then all other Digital Marketing efforts are pointless. As a Digital Marketer, you will be expected to understand various types of content (blogs/video scripts/ebooks/social media content, even email), and have a solid foundation in at least a couple of these.

   Tools & Platforms to know: WordPress, Mailchimp, Inshot, Canva, etc.

5. Communication & Visualization skills: As a Digital Marketer, it is expected of you to have superior communications skills and the ability to visualize ideas. Your language skills need not be restricted to English alone. As marketing strategies are evolving in multiple languages, it helps to have a good grasp of one or more regional languages. Further, you must also have an eye for design aesthetics so that your campaigns perform well.

   Skills to know: Graphic Designing, Writing

Knowing all these skills will allow you to come up with a holistic strategy of Digital Marketing as you work for a brand.

Seems a lot? Take a deep breath and let go. Then rest assured that all these skills are easily learnable at upGrad Campus. Our Digital Marketing Certification course teaches all of the above and more!

Just some of the benefits of Digital Marketing course offered by upGrad Campus include:

✔ Designed and structured for beginners
✔ You can self-study at your own pace and get help from mentors when needed
✔ You get exposure to industry experts
✔ You can work on projects on SEO/SEM/SMM/Web Analytics/WordPress and more!
✔ You get lucrative placement and career opportunities in the field upon completing the course

Digital Marketing Career Opportunities

As of 2020, the Digital Marketing sector was valued at a whopping 353 billion dollars. There is practically no brand today that doesn’t have an online presence. So the opportunities available to a Digital Marketer are as many as there are brands, organisations and marketing agencies today!

What is a Digital Marketer career path?

The skills you pick up and choose to specialize in determine your career path as a Digital Marketer. In general, the career path of a Digital Marketer looks as follows:

• SEO Specialist → SEO Manager → Digital Marketing Director
• Search Engine Marketing Specialist → Digital Marketing Specialist → Digital Marketing Manager
• Social Media Specialist → Social Media Manager → Communications Director
• Email Marketing Specialist → Marketing Research Analyst → Digital Marketing Lead
• Copywriter → Content Strategist → Content Manager

At the starting level, whichever career path you choose, you can earn 4-5 LPA. At senior positions, managers today are earning 12~15 LPA.

You can learn more about the Digital Marketing Career Path from an experienced Digital Marketer herself. Check out our Masterclass recording by Archna Lalwani, a Marketing Consultant from IIM Indore as she covers the various opportunities available to you as a Digital Marketer.

Digital Marketing Job Trends in India

To know which skills you should be focussing on, you also need to be aware of the latest Digital Marketing trends in India. Some of the changes that are expected in this thriving field are:

• Personalization will be key. Today more and more users are looking for a personalized experience as they connect with brands. To deliver this personalized experience, brands will heavily depend on AI for Chatbots, automation in email marketing and more.
• NFTs and Cryptocurrency. Non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrency will find their application in digital marketing, with brands using these digital assets for accepting payments and as giveaways.
• Metaverse will be bigger than ever. As more users start building their online presence in the Metaverse, brands will also try to occupy as much real estate as possible, and what will follow is Digital Marketing.
• Voice assistants everywhere. Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant won’t be the only players on the field. Voice assistants may end up being the default way to search and interact with brands.
• AR and VR. AR filters have already found their way into Instagram. Brands will explore new ways to engage audiences with both Augmented and Virtual Reality.

Digital Marketing Frequently Asked Questions

1. How is Digital Marketing different from Inbound Marketing?
   It is easy to confuse Digital Marketing with Inbound Marketing as both are closely related. However, the objective of each of these types of marketing is different. This in turn makes the strategy of Digital Marketing very different from that of Inbound Marketing. Inbound marketing is all about building experiences and content that attracts customers to the brand. This may seem similar to Digital Marketing which also relies on content and experiences to attract customers to the various channels. However, where Digital Marketing works towards specific platform goals (e.g. getting impressions on social media channels), Inbound Marketing is a more holistic approach to getting qualified leads. Put this way, Inbound Marketing uses Digital Marketing tactics to meet its milestones across digital channels.
2. What is the difference between B2B and B2C marketing?
   B2B marketing refers to Business-to-Business marketing, where one business’s client is another business. Examples include manufacturers of car parts with clients such as an automobile company or perhaps an IT company that sells its software to banks and other institutions. In B2C marketing, the client is always an individual. Many businesses, like restaurants, clothes brands, and even services like Ola and Zomato cater to individuals and are inherently B2C in nature.
   

   Until a few years ago, B2B relied more on interpersonal relationships than concentrated marketing efforts to get more clients. But with the explosion of Digital Marketing and technology, B2B brands rely equally on Digital Marketing to the same end.

   Because their audiences are drastically different, there is a lot of contrast between B2B versus B2C Digital Marketing. Since most B2C offerings are short-term buys, B2C messaging tends to be catchy and offer-based with an emotional connection to the consumers. B2B brands on the other hand expect a long-term relationship with their customers and hence, they tend to be more evidence-based offering long-term benefits to the consumers. Where B2C content has to be more “talkable/memorable” amongst the consumers to attract them, B2B content has to be more “downloadable/shareable” for executives to make decisions.
   So you have to design your marketing strategy, creatives and campaigns according to your audience – whether it is B2B or B2C.

3. Will Digital Marketing thrive in the recession?
   This is a common question that occurs in the life of every marketer. Marketing for businesses is an expense, and come recession, cutting marketing budgets seems like a reasonable action. However, Digital Marketing has changed the game for businesses. Digital marketing allows you to perform many activities – generating new leads to bring in new business, remarketing to old leads, building revenue through easy shopping avenues and more. Each of these objectives are achieved with much smaller budgets and a well-defined target audience, making the marketing expenses very low compared to traditional marketing avenues. So Digital Marketing is definitely the need of the hour during a recession.

   Furthermore, considering that technology is not moving out of our day-to-day lives anytime soon, nor will Digital Marketing. This means that there is abundant scope for brands to employ Digital Marketing professionals to come up with new touchpoints for interacting with their consumers.
   

Conclusion

Digital Marketing is a thriving industry with abundant opportunities. It expects little from you in terms of background and gives you the chance to explore newer strategies, skills and audiences and flex your creative side too! If you’re interested in becoming a full-time Digital Marketer, then our Digital Marketing Certification Program is just the place to start. With marketing experts from popular brands, one-on-one mentoring, hands-on projects and more, this course is the perfect stepping stone for your career.

Was there something more you wanted to know about Digital Marketing? Let us know in the comments below.

Ever wondered what the purpose of those bright flashy posts on Instagram are all about? Why do brands need a social media presence at all? And more importantly why do their marketing strategies work so well (in other words why do I end up spending $$$)?

Well we’ve got two (very straightforward) words for you – Digital Marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

Most of us don’t really need an introduction to digital marketing. We’re either consuming it or we’re the ones making it (or doing both?) But for those few who are probably on a digital hiatus, Digital Marketing is:

The act of promoting a company or its products/services digitally or using technology.

It’s as simple as that. If you use any digital means necessary to promote your products or services, you’re a Digital Marketer.

The significance of Digital Marketing has really kicked off in the last decade, because it helps companies reach a larger audience in a shorter amount of time. Smartphones are basically an extension of our hands at this point, making it the easiest way for brands to reach us.

But Digital Marketing on its own is just an umbrella term for a wide variety of marketing techniques. So what is Digital Marketing made up of?

The Main Types of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is not simply made up of Social Media posts and Google Ads. Let’s take a look at some prime examples of Digital Marketing:

1. Search Engine Optimisation

   Also known as SEO, Search Engine Optimisation is very helpful in enhancing the reach and scope of a brand. Let’s say you’re looking to take care of your plants and you search for “Plant care tips” on a search engine like Google or Bing.

   While you’ll get pages and pages of results from different gardening brands, you are most likely to click on the first result. And that’s where all the brands want to be.

   The purpose of SEO is to rank first on the Search Engine Results Page, also known as SERP. The higher your website ranks, the more traffic it is bound to garner. And more traffic means better brand recognition.

   Using specific keywords on your website is one way you can push your webpage higher and make it more relevant. Backlinks, meta data, etc. are some of the other ways. It is important to keep in mind that SEO is a wholly organic process. One has to use specific keywords, elements like videos, photos or other hundreds of elements to be favoured by the algorithm of the search engine. You also have to keep up with the latest news and updates on the search engine and how their algorithm affects your ranking.

2. Content Marketing

   Content Marketing is a marketing strategy used to attract, engage and retain one’s audience by making use of blogs, posts, articles, videos, podcasts etc. This form of marketing promotes brand awareness and shows expertise. In content marketing, the focus is applied to the actual content and using various tools like SEO or social media posts, the content is optimised and broadcasted.

3. Email Marketing

   Confused? Do you believe that emails are outdated or that people don’t open them? Then we’re afraid you’re very wrong. Email marketing is still very much used and is still very very much effective. We’ll explain why.

   There is absolutely no limit on how many emails you send out, even SMS or messenger apps aren’t able to reach that large an audience, without getting flagged as spam or suspicious. What’s more, SMSs go through a stringent verification and approval process through their respective telecom operators when brands use them for promotions.

   In comparison with Social Media, the audience you can reach is hindered by many factors like the number of followers you have, whether or not the algorithm supports your posts or whether or not you boost (pay the platform to reach more people) your posts, etc.

   Emails are cost-effective, versatile, easy to build and can reach any number of audiences. These benefits make email marketing one of the most important digital marketing channels for brands today.

4. Pay Per Click

   We know we said we Digital Marketing is more than Google Ads, but this article simply wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the internet’s best friend.

   So, PPC Advertising is a form of advertising where advertisers pay a fee each time their ads are clicked on. Search engine advertising is the most common form of PPC advertising, and the most popular example would be Google ads.

   If you’ve spent enough time on Google search, you would have definitely seen some form of PPC. It’s any search result with the word “Ad” on top of it. Now Google ads run on a pay per click model where brands bid for keywords and Google chooses “winners” from a large number of advertisers based on their campaigns, quality of work and more. Seems complicated? Let’s simplify this.

   Let’s say 3 competitor brands, like Swiggy, Zomato and UberEats want their name to occur first every time a user types “order food online”, and they all bid for this keyword. If Swiggy wins the bid, then Swiggy’s ad will occur first. So every time a user types the keyword and clicks on Swiggy’s sponsored Ad, Swiggy has to pay a fee to the search engine, in this case, Google.

   To put it simply, PPC is a way of buying visits instead of organically driving traffic to your channel.

5. Affiliate marketing

   How about we use the word influencer instead? Bet you’ll understand this way faster.

   An influencer promotes products or services that aren’t theirs. Influencers are simply third party marketers that promote a company’s products for a fee in return. They usually host websites or blogs or accounts where they review products, post product links or ads about those products. All with the intention to drive traffic to the company’s website.

   Affiliate marketing is usually tied to Pay per click or SEO marketing. Since the influencer’s job is to drive traffic to a particular website or product web page, they get paid for every click made to that website, hence making it PPC. Along with this, they also have to make use of SEO and keywords to drive traffic to their website. At the end of the day, affiliate marketing is a win-win situation, giving customers, influencers and brands exactly what they each need.

These are the most important tools or techniques that people use to market their products, and these are the techniques that make digital marketing as successful as it is.

How is Digital Marketing taking over Traditional Marketing?

Traditional Marketing involves anything to do with print media, flyers, posters, billboards, newspaper advertisements, radio broadcasts, TVCs, etc.

So the main difference between the two is obviously the medium used. But what benefits of digital marketing is set apart from traditional marketing

1. The reach

   Traditional Marketing has a lesser reach compared to Digital Marketing. Most forms of Traditional Marketing, such as print ads and hoardings are geographically restricted, limiting their reach. Whereas, digital content, unless specifically targeted, can be made available to audiences worldwide.

2. The cost

   Printing is unfortunately costly in the long run. While you do need certain equipment to Digitally Market something, that cost comes under your capital and is not a recurring cost like printing would be. This factor allows for many more collaterals to be created under the umbrella of digital marketing branding as opposed to that in traditional branding.

3. Versatility

   Traditional Marketing can come with a lot of restrictions. For example, consider print media. It is not as versatile, in the sense that on a digital platform you have the option to use videographic elements, you can play around with audio visual themes in a way that is just not possible on print. Versatility could also be about size. Digital media can be made and consumed in any size. Banners and standees have fixed sizes, colour tones, and material restrictions on the other hand. Also, it is possible to make edits, to an extent, digitally. Once something has been printed, it’s impossible to change anything there and the whole campaign can go for a toss.

4. Interactivity

   A digital campaign can be interactive in nature. With social media providing many responsive capabilities to users, your followers or target audience can reach back to you at any time, via comments, direct messages, phone calls or even on email.

5. Results

   In print media, there is a lack of real time results, whereas online, you can instantly know whether or not your digital campaign was successful. There is a way to quantify that success, in the form of likes, comments, reposts/ shares, etc.

That said, this is not to diminish the importance of Traditional Advertising, which is important in its own right. However, it’s clear how Digital Marketing benefits brands today.

Why is Digital Marketing Important for the Future?

If the above points aren’t reason enough for you to believe that the benefits of digital media are vital for all businesses in the future, we have a lot more advantages to give you.

Post the pandemic, the merits of e-marketing really paid off and there was a sharp rise in spend overall in Digital Marketing, with an increase of over 22% in budgets from 2020 to 2022. This goes to prove that even the largest and most established companies are restructuring their traditional Advertising budgets and giving Digital Media promotion more focus than before. Apart from the convenience of Digital Marketing and all it’s remote capabilities, these could be the other possible online advertising benefits, making it everyone’s hot pick:

1. Digital Marketing helps you to effectively target your audience. Even if you don’t have the clearest idea of your target audience, you can use Digital Marketing tools to extract data and see what group of people work best for you, as an audience. You can then best align your marketing strategy with their needs, and going forward you can base all your marketing efforts around them, saving a lot of time and energy.

2. Further, digital marketing benefits brands and allows them to choose from a wide range of content with ease. Using different content buckets you can build a solid digital media plan to effectively reach your target audience on multiple platforms, with each platform being optimised in different ways. This gives you the freedom to explore and experiment with various digital marketing trends.

3. As new technologies constantly come into the market, the possibilities with Digital Marketing are just going to increase and people are just going to push the envelope of what is creatively possible. Digital Marketing may have come into the forefront because of the pandemic, however, now that people have started to realise its importance, its presence is only going to dominate the market more.

The Scope of Branding and Digital Marketing as a Career

With the new and improved adaptation of our lives post pandemic, with Digital Marketing at the forefront of most businesses. Companies are now aggressively hiring Digital Marketing experts and freshers to take charge and handle the responsibilities that the profession calls for.

In terms of scope (which there is a lot of), these are the most in demand skills in the field of Digital Marketing

• Video Production
• Content Marketing
• Data Analytics
• Search Engine Optimization
• Copywriting
• Pay per click
• Graphic Designing

Now that you have a fair idea of what skillsets are prioritised, you can work on them and get jobs in the following positions:

• Digital Marketing Manager
• Search Engine Optimizer
• Social Media Marketer
• Content Marketer
• Email Marketer
• SEM Specialist
• SEO Specialists for Voice Assistants (Alexa, Siri etc.)
• Video Producers
• Data Analyst

Final Thoughts

With over 30% of the world’s population (too many zero’s to count) being connected online, reaching them there just makes sense from a brand’s perspective. Adding technology to age old web marketing strategies is the smart route to take for brands that want to stay relevant in the long run. The demand for Digital Marketing makes it a highly competitive field, starting your career earlier itself, in this field, is best. Check out our digital marketing course that is specially curated for freshers and makes use of blended learning for the most effective way to pick up new skills.

If you think this blog was helpful leave us a comment below and stay tuned for more such content.

Happy learning!

Anyone who ever even considered travelling, has heard of Airbnb and may have also used their facilities – their app in particular – multiple times. After seeing and using the app, you might’ve noticed how user friendly Airbnb is. This is because Airbnb has and continues to take user experience into account. It is the main driving force behind their app’s design. So let’s understand why Airbnb works through a psychological lens using the concepts of FLOW. 

Just go with the ~FLOW~

Before we talk about Airbnb, let’s first understand what Flow means briefly. Flow and its 8 concepts were developed by positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Mihaly had always been interested in the positive aspects of human psychology. He wanted to find out which aspects of a person’s brain made life worth living and truly fulfilling. On his educational journey to fulfil his career’s purpose, Mihaly found that during a state of deep engagement with a product or activity, the Prefrontal Cortex of the brain recorded minimal activity. The Prefrontal Cortex is the part of the brain that deals with self-reflection and consciousness. Now lowered Prefrontal activity might sound potentially alarming, but I promise you it is actually a positive occurrence. 

With minimal activity in the prefrontal lobe, one can surrender themselves fully to the task at hand and let go of any self-consciousness or self-criticism. This, in turn, leads to heightened levels of creativity and concentration, which results in better performance overall.

How Airbnb ~FLOWS~

Coming back to the case at hand, Airbnb’s success is because of their insane retention rate they incur through their app. And Flow plays a big role in this. 

Let’s see how the 8 elements of Flow shape the user experience of the AirBnB app: 

Element 1

Clarity of goals and immediate feedback~

Airbnb makes it really simple to understand what a consumer needs to do in order to achieve “their goal” i.e to live locally. The start page itself guides me to the search bar, underneath which are other fields which will help the user live their authentic fantasy – be it “Islands” “Tiny houses” or “Tree houses”, they provide a complete 360 in every kind of accommodation possible. The latest update- called the biggest change in the last decade pushes it’s users to discover the most authentic and one of a kind experiences by adding categories like “Nature parks” “Castles” and many more.

 Element 2

A high level of concentration on a limited field~

Airbnb provides a higher state of flow by limiting or altogether eliminating distractions.

There is no unnecessary clutter on their app that would provide for useless stimuli and distract the consumer from his/her goal. The app also provides for a clean and structured hierarchy of the content they offer. An example of their content appearing in a hierarchy would be:

• Search for accommodations
• Explore other travel types
• Finish booking a trip
• Become a host (in ten easy steps)

Element 3 

Balance between skills and challenge~

The difficulty of a task has to provide the right degree of challenge to a person’s ability. A very complicated recipe will leave an aspiring chef frustrated and disappointed, a very basic recipe leads to boredom of routine. So flow occurs in the range between ‘too much’ and ‘too little’.

Airbnb does this by not making their consumers fill out unnecessary details that would bore them or cause them to lose sight of their end goal. They only ask relevant details and information. Their app also provides an option of “popular filters” that comprise the popular needs of a common traveller, so one doesn’t have to go through the arduous task of reading a long checklist, only to tick two boxes.

Element 4 

The feeling of control~

The feeling of ‘control’ in Flow refers to the feeling of security and relaxation, which can further translate to the feeling of control over a situation and its outcomes.

When it comes to mobile apps that deal with monetary transactions, they are often followed by a feeling of caution which in turn stresses the user since they would prefer to not make any accidental payments or mistakes that would literally cost them. Airbnb could easily be one of those apps, since they not only deal with online payments, but they also deal with information and a lot of steps or processes. However, they have an extremely consumer friendly cancellation policy that allows their users to make relaxed decisions that are reversible.

Element 5

Effortlessness ~

The lack of strain on your mind allows for a harmonious experience that retains Flow.
And Airbnb achieves this effortlessness through its user interface.

Airbnb is straightforward and easy to use for even the most non native tech user. The ease with which one can use the app is extremely rewarding; it provides a sense of accomplishment for those select few who otherwise struggle to manoeuvre around new age inventions. 

Element 6

An altered perception of time ~

When one is in the deep state of flow, their perception of time changes. Two hours can feel like ten minutes, or conversely, seconds can feel like hours. That is why, sometimes flow-mode is also referred to as ‘timeless’. 

Users of Airbnb experience this timelessness often. Since there are a lot of activities that engage and take up one’s time, it is easy to lose track of time. In an enjoyable way, of course.

From exploring different kinds of Vacation homes- and some of these rentals are crazy- to finalising your stay- it’s easy to occupy yourself on this app. For instance, don’t these properties make you go “Omg!”?

Element 7

The melting together of action and consciousness ~

Since complete involvement creates a state where there is no need for worry or self consciousness, performers become one with their performance. Airbnb creates involvement by reducing self consciousness. They reinforce the user’s choice on multiple occasions by providing reassurances in the form of statements such as “good location.” “ Friendly staff” etc. These statements boost  confidence in the choice the  user made.

Element 8

The autotelic quality of flow-experiences ~

The word auto means self and telos means goal. The completion of a goal set by oneself for oneself is extremely rewarding. Completion of a task boosts Dopamine in the brain which is a neurotransmitter that translates to a feeling of satisfaction and happiness. At the end of your time on the Airbnb app, the user is made to feel “rewarded” since they got a good deal and completed the task of planning a ‘local’ experience.

~Final Learnings to take away from this study~

Flow is related to the engagement part of product management. It alone can not provide for an extremely wholesome experience, but its presence does elevate user experience and add on to an already good product, making a “good” experience “excellent”.