What Is Digital Marketing?

Most consumers today rely on the internet to complete daily tasks. According to Pew Research Center, 91% of U.S. adults now own a smartphone, up from just 35% in 2011, and people use those devices for everything from online shopping to making connections on social media.

Digital marketing leverages this behavior, allowing businesses to create engaging experiences that build awareness and drive revenue. Without a strong digital presence, your target audience is much less likely to find your business.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is any effort to promote your business, products, or services through online channels, including your website, search engines, social media, email, mobile apps, and paid ads. If a marketing campaign is shown on a screen, consider it part of digital marketing.

Compared to traditional print marketing, digital marketing is targeted and measurable. Instead of paying to send a flyer to everyone in a ZIP code and hoping it triggers a purchase, you can put your message in front of the specific audience most likely to buy, then see exactly how they respond. 

Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of online activities. Many digital marketing channels are free or low-cost to try.

Types of digital marketing

Businesses can explore many forms of digital marketing, including these eight common categories:

Search engine optimization

Your audience needs to be able to find your content for it to generate any leads. Applying a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to your business site improves user experience and search engine rankings, driving organic traffic. Google drives SEO trends, so it is an important starting point for understanding algorithms and best practices in web design and site organization. 

One of the most reliable ways to build lasting search traffic is by publishing evergreen SEO content that stays relevant long after it's posted. If your business has a mobile app, the same thinking applies to app store visibility, so it's worth learning how to list your app so customers can find it.

[Read more: All the Digital Tools Your Startup Needs Before Launch]

Pay-per-click marketing

By pairing your ad with a valuable conversion, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing can be a cost-effective way to run a targeted campaign.  

With PPC marketing, your business can display ads on a search engine or social media, and you will be charged based on the number of times your ad is clicked. The most common version is search advertising, where your ad appears at the top of results when someone searches for a term you've bid on, like "plumber near me" or "custom wedding invitations." 

Because those people are actively looking for what you offer, PPC tends to reach customers who are closer to buying than other channels do. You set a daily or monthly budget, choose who sees your ad based on factors like location, age, and interests, and can pause or adjust the campaign at any time. That control makes PPC a good fit for promoting a limited-time offer, testing a new product, or bringing in traffic while your SEO efforts are still gaining ground. 

Social media marketing

Because people already spend time looking for content on social media platforms like Facebook, X, YouTube, and TikTok, social media marketing offers unique opportunities for audience engagement and brand awareness. Customers and leads respond well to consistent social content and quick responses to their engagement. And while there's no guaranteed formula for a post that takes off, these tips for launching viral marketing campaigns can improve your odds.

Content marketing

Content marketing shows a brand's value by providing relevant content for free on a website or social media platform. Content marketing is one of the easiest and most accessible ways to build your business, especially with the help of AI. And by establishing your business as a thought leader, you'll earn your audience's trust, encouraging leads to become customers or recommend your business to others. 

Contributing articles to industry publications is one way to build that authority; start by learning how to become an expert content contributor. Strong visuals matter, too. If you don't have a photographer on hand, free stock photo websites can fill the gap, but make sure you understand the basics of image copyright before you publish.

Email marketing

Even though social media is a popular way to share content, email marketing is still important for promoting your products or services at relevant times and keeping your customers and leads connected to your brand. And compared to social media, email marketing is more direct and personalized. An email lands directly in a subscriber's inbox, and your list is something you own rather than rent from a platform. 

It's also one of the most affordable channels available, with many email tools offering free plans for small lists. Common uses include welcome messages for new subscribers, monthly newsletters, seasonal promotions, and reminders for customers who left items in an online cart. The key is to earn the subscription with something useful, like a discount or a helpful guide, and then send consistently without overwhelming people.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is when an affiliate—often a blogger, content creator, or someone who runs a niche website—shares a unique link or code with their audience, and you pay them a commission on each sale that comes through it. Because you only pay when a purchase happens, there's little financial risk in getting started. 

Sometimes, promoting your brand through another business’s reviews or use of your product or service can help you reach the right audience. When you sell your product or service through affiliate marketing, both your business and the affiliate share revenue. The upside for a small business is borrowed trust: An affiliate's followers already value that person's recommendations, so a mention from them carries more weight than an ad. 

To set up an affiliate program, you'll need a way to track referrals, either through an affiliate network or a plug-in for your e-commerce platform, plus clear terms on commission rates and how affiliates can represent your brand.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation isn’t a digital marketing channel but rather a practice that can help you reach results. With marketing automation, businesses can create data-driven customer messaging based on actions, events, or specific points within the customer journey. 

The most common marketing automation software includes features to collect information about the entire customer experience, and they have excellent analytics tools for marketing campaigns. A simple example is a welcome series: When someone signs up for your newsletter, the software automatically sends a greeting that day, a product highlight a few days later, and a discount code the following week, all without you lifting a finger. 

Other common automations include abandoned cart reminders, birthday offers, and post-purchase follow-ups asking for a review. For a small team, this means you can deliver timely, personal messages to hundreds or thousands of customers at once. Most email marketing platforms now include basic automation features, so you may already have access to these tools without buying new software.

Native advertising

Native advertising is promotional content that looks and feels like non-marketing content on a particular platform, displayed within the same feed or in the same style. Native advertising can effectively generate new interest in your business through an informative or entertaining connection—without overt promotional details. You've likely seen it without realizing: a sponsored article on a news site, a "suggested" post in a social feed, or a product recommendation woven into a creator's video. 

Because native advertising doesn't interrupt what people are already doing, it tends to hold attention longer than a banner ad. For a small business, a good starting point is sponsoring a helpful article or video with a local publication or industry site your customers already read. Keep in mind that native ads must be clearly labeled as sponsored, so aim to make the content useful enough that readers don't mind the label.

[Read more: Marketing Your E-Commerce Business in the Digital Age]

Benefits of digital marketing

All types of businesses can benefit from digital marketing. Here are some reasons to experiment with it:

• Low cost: “Traditional marketing” like TV advertising and print displays can be expensive for a small business. Digital marketing offers a more affordable way to promote your business without losing impact.
• High ROI: Because digital marketing reaches audiences where they spend most of their time, the relatively low expense can lead to big returns. For e-commerce businesses, digital marketing offers a convenient way to drive revenue-boosting customer actions.
• Easy to track: Most things about digital marketing content are automatically tracked, including activity in search engines, which means you can access real-time results about performance. Marketing software and social media platforms collect engagement and audience behavior data, giving you insights to track campaigns and plan for the future.
• Brand development: By utilizing digital marketing tools, you’re putting your business in front of a larger audience. Through your site, social media, and email, you can communicate your business message and values.
• Broad reach: Digital marketing is not limited to a geographic location (unless you want it to be). Your reach is wherever people use these tools and platforms, at any time. Because digital content is easy to share, you'll also gain leads beyond your followers and customer base.

With so much competing material on the internet, content that truly engages your audience is necessary to maintain interest and meet business goals. Digital marketing helps you support your customers, promote your product or service, and foster meaningful interactions on the platforms where your target audience already spends much of its time.

[Read more: 5 Tips for Marketing in the Digital Age]

How to build a digital marketing strategy

If you’re starting out or taking a hard look at refreshing your digital marketing, focus on one platform at a time. Identify the channels your customers actually use and grow from there. 

First, identify what you hope to achieve via digital marketing. For instance, common goals include driving more website traffic, generating leads, increasing online sales, or building awareness in a new market. Be specific. "Get 50 new email subscribers a month" is easier to plan around and measure than "grow the business."

Then, pick two or three channels to start. Choose a channel based on where your ideal customer is likely to spend time online. For instance, a landscaping company serving homeowners in their 40s and 50s will likely find more customers on Facebook and Google search than on TikTok. 

Next, set your budget. Some channels are more expensive than others: For instance, PPC ads require ongoing spend, while social media and email are free. Factor in your time, as well as the time of freelancers or designers and tools that help you manage your digital marketing. 

Create a content plan that lays out what you’ll publish, and when. Consistency matters more than volume, so choose a pace you can maintain. Whenever possible, plan content you can reuse across channels—a blog post can become a series of social posts, and those can feed an email.

Perhaps the most important part of digital marketing is measuring what works. Without key performance indicators, it can be hard to tell where to fine-tune your strategy. Set up free tools like Google Analytics so you can see what's driving traffic, engagement, and sales. 

Certain metrics will be more relevant for specific stages of the customer journey. “For example, you can focus on metrics like impressions—the number of times your brand-specific content was displayed—to determine your strategy’s effectiveness at the awareness stage,” wrote Harvard Business School. 

Digital marketing channels compared

Every channel has trade-offs in cost, effort, and how quickly you'll see results. Here's a quick look at how the most common options stack up:

• SEO: Low cost but high effort, and results build slowly over months. Best for businesses that want steady, long-term traffic without paying for every click.
• PPC advertising: Costs scale with your budget, and results are nearly immediate. Best for promoting a specific offer, testing a new market, or filling the gap while SEO takes hold.
• Social media marketing: Free to post, though paid posts help you reach more people. Social media requires consistent effort to be effective. Best for building a community, showing personality, and staying top of mind.
• Content marketing: Low cost but time-intensive to produce, depending on the type of content you choose. Best for businesses that want to be seen as experts in their field while supporting their SEO.
• Email marketing: Low cost with one of the highest returns of any channel. Best for repeat customers, promotions, and keeping in touch with people who already know you.
• Affiliate marketing: You only pay when a sale happens, but you give up a share of revenue. Best for e-commerce businesses looking to expand reach with little upfront cost.
• Marketing automation: Requires an upfront investment in software and setup, then saves time on an ongoing basis. Best for businesses with a growing customer list that want to personalize messaging at scale.
• Native advertising: Moderate cost, and results depend on the quality of the content. Best for reaching new audiences through publications they already trust.

It’s most likely the best results will come from combining a few of these. Owned channels like your website and email list give you a foundation you control, while paid and social channels help you bring new people to it.

Jacqueline Medina contributed to this article.

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