Although the terms “online marketing” and “digital marketing” are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences between the two.
This guide aims to clarify these differences and provide a comprehensive understanding of both concepts.
Understanding the Basics
Marketing, regardless of the medium, is about making connections at the right place and the right time. In the early days of the digital era, marketing strategies were largely interchangeable.
However, with the rapid growth of the internet, marketers began to utilize digital applications to expand their reach.
Each marketing segment has now grown to be more complex with distinct differences in how organizations and entrepreneurs market their brands.
Online marketing and digital marketing overlap in some aspects, but the main differences are what set them apart in terms of services they provide.
Online Marketing vs Digital Marketing: Service Types
The main differences between digital and online marketing services lie in their technicalities.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing refers to marketing strategies that use digital services such as social media platforms or TV ads to promote products or services.
This means that digital marketing is not limited to just the internet. Services that fall under digital marketing include:
- TV ads
- Digital billboards
- Radio spots
- SMS texts
Online Marketing
On the other hand, online marketing is a subset of digital marketing and involves having a presence online.
Online marketing services leverage digital channels and are exclusively carried out via the internet. Services that fall under online marketing include:
- Content marketing
- Web design
- Email marketing
- Advertising
- SEO
Strategies that fall under both digital marketing and online marketing are:
- Content marketing
- Web design
- Email marketing
- Advertising
- SEO
All-Encompassing Digital Medium Services
Finding the ideal digital medium for your brand requires research and an understanding of how to utilize the different mediums to your advantage.
Here we will review the five main digital marketing mediums that fall into both digital and online marketing.
Local and National SEO Services
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a service that incorporates both digital and online marketing strategies. SEO operates through rankings, and when a website ranks highly in search engines, then users will produce more clicks.
Higher traffic leads to exposure and means that your website has a better opportunity of reaching higher conversions and revenue. This method is an effective way to improve your online presence both on-page and off-page.
Organic SEO Services
Organic SEO services are ideal if:
- You sell product(s) or service(s) beyond a small geographical area
- You do not have a physical location where people can drop by to see you
- Your services can benefit a large target audience
- You’re a larger brand, business or organization
The benefits of implementing organic SEO into your marketing strategy are generating buyer leads, increasing revenue through strategic campaigns, and building up your brand.
Local SEO Services
Local SEO services are ideal if:
- You sell product(s) or service(s) only to a small geographical area
- You depend on foot traffic and visitors coming to your physical location
- You have multiple store locations
- You’re a small business
Having a strategic local SEO campaign can be one of the best investments for small businesses. Ranking higher and earning more relevant traffic to your website will improve your presence online. Key components when creating an effective SEO strategy are keyword targeting, content creation, page speed optimization, link building, or email marketing. At times, a digital marketing agency will incorporate both digital and online marketing to help maximize the results.
Content Marketing Services
Creating valuable content that establishes your brand as an expert in your field will open up more opportunities to grow your business.
The idea is to provide content to your audience that is educational and helps them make smarter decisions.
Once this information is on your website, viewers will share your content with others, which in a way is building brand awareness for you.
Both digital and online marketing utilize content marketing strategies to drive more traffic to a website. There are various forms of content marketing including:
- Social media ads
- Topic Analysis
- Blogs/ Newsletters
- Infographics
- Keyword/Competitor research
- Pillar or cornerstone content
Topic Analysis
When creating content, research on the topic you want to write about is crucial. Topic analysis is a great tool to use when processing and sorting information or data surrounding a certain topic.
Content marketing and SEO marketing are so closely intertwined with one another when it comes to keyword research. Topic analysis can help with:
- Detecting themes in data
- Categorizing those themes into topics
- Predicting patterns in a scalable and cost-efficient way
Pillar or Cornerstone Content
Pillar, or cornerstone content, is indispensable information that people need to know when visiting your site. Since Google ranks quality over quantity, this type of highly researched content is superior to the typical 500-word blog post because of its quality.
Here are a few things to remember when creating cornerstone content:
- Keywords
- Title tags/headlines
- Relevant Topics
- Determining the landing page
- Links
Overall, your website content should reflect your business goals and expertise in your industry. Having an effective content marketing strategy will eventually help sell your services for you.
Being able to bring value to those who need it is a technique that will help grow your business for years to come.
PPC Consulting Services
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is another digital and online marketing strategy that increases website traffic. Using PPC to build your business is the alternative to the organic way of generating clicks on your website.
PPC consulting services can provide ways to maximize your advertising budget. Regardless of business size, PPC management is beneficial to any digital or online marketing strategy.
This service offers the ability to generate leads at a lower cost and grow your customer base. Best practices to follow when using PPC services include:
- Researching relevant keywords
- Managing PPC campaigns regularly
- Refining landing pages
- Tracking conversions
Testing and Monitoring
Effective campaigns require keyword research, ad testing, and implementation, and monitoring. PPC consulting services will involve most of these techniques and more.
Keywords also need to be researched for cost, volume, and effectiveness. When testing ads, you need to determine optimal days and hours to display them. Since the goal is to maximize website visibility, having the right keywords is important to a campaign.
Landing Page
A landing page acts as a call to action for users to convert whether that be making a purchase, donation, or signing up for something. This page must be compelling and user-friendly so that users will be encouraged to take action.
Once you have created a landing page your PPC campaigns will become even more effective and sites like Google or Bing will take notice.
Based on this information, investing in PPC consulting service will ultimately help you gain more qualified leads that convert and grow.
Building your brand through social media advertising is starting to become the best way to engage with your audience. While you need to understand the importance of operating social media platforms, you also need to know how to create the right content for your audience.
Both digital and online marketing is about making connections and customers need those connections to trust your brand and message. Social media services offer a great opportunity to connect with larger audiences and grow your brand awareness.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are just a few of the communication tools that people use to learn more about businesses. Most word-of-mouth marketing and recommendations happen via social media.
Building your own community goes beyond just having a profile. You need to be consistent in every aspect, including your:
- Brand
- Message
- Tone
- Engagement
Having a social media presence is essential to the success of your business. If you are not on social media, then you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to network and most importantly have a voice online. When it comes to brand recognition, people rely on consistency. Being consistent in your message, design, and engagement will help in developing a strong relationship with your customers.
Building a social media presence starts with a focused plan of action. Setting measurable goals will help in being successful on social media.
When conducting research on your target audience, you should also gauge competitors and how they are doing in terms of retention and engagement with their audience. The most important part of a social media strategy is to be creative.
Creating fresh content not only sets you apart from the competition, but also helps establish your voice and increase visibility with your audience.
Now is the best time to start building your social media presence. Consider investing in social media services to help build your brand because it can be one of the most valuable tools in any marketing strategy.
Web Development Services & Design
Your website is often the first point of contact that potential customers have when getting to know your company. Web development services will involve building out a design that is both professional and user-friendly.
One thing to remember when building out your digital or online marketing plan is to create a website design that is consistent with your other advertising efforts. A well-built website design will include:
- User-friendly experience
- Consistent branding throughout the site
- Search engine and conversion rate optimization
- Links that lead back to your website
Web development is all about capturing a unique brand and designing a site to drive more conversions. Search engine optimization and website pages work together to increase visibility.
Search Engine Optimization
As mentioned before in this guide, SEO falls under the umbrella of digital and online marketing techniques to improve website rankings. A website plan that incorporates the best practices for SEO will lead to higher search results.
This means that your site will earn more pay-per-clicks and traffic from users. Develop a site that looks good and functions in accordance with your business goals.
Website Pages
The pages on your site play a huge role in a digital or online marketing strategy. Content marketing services also come in handy when building out these pages. Each page should be designed to inform and convert your target audience to take some sort of action.
Investing in professional web development services can help increase conversion rates, improve search engine rankings, and have a direct impact on your ROI. If you’re ready to build your brand then start looking into web development services today!
Key Takeaways
Whether you use the terms online marketing vs digital marketing or internet marketing vs digital marketing, the difference is mere semantics. What is important is how you approach and implement a marketing strategy that fits your business goals to produce visible results.
Researching your competitors’ website statistics can often lead to unforeseen opportunities. Your website is an essential marketing tool online. Having a plan that drives traffic to your site is key. These are just some services that your business should consider when implementing a complete and holistic digital marketing strategy.
