2021 - The 7 types of Online and Offline Digital Marketing: in a common man's language

Yet another marketing term!

Okay let’s be honest whenever we hear the term ‘Marketing’ we think about the beautiful Yami Gautam in ‘Fair & Lovely’ is now ‘Glow & Lovely’ ad or ‘2x stronger hair because you are worth it’, so and so. Now a question arises, when the base is same in all kinds of marketing then, why is there a need for hordes of names to confuse us? Well, just as we need names to identify different kinds of dishes made from a single ingredient, say Popcorn is a corn but, it popped so got its name Popcorn, similarly names are provided based on different areas of application.

For e.g. while watching a daily soap on TV, an ad plays showing the unique features of a Water purifier and how it can save us from drinking unhealthy, bacterial water until now. This is a type of Television Marketing, an offline category of Digital Marketing.

So, the term Digital Marketing is a form of Marketing used to promote the features of a product or service, the only difference is with the application. First, we need to know about how it all started. The first use of Digital Marketing lies way back in the 1896, no it’s not a mistake in numbers! Digital Marketing is way older than you think!

It was when Guglielmo Marconi first demonstrated a ‘Public Transmission of Wireless Signals”.

This guy invented the RADIO! It didn’t take the creators long to realize that they can monetize it.

Now, we will look into more professional definition provided by Wikipedia, “Digital Marketing is the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services.” But here’s the catch, Digital Marketing is not limited to internet and online based digital technologies only (we will discuss them later in the article).

Let’s dig deeper into the two major kinds of Digital Marketing with real life examples.

First goes the Online Digital Marketing type that requires an internet connection and a suitable device to connect.

Another example- 

Savita is a full-time employee at an IT firm, working 5 days a week from 9-6pm. She lives alone in a rented flat, cooks her own meals and enjoys being an independent woman. Living on her own, she is a little bit picky on her expenses, which is absolutely normal for her group of people. It was her routine to check the online shopping platforms on her way home to kill the traveling boredom. She logged into one of the biggest online shopping (e-commerce) platform, Myntra and saw some beautiful winter collections. She browsed for a while but, the price range didn’t interest her to ‘make the purchase’. However, she added the dress to her ‘Private Wishlist's in hope of getting it later in case the price drops (you know the end of season sale, festive sale, garage sale, blah..blah..blah!). She really wanted to buy that ‘one puffer black hooded jacket’ but, the price was too high for her, she used to check her wish-list to see if there’s any sale going on. She even looked for other platforms but, couldn’t get the desired brand in the price range. There were times when she used to get recommendations on winter fashion trends on YouTube or on Facebook or Instagram (Myntra page with the price label of the ‘Puffer Black Hooded Jacket’ along with other items from her wish-list or recent searches with a buy now option). Days went by and she stopped looking at the jacket and indulged herself with her work, suddenly around noon, she got a text message from Myntra,

Special 10% Discount Up to Rs.500!!

On Purchase above 2000 | Valid between 6pm-10pm | Hurry!!!

She checked her wish-list, the price was now Rs.1800 after the discount with free delivery but, she thought to wait for better discounts. A week went by, and she got another ‘Push notification’ from the Myntra that read,

!!! FLAT 50% OFF!!!

Redefining Epic offers | Drop everything and shop on!

Choose from over 10k Styles | Till Midnight only, Hurry!!

She checked the time at it was 10:34 pm, she had only one and a half hour left. She immediately opened the app, went o her wish-list and it showed- ‘Hurry, only 3 left!’ that made her panic so, she hurried to add in the cart then click on ‘Buy Now’. She got the necessary details and made the payment, received the confirmation message after some time.

She experienced the few of the following categories of Online Digital Marketing:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO) - a process of optimizing your content to show up as a top result in a search engine for a certain keyword. Have you noticed while browsing through your Facebook/Instagram/simple google search, you see ads of that same 'chic black puffer jacket' you were searching for in a shopping app?
2. Search engine marketing (SEM) – promoting websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages majorly through paid advertising/channels.
3. Content marketing - creating, publishing, and distributing contents in the form of words, for a certain segment of audience online.
4. Social Media Marketing (SMM) – promoting products or services over social media platforms, which includes e-posters across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn, etc.
5. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) – advertisers have to pay each time their ad is clicked.
6. Affiliate marketing – a kind of partnership between two physical entities to promote a product or a service in exchange of rewards or commissions.
7. Email marketing – sending a mass commercial message which typically involves an advertisement or requesting for a donation from a certain group of people, over the email.

Second goes the Offline Digital Marketing type that only requires a digital media to perform the task. The 4 big categories of Offline Digital Marketing are:

1. Enhanced offline marketing- upgraded existing marketing type. For e.g. light emitting diodes (LED) at the Times Square, New York, have enhanced the traditional billboards. Other examples would be the use of digital menus provided at the restaurants or eating outlets.

2. Radio marketing- advertising a product/ service at the beginning of shows (Since social media is a hot marketing tool these days, it wouldn’t be hard to find a local radio station nearby to get on a show, be interviewed or crack a deal with them. Also don’t forget to get sponsorships for a prime airtime possible).

3. Television marketing is like “baa” of the famous Smriti Irani daily soap- ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’, who never agrees to rest even when the 6^th generation is there. The Water Purifier ad explained above would be the best example of this type.

4. Phone marketing- over 80% of internet users’ stream through their smart phones as compared to the desktop or laptop. Cold calling is used by companies to directly reach out to their customer base whether existing or new and it still helps in securing a good number of connections.

1. Increasing brand loyalty and driving online sales.

2. Targeted audience can be reached in a cost-effective and measurable way.

3. A hassle-free use of technology for reaching a large pool of people.

4. The ease of application anytime, anywhere at your comfort.

5. Full control over the customer base for increased customer satisfaction. 

Don't be a dumb chap, upgrade yourself with the time. We have plenty of resources and platforms to gobble up the data from. Some restaurants are hiring "Yellow Robot Waiters" while others are still stuck with manual bills! Create a food for your mind and think, "Do we really know what Marketing stands for?"