What is digital media marketing

Posted by Carrie-ann Sudlow in Internet Marketing      Comments Off

Marketing has always been jargon-bound, although I make an effort myself not to bamboozle clients. One phrase that keeps cropping up in questions to me is, ‘what is digital media marketing?’

To confuse matters different people and companies use terms in different ways. Digital Media Marketing refers to the ways in which all forms of digital media are used in marketing campaigns.  It’s an easy term for some people to grasp because digital media is composed of different digital channels. But it’s a term that’s not in widespread use in the UK but it is used as a convenient term to distinguish it from traditional media (e.g. print). Go back 10 or 15 years and the term ‘New Media’ was used.

The internet as you know isn’t keen on formality so for the most part internet marketing is used as a proxy. But to be more correct digital media marketing refers to the internet, email, wireless, mobile and social media and so on. If you like, it’s an umbrella term for all forms of electronic media. This distinguishes it from traditional media which includes newspapers and magazines. Digital TV  is more complex to catagorise, as some believe its  blurring the lines between the two types of media but for the most part it’s still acts like traditional media with the possible exception of digital cable.

These days, with the internet well developed the emphasis is firmly on integrated digital media campaigns in the same way people used to talk of plain old integrated marketing. But for the most part companies, especially small ones are focusing on the digital world, but may still need traditional marketing. The difficulty comes with making the two sides (traditional, and digital) work together. And often they do. Think about a Facebook campaign that offers coupons for a new product only available in shops. That would be an example where the two sides of marketing – traditional – and digital (or new media) work together.

As you would expect digital media can be pull or push orientated, depending on whether the customer finds your communication or whether you push it out. Digital media marketing is expanding all the time.  It used to be emails, search, content, video, images and audio, but can now include games, apps, radio stations, and social media.

Small companies new to internet marketing can be excited to try all forms of digital marketing. But that can be a mistake. It’s often best to master a few key media – search and social media, before branching out, otherwise budgets and knowledge are too thinly stretched and lack impact.