Digital Marketing vs Social Marketing
Updated: Jun 1, 2021
Many people believe social marketing and digital marketing to be the same. However, you really should not confuse them because they're entirely different terms. So how are they different from each other?
Many people think that they're doing digital marketing by using social media to promote their brand. Digital marketing, however, is the umbrella term for email marketing, SEO, content marketing, social media, and more. In other words, it's all about promoting a brand or building awareness on different digital channels.
Social marketing, on the other hand, doesn't directly benefit a company or brand. It is designed to build social change and raise awareness about a given cause or problem.In other words, social marketing aims to convince people to change their behaviour.
What Digital Marketing is
Digital marketing is about implementing various digital marketing channels to build relationships with an audience or increase profits. It also aims to create awareness or promote a service, product, or brand. You don't need to use all available digital channels to reach your goal. Instead, you can use a customised digital media combination that fits your budget, brand, and audience.
But keep in mind that not all digital channels will produce the same results. The best digital marketing mix depends on the needs of your business. That's why you should implement and test different strategies and pick which one is the perfect fit for your business. You can then drop the channels that are not working for you.
Why is digital marketing important?
The internet has become an essential part of daily life, so there's no reason why you shouldn't take advantage of this fact. You should be online because that's where people are.They are using the internet to look for services or products. If they can't find you online, then you might lose them to your competitors. That's why you need to build a substantial online presence to reach more customers who need your services or products. The right digital marketing campaign can help you do that.
Your competitors are implementing their own digital marketing strategies, so you should do the same. If you want to beat them, then you need to do what they're doing, plus more. Remember, if you don't have an online presence, your audience will automatically pick your competitors.
Digital marketing also allows you to compete with more prominent corporations to get relevant leads. PPC marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) are particularly beneficial. With these methods, your website or ads will rank in the SERPs based on relevancy
You can also target the right people more accurately. For instance, you can use relevant data about your customers to shape your marketing campaigns. Let's say your target audience is American women between 30 to 40 years old who are married and earn at least $50,000 a year.
All you need to do is to set those characteristics for your social media ad campaigns so that only relevant people would see your ads. Digital marketing also makes it easier to monitor your campaigns immediately and make the necessary adjustments to your marketing strategy. It helps you spend your resources more wisely and maximise your campaigns.
What Social Marketing is
Instead of promoting a product or service, social marketing is all about selling a lifestyle or behaviour that can benefit society. It presents ideas that discourage undesirable behaviours like speeding or encourages positive action, such as safe driving. In other words, it sells the society's well-being as a whole.
Social marketing, however, shouldn't be confused with social media marketing. The latter is all about using social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to promote a product or service. The best social marketing campaigns are designed to provoke, remind, shock, and inform all at once.
Why is social marketing important?
Social marketing has a positive influence on the perception of your audience. It can influence people to take action for society's benefit and work on behavioural change.Social marketing campaigns can help businesses build positive brand awareness among their audience. It is also more cost-effective than other marketing strategies because you can easily find your target audience through the performance they showed in public. A well-executed campaign spreads awareness about social issues through emotion and creativity. It makes beneficial behaviours more desirable than competing behaviours.
4 Ps
Now that you know what social marketing is and how important it is, let's discuss the four crucial factors for any advertising campaign. These factors, also known as the 4 Ps, are promotion, product, place, and price.
●Product: The product refers to the item and its benefits.You need to present the product as desirably as possible. Your audience should be able to easily and quickly understand the product
●Price: You need to minimize the time, psychological costs, or difficulty your audience will incur. In other words, you need to lessen the price that they think they have to pay for the behaviour to occur. You also need to consider the obstacles that prevent them from taking action. Then, find practical ways to solve these problems.
●Place: Find out how you can reach your audience in a way that will make it easier and faster to do the desired behaviour in your chosen location. For example, if you're planning to launch a donation campaign, then you should include a QR code or website in your campaign ad. That way, your audience will know where to find you.
●Promotion: Find out what outlets and channels will reach your target audience.These channels should draw their attention to your social marketing campaign.You also need to determine how you're going to draw attention to the desired behaviour, price, and place. So if you want to use social marketing to spread awareness or solve an issue, you should clearly express the campaign's 4 Ps before the official launch.
Conclusion
Both digital marketing and social marketing can benefit your campaigns. And they're not going anywhere. That's why you should implement the best digital and social marketing strategies that will help you establish your brand and ultimately reach more clients.When you are in doubt, you can hire an integrated digital marketing agency to create the best and most effective solutions for you.Consult with our marketing professional at DFW Creative to execute the best strategies for both digital and social marketing.
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