Tell It to Me Straight: What Is Digital Marketing?

For those of us who work in the wild world of digital marketing, we don’t think twice about the buzzwords and abstract terms we throw around.

Funnels.

Lead generation.

Automation.

*Shudder*

To the average, sane person, these terms don’t really mean anything. Even worse? The term “digital marketing” itself is just as elusive and mysterious.

What is digital marketing? Bare bones, stripped down, and jargon-less. What is it?

Let’s break it down:

First, What Is Marketing?

Basically, marketing is convincing people why they should buy a product or service.

Although the method of promoting and selling products or services will vary, we consumers most often recognize traditional marketing through ads (commercials, newspaper ads, billboards, even product placement in movies).

So, What Does Digital Marketing Mean?

Ask anyone over the age of twenty-five or thirty.

The way we buy, browse, and look for information has completely shifted to an, almost exclusively, online world.

So, digital marketing is basically a very broad term for marketing efforts that are done online.

This means everything from website content and emails, to Google search results and youtube ads qualify as digital marketing methods.

If it has to do with a product or service and it takes place online, that’s, essentially, digital marketing.

Ultimately, marketing is about more than selling stuff. It’s about connecting with people and finding the right audience at the right time.

And because most of us are online several times a day (look! You’re doing it now!), digital marketing is the result of staying with the modern crowd as they shift from daily newspaper readers to online subscribers (for example).

Just to Be Clear

This is about at simple as digital marketing gets.

From here on out, the vast complexities of this industry get pretty hard to keep up with.

Let's take this explanation of digital marketing a step further so you can understand the different working parts.

Watch this video to learn a bit more; and as always, comment below with any questions and we'll do our best to respond!