Guest Post: The Difference Between Digital Marketing and Online Marketing

The terms of Online Marketing and Digital Marketing are often used interchangeably, with many people using the term as synonyms and are interchangeable. But in essence, Digital Marketing is a more inclusive phrase and Online Marketing is only part of Digital Marketing.

This article would help to answer the questions and solve the small mistakes mentioned above. It sounds very normal, not even important, but knowing the difference understands what Digital Marketing is and what Online Marketing is will help us a lot in choosing the right channel and supporting the formation of a total marketing strategy. Digital Marketing can also help analyze the current strategy by categorizing which type of marketing and which channels are wasting money. To know the amount of effort we spend will yield consistent results, lasting sustainability, or simply pouring down the river.

Surely you are an open and hard-working person to learn new things yourself. And if you are determined to pursue Digital Marketing, let Bigspy.com give you a hand in increasing your knowledge in this extremely hot field! 

This site also has analytical articles on marketing channels and a lot of Good and useful knowledge on SEO – SEM topics and largest Ad Creatives Database include Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Yahoo, Pinterest…Make the advertising world more transparent and productive.

What is digital marketing?

Nowadays you will often hear words like Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, or Online Marketing floating around the internet and many people use these words as synonyms and are interchangeable. But in fact, Digital Marketing is a more inclusive phrase and Online Marketing is just a part of Digital Marketing. So what exactly is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing is known as an advertising method that uses electronic devices such as personal computers, smartphones, mobile phones, tablets, and gaming devices to interact with users. Digital Marketing uses technologies or platforms such as websites, emails, applications (basic and mobile), and social networks. Moreover, Today’s Digital Marketing replaces traditional marketing methods. Chances are, in the near future, we will see the further development of virtual reality technologies for marketing, social networks will become an even more advanced way to stay in touch with the audience and the quality requirements for content will be even more stringent.

We are talking about definitions and each person will have different definitions and interpretations of what Digital Marketing is. But for me, Digital Marketing is divided into 2 very separate and clear parts which are Online Marketing and Non-Online Marketing.

As you can see in the graphic above, Online Marketing / Internet Marketing as its name includes advertising channels related to the need for an internet connection, while Non-online Advertising owners mainly the advertising methods in which you do not need a network connection. We will have time to go deeper into each type of advertising in the upcoming articles but within the limit of this article, we will stop at a summary of these types of ads.

Online Marketing 

  • Search Marketing (SEO & SEM): Paid advertising on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing (SEM) and website optimization to get higher rankings on the natural search results of the search engines search (SEO).
  • Mobile Marketing: advertising through mobile devices which may include application optimization for better display on the app market (app store optimization – ASO), push ads, display in apps to encourage users to install.
  • Email Marketing: advertising in the form of emailing to customers in the list or database and introducing them to services, products, or news updates.
  • Content Marketing: method of advertising by creating content on all platforms that has the ability to create good interactions and attract users and thereby increase visits or encourage value creation.
  • Social Advertising: paid advertising to convey messages to users through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to create value, revenue, or increase brand recognition.
  • Display: programmatic advertising through platforms (publishers, ad networks, ad exchange, DSP) with the display of formats such as images, videos, Html on websites, and applications in the system of the provider. Learn more about display advertising.

Marketing can be an incredible way to promote your brand and increase your return on investment. However, without an appropriate business marketing strategy to quickly track business growth, make a profit, and maintain business, the opportunity becomes almost impossible. You can also develop an effective online marketing strategy, tied to Higher Sales, and Build your brand identity.

Non-online Marketing

  • SMS: advertising via SMS on the phone. Only brand name SMS messages (customer care and advertising).
  • TV / Radio: advertising on TV and radio channels.
  • Digital Out-of-Home (OOH): outdoor advertising in electronic format such as LCD displays (buildings, airports, and outdoors), electronic signage, etc.

What is the difference between online marketing and non-online marketing?

Here are 3 basic differences between online marketing and non-online marketing:

The difference comes from 3 angles:

1. Measurement:

Online marketing is more easily and effectively measured with the help of measurement tools (Google Analytics, for example). You can know exactly how many clicks come from which channel, how long a customer stays on the website, what page they leave from, and whether or not they make a purchase. Note that I only say that online marketing is easier to measure, it’s not the same as more accurate.

Non-online marketing channels are not so easy because they do not depend on the website or the internet and are therefore more difficult to measure (similar to outdoor and traditional channels). For example, you never know how many people read your message when you send an SMS and how many of them make a purchase later.

2. Mode of operation:

Online marketing channels depend on the internet (of course). Without the internet, there is no online marketing, that’s all.

Non-online marketing channels are not dependent on the internet, but on telecommunications infrastructure (television, radio, telephone, etc.) and therefore whether or not they are active.

3. Purpose of use:

There are two main purposes when advertising 1 is to increase conversions (conversion – sales, registration, etc.), 2 is to increase brand awareness (brand awareness).

Online marketing has the strength to help boost conversions because they can be easily measured so it can quickly optimize and improve campaign effectiveness even while executing. 

Non-online marketing has the strength to help increase brand awareness because they have wide coverage. 

Note that this does not mean that online marketing channels will not be able to increase brand awareness or vice versa, non-online marketing channels will not be able to increase conversions. And it doesn’t mean that brand recognition doesn’t help sell more or vice versa. What I want to say here is that each channel has a unique strength and depending on the purpose that marketers need to use properly.

Boundaries are gradually blurring because of the development of technology

But now the boundaries between these words are also blurring with the development of technology and the internet. Phones have gradually become pocket calculators, TVs can also connect to the internet and access the Internet, and can tune in to radio waves. Anyone can connect to the internet anywhere with the popularity of 3G / 4G, wifi. At this time, is advertising different via SMS and Push Message for users? If the TV is connected to the internet and it receives promotional emails, is it marketing email or TV advertising? There are many things that can be argued, but it can be seen that the boundary between the two types of components in Digital Marketing is actually not completely separate.

Another question that arises now is which words should we use to be more precise? For example, Online Marketing and Internet Marketing, which words are more acceptable? To better understand this, we can look at a chart from Google Trends that shows the popularity of these keywords from 2004 to the present:

We can see that the keyword of Digital Marketing is becoming more and more popular and widely used. It shows that the general trend of combining ads from different channels brings more efficiency. The keyword online marketing is still widely used and there is a jump in 2013 showing that interest in this topic has been increasing recently. The keyword Internet Marketing is slowly declining in popularity compared to the other two words, perhaps because the word “online” is more accurate than the word “internet” when it comes to “marketing”. This is why I decided to use “Digital Marketing” as a directory name rather than Internet Marketing or Online Marketing because the content written on this blog will be geared towards using a combination of digital tools, not just online.

Now that you have a better understanding of what these words mean, hopefully, you can use them more appropriately depending on the situation. If you agree or disagree with what is written in the article, please leave a comment and we can discuss it further.