As the internet continues to grow and expand, digital marketing has become one of the most fundamental ways to publicize a business and help it grow. For those wondering: digital marketing is defined as using digital channels and tools like email marketing, social media marketing, paid and unpaid search marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) to promote products and services.
Marketing is one career path that has changed drastically as the world shifts to more digitally-focused advertising efforts. Before the internet explosion, companies or industries as a whole may have put their marketing efforts into places like the yellow pages, print ads, billboards, and even television or radio ads. According to recent studies, more consumers than ever are turning to digital channels when looking for products or services. Thus, companies who want to stay ahead of the curve and make the most of their marketing efforts have made the switch to digital marketing. Companies can adapt, make changes in real-time, and tweak their content to make sure their products and services are reaching a target audience.
Knowledge of digital marketing can be an asset to businesses of all sizes in industries across the board and has become essential these days. Digital marketing provides companies the chance to foster connections and extend their reach. You’ve likely interacted with or been influenced by digital marketing—or utilized it within your own business—already today.
Let’s dive into six industries that benefit from digital marketing.
Entertainment
While the entertainment industry has always relied heavily on marketing to promote its efforts (for example billboards, magazine ads, movie trailers, previews on TV, television specials, and more), digital marketing has made that content and subsequent user engagement even more necessary for success. Entertainment and social media marketing are inextricably linked, leveraging social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok to connect with a target audience. According to Hootsuite’s Digital 2021 report, more than 4.48 billion people use these platforms daily, making social media marketing a smart choice to help drive website traffic, build a widely-known brand, and gain revenue.
Using modern techniques and 21st-century tools can generate more engagement, more followers, and ultimately more financial gain. With the internet and online commerce continuing to grow at an astounding rate, social media marketing is critical for global visibility and is a powerful way to quickly reach a large number of people and propel your business.
In addition to promoting content and reaching a target audience across multiple social media platforms, more streaming services than ever have sprung up, all of them competing for viewership. With potential customers just a click away, it's no wonder digital marketing has expanded and is changing the entertainment industry as a whole.
Marketing
It may seem like a no-brainer to discuss how marketing itself has been affected by the digital age, but it would be more remiss not to mention it. Marketers who embrace the digital elements of their vocation will go far. Digital marketers can act as a conduit between consumers and businesses and companies that want to stay relevant. Marketers are poised to be successful in digital marketing by combining their previous knowledge of the industry with learning new tools to add to their repertoire to help drive future success.
As more companies want to stay on top, they will want to (as well they should!) add digital marketing strategies to their marketing techniques, so the marketing industry will need to evolve and adapt as well. Marketing professionals who focus on making the switch to digital marketing will continue to build business, as the internet is not showing any sign of slowing down.
Healthcare
Healthcare is an industry that has been (and continues to be) transformed by digital marketing. According to Google Health Vice President David Feinberg, MD, about 5% of Google’s daily searches are health-related. Thanks to digital marketing, the internet has become a place where users turn to find information and figure out problems related to their health. Savvy healthcare companies can use this hunt for information to their advantage by setting up websites, blogs, and creating content for social media that is informative and easy to understand.
And it’s not just about people looking up symptoms when they’re not feeling well. In most healthcare industries across the board, more than 60% of consumers perform an online search before scheduling an appointment. Having connections to this kind of content in the form of videos, online healthcare forums, blogs, and other reputable sources of information has changed the healthcare industry. Online accessibility has opened up research opportunities for consumers—and it’s up to the business to employ crucial digital marketing techniques to get their company and content in front of interested eyeballs, build trust with current and potential patients, and amplify their digital presence.
Wellness
The wellness industry is one of the hottest around right now. And it’s not one that simply benefits from digital marketing, it’s grown exponentially because of it! Wellness influencers, photogenic brands, products, services, and other content packaged perfectly for social media make the health and wellness industry primed for digital marketing. More and more businesses and brands are leveraging social media and other digital marketing channels to build business, connect with consumers, and create an online dialogue.
McKinsey & Company estimatesthe global wellness market at more than $1.5 trillion, with annual growth of five to ten percent. With numbers like that, you’d be hard-pressed to find a wellness company or brand that is not interested in furthering its virtual reach using digital marketing techniques. Wellness, being active, and living healthy are some of the most popular current lifestyle trends. Businesses that stay on top of industry trends can build smart strategies and deliver the kind of content their current and future followers and customers are interested in.
Retail
More people than ever are looking to the internet for their shopping needs. From food to clothes to cars to just about anything you can imagine, consumers want to be able to browse and buy from the comfort of homes. These days, any business in the retail industry needs to use digital marketing methods to stay current, connect with current and potential customers, and drive sales.
Retail companies can utilize various types of digital marketing campaigns depending on their goals. Whether the goal is to increase revenue, enhance customer experience, build community, find new customers, or increase brand awareness (to name a few), there are different digital marketing techniques to help achieve them. Using channels such as a website, social media platforms, email marketing, and advertising, businesses and brands can promote their goods and services as well as build brand loyalty and expand their customer base using digital marketing.
Law
The legal industry benefits greatly from digital marketing. How many times have you seen billboards on the highway advertising car accident attorneys? Or seen those late-night commercials compelling you to call the number on your screen? Lawyers and law firms are no strangers to advertising. It tracks that digital marketing channels like content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing provide ways for up-to-date firms and individuals to connect with and convey their messages to clients and customers. A recent study revealed that one-third of potential clients first turn to the internet to find a lawyer.
The legal industry is a brutally competitive one, and lawyers and law firms who utilize digital marketing will be able to reach many more people than those who are relying on their old methods of business and communication.
Learn Digital Marketing With Noble Desktop
No matter the industry, learning digital marketing is critical for any company’s success. Taking classes in the subject can teach you how to use the various platforms to your advantage. If you’re ready to see how learning digital marketing skills can help your business, take a look at Noble Desktop’s digital marketing courses. Depending on your location, you may be able to find digital marketing courses, bootcamps, and certificate programs in your area using Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me tool.
For a more comprehensive look at digital marketing strategies, take a look at Noble’s Digital Marketing Strategies bootcamp. The bootcamp is a 12-hour course that delves into the important role digital marketing strategy plays in a company’s overall success. The bootcamp is also offered as part of the 78-hour Digital Marketing Certificate, which delves deeper into each aspect of digital marketing including developing an end-to-end marketing strategy through hands-on classes where you work on your business or company as a project. Students even have the chance to retake the course for free for one year!
Other digital marketing resources offered by Noble Desktop that can be useful to freelancers include a digital marketing blog that has detailed articles on topics across the board.