With changes in media distribution, marketers are rapidly adapting their methods of budgeting, reporting, and investing in paid, owned and earned media to reach and engage their customers

Investment in media is frequently grouped into the 3 media 'buckets' of earned, shared and paid which each give opportunities to influence customers. None of these media types are new, but what is new is the increasing prominence given to owned and earned media while paid media has always dominated in the past. Digital media adoption and usage is constantly evolving in today's digital landscape. As of January 2024, 62% of the world's population uses social media. It's fair to say that paid, earned, and owned media offer marketers a never-ending array of new opportunities to win and retain more customers.

Current definitions of paid, earned, and owned media

In short - paid media means the content distribution has been paid for, whereas earned and…

From SMART to SMARTER marketing objectives: Discover how to define marketing objectives, measure your digital marketing goals, and use data to inform your marketing strategy

When identifying specific marketing objectives to support your long-term goals, it is common practice to apply the widely used SMART mnemonic. You will know that SMART is used to assess the suitability of objectives set to drive different strategies or the improvement of the full range of business processes. By its simplest definition, an effective SMART marketing objective is: Specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. But you will learn in this article that beyond this well-known acronym, there are different variations and nuances which you can apply to practice Smarter Marketing.

What is Smarter Marketing?

The SMART acronym is much more than a mnemonic since it defines a way of thinking about getting better results within business and marketing. This mindset is based…

Dr. Dave Chaffey, author of Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice explains a process to achieve success by focusing on the 18 most important digital marketing techniques

Simply put, our definition of digital marketing, or online marketing, is: "Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital media, data and technology." Within this broad digital marketing definition, there are many vital channels and platforms that we will introduce and share strategies and tactics for in this article, as well as the key digital marketing KPIs and metrics for success. In this overview of digital marketing I will explain cover: What is digital marketing? 18 key types of digital marketing techniques across 6 media channel How to achieve the business benefits of digital marketing using the 5Ss Key marketing communications concepts for digital marketing A strategic approach to digital marketing For businesses to compete effectively today, they must use digital marketing to support their…

What is the difference and does it matter?!

Before Digital marketing became the de-facto term, I've been asked this question a lot across the years... does the difference in scope between these terms matter? So, as we enter 2023, I thought it was time for another quick look. Here is the latest comparison from Google Trends between 2004 and present Does the difference in these terms and their definitions matter? No, of course not, it's semantics! But it is interesting to see how the scope of Internet marketing vs Digital marketing has changed over time. In my books, when discussing alternative definitions, I explain that, no it doesn't really matter, but the scope and responsibility is important to make the most of managing the opportunities. So the scope of digital marketing activities should be agreed within a business and/or between a company and its agencies. The…

This tube map is a great way to summarise online marketing options to non-digital specialists or to check your digital media knowledge for skills gaps

You will know from our digital media infographics and success maps that we're big fans of using visuals to help simplify the understanding of the many opportunities in digital media. Here's a visual representation of online media options we wish we had thought of! It's from our friends over at agency Hallam Internet and needs no further explanation.

The 2020 digital marketing map

You can get a higher resolution version of the visual from Hallam Internet.

The 2013 digital marketing map

I originally shared this infographic back in 2013 and since then a lot has happened as digital platforms have developed. I'm prompted to update it since Susan Hallam…