What is digital marketing? Channels and where to start
Digital marketing is marketing done over the internet: online advertising, websites, social media and email, used to reach customers and to learn about them. The channels work best together. A small company should start with a findable website, a Google Business Profile and one email list, then add channels one at a time.
That is the short answer to “what is digital marketing”. The rest of this guide gives the definition from two primary sources, explains each channel, shows how they connect, and sets out where to begin when you have a small team and a limited budget.
What is digital marketing? The definition
The American Marketing Association defines it as any marketing method conducted through electronic devices that use some form of a computer. BDC, the Business Development Bank of Canada, gives a more practical version: marketing activities on the internet, such as online advertising, websites, social media and email, used to promote a business and to learn about customers.
Two things set it apart from print, radio or billboards. First, most of it can be measured: you can see who visited, what they did next and whether they bought. Second, it runs both ways: customers can reply, review, share and click, so you learn from them as you promote to them. Those are our summary of the difference, not a quotation from either source.
Paid, owned and earned: the three kinds
BDC sorts digital marketing into three categories, and the split is a useful way to think about where your effort and money go.
| Kind | What it is | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Paid | Online advertising you pay for | Search-engine ads, social-media ads, display ads on other organizations’ sites, affiliate and influencer partnerships |
| Owned | Channels you control | Your website, blog, social-media accounts, apps and email |
| Earned | Promotion you do not pay for or ask for | Customers sharing or reposting your content, reviews |
BDC adds that no single tactic guarantees success, and it presents the three as parts of one integrated approach. Owned channels build slowly and cost mostly time. Paid channels reach people faster but stop when you stop paying. Earned attention often follows from doing the first two well.
The main digital marketing channels
The AMA’s page lists the tactics below. Here is what each one is and when it suits a small company.
Search: SEO and paid search
SEO (search engine optimization) is the work of improving your site so that search engines understand it and people find it. Google’s SEO starter guide puts it as helping search engines understand your content and helping users find your site, says no trick automatically ranks a site first, and says some changes show in a few hours while others take several months. It is the slow channel. Our SEO page describes what we do on it.
SEM and PPC (search engine marketing and pay-per-click) are paid search. The AMA describes SEM as using paid ads to boost visibility in search results, and PPC as paying only when someone clicks an ad. It suits a company with a clear offer, a page ready to receive visitors and a way to tell which clicks became customers.
Social media
Social media marketing promotes a business through social platforms, and the AMA includes influencer marketing under it. Choose one or two platforms where your customers already spend time, and publish steadily rather than everywhere. It is both an owned channel (your accounts) and a paid one (ads), and it is where earned attention, such as shares, often starts.
Email is direct, branded messages to people who asked for them. It is an owned channel: a list is yours, whatever happens to a platform’s algorithm. Start with a sign-up form on the site and one useful message a month. Only write to people who agreed to hear from you.
Content
Content marketing means publishing text, video or audio, such as articles, guides, videos and podcasts, so that the right people find answers from you. It feeds the other channels: search brings people to an article, social media spreads it and email brings readers back. Write for the reader first. Google’s guide says to write content your readers will find helpful and reliable.
Affiliate and influencer partnerships
In these arrangements, someone promotes your business and is paid by commission or another agreed fee. The AMA lists affiliate marketing as performance-based revenue sharing. These suit businesses with an online sale to attribute, and they take management time.
How the channels fit together
No channel works alone. A practical way to see the links is as a loop around your website, which is the one place you fully control.
| Stage | Job | Channels that do it |
|---|---|---|
| Be found | Reach people who do not know you | SEO, paid search, social ads, Google Business Profile, partners |
| Be understood | Say what you do and why you | Website, content, case studies |
| Be chosen | Make it easy to act | Contact form, booking tool, clear pricing information, reviews |
| Be remembered | Keep the relationship going | Email, social media, customer service |
| Learn | See what worked | Analytics, a “how did you hear about us?” question |
The last row is what ties the rest together. If search brings visitors, but the page they land on does not say what you do, the search spend is wasted. If email brings people back, but you do not record where customers first heard of you, you cannot tell which channel to keep. This is why our marketing strategy guide puts goals and measurement before the choice of channels.
Building an online presence
An online presence is what a customer finds when they look for you. It is the owned part of the picture above, and for a local or small company it is the first job. It has five parts.
- A website that works on a phone. Say plainly what you do, for whom and where, and make the contact route obvious. Fast pages and a readable layout on a small screen matter more than design flourishes.
- A Google Business Profile, if you serve customers locally. Google says it is free, appears in Search and Maps, lets customers leave reviews and lets you respond, share your hours and contact details and post updates and offers.
- Consistent details everywhere. Your name, address, phone number and hours should read the same on your site, your profile and any directory that lists you.
- Reviews, asked for and answered. Ask satisfied customers to leave one, and reply to every review, good or bad, in the same tone you would use in person.
- Social profiles that match: the same name, logo and description, with a link back to the site. Keep only the ones you will actually update.
In a bilingual market such as Montréal, decide the language question early. If your customers use both English and French, your site, profile and ads need both. Translating a page afterwards is slower than planning two languages from the start. The same applies in other markets: the language, habits and platforms of your customers set what the presence looks like, not the other way round.
Where a small company starts
Do these in order, and add the next step only when the previous one runs without effort.
- Make the website clear and mobile-friendly. Everything else sends people here.
- Claim your Google Business Profile if customers find you locally.
- Set one measurable goal and measure it. For example, enquiries per month. A free analytics tool and a “how did you hear about us?” question are enough.
- Pick one channel for growth: usually search (SEO) for a service business with a clear offer, or one social platform where your customers already are.
- Start an email list with a sign-up form and a monthly message.
- Add paid ads when you know what a customer is worth, so you can tell what you can afford to pay to win one.
BDC’s guide to writing a marketing plan quotes one of its advisors saying a minimum marketing spend of 1% of topline revenue is typical across most industries. We cover how to set a budget and a plan in our guide to a marketing strategy for small business.
Is AI replacing digital marketing?
AI tools now help with drafting, research and reporting, and they change how some of the work is done. In our view, they do not replace the need to decide who your customers are, what you promise them and which channels you will use. Search engines still need to understand your pages, customers still need a reason to trust you, and someone has to be accountable for the result. Google’s guidance to write content that readers find helpful and reliable applies whether a person or a tool drafted it. Use AI to speed up routine work, and keep a person responsible for what you publish.
Frequently asked questions
What is digital marketing in simple terms?
Marketing that uses the internet and electronic devices: ads, websites, search, social media and email, used to reach customers and to learn about them.
What are the main types of digital marketing?
BDC groups them as paid, owned and earned. By channel, the AMA lists SEO, SEM, PPC, social media, email, affiliate, content and native advertising.
Is digital marketing the same as social media marketing?
No. Social media is one channel among several. Search, email, content and your own website usually do more of the work for a small business.
How is digital marketing different from traditional marketing?
Print and radio are harder to measure and mostly one-way. Digital marketing can be measured more closely and lets customers respond directly. That is our summary, not a quotation from a source.
Where should a small business start with digital marketing?
With a clear, mobile-friendly website and a Google Business Profile, then one measurable goal and one growth channel. The steps above give the order.
Can I do digital marketing myself?
Yes, for the foundations. When you want several channels run and measured together, a team can take that on: see our digital marketing service and tell us the goal you want to reach.