Digital Marketing is a straightforward subject that has been made complicated by Search Engine giants, some experts; read Digital Marketing Agencies and Digital Marketing Consultants. As a Digital Marketing Consultant, it is imperative to bring out the simplicity in the process of creating your brand’s Digital footprints.

So, what exactly is Digital Marketing? Is it an unfair or unethical practice? Should you hire a Digital Marketing Consultant? Most importantly, is it necessary for your business? You might have many such questions. And most of these will be answered in this blog.

What is Digital Marketing? What is SEO?

There are many complicated definitions for this. Most of these definitions are full of technical jargon. Does that mean you need to be a Digital Marketing expert to understand this? The answer is No. Here’s a simple definition of Digital Marketing:

Digital Marketing is an online equivalent of every offline effort that a brand owner and his team put in to attract customers; thereby growing their business. In most scenarios, a Digital Marketing Consultant will be a valuable addition.

Digital Marketing has four broad segments – Website, SEO, SEM & SMM. A website, for instance, is an online equivalent of a shop, showroom or office. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in technical language is the art of showing up on top on search engines like Google, for the products or services you provide.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the art of advertising your business online, on Search Engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo!. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the art of promoting your brand on various Social Media Channels.

In this blog, we will explore the most straightforward definition of SEO. SEO is a very ethical and logical practice of communicating with Search Engines, in a language they understand. For those who question the authenticity & fairness of SEO, here’s some good-to-know information.

In reality, we all are aware of SEO. We use SEO in our day to day lives, for personal & professional reasons. If you’re selling computer hardware, would you not want to tell your target audience about the products you sell? Would you not want to connect with every customer who is looking for the product that you sell? SEO is pretty similar.

You’re just telling the Search Engine, who is the mediator between your brand and your customers, that you provide x,y,z services, or you sell x,y,z products. You might now question that it is unfair for some “average” brands to show up on top of the search engine by using SEO. Well, when you’re out there in the market, the customer is the king.

You might have a great brand, but the customer might choose to go ahead with the “average” brand. It’s the customer’s preference and choice. You and your competition would have pitched for the same business.

And your Competition Brand managed to make a sale. That’s not called unethical. You just need to accept that your Competition Brand was better than you, at least in that specific case.

Similarly, when results show up on Google, the top results are not necessarily unfair. These results (brands) are just better utilising the equal opportunity that everyone else has. These Brands have time and again, through good SEO practices, made sure they add value to the customer who is looking for the services or products they sell. So, there’s nothing unfair in that. Google follows same SEO guidelines for everyone.

Here’s another offline equivalent example of SEO. Let’s assume you’ve got a Stationery shop on a street that’s full of stationery shops. But somehow, one store stands out.

One shop takeaway the most significant chunk of customers. Would you call that unfair? Well, that’s business. The store would have great signages, and communication posters to attract customers.

And the brand owner would have put in more effort to make sure that his shop grabs the customer eye-balls. The brand owner apparently can’t bluff about what they sell.

So, if they have managed to pass the message better than the others, they win the customer. It’s similar when customers look for a particular product or service online and get some results. The ones on top have put in some serious efforts to communicate better about their products or Services.

Next, you might argue that an average Brand might use good SEO, and get an unfair advantage over a more qualified Brand. Well, that’s true. Honestly, there is a possibility of that. But there’s also some good news here. Like in real life, Google bothers about repeat customers, customer feedback, and a lot of other factors. A good Digital Marketing Consultant will help you leverage this.

For example, in a real-life situation, it might be easy for you to attract customers using fancy signboards, etc. But am sure you’ll agree that unless you live up to the expectations, you will not survive for long.

That’s precisely how Google functions. It’s not a big deal to attract a lot of traffic to your website. But if your Website doesn’t live up to the initial expectations you create using SEO; it will all fizzle out soon.

The algorithms that Google applies are so complicated that they almost match with the real-life offline scenarios. You attract a lot of customers with your advertising, Signage, etc. But if you don’t live up to their expectations, you’ll soon fizzle out. And the word will spread. Remember that online; the word spreads way faster than offline.

Why should you hire a Digital Marketing Consultant?

Unfortunately, there are a lot of Digital Marketing companies that have cropped up in the recent past. As brand owners have limited understanding of the subject, it is recommended to have a Digital Marketing Consultant on-board.

A Digital Marketing Consultant will help you make sure that you get the best out of your Digital Marketing Consultant. You might feel the pinch of the extra budget that you’ll have to allocate to this.

But soon, you’ll realise that this little additional budget helps you optimise the big budget that you’re investing. If you don’t wish to hire a Digital Marketing Consultant, at least make sure that the heads of the Digital Marketing company you hire, have a good understanding of the subject.

As Digital Marketing is a booming industry, there are a lot of people who have jumped into this sector. Most of them don’t have enough understanding of the subject. And they rely heavily on their team. It can be harmful to them, and to your brand as well. A Digital Marketing Consultant, however, will make it all worthwhile for you.

If you’ve got any queries about your current efforts, please feel free to write to me at mail@rajivedhavan.com. And I’d be more than happy to help.

If you want me to help you put your digital shit together, click here.

About The Author:

Rajive Dhavan is a serial entrepreneur, Digital Marketing Consultant, Brand Consultant, and the author of the book STFU – Start The F Up, for present & future leaders of startups. He’s got a collective work experience of over 13 years. Having launched his first startup at the age of 22, today he heads three successful companies – What’s In a Name Creatives, Namesake Productions & Just Flaunt Salon. He launched his first startup with an investment of Rs. 40,000.