Before looking at the best marketing agencies Chicago has to offer, let’s first understand the concepts and types of digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the process of marketing products and services through a digital medium. Digital marketing is an age-old concept that has been present since the introduction of computers. Many people believe that digital marketing and content marketing are the same things. Although content is the creative life and blood of digital marketing, it doesn’t represent it as a whole.
Importance of Digital Marketing
The amount of time people spend on their electronic devices has been increasing throughout the years, with most of us spending the majority of our day on a computer or mobile phone. This might be alarming, but it is a fact that in the future, humans are expected to spend most, if not all our time on these devices, making digital marketing more important and impactful than ever before.
Without digital marketing, you won’t be able to extend your reach to the public, leaving your business lagging behind and never reaching a level that it potentially could.
Branches of Digital Marketing
There are many branches of digital marketing, with new concepts emerging every year.
Here are the main sectors of Digital Marketing:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing your online visibility through organic search engine results. SERPs, which stands for ‘Search Engine Result Pages’, are the results that appear on the user’s web page when they search for a particular keyword or a particular set of keywords through a search engine like Bing, Yahoo, or Google. Individualized results appear on each user’s page based on those keywords, location, and time of the search, as well as their browsing history. Organic search results appear on the list and are ranked by the search engine’s algorithm. If the user changes the way they search for something, the algorithm changes as well. The higher your website’s ranking on the SERP, the more traffic your website will get, which means more visitors. Through efficient SEO Optimization, you can push your website to the top of the results page.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Search Engine Marketing is done by purchasing Ad space on a user’s SERP. The Search Engine charges the marketer a specific amount to display their advertisement in a number of locations on a SERP based on the keywords or phrases that have been targeted. An example of SEM is pay-per-click advertising, which is also known as ‘PPC’. PPC is a digital marketing method where search engines charge a company every time their advertisement is clicked.
- Social Media Marketing – Social media marketing is an important aspect of digital marketing that helps a company increase its exposure and connect with customers. Through this interaction, you can receive valuable feedback, allowing you to improve your products and services. Everything done through social media channels to increase traffic is social media marketing.
- Content Marketing – Content marketing companies deal with the process of creating and publishing quality content in order to get the attention of the mass public and ultimately generate sales. Content marketing can be in any form, be it YouTube videos, blogs, or Tweets. Content Marketing is essential to marketing because it works together with the SEO and Social Media Marketing industry and pretty much every form of advertising and digital media marketing.
- Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is marketing through the use of affiliates, which is like a salesperson for your particular product or service. When using affiliate marketing strategies, it is important to make sure that all your terms and ideologies are conveyed beforehand as the affiliate is someone who represents your product or service outside your establishment. Hence, affiliates need a thorough understanding of your company’s vision.
- Influencer Marketing – Influencer Marketing is one of the newer forms of digital marketing which uses people who have a large online presence to boost their product or service exposure, leading to increased traffic and sales. Influencer Marketing exists in social media channels like Snapchat and Instagram. Companies hire Influencers with a large number of followers to promote their brand by posting about their products with a brief writeup about it along with a picture or a video.
- Viral Marketing – Viral marketing is the process of gaining mass exposure by posting something that is funny or trendy or even controversial. This type of marketing causes a spike in a website’s traffic for a short duration. Business-to-Consumer companies benefit the most from the use of viral marketing, allowing them to reach out to a potentially large customer pool.
Chicago’s Top Digital Marketing Agencies
Windy City is home to some of the best in the digital marketing business.
The names of digital marketing agency Chicago are as follows.
- MessFEATURED Expertise – Mess is a web design and development agency based in Chicago that works with client partners in all sectors, from e-commerce startups to big financial service companies. This agency handles branding, marketing, and web development with budgets ranging from $25k and above.
- 1o8 – Located in Chicago, Illinois. This agency offers e-commerce and Amazon focused digital marketing services to businesses of all sizes. The company specializes in CPG, toy, and pet supply businesses and offers an array of services, including social media content management, paid social media marketing plans, Amazon and Shopify e-commerce management, search engine marketing, and search engine optimization.
- Arcalea – Arcalea has an experienced marketing team that uses in-depth analytics to design the ideal marketing strategy for each customer’s unique needs and brand. Services include targeted, custom content creation and social media marketing, as well as inbound marketing strategies like email template design, email marketing campaigns, pay-per-click advertising, and up-to-date data tracking and reporting.
Assist My Marketing, Bright Bright Great, Clique Studios, Comrade Web Agency, EM Search, Consulting, Evolution Point are also notable agencies offering premier digital marketing services.
