Successful digital marketing is an interplay of different digital platforms all working together to reach out to your customers. These days, businesses are choosing to go omnichannel instead of just having multiple social/digital platforms.

With the continuous developments in digital devices, businesses can’t afford to not take advantage of the newer digital systems.

But, before we get into explaining what the ecosystem of marketing is, let us first define what an ecosystem is.

According to science, the ecosystem is the interaction between different organisms in a habitat. 

In the case of digital marketing, the organisms refer to the different social media and digital platforms, as well as the strategies deployed into each platform. It maybe difficult to picture out, so here’s a simple infographic:

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Channels

As we’ve said earlier, there are multiple channels that you can take advantage of in order to have a successful digital marketing campaign.

Here are some of the available channels that you can take advantage of to support your digital marketing campaign:

1. Social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn
2. Website
3. Email platform
4. Blog
5. Youtube, Vimeo
6. Downloadable application

Your digital marketing ecosystem doesn’t just stop there. From the above channels, you’ll have marketing that you earn and pay for.

Locus of Control

Since there are different channels available within the digital marketing ecosystem, it is important to also speak about the locus of control for each one. The digital marketing channels can be categorized between owned, earned, and paid channels.

Owned channels

Owned channels are the ones that you have full control over. They are completely and uniquely yours. The following internet properties are some that fall under this category:

1. Personal website
2. Blog site
3. Social media platforms
4. Mobile applications
5. Podcast
6. Youtube videos

Earned channels

Your earned channels are the equivalent of your business reputation.

Earned channels come from referral links, search engine visibility, reviews, and other user-generated content. 

It is because of this that many companies, big or small, invest in search engine marketing in order to take advantage of this channel.

Paid channels

Last but not the least, we have paid channels that may be slightly expensive than your owned channels however, helps bring you more views or more clicks which then results in more revenue.

Paying for Google ads, asking a social media influencer to post about your product, are some examples of these paid channels.

Strengths and Strategies

Each of these digital marketing channels has its own strengths. To fully take advantage and apply your strategies to your digital marketing channels, it is important to know these strengths.

Both your PAID and OWNED channels can be used to attract new ones and help retain your current customers.

OWNED channels is where your highest conversion rates will be.

Your EARNED channels are what will boost your reputation and help grow your reach.

While both PAID and EARNED channels can be used to expand your reach.

As for key strategies, here are some steps that you can take in order to give these channels the much-needed boost.

1. Since both PAID and OWNED channels can be used to ATTRACT new customers and retain your current ones, the content posted in these channels must have originality. Give credit where credit is due in order to avoid copyright issues. 

You can also use these channels to help manage your business reputation. Good reputation, is after all, always attractive!

2. OWNED channels will have the highest conversion across all of your digital marketing channels. Not only should you have engaging content in these channels, but you will also need to make sure that there are calls to action wherever necessary.
3. EARNED channels are reliable spaces on the internet where your business has a good reputation. Since these come from recommendations and referral links, you will need to nurture these channels in order to keep these earned channels.

Among the earned channels are the positive reviews from your customers. Incentivizing these customers for their positive reviews as a way of thanking them for their patronage is always a good idea! Providing special discounts is also a good method to nurture these channels.

The same strategy can be used for your PAID channels as these will help you expand your reach in the same way as the EARNED channels would.

Core

Remember how I mentioned that content should be original? This is part of what’s at the core of every digital marketing channel. Originality is what’s at the heart of these channels.

Aside from having original content, scientific-based data to back-up claims in your posts is important and strategic. 

Having such data helps make your business more credible and reliable compared to other websites that only state claims without prior research.