Top 12 Digital Marketing Examples That Will Help You Understand How It Works

Explaining a concept is understood by some students but explaining the concept with relevant and recent examples is understood by all. In this blog, we’re going to explain what digital marketing means, the types of digital marketing, and detailed digital marketing examples that will get you ready for digital marketing campaigns in 2023. 

By the end of this article, you will be confident about how digital marketing functions and how you can strategize for your brand/company.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing is the marketing/promotion of your desired goods/services using digital channels. When a company sends you promotional emails, or when you have watched an ad on YouTube or the search results that pop up on Google when you look for something is all a part of digital marketing efforts. 

Digital marketing has changed the way businesses operate, and the benefits of digital marketing are innumerable. 

The number of opportunities that fall under digital marketing is called its types. Let’s take a look at them. 

Types of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a vast umbrella term and has many different types which allow you to meet your target audience through different channels and different communication messages. Here are the broad digital marketing types: 

  • Social Media Marketing – Organic 
  • Social Media Marketing – Ads 
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Email Marketing
  • E-commerce 
  • Influencer Marketing
  • Content Marketing
  • Moment Marketing
  • Affiliate Marketing 
  • Referral Marketing
  • Guerilla Marketing

We will be looking at digital marketing examples for each of these. 

Top 12 Digital Marketing Examples You Must Read

There are many digital marketing examples in the digital world today. Here’s a compilation of the top 11 digital marketing campaign examples that we feel will inspire you to ace your marketing game out there –

1. APPLE #SHOTONIPHONE- Organic Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing refers to the use of social media platforms to engage a large digital audience. The end goals are to grow your brand by increasing brand awareness and loyalty, increasing sales and revenue, and driving website traffic. 

Campaign Name:  Apple #ShotoniPhone

Campaign objective: To create a viral campaign to demonstrate the clarity and unmatched quality of Apple’s new camera.

Execution:

Digital Marketing Examples - Apple campaign

77 photo entries from 75 iPhone 6 users across 25 countries were compiled to create a campaign. iPhone 6 users from all over the world were asked to share their best shots from their phones with the hashtag #shotoniPhone.

Impact & Key Takeaways:

  • Once the campaign went live, it went viral. Apple leverages this by selecting images from different age groups and social demographics and displaying these images on 10,000 billboards all over the world. It was now a 360-degree campaign with ads in magazines, newspapers, TV ads, and paid media ads.
  • The campaign had a tremendous impact worldwide. It was mentioned by 24,000 opinion leaders and had a 95% positive response towards the campaign.
  • It had 6.5 billion media impressions all over the world. It increased brand awareness, loyalty, and engagement. 231 million iPhones were sold, with an increase of 62 million units from the previous year. Existing users felt part of a worldwide community with the hashtag #shotoniphone and a trend of non-users also using the hashtag or converting to new users. The campaign is still alive even after 5 years of its launch.
  • This is a great example of how social media helped create hype around the iPhone technology and also user-generated content adds to the credibility of the brand. This differentiates them from other brands as consumers trust UGC more than traditional methods of marketing. 

Found this interesting? Know more about Xiaomi’s marketing strategy.

2. ABTA Travel with Confidence- Paid Social Media Marketing Example

Social media advertising is targeted advertising using social media as a channel. They include paid social media, dynamic ads, Facebook ads, Twitter ads, Instagram ads, Reddit ads, LinkedIn ads, Quora ads, and more.

Campaign Name: ABTA Travel with Confidence Campaign 

Campaign objective: ABTA is the U.K.’s largest travel association, previously known as the Association of British Travel Agents consisting of tour operators and travel agents. 

The campaign objective was to increase awareness and sales of their offering for young travelers between the age groups of 18-35. They also wanted to increase bookings with their existing client base. 

Execution:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9albSrqeN6c%3Ffeature%3Doembed

The first step was to create video content for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube to appeal to the target audience. 

The campaign messages were divided into 3 broad categories –  pre-holiday, holiday, and post-holiday.

The main deliverables were as follows –

  • Increase awareness and impressions through paid ads on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube
  • Increase engagement
  • Increase views to 100% on Youtube
  • Increase visibility and impression on Facebook through ads

Increase in paid ads on all channels. ABTA worked with a fluid budget – they could reallocate their set budgets on the basis of the best-performing channel. Reviewing and reallocating were key for better performance.

Impact & Key Takeaways:

  • By targeting the right audiences and age groups, ABTA has 738,218 unique users on Facebook alone. 
  • The Youtube view rates doubled from 20% to 40%.
  • Facebook impressions increased from 128,519 to 4,260,668 (3215% Increase) 
Digital Marketing Examples - ABTA Campaign

Bonus Read – How to Build an Effective Targeting Audience on Facebook. And if you want to learn more, check out the 4Ps marketing mix of Starbucks.

3. Monster India- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Example 

SEO or search engine optimization is the method of improving the quality and quantity of traffic to your website. The main goal is to improve your brand’s visibility when you search for a product or service. 

Campaign Name: Monster India Google Search Campaign

Campaign objective: To improve the quality and expand their existing applicant and resume database 

Execution: Monster Inc. India started using structured data with the goal to improve its database. The team added structured data to job postings. This makes the job posting eligible to appear in a special user experience in search results. 

Impact & Key Takeaways

  • Jobs on Google search provided a whopping 94% increase in organic traffic on the job details page and a 10% increase in job applications. It helped users to find relevant jobs with its easy-to-use application format. This same model was duplicated for Monster Philippines, Monster Singapore, Monster Gulf, and Monster Malaysia. 
Digital Marketing Examples - Monster traffic
  • The organic website traffic has almost doubled in these areas as well.
  • Thus structured data in SEO can create a huge impact on search results. Here’s a useful blog on how to do keyword research. 

A swot analysis is also necessary for any brand. Check out Kitkat’s SWOT analysis.

4. Zappos- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Example 

A search engine marketing (SEM) marketing is a campaign strategy that uses paid ads within search engines. These target potential customers as they show up on SERPs or search engine result pages.

Campaign Name: Zappos Summer shoe campaign

Campaign objective: To increase sales for Zappos summer shoe variant

Execution:

Digital Marketing Examples - Zappos Campaign

Zappos is one of the world’s largest online shoe selling brands. Most of the company’s sales are through search engine marketing and word-of-mouth. They had paid ads running for summer shoes along with SEO techniques such as backlinking.

 Impact & key Takeaways

  • 20% of the company’s sales are through search engine marketing. Thus, we can see how search engine marketing plays an integral role in conversions. 

5. Wok to Walk- Email Marketing Example 

Email marketing is leveraging emails to send a commercial message to a group of people. It can be with the end goal of creating awareness, increasing sales and collecting donations. 

Campaign Name: Wok to Walk a health food company, 

Campaign objective: To increase the open rate and thereby increase sales and revenue

Digital Marketing Examples - Wok to walk campaign (1)

Execution: The first step that Wok to Walk took was to group their client on the basis of behaviour. They segregated their database into people who opened their emails and those who didn’t. The company sent an email to both groups asking them to call the number mentioned in the email, enquire and order a meal. The email only generated an open rate of 1%.

The segment that did not open the email, was sent a second email. This became a high converting segment now. What they did differently was they included the number in the subject line so the user didn’t have to open the email.

Impact & key Takeaways:

  • The second email resulted in 7.7% of users responding and opening their email. 
  • Segmentation is very important when it comes to email marketing. This helps you send relevant messages to a group that might actually be interested in your product or service.

The F&B industry sure knows how to effectively use digital marketing tools. Find out how McDonald’s marketing strategy has helped earn its position as one of the leading food chains in the world today.

6. Envelopes.com- E-commerce Marketing Example 

E-commerce marketing is when you use promotional tools to drive traffic to your e-commerce shop or online store to generate sales. It can also be referred to as digital shopper marketing.

Campaign Name: Envelopes.com

Campaign objective: To tackle the problem of people exiting at check out  

Execution:

Digital Marketing Examples - Envelopes Campaign

A very common issue for many e-commerce companies is that people drop out at check-out. Envelopes.com came up with a solution to this by sending very personalized, targeted SMS and email messages to these consumers within 48 hours post cart abandonment. 

Impact & Key Takeaways

  • This led to an open rate of 38%, a click-through rate of 25% and a conversion rate of 40% as it grabbed the consumer’s attention. 
  • This is a great example of E-commerce marketing as it generates recall in the customer’s mind as well.

If you found this example interesting, check out how Amazon does it. 

7. Nike Air VaporMax- Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is when businesses collaborate with influencers and opinion leaders to promote brands. Their audience already has a rapport with them so the idea is to tap into that segment to drive sales and boost awareness.

Campaign Name: Nike Air VaporMax + What’s Inside That

Campaign objective: To create hype + awareness around the launch of Nike Air VaporMax 

Execution:

NIKE- Influencer Marketing

Nike is known to collaborate with celebrities and influencers all over the world.

In 2017, they decided to team up with the popular Youtube Channel ‘What’s Inside That’ features Dan and his son Lincoln who slice up everyday objects to check what’s inside it. 

The duo used a pair of Nike Air VaporMax shoes and cut them to see what’s inside. 

Impact & key Takeaways

  • The video had a reach of 3.6 million and was successful in creating awareness about their new product line and also generated sales and engagement.

Influencer marketing is very important for brands as they help create an online buzz. You should also read about Asos’ marketing strategy for some inspiration.

8. Content Marketing Example 

Content marketing is the use of videos, blogs and social media posts to promote a brand.

Campaign Name: Superdrug’s Perception of Perfection 

Campaign objective: To raise awareness on the issue of body image – a social awareness campaign

Execution: As part of their campaign, a woman’s image was sent out to 18 graphic designers in different countries. They were asked to photoshop the woman to look ‘beautiful’. The result was different for different countries – some of them edited the image to make the woman slimmer, lighter, darker, etc. as per the accepted beauty standards in their country. 

Impact & key Takeaways:

  • The campaign went viral and was talked about by the New York Times, CNN, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and many such international platforms. 
  • The response was amazing – there were 1,000,000 reposts, 7,00,000 organic page views on their website and a 238% increase in organic traffic search in 16 months. Celebrities such as Sofia Vergara and Lil Wayne also mentioned the campaign.

Looking for similar beauty brand strategies? Check out Lush’s marketing strategy.

9. Dabur- Moment Marketing Example 

Moment marketing is leveraging ongoing trending events to communicate a brand message. It can be quirky, fun, or even have a social message. The idea is for people to relate to it.

Campaign Name: Dabur’s #SubkoChabaJaenge

Campaign objective: To create buzz around the Dabur red toothpaste

Execution:

The Cricket World Cup 2019 was used by the brand to promote its Dabur Red toothpaste variant. The first creative was for the India-Pakistan match and appealed to the emotional aspect of a viewer. They wanted to merge the idea of chewing the opposition and subtly plugin their product. 

Impact & key Takeaways

  • The video series went viral with a whopping 28 million views across digital platforms. They largely appealed to the young generation and masses. 

Amul has set the bench high for the entire industry when it comes to moment marketing. Check out some of Amul’s moment marketing ideas here.

10. Protein- Affiliate Marketing Example 

Affiliate marketing is a great way to spread awareness and generate sales. The company compensates affiliates or third parties to promote their brands. 

Every time a sale is made or traffic is generated, the affiliate is rewarded with a commission. This incentive is a driving factor for the third-party publisher to promote the company’s product or service.

Campaign Name: My Protein’s Global Brand Ambassador

Campaign objective: To drive sales and build awareness related to the brand. 

Execution:

Digital Marketing Examples - My Protein's Campaign

The company reached out to fitness and lifestyle influencers to promote their brand on their pages. Hashtags, social media content and coupon codes were generated for the affiliates to use on their pages. The influencers amplified word-of-mouth marketing and helped drive sales and awareness. 

Impact & key Takeaways

  • They had a 35% increase in average traffic and sales and 100 new potential customers from each affiliate.

Check out how Saffola, a Marico house name, built its presence in 25 countries in Asia and Africa.

 

11. Uber- Referral Marketing Example 

Referral marketing is word-of-mouth marketing wherein a company essentially incentivizes its existing customer base to introduce their friends, family and peers to the product or service that they have to offer.

Campaign Name: Uber Referral Program

Campaign objective: To grow the presence of Uber in India

Execution:

Digital Marketing Examples - Uber's Referral Program

Uber came up with referral programmes for both drivers and riders. The drivers themselves acted as salespeople of the company and got more drivers on board – this was important as the company depends upon its drivers. The referral incentive for drivers varied from INR 2000-5000 depending on the city which was a huge driving factor for its success.

Then came incentives for the rider. A rider could earn up to Rs. 600 or a free ride for every new referral. The user interface was also designed such that it is user-friendly.

Impact & Key Takeaways

  • The company grew by 400% through just their referral program in India with a presence in 50 cities in India and 11 million rides per week. 
  • Referral programmes are a great way to incentivize your user base to act as a salesperson for your brand.  

Learn more with this detailed case study on Ola’s marketing strategy.

 

12. Red Bull- Guerilla Marketing Example 

Guerilla marketing is a type of marketing in which a company uses unconventional methods of marketing to add a surprise element to its strategy. It is basically a type of publicity.  

Campaign Name: Red Bull Supersonic Skyfall 

Campaign objective: For Red Bull to  surprise people and grab attention 

Execution:

A guerilla marketing campaign needs to be out of the box, edgy, surprising, viral and has vast publicity potential. Red Bull sponsored the world’s highest skydive or supersonic Skyfall and partnered with Felix Baumgartner to jump from space. They promoted the event across social media platforms to create hype. 

Impact & Key Takeaways

  • This turned out to be a great guerilla marketing example as the hype, publicity and surprise element was phenomenal. 
  • Millions from all over the world logged on to see the video live. The Youtube video had 46.4 million views. 

These were the top 12 digital marketing examples. We hope this has helped you understand digital marketing. We have answered some common questions below. 

Kansai Nerolac’s marketing strategy is another must-read case study to gain insights from.

These were the top 12 digital marketing examples to understand digital marketing and take inspiration from. Here are some common questions that we have tried answering. 

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