Rogers talked about some of the most popular types of digital marketing, providing a brief overview of each:

1. Affiliate Marketing

With the increased prominence of online marketing, affiliate marketing — also known as influencer marketing — has become popular among many organizations in bridging the gap between consumers and organizations. But what is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing utilizes the ever-growing popularity of industry experts and social media influencers. In working with these third-party influencers, your organization will collaborate to promote your products or services for compensation. In collaboration, influencers will engage their audience with posts, blogs or videos to bring in more business for your organization and create new leads.

Within the last few years, affiliate or influencer marketing has grown immensely with new media like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and blogs being a mainstream form of entertainment and news. Affiliate marketing has become one of the more popular forms of digital marketing. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the affiliate marketing industry was estimated to be a $13 billion industry in 2023.

The job market is growing for marketers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) predicts a 6% increase through 2032 in the number of advertising, promotions and marketing managers.* In 2022, the median salary for those positions was $156,580, according to BLS.

2. Content Marketing

Content marketing uses storytelling and information sharing to increase brand awareness. Ultimately, the goal is to have readers take action toward becoming a customer, such as requesting more information, signing up for an email list or making a purchase. “Content” can refer to blog posts, resources like white papers and e-books, digital videos, podcasts and much more.

In general, it should first and foremost provide value to the consumer — not just advertise the brand or try to make a sale. Content marketing is about building a sustainable, trusting relationship with your customers that can potentially lead to many sales over time, not just a single transaction.

Content marketing works in symbiosis with other types of digital marketing: It is a way to incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) into fresh website content, and the content created can be shared as social media posts and in email marketing publications. Looking at the analytics for your content marketing can tell you a lot about your customers:

What are they looking for when they land on your site?
What kinds of content make them stay on the site longer and keep looking around?
What kinds make them lose interest and navigate away?