Digital Marketing vs. Internet Marketing: What's the Difference?

Simranjeet Singh • September 7, 2021

Key Points

  • Many people use terms such as digital marketing and internet marketing interchangeably without knowing the exact difference. Digital marketing vs internet marketing: What's the difference?
  • You must understand that there is some difference between digital marketing and internet marketing. Let us explore to find the exact difference between these two terms.

What is digital marketing?

We are living in a fully digitized world nowadays. Naturally, digital marketing is an essential part of a comprehensive marketing strategy for a business. Many people mistake digital marketing for internet marketing. All marketing strategies that utilize a digital platform for business promotion, including online marketing channels and TV ads are digital marketing strategies.

 

If you analyze successful businesses, you can find them using different digital marketing strategies to build brand image and promote products and services. It has become almost impossible for any business to survive in this highly competitive world without tried-and-tested digital marketing tactics. Traditional marketing concepts have been replaced by more efficient and affordable digital marketing strategies nowadays.

What is internet marketing?

The internet has transformed the lives of people in many different ways. It is undoubtedly the most impactful discovery of this century. This system architecture has revolutionized how we communicate, research, shop, study, work, and many more. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the internet has turned our lives upside down. The way businesses have been operating has changed drastically with the emergence of the internet.

 

Today, we can hear people talking a lot about the internet or online marketing. It refers to the online strategies or tactics people use to promote brands, products, and services. As the name suggests, this marketing utilizes internet channels for business promotion. What does it convey? It clearly says that internet marketing is a subset of digital marketing.

Digital marketing and internet marketing are not two completely different entities

Digital marketing vs internet marketing; what's the difference? If you know this fundamental difference between these two strategies, you can utilize them efficiently to promote your business and products/services. It is critically important to realize that the internet and digital marketing are not two completely different entities. The former is a subset of the latter. All internet marketing strategies fall under the purview of digital marketing. In addition to internet marketing, digital advertising contains digital advertising, WebTV, SMS, and all other strategies that use digital mediums.

Develop a cohesive strategy using both internet and digital marketing

Digital marketing vs internet marketing? Do you want to take your business reputation to the next level? Are you planning to increase your sales and profits? You must develop a cohesive strategy that combines the best digital and internet marketing tactics harmoniously. Some common tactics let you optimize the benefits of these two marketing methods and generate outstanding results. 

Explore the unlimited possibilities of content marketing

Now, you have a fair idea on digital marketing vs internet marketing. Accomplished digital marketing experts utilize these two strategies to deliver outstanding results. These people will teach you how to integrate both these strategies efficiently to make your marketing campaign result-driven.


Content marketing is one of the most vital strategies that both share. It is the process of sharing your knowledge and expertise with your audience using quality content creation and distribution tactics. If you have a solid content strategy in place, you can drive traffic to your site consistently.


You can come across various content formats, including articles, blogs, podcasts, how-to guides, videos, Infographics, and many more. Content is a vital component of both internet and digital marketing strategies. Fresh, engaging, and informative content helps you establish authority in your niche, generate traffic to your site, and improve brand awareness.


When you decide to develop a customized content marketing strategy, you must focus on a few vital components to achieve the best results.

Concentrate on topics that are relevant to your niche

You must focus on topics that are relevant to your niche. Many people often get carried away by trending topics. It is necessary to check whether these topics hold any relevance to your industry. Your focus should be on generating quality traffic that can be converted easily. Trending topics may drive traffic, but they might not help your conversion efforts. So the most critical thing is to catch the attention of those people who are most likely to convert.

Explore the possibilities of various content formats

It is essential to blogging regularly to bring value to the audience. You must also experiment with different formats to keep the readers engaged. Successful business owners use various content formats, including guides, videos, and Infographics, to make their content appealing and fresh. Some target customers may not be interested in reading blogs. You can offer them engaging videos. If you want to reach out to the maximum number of potential customers, you must explore the possibilities of various content formats.

Use a content calendar to keep things organized

As you keep posting content on different online platforms, you may not get the time to monitor all your activities. Things can go chaotic after a period. That is why you should use a content calendar. With the help of a calendar, you can organize your content management strategy systematically.

Use the power of Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising efficiently

Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising is a highly efficient internet and digital marketing strategy. You can take your ads on top of the search results to increase visibility and generate traffic to your site. One of the remarkable benefits of PPC is that it helps you generate qualified leads. If you want to achieve instant results, you can use this paid marketing method. The conversion percentage of PPC ads is 50% higher than organic visitor conversion.

How to make your PPC campaign successful?

Landing page customization is a critical aspect. If you create a custom landing page, you can expect to drive more traffic. That is to say, your landing page must complement the content in your ad copy to keep leads interested.


You should never undermine the importance of ad extensions, including local extensions and structural snippets. These extensions always allow you to add extra information that motivates visitors to take action. With the help of ad extensions, you can improve customer engagement and traffic generation considerably.


The keywords you select play a vital role in making your PPC campaign successful. The best choice available is long-tail keyword optimization. It lowers your cost per click and drives more valuable leads.

Tap the unsurpassed potential of Search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most popular and effective internet marketing strategies available today. It is also known as one of the most efficient digital marketing strategies. If you tap the unlimited potential of SEO, you can drive qualified leads consistently with minimal investment. The best optimization techniques improve your search engine rankings to take online visibility and traffic to the next level.

Create a well-thought-out, customized SEO strategy

Do you want to make your SEO efforts goal-oriented? You should learn how to incorporate suitable keywords and phrases into your content that make an instant impression on search engines. Extensive keyword research and analysis help you discover the best industry-specific keywords. You need to seek the help of a reliable digital marketing agency to identify the relevant keywords that drive traffic to your website.


The load time of your website is a critical component. With an abundance of choices, visitors always look for fast information. If your site takes too much time to load, people will look for other options available. So you must find ways to improve your site's load time. A well-optimized website loads immediately to deliver accurate information for visitors that they are looking for. You need to hire a reliable digital marketing agency to keep your site load time at optimal levels.


The number of mobile users has been increasing at a rapid pace nowadays. You should make your site highly responsive to mobile devices to improve user-friendliness. Leading search engines like Google use mobile-first indexing while ranking websites. Responsive website designs always keep your site mobile-friendly. Trusted digital marketing agencies focus on technical SEO to take care of your site speed, coding, JavaScript, Schema markup, canonicalization, and other site architecture-related aspects to improve your page rankings.


Other critical SEO components include link building, social media marketing, analytics and reporting, and local SEO. Professional digital marketing experts blend all these aspects harmoniously to create a bespoke SEO strategy that delivers exceptional results consistently.

Leverage email marketing to generate outstanding results

Digital marketing vs internet marketing? Email marketing is a highly reliable and efficient internet marketing and digital marketing strategy. It lets you send a wide variety of content directly to potential customers. A solid email marketing strategy is necessary to foster leads towards conversion. You can connect with your audience directly and offer them engaging content that brings value to them.

How to make your email marketing result-driven?

If your prospects open the emails, 50% of the battle is won. How to encourage them to open your emails? One effective way is to make a click-worthy subject line. Without an appealing subject line, you cannot motivate them to open your emails.


Many business owners pay for subscribers. It is a mistake that you should never make. If you pay for subscriber lists, you might receive a list of email recipients effortlessly. However, it doesn't offer long-term benefits. You may get a list containing numerous people who are not interested in your products or services. Eventually, your emails will be considered spam. Many people may block you. This situation makes a negative impact on your business reputation. The best approach is to get your emails using organic methods.


Experienced digital marketing experts always advise their clients to personalize their email campaigns. A customized campaign helps you build good relationships with audiences to deliver long-lasting results. You must focus on personalizing emails to meet the interests of users efficiently. This approach increases customer engagement and takes the email open-rate to the next level.

Benefits of understanding the difference between digital marketing and internet marketing

Digital marketing vs internet marketing: what's the difference? Now, you must have a clear idea about the fundamental difference between these two methods. As an all-encompassing term, digital marketing represents all activities using digital platforms or mediums. Internet marketing falls under the broad umbrella term, digital marketing. It uses the internet to promote your business.


What is the benefit of understanding the difference between these two methods? When you have a clear idea about the difference, you will come to know what exactly you want out of your marketing campaigns. For example, many local store owners are searching for ways to leverage the internet for increasing footfalls. These people must opt for digital marketing than just relying on internet marketing. Experienced digital marketing experts would always help them utilize offline digital tactics like SMS to attract visitors to stores.


On the other hand, e-commerce platforms can focus on internet marketing to drive traffic to their stores. Search engine optimization and PPC campaigns are the best choices available for them. As mentioned above, when you understand the difference between digital and internet marketing, you can decide what exactly you want out of your marketing campaigns.

Which is the best option - a digital marketing agency or an internet marketing company?

Digital marketing vs internet marketing professional; which is the best option? An internet marketing company offers only online strategies to promote your brand and products. If you want to use a comprehensive marketing strategy that helps you scale your marketing efforts in the future, you must hire a digital marketing expert. With a broader grasp on digital technology, digital specialists will develop a customized strategy that leverages the potential of the best marketing channels.


Digital marketing offers a 360-degree view of all leading marketing technologies that use the internet and many other channels. So a digital marketing agency is always the best choice available to achieve your short-term and long-term business goals.


It doesn't matter whether you run an online or offline business; you need to seek professional help to make your marketing campaigns optimally successful. Accomplished digital marketing experts use the incredible potential of internet marketing while designing a fully customized digital marketing strategy that delivers sustainable results.