The Lesser-Known Digital Marketing Tools and How They are Used

Everybody is talking about the digital marketing tools: Search engine optimization (SEO); Content marketing; Social media marketing and PPC (Pay per click); but what about the lesser-known digital marketing tools?
The digital marketing tools which form some of the foundation of your online marketing strategy, but aren’t as exciting. Except, when you hear about their benefits, they turn out to be surprisingly stirring. Today we are going to explore:
- Affiliate marketing;
- Native advertising;
- Email marketing and
- Online PR and how each can help your business reach its marketing goals.
Affiliate Marketing
What is Affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based digital marketing tool that is founded on revenue sharing. It’s the method of spreading product marketing across diverse parties, which results in each party receiving a share of the revenue – according to their contribution, of course.
There are many sources on the subject which state that there are either three or four different parties involved in affiliate marketing: the merchant; the network; publisher and customer; or the advertiser; publisher and consumer. But, in reality, there are two real sides of affiliate marketing: the product creator/seller and the affiliate marketer.
The product creator, also known as the merchant/vendor or retailer, is the party which creates the product. Anyone from entrepreneurs to large companies can become a merchant behind an affiliate marketing program. All they need is a product to sell.
The task for an affiliate marketer is to earn commissions via promoting the products of other companies. Find products that appeal to you, promote that product by attracting and convincing potential customers, then earn a commission for every sale you help make.
Examples of affiliate marketing channels include:
- Posting affiliate links from social media accounts
- Running a review blog of a merchant’s products
- Hosting video through programs such as YouTube partner; or
- An entire website dedicated to finding the best products related to a certain topic, or many topics (such as Amazon.com)
Benefits of affiliate marketing
For advertisers:
- Market your products only to interested people for no upfront fee.
- Engage in risk-free advertising: pay only when you see results.
- Have multiple (hundreds, even thousands) of websites promoting your product.
For affiliate marketers:
- The opportunity to effectively sell stock without the costs or responsibilities of manufacturing, buying or storing.
- When working with networks that pay highly, there is massive profit potential and,
- If performed correctly, the opportunity to create an almost passive income.
- There is the ability to work online from anywhere at any time, with the freedom to choose how hard you work.
- A strong social following can almost guarantee that you, as an influencer, will receive many free incentives from advertisers who are looking to boost their brand awareness.
Native Advertising
What is native advertising?
In simple terms, native advertising is a paid form of advertising that is primarily content-based and is featured beside other non-paid content on digital platforms. Native advertising is a combination of form: matching the visual design of Ads to look and feel like natural content; and function: Ads which function like natural content, behaving consistently with the seamless user experience.
Native advertising morphs advertisements into content which resembles the content online audiences already seek.
Types of Native Advertising
- Sponsored content
- Recommended content
- In-feed Social media Ads
Examples of native advertising
Many posts on social media represent examples of native advertising. These include:
- Tumblr and
- BuzzFeed sponsored posts
Benefits of native advertising
- This type of advertising helps create a seamless experience for the online audience, contributing to the goal of the ultimate user experience.
- The online audience realizes that native advertising is still advertising, but studies prove that users are up to 25% more likely to engage with native Ads vs. standard banners.
- Online user bases are also more likely to engage with native advertising than with editorial content.
Email Marketing

What is email marketing?
Businesses use email marketing in order to communicate regularly with their audiences. Email is a great communication platform and is widely used – even more so than social media platforms.
Furthermore, it lacks the clutter associated with social media as it’s generally used for business-orientated purposes and interests.
Types of Email marketing
- Direct Email – Promotional messages and special offers.
- Retention Email – Newsletters.
Examples of Email marketing
The types of emails one would create to form an email marketing campaign could include:
- Welcome emails for new customers.
- Blog subscription newsletters.
- Follow-up emails for visitors who have subscribed, downloaded or bought something.
- Promotions for loyal members.
Benefits of Email marketing
- An incredible source – There are more Email accounts than Twitter and Facebook accounts combined.
- Measurability – Track your ROI (return on investment) precisely and make necessary modifications to your campaign.
- Success – Target your audience to find the ideal customers and keep constant contact to enrich business communications.
- Cost – Email is one of the cheapest ways to communicate to a broad target audience which can also be specifically targeted.
Online Public Relations
What is online PR?
Dissimilar to traditional PR; online PR is the process of attaining earned exposure with digital publications; blogs and other content-based websites, only through digital marketing channels.
However, the content is not focused on the product or service, but rather topics of interest which surround the product. The channels one could use to maximize online PR include:
- Engaging online views for your business.
- Reporter outreach through social media channels.
- Engaging comments on a personal blog or website.
Examples of online PR
Online PR is a digital marketing tool which influences:
- Columnists and traditional writers;
- Websites and brand-sites;
- Personal and professional bloggers;
- Social Media users
Via distribution sources such as:
- Blogs;
- Social media platforms and
- Websites
Benefits of online PR
- It is great for online reputation management. Good reviews bring in more traffic to your website, while bad reviews offer insight into the business’ shortcomings and can be counter-acted with press releases or articles.
- Online PR does not have to be expensive; many will review your product for no cost if a sample is offered.
- It can improve your SEO ranking by submitting keyword optimized articles or press releases to blogs, you can increase your back-link profiling.
Digital Marketing South Africa
The world of digital and social media marketing is incredibly complex. Not using digital marketing tools, especially inbound marketing tools, to market your business is guaranteed to be a loss of incredible benefits.
Digital Marketing South Africa offers you the opportunity to take your business to the next level. Our team of digital and social media marketing wizards are equipped with all the tools necessary to help you grow your business.
We handle all aspects of online marketing, including:
- Native Advertising,
- Content Creation,
- Content Strategy,
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Social Media Marketing (managing and sharing across all social networks)
- Email Marketing
- Pay Per Click
- Marketing Automation
Feel free to contact us for more information about our online marketing services.
ITM – Website Design Cape Town
Not only that, it is critical that your web design be modern and use current technology.
In addition to this your website should support your marketing efforts by including elements such as a blog engine and Social Media marketing.
Digital Marketing South Africa utilises the superior professional web design services of ITM Website Design.