From a general standpoint, marketing is the practice of identifying and satisfying customer needs. This is a particularly important task in the business context, as successful marketing efforts can drive inbound leads and attract a large customer case. The traditional marketing cycle involves an analysis of market orientation, product mix and business environment. Even though marketing has deep roots in business history and culture, digital marketing is a relatively new practice.

With the explosion of digital technology—including widespread and pervasive use of computers and smartphones—businesses began to experiment with new marketing tactics. Thus, digital marketing was born.

Fast forward to the present and digital marketing is as important, if not more so, than traditional marketing methods. This divide seems destined to grow wider over time, as many businesses are diverting funds from traditional to digital marketing methods. Taken as a whole, it is vital for businesses to plan and execute a viable digital marketing strategy, like having good data visualization.

What Are the Basics of Digital Marketing?

In a nutshell, digital marketing refers to any marketing methods conducted through electronic devices which utilize some form of a computer. This includes online marketing efforts conducted on the internet. In the process of conducting digital marketing, a business might leverage websites, search engines, blogs, social media, video, email and similar channels to reach customers.

Unlike traditional marketing—which is static and often referred to as “one-way” communication—digital marketing is an ever-changing, dynamic process. Stated otherwise, customers cannot interact with business through a billboard or print ad, whereas digital marketing provides an avenue for two-way communication between a business and its actual or prospective customers.

These days, screen time is at an all-time high for many people. Digital marketing takes advantage of this reality, promoting business products and services across the internet. In this way, businesses ensure that their marketing efforts are more likely to reach customers, by targeting them where they spend most of their time.

From startups to enterprise businesses, a multifaceted digital marketing approach can lead to significant commercial benefits. Successful digital marketing strategy generally involves a combination of various methods, including online advertising, search engine optimization and marketing, social media marketing and management and content creation, among others.

Are There Different Ways to Conduct Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is a broad term that encompasses many different channels for promoting business interests to prospective customers. Depending on the business needs and goals, there are countless ways to conduct digital marketing. It is not a cookie-cutter exercise.

That being said, there are several common methods for conducting digital marketing, including:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — SEO is the practice of improving ranking within major search engines to increase online traffic.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) — SEM leverages paid online advertising to increase website visibility within search engines. SEM is often used in conjunction with SEO.
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) — PPC is an online method for advertising where a business only pays for its ads when a person clicks on them.
• Social Media Marketing (SMM) — SMM is the practice of using social media channels to promote business products or services. The use of social media influencers, often referred to as influencer marketing, is prevalent in SMM.
• Email Marketing — Email marketing enables businesses to send branded, promotional content directly to prospective customers via email. The use of automated newsletters is common in this context.
• Affiliate Marketing — Affiliate marketing is a performance-based exercise that enables revenue sharing and pay-per-sale (PPS) compensation within a common network.
• Content Marketing — Content marketing refers to the publishing and distribution of text, video or audio materials to customers online. Blogs, videos and podcasts are common ways for businesses to engage in content marketing.
• Native Advertising — Native advertising involves blending marketing materials into a medium, making the underlying message and marketing purposes equally important. Sponsored content, in which one business posts its own content on a different website, is a common method of native advertising.

In years past, video games have unjustly been given a bad rap by certain people and groups who propose that video games can be blamed for instances of mass violence or that they are even satanic in nature. It isn’t just first-person shooters or bloody action games that take the heat for societal problems that existed long before video games were even around; even bad driving is now being linked to racing games. However, unlike video games that rely on a high degree of fantasy, racing games are fairly realistic and someone could potentially try to mimic in-game behavior on the road. While aggressive driving techniques can be beneficial to a player’s time on the virtual track, techniques learned through racing games can be dangerous to both the driver and those around them.

The Positive Benefits Of Gaming

Despite the multiple attempts to cast video gaming in a negative light over the years, there is actually a lot of sound evidence that shows that video games can actually be quite beneficial to those who play them. Video games are stimulating and highly interactive which, combined with the fact that games are highly task and goal-oriented, make gaming a novel yet effective educational tool.

Video games have been shown to improve basic visual processes, vigilance, attention, executive functioning, multitasking, and mental flexibility, all of which are necessary when piloting a vehicle. Additionally, studies indicate that job training conducted through video games is particularly effective in professions that require great hand-eye coordination, quick decision-making, excellent working memory, and a high degree of attention. Again, all skills that are essential when driving a car.

With this in mind, it would seem that racing games, more specifically racing simulators, would work as a fantastic tool for bolstering a player’s understanding of the fundamentals of driving and improving reaction times that are necessary on the road to make important decisions in a split-second. Some areas of the world have already started embracing digital education and training, such as using virtual reality technology to prepare doctors for difficult surgeries, so why haven’t we decided that racing games are a valid substitute for driver’s ed?

Video Games Can Offer Low-Stakes Training

Driving simulation games give gamers the chance to effectively learn a whole host of vital driving skills depending on the nature of the game in question. Sure, playing Grand Theft Auto Online is fun, but you’re not likely to learn important defensive driving techniques when your vehicle is equipped with explosive rockets and the goal of a race is to win at any cost. However, more in-depth driving simulators like Forza might be more effective as they do not reward violent or brash driving. Instead, realistic driving and racing simulators place a huge amount of importance on attention, quick-decision making, and mastery of control. If you are looking to really improve your defensive driving skills visit IMPROV los angeles traffic school.

A huge benefit of learning to drive or improving driving skills through video games is that they have incredibly low stakes. Simulations can teach drivers to stay calm under pressure and improve their decision-making skills, putting drivers into dangerous real-world driving situations without any of the dangers that come with actually being behind the wheel of 2,000 pounds of steel going 80 miles per hour. Traditional driving courses can tell students a thousand times how to react when their vehicle begins to hydroplane on a wet road, but video games can actually show drivers what it might be like and give them a hands-on opportunity to put defensive driving skills into practice.

Video games can also be effective in educating drivers on what not to do in certain situations. For instance, the U.S. Army in collaboration with the University of Calgary has developed and implemented a game called Booze Cruise, a drunk-driving simulator, into the training regimen of new troops. The goal of Booze Cruise isn’t to train troops to be able to drive under the influence but to show them the immense dangers and difficulties that come with impaired driving in a low-stakes scenario.

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