Digital marketing is all marketing in digital channels, such as search engines, search ads, social media, email and your own website. Unlike print and TV, all of it can be measured and adjusted while it runs. That makes digital marketing work that needs doing every week, in every channel you use.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is all marketing in digital channels, such as search engines, search ads, social media, email and your own website.
What sets it apart is the feedback. A newspaper ad appears and then it's gone. A search ad shows you every day who clicked, what they searched for and what the click cost. Everything leaves a trace, and the traces tell you what to do next.
That makes digital marketing easy to start and demanding to keep up. An ad is quick to launch. Keeping it profitable takes someone looking at it every week.
Which channels are part of digital marketing?
SEO and AI search (GEO). Showing up in Google and in the answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, without paying per click. It comes down to a site that works technically, with text that answers clearly what people ask. The pages that rank in Google are often the ones AI tools draw their answers from.
Search ads. Ads in Google shown to people searching for something you sell. You pay per click, and the search terms decide whether the money goes to the right searches.
Social media. LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, organic and paid. For B2B companies this is often where you show what you know and what you think.
Content. Articles, guides and customer stories that do work in every other channel. Content is the basis for SEO and AI search and what you share on social media. How B2B content marketing works.
Email. Newsletters and sends to people who already know you.
Your website. Where every channel leads. A page that doesn't answer the visitor's question wastes the traffic the other channels brought in.
Few companies need every channel at once. Start where your buyers already look.
Why does digital marketing need weekly work?
The channels keep moving. New search terms show up in the ad account, and some of them cost money without ever leading to a sale. Competitors publish, and pages that ranked well slide down.
None of these changes is big in a single week. Leave them for a quarter, though, and the ad account has paid for the wrong clicks and the site has lost searches it used to win.
So the rhythm decides the outcome. A short review every week beats a big overhaul twice a year.
What needs doing every week?
Digital advertising
Search ads, social ads and display follow the same rhythm. Results are compared against the target every week. Is the cost per customer or the return on ad spend where it should be? If not, budget moves from what isn't delivering to what is, including between channels.
In search ads, new search terms come in every week. The ones that convert become keywords of their own, and the ones that never lead to a purchase are excluded. The search terms you pay for but never review.
On social media, ads wear out. Once the same audience has seen the same ad many times, the cost goes up, and new creative needs to go out.
Anomalies need catching early. A campaign that suddenly costs more, or conversion tracking that has stopped recording.
SEO, AI search and content
Pages in positions 6 to 15 with plenty of impressions are the closest to moving up. Often they only need a better title or another paragraph.
A new article needs publishing, chosen from search data and written for a question your buyers ask.
Technical errors need fixing, such as broken links and pages that lack a title or can't be indexed.
Someone also needs to put your buyers' questions to ChatGPT and Perplexity. Are you mentioned in the answer? Which sources do they cite instead? That shows which text is missing.
Social media
The week's posts need writing and scheduling, with a mix of expertise and what's happening in your industry. Comments need replies. What got a response shapes next week.
Market intel and competitors
Someone needs to follow what competitors publish and what's written about you and about them. An industry story that affects your customers is often the week's best post, if it goes out the same day.
Email and your website
The newsletter needs writing and sending at the pace you promised.
On the site, forms and contact routes need to work. The pages that get the most traffic should lead visitors on, to a call, a quote or a purchase.
Follow-up
Last week's changes need checking. Did the cost drop once the keyword was excluded? Did the page climb after the new title? That's how next week's decisions get better than last week's.
What goes into a digital marketing strategy?
A digital marketing strategy is the handful of decisions the weekly work rests on. You only need to revisit them now and then, often once a quarter.
Goals and budget. What marketing should lead to, what a customer may cost and how much goes to ads.
Audience and message. Who you're talking to and what you want them to remember.
The decisions are yours. Most of the work around them can be done by someone else.
How should a small business approach digital marketing?
Digital marketing for a small business works best when it starts narrow. For most B2B companies that means Google, with a website that answers buyers' questions and search ads for what sells. LinkedIn comes next, to show what the company knows.
The weekly work matters more than the number of channels. One channel looked after every week does more for you than four that get checked once a month.
Hire, agency, freelancer or Verka?
You can hire someone, bring in a digital marketing agency, use a freelancer or let Verka do the work. Here's how the models differ.
| Hire | Agency | Freelancer | Verka | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Your employee | The agency's team | A consultant | Verka |
| Who decides | You and your employee | You, based on the agency's proposals | You | You approve each action |
| How it's priced | Salary and employment costs | Monthly retainer, hourly rate or a share of ad spend | Hourly rate or fixed price per project | $690 a month excl. VAT, every module included |
| How fast it starts | After recruitment | After briefing and onboarding | Once you've found the right person | Once your accounts are connected, which we do together with you |
| Breadth | Depends on the person | Depends on the contract | Usually one specialism | Google Ads, SEO and content, social media and market intel |
Which model fits depends on how much you want to steer yourself and how many channels need looking after. What outsourced marketing actually means.
What does a week with Verka look like?
Verka prepares the action, you approve it, Verka carries it out. Here's the week.
Monday morning the week's posts are in your queue, five per channel. Your Google Ads search terms have been reviewed, and the ones to cut are waiting as ready proposals. Sunday's audit of your site is there too, with the issues worth fixing and the new text ready to copy.
Every day Verka reads your Google Ads account, measures it against your own target and checks for anomalies every four hours. Every morning Verka reads the news in your industry and surfaces what matters to you. Press once and Verka writes a post or an article about it.
Several search terms got clicks this week but never led to a conversion. They're queued as proposed negative keywords. Approve?
When you approve, Verka carries it out. The change in Google Ads is made straight away, and you can undo it for seven days. Verka publishes your Facebook and Instagram posts at the right time. The articles you take to your site as HTML or Word and publish yourself.
After 7 and 30 days you see what each approved action delivered.
You make the decisions. Verka does the work. It costs $690 a month excl. VAT, and every module is included.
Frequently asked questions
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is all marketing in digital channels, such as search engines, search ads, social media, email and your own website. All of it can be measured and adjusted while it runs, which is why the work needs doing every week.
What's the difference between digital and traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing such as print, TV and outdoor advertising is hard to follow up in detail. Digital marketing shows who clicked, what they searched for and what it cost, so you can change what isn't working while the campaign is still running.
Where should a small business start with digital marketing?
Start where your buyers already look. Often that's Google, with a website that answers their questions and search ads for what sells. Then add LinkedIn to show what the company knows.
How much does digital marketing cost?
The cost has two parts, the ad budget and the work. You set the ad budget yourself. The work costs a salary if you hire, a fee if you use an agency, or $690 a month excl. VAT with Verka, where every module is included and it runs month to month. See the pricing page.
Do we need a digital marketing agency?
It depends on how much you want to steer. An agency does the work and proposes what to do. With Verka the work is also done for you, but every action waits for your approval, and after 7 and 30 days you see what it delivered.
What needs doing every week in digital marketing?
Ads are compared against the target and budget moves to where it does the most good. Search terms that don't lead to sales are excluded and worn-out ads are replaced. Pages close to the first page of Google are improved and a new article is published. The week's posts are written and scheduled, and last week's changes are followed up.