[QA] Digital Marketing Foundation

What this lesson covers

Digital marketing is the practice of reaching customers through digital
channels — search, social, email, ads and your own website. The defining
difference from traditional advertising is measurement: every touchpoint
produces data, so decisions move from opinion to evidence.

The four core channels

• Search — people actively looking for an answer you can give
• Social — attention gathered around interests and communities
• Email — the one channel where you own the list
• Paid ads — rented attention, bought at auction

Key idea: a channel is a place. A strategy decides what you say
there, and to whom.

In the next lesson we watch how these channels line up on the funnel.

The honest pitch

Content marketing trades instant reach for compounding trust. It works
when your audience has a real question worth answering well; it wastes
months when the category is impulse-driven and price-only.

Fit test

Situation	Content marketing fit
Considered purchase, research-heavy	strong
Impulse, price-only category	weak
Trust-sensitive (health, finance)	strong but slow

What compounding means

A good guide ranks for years; a boosted post rents attention for exactly as
long as you keep paying. Ask of every idea: will this still serve us in
eighteen months?