Digital marketing has far surpassed every other kind of marketing in both importance and relevance to today’s businesses. But with so many different facets, how can you actually know which are most important? What about which areas of digital marketing are the most important to focus on? Here are what I see are the top five areas of digital marketing to hone in on this year, along with why each is important, relevant and most of all, what’s in it for you.

1. Location Based Marketing

Location based marketing is marketing specifically to your physical location. For businesses that have physical brick and mortar locations, location based marketing is extremely helpful and is one of the more unique ways to reach out to customers. This type of marketing, as described in this PC World article, actually pitches your business to those who are in its vicinity. If people are near your store, ads on social media or pop up banners can actually point them to your location.

Why it’s important: Location based marketing can give a potential customer, walking by your location, the nudge they need to actually come inside. This sense of immediacy and proximity gives your customers a much better impetus to walk into your business.

Why it’s relevant: Location based marketing is relevant to every business that has a physical store, especially if that store has seen a decrease in foot traffic recently.

What’s in it for you: If you still have a physical store (or restaurant, or office, etc.), it may feel like it takes quite a bit of effort to get people to come into that location. This kind of marketing is a great way to get people to actually stop in to learn more about you.

2. Retargeting

Only a tiny percentage of the people that visit your webpage will actually make a purchase. Retargeting is a system that lets your business “follow” a user, anonymously. If they leave your website without making a purchase, later, they see an advertisement on a different website for your business, and it directs them back to make a purchase.

Why it’s important: Retargeting is importantbecause it allows you to catch some of those potential customers that slip through your net. It’s easy to become distracted, this reels them back in.

Why it’s relevant: Retargeting is relevant because many websites have a very low conversion rate. Retargeting is the best way to redirect users back to your page, while you and your products or service are still fresh in their minds.

What’s in it for you: This area of digital marketing helps you up your conversion ratio and improve your sales by targeting people who have already shown interest in your business.

3. Email Marketing

Email marketing is simply building an email list (usually of past customers or those that expressly sign up for the list), and sending out marketing messages to those people on your list.

Why it’s important: This type of marketing is one of the oldest and most effective digital strategies.

Why it’s relevant: Nearly everyone has an email address and almost everyone check their email at least once a day. With email apps on mobile devices, it’s easy to reach a consumer, no matter where they are, exactly when you want to.

What’s in it for you: Email has one of the highest ROIs in digital marketing. It helps you build a loyal customer base and provides value to your customers or clients. It’s easy, too, because there are services like Marketo, who will manage your campaign for you.

4. Personalization

Personalization, especially in email marketing, makes sure that your marketing message addresses the reader by name.

Why it’s important: Today’s consumer is highly concerned with being seen and understood as an individual. Marketing messages are more effective when they seem to speak directly to one person.

Why it’s relevant: Personalization is relevant since your customers see themselves as individuals. If you’re not catering to that need to be seen as an individual, you’re not reaching those customers with your message effectively.

What’s in it for you: Personalizing your messages helps to build a bond between customer (or potential customer) and your business. When you show that you recognize that person as an individual, and not just a sales figure, they feel more inclined to do business with your company.

5. Paid Promotion

Paid promotion campaigns are designed to get your link at the top of the search results, in an advertisement format.

Why it’s important: For many companies, especially small and medium-sized companies, this is a great way to be at the top of relevant search results, while organic SEO and other marketing methods are taking root.

Why it’s relevant: It can take time to garner the kind of attention that your business needs to be successful. Paid search lets you be on top, right now, to reach both mobile and desktop searchers, as search results are still the best way to get page traffic. Continue to maintain priority on the organic nature of social media itself; however, it’s important to test out paid products (moderately) and keep the channel that’s really showing good traffic.

What’s in it for you: When you use paid promotion, you tend to get more page views, which means more conversions, and that means more profits!