Are you looking to learn digital marketing? Maybe you’ve heard these days it’s necessary to focus on digital marketing but found the term vague or confusing. Starting from big brands to startups, with businesses going the digital route and focusing on creating a strong online presence, we understand why you might also be thinking of joining the bandwagon. And navigating through this ever-changing digital landscape can get quite overwhelming when you’re growing a business, if you don’t have solid ideas about what you’re going to deal with. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back. In this blog, we’re going to discuss all the digital marketing basics you need to know, their benefits, and strategies for running successful digital campaigns to promote and grow your business online.
So let’s take a look!
What is digital marketing?
Well, this is a massive topic, so let’s start by defining exactly what we mean when we talk about digital marketing.
According to Neil Patel, one of the top digital marketing experts:
Digital marketing is the act of selling products and services through channels such as social media, SEO, email, and mobile apps. Basically, digital marketing is any form of marketing that involves electronic devices.
In simplest terms, digital marketing means advertising your products and services using the internet and digital media as the medium such as search engines, websites, social media, email, and mobile apps.
In many ways, digital marketing is no different than traditional marketing. But it has replaced most traditional marketing tactics because it’s designed to reach today’s consumers. And the reason why it matters is because Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. generate more revenue than any traditional media company because they control more attention. These are the mediums people would rather spend their time on instead of TVs or billboards these days.
Plus, not only is it less expensive than traditional marketing, it also makes it a lot easier to cast a wider net and catch attention of your prospective customer specifically attracted to your particular niche.
Sounds exactly like what you need? Then keep reading.
What Are The Benefits of Digital Marketing?
Earlier this year, a Pew Research survey found that about 31% of U.S. adults say they’re “constantly” online and that 48% several times a day. Overall, 85% of Americans say they go online on a daily basis. That number is swinging consistently upward.
Here’s an estimation of the overall digital population in the world:
As you can see, the numbers speak for themselves.
Having a strong digital presence will help you reach your business goals in multiple ways. Some of the key ways digital marketing can benefit your business are:
- The ability to target your audience effectively and with precision
- Lower costs than traditional marketing
- Huge return on investment
- Easy to track and measure your performance
- Can create greater awareness and engagement
What Are The Basics That You Must Know for Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is an intricate process – done online and offline and includes different types of paid and non-paid web marketing strategies. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most common digital marketing tactics and the channels involved in each one:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engines, making it more visible in Google results pages, thereby increasing the amount of organic (or free) traffic to your website. There are – on page, off page and technical SEO to help you to generate qualified traffic to your business through – websites, blogs, and infographics.
2. Content Marketing: That’s the creation and promotion of all types of content assets for increasing brand awareness, traffic growth, lead generation and conversion. It can be written, audio, or visual content. Also may involve channels such as blog posts, case studies, videos, podcasts, and more.
3. Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and generate leads for your business. It may involve the use of channels such as:
- Youtube
- Pinterest etc
There were an estimated 4.48 billion social media users around the world in July 2021, equating to almost 57 percent of the total global population. The Hubspot shows how more than half of the world’s population is using different social media, and why it’s critical that your business has an effective social media strategy that helps you reach your intended audience. You can see where it’s headed and why you can’t ignore social media for marketing your business.
4. Email Marketing: Before you ask, yes, it still works. Nearly 60% of consumers say that email plays a role in their purchase decisions. Email marketing strategy is a way of communicating with your audiences that can include everything from promoting content, discounts and events, to direct people towards your business’s website.
5. Pay Per Click (PPC): PPC is a method of driving traffic to your website by paying a publisher every time your ad is clicked. Your business can benefit from it by generating leads and retargeting. Some of the channels where you can use PPC are:
- Paid ads on Facebook
- Twitter Ads campaigns
- Sponsored Messages on LinkedIn
6. Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based advertising where a brand partners with affiliates (content creators, coupon, loyalty and deal sites, etc.) to promote their brand, products and increase sales. With affiliate marketing –
- You can join large, established affiliate platforms such as Amazon Associate and increase revenue and scale traffic with minimal additional work.
- Also you can get valuable endorsements.
7. Sponsored Content: Sponsored content is a type of promotional media where you (the sponsor) pay another brand, influencer, or publisher to create and distribute content for your brand. One popular type of sponsored content is influencer marketing. It is a type of sponsored content marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers– individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche. Another type of sponsored content could be a blog post or article that is written to highlight a topic, service, or brand.
What easy strategies can you use to make sure your digital marketing is effective?
Now, having discussed the ultimate basics, let’s come to the point of how you may strategize for your digital marketing. It is essentially going to be the plan of action of how you use one or more online marketing channels to reach your target audience.
Here are 7 steps you need to follow to create an effective digital marketing strategy:
1. Research and understand your audience. Their demographics, purchasing power and habits.
2. Define your budget. Establish how many resources you can allocate for each digital channel.
3. Specify your business goals and KPIs. For example, see if your goal is to increase brand awareness, or increase your SEO organic website traffic, or some more followers on social media.
4. Identify your target audience. Define your niche market through in-depth market research.
5. Choose the right marketing channels. Strike a good balance between paid and free digital strategies.
6. Create engaging content. The content can be social media posts, blogs or articles, PPC ads, sponsored content, email marketing newsletters, and more.
7. Measure, analyze and optimize. At the end of campaigns analyze your results to find out where and why you succeeded or fell short. Review it against your original objectives.
Digital marketing is essential if you want your business to survive and thrive in the 21st century. With its customizable, versatile, and scalable nature, digital marketing can drive traffic and target conversions, ultimately allowing you to reach your business goals.
However, when you’re growing a business, this ever-changing landscape of digital marketing can quickly become an overwhelming one. So to be successful, you need to understand what you’re doing by knowing the basics, setting clear goals, choosing the right channels, and measuring your results.
Now, if you want to increase your bottom line but don’t have the time to do it yourself, a digital marketing agency can help. Contentguyz can help you get started out with web content, blog posts, social media content strategy and more for your digital marketing campaigns.
Contact us today for a free consultation.