It seems that everywhere you look, brands and individuals are positioning themselves as “digital marketing experts.” Perhaps these advanced gurus are great for companies that have been investing in digital marketing for years. What if you are just learning the basics of digital marketing, do not worry about that, this post is focused on the basic beginners guide to digital marketing.
This comprehensive tutorial will give you every how-tos you need to get on the path digital marketing success, whether your business is an offline locally based or online. Digital marketing doesn’t have to be like a rocket science, all you need is to understand the basics. Once you are able to lay hands on the basics, you can start launching really fancy tech tools and techniques that can take your business to the next level.
What Are The Basics In Digital Marketing?
Do not fret about not knowing how to code a website, nor how to accurately place social media ads, or how to fully optimize your Google display ads when you are just dipping a toe into the waters of digital marketing for the first time. Read choose right platform for hyperlocal social media marketing strategies for best results.
As a digital marketing beginner, there are some basic tools that you can use to get started that will ensure your business, and lay a solid foundation for all round success in your future digital marketing efforts.
Digital marketing is simply the art, and science of leveraging digital assets to drive leads, and sales to your brand online or offline. Listed below are some of the major strategies you may require on your digital marketing journey:
• Creating a website
• Building an email marketing list
• Optimizing content on your website for search
• Launching Google or Bing display ads
• Using social media such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, and more to reach wider audience
• Grabbing the attention of local audiences with location-based targeting
Even though the list above is not all that is needed, I am very sure it has given you an idea of the list of options you need to have when you begin exploring digital marketing for your brand.
Is Digital Marketing Truly Easy?
This question sounds funny, but the true answer is yes, and honestly, not all at the same time. At its core, digital marketing means connecting people with brands in meaningful ways. In theory, it should be quite straightforward. All you have to do is creating a website; add compelling content, and some products to sell.
As anticipated, your ideal customer stumbles on your site, and is wowed by your product images and descriptions, therefore he makes a purchase, and becomes a lifelong customer.
That is pretty easy peasy, right?
I am sorry to disappoint you, it does not happen so much like this in real life.
Digital marketing often involves a complex behind-the-scenes romance between tech gurus and marketers, who are involved in producing software and services that make these connections easier, and reduces friction throughout a buyer’s journey.
While it is easy for almost everyone to create a quick WordPress website and publish it with a bit of work, it takes a great deal of time and skills to optimize the content on the site, such as ensuring that images are eye-catching, compelling value proposition, after which you are able to get visitors to your site.
All of the activities mentioned above, come together to make up digital marketing.
The 6 Major Types of Digital Marketing:
Some school of thought may argue that there are many more types of digital marketing, however, these four that are I shall be discussing below are the key components that form the basis for any modern digital marketing strategy.
1. Content Marketing
Search engines LOVE quality content such as are compelling, relevant to the searcher, frequently updated, and full of enrichment. Content marketing involves researching keywords, writing articles, improving the description of products and services on your site, and creating educational content that will compel your audience to engage more deeply with your brand.
2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
When it comes to SEO, there are two types of it, on-page and off-page optimizations, each of these require its own tactics, and every good digital marketer will work both sides of the equation. On-page SEO involves ensuring that your site is developed correctly with the proper framework that appeals to search engines.
While in the other hand, off-page SEO refers to any actions that you are taking for your brand that happen off of your main digital properties, I mean it is done outside your website.
These outside factors include encouraging external sites to link to your brand, and posting content in different websites and forums throughout the web that includes breadcrumb trails that lead back to your website.
3. SMM (Social Media Marketing)
Paid and organic are the two key forms of social media marketing. Paid social media marketing includes the advertisements strategies that we all know and love, it also involves paid options for driving new visitors to your page or brand.
On the other hand, organic social media marketing is a bit more elusive, but it is also a fun to implement. You attract organic traffic when your brand is educative or informative enough to your audience, and providing value to the reader in a way that they love, use and share the content that you create.
The action they take could be in the form of making purchases on your website after seeing a post that you made concerning a particular product, or could involve the reader re-posting or sharing the information about your brand either privately or publicly on their social profiles.
4. SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Additionally, be informed that what many people think of as traditional digital marketing is actually search engine marketing. Advertisements are placed on search engines such as Google or Bing, so that when a user is browsing for the answer to a particular question, your paid ad pops up your brand to the top of the search engine results page (SERP).
5. Paid Ads
One best and fun way to get in front of a wider audience and bring more traffic to your website is via paid ads. It is naturally less expensive than traditional advertising, in this method, you can advertise on various platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other social media ad offerings.
It is advisable to use compelling images, or videos in whatever ad type you choose to catch the eye of your audience more easily. You will also want to include an irresistible call to action.
6. Email Marketing
Email marketing is far from dead these days and continues to be a highly efficient method for your digital marketing campaigns. The key is to generate more high-quality leads through your other online efforts.
From there, send high-quality content in your emails that speaks to them personally, addressing interests, wants, or needs and enticing them to continue to your website. Email lists are gold to your marketing campaigns. Make the most of them by catering to your content for better results.
