You are reading this post on a digital device. And the reason you are reading this is that you want to learn how to do digital marketing.
Look around and you will see that everything is becoming digital. And amazingly the pace of this transformation is very fast.
The reason for this super-fast transformation is quite obvious. Technology is what makes things simpler, reduces human efforts, speeds up the work.
Digital is the boon for society. It has given means to access information across the globe in just a few clicks. It helps to connect with friends from any corner of the world, family, and peer group almost instantly.
Entertainment, shopping, traveling, trading, selling, or technically anything you can imagine can be done through technology. And digital is the key.
You can now imagine when digital is so important for everything out there, and especially for the buyers and sellers, then there is a dire need for digital marketing to connect the customers with the buyers.
Benefits of Doing Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing has a lot of benefits over traditional marketing. Digital is the reason you see a lot of online shopping websites emerging every day. Ranging from e-Commerce stores, academic courses, video streaming, music streaming, ticket booking, hotel booking, to booking a repair service digital is everywhere.
But there is a lot of competition out there because of ease of doing online business, low investment, more opportunities, larger reach, etc.
In essence, digital marketing is the future of marketing. The added advantage is that it is cheaper than traditional marketing, more specifically targeted, and is measurable.
Now let’s see how to do digital marketing using the different ways and available digital mediums. These when used together drive conversions for your business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Simply putting Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the technique which if practiced ethically can help your website to appear on top of the search results of the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others organically.
In order to make the user experience better by showing them the most relevant and best content, Google keeps updating its algorithms. The objective is to show the most relevant results on the top of the searches which usually people get engaged with.
Though, there are people who say that SEO is dead because their websites have lost the ranks they use to have in the past. But, the truth is that SEO is not dead and it won’t be dead.
Google only improvises its algorithm in order to improve the user experience. And the updates by Google usually filter the sites that don’t deserve to on the top of the Search Engine Result Pages.
So, everyone who wants to have a sustainable long-term business should invest in SEO. Also, one should use the SEO Best Practices to Grow Organic Traffic on their website. Unethical means to drive traffic on a website might result in penalizing the website.
SEO is time-taking work but, remember, it is the most cost-effective marketing strategy. This can bring organic and high-quality traffic to your website.
And also it is one of the best ways to do Digital Marketing which only requires dedication and implementation of SEO skills.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the technique to drive traffic to your business website, primarily through paid efforts. Therefore, it is also known as Paid Search Marketing.
Technically Search Engine Marketing is a little complicated method because a lot of money is spent on driving traffic through this medium of digital marketing. Based on the nature of your business, you may choose PPC (pay-per-click) or CPC (cost-per-click) model, or CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) model to advertise and drive traffic to your website.
Though, there are many different platforms for Search Engine Marketing. But, by far, Google Ads and Bing Ads are the most popular channels in Search Engine Marketing.
SEM also includes Display Advertising, Search Retargeting & Remarketing, Mobile Marketing, and Paid Social Advertising. Based on the business requirement a single-point strategy like PPC, or a complete SEM strategy, including Display and Retargeting can be used to meet the objectives.
Since SEM is more technical and it requires a lot of experience to run the ads, hence it is advisable to let it be managed by the experts. This would make sure that you won’t waste your marketing money. And you will get the best results from your spent money on SEM.
You can learn about the Google Ads Formulas to decide which ad you should choose from.
Content Creation for Digital Marketing
As the digital marketing Gurus say that Content is king and will always remain the same in the digital world. Content is what people consume on the internet, be it videos, text, audio, infographics, images, etc.
Research shows that content creation is a definitive method of marketing. Every single change in Google’s Algorithms points to the fact that content is the most significant metric while filtering search results.
Content is shown in many different formats like blogs, white papers, e-books, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer articles, forums, webinars, news and updates, images, banners, infographics, podcasts, videos, or content for microblogging and social media sites.
You can create creative content on any topic and then link it indirectly to your business. This way you give your audience a means to engage with your business.
Remember that all the platforms on the internet are for different purposes. And people use them for different purposes, so the content posted on them should also be different. Simply put, content marketing should be treated differently because it is not like other marketing methods. It’s a good idea to customize your content according to the platform you are going to post it. For instance, the content for mobile phones should be simple, crisp, and short.
An effective content strategy will engage your audience and makes them interested in getting more information from you. To consume more content from you they will keep coming back on your website.
Good content is consumed, loved, and shared on many different platforms by the readers and is the best way for branding your business. Hence, you should invest in creating engaging and meaningful content.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social Media Marketing or SMM, in short, is a part of your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) efforts. As the name implies Social Media Marketing is the activity to drive traffic to your website using social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, etc.
Again content is very important for Social Media Marketing as on Social Media people engage with the content you post there. Try to create customizable content for Social Media. For instance, on Twitter, you can only post in 280 characters, whereas on other channels like Facebook & Instagram you can write as long as you want.
The meaningful and original content is what people love, consume, and share. So, try to be prolific and original when you create your Social Media content.
Keep a frequency of 3 – 4 content posts a day to keep your audience engaged with your brand. Your Social Media Marketing efforts can help you create your brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales if done in the right way.
Display Advertising
You can use a variety of display advertising formats to target potential customers. Display Ads could be in the text, image, banner, rich media, interactive, or video ads formats.
You can customize your messages, images, videos, colors, sizes of your display ads based on interests, demography, content topics, or the position of the customer in the buying cycle.
Digital Display Advertising is relatively expensive and if you don’t know how to do it, better you hire an expert to drive good ROI from your Display Ads.
Retargeting and Remarketing
Technically, Retargeting or Remarketing is a strategy to target customers who have already visited your website. A cookie gets installed in the visitor’s browser when he visits your website.
And if you want to show your ads again you can use retargeting and remarketing techniques to specifically show your ads to those people.
The conversion is usually higher in the retargeting as you show your ads to people who have already engaged with your business and have shown interest in your products or services.
You can choose to retarget your audience on social networking websites like Facebook, Instagram, or you can retarget them again on websites they visit through Google’s Adsense Publishers Network or you may engage them on the mobile. You can tailor your retargeting strategy based on your business objective.
For instance, if you want your website visitors to fill in a long survey then you might want to exclude mobile as a retargeting device, as it is not easy to fill in the long surveys on those tiny devices and people might just ignore your ad or leave it in between.
Mobile Marketing
With 2.7 billion smartphone users in the world ignoring mobile marketing would be a costly mistake. 80% of the internet users have smartphones and 63% of the searches on the internet happen on a mobile device. Considering this I strongly recommend you keep mobile marketing as an important component in your entire digital marketing strategy.
By 2021, mobile devices would reach 3.8 billion units worldwide. So as more people use smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, the potential of the mobile market continues to grow.
Interactive Marketing
People love to interact with brands. According to a survey, 55 percent prefer to have ongoing communications with the companies they buy from. 89 percent feel more loyal to the brands if they are invited to provide feedback.
You can use tools, chatbots, and widgets to make your website or app interactive, invite feedback, and track user behavior.
Based on the responses you can further refine your strategy to interact with your audience and keep them engaged with your brand.
The key to success in interactive marketing is to keep active engagement with the customers. You can also customize offers based on their preferences and browsing activities.
This way your customer’s response to your offer would be much better.
Viral Marketing
It is a strategy where a unique content, mostly an image or a video spreads exponentially online. The content that people appreciate liked and share immensely becomes viral.
This is a great way to create your brand awareness, brand reach, and drive traffic to your business website. A lot of creativity and message is required to create a viral content which people love to share in their circles and communities.
Email Marketing
Marketing experts always agree to the fact that Email Marketing is one of the best marketing techniques in terms of reach, conversions, ROI, and creating brand loyalty. In simple words sending a commercial message through email to a list of potential customers is called Email Marketing.
With a good email marketing software like MailChimp or SendGrid, you can maintain email lists that are segregated based on several factors, including customers’ likes and dislikes, spending habits, their position in the buying journey.
People hate spam, and also don’t like to read the general mass emails so always try to send personalized emails; this helps in developing the trust of your brand among your customers.
Affiliate Marketing
It is a performance-based marketing program, where you pay affiliates (publishers) who bring you leads or customers. The performance in affiliate marketing may be based on conversions or leads.
The publishers give you space in their pages to advertise your business and help you drive conversions, and you will pay them based on the compensation model.
Also, affiliates can advertise on your behalf on their own websites or social networks. They earn for every sale, lead, or conversion they assist in on your website.
For startup businesses, Affiliate Marketing is very useful and saves a lot of marketing money, as it will bring in more traffic to their business through high-traffic sites.
In essence, Affiliate Marketing is a win-win situation for both merchants and publishers.
Sites like Amazon, eBay, and Flipkart run Affiliate Programs, and a lot of people become their affiliates to promote and sell their products on their own websites and social networks in order to earn a commission.
In fact, most online businesses with appreciable traffic have their own affiliate programs. It helps them reach a larger audience and earn a commission.
Digital Marketing & Media Planning
As you would have understood by reading this post so far that digital marketing comprises various mediums and techniques. Hence, it requires planning and a strategy in place to start it.
You need research and make a comprehensive strategy framework which is called Digital Media Planning.
Based on your business objective like driving sales or conversions, launching a new brand or promoting an established brand, or changing customer behavior, you need to plan different platforms, ad formats, communication mediums, videos, images, audio, etc., to reach the desired audience.
If you do your marketing without research and planning you might waste your money. Also, you would waste your efforts, time, and energy and won’t get the results you expected.
Web Analytics
The most important aspect of Digital Marketing is Analytics i.e., measuring the metrics about different aspects of your business.
Essentially, Web Analytics helps you to collect, measure, understand, analyze, plan, report, and predict the web activities for your business.
Google Analytics, Spring Metrics, Woopra, Clicky, Mint, and Chartbeat are some of the important Web Analytics tools. Google Analytics is the most used web analytics tool in the industry.
The best part of doing Digital Marketing is the measurement of every activity you do. You can track the response to each of your activities. Hence, I recommend every business to use Web Analytics to understand their business and improve the ROI and conversions.
Conclusion
I hope that this post would have given you a good idea of how to do digital marketing. By now you would have understood how important it is to use different marketing strategies for your business and then find out which work best. In most cases, it is the combination of many different strategies that will help you meet your business objectives.
Digital Marketing is a dynamic medium and you should always be adapting to the changes to drive better results. Always measure your activities by using a Web Analytics tool and based on your analysis plan your next move.
