DIGITAL MARKETING GUIDE FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Guide to Digital Marketing
The perfect resource for beginner-to-advanced digital marketers looking to learn new skills or hone existing ones.
The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing is full of insights and strategy for business owners, marketing professionals, students, and anyone else looking to hone their current skills and get up to speed on the latest in digital marketing.
Read it now to build or refine your digital marketing plan without the false starts and missteps that come with doing it alone.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the act of promoting and selling products and services by leveraging online marketing tactics such as social media marketing, search marketing, and email marketing.
When you get down to it, digital marketing is simply marketing.
It's how today's businesses are getting their message in front of their best prospects and customers.
Rule #1 in marketing is to make the right offer at the right time and in the right place. Today, your customers are online: hanging out in social media, staying updated on news sites and blogs, and searching online when they have a need.
Digital marketing puts you in those same channels, so your best prospects can see you, learn more about you, and even ask questions to learn more about you and your products or services.
If you're new to digital marketing, it may feel overwhelming to think about mastering all the online marketing tactics used in digital marketing.
We get that...
And yes, there are different tactics you'll need to learn. But they all work together to create a foundation for your business: attracting prospects, nurturing relationships, and making offers your audience will appreciate and respond to.
Let's take a closer look at how that happens.
How Does Digital Marketing Work?
In many ways, digital marketing is no different than traditional marketing. In both, smart organizations seek to develop mutually beneficial relationships with prospects, leads, and customers.
But digital marketing has replaced most traditional marketing tactics because it's designed to reach today's consumers.
As an example...
Think about the last important purchase you made. Perhaps you purchased a home, hired someone to fix your roof, or changed paper suppliers at your office.
Regardless of what it was, you probably began by searching the Internet to learn more about available solutions, who provided them, and what your best options were. Your ultimate buying decision was then based on the reviews you read, the friends and family you consulted, and the solutions, features, and pricing you researched.
Most purchasing decisions begin online.
That being the case, an online presence is absolutely necessary regardless of what you sell.
The key is to develop a digital marketing strategy that puts you in all the places your followers are already hanging out, then using a variety of digital channels to connect with them in a multitude of ways...
...Content to keep them updated with industry news, the problems they're facing, and how you solve those problems...
...Social media to share that content and then engage with them as friends and followers...
...Search engine optimization (SEO) to optimize your content, so it will show up when someone is searching for the information you've written about...
...Advertising to drive paid traffic to your website, where people can see your offers...
...And email marketing to follow up with your audience to be sure they continue to get the solutions they're looking for.
When you put all these pieces together, you'll end up with an efficient, easy-to-operate digital marketing machine. And while it looks intimidating to build that machine from scratch, it's as simple as learning and integrating one digital marketing tactic at a time.
Which is why we've put together this guide: To help you build or refine your own digital marketing plan without the false starts and missteps that come with doing it alone.
What Are the Benefits of Digital Marketing?
Having a strong digital presence will help you in multiple ways:
It will make it easier to create awareness and engagement both before and after the sale It will help you convert new buyers into rabid fans who buy more (and more often) It will kickstart word-of-mouth and social sharing and all the benefits that come with them It will shorten the buyer's journey by presenting the right offers at the right time Learn the Strategies That Get Real Results Be aware, the digital marketing scene is ever changing. Gurus, podcasts, and bloggers declare a tool or tactic hot one week and dead the next.
The truth is, digital marketing is less about "digital" and more about "marketing," largely because digital marketing has come of age. Its fundamentals have already been established.
Source: digitalmarketer.com
Why is Digital Marketing Important?
Digital marketing is on the rise – surpassing spend on traditional marketing. This is because consumers are increasingly present on online channels. With tech advancements such as AI and machine learning , marketers are better equipped with the marketing technology needed to reach consumers on digital devices at just the right moment. This is opposed to traditional marketing methods – which have to be planned and placed well in advance. Consider the following:
The world has 7.7 billion people and 4.4 billion people use the internet 30 percent of consumers would rather interact with brands via social channels versus going to a store.
Source: marketingevolution.com
1. Define your brand.
Your marketing strategy will, of course, be different from a business that has a different brand. Normally when you think of a brand, you think of the company name, like Apple or Sony. However, that isn't all a brand means. So, how do you figure out your brand?
You need to first identify why you are in business. If people can't identify with you and why you are doing what you do, you don't have a brand. Construct a brand story, demonstrating how you came to be in business and why it started. Tone, typography and logo are also important for [defining] a brand, but not as important as the brand story. It's the glue that holds everything together.
Source: businessnewsdaily.com
2. Create brand awareness.
Once you've defined your brand, the next step is making sure people know about it. Every person who is aware of your brand is a potential customer.
"Content is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness," Jaenke said. "Video, written and auditory content helps highlight the business as an expert in the industry and provides value without the customer feeling they are being pitched." Alison Ver Halen, owner of AV Writing Services , said content is definitely important, but it's also critical that you deliver it to the right people – your target audience.
"Content marketing, social media marketing and networking are all important, but beware that there are a lot of options out there for those three things, so don't skip the first step where you identify your target audience and where they hang out so you can be sure your marketing efforts are getting you in front of the right people."
Source: businessnewsdaily.com
3. Stay focused on singular goals and objectives.
If you're exploring the world of marketing, you may have noticed that there are a gazillion directions you can go in. It's tempting to do it all at once and craft a complicated machine in hopes that you covered all your bases, and it's easy to take on too much.
Instead, identify where the biggest impact will be. Where is the biggest blind spot in your marketing that's prohibiting your growth? Set a performance goal around that one key area and focus your resources on the activities and tactics that will achieve that one performance goal. You can expand your efforts or pivot to other initiatives when you've made more progress toward that singular goal.
Source: blog.hubspot.com
4. Double-down on what works.
Once you have your initiatives running and you've experimented with a few things, pay attention to the data. This can inform you of what's working. As you scale, it's a good idea to double-down on proven methods of generating revenue.
Source: blog.hubspot.com
5. Sales
Conversely, a sales strategy aims to create direct paths to sales based on how customers go from potential buyers to actual buyers.
Many companies believe that prioritizing sales goals is all they need and if you're struggling for revenue, then that is probably the case.
But that's not always necessarily true. Brand awareness and other goals can be important contributors to your business's success.
Think about it this way: As a customer, if a brand is constantly hawking you to buy, buy, buy, it's just as likely that you'll get annoyed by the marketing ploy as it is that you'll actually buy something.
That's why consistent, more subtle marketing goals can go along way in the health of your business.
6. Customer Retention
Customer retention refers to the ability of a company or product to retain its customers over some specified period.
This goes a little beyond brand awareness and sales.
Customer retention goals are about increasing the frequency with which customers engage with your band.
7. Find your target audience.
You can't run a successful business without customers, which is why experts and experienced business owners take figuring out your audience so seriously.
"Many small business owners struggle with finding a target audience," Jaenke said. "This is because they feel that they are limiting their options by narrowing their focus. It's important to remember that choosing a target audience doesn't decrease your marketing, it only focuses your attention."
But what happens if you haven't opened yet and don't have any customers? That's a normal place to be in when starting a business.
"If you don't have any clients yet, look at your top competitors: What kinds of customers are they targeting?" Ver Halen said. "Who follows them on social media? Take a handful of their social media followers, and see who else those people follow on social media and the things they post about so you can get a feel for their hobbies and interests and the things they have in common that make humans, and not just prospective customers."
Source: businessnewsdaily.com
8. Create a website.
Even if you don't plan to sell products online, it's crucial to have a website. When a potential customer finds a new business (new to them, or new in general), they are going to cross-reference that business, looking for its social media and website. A business website is a great and easy way to convey legitimacy to your audience.
"I recommend small businesses build their website on WordPress," DeMers said. "You can use a popular WordPress theme like Divi and then hire a webmaster through a site like Upwork to build and maintain the website." Jaenke takes a different approach. He said WordPress, or a similar platform, should be a last resort.
"Often people fall into the drag-and-drop trap," Jaenke said. "The companies that provide these make it easy to use and the monthly is affordable, but the cost does add up, and the end result is often not unique or engaging. Instead, we recommend hiring a professional web designer that focuses on the customer's experience on the website." However, he said paying for a Divi subscription on WordPress is a great option if custom web development is not in the budget.
"This will provide you with a page builder similar to a drag-and-drop company, but the code will be cleaner, the end result more unique, and after you've paid the yearly cost of hosting Divi, it's free," Jaenke said. "You will also own the website."
Source: businessnewsdaily.com
Market Your Business Today
You probably have a long road ahead to build your online presence, but any steps you can make will have a huge impact on your business. Some things like website development and blogging definitely take a few months to start kicking in and generating traffic, but social media posts pay-per-click ads can have immediate effects. If you're still not sure which direction is the perfect fit for your business, brainstorm your ideas in this marketing plan template.
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