Digital Marketing

Introduction to Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use of channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what isn’t – typically in real time. Digital marketers monitor things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, sales conversions, what content works and doesn’t work, etc. While the Internet is, perhaps, the channel most closely associated with digital marketing, others include wireless text messaging, mobile instant messaging, mobile apps, podcasts, electronic billboards, digital television and radio channels, etc. Why Digital Marketing Is Important? Digital media is so pervasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want it. Gone are the days when the messages people got about your products or services came from you and consisted of only what you wanted them to know. Digital media is an evergrowing source of entertainment, news, shopping and social interaction, and consumers are now exposed not just to what your company says about your brand, but what the media, friends, relatives, peers, etc., are saying as well. And they are more likely to believe them than you. People want brands they can trust, companies that know them, communications that are personalized and relevant, and offers tailored to their needs and preferences. Tools of Digital Marketing 1. Content Marketing Content Marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. What Should You Learn? # Know Your Audience: For brands, knowing and understanding your audience will allow you to build the foundation of your content marketing strategy. To get that knowledge, here are a few tactics to use: Perform keyword research: Keyword research not only uncovers the search volume behind your most important keywords, but it can also offer insights into keyword opportunities and search intent. In addition, perform your own searches for various keywords and look through the results to see who’s ranking at the top. Conduct a competitive analysis. Research your top three to five competitors through their website, social media pages, news articles and search results. How does your brand stack up? Dig into data and analytics: Get familiar with your website’s analytics to gain insights about the users you’ve already managed to attract to your site. Look at the most popular pages, the pages with the highest bounce rate, and the pages with the best and worst conversion rates. # Strive to Be the Best Answer: For brands, being the best answer means providing relevant, quality content wherever and whenever their audience is searching for it. Use the research you’ve done to identify where those content opportunities lie. In addition, don’t be afraid to engage your existing audience. Use social media to pose questions or send out a current customer survey to get feedback and insight. The more you know, the better you’ll be at providing the right information. #Write for the Reader Content is organized to help readers easily flow through the article and photos are often used to add a visual element to the story. Long-form pieces are often broken down into sections with headers, which is more pleasing to the eye and helps with scanability. In addition, content is written in a way that tells a story—not in a way to please search engines. For brands, the bottom line here is to create content that’s a good experience for your audience to read. SEO is important, but usability and user experience is more important. #Mind the “5Ws and H” Who, What, Where, When, Why and How—the 5 Ws and the H. These are the foundation of every article a journalist will ever write. And they can certainly be applied to your content marketing strategy. As you map out your strategy, ask the following questions for each piece you plan to create: Who is my audience? What does my audience want to know? Where am I going to publish and disseminate? When am I going to publish and disseminate? Why am I writing this? (Drive traffic? Increase brand awareness?) · How will I measure results? #Follow the Story Brands should use their audience knowledge, keyword research, and their website data to hone in on their content strengths and opportunities. Choose a handful of topical areas to get started with—and create as much content around that topic as possible. This will allow you to begin showcasing yourself as an expert in specific areas and eventually you’ll be able to expand that to new areas. #Add Perspective The best news articles have a face and provide perspective. Journalists use people close to the story and expert sources to give their articles credibility and depth. Brands can do the same with their content by working with influencers. Influencers not only lend expertise and authority to content, but they can also help that content reach a larger audience. Don’t just reach out to your influencers in times of need. Engage with them on their social platforms. Share their content. Shoot them an email to check in. Just as a journalist works hard to build a network of credible sources, brands should remember that building a relationship with influencers is an ongoing journey and there needs to be value for everyone. Career Benefits of Content Marketing Most obviously, a marketer's career in content (or a content creator's career in marketing) can take the form of being a writer. You could establish yourself as a jack of all trades -- not a bad place to begin if you're just getting started and trying to find your super power -- but as your career progresses, you might consider specializing if you want to stay in a writing function. This specialty could take a few forms; here are some of the most popular: Short-Form Content: things like blog posts, tip sheets, copy for emails, newsletters Long-Form Content: things like whitepapers, ebooks, or even real books (the ones you can hold in your hands ... or download on your tablet) Content for an Industry or Persons: specializing in a certain audience, like the C-Suite, or analysts, or perhaps gaining expertise around a particular industry, like manufacturing, insurance, or pharma Content Format Types: Carving out a niche in specific content format types, like ebooks and whitepapers, research reports, or webinars Whether you choose to be a generalist or a specialist, focus on creating the highest quality content. While cranking out a high volume is certainly important -- dilly dallying around doesn't cut it when a bottom line is at stake -- it doesn't matter how much you create if the quality is poor. 2. Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing, or SMM, is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media networks in order to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. Social media marketing primarily covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos, and images for marketing purposes, as well as paid social media advertising. What should you learn to skill? Planning – As discussed previously, building a social media marketing plan is essential. Consider keyword research and brainstorm content ideas that will interest your target audience. Content is King — Consistent with other areas of online marketing, content reigns king when it comes to social media marketing. Make sure you are offering valuable information that your ideal customers will find interesting. Create a variety of content by implementing social media images, videos, and infographics in addition to classic textbased content. Consistent Brand Image — Using social media for marketing enables your business to project your brand image across a variety of different social media platforms. While each platform has its own unique environment and voice, your business’ core identity should stay consistent. Blog — Blogging is a great social media marketing tool that lets you share a wide array of information and content with readers. Your company blog can also serve as your social media marketing blog, in which you blog about your recent social media efforts, contests, and events. Links — While using social media for marketing relies primarily on your business sharing its own unique, original content to gain followers, fans, and devotees, it’s also great to link to outside articles as well. If other sources provide great, valuable information you think your target audience will enjoy, don’t be shy about linking to them. Linking to outside sources improves trust and reliability, and you may even get some links in return. Track Competitors — It’s always important to keep an eye on competitors—they can provide valuable data for keyword research, where to get industry-related links, and other social media marketing insight. If your competitors are using a certain social media marketing technique that seems to be working for them, do the same thing, but do it better! Measure Success with Analytics — You can’t determine the success of your social media marketing strategies without tracking data. Google Analytics can be used as a great social media marketing tool that will help you measure your triumphant social media marketing techniques, as well as determine which strategies are better off abandoned. Attach tracking tags to your social media marketing campaigns so that you can properly monitor them. Career benefits of Social Media Marketing Companies and businesses hire social media marketing managers to establish a more effective online presence. Consider how Facebook grew from a small company to one that caters to over 800 million users. All of these users don't simply connect with friends anymore, but actively engage with companies about products or services they like. Social media marketing managers help develop social media pages, manage those pages, and work with teams to create content on those pages. They track target demographics, and introduce them to content they enjoy, pushing them to interact more with a brand. As managers, they work with a variety of other social media outreach specialists, including: Social Media Directors Social Media Strategists Consumer Insight Managers Introduce with Some Social Media Marketing Platform We’ve put together a brief overview on how to use social media for marketing according to each platform’s unique environment. Various social media marketing sites will require different techniques, so develop a unique strategy tailored for each platform. # Facebook Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active social media marketing strategy that begins with creating a Facebook Business Fan Page. You will want to pay careful attention to layout, as the visual component is a key aspect of the Facebook experience. Social media marketing for business pages revolves around furthering your conversation with audiences by posting industry-related articles, images, videos, etc. Facebook is a place people go to relax and chat with friends, so keep your tone light and friendly. # Google+ Google+ is the new Facebook competitor, and it promotes the same fun, casual atmosphere. On Google+ you can upload and share photos, videos, links, and view all your +1s. Also take advantage of Google+ circles, which allow you to segment your followers into smaller groups, enabling you to share information with some followers while barring others. For example, you might try creating a “super-fan” circle, and share special discounts and exclusive offers only with that group. You can also try hosting video conferences with Hangouts and experiment using the Hangout feature in some fun, creative ways. Some social media marketing ideas: if you're a salon, host a how-to session on how to braid your hair. If you own a local bookstore, try offering author video chats. If you're feeling adventerous, invite your +1s to your Google+ Community. Google+ Communities will allow you to listen into your fan's feedback and input, truly putting the social back into social media. # Pinterest Pinterest is the latest in social media marketing trends. Pinterest’s image-centered platform is ideal for retail, but anyone can benefit from using Pinterest for social media purposes. Pinterest allows small businesses to showcase their own product offerings while also developing their own brand’s personality with some unique pinboards. # Twitter Twitter is the social media marketing tool that lets you broadcast your updates across the web. Follow tweeters in your industry or related fields, and you should gain a steady stream of followers in return. Mix up your official-related tweets about specials, discounts, and news updates with some fun and quirky tweets interspersed. Be sure to retweet when a customer has something nice to say about you, and don’t forget answer people’s questions when possible. Using Twitter as a social media marketing tool revolves around dialog and communication, so be sure to interact as much as possible # LinkedIn LinkedIn is one of the more professional social media marketing sites. LinkedIn Groups is a great venue for entering into a professional dialog with people in similar industries and provides a place to share content with like-minded individuals. Encourage customers or clients to give your business a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. Recommendations makes your business appear more credible and reliable for new customers. Also browse the Questions section of LinkedIn; providing answers helps you get established and earns trust. # YouTube YouTube is the number one place for creating video content, with can be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Many businesses try to create video content with the aim of having their video “go viral,” but in reality those chances are pretty slim. Instead, focus on creating useful, instructive “how-to” videos. These how-to videos also have the added benefit of ranking on the video search results of Google, so don't under-estimate the power of video content! # Reddit Reddit, or similar social media platforms such as Stumble Upon or Digg, are ideal for sharing compelling content. With over 2 billion page views a month, Reddit has incredible social media marketing potential, but marketers should be warned that only truly unique, interesting content will be welcomed. Posting on Reddit is playing with fire—submit spammy or overtly salesfocused content and your business could get berated by this extremely tech-savvy community. If you have content you believe the Reddit community (majority is young, geeky, liberal, and internet-obsessed) would enjoy, you could reap tremendous benefits and earn valuable traffic. Using social media in marketing does more than improve site traffic and help businesses reach more customers; it provides a valuable venue for better understanding and learning from your target audiences. Hopefully this guide has helped you better understand how using social media for marketing can improve your business. 3. Search Engine Optimization SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads. What Should You Learn? # Relevance One of the most important factors when it comes to SEO is relevance. The search engines don’t only want to see that you’re using specific keywords but it also wants to see how relevant your content is when it comes to specific search queries. In order to do this, search engines don’t only look at the text on your website itself. They also look at: How your website is structured What keywords are used within your URL How your page is formatted What keywords are in the headline that are also found within the content of that given page # Backlink When it comes to SEO, keep in mind that it is constantly changing. As a result, the techniques that worked last month might get you penalized this month. However, one thing that all search engines will rely upon is authority AKA, the number of backlinks that you have. Therefore, contrary to what you might hear, SEO still relies heavily on links. Search engines will determine just how credible and authoritative a website’s content is simply by calculating the number of inbound links that you have from other websites. (By the way, an inbound link is a link pointing to your site from a 3rd party site.) However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the more backlinks you have the higher rankings you will get. Search engines also look at how authoritative these other websites are linking to you. Meaning a link coming from the New York Times is a lot more authoritative than one coming from a little website that was created a few days ago. There are other components, such as what anchor text is being used (this is the text inside the a tag) to link to your website and how old your domain is. # Technology Even if you have perfect site content, URLs, and strong inbound links —your internal structure is important. Think about it: in order for Google to crawl your site and index it properly, it has to have semantic HTML. # Meta Tags Meta tags are nothing more than HTML markup tags that give search engines more information about a web page. However, this information is not visible to viewers of the site. Instead, it is written to assist search engines in understanding a web page. Meta tags are placed inside the head element in a web page and contain a name and content attributes. For example, the meta tag for this post that you reading could be: meta name=”description” content=”SEO for programmers”. Meta tags are one of the most important aspects on a web page because they give search engines a short description about the page. In addition to the description meta tag, there is a meta robots tag and the title tag. # Schema Markup Schema markup is one of those SEO techniques that you will seldom hear about, but it can be one of the most effective techniques for getting quality traffic. Schema markup is code you can put in your website’s HTML that will help the search engines understand exactly what the information on your website means. It then helps the search engines to return more useful results to the user. 4. Affiliate Marketing To define affiliate marketing is that it’s a technique where other publishers and websites will promote your business. Basically the way it works is that an affiliate is rewarded every time a visitor, customer or sale for your business is generated through an advertisement on their web site. There are many different ways compensation is provided, but the concept remains consistent—you pay them for generating business for you. If a viewer is at the affiliate’s web site, and the affiliate doesn’t quite have what they’re looking for, they can easily click over to your web site. It’s an increasingly popular technique for those seeking to maximize they’re staying power on the web. What should you learn? # Pick a topic Firstly, pick a topic that you’re interested in that also has a lot of market potential. Think of something that you like, and consider whether there would be many products associated with it, or much of an audience. You can find a topic (or “niche,” as affiliates call it) with a little research. # Find products to promote Once you’ve got a niche all picked out, find some products that you can promote. There are websites full of these (called affiliate networks) to browse, and you can find advice here on how to choose the best ones for you. Once you’ve got a couple that are right for you, you’ll be able to get an affiliate link for them. # Build a website Next up, you need to build a website! I thought this would be extremely confusing and difficult, but it really wasn’t. WordPress and similar sites make it super simple for anyone to build a quality website. # Fill your website with relevant content Fill your website with content that will be useful to the people who are interested in your niche, and place your affiliate links throughout in the most relevant places. That way when someone interested in your content clicks your link, they go to a sales page for a product that they might also be interested in, and if they buy it you get a commission! # Promote your website When you’ve set this up, all that’s left to do is promote your website so you can get more people to your content, and more potential for commissions from referred sales. There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there, from advertising to social media, but you won’t have to worry about this part of it straight away. The most important thing is just to get started. Let me give you an example of how this process could go. 5. Email Marketing Email marketing is a way to reach consumers directly via electronic mail. Unlike spam, direct email marketing reaches those interested in your business’ area of expertise. The information is sent out more like a laser-guided missile than a bomb: No matter what you’re selling, it is a way to reach thousands of potential customers directly at a relatively low cost when compared to advertising or other forms of media exposure. It brings your business’ message through an attractive mix of graphics, text and links directly to people who may have never heard of your business or considered your products, but are knowledgeable and interested in your business’ area of expertise. Once you understand– what is email marketing?–you can start to implementing these practices to reach more customers. Email marketing also provides an easy way to track how effective it is. By keeping track of how many hits your website gets after a mass mailing, it’s easy to gauge whether this technique works for your company. It’s also a good way to guide existing customers back to your business. Many companies also provide an “unsubscribe” option for viewers in an effort to focus only on interested potential customers. Also, your company can opt to have a feedback mechanism where potential customers can tell you directly what they liked and disliked about a particular advertising campaign. · Video Marketing Video marketing can be defined in digital marketing context as all uses of video contents to promote a brand, product or service. Video marketing can take many different forms. It has been empowered by the increase in bandwidth and video consumption Videos can be used for advertising purposes by buying ad spaces (in-stream video, in-banner video, etc.) or by simply posting a video on a video platform (e.g., YouTube) and looking for viral dissemination. Videos are also used for showing and promoting products and services on commercial websites. For some products or services it can help transformation. Finally, video can be used for educational purposes in a content marketing strategy. In this case, videos can be placed on the seller’s website or/and on a video platform (e.g. YouTube channel).