In today’s world, people are constantly searching for ways to learn new things, to be entertained, and to satisfy their curiosities. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through the internet. If your business isn’t online, you’re losing out on a potentially huge piece of the market. That’s why the growth in e-commerce is so astounding – online retailers offer consumers everything they could want and need, without ever having to leave the comfort of their homes.
Why Should I Market Online?
The benefits of marketing online are numerous. Not only does it allow you to target the right audience with your message, but it also enables you to experiment with different forms of content and media to find what works best for your particular industry. Even more importantly, with the internet, you have the ability to market your product or service to people all over the world, with the click of a button!
When it comes to digital marketing, you always hear about the benefits of SEO, content strategy, and PPC, but you might be wondering what all these terms mean. In this guide, we will teach you the basics of digital marketing so that you can successfully plan out a digital marketing strategy for your business, no matter what stage it’s at.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Put simply, digital marketing is the promotion of products or services using digital technologies (such as websites, social media, and mobile phones) to generate leads and make sales.
In practice, this means marketing online. When you market online, you’re utilizing various platforms and tools to reach your audience. For example, if you own a blog, you might use that to promote your business. Or, if you’ve recently launched an e-commerce store, you might use online marketing platforms to drive traffic to your site.
What Is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s something that you’ll definitely want to master if you’re serious about marketing online. When a potential customer types in a keyword or two into their search bar, your website will appear somewhere on the first page of results, if it’s optimized for the right keywords.
Let’s suppose that you are selling t-shirts and you want to rank for the keywords “t-shirt” and “sport” – if you enter those keywords into your search bar and then click on the ‘search results’ button, you’ll see your shirt company displayed on the first page of results. When your potential customers click on your product or service, they’ll be directed to your website, where they’ll learn more about your brand and decide to purchase your products.
In practice, SEO is a lot more complicated than it seems. You’ll want to perform keyword research, find the right combination of keywords and key phrases, and measure the results of your efforts. There are lots of tools that can help you with this, like SEO tools, so don’t worry – we’ll teach you the basics of SEO in this article.
What Is Content Strategy?
Often, entrepreneurs think that content is simply the stuff that you write – and, to a certain extent, that’s true. However, content strategy incorporates much more than just writing. In practice, a content strategist will work with a marketing team to map out the content that will be used to promote a product or service, as well as the creation of online communities around those topics.
For example, if you’re creating an e-commerce store for the fashion industry, you’ll want to establish an online community around style – this could be anything from a general discussion forum to a specific style blog, depending on your needs. Then, you can use your style blog to promote your fashion products.
Establishing an online community around a brand or product can be extremely beneficial – it gives you the opportunity to have real-life interactions with your audience, which, in turn, can lead to more trust and credibility. Plus, you can get much more engagement when you have a community. People want to be a part of something, and establishing an online community (even if it’s just a small one) will certainly give you some amazing opportunities to connect with potential customers.
What Is PPC?
PPC, or Pay-per-Click, is a type of advertising where you’re paying per click – meaning that you’re paying each time someone clicks on your ad. When someone clicks on your ad, they’ll be taken to your website, where they’ll learn more about your brand and make a purchase, or contact you, to find out more about your product or service. If you’ve got a budget, you might want to consider exploring PPC marketing. It can be quite cost-effective when done correctly.
PPC campaigns can be extremely flexible – you can create multiple campaigns with different pricing structures and, as a result, get much more targeted traffic, from multiple platforms, such as Facebook or Google Ads. With PPC, you don’t necessarily need a website to run a successful campaign – you can use specialized platforms, like HubSpot, to reach your audience online, and effectively drive traffic to your website, even if it’s a small one.
The Importance of Planning
Marketing online is a lot of work – it requires a lot of planning and research. If you want your marketing efforts to be successful, you’ll want to do everything possible to make sure that everything is measured and planned out. For example, if you’re paying per click, then you’ll want to make sure that you’re investing in high-quality ads that will attract the right audience. You’ll also want to make sure that you’re tracking the results of your efforts, so that you can see how all your planning and efforts are paying off, in terms of new customers and increased engagement.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one platform to help you with your marketing efforts, then consider taking a look at HubSpot – it can help you plan out your entire strategy, across all platforms, and it can also help you measure and report on its success.