When you think about the term “digital marketing”, images of text-based advertisements spring to mind. But times have changed, and so has digital marketing. Today, more and more people are using online marketing to gain traffic to their websites and engage with their audiences through e-mail marketing, social media, and website content.
Whether you’re a blogger, entrepreneur, or content creator, you can use digital marketing to grow and sustain your business.
The Basics Of Digital Marketing
To get started, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the basics of digital marketing. Luckily, we’ve got you covered on this front. Here’s a simple guide to get you started.
1. Set Up Your Email Marketing.
Whether you’ve got a blog or an established platform of some kind, getting started with email marketing is pretty easy. Just log on to your email provider and check the settings. There should be an option that allows you to “subscribe” from the website or blog you’re launching.
From there, you can start building relationships with your audience and educating them about your products or services. You can also use email campaigns to drive traffic to your site.
2. Develop An Online Profiling Strategy.
If you’re running an email marketing campaign, you’ll also need to create a strategy to profile your subscribers. That means deciding who you’ll email and what you’ll offer them. You can use demographic information, buying patterns, and behavior to form a clear picture of who your ideal customer is and what they’re looking for.
For example, if you’ve determined that men between the ages of 35 and 49 are your target audience, you might want to send them material that applies to their demographics. What do they care about? Family, friends, career, recreational activities, health, and lifestyle are just a few examples.
3. Create Short-Lived Value.
When developing your online marketing strategy, you’ll want to create content that is highly valued by your audience but easily forgotten about. To achieve this, you can use short-lived value creation techniques like teasers, free samples, and discounts.
With teasers, you can hook your viewers with compelling content that’ll make them want to learn more. But because it’s so easy to replicate, use with caution. Free samples and discounts are valuable ways to build trust with potential customers. When they experience value for no cost, they’ll be far more likely to make a purchase or take some kind of action.
These short-lived value tactics are excellent for getting your audience’s attention and making them interested in what you have to offer. But you can’t let your guard down, as people may just take advantage of your good nature and scam you out of money or take complete ownership of your business.
4. Measure The Results Of Your Campaign.
After you’ve launched your email marketing campaign, you can begin measuring its effectiveness. Just log into your email marketing platform and review your analytics. This will give you a complete picture of the effectiveness of your strategies and the return on your investment.
You can use numerous metrics to determine the success of your email marketing campaign. For example, you can look at numbers like the number of clicks, opens, and unsubscribe rates. Or, you can track the behavior of your contacts and establish a healthy email marketing habit.
If you can become proficient at measuring the results of your email marketing campaign, you’ll be able to improve your performance time and time again. Plus, you can provide valuable insights to your marketing team so that they can better understand how to reach your audience.
Now You’re Ready To Grow Your Blog Or Website
Once you’ve got a baseline understanding of the basics of digital marketing, you can start exploring ways to grow your blog or website. Below, you’ll find some top tips and tricks for getting the most out of your online marketing.
1. Measure What’s Working.
To really understand how digital marketing is performing, you’ll need to review the metrics on a regular basis. This means checking the analytics on a weekly basis or even on a daily basis. As you might expect, the volume of traffic to your site or blog will fluctuate. So will the interest level of your audience. This is why you need to look at so many metrics – so that you can get a complete picture of what’s working and what isn’t.
2. Identify The Tools You Need.
To get the most out of your digital marketing efforts, you’ll need the proper tools. Fortunately, this is another area where you don’t need to go it alone. There are plenty of free and paid tools that can help you optimize your site, build your email list, and analyze the results of your online marketing campaigns.
For example, if you’re looking for a free tool to build your email list, you can use the Growthoid platform. It’s easy to sign up, and starts you off with a quality list of subscribers. Plus, it’s completely free. Similar to the Growthoid platform, you can use the MailChimp free tool to build your list and send out emails. Just make sure that you’ve filled out the simple forms on their website to get started.
3. Make Use Of Video Content.
If you’ve been following our blog content at all, you’ll know that we usually use videos to explain our strategies and elaborate on points we’re making. Why? Videos allow us to engage with our audience, show our values, and demonstrate the value we provide. They’re also great for SEO.
There are tons of wonderful platforms out there that allow you to create and share videos, like YouTube. You can also make use of existing videos you’ve posted on social media sites like Twitter.
4. Cross-Promotional Promotions.
We all love free stuff, and why shouldn’t we? It’s a great way to attract new customers and keep existing ones engaged. To cross-promote my blog and keep people reading, I often do the following:
- Product reviews on my blog (especially for e-commerce products)
- Giveaways (like an electronic gift card or a free downloadable product)
- News announcements (like an “exclusive” offer for a limited time)
- And the list goes on
Sometimes, the best way to gain traffic is to ask for it. For example, if you’re doing a product review and want to attract more readers, you might want to ask the manufacturer for an exclusive offer. Just make sure that you don’t cross the line between honesty and manipulation.
5. Make Your Site Mobile-friendly.
If you’re looking for a way to gain more traction and make your site more accessible to prospective customers, make sure to optimize it for mobile use.
You’ve probably heard of the term “digital nomad”, and if you’re looking for a way to make money online, you might want to consider pursuing this lifestyle. Why? More and more people are accessing the internet from their phones, and if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, they might just scroll on by. You can also test out the usability of your site with Google’s free mobile testing tool, MobiLens.
6. Build An Online Community.
If you can build a community of people interested in your products or services, you’ll be able to gain a lot of support and engage with your audience more effectively. To achieve this, you can try these valuable tips:
- Join relevant forums & communities
- Create a Facebook group
- Start a Twitter account
- And the list goes on
Even better, you can use your social media accounts to find and connect with relevant bloggers and journalists. Doing this can help you get coverage for your website or blog, and improve your visibility online.
In addition to these six suggestions for increasing your website traffic, what are your top tips?