The evolution of digital marketing, especially online marketing, cannot be denied. The fact is, whether you’re an established business or just getting started, technology has made it possible for almost anyone to launch a digital marketing initiative and run with it. That being said, if you’re just getting started or feel like you’ve got a lot to learn, where do you start? What do you need to know?
Luckily, we’re here to help. Below, you’ll find an overview of the most essential knowledge you need to know when pursuing an online marketing career. From understanding how search engines work to knowing what metrics to look out for, we’ll cover everything you need to hit the ground running.
Key Facts About Online Marketing
If you’re reading this, I assume you either:
- Already work in digital marketing and are looking for ways to further expand your knowledge
- Are contemplating a career in digital marketing
- Know someone who is
If any of these descriptions sound familiar, then you’re in the right place. Below, we’ll discuss some key facts about online marketing that you need to know.
The Basics
Before we get started, let’s cover the basics. When it comes to digital marketing, you’ll always find three key elements:
- Creative TechnicalStrategic
- Consistently publish helpful and informative content
- Create and encourage engagement on social media
- Join online forums and discussions
- Attend local events and conferences
- And finally, link to educational resources such as YouTube videos or blogs.
Creative is what makes up the bulk of your marketing content, whether it’s a website, advertisement, or social media campaign. Your creative will consist of everything from the text on a page to the images or videos used to convey that text. Designing a beautiful banner that’ll catch the eye is one thing; making sure that banner is clickable and pulls the right viewers to your content is something else.
Technical is all the coding and platforms that make your content interactive. If you’re creating a website, you’ll need to look into hiring a web developer to enhance your site’s functionality. You’ll also need to explore the various content management systems (CMS) available to see which one suits your needs. While WordPress is the most popular CMS, it’s not necessarily the best for every type of business.
Strategic is everything you need to know about marketing: analyzing your audience, measuring the success of your campaigns, and taking proper action on the results you get. To become a successful digital marketer, you’ll need to focus on developing your strategy and using the results to inform further decision-making. For example, if you found that your customers prefer watching videos to reading text, you may decide to prioritize video content in your next campaign.
Keywords And Search
At this point, you may be wondering how you fit into all of this. Remember: SEO (search engine optimization) is very much a part of online marketing. The better you are at keywords and search, the more likely you are to rank high on search engines like Google.
Keywords are phrases used by users to find information on the internet. When potential customers use these keywords to search for information, they’ll often see results containing those keywords. The idea is that if you can appear in the top results for a user’s search query, you’ll effectively be displayed to that user. In the case of our example keyword, “SEO,” there are over 500,000 results on Google Search, with thousands more appearing each day. When a user sees these results, they’ll usually click on the first link (or image or video) presented to them.
SEO is always a key consideration when engaging in online marketing. Before you can implement any kind of strategy, you’ll need to understand exactly what keywords your competitors are using and how they’re doing so. There are a number of tools like Google Keyword Planner, which can be accessed either from desktop or mobile phone. Additionally, you can use Google keyword research tools to enter your target keywords and see how many times those keywords are being used on web pages across the web.
Once you’ve done your research, you can begin to build a list of keywords and phrases that you, your competitors, and websites related to your industry may use. This will form the basis of your SEO strategy.
Searches And Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As previously stated, one of the most important things you need to know about SEO is that it’s all about keywords and search. When someone types in a search query, they aren’t generally looking for a particular product; rather, they’re seeking information about a particular subject. When users type in these search terms, they’re putting themselves in the position to find the information they’re looking for. To optimize your SEO and have your website appear on the first few pages of a Google search, you’ll need to make sure that your web pages are rich in relevant and accurate content related to your chosen keywords.
To do this, you’ll need to ensure that each page on your site has unique and accurate content. To best practice SEO, avoid using “keyword stuffing” or overuse of keywords. Keyword stuffing occurs when you try to game the system by using a lot of the same keywords in your content without providing any additional value. For example, if you want to rank for the keywords “SEO consultant,” you may end up with a ton of content containing those words, but the majority of your content will be unrelated or even counter-productive to gaining a good rank. This is something you can easily avoid by simply taking the time to ensure that each page on your site has a relevant and unique set of content.
Backlinks
Backlinks are links pointing to your site from other websites. If you’ve ever worked in a corporate environment, you may be familiar with backlinks. These are basically the links, or pieces of content, that reside on other websites that link back to your own. If another website links to yours, it’s considered a backlink. Sometimes, we’ll see websites link to a particular page of another website to indicate that they also want to provide helpful information or highlight an important detail about that page. If someone decides to link to your website, this is called an “organic link.” When someone clicks on these links, they’re sent to a website they probably wouldn’t have visited otherwise.
Backlinks are incredibly important because they help establish your brand identity and provide valuable information to potential customers. To create backlinks, you’ll need to do the following:
Once you’ve mastered the basics of online marketing, the next step is to work on perfecting your craft. With any luck, this post will help get you started on the right foot.