Are you looking to learn more about online marketing? Do you want to know what is possible for you to achieve as an online marketer? If so, then this post is for you as much as it is for anyone else reading this. In it, I will teach you everything you need to know about marketing online, for free. You will learn the foundations of online marketing, including how to build a blog, how to use social media, and much more. This will also serve as a complete guide to creating a blog that will attract and retain loyal readers who will become lifelong fans of your work. So let’s get started.
Why Blogging?
Blogging is a fantastic way to learn about online marketing. You will be able to use what you learn in this context to effectively market a product or service in any industry. Plus, you will have the opportunity to build a community of people who share your passion for marketing online. Now more than ever, people are looking for ways to learn new things online, and blogging is one of the best platforms out there for doing so. If you want to learn how to blog, there is no better place to do so than the WordPress.com Forums. The WordPress.com Forums are a great place to learn how to blog, and you will be able to interact with some of the best professional marketers in the world, as well as get your questions answered by other eager students. If you have a question about blogging or online marketing, you can’t really go wrong with the WordPress.com Forums as a resource.
The Basics Of Online Marketing
To begin with, it’s important to understand the difference between marketing and advertising. Marketing is the activity of creating desire for your product or service among your target audience. Advertising is the activity of getting the attention of your target audience, whether it’s through paid or organic channels. Now that you have a clear understanding of the difference between marketing and advertising, let’s dive into the basics of online marketing. In short, here are the pillars that make up the basis of any solid online marketing plan:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Marketing Automation
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Review
- Online Shopping
- Blogging
- Press Releases
- And Much More
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the activity of making your website or blog as visible as possible in the search results when someone searches for your service or product. Depending on your niche and the depth of the keyword search you are targeting, this can be a challenging task. But don’t worry, with a little bit of effort, it’s possible to achieve great results with SEO. Here are the basics of SEO that you need to know:
- Create content that will be useful to your target audience
- Make sure that your content is varied and updated regularly
- Use the right keywords in your content and additional information tags
- Make sure that your website/blog is mobile-friendly
- Use tools like free Google Analytics to track the performance of your site
- Post regularly to build credibility
- Use social media to engage with potential and existing customers
- Build a community of engaged customers through social media
- Use email marketing to stay in touch with potential and existing customers
- Use SEO to drive web traffic to your site
- Use digital marketing to measure the success of your SEO strategy
Content Marketing
Content marketing is all about creating and distributing high-quality, valuable content to attract, entertain and educate your target audience. Think of content marketing as a form of advertising that doesn’t rely on the click-throughs of ads but instead relies on the value and credibility of the content that you are distributing. If you are looking to learn more about content marketing, then you don’t really have to look far because here it is.
To get started with content marketing, you will need a blog. A nice blog with relevant content will attract potential customers to your product or service. However, just because you have a blog it does not mean that you have to write about your product or service. Writing about something else can often times be just as effective as writing about your product or service. Think of famous bloggers who have built a following through consistent and frequent blogging, and you will realize that content does not necessarily have to be related to your niche or industry. Once you start to see the potential of content marketing, you will realize the endless opportunities it presents.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is all about getting the attention of your target audience via email. Depending on your niche and the depth of the email list you are targeting, this can be a challenging task. But don’t worry, with a little bit of effort, it’s possible to achieve great results with email marketing.
Here are the basics of email marketing that you need to know:
- Build a mailing list of interested customers
- Send regular emails to keep your list engaged
- Measure the success of your email marketing strategy
- Get a free domain for your email list
- Use autoresponders to engage with your customers
- And Much More
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is all about taking the stress out of marketing. Whether you are a small business owner who doesn’t have the time to manually perform all the tasks associated with marketing or a marketing manager who wants to free up time to focus on growing and optimizing the business, marketing automation can help. With marketing automation, you can set up automated tasks, schedules, and posts to engage with your audience. You can also set up email templates and automated emails to send to your audience, gathering feedback, and acting on that feedback to make future communications more effective.
To get started with marketing automation, you will need a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. A CRM system will give you a clear overview of the key information about your customers. It will keep track of all the interactions you have with users who are or have been subscribers to your channel. With a CRM system, you will have all the marketing metrics you need to know, including the number of new leads generated, subscribers, online shoppers, and much more. A CRM system will help you formulate realistic marketing plans and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that will provide you with a clear understanding of how you are performing, and how you are performing compared to what you initially set out to do.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
SMM is all about getting the attention of your audience via social media. This could be through the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. It could also be through the use of social media management software, like Hootsuite or Buffer. To get started with SMM, you will need a social media platform. Once you have a social media platform, you can use it to gain credibility with your audience, as well as build a community of people interested in your product or service.
Here are the basics of SMM that you need to know:
- Use social media to gain credibility with your audience
- Use social media to build a community of people interested in your product or service
- Use digital marketing to measure the success of your SMM strategy
- Analyze the performance of your social media platforms
- Use social media to increase your Web traffic
- Use content marketing to engage with your audience
- And Much More
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when a business, blog, or website promotes a product or service for monetary gain, while also earning a commission when a customer makes a purchase after being exposed to the promoted product or service. To get started with affiliate marketing, you will need a CRM system. You can use your CRM system to gain feedback on your affiliate product offerings and follow-up with potential customers. For example, if someone signs up for your email list and then makes a purchase of a product or service that you are promoting, you will earn a commission.
Here are the basics of affiliate marketing that you need to know: