If you’re reading this, I assume you’re pretty much familiar with the world of online marketing and digital marketing. You’re most likely reading it because you’re interested in learning more about the field, or because you’re looking for new ways to grow your business. Perhaps you’ve even taken a stab at online marketing and failed miserably. That’s why I’ve written this article. In it, I’ll teach you the basics of marketing online so you can get started fast and correctly without wasting too much time.

Define Your Audience

To dive into the subject matter, let’s begin with the fundamentals. Like any other form of marketing, you need to establish your target audience. What are they looking for? What are their needs? What are their interests? Think about the people you’d most like to see reading your blog post or following your social media accounts. Having a clear idea of your audience’s demographics will help you tailor your content to appeal to as many people as possible. With each blog post or social media post, you’ll have the opportunity to hone in on a specific target audience and engage with them. Do you think it would be advantageous to speak to females aged 25 to 45 who live in major cities and who are interested in fashion? Or would you target males aged 18 to 35 who like to stay active and travel a lot?

Choose Your Platforms Wisely

While we’re on the subject of platforms, let’s touch on the importance of picking the right ones for your needs. There are so many options when it comes to social media platforms, and as a startup or a small business owner, you’ll most likely need to choose between a free platform and a paid platform. Which one do you prefer?

The choice is up to you, of course, but if you’re looking for a simple and free platform to get your feet wet, without having to worry about upgrading later, go with the free option.

As a beginner, it’s best to begin with the free options first and then move onto the paid options. These are the platforms that almost everyone uses and is familiar with, so you’ll have an easier time finding the resources you need. Plus, the free options often come with an audience that is already connected to you. If you write a blog post about fashion and style, for example, you might already have a small following on blogspot, which is a free blogging platform. If you decide to continue expanding your reach and want to move to a paid platform, you’ll have an existing audience to pull in more traffic and grow your business.

Make Use Of Video

Along with blogging and social media, video content is one of the three pillars of content marketing. The key is to make use of video in every way possible. Aside from creating informative blogs and videos to attract potential customers, you can also use them to provide valuable insights into your industry.

Videos can serve as useful marketing tools to draw in customers, present your products and offer advice on how to use them. Platforms like HubSpot and Marketo make it easy to create and distribute video content, no matter your talent. If you’re looking for a place to start, these are some of the simplest and most user-friendly options available.

Become Familiar With Keywords

Keywords are extremely important in SEO. They’re the terms people use to find content when searching for similar articles on a search engine. When a customer types in a keyword into the search bar, your website should pop up. If it doesn’t, you’re losing out on the potential to connect with a customer.

There are a variety of tools online that can help you find the keywords that matter most to your business. After you’ve located these key phrases, you can use a service like Keyword Explorer to find other terms and phrases that are closely associated with them. Once you know what these are, you can incorporate them into your content to help searchers find you. For example, if you’ve found that your target audience is most likely to use the keyword ‘fashion’, you may decide to write an article titled, ‘How To Style Yourself in Spring Fashion.’

Set Up Email Marketing

Once you’ve started blogging, you’ll most likely want to continue expanding your reach further. One of the simplest ways to do this is through email marketing. With email marketing, you can send out emails to a list of people whom you’ve identified as being interested in your industry. Your emails might contain information about upcoming blog posts, product discounts or even a special introductory offer. If you can keep your emails short and sweet, and include a link to the relevant blog post or a product page, you’re likely to see a boost in traffic.

You can set up an autoresponder sequence in 30 seconds or less. You’ll simply need to visit your account dashboard, select the ‘email marketing’ option and then enter a relevant email address. From there, you can start sending out email campaigns to grow your business.

Curate Digital Content

Blogs, articles, social media posts and videos are just a handful of the content types you’ll need to curate. In addition to the platforms mentioned above, you may decide to create and edit corporate videos, host webinar sessions or write and publish ebooks. To create content for these various platforms, you’ll need to do the following: