We created this ultimate guide to digital marketing to help business owners like you master this essential skill. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to use digital marketing to reach your target market and grow your business.
Getting started with digital marketing can be daunting especially when you don’t know where to begin. But don’t worry, this guide to digital marketing will help you get started quickly and easily.
Digital marketing is a broad word that encompasses a wide variety of marketing operations:
- Creating a website
- Writing blog posts
- Running social media campaigns
- Creating email newsletters
- Paid advertising
And much more!
Basically, if you’re doing anything online to promote your business, it falls under the umbrella of digital marketing.
What's different about marketing your business online?
The internet has opened up a whole new world of marketing possibilities for businesses of all sizes. With a few clicks, you can reach customers around the globe. And, most of all, you won’t have to break the bank.
That said, there are a few things to keep in mind when marketing your business online:
- You need to be able to reach your customers where they are spending their time. And these days, that means being active on social media and creating a strong online presence.
- You must provide content that is both relevant and interesting to your intended audience. This means understanding what they want and need, and then creating content that meets those needs.
- You need to be able to measure your results so you can adjust your strategy as needed. This means knowing which metrics to track and how to interpret them.
Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing
Before we dive into the important aspects of this guide to digital marketing, let’s take a quick look at how digital marketing stacks up against traditional marketing methods.
In today’s world, there are two main types of marketing: traditional marketing and digital marketing.
- Traditional marketing includes activities like print advertising, television commercials, and direct mail campaigns.
- Digital marketing includes activities like email marketing, social media marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO).
Digital marketing has become the preferred choice for businesses because it offers a number of advantages over traditional marketing:
- It’s more cost-effective. Digital marketing is frequently less expensive than traditional marketing strategies.
- It’s more targeted. With digital marketing, you can reach a specific audience with targeted messaging.
- It’s more engaging. Digital media is designed to be more interactive and engaging than traditional media.
- It’s more measurable. With digital marketing, it’s easy to track your results and adjust your strategy as needed.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s take a look at how you can get started with digital marketing for your business.
Step-by-step Guide to Digital Marketing
1. Plan your goals and objectives.
Before you start marketing your business online, it’s important to take a step back and think about your goals. What are you aiming for in your digital marketing efforts? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive more traffic to your website? Boost sales or leads?
It’s important to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve before you start creating content or launching campaigns. This will help you measure your results and determine whether your digital marketing efforts are successful.
Set the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to guide and evaluate the success of your digital marketing efforts. Examples of KPIs for digital marketing include website traffic, click-through rate (CTR), and conversion rate.
2. Keyword research
Once you know your goals, it’s time to start thinking about the keywords you want to target. Keywords are terms or phrases that individuals use while searching for information on the internet.
By targeting the right keywords, you can ensure that your content is seen by people who are interested in what you have to offer. This is one of the most crucial steps in our guide to digital marketing, so it’s important to take the time to get it right.
There are a number of tools you can use to research keywords, including Google’s Keyword Planner and Moz’s Keyword Explorer.
But before you choose a keyword, keep these things in mind:
- Relevance: Choose keywords that are relevant to your business and the products or services you offer.
- Searcher intent: Consider what someone is looking for when they use a particular keyword. For instance, a person who searches for “buy a guitar online” is probably trying to buy something. On the other hand, if someone searches for “how to tie a tie,” they are probably looking for information or instructions.
- Competition: Take a look at the competition for each keyword you’re considering. If there are already a lot of businesses targeting that keyword, it may be difficult to rank for it.
When you already have an existing business, take advantage of your current customer base and look for keyword opportunities through surveys, interviews, or even just casual conversations.
Your existing customers are a valuable source of information because they can tell you what terms or phrases they use when searching for businesses like yours.
Learn how to do keyword research before writing content and any online marketing campaigns for your business.
3. Set up a website
Now that you know your goals and have chosen your keywords, it’s time to set up a website. Your website is the foundation of your digital marketing efforts and should be designed with your target audience in mind.
If you don’t have a website, potential customers will have a hard time finding you and learning about your products or services. And if you’re selling products or services online, a website is essential.
There are a few things you’ll need to do to set up a website for your business:
Choose a domain name
This is the address people will type into their browser to find your website (e.g., www.example.com).
Some domain name tips:
- Include keywords related to your business.
- Avoid adding hyphens or digits in your domain name.
- Keep it short—aim for 10 characters or less.
You can purchase domain names from a number of providers, such as GoDaddy or Namecheap.
Choose a web hosting service
Build your website
You may do this yourself or pay a web designer to do it for you. Building your website today is easier than ever, thanks to drag-and-drop builders like Wix and Squarespace. WordPress is also a popular option for businesses that need a bit more flexibility. There are page builders for WordPress that make it easy to create a professional website without learning code. Some popular WordPress page builders are Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Divi.
If you decide to build your website yourself, make sure to use a responsive design so your site looks good on all devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones).
Start creating your website now by following this 11 easy steps.
4. Create content
The engine that drives your digital marketing operations is your content. Without content, there would be no SEO, no blog posts, no email marketing campaigns—nothing.
The first step in creating content is to figure out what kind of content you need. Here are a few examples:
- If you want to attract attention from search engines and drive traffic to your website, you need SEO-friendly content.
- If you want to engage your audience and build relationships with potential and current customers, you need content that provides value. This could be in the form of blog posts, ebooks, infographics, case studies, or other types of content.
- If you want to generate leads and sales, you need content that’s designed to convert. This could be in the form of whitepapers, free trials, coupons, or other types of content.
Once you’ve figured out what kind of content you need, it’s time to start creating it! If you’re not a writer, you can hire a freelance writer to help you with this. Or, if you prefer, you can use Quora to find questions related to your business that people are asking and answer them in the form of blog posts.
5. Optimize your website for SEO
If you want your website to be found by search engines and drive traffic to your site, you need to optimize it for SEO. This can be a complex and time-consuming task, but it’s essential if you want your website to be successful.
Here are a few things you need to do to optimize your website for SEO:
Choose the right keyword phrases: These are the phrases people will use when they search for your products or services.
Use those keywords throughout your site: In your titles, in your descriptions, in your blog posts, in your images—everywhere!
Optimize your website for local SEO: If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, make sure your website is optimized for local SEO so people in your area can find you.
Build backlinks: A backlink is a link that goes from one website to another. The more backlinks you have, the higher chances your website will rank on search engine results pages.
There are tools to help you with all of these tasks, such as Yoast SEO for WordPress, Moz, and SEMrush. These tools will help you to optimize your website quickly and easily. They provide suggestions on what you need to do to improve your website’s SEO, and they can also track your progress over time.
Optimize your blog posts for Google search with these 8 blog SEO tips.
6. Start a blog
Blogging is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies out there. Not only does it help you to attract new visitors to your website, but it also gives you a platform to share your brand’s story and connect with your audience on a deeper level.Â
You can do this by adding a blog to your website and writing articles that are relevant to your target audience. For example, if you sell skincare products, you could write a blog post about the benefits of using natural skincare products. Or, if you sell software, you could write a how-to guide on using your software.
Not sure what to write about? Check out other blogs in your industry to get ideas, or use a tool like Answer the Public to find popular questions people are asking. You can then create blog posts that answer those questions.
7. Marketing your products and services online
Once your website is up and running, it’s time to start marketing your products or services online. There are a number of ways to do this, and the best approach will vary depending on your business and your goals. But some common methods include:
Search engine optimization (SEO): This is the process of making sure your website appears as high as possible in search results for relevant keywords.
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC): A form of advertising where you are charged a fee each time a user clicks on your advertisement.
Social media marketing: Is the process of producing and sharing your content on websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to advertise your business.
Email marketing: This involves sending emails to potential and current customers to promote your business.
Content marketing: This is a form of marketing that involves creating and sharing high-quality content to attract attention and build relationships with potential and current customers.
Each of these methods requires a different approach, so it’s important to choose the one that makes the most sense for your business. But once you’ve decided on a method (or methods), there are a few things you need to keep in mind:
Set realistic goals: Try not to take on too much at once. Start with one or two methods and focus on doing them well. Then, once you’ve mastered those, you can add more to your digital marketing strategy.
Be patient: Results from digital marketing campaigns take time. Don’t anticipate instant results, and don’t be discouraged if you don’t get the desired effects right immediately.
Test, test, test: Always be testing different aspects of your campaigns to see what works and what doesn’t. This is the only way to know for sure what’s working and what needs to be improved.
8. Keeping your business growing online
Once you’ve gotten your business online and started marketing your products or services, it’s important to keep growing. Here are some pointers:
Keep your website up to date: Regularly add new content to your website and make sure the information on your site is accurate and up to date.
Monitor your analytics: Use Google Analytics or another similar service to track how people are finding and using your website. This will help you figure out what works and what needs to be improved.
Stay active on social media: Keep sharing new content and engaging with your followers on social media. This will help you maintain a strong presence online and grow your audience.
Keep testing: As we mentioned before, always be testing different aspects of your digital marketing campaigns. This will help you fine-tune your strategy and make sure you’re getting the most out of your efforts.
As this guide to digital marketing shows, there’s always more to learn and new opportunities to explore. So keep learning, keep testing, and keep growing your business online.
Wrapping Things Up
Digital marketing is an excellent approach to reaching out to new customers and expanding your brand. However, it can seem like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be. It is important to keep in mind that it requires time, effort, and patience.
There are no shortcuts or sudden achievements. So keep at it, and don’t get discouraged if you don’t see the results you want right away. With a little time and effort, you’ll be able to use digital marketing to reach new heights with your business.
Follow this ultimate guide to digital marketing and you’ll be well on your way to using digital marketing to grow your business online. Every step you take will bring you one step closer to reaching your goals. Do every step in this guide to make your online marketing journey a success. You can also check our website’s category of blogs for more information and resources on digital marketing.
