Introduction
Digital Marketing is the act of promoting a good or service with the help of digital channels that can be accessed via the internet. This includes anything between, but not limited to, paid ads on google and content creation on websites and social media platforms.
With smartphones and the internet being widely accessible today, marketing strategies have been revolutionised. Digital marketing has now become one of the most important channels for promoting and expanding businesses.
Why digital marketing, you ask?
This is an evolving hour for business; and digital marketing has the kind of potential no enterprise would miss out on.
With digital marketing, you can
- Target and communicate with potential consumers, most of whom spend a huge chunk of their time on the internet.
- Track viewership.
- Track consumer activity.
- Track conversions to your enterprise.
- Analyse the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and optimise accordingly.
Digital marketing techniques open up a plethora of marketing channels for us. A huge expanse of digital presence can catapult your business to an atmospheric level if tapped skillfully. On top of this, small-scale businesses with a well-planned marketing strategy are automatically leveraged over larger businesses that might not have a marketing strategy as good as their brand value. This goes to show how digital marketing fosters the growth of businesses that start small.
How are digital marketing strategies better than traditional marketing techniques?
Digital Marketing enables you to track how effective your marketing campaigns are and gives you empirical data on how potential consumers are reacting to them, all at a cost lower than what would, on average, be required for traditional marketing.
What techniques does digital marketing entail?
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), comprises changes in website layout and content that are made to ensure that your website ranks higher on Search Engine Results Pages. This includes researching and appropriately placing keywords and adding meta titles.
- Social Media Marketing (SMM), which increases brand visibility and awareness on social media platforms. Reels on Instagram and YouTube shorts are excellent channels for social media marketing.
- Email Marketing; newsletters, coupons, and every form of marketing that takes place via email.
- Content Marketing, consisting of every marketing endeavour through online content.
- Paid ads on Google, which appear on the Search Engine Results Page upon entering a search query. Advertisers also purchase ad space on Social Media Platforms to boost your business.
- Affiliate marketing, or reaching out to third-party websites to advertise your brand through subscriptions, registrations, and sign-ups, to name a few.
If you are an entrepreneur who is getting started with digital marketing, here are some tips for you.
- Build Web Presence:
Building Web Presence in the first step in the journey of Digital Marketing. A website is a good place to start. Website building need not cost you a fortune, or consume a lot of time. Website-building tools like WordPress, Wix and Shopify have come a long way in simplifying setting up a website for beginners, especially those with little knowledge of programming.
- Curate Appropriate Content:
Content is one of the most important tools of marketing. It builds brand awareness, fosters goodwill and augments brand popularity. Hence, it is imperative that you create and post content very thoughtfully. Content that has been well-reached, proof-read, crisp, concise and relevant serves your website and media channels the best.
- Don’t miss Data Analysis:
To know how well your marketing activities are faring, you need to analyse data that reflect consumer behaviour on your website/social media, like number of people visiting your website, location of your customers, where most customers are coming from, and the like. Google Analytics can be a good app to help with that. It gives you data straight from Google searches and informs you accurately about new users, user retention and ad revenue among others.
- Begin with SEO:
SEO is a quintessential part of Digital marketing and the earlier you begin it, the better. Important processes like keyword research is keyword research, and on-page SEO techniques like adding titles, link based and non-link-based SEO practices should be started right from the beginning. SEO increases your brand’s visibility and lands you better chances of conversions.
Digital marketing is an evolving process. One can only learn once one starts with the task. So, dive in!