Not every small business owner is a master in digital marketing, so I wanted to write an article covering digital marketing basics. That way, any new business owners will have a guide to reflect upon.
So if you’re just starting your own online business, you can use this information as a checklist of what you should start working on in order to build your brand and increase your profits.
If you have been in business for a while, but are not getting the kind of results you’d hoped for, use this information to evaluate your current digital marketing mix and identify any gaps.
Digital Marketing Basics – What You Need To Consider
If you’re just starting out, here are the key digital marketing areas that you need to consider:
- Content marketing
- Blogging
- Video
- Social media
- Search engine marketing such as Google AdWords
- Automation
Let’s look at each area in more detail:
Content Marketing
Content marketing is any item you post online in relation to your business, which is designed to drive traffic, increase sales, and/or retain customers. Most content will consist of words on a page.
However, these days, you can market with any form of content, so it’s important to vary your offering.
Blogging
Blogging, in particular niche blogging on a certain topic such as golf, dogs, or quilting, will attract a targeted audience interested in the subject you’re discussing. Your written content should be supported with good images – created in house, professionally generated and shared, or sold through a stock photo site. Images can enhance your blog posts and all other published content, including videos.
Video
Video is in high demand online and used to entertain and educate. If you aren’t already marketing on YouTube regularly, put video marketing at the top of your to-do list.
Social Media
Great images can also be used for infographics and marketing at highly visual social networks such as Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram, to drive traffic back to your site or show what your products and services are all about.
Make the most of your digital marketing by placing an email address capture box on your landing pages so the visitors to your site will be able to subscribe to your digital newsletter. Email marketing is ideal for building relationships and makes your content marketing, blogging, and social networking efforts measurable. Don’t just think traffic; think engagement with your content.
To get an even higher subscriber rate, consider creating an incentive, like a discount, or a freebie.
You should also market your hottest content on niche-related discussion boards, groups and forums, especially places like Facebook groups.
Search Engine Marketing
In order to test your new content, or product ideas, consider setting a small budget for pay-per-click ad services to test the market. Track and test your results and improve your marketing messages as needed.
If you have a tiny budget, then consider using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These paid advertising opportunities are less expensive than Google, yet much more highly targeted, giving you a better conversion rate.
Automation
Automation tools such as email autoresponders and blog schedulers keep your marketing going even when you are not at your computer. Work smarter, not harder, with the help of schedulers and other automation tools.
If you’re not using all of these basics, get started today and see what a difference they can make to your business.
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