As more and more people are turning their businesses into e-commerce, owners and their staff will require knowledge in digital marketing in order to compete online. One can’t be an expert in digital marketing overnight as there’s lots to learn and requires time and dedication. Digital marketing is the process of promoting and selling products or services on the Internet using one or more marketing channels like search engines, social media platforms, and PPC advertising. With digital marketing, you can find audiences interested in your brand, interact with them, and nurture them until they become customers. The most important digital marketing types are search engine marketing, content marketing, PPC advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing. To become successful in digital marketing or become a consultant, you need to develop the skills required to work with all online marketing technologies. In addition, you need to acquire the necessary knowledge so that you can combine them together to achieve the best possible outcome. It’s hard work that requires a lot of patience and perseverance but the good news is that you don’t have to attend college or a classroom course to become a digital marketing expert. To learn digital marketing, you need to become an expert in the following areas: Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that it ranks higher in the search engine’s organic results. SEO is important in online marketing because it can drive highly targeted traffic to your website. It’s a slower process compared to Paid Ads but it can generate better results in the long term. Search Engine Marketing. SEM has to do with marketing on the various search engines using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Paid Search Advertising (Google Ads or Bing Ads). PPC. Pay Per Click marketing or paid search advertising (PSA) is the other component of search engine marketing. With Pay-Per-Click ads, you can reach your target customers faster than SEO but you pay every time someone clicks on your ads. Content Marketing. Every digital marketing campaign is based on content. Whether it’s SEO, social media marketing, or email marketing, you need content to reach and engage with your target audience in the different channels. Content marketing is the process to identify, create, and promote the right type of content to the right audience. Inbound Marketing. The role of Inbound marketing is to co-ordinate the activities of all other digital marketing campaigns to provide for a remarkable user experience. The overall goal is to have a solid process for attracting new customers, engaging with them, gaining their trust, and earning their satisfaction. Social Media Marketing. Social media networks have dominated our lives and our approach to digital marketing. Social media marketing is what the name implies i.e. marketing on the various social networks for the purpose of finding and engaging with your customers. Email Marketing. Email is still one of the most effective ways to turn visitors into customers and existing customers into repeat customers. To run successful email marketing campaigns, you need to get to know your audience first otherwise your emails will end up in the spam folder of your users. While all other marketing techniques concentrate on finding new customers, email marketing is about closing the deal. Digital Marketing Analytics Tools. One of the skills each digital marketing professional should develop its analytical skills. The job of the SEO expert or Social media marketing manager), but to know how to orchestrate all processes so that they work towards the same goals. To be able to do that, you need to learn how to use various data analysis tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Data reporting tools like the Google Data Studio and digital marketing tools like SEMRUSH. What’s the best way to learn digital marketing in 2021 for free and at the comfort of your own home? There are many courses online that are available. If you do not need certification, there are many free courses available for instance if you are using the Shopify platform to set up your e-commerce website and business, Shopify provides free courses for you at Shopify Compass where everything you need to know about e-commerce and how to start up is there accessible to you. Besides Shopify, one of the best free courses where you could get certified is at Hubspot. HubSpot Academy offers an incredibly comprehensive digital marketing course that currently has more than 3,000 students Google also provides free education at their Digital Garage or at Online Marketing Challenge. WordStream's PPC University is a totally free online learning resource created by my own former company, WordStream, to help build your PPC and digital marketing skills. Alison Free Diploma in E-Business is a massive online learning community of more than six million registered users, with standards-based and certified courses offered absolutely free of charge. Social Media Quickstarter. This collection of online marketing guides from Constant Contact will help you master social media marketing in no time. Online Marketing Learning Tips
How to make digital marketing work for your business: Identify alternatives that make sense for your business. Put your brains before your budget, keep it simple, and find ideas everywhere. Define a unique spark for your brand, and its promise. Every business needs to market a brand with something to say, something that stands out and ignites everything the brand does. Determine the best digital channels and marketing objectives. Objectives need to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-related. Create and leverage engaging and relevant content. Remember that what’s engaging and relevant depends on your target customer needs, not solution features. Encourage ongoing social media customer conversations. The key to customer interaction is listening first, then asking questions about what customers need and like. Questions fuel content, spark conversations, and turn fears into opportunities. Convey a single brand message and unified brand experience. Integrate marketing touch points to convey a meaningful message across all channels and platforms. For example, use social channels to mine for newsletter content, and connect to your blog account, where you include email sign-up forms. Simplify marketing over time and measure what matters. Content can then be relentlessly repurposed, from social media to a blog to a white paper to an e-book, and results measured. For good content, less is more. In this age of data-driven, social, and mobile marketing, as you prepare your digital marketing strategy, ensure to efficiently fulfill the requirements of your clients. You will need to use the above strategies to build brand recognition and raise sales in this digitally-powered era where the consumer relies more on internet technology. While we are focusing here on digital channels, good marketers have other forms of media working in parallel for them as well. These should include in-store signage, product packaging, marketing collateral, and business cards. Let’s not forget the non-digital channels, including broadcast media, direct marketing, public relations, and trade shows. In summary, marketing is more important than ever to the growth and vitality of any business, and digital marketing is the way to excel without breaking your budget. But, to be effective, even digital requires a strategy, focus on the relevant channels, and the integration of your brand spark and promise into every message. The best entrepreneurs figure out how to do more with less. |
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