Digital Marketing for Beginners – An introductory guide to digital marketing

Introduction to Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the buzzword today, and in the coming years, it is going to change the way of doing business as compared to traditional marketing methods.

Nowadays, people use more mobile phones and the internet as compared to the earlier days for the purpose of e-commerce, availing services, etc.

Digital Marketing is nothing but marketing of products and services by using electronic devices and the internet through various digital channels like search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing, etc.

It is an easy way to reach audiences through digital platforms as it creates more trust among them. 

Why Digital Marketing?

The number of mobile users in India has increased drastically due to the low prices of data. According to McKinsey, India will see a rise in internet users by 40 percent and the number of smartphones will be double by 2023.

With the help of digital marketing, businesses can reach the maximum number of audiences in a cost-effective way compared to traditional marketing. 

Digital platforms are the best platforms to find potential customers. It also has the ability to reach the global marketplace. 

Digital marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing as the success of the ads/campaigns can be measured. The analytics will help to calculate the effectiveness of the resources and budget allocation for marketing.

Key Digital Marketing Activities

Now that it is known that digital marketing consists of all the marketing activities which can be carried out digitally. Let us take a look at the key activities performed in digital marketing.

#1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

SEO is the process to attract more traffic to the website by ranking the website on search engine result pages. Particular keywords and ad relevance are the major aspects of SEO.

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For example, if the user initiates the search query on Google, the search engine fetches results. That is the link of the websites relevant to the search query. The results on the first page are the result of good quality content, specific keywords, backlinks, meta description, etc.

On the basis of the types of activities, SEO can be On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO, and Technical SEO. The three SEO techniques are white hat SEO, black hat SEO, and grey hat SEO. 

#2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEO and SEM both have one thing in common i.e. Search Engines. When it comes to SEO activities, it is generating traffic organically by various means. 

SEM activities involve paid advertisements for attracting traffic on the websites. 

Results obtained in SEM are quick as the time required for SEO is more when compared. But keywords play an important role in both SEO and SEM.

Paid advertisements are run by paid ad campaigns which include budget and time frame.

#3. Content Marketing

As it is said, “Content is the King”, and it holds true. People consume content every day on various platforms like Google search, YouTube, etc. Hence, it is important to keep the track of update of any type of content.

Content can be in the form of text, photos, audio, videos, blog posts, etc. It is very important to understand here that content which is relevant and has specific keywords in it, reaches the maximum targeted audience.

Good quality content always attracts Google’s attention. If the website has the relevant content, the user is looking for, will have more visitors.

#4. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

There is easy access to the Internet now which has resulted in the upsurge of social media users. 

SMM is one of the best digital channels to interact with a targeted audience anywhere and at any time through various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.

Through social media, one can create brand awareness, lead generation, boost conversions, enhance relationships with customers, etc.

SMM is also one of the medium to measure the success of the ads as it gives analytics about the same. The major activities performed on social media are likes, comments, shares, tags, etc. 

The content which includes posts, videos, live hosting, contests, etc. attracts more audiences as it feels more appealing and connecting to the audience. SMM is the most cost-effective way for small businesses to grow digitally.

#5. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click is also known as PPC. It is the model where when the user clicks the ad link on the search result page, the advertiser has to pay the search engine a small fee. 

For eg – When the user searches for a digital marketing course in the Google search query, the top few links on the search engine result page are paid ads. This means every time the user clicks that link, the advertiser has to pay as it drives traffic to websites.

Google Ads are used to run PPC campaigns for a certain period of time as per the requirements. In PPC, it is important to choose the keywords according to user demand. If the keyword is not relevant to the search, traffic cannot be diverted to the website.

PPC generates a revenue stream for both advertisers and search engines as well.

Google Ads, earlier known as Google Adwords is one of the best PPC platforms to run a PPC model.

#6. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a marketing method in which commission can be gained by promoting products of other companies or other people by giving feedback and sharing reviews. This generates referral traffic to the website.

Eg: If a blogger writes a blog or article on a topic related to beauty tips and mentions the link of the beauty products. Now if a user reads the blog and clicks on the link provided in the article. The user makes a purchase from the link provided in the article. The blogger receives a commission on the purchase made.

This is one of the ways of generating passive income.

Amazon Affiliate Program is the largest and most successful program for affiliate marketing.

#7. Email Marketing

Email marketing refers to sending commercial email to the potential targeted customers providing with the product and service related information.

The purpose of the email varies according to the activities like it can be for product promotion, lead generation, brand awareness, etc.

Email marketing is still considered to be an effective tool for marketing as compared to social media as it has a larger reach, better conversion rate, etc.

Apart from these tactics, there are other techniques like inbound marketing, marketing automation, instant messaging marketing, radio advertising, etc.

Conclusion

With the help of the above digital marketing tools and techniques, one can grow its business and have a digital presence. Digital marketing is way beyond the activities mentioned above. The above-mentioned activities are most primary ones.

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