Digital Marketing for Beginners: Strategies that always work

So, what makes digital marketing an important factor for startups?

Digital marketing can often be done at a lesser expenditure than traditional marketing. Print and television advertisements can cost thousands or even lakhs of rupees.

One the other, an online advertisement may only cost a few hundred dollars. 

Also, a blog can reach hundreds of thousands of readers. Digital marketing allows startups to reach new clients and develop relationships at a very fast rate.

SOME STRATEGICAL MOVES!

1. SEO

SEO is arguably one of the most important aspects of digital marketing.

While it’s true that Google’s algorithms can still become confusing, you cans still better grasp how it works when you work more with its concepts.

But don’t worry, you don’t need to learn a bunch of technical skills, at least not right away. In just about a week, you can learn a lot of SEO basics. And trust us when we say that even knowing just the basics of SEO will help you immensely. 

For example, recently, Google has suggested everyone switch to HTTPS pages rather than HTTP pages.

The reasoning behind this is many contact forms using HTTP pages aren’t deemed secure enough.

So learn the basics of SEO and see how it helps your business. 

2. Search Engine Marketing

Usually abbreviated as SEM, Search Engine Marketing is a type of internet marketing used to increase SERPs via paid advertising methods.

You’ll want an expert to help you in this field as well, especially one who’s worked with Google Ads and search/display ads. 

In the case of Google Ads, you’ll want to educate yourself first on how the process works.

What you’ll appreciate the most is Google makes its Google Ads easy to use through their attention to customization. 

They let you choose whether you want graphic display ads, YouTube video ads, text-based search ads, or in-app mobile ads. All of these are going to depend on your business style and the targeted customers you need to reach.

Google makes it easy to track your ad performance with localized ad capabilities as well as superior metrics.

However, don’t forget about other paid ad opportunities, especially Facebook Ads. The latter gives you ample opportunity to customize multiple ad formats.

3. Local Search Marketing

You’re seeing a lot more attention to local search marketing in the last few years. It’ll continue being important far into the coming decade as local businesses realize the value of being found by local consumers.

Tools provided by Google are again the best way to get started with local search marketing.

For instance, using Google My Business, you can have your listing showed in front of someone searching for a particular keyword. Moreover, this includes your business appearing even on Google Maps.

Nothing can become out of date since Google has made it easy to update listings as well.

However, You cannot ignore the importance of online reviews and social reputation.

Who wouldn’t want their customers to write positive reviews without any push?

You can reap the benefits of inbound marketing by simply starting a conversation on social media. Inbound techniques help customers come to you over you seeking them

4. Content Marketing

Another major way to attract an audience is content marketing. The most essential step in content marketing is making your content valuable. Before putting out any content, ask yourself: Is my content worth spending time on?

This will help you make the most value-driven content for your specific audience. 

In today’s time, you need to focus on creating content that can solve pain points and stay evergreen. Thanks to Google’s advanced algorithms, moving to the top of the search engine using tactics like black hat SEO won’t work.

So always keep in mind that “content is king”, as many like to put it. 

A bit of good advice would be to focus on mobile content, influencer marketing, native advertising, and marketing automation.

Smartphones are already making up for 50% of all global devices. It wouldn’t be logical for anyone to not think about mobile content. Write and design content keeping the mobile audience in mind.

Think about how often do you use your laptop to visit a website you found on social media

5. Remarketing

If prospects do not respond to your ad banner the first time, you can always retarget them. You can use cookies to track visitors and create new ads on relevant sites using the information. This whole process is known as remarketing which is another huge aspect of digital marketing.

Creating new ads on your site can also help you better target your prospects. Moreover, tweak your ads to target pain points using the information gained when visitors visit your website.

Ultimately, remarketing helps you stay more engaged with prospects, aids in brand awareness, and increases conversions.  

6. Responsive Web Design

While this isn’t exactly a strategy to market your business, having responsive web design is always a good practice. Since reaching customers by mobile is more or less the standard now. 

And that’s going to go on into the coming decade. 

Having a responsive web design that adapts to the needs of a mobile user is very important. As mentioned earlier, most people are now on mobile devices. 

So would anyone buy from you if your website doesn’t work on their favorite device?

With responsive programming, you can make your website automatically conform to all mobile screens - from tablets to smartwatches. 

While you’ll have to work with a web designer to make this work, you’ll also want an SEO expert.

AMP (or Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source code help web pages load faster on mobile devices.

Google gives precedence to websites with faster load-time, so take it seriously. If you publish or post content on your website on a regular basis, having faster load time is essential for you.

Moreover, if you have a blog, having AMP is a must

7. Email Marketing

You might have taken a jab at email marketing already or have always wondered about how effective it really is. 

The fact is that email marketing is still the greatest tool to generate leads. For the most part, businesses generate more leads through emails over any other marketing method. It can also increase their sales and overall, their conversion rates.

The best part about email marketing is that it is much cheaper than any other method. In some cases, it’s even free.

Moreover, you can also combine it with other media. For instance, you can add social share icons as well as referral reward systems. 

As a result, email marketing is also one of the most integrated marketing methods.

Email marketing ultimately helps you shorten your sales cycles when using compelling content.

However, to craft compelling emails, you must learn the art of content writing as well as copywriting. 

8. Social Media Marketing

We have no doubt that you’ve posted content on social media already. Yet, what can you do to make it more effective this year and the next?

A simple trick is to post your content when you know your audience is reading. 

Moreover, using tools like Hootsuite for post scheduling helps immensely when reaching users in other time zones. 

You’ll also want to curate some content if possible to prove your clout. 

Don’t be too proud to do this since it adds luster to your expertise and brand. When you curate content from others, they’ll likely reciprocate. Plus, don’t forget about hiring influencers to post content for you on popular social media channels.