Introduction to Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. 

Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use of channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what isn’t – typically in real time. 

Digital marketers monitor things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, sales conversions, what content works and doesn’t work, etc. While the Internet is, perhaps, the channel most closely associated with digital marketing, others include wireless text messaging, mobile instant messaging, mobile apps, podcasts, electronic billboards, digital television and radio channels, etc. 

Why Digital Marketing Is Important? 

Digital media is so pervasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want it. Gone are the days when the messages people got about your products or services came from you and consisted of only what you wanted them to know. Digital media is an evergrowing source of entertainment, news, shopping and social interaction, and consumers are now exposed not just to what your company says about your brand, but what the media, friends, relatives, peers, etc., are saying as well. And they are more likely to believe them than you. People want brands they can trust, companies that know them, communications that are personalized and relevant, and offers tailored to their needs and preferences. 

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Social Media Marketing

Tools of Digital Marketing 

Social Media Marketing, or SMM, is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media networks in order to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. Social media marketing primarily covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos, and images for marketing purposes, as well as paid social media advertising.

What should you learn to skill?

•       Planning – As discussed previously, building a social media marketing plan is essential. Consider keyword research and brainstorm content ideas that will interest your target audience.

•       Content is King — Consistent with other areas of online marketing, content reigns king when it comes to social media marketing. Make sure you are offering valuable information that your ideal customers will find interesting. Create a variety of content by implementing social media images, videos, and info graphics in addition to classic text-based content.

•       Consistent Brand Image — Using social media for marketing enables your business to project your brand image across a variety of different social media platforms. While each platform has its own unique environment and voice, your business’ core identity should stay consistent.

•       Blog — Blogging is a great social media marketing tool that lets you share a wide array of information and content with readers. Your company blog can also serve as your social media marketing blog, in which you blog about your recent social media efforts, contests, and events.   

 

•       Links — While using social media for marketing relies primarily on your business sharing its own unique, original content to gain followers, fans, and devotees, it’s also great to link to outside articles as well. If other sources provide great, valuable information you think your target audience will enjoy, don’t be shy about linking to them. Linking to outside sources improves trust and reliability, and you may even get some links in return.

•       Track Competitors — It’s always important to keep an eye on competitors—they can provide valuable data for keyword research, where to get industry-related links, and other social media marketing insight. If your competitors are using a certain social media marketing technique that seems to be working for them, do the same thing, but do it better!

•       Measure Success with Analytics — You can’t determine the success of your social media marketing strategies without tracking data. Google Analytics can be used as a great social media marketing tool that will help you measure your triumphant social media marketing techniques, as well as determine which strategies are better off abandoned.  Attach tracking tags to your social media marketing campaigns so that you can properly monitor them. 

Career benefits of Social Media Marketing

Companies and businesses hire social media marketing managers to establish a more effective online presence. Consider how Facebook grew from a small company to one that caters to over 800 million users. All of these users don't simply connect with friends anymore, but actively engage with companies about products or services they like.

Social media marketing managers help develop social media pages, manage those pages, and work with teams to create content on those pages. They track target demographics, and introduce them to content they enjoy, pushing them to interact more with a brand. 

As managers, they work with a variety of other social media outreach specialists, including:

•     Social Media Directors
•     Social Media Strategists
•     Consumer Insight Managers 

      Introduce with Some Social Media Marketing Platform

      We’ve put together a brief overview on how to use social media for marketing according to each platform’s unique environment. Various social media marketing sites will require different techniques, so develop a unique strategy tailored for each platform. 

      # Facebook

   Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active social media marketing strategy that begins with creating a Facebook Business Fan Page.  You will want to pay careful attention to layout, as the visual component is a key aspect of the Facebook experience. Social media marketing for business pages revolves around furthering your conversation with audiences by posting industry-related articles, images, videos, etc. 

     # Google+

      Google+ is the new Facebook competitor, and it promotes the same fun, casual atmosphere. On Google+ you can upload and share photos, videos, links, and view all your +1s. Also take advantage of Google+ circles, which allow you to segment your followers into smaller groups, enabling you to share information with some followers while barring others. For example, you might try creating a ―super-fan‖ circle, and share special discounts and exclusive offers only with that group. You can also try hosting video conferences with Hangouts and experiment using the Hangout feature in some fun, creative ways. Some social media marketing ideas: if you're a salon, host a how-to session on how to braid your hair. If you own a local bookstore, try offering author video chats. If you're feeling adventurous, invite your +1s to your Google+ Community. Google+ Communities will allow you to listen into your fan's feedback and input, truly putting the social back into social media.

     # Pinterest

      Pinterest is the latest in social media marketing trends. Pinterest’s image-centered platform is ideal for retail, but anyone can benefit from using Pinterest for social media purposes. Pinterest allows small businesses to showcase their own product offerings while also developing their own brand’s personality with some unique pinboards. 

      # Twitter

      Twitter is the social media marketing tool that lets you broadcast your updates across the web. Follow tweeters in your industry or related fields, and you should gain a steady stream of followers in return. Mix up your official-related tweets about specials, discounts, and news updates with some fun and quirky tweets interspersed. Be sure to retweet when a customer has something nice to say about you, and don’t forget answer people’s questions when possible.  Using Twitter as a social media marketing tool revolves around dialog and communication, so be sure to interact as much as possible

     # LinkedIn

      LinkedIn is one of the more professional social media marketing sites. LinkedIn Groups is a great venue for entering into a professional dialog with people in similar industries and provides a place to share content with like-minded individuals.  Encourage customers or clients to give your business a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. Recommendations makes your business appear more credible and reliable for new customers. Also browse the Questions section of LinkedIn; providing answers helps you get established and earns trust.

     # YouTube

      YouTube is the number one place for creating video content, with can be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Many businesses try to create video content with the aim of having their video ―go viral,‖ but in reality those chances are pretty slim. Instead, focus on creating useful, instructive ―how-to‖ videos. These how-to videos also have the added benefit of ranking on the video search results of Google, so don't under-estimate the power of video content! 

     # Reddit

      Reddit, or similar social media platforms such as Stumble Upon or Digg, are ideal for sharing compelling content. With over 2 billion page views a month, Reddit has incredible social media marketing potential, but marketers should be warned that only truly unique, interesting content will be welcomed. Posting on Reddit is playing with fire—submit spam-my or overtly sales focused content and your business could get berated by this extremely tech-savvy community. If you have content you believe the Reddit community (majority is young, geeky, liberal, and internet-obsessed) would enjoy, you could reap tremendous benefits and earn valuable traffic.Using social media in marketing does more than improve site traffic and help businesses reach more customers; it provides a valuable venue for better understanding and learning from your target audiences. Hopefully this guide has helped you better         understand how using social media for marketing  can improve your business.

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Search Engine Optimization

     

SEO stands for ―search engine optimization.‖ It is the process of getting traffic from the ―free, organic,editorial‖ or natural‖ search results on search engines.

All major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads.

# Relevance

One of the most important factors when it comes to SEO is relevance. The search engines don’t only want to see that you’re using specific keywords but it also wants to see how relevant your   content is when it comes to specific search queries. In order to do this, search engines don’t only look at the text on your website itself. They also look at:

•       How your website is structured

•       What keywords are used within your URL

•       How your page is formatted

      •       What keywords are in the headline that are also found within the content              of  that given page

# Backlink

When it comes to SEO, keep in mind that it is constantly changing. As a result, the techniques that worked last month might get you penalized this month.

However, one thing that all search engines will rely upon is authority AKA, the number of backlinks that you have. Therefore, contrary to what you might hear, SEO still relies heavily on links.

Search engines will determine just how credible and authoritative a website’s content is simply by calculating the number of inbound links that you have from other websites. (By the way, an inbound link is a link pointing to your site from a 3rd party site.)

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the more backlinks you have the higher rankings you will get.

Search engines also look at how authoritative these other websites are linking to you. Meaning a link coming from the New York Times is a lot more authoritative than one coming from a little website that was created a few days ago.

There are other components, such as what anchor text is being used (this is the text inside the a tag) to link to your website and how old your domain is.

# Technology 

Even if you have perfect site content, URLs, and strong inbound links —your internal structure is important.

Think about it: in order for Google to crawl your site and index it properly, it has to have semantic HTML.

# Meta Tags

Meta tags are nothing more than HTML markup tags that give search engines more information about a web page.

However, this information is not visible to viewers of the site. Instead, it is written to assist search engines in understanding a web page.

Meta tags are placed inside the head element in a web page and contain a name and content attributes. For example, the meta tag for this post that you reading could be: meta name=‖description‖ content=‖SEO for programmers‖.

Meta tags are one of the most important aspects on a web page because they give search engines a short description about the page. In addition to the description meta tag, there is a meta robots tag and the title tag.

# Schema Markup

Schema markup is one of those SEO techniques that you will seldom hear about, but it can be one of the most effective techniques for getting quality traffic.

Schema markup is code you can put in your website’s HTML that will help the search engines understand exactly what the information on your website means. It then helps the search engines to return more useful results to the user.

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Affiliate Marketing

       

To define affiliate marketing is that it’s a technique where other publishers and websites will promote your business. Basically the way it works is that an affiliate is rewarded every time a visitor, customer or sale for your business is generated through an advertisement on their web site. There are many different ways compensation is provided, but the concept remains consistent you pay them for generating business for you. If a viewer is at the affiliate’s web site, and the affiliate doesn’t quite have what they’re looking for, they can easily click over to your web site. It’s an increasingly popular technique for those seeking to maximize they’re staying power on the web.

What should you learn?

# Pick a topic Firstly, pick a topic that you’re interested in that also has a lot of market potential. Think of something that you like, and consider whether there would be many products associated with it, or much of an audience. You can find a topic (or niche,‖ as affiliates call it) with a little research. 

# Find products to promote

Once you’ve got a niche all picked out, find some products that you can promote. There are websites full of these (called affiliate networks) to browse, and you can find advice here on how to choose the best ones for you. Once you’ve got a couple that are right for you, you’ll be able to get an affiliate link for them.

# Build a website

Next up, you need to build a website! I thought this would be extremely confusing and difficult, but it really wasn’t. WordPress and similar sites make it super simple for anyone to build a quality website.

 

# Fill your website with relevant content

Fill your website with content that will be useful to the people who are interested in your niche, and place your affiliate links throughout in the most relevant places. That way when someone interested in your content clicks your link, they go to a sales page for a product that they might also be interested in, and if they buy it you get a commission!

# Promote your website

When you’ve set this up, all that’s left to do is promote your website so you can get more people to your content, and more potential for commissions from referred sales. There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there, from advertising to social media, but you won’t have to worry about this part of it straight away.

The most important thing is just to get started. Let me give you an example of how this process could go. 

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Why Content is King

Why Content is King

Content marketing is not a new concept in the world of digital marketing, but right now, it is more important than ever before. Content is the king and it is increasingly working its way to the forefront of all digital marketing strategies, as it becomes a crucial element that reaps big rewards.

In saying that, a one-size-fits-all approach will not suffice when it comes to content marketing. Instead, a focus on creating unique, high-quality and utterly authentic content that is entertaining, useful and interesting for consumers will get you the crown. From text, video and imagery to infographics, surveys, webinars and podcasts, whatever your preferred content medium is, ensure it is shareable and relevant to your industry.

So, why is content king? 

# It’s Great For SEO

High-quality, unduplicated content on a brand’s onsite blog has a significant impact on SEO and search engine ranking for a couple of reasons. First, unique content published regularly with 300500 words, internal links to other relevant content and naturally placed keywords helps a website rank organically for relevant search terms and keywords. A higher ranking ultimately exposes the brand to more digital consumers searching for content in its industry. Second, consistently publishing great content creates authority and opens up opportunities to build a glowing backlink profile.

# Encourages Engagement 

Good content, whether it is in the form of a blog post or social media update, encourages users to engage with the brand, whether they realise it or not. If the content is genuinely good, users will pause to consume the content, understand the brand message and perhaps even comment, like or share the piece of content. If it’s not, they’ll continue scrolling past and the content will disappear into the black hole that is cyberspace. To further encourage engagement and foster a relationship with consumers through content marketing, ensure all content is pushed out through social media channels and make sharing easy.

# Generates New Leads And Sales 

Good content creates brand awareness and authority in a saturated market, which then has the potential to generate new leads and increase sales as more consumers become exposed to the brand. Good content is generally less sales than advertorial, so it gives consumers an opportunity to authentically engage with the brand without a blatant sales message disturbing the engagement. Drowning consumers in product-oriented content can have a negative effect on their relationship with the brand, whereas good editorial fosters the relationship as they move from consumer to customer to brand advocate.

# Adds Value To Your Product/Service 

Content that adds value in some way is generally received well by consumers because it solves a problem in their everyday lives or teaches them something new. The value is intangible and doesn’t have a direct monetary value, however it is invaluable to the business model and the relationship between the brand and consumers. Content that adds value to consumers by educating them on the product/service via how-to blog posts, instructional videos and webinars is ideal for adding value.

# Increases Traffic  

Not only is good-quality, original content great for SEO purposes, it’s also a brilliant way to drive traffic to a website and keep consumers on the site for longer. For example, a website with just a homepage and contact page will receive much higher bounce rates, limited page views and very little engagement, whereas a website with an onsite blog packed full of engaging content leaves an impression on the user and encourages them to interact with the site and visit multiple pages.

 

Introduce with different types of content

If you are a small or medium sized business who feels overwhelmed with the content aspect of marketing, don’t worry, you and your website are probably already doing what we recommend:

containing texts, images, testimonials or a newsletter.

These are all different types of content marketing, however if you feel that they lack the relevancy for attracting in your customers than it’s worth noting why, and taking a fresh look at your business.

By understanding your business objectives discovering your exact target market,creating person to match these, and publishing content you believe will retain and attract new customers, this is content marketing.

Not all types of content marketing are needed for your business, but some are essential. Here are the top: 

Content type #1: Infographics

An infographic is the presentation of information or data in a visual way. Its name sums it up — info + graphic.

Infographics get shared more, viewed more, and loved more than most other content types. They are a powerful way to get your information out there in an explosively visual format. One study found that infographics were liked and shared on social media up to three times more often than other content. The viral potential is there.

Things to keep in mind

§  Infographics can be expensive. The amount cited above a thousand dollars is pretty close to the standard price.

§  Infographics used to go viral just by virtue of being an infographic. That doesn’t work anymore. Everyone is making infographics. Today, you have to make it really good to make it shareable.

§  Make a gifographic. Gifographics use the infographic model but feature animated gifs instead of the static images of a conventional infographic. 

Content type #2: Videos

There’s a world of variety within videos. You can write a whole separate post on different types of videos. No matter what type it is, however, a good video communicates a message in a succinct and memorable way. Done well, a video can be extraordinarily persuasive.

Things to keep in mind

§  Making a good video is not cheap. You can start small, of course, but contracting a video specialist or a camera crew can cost quite a bit.

 § Videos aren’t supposed to be long. Two to three minutes is a good length. 

Content type #3: Product Reviews / Article

A product review can help establish authority and leadership in your industry. Every industry has its unique array of products, software, and services. When you engage key developers, manufacturers, or service providers, you gain recognition and respect. All you need to do is share your experience with the product and provide your recommendation. 

Things to keep in mind

If the product is a physical item, you may want to have a video component to the review. A video allows you to take a hands-on approach to the product as you review it.

Content type #4: Podcast/Audio

Podcasts had their phase of popularity, and they’re still a great form of content. Plus, they’re not hard to create. Many people listen to podcasts during their commute or exercise. You have a chance to spread your message farther and better using this format than a lot of other formats.

Things to keep in mind

As with any media publication, be sure to accompany the podcast with content. For example, announce it on your blog with a bit of a discussion. Share information about new podcast releases and provide an overview of the topic. You may even wish to publish the transcript of the podcast. This helps to add SEO value.

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Paid Social Media Marketing

Paid Social Media Marketing 

Paid social advertising is a highly cost-effective way to expand your reach. If you play your cards right, you can get your content and offers in front of a huge audience at a very low cost. Most social media platforms offer incredibly granular targeting capabilities, allowing you to focus your budget on exactly the types of people that are most likely to be interested in your business. Below are some tips and resources for getting started with paid social media marketing? 

# Facebook Ads

If you’re like a vast number of marketers out there, you could be under the impression that advertising on Facebook (or any other type of social media) is limited to branding and customer engagement.

You have access to hundreds of millions of users, their locations, interests, behaviors, countless other targeting capabilities, not to mention the ability to reach them at any given hour of the day, for a whole lot less than any other available advertising medium of equal scale.

If you know how to use it properly, Facebook can be one of the most powerful advertising platforms for driving your business forward. 

# Twitter Ads

Many businesses aren’t quite sure how to tackle marketing on Twitter from a paid perspective. It’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, and if you don’t quite know what you’re doing, you could wind up waste. 

It may seem like common sense, but when you’re outlining the strategy for your Twitter ads, you should always have your goals in mind. It’s tempting to think that your Twitter presence has to be comparable to that of a needy teenager, desperately asking strangers to Re-tweet this!‖ or Follow us!‖ or Please for the love of god give me attention so that this seems like a worthwhile investment!‖ You’re probably just wondering,

Why Advertising on Facebook is better than Advertise on Twitter?

#1: Your Audience Is On Facebook

Facebook has a user base larger than the population of China! With 1.49 billion members worldwide, and 22 billion ad clicks per year, Facebook is providing businesses with the largest advertising opportunity since search. So yes, your audience is on there somewhere – it’s just a matter of finding them (which I’ll get into in reason #3), but if you have doubts just re-read those stats because they are quite telling, my friend.

#2: Facebook Ads Are Cheap

Seriously, they’re practically free! Well, not quite. In fact, the reason you need to advertise is because getting traction from organic activity on your business page won’t yield results. 

On the bright side, Facebook ads tend to cost a fraction of what other online marketing channels cost. 

If you’re strapped for cash, just ensure that you set reasonable daily Facebook budgets so you don’t exceed what you’re able to spend.

#3: The Targeting Capabilities of Facebook Are Exceptional

Along with tons of different ad types, like video ads, the level of granularity you can get with

Facebook targeting capabilities. You can literally target President Obama or the Prime Minister of France. Whether it be by behaviors, interests, demographics, connections, age ranges, languages, or locations, you can dig pretty deep with these targeting capabilities and layer them upon each other to ensure you’re getting rid of any questionable, out-of-market clickers.

#4: Facebook Is Effective to Push On-the-Fence Leads Down the Funnel 

Still nervous? Try out re-marketing on Facebook through custom audiences. This strategy works wonders for marketers because re-marketing works by targeting an audience that has already visited your site, and therefore is more likely to be interested in your products or offerings at some level.

#5: Facebook Allows You to Find New Qualified Leads Easily

Once you’ve found an audience that converts like crazy, you can clone them. The feature is called ―lookalike audiences‖ where you can take a custom audience and Facebook will reach NEW people who are similar to that audience and therefore likely to be interested in your business.

Lookalike audiences can also be built with conversion pixels (for instance, the conversion pixels from your paid search ads!), install data from mobile apps, or simply from fans of your Facebook page. You can also further define the size and targeting options to ensure your lookalike audience is an accurate reflection of your target buyers.

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How Smart Marketers Turn Data into Successful Campaigns

Connect the Dots

The next generation of marketing requires a deeper level of understanding of the consumer, something legacy tactics can’t reliably deliver on their own. That’s why you need cookies that connect data between sessions and device, revealing individual trends, behavior, and areas of opportunity. But you have to remember to connect the IDs of cookies across multiple devices that belong to a single person.  From there, you can see what the data is actually telling you about each customer as an individual and how he or she browses and shops. With those insights in hand, you can create more targeted campaigns that reach consumers across platforms – treating them like people and not simply as a series of data points collected by a cookie, which helps the marketer provide a consistent experience across all connected devices.

Geotargeting

But data-driven marketing is more than just tracking and optimizing behavior. It also involves meeting, current weather conditions, and more. For example, a smart marketer knows not to promote a Patagonia fleece to a potential customer in Florida. A smart marketer knows that potential customers in the northeast during the month of December would benefit the most from that Patagonia fleece. The same thinking can be applied to brands appealing to a global customer base. Because overseas shoppers will see a dot-com URL rather than their national extension, they may wonder: Does this company ship to my country? If so, can I expect drastic shipping fees?

Enter geotargeting. When the page loads for UK shoppers, for example, geotargeting technology recognizes their location and displays a box with clearly defined benefits just for that traffic segment, including flat-rate shipping and the ability to shop in their native currency. With 70 percent of consumers  to share their location information for the sake of receiving some sort of loyalty or benefit, location-specific content can provide customized relevancy that increases the chances of a conversion and a more reliable and engaging shopping experience.

Keep Current Customers

Marketers also can use data they have on hand to retain existing customers. This can be done by incentivizing customers with tailored offers that factor in customers’ past purchases and cross-promote products they may also enjoy. You can even give those returning customers preferential treatment, such as VIP-only shipping promotions and other perks. There’s always going to be the most important customer who deserves a meaningful experience. Pay attention to this customer. Ignore the masses for a second. Use the data you already have on this customer (demographics, income, marital status, day of the week he tends to buy, etc.) to develop a clear picture of the actual person behind this data. And then deliver an experience best suited to that individual.

Sophisticated targeting will work only if it’s synchronized across channels. Marketers should be able to determine the differences in how consumers browse and buy on social, mobile, and desktop, and respond to that behavior accordingly.

Data-driven marketing is the smart way for brands to connect with their customers and deliver relevant experiences that drive engagement and bottom-line business results. Today, customers are in the driver’s seat. They are constantly inundated with pleas for their attention from other marketers, media organizations, and more. Only the retailers who deliver a compelling customer experience will thrive in this competitive environment.

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