My Takeaways of Digital Marketing
A Beginner's Guide to Digital Marketing
A seasoned full-stack software developer with hands-on experience, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to tackle complex software challenges. I believe in perpetual growth, achieving maximum output with minimal exertion, automation wherever possible, keeping code clean, cultivating team trust, guiding with empathy and sensitivity, and completing tasks efficaciously.
Last week, I spent time learning about digital marketing. Here are my key takeaways:
What is branding?
Branding is creating a unique identity for your business.
Marketing vs Sales
Marketing creates interest, sales close the deal.
What is sales?
Sales is the process of convincing people to buy your product or service.
What is communication?
Communication is sharing information clearly between people.
Psychological marketing
Using how people think and feel to market products.
Emotional marketing
Making people feel strong emotions to influence their buying decisions.
B2B Marketing vs B2C Marketing
B2B is selling to businesses; B2C is selling to individual customers.
What is digital marketing?
Marketing products or services using the internet and digital tools.
Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
Digital marketing is online; traditional marketing is offline like TV, newspapers.
Types of Digital Marketing: Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing
Inbound attracts customers naturally; outbound reaches out to customers directly.
Digital Marketing Channels:
Ad Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Content Marketing, SEO
Influencer Marketing
Affiliate Marketing
Email Marketing
Stages of Digital Marketing:
Awareness,
Consideration
Decision
Marketing Automation.
Using tools to handle marketing tasks automatically.
T-shaped Marketer
A marketer who knows a little about everything but is an expert in one area.
What's the marketing goal?
Clear target you want to achieve with your marketing.
Select your targeted customers
Find the specific people you want to sell to.
Understand the Problem you are solving
Know the real need of your customers.
Know your competitors
Study other businesses offering similar products.
Create an Offer
Design a deal or solution your customers will want.
Build a Funnel
Create a step-by-step process that turns visitors into buyers.
Fix a Budget
Decide how much money you can spend on marketing.
Build a Marketable Business
Create a business that is easy to promote and sell.
Launch your Marketing Campaign
Start promoting your product or service to the world.
What is copywriting?
Writing words that persuade people to take action.
The #1 skill a marketer should master: The way you shape your words can change how people behave.
Good writing influences customer decisions.
Without a physical shop, copy is the main way to get your customers attention.
Words become your main sales tool online.
What is a marketing and sales funnel?
A system that guides people from learning about you to buying from you.
Funnel explains how you take people from unaware stage to making purchase.
Step-by-step process to turn strangers into customers.
Strategies to attract visitors, convert them to leads and nurture them to become customers.
Plan to turn visitors into buyers through different steps.
A basic Marketing Funnel:
Awareness — Customer learns about you.
Interest — Customer wants to know more.
Desire — Customer wants your product.
Action — Customer makes a purchase.
A Digital Marketing Funnel:
Ads — Attract attention online.
Opt-In Page — Collect customer emails.
Landing Page — Show your offer clearly.
Follow Up Emails — Stay in touch and build interest.
Special Offer Page — Give deals to encourage buying.
Thank You Page — Appreciate customers after purchase.
The most common way of getting traffic.
Running ads is the fastest way to get visitors.
Before anything, people need to know you exist.
First goal: Make people aware of you.
So the first goal of an ad is getting attention.
Catch people’s eyes with ads.
Businesses run multiple variations of ads with different hooks.
Different ads are tested to see what works best.
Clicking on an ad takes customers to the next stage of the funnel.
Ad clicks move visitors deeper into the buying process.
Email addresses of the customers are collected in this stage.
Collect emails to stay connected.
Pages where visitors land after clicking an ad or by opting in. A place where we present our solution.
Landing pages show offers and solutions.
This is done by providing a highly valuable resource.
Give something valuable to build trust.
Valuable resources can be: Webinar, E-books, Free courses, Workshops
Useful free materials attract leads.
Once you get customers' interest and email, they move to the next stage of the funnel.
Next step: turn their interest into desire.
In this stage you turn their interest into desire.
Build a strong want for your product.
Majority don't buy instantly so follow up emails will recall customers to make the purchase.
Remind and encourage customers through emails.
The goal in this stage is to make sure the leads stay.
Keep the connection alive.
After these start making special offers.
Offer deals to push buying decisions.
Sent with the goal of getting your prospects to take action.
Motivate customers to buy.
Special offers will be made to customers that will make it hard for them to not purchase.
Make offers too good to refuse.
Customers that made a purchase will be thanked.
Always thank your customers.
Content Marketing
What is content?
Anything you create to inform, entertain, or educate your audience.
Why Content Marketing is important?
Heart of DM — Core of digital marketing.
Generates more leads — Attracts more customers.
Attracts customers — Brings more people to you.
More website visitors — Boosts your website traffic.
Build loyal Audience — Creates a fanbase.
More traction on Social Media — Increases engagement.
Attain trust of customers — Builds long-term trust.
Content Marketing Strategy
Find Your Target Market — Know who you want to reach.
Define Your Goal — Know what you want to achieve.
Decide Content Types — Choose blogs, videos, etc.
Create Content — Make valuable materials.
Create Content Calendar — Plan when to post.
Distribute Plan — Share your content everywhere.
Gather Your Data — Track your results.
Types of Content Marketing
Videos
Social Media Posts
Blogs
Live Videos
Guide and How-to
Meme
Testimonials
Interviews
Tutorials
Infographics
Influencer Marketing
Podcasts
Case Studies
E-books
Guest Posts
Checklists
Buyer Journey
The steps a customer goes through before buying.
Buyer Persona
A detailed profile of your ideal customer.
Content for different stages
Awareness — Inform and educate.
Consideration — Show your solution.
Decision — Help customers choose you.
Types of Media
Owned Media — Things you control (like your website).
Earned Media — Free publicity (like shares, mentions).
Paid Media — Ads you pay for.
Can be Repurposed — Content can be reused in different ways.
System
A repeatable, organized, and flexible way to manage marketing.
Repeatable > Organized > Agile
Easy to repeat, systemized, and quick to adapt.
Organize in a scalable manner
Set up your work so it grows easily.
Social Media Marketing
Using social platforms to promote your business.
A platform where people interact with each other by sharing content in virtual communities and networks.
Social media connects people online.
Why do businesses need Social Media Presence?
Connect with your customers.
Boosts Brand Awareness.
Increases Inbound Traffic.
Know your audience better.
Boost your leads and sales.
How to start?
Pick one platform where your customers are active.
Use social media platforms as a marketing tool
Share valuable content and engage with your audience.
Facebook Marketing
Using Facebook to build relationships and promote your brand.
Facebook Makes Money vs You Make Money
Facebook profits from ads; you profit from smart use of Facebook.
Building relationship with customers
Interact and build trust.
Facebook for business branding
Create a professional image through your Facebook page.
Create a Facebook Business page
Set up a page dedicated to your business.
Facebook Page Optimization
Complete your page details
Use keywords effectively
Select an appropriate template
Select the right Page CTA
Enable your posts
Pin your posts
Messenger Auto-Reply
Why is Facebook Group important?
Two-way communication
Nurture your audience and convert
Build your own community
How to increase Facebook group members?
Invite friends
Share on social media
Add links on your website and emails
Promote on 'thank you' pages
Mention your group in posts
Collaborate with bigger groups
Ways to maintain your Facebook group
Share valuable content
Post regularly
Create original content
Engage in member posts
Encourage members to post
Go live sometimes
Interact with your members
Ad Marketing
Promoting brands fast through digital ads.
Benefits of Ad Marketing
Faster reach
Quick feedback
Easy testing
Disadvantages of Ad Marketing
Controlled by big companies
Risk of being blocked
Can become costly
Hard to stay cheap
Types of ads
Search Ads
Email Ads
Display Ads
Social Media Ads
When should you post ads?
When you want fast traffic and quick results.
Video Marketing
Promoting with videos to capture attention.
Video Marketing Strategy
Choose your Target Audience
Set production plan and budget
Choose best distribute platform
Develop messaging and video types
Track important metrics
SEO
Making your site better for Google search.
SEO is not free
It needs time, effort, and investment.
SEO expert cost
Hiring specialists costs money.
Writing cost
Good content writing costs money.
Link building cost
Getting backlinks needs effort and investment.
Build website
Create a website that's optimized for SEO.
Keyword choice should be based on: relevance, volume, competitiveness
Pick keywords people search and you can rank for.
Relevant keywords
Words related to your products or services.
Choose keywords carefully based on buyer's intent.
Pick keywords based on what customers want to buy.
Search volume
How often a keyword is searched.
Competitiveness
How hard it is to rank for that keyword.
On Page SEO
Improve your website pages for better Google ranking.
Helps Google understand your website.
Clear structure helps Google trust you.
Add keywords to website's: title, description, content, image tags
Place keywords in important parts of your site.
Without Google's trust you cannot rank.
Build trust through good SEO practices.
Domain authority
A measure of your website’s strength.
High Domain Authority = More chances to rank
Stronger websites rank better.
Send signals to Google that your website is useful.
Prove your site is valuable.
Provide great user experience.
Make your website easy and enjoyable to use.
How to know if your website is useful:
High Click through rates
Long Time on site
Low Bounce Rate
High-quality content
SEO tools
ConvertKit
HubSpot
Drip
Affiliate Marketing
What is affiliate marketing?
Promoting others' products for a commission.
How affiliate marketing works
Businesses recruit affiliates
Affiliates promote products
Customers click and buy
Sales are tracked
Affiliates get paid
Why Affiliate Marketing?
Easy to start
Easy to grow
Passive income
Cons of Affiliate Marketing
Needs patience
Depends on performance
Less control over offers
Higher risks
Top ways Affiliate Marketing
Influencer Marketing
Blogging
Creating videos
Social Media sites
How to build an audience to promote affiliate links?
Create blogs
Send newsletters
Start YouTube channel
Tips to be successful affiliate marketer:
Build trust with audience
Promote products you believe in
Build strong funnels
Use multiple traffic sources
Pick products carefully
Stay updated on trends
Keep selling to existing customers
Mistakes to avoid in affiliate marketing:
Low-quality content
Hard selling
Promoting bad products
Misleading customers
Influencer Marketing
Marketing with those who can influence.
Work with influencers who have loyal fans.
Influencer marketing is influencers promoting your products or services to their loyal audience.
They recommend your brand to their audience.
It is one of the most powerful ways of Marketing.
Trust makes it strong.
49% consumers depend on influencer recommendations.
Half of people trust influencers.
How is influencer marketing so powerful?
Influencers feel like trusted friends.
People trust friends more than ads.
Influencer levels:
Over 1M followers — Celebrity
500k–1M — Mega influencers
100k–500k — Macro influencers
10k–100k — Micro influencers
1k–10k — Nano influencers
Some Tips on influencer Marketing:
Choose influencers relevant to your audience
Prefer micro-influencers
Negotiate payments
Avoid agencies as a beginner
Why you need a website?
It helps you attract customers through Google.
after diving deeper into the subject, I realized that marketing is truly an ocean. I do not know vast about digital marketing but I know some keywords of digital marketing which will help to understand digital marketing.
