Fundamentals of Digital Marketing – What You Need to Know

You’re playing your favourite music, lost in your imagination, about to conquer your dream world and ughh! Not another Spotify ad, please. You open YouTube to watch videos, and what’s the first thing you confront these days? Those unskippable 10-second ads again. Even though all of us hate the existence of ads and have never paid attention to a single one of them, these ads have unconsciously done their job. The companies advertising through them have successfully established their presence online. And when you analyze Digital Marketing, the primary principle at the core breaks down to – establishing your companies’ presence in the online world.

 There’s a lot more, which goes into Digital Marketing once the company has set up its presence online. The company needs to give out valuable content, gain traffic, engage with its targeted audience and build a community online! This involves a plentiful amount of time and energy. So here are a few beneficial points on the fundamentals of Digital Marketing and how you can make your business thrive online.    

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WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING? 

As simple as the name suggests, when marketing is done by means of digital devices or the internet on social media platforms, websites, and e-mails, we term it as Digital Marketing. It is much easier to get hold of potential customers online, looking at the substantial number of people who are online every day. And believe me or not, the number of people online is still increasing! According to stats, we had 4.54 billion internet users in 2020. These figures denote that your customers are already present where they are supposed to be; the job’s on you to catch hold of them. So now think of the significant amount of leads your company could get if you got the fundamentals of Digital Marketing right! 

ABCD OF DIGITAL MARKETING

The concept of Digital Marketing has been revolutionized in current times. It is largely based on how people consume content on different social media platforms. Hear it say from the marketing experts; advertising isn’t about directly persuading your customers to buy instead its about giving them reasons how your product adds value to their life. Here’s a list of basic fundamentals of Digital Marketing to follow for gaining a better reach in today’s accelerating competition among the  astronomical number of brands and businesses:   

• PLAN 

Before Noah built the ark, I’m sure he planned it. Planning is an obligatory ritual before starting anything. Make a blueprint of your marketing strategies before you start out. Be sure of which modes of advertising you want to adapt. Run thorough research about which social media platform will help better for your business. Let’s say you sell designer outfits and custom-made accessories, then Instagram or Facebook is your messiah. If you are a firm that hires freelancers, there are platforms like LinkedIn which are popular among the youth today.  

Also, be clear about how much you want to invest in marketing and advertising. There are different options available in digital marketing strategies to head start with, like Pay Per Click advertising, Paid Search Advertising, Paid Social Media Advertising, Affiliate Marketing etc. But if you want to opt for the good old organic ways of growing, then no worries. These methods take a little time in the beginning but stand rock-solid till the end. Use strategies like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and grow your audience online. 

One last step before you set out to advertise your business, putting it in the words of the greatest leader Simon Sinek; make sure you know your WHY – that will help you set you apart from your competitors.  

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• CONTENT 

When you make your customers believe that your product/ service adds value to their life, aren’t they easily drawn into buying it? It works the same with content. Put out valuable content every day and keep the engagement rates high with your audience. The content need not always be regarding your business; from making memes to hopping into new trends on social media platforms, you can try out different possibilities of building a community online. This is why Content Marketing is a reasonably broad Digital Marketing term and is the most popular among multi-dollar companies and home businesses alike. Content can be published in various forms like:

• Video format on various social media platforms (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.) 
• Image format on various social media platforms
• Blog posts
• E-mail newsletters 
• Websites

The content your customers see has to decipher the originality of the ideas behind your business and the principles your company stands for. Give something to your viewers to take from your content, and they will come back to you as customers. Original and easy-to-read content with a pinch of humour can always win hearts. Once you are ready with content to provide to your audience, we move on to advertising it efficiently. 

• ADVERTISE 

Despite properly spreading out plans and original content, your business website/ social media account will be lost in this vast abyss of the internet if you don’t have the right strategies to advertise efficiently. If you are using websites or blogs for advertising your business, make sure your SEO skills are up-to-the-mark. In case you are using a social media platform, the right kind of hashtags are very important for your every post. Every social media platform has a designed algorithm of its own that helps you gain a better reach among other countless accounts. The time you post every day, how constantly you post, and your posts’ engagement rate are crucial to growing big in this game.  

Keep your content clean and aesthetic. Have an eye-catching logo and a unique brand name. Make use of attractive click-baits (“you won’t believe what happened next!”) to draw traffic. Affiliate Marketing is the most prevalent strategy to advertise presently. In this method, your products or brand is advertised by someone else who already has a huge following on his/her account. So all this sounds good till now? Well, we got one more last but an essential step to be followed. 

• CONNECT 

Let’s say you follow all the steps mentioned above and successfully market your product online, but your duty doesn’t just end there. The last element in the fundamentals of Digital Marketing is to be able to connect with your audience. To turn your content viewers into potential clients, make use of strategies like Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). There are various methods through which interaction can be made possible. If you are running a business account on a social media platform, make use of stories, comment sections, personal DM’s to connect with your customers. Add a tint of personalization when you are sending out emails to your business leads/clients. 

Once you have sold your products, you want those customers to come back again and buy from you or recommend your brand to someone else. Thus maintaining good relations with your customers plays a vital role. Every now and then, ask for feedback and keep trying out different things in your business. Be creative in the ways you approach them, and of course, polite and sweet words are never out of fashion. Your brand will be remembered for that and will make your customers come back to you again. 

TYPES OF DIGITAL MARKETING 

There are varieties of marketing strategies available in Digital Marketing. Here’s a list of commonly used ones by businesses today:

• Pay Per Click Advertising – This is a broad term covering any type of digital marketing in which every time someone clicks on an ad, you pay for that user. This strategy of marketing can be used in websites, blogs etc. 
• Paid Search Advertising – This is one of the most efficient ways prevalent to target your customers online who are already searching for a product or a service similar to yours. Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo let you run your ads on their Search Engine Result Page. 
•  Paid Social Media Advertising – Most social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat allow you to run ads on their site. You can pay to sponsor your posts and create awareness about your business. 
• E-Mail Marketing – This is the oldest method used in marketing yet still holds the same potential even today. In case you want to highlight any special deals, offers or events happening in your business/ company, all your old customers and new prospects are just an e-mail away!
• Affiliate Marketing – This is primarily paying someone else to advertise your product/ service on their website or channel.  

PRO’S OF DIGITAL MARKETING 

Digital marketing certainly has the edge over traditional methods of marketing, considering the numerous advantages it provides. Let’s have a closer look into the pro’s to better understand the fundamentals of Digital Marketing.

• In marketing your product digitally, you can choose to specifically target your audience. In the case of Television ads and billboards, you have no say over who views them. Whereas websites and social media platforms do the research for you and provide a detailed survey regarding which section of online users, your post performed best like gender, age group, location etc. 
• Digital Marketing comes off cheaper than the traditional methods of marketing. In fact, you can also choose to grow organically without even spending a penny from your pocket in this method. It might take a little time but will produce colossal results over the course of time. 
• You can outperform the multi-billion dollar companies online if you have got the right skills. Big companies have billions of investments to spend on television and billboard ads which small businesses lack. Hence digital marketing acts as a saviour for those blooming companies and startups. Once you get hold of how to reach out to a large number of online users and attract potential customers, there’s no stopping for your company. 

BUILDING A BRAND 

The best part about digital marketing is you can convert any small scale business into a brand name. Get your company a URL and a mail ID, and half the work is done. Design a captivating logo to make it look professional and maintain accounts on different social media platforms so that you are reachable to people. Social media platforms are always the best way to let people know about your presence online. Be interactive with your audience and let your brand name be familiarized among the masses. 

Be aware of what’s trending and what’s not to always stay in the competition. Adapt to the changing trends and make your content stand apart from others with creative and unique ideas. When you are in the initial stages and just starting out with your business, you can ask the already established ones to give you a shout out. 

Let your content depict what your products or services stand for. This will bring out originality for your brand and impact people’s minds about your company! 

CONCLUSION 

Today we find almost every company making use of these fundamentals of Digital Marketing. From big companies to small, all alike, digital marketing is the elixir for a company to thrive online. Sometimes we even find the multi-billion dollar companies like Coca-Cola, Google, Netflix, Amazon etc., making meme-worthy tweets and hopping onto different trends just to dominate their presence online. 

Digital Marketing has become so crucial that numerous companies provide assistance services to other companies to advertise their products efficiently. We also find many courses available on the net to upskill ourselves with digital marketing. This is no rocket science, but all it requires is a little research and the right skills to find your potential prospects online and have a good time selling your products. 

If you are a small scale business and have been hesitant in advertising your products/ services online until now, then this is your sign to start right away from today! Follow these simple above mentioned steps about the fundamentals of Digital Marketing and see yourself land a prosperous company with happy and satisfied customers! 

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