Digital Marketing Basics: Everything You Need to Know About Digital Marketing and Its Strategies
E-marketing, digital marketing or internet advertising...whatever name you give to the process of marketing your products or business via the internet, it is an important issue that has been and continues to be discussed. of great importance lately.
It's no surprise when you consider that internet usage has doubled over the past decade, creating a paradigm shift that has affected the way people buy products and the way they do business with businesses.
What exactly is meant by the concept of e-marketing?
What are the basics of digital marketing?
On the contrary, what is its importance and its methods?
These and other questions will all be answered in today's article.
What is Online Marketing?
E-marketing, like any other marketing method, is a means of communicating and influencing potential customers to make them buy a specific product or service. The only difference between electronic marketing and other types of marketing is that this communication and influence process takes place via the Internet. E-marketing therefore has its own distinctive tools and strategies.
Digital Marketing Tools
Anything can be a digital marketing tool, anything you use for online marketing is a digital marketing tool. In fact, many people don't know how many tools are available to them to start the marketing process.
Here are some simple examples:
- Your website.
- Trademarks registered for you (your brand logos, icons and abbreviated names).
- digital video content.
- Images (infographics, product images, corporate images, etc.)
- Written content (blogs, e-books, product descriptions, user testimonials...etc).
- Online products and tools (interactive content)
- Your business pages on social media platforms.
Most email marketing tools fall into one of these categories, but smart marketers are constantly looking for new ways to reach their audience, and so we see that marketing tools are constantly evolving.
Email Marketing Strategies
To be an internet marketer, you need to have the right tools and follow the right strategies. Here is a group of the most popular and popular email marketing strategies:
1- Pay per click
Pay Per Click or PPC for short is a broad marketing strategy that covers any type of marketing that involves paying for each user who clicks on a specific ad. Examples include Google AdWords and Facebook advertisements.
2- Paid Search Advertising
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing allow you to serve text ads in their search results pages (SERPs) for a fee.
Paid search engine marketing is one of the best ways to target potential customers who are looking for products and services similar to what your business offers.
3- Paid ads on social media platforms Paid advertising on social media
Most social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest allow you to add advertisements on their sites in return for paying a certain amount. It's a great way to educate an audience that may not know anything about your company or product.
4- SEO Search Engine Optimization
If you don't want to pay for your appearance on the search results page, then you can use search engine optimization, or SEO for short, strategies and techniques to make your site or blog pages appear high ranked on the search results page, but organically and for free.
You don't need to pay for every click on your site, but you will need to optimize, enhance and modify your site content, which may take longer than paid marketing, but produces the same results, and sometimes even better.
5- Free Marketing on Social Media Platforms
Similar to SEO, social media marketing is also a free, organic way to use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to market your business.
It is true that this method may take longer than paid advertising methods, but it will produce satisfactory results in the long term, and at a lower cost.
6- Improve the conversion rate
It is known as CRO. CRO stands for the science or art behind improving user experience on a website. Companies and businesses often use CRO strategies to get more conversions from web traffic to their sites.
In other words, it seeks, through specific plans, to make Internet users who visit the site react, such as buying the product or service, registering on the site, or communicating with the company, etc. .
7- Content Marketing
Content marketing is a broad term in itself that includes many marketing strategies. This includes all efforts that use content from blogs, eBooks, and videos to build brand awareness and gain more leads and customers.
8- The original announcement
Have you ever read an article to the end and finally found a bunch of suggested articles related to the topic of the article you are reading? This is exactly what is called local advertising. In most of its forms, it falls under content marketing because it uses content in order to get more clicks or increase web traffic for a particular site.
It can often be difficult to spot native advertising on a particular web page, as it is often mixed with original content and unpaid recommendations.
9- Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing and it still delivers effective results to this day. Email marketing experts often use email to promote special offers, important content, or to announce an event.
10- Marketing of commissions
Affiliate marketing simply means that you pay another party (person or business) to promote your products and services on their website.
As you can see, there are many digital marketing strategies and methods that a company or business can use. This prompts many business owners to hire the services of specialist advertising companies to take over the entire digital marketing process, or by creating a specialist marketing department within the company itself.
Is e-marketing really effective?
Digital marketing is a great option for many businesses and businesses. Its awesomeness lies in its inclusion for different types of businesses… whatever product or service you have, you can market and promote it electronically to reach anyone, anywhere in the world.
However, it should be noted that certain types of businesses benefit more from specific marketing strategies. Let's find out the best strategies for each type:
1- Company targeting B2C mainstream companies
B2C companies are often not looking to sell expensive products or services (i.e. hundreds of thousands of dollars) and therefore do not need giant marketing teams or complex marketing channels.
All these companies need to do is put the product or service in front of the target audience along with an appropriate advertising message, and the consumer will take care of the rest.
Therefore, the best marketing strategies for this type of business include:
- Marketing through social media platforms
- Paid ads on social networks.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Paid Search Engine Advertising (but the first two are always better).
2- Company targeting other B2B companies
Unlike consumer businesses, business-to-business exchanges involve more complex transactions, often selling products for large sums of money. This requires establishing a relationship of trust between the seller and the customer. Therefore, marketing through social media platforms will not be of much help in this case.
Instead, SEO and paid ads on search engines will perform better. It is true that the latter is more expensive, but when compared to the prices of products and services, it is certainly not that expensive.
How to start e-marketing?
As companies and businesses increasingly rely on the internet to increase their sales and market their products, the need for digital marketing experts has become more important. Today, no one can deny the importance of e-marketing to increase sales and achieve greater success and expansion for any business, regardless of size.
Whether you're a business or business owner who wants to market your products and services online, or you're looking to change careers and wondering how to learn e-marketing, you've come to the right place that puts you at the beginning of the route in this area.
You don't need to have a specialist certificate in digital marketing to start working in this field, but there are a number of free online courses you can enroll in before deciding whether or not to continue.
Here are some of the digital marketing basics you need to know as you start your journey:
1- Create an Internet presence
Today, to get a job in any field, it is important to be present in the digital world of the Internet. This is becoming more and more important in the field of e-marketing. Your future employer will first search for you on the Internet to find out more about you, and if he does not find anything about you, it is likely that it will not be in your favor.
Build yourself the virtual image you want, create your own blog in the field of marketing and strengthen your accounts on social media platforms by linking them to the sites you helped build (in terms of content).
Also, do not forget to add a link to your portfolio (portfolio) in order to show employers your abilities and skills.
2- Have knowledge of the latest trends in the world of marketing
E-marketing is an ever-changing profession, so if you want to choose it as your career path, you should always be aware of the latest trends or trends in this field. Indeed, the needs of this sector change over time, so as soon as you fail a little and are slow to follow the evolution, your position will be seized!
Then, be sure to attend virtual seminars and conferences held in the field, and join classes and workshops to ensure you're always up to date with everything new.
3- Use your creative skills
Digital marketing allows you to use your creative talents in different ways. Yes, there are tools, programs, systems, and even rules you need to follow, but you can always add your own innovative touch.
Always remember that e-marketing is based on creativity, so if you have an idea that could be successful, do not hesitate to try it, even if it seems strange or objectionable to you, the more creative you are, the more you will have a chance of succeeding. and excellence.
4- Make your resume stand out
Before you start applying for e-marketing jobs, be sure to rebuild your resume in a dynamic style that shows off the valuable skills you possess.
Don't limit yourself to just one resume, customize it to fit multiple digital marketing jobs. There is no harm in browsing the internet and checking out the CV templates available for experts in this field and then benefiting from it to create your distinguished CV.
5- Build your network
It's important to make a name for yourself in the world of email marketing, and the best way to do that is to network and build relationships. This will not only help make you a memory, but also arm you with a network of connections that you can benefit from throughout your career.
One person may know exactly where you can get proper training, another may lead you to a great job, a third may benefit from their experience, and a fourth may be an important member of your work team when you start your business.
6- Acquire knowledge in the field of analytics
In order to know the success of your marketing campaigns, you need to be able to analyze the data and numbers you get from them, as they show whether your marketing strategies are working or not, and they help you identify gaps and weaknesses. weaknesses and then to correct them. them.
You don't have to go to college and get a certificate specializing in analytics and data science, but you can enroll in some free online courses to gain more experience in this field, because it's is one of the basics of digital marketing.
7- Acquire sufficient experience in the field of marketing
The only way to advance in the field of digital marketing is to increase your expertise in the field.
At first, you may have to volunteer or work on projects for free, but it will pay off in the long run. So be sure to leverage your current skills whenever you get the chance… help out your friends, volunteer in local community organizations and show off your skills that you can build on in the future and refer when applying for long-term marketing jobs.
8- Obtain an approved certificate
Anyone can learn e-marketing and its strategies without having a university degree, which is not necessary at first, but if you are looking for a good position with a high income, then you must obtain an accredited certificate from a official institute or university. .
In this way, you will distinguish yourself from your very experienced competitors, who do not have an accredited certificate.
9- Prepare to start from scratch
Few people start their careers at the top of the career hierarchy, and those who do often don't have enough experience and skills. So be prepared to start from scratch and get entry-level jobs.
You may not find the job you want right away, but you will definitely get it if you work hard for it. You can start as a marketing assistant or junior until you can prove that you can take on additional responsibilities and work harder to succeed in your dream job.
Digital marketing has caused a major revolution in the world of marketing and has been proven to have more effective results than traditional marketing methods, so it's no wonder that many are looking to learn more, develop it and use it to promote their products and services.
In today's article, you have learned about the most important basics of e-marketing and how to go about it, but if you feel more curious about it, do not hesitate to read the complete description. and details of the e-marketing specialization available on the Forsa specializations guide.
