Simply put digital marketing is marketing that takes place digitally. Seems pretty obvious, but what exactly is it? Here’s everything you need to know.
For many years marketers and business usually took to TV, print ads and radio to sell a product or service. Then the internet happened in the 1990s, causing a flood of websites to launch. Since then, new channels have emerged from likes of Google, Facebook and Instagram to name a few.
Why is digital marketing important?
These days anyone can you that people area spending a lot more time online – shopping, newsfeeds, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc. What this means is that there is an opportunity for your marketing campaigns to be present on these platforms.
One of the biggest advantages of digital marketing is that you can tailor your campaigns to your target audience. With this, businesses have flexibility and control over their budget on paid promotions. Smaller businesses may only want to focus on their town which would have a smaller budget requirement, whereas larger organisations have the funding to be able to promote their content to a larger audience.
Getting started with digital marketing
If you’re a start-up you will first need to create some sort of online presence and to do that you will need to start with the basics which I’ve outlines below:
Building a website that is targeted towards the user. It has to be optimised for the end-user, different devices and for search engines.
Creating a social media profiles. This could be as simple as having a company image on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Instagram. Keep in mind that the company image must be simple and legible across all devices – especially for smaller devices such as mobile phones. Depending on your target audience, you may not need all platforms for your business.
Marketing basics
Why would you want to utilise digital marketing?
Digital marketing can help you attract a larger audience towards your business. It can also connect and build relationships with those prospects which in turn help you sell more of your products and/or services.
The first mistake majority of people make is that they dive straight into digital marketing without having a clear objective or what outcome they want to achieve. Excitement clouds judgement and first impressions count.
Don’t make the set off on the wrong foot. Make sure to plan out your objectives and goals before taking the leap into Facebook or Instagram.
Who are you targeting?
To sell to your audience you need to know who they are first! This calls for some market research – important for any business. Font out what they want, what problems they are facing and what they need.
Finding the answers to these questions will lay the foundations on what content to create, which platform to choose so that you are in front of the right people with information that is relevant to them.
Content is key
Digital marketing isn’t about large ad campaign that shout ‘buy me!’. Instead, it’s about content. Creating and sharing content that attracts an audience to your brand adds value and builds trust.
Your content should fit into your business’s tone of voice and what your client wants to know. This means you’ll be getting your message across, and your client will be interested in what you have to say.
Where is your content going?
Now that you have your content, you now need to decide which platform to publish it on. You may think to post it on all platforms but you’d be wrong.
It’s not effective to post the same piece of content on every channel in the exact same format. You need to choose the right channel based on your objective, the type of content you have and where your target audience is hanging out. Each platform has different age groups so you need to address/tailor your content to each of these groups differently.
Get creating!
All marketing is digitally focussed now. It gives your campaigns the opportunity to be more targeted, personalised and interactive.
It’s time to start creating and sharing your content!
