Digital Marketing Tips for Beginners

⌚ 4 min read

Digital marketing. To some a natural way of doing business; to others a big dark ocean they’re afraid to dip their toes in.

Whatever your feelings and experiences are, one thing is certain - digital marketing is a required and absolutely necessary tenant of modern business. 

And it’s really not threatening or scary as many beginners deem it to be. We fear what we don’t understand. So all that’s standing between you and a headfirst dive into digital marketing waters is a little bit of knowledge. 

Why your business needs it

Before we get into our seriously easy (and useful!) tips, let’s review why you need to up your digital marketing game in the first place:

• It’s an effective way to reach your target audience
• It drives traffic to your website
• It will help generate quality leads
• And it helps ultimately close more sales

What you need to know 

When creating your digital marketing strategy, these are the questions you must answer:

• How much will you budget towards digital marketing?
• Which strategies will give you the best return on investment?
• Which channels are most effective for your target audience?
• How can you improve the customer’s experience through their purchase journey?
• How will you measure success?

Keeping the above in mind, here are our 3 tips to consider when putting together your digital marketing strategy:

Create amazing content - What makes content amazing? The value it provides! 

The formula is really simple: create value > generate awareness > attract leads > makes sales. 

Whatever you produce has to be actionable and reach your target audience. You can create out of this world content, but if it’s not reaching the right people, it will do you no good. Also don’t expect to put something out there and have it bring in sales overnight. Content strategies must be focused on the long-term. 

There are a multitude of forms content can take and your audience will largely dictate what avenue you should pursue. However, these are the most popular forms of content companies choose to produce:

• Blogs: These can be traditional blogs posted to your website or even mini discussions about a topic in the caption of an Instagram post. Find out what your audience is searching for and interested in and provide that.
• Videos: Attention spans are short these days and most people would rather get their information from a 30-second video than read through an entire post or article. Video also tends to generate the most engagement from audiences.
• Guides: This is the type of content you have to exchange your email address for. It provides in depth information on a topic the business (or you as an individual) excels in. You must make the offer appealing enough for your potential customer to be willing to provide their email address. The built-in bonus of this tactic is that you automatically gain a traceable lead. 

Run social ads - Ads bring results. Well-executed ads, that is. Social ads are a must-have tool because they allow you to specifically target desired audiences, test out different methods and collect data.

Consider the following to make sure your ads are successful:

• Connect ads to landing pages on your website and ensure that the copy matches for a smooth brand experience
• Use your content (see above) to draw in leads
• Make sure you present a clear problem and solution with your messaging
• Create a multitude of ads, so people aren’t worn out by seeing the same ad over and over
• Fine tune as you go. It’s completely ok to change things around mid-campaign once you see what’s working and what isn’t

Utilize email marketing - Email is all about lead nurturing. Once you have gathered information on your potential customers through your content, ads and lead magnets, you must do something with it! Email is a great tool because you can automate campaigns and have them do the work for you.

The key to a successful email pipeline is to understand what stages a typical customer goes through before deciding to purchase your product or service. If you align your email strategy with those stages, you will help push customers along on their natural progression towards making a purchase decision. 

Helpful things to keep in mind:

• Try out different types of emails and keep track to see what brought in the most opens, clicks and eventual sales
• Segment customers and personalize emails to each segment
• Play around with subject lines (they’re often what make or break an email campaign!)

To wrap up

You don’t need a ton of money or even that much expertise to create a successful digital marketing strategy. The number one thing to keep in mind is that you have to point out a problem your target audience is experiencing and provide a clear solution to it. 

Stay authentic and avoid anything too salesy, because people buy from the companies and brands they can connect to. And finally, use digital marketing as a powerful tool to supplement your intuition and what you feel is right. Numbers and data will point you in the direction you need to go, but it is up to you to tell a story that will resonate with your customers. 

Diving into digital marketing isn’t scary or hard. With a little bit of knowledge you can create campaigns that will bring in sales. For more information and tips on all of the above (and more!) check out our Intro to Business course.