It does not matter whether you are a small shoe seller or the CEO of one of the largest sports shoe brands, there is always a need to market yourself as well as your product & service if you want to stay in the race and win it. This is because without marketing the chances that anyone else apart from you will actually come to know about your product and service is quite negligible. Marketing in its raw sense has always been there and has gone hand in hand with a business. If your business is the car, then marketing would be the fuel running it. The better and refine your marketing practice, the smoother your ride as well as the health of your business.

Now, if you are already here, I guess it is safe for me to assume either you already have a business or are planning to set up one. Right?

No matter what your case is, I believe you have come to the right spot.

In the following article “A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Marketing”, I will try and cover up almost all the fundamentals and basics you will need to understand the particular subject and use it better to give your business the boost it needs to reach your target audience.

But, before we start our journey, there are a few things I would like to clear up as well as tell you in advance so that you know what you’re getting into as well as can expect. This way, you will save up time on the things you already know and straight away head to the part which might be new and beneficial for you. Because the very basic principle in any transaction is saving time and effort first and then making profits.

Also, given the fact that the following article is just a beginner’s guide, it would be safe to not expect everything from A to Z in a single article.

Firstly, because it will never help the reader i.e. you, as too much information at once has never really helped anyone.

And secondly, too much of anything be it resources, knowledge, or food given to a person or business all at once always has a high chance of getting wasted before getting properly used.

So, my advice to you would be to simply go through the article and absorb as much as possible before you head on to the more intermediate and professional information on the particular topic.

What is Digital Marketing and How exactly does it work?

Unlike conventional or traditional marketing where everything is mostly physical in the form of pamphlets, posters, and banners. Digital marketing is more or less the industrial revolution of marketing turning your life to be easier and much more efficient.

In a more definitive sense, Digital Marketing is basically that approach of marketing where you primarily make the use of online marketing tactics like email marketing, search marketing, social media marketing, and so on. Basically, anything which is online and can be done over the internet.

One of the major benefits or plus points about Digital Marketing, when compared to Conventional Marketing, is that there are just no boundaries. Whereas in Traditional marketing where almost everything is physical and static, sitting at a single place for customers to see and notice. Digital Marketing on the other hand is a more door-to-door approach with the message of what your product is and what your product has to offer to reach your potential customers right at their fingertips. As far as the internet goes, your message too shall go.

Does Digital Marketing really help?

Here, you will need to understand that not everything that is old is gold. Instead in the world of business and marketing, it rather follows the idiom Survival of the fittest. Obviously, out here being fit does not really mean your physical health but rather how fast you are to adopt and implement. If you and your business can adapt in time, then it is all golden. Otherwise, it won’t take long for your business to die out in this never-ending competition. This is the harsh truth, whether you like it or not.

So, how does Digital Marketing help you and your business?

Well, the answer to that lies in what I had already explained above. Where traditional approaches only allow you to reach a certain segment of potential customers near you. Digital Marketing on the other hand lets you reach out to all those potential customers out there who might be interested in your particular product or service.

And how do you do it?

By going online of course. Connect your business to the internet and with the help of Digital Marketing let the world know what your product is and what your product has to offer. The better the message, the better the response.

Skills to master first before Mastering Digital Marketing

Obviously, it is important that you know where to start before actually starting. Right?

I believe this part of the answer will help answer that. In the following section, I have tried to list out all those branches or aspects of Digital Marketing that you must learn and understand if you plan to learn and master the ‘Art of Digital Marketing.

Keyword Research & SEO

Now, although Keyword Research is a part of SEO itself. Still, I like to keep it a little separate as I believe it is a whole other niche or approach on its own. Keyword Research and SEO basically walk parallelly when it comes to really optimize your message or content so that it reaches your desired audience without any hassle. SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization literally means that you need to optimize your content so that it is perfect for Search Engines.

Content Marketing

What is it that comes to your mind when you first hear the word ‘Content Marketing’?

For the obvious answers which most of you might have already come up with, Content Marketing would basically mean marketing your content. Right? But how do you do it? That is where the actual crux of ‘Content Marketing’ lies. It is not, ‘What is Content Marketing, but rather ‘How do you do Content Marketing.

Content Marketing is done in a number of ways. From creating infographics to short ad videos to blogs describing your product and so on. Basically, it represents anything and everything that you can attract your target audience’s attention with. The shorter and more to the point your message, the better and faster the response is. It is when you express what your product is and what it does in the simplest of ways that is able to attract your target customer’s attention, only then does your Content marketing is successful.

Social Media Marketing

You probably must have seen various ads coming your way whenever you visit a social platform website or a video streaming website like Facebook or Youtube. Well, this is where Social Media Marketing plays its role. Social Marketing can be achieved in quite a number of ways. From creating a company page on Facebook to invite people to your page to present your product with the help of such pages to followers, all this is a part of Social Media Marketing.

On top of that, there are obviously ad campaigns which make your work even easier.  However, in this method, you will need small capital money first to invest in such campaigns. But, if done well, you are sure to see some whooping results.

Email Marketing

Now, here you might need to use the saying, ‘old is gold. This is because when it comes to Digital Marketing, one of the oldest and to date the most effective methods out there would be E-mail Marketing. But, for this method, you will, however, need to build your own client base first. And only after that can carry out a successful email marketing campaign to inform your customers about your latest products and services.

Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing

Since you have more or less got the basic idea of what Digital Marketing is and what it can do for you. Let us go back a little and understand the key difference between both Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing, just so that you don’t have other second thoughts on Digital Marketing and its many benefits.

Digital Marketing	Traditional Marketing
It is the fastest and most efficient way to reach your target audience and build your brand.	Takes a whole lot of time to actually reach your target audience and build the name of your brand name in the market.
It is by far one of the most cost-effective and audience-specific approaches out there.	Not very cost-effective. Requires huge investment without any definitive results.
Great to receive instant customer feedback, giving you just enough time and space to improve your product and service just in time	You never know what your customers feel about your product. And by the time you get your feedback reports, it is always late.
Given the fact that this process is measurable. It becomes rather easier to plan on your strategies and investments.	You can never draw a distinct picture. There is no real-time data and no way to improvise your strategy based on data.