If you’re still trying to understand concepts like digital marketing, Facebook ads, SEO, and all of those other terms used by marketing experts these days, then there’s a good chance that you haven’t migrated your business to an online platform just yet. Online marketing via social media platforms and websites are some of the most efficient and cost-effective approaches available to either B2B or B2C companies right now.

Understanding how online marketing works for various companies, businesses, and entrepreneurs will allow you to target new markets through the internet, but why market your services online when you can pay for a billboard ad or a TV commercial?

Here’s the tea:

In 2015, smartphones accounted for almost half of all online advertising spending in the United States. It bolsters the notion that consumers’ focus has shifted from “traditional media” to “modern media.”

So, in today’s digital era, in which technology, social media, and the internet have become the new foundations of modern-day communication, how exactly do you win?

What is Digital Marketing and Why is it Important?

Digital marketing is a way for businesses to convey their message, spark conversation, and elicit engagement between themselves and their target audience. Online marketing is also a good source for lead generation and positioning.

There are three fundamental reasons for a business to consider shifting its marketing campaign online:

Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is one of the oldest tricks in the book, whereby advertisers build a mental picture of the brand in prospective customers. We’ve seen this strategy at play in radio ads, magazines, billboards, and TV commercials.

Nowadays, ads are running on digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter, proving that the internet plays a significant role in today’s marketing arsenal.

Audience Engagement

Audience Engagement is about breaking the ice and building rapport with your audience. A perfect example of audience engagement is when you come across a paid ad on Facebook and then visit that company’s page and “like” it. Audience engagement doesn’t necessarily result in an immediate sale. Instead, it’s about laying the groundwork, engaging with your audience, and building trust.

Get Conversions

One of the most prominent reasons for businesses to develop their online presence is to attract new patrons. Online marketing strategies connect brands with new customers, turn them into prospects, and eventually convert them into paying clients.

How to Start Marketing Your Business Digitally

Step #1: Establish Your Persona

Building a persona lets you target your desired audience and reach out to potential prospects. You’ll be able to break through the fog, see a clearer picture, and identify who stands out in the crowd. In other words, it helps you determine the specific type of consumers with whom you need to connect.

For instance, you are more likely to showcase your Facebook ads for hair accessories to a primarily female audience, as opposed to male, as there is a higher probability of female consumers buying your product.

You can also determine your ideal customer by using and analyzing key indicators such as behavior, demographics, goals, preferences, and patterns.

Step #2: Create Your Content

There’s a broad range of activities involved when marketing digitally, creating content, communicating with customers, and gaining visibility on the internet. Content creation is one of the factors that helps pave the way for you to market your business online successfully.

Here are some of the essential strategies in a digital marketer’s cache:

Content

Content includes anything from articles, podcasts, infographics, videos, and images that provide valuable and helpful information about your product or service to your audience.

Online Advertising

Online advertising is an essential pillar of online marketing. There are many online advertising platforms that you can use, like Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, and Twitter Ads.

One of the advantages of content creation is that you can use it for advertising on social media platforms and capture your target audience’s interest.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the answer if you want your content to perform better online. In SEO, you have the searcher and the search engine. Your goal is for your website to show up as a top result on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, when searchers key in for a specific keyword.

Step #3: Have a Strategy

After you create content for your marketing campaign, you’re ready to devise a strategy. You can categorize your campaigns into two elements. These two factors aid in developing a more practical approach that includes the proper use of social media and online advertising channels.

Social Media Networks

Having a social media network is imperative to your entire online marketing approach. It would be futile to establish a strategy for online marketing without utilizing social media influence. So be sure that you choose the best platform where the majority of your target audience is most likely to frequent.

Online Advertising Platforms

With the introduction of social media, internet advertising has taken on a whole new meaning.

Some of the most popular advertising platforms these days are Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, and Youtube. Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Quora, and StumbleUpon are also major players when it comes to online advertising. Ideally, it’s best to place your ads where the bulk of the end-consumer’s attention is.

Step #4: Analyze the Results

Your campaign won’t be complete without insights and performance analysis. Understandably, you’ll want to jump straight to generating leads, garnering more social media followers, getting more content shares, increasing email subscriptions, and growing your ROI. Analyzing the statistics and experimenting will help you determine the best strategy that works for you.

The best part is that the outcome of your efforts is all visible through the platforms that you use, and the numbers will generally speak for themselves. Facebook ads, for example, can be determined using the number of impressions, click-through rates, and people reached.

The analysis part shouldn’t be a challenge, as it is easily accessible through each respective platform.

If you’re still hitting bumps in the road, nothing seems to be working, hiring a professional team of experts can also save you thousands of dollars on experimenting.

No Joke Marketing is one of the leading digital marketing agencies that can provide carefully designed campaigns that reap positive results. If you’re struggling to pull off your online marketing campaigns, we might be the team for you! Give us a call.