An introduction to the successful world of digital marketing

Being a beginner in the world of digital marketing closes many possibilities. Marketing is increasingly present in our day-to-day. So, in a world where being an entrepreneur is hard-pressed, creating a business is common. Besides, the arrival of the Internet meant many changes for the whole world. In the market, the Internet worked as a method of connection and ease to reach new people. Learn the basic guide to get started in digital marketing for beginners.

For those new to digital marketing, it can be frustrating to understand the techniques, jargon, and tools. This sector covers various areas in the business world. Not only that, but the different strategies, aspects, and possibilities also tend to scare those new to the subject. In this post, we offer you a basic guide to digital marketing to start your first steps in online marketing.

What is marketing?

Before going fully into digital marketing, we must know what marketing is. Philip Kotler made one of the definitions most recognized by all the experts in marketing. This is as follows: “Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market with benefits. Marketing identifies unrealized needs and wants. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential”.

Simply put, marketing is the set of activities that will make you gain profit. You can only get this benefit after creating a need in the consumer or customer. Thus, the creation of different products or services is what will help meet that consumer need.

Meanwhile, digital marketing is all those advertising actions and strategies done online. For this, you can carry out these campaigns on blogs, websites, social media, email, and various platforms. Currently, companies seek to have a greater presence in social media than in any other place.

Its historical beginnings

The origins of marketing date back to the early 20th century. Professor Jones of the University of Michigan was the first one to use this term.

After that, the discipline began to grow until getting total independence. In 1915, the first marketing book was published.

Initially, the term marketing only meant production and product. By then, marketing was responsible for the efficient distribution of products.

Years later, this study expanded to new organizational spectra, for and not for profit.

Beginnings of digital marketing

In the nineties comes the first search engine online in the world, called Archie.

This first search engine took the first step (unknowingly) to digital marketing. After this, in 1993 the first selectable advertising banner came out. This marked the beginning of a new era in the world market.

One year after these two events, the first online business transaction was made on Netmarket.

Not long after, at the end of the nineties, in 1997, people got to know the first social media platform. However, the social media platform SixDegrees.com no longer exists in the digital world.

Why is marketing important?

Recently, the marketing department has become one of the most important for a company.

Its importance is because it works as a connection between the customer and the brand. In short, marketing allows us to know our consumer, their wants, and needs. Thus, if a company does not have a good marketing team with clear strategies, the business will not rise.

Different from what most people think, marketing isn’t just the advertising of a product.

This department ranges from the design of the product or services to its distribution. Not only that, but marketing also helps generate profitability in the business and anticipate the wishes of the client.

The marketing mix

The marketing mix is ​​the set of tools available to the expert to meet the objectives of the company.

For this, companies carry out an analysis of the marketing strategy based on four variables.

These variables are product, price, distribution, and promotion.

The purpose of the analysis is to know the situation of the company to create a positioning strategy in the market.

The first step to take for this research is to conduct a market study.

The marketing mix is ​​also known in marketing jargon as the 4Ps. Each of the Ps has a different meaning. These stand for “Product, price, place, promotion”.

• Product: This variable focuses on everything that encompasses the product. Whether or not it really satisfies the needs of your buyers. Besides, these products also refer to those tangible and intangible, such as services. Here, the company needs to identify the life cycle of its product. If a brand does not know its product well enough, it has the possibility of generating losses in the future. Thus, companies must know when demand for their product drops. Only in this way will they be able to find the problem and then fix it.
• Price: The second “P” of this mix stands for the price of the product that the company offers in the market. As such, this item is representative of customers. Besides, it’s common knowledge that a consumer is more likely to prefer one product over another because of its price. Often the prices of products or services are tied to the demand for them in the market. Although the psychological value of the product must be taken into account, along with the cost price, this can vary greatly.
• Place: This is the element that takes into account the different channels that the product has to go through to reach its final goal, the customer. Here, we also talk about the storage of it if needed and its relationship with intermediaries. Since the advent of e-commerce, distributions have changed from traditional companies. So, digital commerce opened the door for a new virtual store option.
• Promotion: Promotion is a simple analysis of the company to see if the efforts made for a variable amount of time have paid off. So, ff the objectives of the brand were to grow its sales and be known by more people, the analysis is carried out by different departments. In digital marketing, the way to calculate this is by analyzing whether paid social media ads attracted more people. This term is called the return on investment or ROI.

Digital Marketing

The online modality meant various changes for traditional companies in their marketing mix.

Some companies made a simple step into world 2.0.

On the other hand, other companies fell to the pressure of the digital world and lost their companies.

Currently, 91.2% of companies have active and working social media accounts.

Thus, every day they release new ventures that target their audience only through these platforms.

The Four C’s

The world of marketing is constantly changing. One of them was the modification of the four “P” to the four Cs. This change is because we went from selling a product just because to then focus on the total needs of the client. Here, the center of everything is our consumer.

Today, a good marketing strategy works with both models. The change meant that companies must now adapt to customer wishes and not the other way around. The four Cs are cost, convenience, consumer, and communication.

This was raised by university professor Robert Lauterborn in the late 1990s. Without knowing it, his approach would be the beginning of a revolution in marketing.

• Costs: The cost is the amount of money that is established for a client to obtain the product or service of your company. The cost, unlike the “P” of price, represents the economic amount that the customer is willing to pay for your product. Some of the things to take into account regarding cost are the type of product or service that you offer. As a customer, you will want good quality products and be able to afford them. Once you think like this you are making a conscious purchase. Those aware of convenience will purchase the product only when they consider it appropriate. And finally, some are fully budget conscious.
• Convenience: This point is one of the most appreciated by customers. Here, the company is concerned with providing products to consumers and making them arrive as easily as possible. For this, the brand must think about how to make this a pleasant experience and not one for nightmares.
• Communication: Here, the company isn’t responsible for promoting the product and making thousands of advertisements to bombard customers. This factor aims at creating stable communication with buyers. In short, make them feel part of the company.
• Customer: In this beginner’s guide to marketing, we want to emphasize this point since communication with your customers is vital. The most important thing in the modern world of digital marketing is two-way communication. The client isn’t only the recipient of your advertisements and content. They also give their opinion and give feedback to the brand. For this, social media platforms are the right place to take advantage of these two-way communications.

Digital Marketing VS Traditional Marketing

If you are starting your business or company and you still don’t know what type of marketing you should use, you must research the benefits of each one. When it comes to traditional marketing, its reach is enormous since it works with mass media. Besides, you must also make a promotion that focuses on the product as a whole. Besides, there’s also the fact that with this type of marketing the internet isn’t necessary. All you have to do is go down the street and see an advertisement.

Digital marketing is growing in reach numbers. Because of this, the experiences can be more educational and fun due to the flexibility in strategic campaigns. As everything is already on the internet, it’s much easier to measure the figures online. Online advertising is also easy to do since you don’t need a lot of experience with it.

The best way to start your journey with your startup is by taking elements of both types of marketing. If you do this, you will find that each of them has unmatched advantages.

Basic terms and concepts

In marketing, there is certain slang that, unless you’re an expert of it, you won’t understand. Besides, to easily understand digital marketing it’s essential to know the following terms:

Engagement

Marketing engagement means the level of link or connection that people have with your brand on social media. This is a factor that companies now consider to be the most important.

A good percentage of engagement will vary depending on the social media platform and the published content.

These numbers also don’t happen overnight.

Thus, to develop good engagement you must foster good relationships with your customers and motivate them.

Affiliate marketing

This consists of the agreements made with websites to promote your content in exchange for a commission.

If a person clicks on your online banner, the website will take a commission for it.

The same is true for anyone who wants to advertise on your website.

Besides, these commissions are agreed upon between the parties.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is the strategy oriented to the positioning of pages on these platforms.

Here, Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) analyzes the published content to see what the best quality according to the search is.

For this, this AI uses a set of standards, some of them are in the presence of keywords, links that refer to the page, page authority, and quality content.

Costs by CPC, CPM, or CPA

Cost per click (CPC) is one of the most used factors in online campaigns.

For this, an advertiser can run a campaign on a website and will get paid only when a user clicks. For this to happen, one can use a banner or a text on the web page.

The costs per impression (CPM) is paid to the advertiser each time their banner or text is seen.

As such, users don’t need to interact with advertising. Finally, costs per action (CPA) is where the advertiser will be charged for the sales made.

Branding

Branding is the process in which a brand or business is built.

The brand must have different objectives and strategies that are recognizable to its customers.

SEM

This is similar to SEO.

The SEMis a search engine optimization that you previously paid.

Here, you can find different campaigns with advertising links for you to decide where to appear.

Similarly, your search options are based on the keywords that your advertising uses for it.

Create a Beginner Marketing Plan

Once you have thought about what type of business you want, you need to start making a marketing plan.

You should first think about the niche or group of people your product or service is aimed at.

How are they? What do they think about? What are their wants and needs?

One of the key points of marketing for beginners is to understand who you are targeting.

Only in this way, you will be able to satisfy them.

Know your section and purposes

Then you must study your competition. If they are successful in the same area, use their techniques to your advantage.

Go further and have an az up your sleeve. Another important point is to clarify your objectives and goals in the short and long term.

Take content marketing into account. If your goals are to attract new customers, create attractive and relevant content for them. You must define the purposes of your brand very well and be specific. If they are very general, you will not be able to achieve them.

SWOT analysis

The acronym SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, objectives, and threats.

A SWOT analysis takes each of those words into account in a little research on the company.

To perform a SWOT analysis you must be very clear about who you are as a brand, your objectives, and the sectors that you must improve. This analysis is ideal for those companies that are just starting. It’s also perfect for new advertising campaigns.

Action scheduling

An action plan is the design of all the tactical actions that touch the marketing mix of the brand.

The action plan will facilitate the achievement of the objectives.

Its purpose is to define in a document which are the strategies to carry out and that will help the brand.

The way to carry out this plan is by writing down the chosen tactics and defining a time frame to fulfill them. If you are new to the world of marketing, planning will be your best ally.

Let’s do it!

Once you have defined who you are as a company, your message, and where you want to go, the path will be easier.

Starting a business isn’t easy. Most times you will have to dedicate long hours to see its results.

However, with the help of different tools, your job will be easier and like that of a professional. Thus, marketing for beginners has never been easier to understand.

Digital Marketing Tools for Beginners

If you are a beginner in the world of digital marketing, you probably need help with some of the areas of marketing. Today, there are many applications and online platforms that ring you a lot of benefits when starting a business. Here are some of them:

MailChimp

This is a digital tool in which you can design, send, and calculate the impact of your email marketing campaigns.

It also allows you to keep in touch with your subscribers and plan the sending of your mass emails.

Not only that but this tool also has a free version.

Google Trends

It’s a tool from Google Labs that allows you to see graphs of the most popular recent search terms.

This is great for content creation and makes SEO work easier.

So, if a keyword has been trending, you can make a post with the same word.

Thus, this will help you to position yourself.

WordPress

WordPress is one of the most flexible and easy-to-use content managers in the world.

Thanks to this system, you can create all kinds of content on social media, from writing to audiovisual.

Besides, you can easily share videos from social media platforms, forums, and corporate websites.

Moreover, this platform is also free and open source.

Canva

In the design area, Canva is ideal for making digital designs of all kinds without being an expert. For this, you can use the help of a modifiable template.

In it, you can adapt all kinds of audiovisual content.

It’s also possible to create your designs from scratch and with the size that you want.

Besides, this online platform also has an application in the AppStore and Play Store.

Google analytics

With this Google Labs tool, you will not only be able to measure the sales and visits of your business.

Another feature of this tool is the ability to produce reports that explain the behavior of online visitors.

It also shows how you got to that site, which content is liked the most, and which parts are performing the best on the web. 

Find out how to configure Google Analytics. 

Marketing strategies that do work

As a beginner, it’s not easy to know marketing strategies that are effective and organic. The latter are the ones that will help your brand grow faster and rank better in Google searches. Some of the simplest strategies that you can carry out, but which are highly effective are:

Social media

Creating an account on your brand’s social media platforms will open up the possibility of connecting with a greater number of people. Besides, sharing your products and services on social media gives you a better platform to build a community of loyal followers. In marketing for beginners, this is one of the first places to start.

When creating accounts on social media platforms, you must first ask yourself which one out of all of them fits your product or service the best.

Remember that it’s up to you to take advantage of social media as long as you know your goals and how to achieve them. Social media is about being constant and taking advantage of each of the trends of the moment

Email marketing

Initially, it was thought that this type of strategy would not survive with the arrival of social media.

However, a large number of people around the world continue to use this type of strategy as a way to find out what is happening with their favorite brands or businesses.

People check their inbox daily, and companies with a good marketing strategy know-how to take advantage of this.

Thus, use this tool as a way to interact more intimately with your customers and followers.

Public relations

Here, social media can be useful again.

Your brand must show that you interact with the community and with influential people in your sector.

As a strategy, you can take advantage of micro-influencers so that they help you promote your products and services.

If a person with a large number of followers promotes you, you will get more entries to your social media accounts and even increase your sales.

Marketplace content, all in one

This strategy involves all of the above in one. Make content for your brand that is relevant and attractive to your followers. 

Study your clients to the point where you know how to talk to them. This way, they will get listen to everything you say.

Don’t forget to use persuasion to get closer to your consumers on different platforms. For this, use the right words and keep them entertained so they stay connected with you.

You have to remember that the attention span of a human being is around 7 seconds. Thus, you must know how to catch your audience quickly to make them choose you.

Common Mistakes from Marketing Beginners

Making mistakes is normal as we are all humans. However, knowing how to correct them is part of our growth. Thus, if you are a beginner in digital marketing it’s likely that you won’t know how to distinguish between good quality content and eye-catching content that only takes up space. There are thousands of mistakes that should not be made when starting your branding process:

False confidence

Believing that marketing is simple and that it can be left to chance, is the perfect ingredient for disaster.

You must plan and organize the ideas of your brand so as not to leave everything to chance. Otherwise, the confidence that your business will grow just because it’s not real nor likely.

Take your analysis and planning seriously because it will help you better understand the direction you want to go with your brand.

Faster isn’t always better

Some think that taking the easy way out in the world of marketing doesn’t matter.

However, buying paid followers or ads everywhere without having a set plan can and will backfire on your brand.

Remember that the preferred path of Google analytics is the organic growth way.

Analyze your progress

After completing the strategy processes and campaigns, you should review the numbers to see how the performance of these tactics was.

Did they work?

Did you meet all the wanted objectives?

With the help of this basic marketing guide for beginners, you will have at hand all the keys to continue in the study and understanding of the different strategies.

Adapt to changing trends

Don’t forget to do this consistently. In the world of marketing what works today may not do it tomorrow.

Check the statistics regularly and stay on top of trends to keep growing.

We know that marketing for beginners can be exhausting, but understanding it will allow you to grow your business and increase your sales.

BluCactus, your Ally in Digital marketing

BluCactus international marketing agency serves clients all over the world. Our specialty? The creation of web designs and SEO positioning in online searches. Besides, our group of experts is dedicated to helping businesses and brands succeed in one of the most competitive sectors in the market, the digital world.

BluCactus will accompany you every step that your brand takes or venture. This goes from the creation of the branding of your business to the creation of content. We are focused on supporting you with the development of your website or the administration of accounts on social media.

This online marketing agency, based in Dallas, TX, seeks to strengthen your image as a brand and take it to the next level. Don’t wait any longer to have the help of the best specialists in digital marketing and contact us through our social media or website.

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