The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Digital Marketing 101

Who would like to be a better Digital Marketer?

What Your Customers Really Think About Your TIKTOK ADS: HOW TO START ADVERTISING ON TIKTOK FOR BEGINNERS?

Welcome to the big shoutout! If you are looking to become a better digital marketer, then you have come to the right place. In this blog post, I will provide tips and tricks to help you improve your digital marketing skills. 

I will cover topics such as creating effective content, using the right tools and platforms, and optimizing your campaigns. By the end of this post, you will have a better understanding of the digital marketing landscape and how to improve your marketing efforts. So let’s dive right in!

Right now, you see, digital marketing has been made to seem way more complicated than it actually is. That’s a shame, really, because it’s actually pretty straightforward. 

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a rapidly evolving field that can be a bit daunting to navigate if you’re new to the game. From SEO and PPC to content marketing and social media, there’s a lot to learn. To help you get started, here’s a comprehensive guide to understanding digital marketing 101.

First, let’s start by defining what digital marketing is. Simply put, digital marketing is any form of marketing that takes place online. This includes everything from search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to content marketing and social media.

When it comes to SEO, the goal is to optimize your website and content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

This can be done through keyword research, optimizing content for specific keywords, and building backlinks. To get started, you’ll want to make sure your website is properly optimized for SEO and that you’re actively engaging with your target audience on social media.

PPC advertising is another important aspect of digital marketing. Here, you’ll pay for ads to be displayed on search engine results on pages or other websites. This can be a great way to generate more leads and increase sales.

That said, if you do want to get the best results possible from your digital marketing, you’re going to need to know and understand the strategies that I’m going to be sharing with you in this episode. 

So, if you read it all the way through, I’ll make a promise to you: You’ll emerge from it as a better digital marketer. So let’s get to it. 

So the very first thing that I need to share with you is the difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing. Brace yourself for this one because it’s pretty profound—actually, it’s not at all profound. And that’s what makes it so interesting. 

That’s it. So when we’re talking about digital marketing, we’re talking about marketing through the use of channels like SEO, search engine optimization, social media PPC ads, online Facebook ads, Instagram ads, or anything like that, not to mention email marketing, website optimization, or anything that really takes place online or through the use of digital media.

You can contrast this with traditional marketing, using traditional media, like TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, or billboards, basically, anything not digital. Here’s the deal: traditional marketing and advertising, as well as everything that goes with them. Well, it still works. 

Utilizing digital marketing and all of the easily accessible digital channels, however, has a number of significant advantages.

First of all, digital marketing tends to give you a much larger audience size, really, you can reach

anybody that’s online, and there are billions and billions of people online.

Who is your audience?

Next is audience targeting. Because not only are you able to reach these billions of people, you don’t want to reach all of them, because not all of them are going to be the perfect fit for your business. 

Rather, you can be laser-focused and selective about only the ideal and perfect people that you want to target.

Digital Marketing also tends to be significantly more cost-effective than running, say, an ad in

the New York Times or, heaven forbid a Super Bowl commercial. 

Again, these are designed to appeal to mass markets and to try to reach everyone, which is probably not your goal. Rather, what you want to do is be laser-focused and selective with your marketing and reach only those people most likely to buy digital marketing, which also allows you to get immediate feedback. 

And this is probably one of my favorite benefits of the channels. After all, if you think about running, say, a magazine ad, you’ve got to think of the copy, the creative, and what you’re going to say. 

And then you’ve got to get it all written up and sent to the magazine, it’s got to get published and then distributed. 

Well, you could be looking at weeks, at best, months, and maybe many, many months before you ever figure out if this worked or not. Digital marketing, on the other hand, in theory, you can write an ad and have it online in a matter of minutes. Immediate feedback, immediate correction, and immediate results. 

Plus, digital marketing tends to be a whole lot easier to measure and track because everything’s digital, which means we’ve got a digital trail, allowing us to measure costs and results and everything in real-time. So we can make adjustments, tweaks, and optimizations on the fly. 

Again, contrast that with waiting three months for your magazine to come out and figuring out if things worked or not.

And you can’t measure clicks on a magazine. So the best you can hope to do is really either have them fill out some kind of form on the magazine or visit a digital channel, which ties us back into digital marketing. 

Anyway, there are obviously some serious advantages to choosing digital channels, and going with digital marketing. But again, that’s not to say that traditional marketing doesn’t still work. It does. 

The point here is to take a look at either traditional or digital marketing and then sort of take a few steps back to the strategies and the fundamentals and the principles of consumer psychology the buyer behavior, why people do the things they do, and then focus on mastering and learning that, then you can apply that to digital channels or traditional channels or any other channels that come out in the future. 

So understanding the distinctions between strategy and tactics as well as when to use each will be beneficial to your overall growth as a digital marketer. 

And this is where you should really concentrate your efforts. This is the starting point for strategies and perspectives on your digital marketing. 

However, no matter how you look at it, there are four fundamental, incredibly sound principles that have stood the test of time and will continue to be relevant today. 

As they are 100 years from now. I call these things the “core four,” and they make up the center of my hub and spoke model of marketing.

The core four include model, market, message, and media. 

1. Model

Now let’s take those apart. The Essential, model is your business. Your deal, your bundle, and your service Considering the pricing consider how you deliver whatever it is to the market. 

It’s important here to create a model. 

Design your business around what is most enjoyable, profitable, and in demand by the market. 

Because the worst thing you can do is build a business that you absolutely hate. 

2. Next is the market

These are the people that you’re going to serve. And you don’t want to say everyone or anyone with money; instead, you want to be laser-focused on the market that will give you the most joy to serve while also receiving the best results from your product or service. 

In marketing, we call this an ideal customer avatar or an ideal client avatar. And it’s made up of demographic details like age, gender, income, occupation, and geographic details, like what city or state or province, or country they live in. 

Additionally, psychographic information about their values, attitudes, and lifestyles. 

3. Then comes your message

And here’s where you’re going to clarify and connect with your ideal target market, by speaking directly to them about their pains, their problems, and their frustrations, and how your business is uniquely positioned to help solve those for them.

Telling stories about previous customers and previous client results is an incredibly effective way to do this, as is getting testimonials directly from them. And running case studies to prove that you know what you’re talking about and have done what you say you’re going to do makes sense. 

The point here is that to craft truly effective messages, well, you’ve got to understand who your market is, what really makes them up, and what makes them do the things they do. So a little bit of market research and having a few chats with your customers never hurts. 

4. Media

The fourth component of the core four is all about media, which is also the hub and bespoke model of marketing.

And this is where you’re going to go where you’re going to do your marketing, and which digital

channels you’re going to choose. Most businesses do this completely backward. They start with the media by hearing a great thing about Facebook ads, or YouTube marketing, maybe starting a podcast, and then they just rush in, forgetting all about the message, the market, and the model. 

So unsurprisingly, well, they’re building their business, and they’re building their marketing on a pretty sketchy foundation. 

This is why if you go through the steps in the right order, starting with the model, moving on to the market, and identifying the message by the time you get to the media, the choices should be evidently clear, like crystal clear, and you should know exactly where your ideal target market is present and active online. 

And this is going to enable you to go there and ignore everything else. 

The truth is that you only need to be where your ideal target market is present and active. You don’t need to do everything or be everywhere. 

This is gonna save you a ton of time and money and headache and wasted energy by

spreading yourself too thin on channels that simply aren’t going to deliver results. 

All right. So that was the strategy—the core of the high-level stuff that goes into making the right decisions.

And tactics, on the other hand, are how you’re going to execute. Everything I’ve just talked about in terms of tactics is in the details and the actionable steps or executable things that you’re actually going to go and put into practice. 

So, as the business model, you’re using the market you’re going after, the messages you’re going to use, and the media options you’re going to deploy your marketing on. 

And then the tactics are things like, “What frequency are you going to post?” And what kind of content are you going to post? And what schedule or level of consistency? 

Or 

How many memes? Or at least one blog posts per month need to be published. 

Are you going to throw in a tactical question about when’s the best time to post on social media?

Which social media platform should we be using would be a strategic question. That’s the difference. 

All right, the next thing that you need to know about digital marketing is the difference between organic and paid. 

So let’s start with organic content.

Organic digital marketing is essentially anything that you create for free. So anytime that you make a post on Facebook, or an Instagram story, or a YouTube video, or anything like that, and you’re not paying money to have it promoted, you’re creating organic content. 

Now, this doesn’t mean that it’s free content, because odds are good, you put time and energy, and probably a decent amount of money, behind the content that you’re creating. But by not paying to promote it, it’s still classified as organic content. 

So, if organic marketing is putting out content without paying to have it promoted, paid marketing is putting out content and then paying the network to promote and distribute it to even more people. Basically, with paid media or paid marketing ads, you’re running advertising for whatever message or content you’re putting out there. 

Now, the big players in this space right now are obviously the kingpins, like Facebook ads, Instagram ads, YouTube ads, LinkedIn ads, and Google ads.

Essentially, on the major networks with ads added to the back of their names, organic content shows up in the news feeds of people that follow you. 

Whereas with paid marketing and paid media, it shows up in the news feeds, on the phones, and on the devices of the people that you choose through targeting. 

Of course, like all marketing strategies, there are pros and cons to both. Organic is free in nature, but it’s going to be a little more limited in reach because the way the algorithms work favors paid media because they like to make money. 

Paid media, on the other hand, has the obvious downside of costing money. On the plus side, it allows you to quickly reach a large number of people. 

So essentially, the choice between organic and paid comes down to time versus money, but also to the rate at which you want to experience results.

All right, now let’s talk about one of my favorite topics in all marketing, direct response versus brand awareness.

Direct response marketing is, unsurprisingly, straightforward in its goal of eliciting a response, and marketing isn’t particularly creative.

Brand Awareness

Basically, when you do direct response marketing, you’re creating an ad or a piece of content. 

And you’re focused on obtaining an immediate and noticeable return, such as a lead, sale, phone call, visit, sign-up, or something similar. An example of direct response marketing would be running a Facebook ad, expecting to generate a lead, sending out an email, tracking the number of conversions, promoting a video, and tracking the number of people who signed up for a free trial. 

You can therefore do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Compare all of that to brand awareness marketing, which is essentially more long-term focused and uses direct response to establish credibility, trust, and your brand’s name in the market. We track metrics such as leads, sales, and conversions. 

With brand awareness. We can measure things like trust and authority, which may be mentioned but are much more difficult to quantify and measure because they are so intangible. 

The reality is that building a scalable, sustainable, and profitable business takes time.

Well, you do need a pretty decent mix of both direct response marketing and brand awareness marketing, but you have to be wary of the cardinal sin of marketing. 

You see, one of the biggest mistakes in all of marketing is running brand awareness marketing campaigns, and expecting direct response results. This is a recipe for failure. And one of the biggest reasons that many people claim their marketing just isn’t working. 

It’s because they’re using the wrong tool for the job, like following a recipe to bake a cake and then getting really frustrated when it comes out like muffins, bread, or anything that isn’t cake. 

This is why it is critical that you use the proper recipe and strategy for the job. 

Another incredibly important thing you need to know about digital marketing is the difference between search and discovery marketing, when it comes to search versus discovery marketing, the biggest and most important thing, or keyword, if you will, is intent. Or what is the reason that someone uses a specific platform when they log on in the morning, or noon, or at night? 

So let’s start with searching

And here we’re talking about platforms like Google and YouTube, basically, any other search engine, When someone logs onto Google, for example, they have intent; they’re there to find an answer or a solution, or a product, they’re there to do something or buy something, learn something, or take some kind of action. 

At this point, you, as a marketer, should approach them and essentially provide them with the answer to their query or the solution to whatever problem they may be trying to solve. Search engine optimization, Google Ads, pay-per-click advertising, and discovery marketing are a few of the tactics used here.

On the other hand, this encompasses brands like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to a certain extent, essentially, a user on these platforms may have intended to browse, but they’re probably more casually browsing. 

After all, nobody really shows up in the morning and logs on to Facebook or  Instagram with a credit card in hand, looking to buy something. 

This is why, if you’re doing search marketing, you can afford to be direct. They’re looking for something, and you have the answer. Just give it to them with discovery marketing. 

On the other hand, you’ve got to be a little more creative and a little more entertaining, you’ve got to get their attention and then keep it and allow them to become interested in what it is that you’re selling or promoting. 

Now, both search marketing and discovery marketing are incredibly important parts of building an overall successful and sustainable business. 

But just like with direct response, marketing, and brand awareness marketing, you want to make sure that you’re using the right tool for the right job at the right time and in the right place. 

Next, I’ve got something very important to share with you. And it’s something that rarely gets talked about when it comes to marketing advice.

And that is the difference between marketing products and marketing services. Here’s the deal.

Most of the marketing information out there, whether we’re talking about textbooks or courses, or even training, it revolves around the marketing of products, a product being something.

A service that is tangible that you can hold, that you can see, that you can touch, and that you can taste a service, on the other hand, is intangible, can’t hold it can’t touch it, can’t see it, can’t taste it. 

Plus, with services, you often need to pay in advance, which requires a whole new level of trust. 

This is why if you’re marketing a service-based business and you try to market it like a product-based business, well, you’re going to be very disappointed. 

Now, when it comes to marketing products, you have the opportunity and the advantage of being able to explain, show, and demonstrate how a product works. You want to demonstrate it in use, highlight its features and the advantages they will bring, as well as the history behind it, among other things. 

Here’s an example. Let’s say that I’m trying to promote and sell this pen. Well, the fact that

this pen has a lid is a feature; it will prevent me from getting ink all over myself.

That’s a benefit, but you can take it further than you probably should. 

For example, this pen’s lid also has a clip, which means that I can attach it to my papers, my notebook, or even my clothes if I’m trying to sport that nerdy look. 

Another feature of the pen lid itself is the fact that it has holes in the top. You may be surprised to hear that the reason that pen lids have holes in the top is to prevent suffocation in case they accidentally or purposely get swallowed. 

After all, chewing on pen lids is an age-old, albeit highly unsanitary, practice. Sometimes you just get hungry on the other hand, well, they don’t have that advantage. 

So the main thing to remember when promoting and marketing services is that you want to sell the end result, or the end state, or the benefits, outcomes, or results that someone will have after working with you. 

In fact, when it comes to marketing services, I go so far as to say it’s pretty much all about the end state and the benefits, the outcomes, and the results someone will experience. 

The key here is to highlight the current pain, dissatisfaction, or discomfort of their current state and then, of course, paint the picture of how they’ll be so much better after having worked with you. 

The next thing you really need to be aware of if you want to become a true expert in digital marketing is to understand the differences between B2B and B2C marketing. B2B stands for business-to-business. 

And this is where your main customers your main clients aren’t regular everyday

people, but rather other businesses B2C, on the other hand, denotes a company that sells to consumers rather than businesses, B-to-B is business-to-business, and B-to-C is business-to-consumer. 

And just like everything I’ve shared with you so far, there are some significant differences in the way that you want to market, your business, your service, your product, or whatever, depending on whether you’re selling to businesses or people.

Basically, B2B marketing typically focuses on fewer but larger customers and B2C marketing on more but smaller customers. This means that in B2B marketing, you’ll have a little more incentive to pack a little more punch into your pitch because you’ll be marketing to fewer customers.

Conclusion

In the current business environment, digital marketing is a crucial tool for success. It is an effective way to connect with and interact with potential customers, develop bonds with them, and boost sales.

By understanding digital marketing, you can create effective campaigns that are tailored to your target audience and that are sure to bring your business the desired results.

With a comprehensive understanding of digital marketing, you have the potential to maximize your marketing efforts and help your business reach its full potential.