The Basics Digital Marketing Course For Beginners

Are you just starting out and want to learn the basics of digital marketing for beginners? This step-by-step guide gives you practical knowledge you can apply today.

What Are The Basics In Digital Marketing?

Don’t fret; no one is going to expect you to know how to code a website, how to accurately place social media ads, and how to fully optimize your Google display ads when you’re just dipping a toe into the world of digital marketing.
There are some basic tools that you can use to get started that will ensure your business has a solid foundation for future digital marketing efforts.
Digital marketing is the art and science of leveraging digital assets to drive engagement and sales to your brand. Here are some of the top strategies you may encounter on your digital marketing journey:

• Creating a website
• Building an email marketing list
• Optimizing content on your website for search
• Launching Google or Bing display ads
• Reaching new audiences on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and more)
• Using location-based targeting to grab the attention of local audiences

This is far from an exhaustive list, but it gives you an idea of the breadth of options you have when you begin exploring digital marketing for your brand.

Is Digital Marketing Easy?

This feels like a trick question, but the answer is yes — and definitely not — all at the same time. At its core, digital marketing means connecting people with brands in meaningful ways. In theory, it should be quite straightforward. You create a website, add compelling content, and perhaps some products to sell.

Your ideal customer finds your site, is wowed by your product images and descriptions, makes a purchase, and becomes a lifelong customer.
Easy peasy, right?
Not so much in real life.

Digital marketing often involves a complex behind-the-scenes dance between marketers and tech gurus who are building software and services that make these connections easier and reduces friction throughout a buyer’s journey.
While nearly anyone can create a quick WordPress website and publish it with a bit of work, it takes a great deal of time and finesse to optimize the content on the site, ensure that images are eye-catching, the value proposition is compelling — and that you’re able to get visitors to your site..
All of those activities come together to make up digital marketing.

What Are The 6 Types of Digital Marketing?

Purists may argue that there are many more types of digital marketing, but these four key components form the basis for any modern digital marketing strategy.

Search engines LOVE content. They want content that is compelling, relevant to the searcher, frequently updated and full of enrichment. Content marketing involves researching keywords, writing articles, improving the description of products and services on your site, and creating educational content that will compel your audience to engage more deeply with your brand.

1. Content Marketing

Search engines LOVE content. They want content that is compelling, relevant to the searcher, frequently updated and full of enrichment. Content marketing involves researching keywords, writing articles, improving the description of products and services on your site, and creating educational content that will compel your audience to engage more deeply with your brand.

2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

There are tactics for both on-site and off-site search engine optimization, and good digital marketers will work both sides of the equation. On-site SEO involves ensuring that your site is developed correctly with the proper framework that appeals to search engines. Off-site SEO refers to any actions that you are taking for your brand that happen off of your main digital properties.

This could include encouraging external sites to link to your brand and posting content in different locations throughout the web that includes breadcrumb trails that lead back to your website.

3. SMM (Social Media Marketing)

There are two key forms of social media marketing: paid and organic. While paid social media marketing includes the advertisements we all know and love, it also involves paid options for driving new fans to your page or brand.

Organic social media is a bit more elusive, but that also tends to make it more fun to implement. You gain organic reach when your brand educates or informs your audience, providing value to the reader in a way that they use and share the content that you create.

This could be in the form of buying something from your website after seeing a post or could involve the reader posting information about your brand either privately or publicly to their social profiles.

4. SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Finally, search engine marketing is what many people think of as traditional digital marketing. Advertisements are placed on Google or Bing search engines, so when a user is browsing for the answer to a particular question, your paid ad pops your brand to the top of the search engine results page (SERP).

5. Paid Ads

Paid ads are a fun way to get in front of a wider audience and bring more traffic to your website. Less expensive than traditional advertising, you can advertise across various platforms using methods such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other social media ad offerings.

You will want to use compelling images or videos in whatever ad type you choose to catch the eye of your audience more easily. You will also want to include an irresistible call to action.

6. Email Marketing

Email marketing is far from dead these days and continues to be a highly efficient method for your digital marketing campaigns. The key is to generate more high-quality leads through your other online efforts.

From there, send high-quality content in your emails that speaks to them personally, addressing interests, wants, or needs and enticing them to continue to your website. Email lists are gold to your marketing campaigns. Make the most of them by catering to your content for better results.

What Are The 5 Ps of Digital Marketing?

The 5 Ps of digital marketing are simple: Product, Price, Promotion, Place, and People. All of these factors must work together for your digital marketing strategies to be successful.

Product: Your products or services should be at the heart of all of your marketing efforts. You have to understand the needs of your audience, and that should be taken into consideration when you’re defining services or building products.

Price: Will you look at a cost-plus markup strategy, or are you more interested in determining the pricing that the market will bear? Your pricing strategy could and should change over time and may require a fair bit of tweaking before you find the perfect mix.

Promotion: Where and how will you promote your products and services? Promotions don’t have to be paid; you can also work with influencers to promote your brand and offer discounts and a variety of creative alternatives that will help keep your ad budget in line while still raising awareness of your brand.

Place: While marketing in the past often included a physical location, digital marketing transcends that to digital properties such as your website and mobile applications.

People: Who are your tribe? Your products and services could be either mainstream or niche — defined in such a way that there is a small section of the market that is truly passionate about what you produce or the stories that you tell.

Understanding how the 5 Ps fit together often requires additional learning beyond what you can gather from a quick internet search. You need a digital marketing course to jump-start your education.