Digital Marketing for Beginners: The Ultimate Guide

What is digital marketing? Why is it necessary, anyway? And how can you really succeed in it? In this guide to digital marketing for beginners, I’ll break it down into pieces so that you may understand the subject better.

Digital marketing can be a trending buzzword, but it’s not new at all. In 1896, the first public transmission of wireless signals occurred with radio. And that’s what digital marketing is all about. It is different from traditional marketing because of the usage of wireless signals.

There are a lot of misconceptions about digital marketing. For example, some people think that online and digital marketing are the same, which isn’t correct. Online marketing only involves internet connectivity, while digital marketing also involves transferring digital signals.

It means billboards, radio, and televisions are also media of digital marketing. Didn’t know it already? Well, you aren’t alone. Let’s break a few more myths. Sounds fair? Let’s get going!

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is as old as radio. It’s a form of marketing in which you use digital signals to communicate with your customers, visitors, or readers. With time, digital marketing has evolved a lot, especially in recent years.

“Digital marketing is a type of marketing delivered through digital channels or electronic devices such as television, radio, search engines, websites, social media, and more. “

As you can see, modern-day digital marketing has a large number of channels. Now you see tons of apps, sites, and digital solutions rolling out every day. As per Think with Google, 48% of customers start their queries on search engines.

And this is just one channel of digital marketing. From email to social media and from PPC to radio, you’ve tons of options available to market your brand or website digitally. Let’s get to know why you or your business should invest in digital marketing.

Why Digital Marketing?

Every business in the world needs more sales, leads, and profits. And it needs to adopt new forms of marketing to do so. Digital marketing is old. But it didn’t have tons of channels up till now. Times have changed. And businesses have shifted accordingly.

Google and social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram generate more revenue than any traditional media agency. Why? It’s because they get more eyeballs. And that is the reason why digital marketing is essential without a doubt. You need to understand a few things more.

Your Customers or Readers Are Online

There are over 4.66 billion people online today. That’s almost 60% of the entire population of the world. And the number is growing exponentially. And you’ll see 319 million new users as the current year ends. Imagine the power of marketing your idea to those people.

Digital Marketing is Insanely Affordable with Better ROI

Digital marketing is more of online marketing now. And the cost of running an ad online is way more affordable than broadcasting a television commercial. For example, a national TV channel may cost you $120,000 to run a 30-second commercial.

While creating content and sharing it on social media may cost you a few bucks only. And you may already know that. With digital marketing, your business can get started right away. And the digital marketing investment brings in more return than investing in traditional marketing.

Your Competitors Are Already Doing It

From McDonald’s to Gucci and from a local shop to an affiliate website, every business is marketing digitally. Your competitors are already doing it regardless of your industry or niche. And that’s a solid reason for you to win the digital marketing game as well.

But how do you crack it down? Understand the major categories of digital marketing for that. Let’s dive in!

Breakdown of Digital Marketing: 9 Major Types

You can get started with digital marketing as a beginner only if you know how to break it down. Let me do it for you. Digital marketing has 9 major types:

1. Content marketing
2. Search engine optimization
3. Search engine marketing
4. Pay-per-click advertising
5. Social media marketing
6. Email marketing
7. Mobile marketing
8. TV & radio marketing
9. Electronic billboards

As you can see, digital marketing is not that one area to focus on. It has several ways and channels to pull and push your products and services online. Have a look at these 10 methods to generate tons of ideas for content development

The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing for Beginners in 2021

As a digital marketer, you need to focus on a particular set of areas, not digital marketing as a whole. Makes sense? Let’s get started now.

1. Content Marketing

Content marketing is the only marketing that has ever existed and will exist forever. From email to social media marketing and from on-page SEO to electronic billboards, content marketing spreads around every marketing effort.

Every marketing effort starts with an excellent piece of content.

Let me break a myth for you; content marketing is not just about blogs, videos, or tweets. It’s about everything related to content. Even a printed flyer gets the benefits from the power of content. It’s powerful because it tells the story. And we all love stories. Don’t we?

Quora is one of my favorite platforms based on the content generated by users. It means your audience is there. Here’s the video I’ve created for you to help your digital marketing efforts on Quora:

Affiliate marketing is also a kind of content marketing in which you market the content to bring in affiliate commission. Content marketing efforts include books, podcasts, videos, white papers, emails, and many more.

There are different methods of creating each one of them, but they share the basic process of creating content.

What You Need to Do

1. Set your goals based on your mission

2. Understand or establish your unique selling point

3. Know your audience and understand its cycle

4. Choose the correct type of content for your audience

5. Create a content calendar to keep on track

And here’s a pro-tip for you. Use URL shortening tools to track your digital marketing efforts. Watch this video where I talk about the benefits of using URL shorteners to boost digital marketing efforts.