The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing 

The world now is defined by and via marketing terms. In a world where over 3.6 billion people use social media on a regular basis, every working professional is expected to be familiar with Digital Marketing and make the best use of it. Almost every business you encounter, shouts “WE NEED MARKETING!”. So in fact, what is digital marketing, and what do we need it for? Let’s dive into the digital world and inspect it from history to modern days. This comprehensive and beginner-friendly Digital Marketing Guide is delivered by YourTeam Marketing Agency. We are always here to support, create and educate.

Well…let’s begin our journey.

History of Marketing

Marketing, as a discipline, and the term itself first appeared in dictionaries in the 16th century. The term refers to the process of buying and selling on the market. While Marketing is a concept and term that was very much utilized by people, since the 16th century, a little while later people faced another term-Digital Marketing.

Digital Marketing is an essential component of Marketing. To understand it, just imagine the buy-sell process, but this time, we utilize different online channels to reach business goals- Social Media (SMM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email forums, Visual Platforms, and more. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, “Digital Marketing is the use of digital channels to promote or market products and services to targeted consumers and businesses.”

Digital Marketing developed during the 1900s and 2000s, kicking off a revolution, which silenced the voice of traditional marketing. In 1993, the first clickable banner went live, marking the beginning of the digital era of marketing and everything started to spin around from another angle.

1996 saw the launch of SEO tools: HotBot, LookSmart, and Alexa
1998 saw the birth of Google
1998-1999 Hotmail added 30 million users

How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy?

As you’ve already noticed, the first key for a company’s success is a well-organized and defined Digital Marketing Strategy. In fact, what is the first step in the marketing research process? First things first:

1. You need to set your goals as clear and measurable as possible. This will help you prioritize and focus on the most important elements of your strategy, setting long-term goals and milestones. Keep in mind that goals are the milestones you want to achieve ( i.e. You want to grow your sales by 5%), while strategy is the plan and set of actions that show the approach of how you are going to achieve those goals.

2. Define your target audience and know exactly to whom you are talking. In digital marketing, you have the chance to create campaigns for a very specific and precise target audience.

Don’t lose this chance!  Go beyond traditional demographic targeting and create buyer personas.

Analyze your customer’s needs, hobbies, character, and interests, just the way you analyze yourself.

3. Explore, Research, and Examine the landscape. Keep in mind that a solid strategy starts from examining your competitors, which helps you understand your customers and characterize them even more effectively.

4. Choose your channels and don’t forget that every social media platform requires an individual approach, as each one of them has a specific audience and information delivery style. From C(content) to D(design), make sure to match the platform’s vibe.

5. Build your content strategy and remember, people love storytelling. The content plan should be based on your marketing objectives, as well as on your target audience. Be as informative as you can, and keep the balance between being too friendly and too formal. Communicate your story, just the way you would like it to be told.

Back in 2006, the SEO Services had grown to about 6.4 billion and that was the time when the Digital Marketing world started to take its first steps. Soon after that, social media sites began to emerge and the world encountered the first networking site called MySpace, followed by Facebook. They marked the first chapter in business management. Thus, with the new social revolution, more and more companies began to analyze branding strategies suitable for social media sites, using all the possible resources.

Social Networking sites began popularly and created a huge buzz around the idea of Branding…So people spread the word about Brand Building.

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Brand Building

Sometimes, nothing matters, but the way you sell, introduce and promote your brand. As the public perception is a determining factor for your company’s success or failure, it is crucial to communicate your brand properly, just as you would introduce yourself on a very first date: your best and most remarkable self. You may have to keep it simple but significant, see it big but keep it grounded and communicate a story to be connected to the public.

What is Branding?

Branding is the narrative and the construction hidden behind the act of selling a product. Today’s world is about nothing but diversity. We scroll through our social media, having no clue that behind every social media post, banner, text, and advertising there is a huge company, trying to win your attention, competing with more than 500,000 brands worldwide. In very simple words, the brand is the perceived image of the product you sell.

Now that we have a vague understanding of the concept of Branding, let’s move forward. A successful brand is always well defined and relevant to the market. While some people wrongly assume that the best company branding is nothing but a good name and a good logo, those who consider the 5 key aspects of successful branding, win the stage.

Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is the process of designing your company’s offering. To create a successful brand positioning strategy, you have to take into consideration your audience’s needs, interests, as well as your company’s capabilities. Analyzing the way your competitors position themselves will be a major advantage.

Brand Promise

The brand only exists in the mind of the customer, so you may want it to be as recognizable as possible. Here you have to introduce:

• What your company does
• Target audience
• Company Values
• What you Offer

Brand Identity

Establish your brand’s identity. Think of it as a character, with personality traits, and remember that customers are more likely to purchase from a brand whose personality is similar to their own. Choose one of the 5 essential brand personalities or create your own.

• Excitement
• Sincerity
• Ruggedness
• Competence
• Sophistication

Brand Narrative

Your brand stories are the feelings and emotions that your brand strategy narrates. It is more about inspiring and provoking an emotional reaction, instead of documenting or telling. Narrate an emotional story and the audience will remember and develop empathy for you.

Now, as you already know:

• Why Digital Marketing is important?
• How to Create a Digital Marketing strategy
• What is Branding?
• How to create a Branding strategy

It’s time for us to answer your next question: What do you need to promote your brand?

The answer is simple, aside from naming, logo design, and website creation you will probably need:

Even though this may look pretty intimidating, don’t back up too soon. Let’s discover each section step by step.

What is Branding?

In SEO as in life: you should always meet the expectations of the search engine and play by its rules​ 

Over 94% of people who use Google, only scroll to the first page of search results. Moreover, research claims that most of them click on the first 3 results. That is why, each brand and company uses SEO, to be on the first page of Google Searches. There are approximately 180,000,000 registered websites, which means people rely on search engines to find content. So if your brand has poor visibility on Google, it has the same effect as if your brand doesn’t exist.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to the process of improving your site’s visibility and ranking on channels like Google, Bing, and other search engines. It ensures a high ranking for the content with the help of keywords. SEO is considered to be one of the most challenging aspects of digital marketing, as it takes time and a consistent commitment. Besides the long-term commitment, SEO also needs a lot of energy, as the rules and algorithms are constantly changing and the company has to make sure that their SEO is always up to date.

 

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How SEO works?

61% of Marketers claim that generating leads and traffic is their biggest challenge. While the fundamental goal of SEO is to satisfy its users, it sometimes appears to be a very challenging task. So let’s start from the very beginning.

The site’s position is determined by the page ranking.

Every website has a page ranking for particular keywords, which means if you type for example “SEO services USA” the search engines will show all the web pages that contain these words. 2 criteria determine your website’s ranking: Keywords and Backlinks. Websites that are referred by another webpage are more likely to be considered relevant by search engines. While at the same time, keywords help search engines understand what your webpage is about, therefore recommending the content that the customer searches for.

SEO helps you focus your energy and resources on the exact people you want to attract. However, if you think that after successful SEO management, your business is already successful, you are most likely wrong. Besides good SEO you will also need informative content, quality design and clear messaging.

PPC (pay per click) Marketing

While you start your online marketing experience, you have to choose between organic reach and paid reach, which is mostly based on your budget. This choice is what PPC (pay per click) stands for. If your budget allows, PPC could be a quick boost for your business. PPC advertising is a method of marketing when you place ads in specific places online and pay a fee only when a visitor clicks the ad, which is called cost-per-clink.

How does pay per click work?

While setting your clear goals is the first step of achieving success, in PPC, goals are called conversions and their definition can stretch from visiting a website to watching a simple video.

Your SEO skills can help here too. Keywords are the core of PPC. Here, your keywords depend on your topic and choice of what you want to be found.

Defining your PPC Campaign

When creating a PPC campaign it is important to take into account that you have to write winning PPC ads. Keywords and advertising are considered to be the two main criteria of PPC marketing. In this context, Google created some rules for creating display ads. Each ad consists of:

 

What is SMM in Digital Marketing

In a modern world, where most people use social media as a communication and networking tool, SMM is another term that marketing professionals face every day. But sometimes, we don’t know what SMM means and what is it used for?

SMM is an abbreviation for Social Media Management, referred to the process of promoting your brand/company or product via social media channels. 

There are over 3.48 billion active social media users, which means there is a huge chance that you can attract your customer’s attention mostly on social media platforms. Thus, social media marketing is your next investment. As social media platforms are a perfect place to showcase your brand’s story and product, SMM is a perfect tool to engage organic content.

 

When people talk about social media, they usually refer to Facebook. However, social media marketing is more than that. For those aiming to grow their business on social media platforms, it is a combination of social media strategies and tactics. Social Media Platforms usually include Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, and more.

How SMM Works

The existence of social media has changed the way we function and communicate as a society. Thus, regardless of our will, business management has also changed dramatically. Nowadays, Social Media Marketing is considered to be one of the most important aspects of Digital Marketing. However, like every other realm, SMM also has several key pillars, which are as follows:

Advertising, which is considered to be one of the best ways of promoting your brand online.

In fact, before starting your social media campaign, it is crucial to find the right social media platform for your business. Take into account that your social media posts should match the vibe of the platform. Additionally, make sure your posts clearly outline your goals. And lastly, are you aiming for B2B marketing or B2C?

Traditional social marketing has evolved now and most companies use Influencer Marketing to attract more visitors and customers. One of the key factors of an effective social media strategy is content, which both deliver information and entertain. Besides that, people like hearing stories, and if those stories are told by familiar influencers, even better.

What is Reputation Management exactly? In a modern world, your online reputation is what counts the most. So you have to make sure that your brand is always shown in the best light.

However, Reputation Management is more than social media and advertising. It also includes fields like UI/UX design, Graphic Design, Video Animation, and anything connected to the visual identity of your brand.

From Love at First Sight to a Successful Brand

The existence of social media has changed the way we function and communicate as a society. Thus, regardless of our will, business management has also changed dramatically. Nowadays, Social Media Marketing is considered to be one of the most important aspects of Digital Marketing. However, like every other realm, SMM also has several key pillars, which are as follows:

“Communicating the benefits of your product or service is the key, not the features it possesses. We’ll help you do that right”

In a brand, anything that is visible to the public is called Visual Identity. It is the way to create an impression and perception by using visual elements, like logo, color palette, graphic design and web design. The modern world is busier than ever. This means that most people do not have time to look through a long-read article and the message has to be communicated visually.

The audience attention span is very short, which means you are at the risk of losing your visitors if your content doesn’t stand out in the feed. Most people view the post in approximately 3-10 seconds, so you have 3 seconds to grab their attention and make them fall in love with your brand. Make them believe in love at first sight. A successful visual contains:

However, before posting the visual, make sure that it is part of your strategy. Even the best visuals need the support of a strategy.

Visual strategies commonly include:

• Audience research
• Mood board
• Themes
• Platform
• Timing

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FACEBOOK

• Facebook cover photo size:
• Desktop: 820 x 312 pixels
• Mobile: 640 x 360 pixels
• Facebook profile photo size:
• Desktop: More than or equal to 180 x 180 pixels
• Mobile: More than or equal to 140 x 140 pixels
• Facebook banner dimensions: 1200 x 630 pixels
• Link/Update image size: 1200 x 628 pixels
• JPG files less than 100 KB
• Images with text (for instance, brand logo) must be a PNG file

TWITTER

• Twitter profile picture size: 400 x 400 pixels (file size must be less than 2 MB)
• Twitter cover photo size: 1500 x 500 pixels (file size must be less than 5 MB)
• Shared image: 900 x 450 pixels
• In-stream photo size: 440 x 220 pixels
• File size: 10 MB (max)
• Recommended file type: JPG, GIF, or PNG file
• You can tweet up to 4 images at one go

LINKEDIN

• Profile photo: 400 x 400 pixels
• Cover image: 1584 x 396 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 4:1
• Company page:
• Logo size: 300 x 300 pixels (min); 400 x 400 pixels (max); File size: 4 MB (max)
• Cover image: 1128 x 191 pixels
• Blog post image: 1350 x 440 pixels
• File size: 10 MB (max)
• Supported file type: JPG, GIF or PNG

INSTAGRAM

• Recommended resolution: 1080 x 1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16

To match all the guidelines, you might need to work with a graphic designer. In fact,

Graphic design is the language you need to speak when communicating your message through visual images. Page layout techniques, typography, and image hierarchy are the elements that designers use to meet users’ needs.

The term itself originated in the 1920’s print industry and covers activities like creating a logotype, brand books and banners. Basically, anything visual you see is graphic design.

As we are discussing design here, let’s also dive into the world of UI/UX Design which is pretty much connected to graphic design as well.

What is UI/UX Design?

The existence of social media has cha​Our UI/UX Designer, Anahit, believes that it is all about the user’s comfort.

“ The user’s comfort is what defines the designer’s success”

It is the design of user interfaces for laptops, tablets, mobile, and other electronic devices. The main goal of UI/UX design is to make user interaction as simple and as comfortable as possible. If you are wondering how to learn graphic design, start by analyzing yourself as a user. Take into account your own user experience and project on the masterpiece you are making.

Both for graphic and UI/UX designs, keep in mind user psychology and make sure to achieve:

Overall, your job here is to display information harmoniously and make sure that comfort and beauty go hand in hand.

So, now that you have an understanding of the basics of branding and digital marketing strategy, it’s time to explore the world of Content Marketing.

Make sure you don’t overshare and practice too much self-talk.

What is content marketing?

The existence of social media has cha​Our UI/UX Designer, Anahit, believes that it is all about the user’s comfort.

“Content creation is all about romanticizing: that’s how you touch the customer’s heart”

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that focuses on delivering valuable, quality, informative and entertaining content. It is the voice and the tone of your brand. In simple words, as you can’t speak with all of your customers, you do it with your content marketing.

Content marketing is focused on creating and publishing quality articlesthat will grow your busines.

Why Should Your Business Rely On Content Marketing?

Content marketing plays a major role in social channels. An article with an effective keywords strategy is a bright example of the fact that a single article can impact your business ranking and overall growth. Aside from that, a relevant article is sharable, which means it easily creates a bridge between the audience and the brand itself. To start effective content marketing, you need a strategy that is in harmony with your brand’s overall digital marketing strategy.

When talking about content, we usually refer to blog posts, e-books, pdfs, and infographics. However, web posts and blog articles are considered the basics of content marketing.

To effectively plan your content you have to develop your idea step by step.

Emphasize the topic that should be covered

Understand the measure of achievement

Manage your time

Research and Analyze

Know exactly who is in charge of publishing

Write, Write, Write

Take a glass of wine and enjoy your masterpiece

How to write a blog post?

Even though writing has no boundaries and text is a free and safe space, you still need to have a structure. Each segment of your text should have a headline and an introduction of the topic you’re going to cover to the topic you are going to tell

First of all, write an introduction to your topic. Now, as you already have a highlighted topic, try to find the juicy part of the story you are going to tell. Finish your article with a call to action that can generate leads.

Overcoming Writer’s Block

Even the best professionals sometimes need a break. Most of the writers have encountered the term “writer’s block”. This is the time when you are not capable of writing even a single word, life seems miserable and you hate your job, regardless of your professional level. First of all, don’t panic. This is not the end of the world. You don’t have to force anything; deadlines can wait, and sometimes you also need to relax.

Enjoy a glass of wine, a cup of coffee, and scroll down through the social media

Try to research what your competitors are doing and brainstorm the topics generated in your mind. Now, there are several reasons why you experience writer’s block.