How to Grow Your Business With Digital Marketing: The Basics

Because there are so many marketing tactics, strategies and platforms, digital marketing can be complex and overwhelming especially for beginners. In this article I want to give you an overview (the basics) of how anyone can grow a business with Digital Marketing.

Phase #1. Digital Marketing is a process

The first step in that process is to define a target audience. Because Facebook, Google and other marketing platforms are so saturated with ads and content, you need to be crystal clear about who you are targeting.

This means you need to know not only their demographics (i.e. age & gender, etc.) but also what their problems are.

More importantly, you need to be able to communicate to these people, how your product or service (i.e. your “solution”) is better than that of any of your competitors, and also what difference is your solution going to make in their daily lives (i.e. how is your solution going to make their lives better)

Making these aspects as clear as possible from the beginning, is extremely important because this is what you will be using in your marketing messages, blog & social media posts and videos, to capture their attention.

The importance of this first step (i.e. defining a target audience) cannot be over-emphasized because failure to implement this step properly can make or break your digital marketing efforts going forward.

Phase #2. Attract your target audience (using free content and paid ads)

If you haven’t already done so, you need start establishing a presence on the online platforms that your target audience are already using (for example, Google My Business, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, etc.)

#2.1 Attracting your target audience using three (3) types of free content

2.1.1 Educational content: For example: “How To” articles or blog posts to rank on Google search engine or educational style videos to rank on YouTube.

An example of this would be a video made by a plumber showing potential clients how to unblock a drain. YouTube is a gigantic search engine and when people search for any type of video content (such as the plumber example I used) they might contact him to order some of his paid services.

2.1.2 Brand Awareness Content: This can also be referred to as “brand storytelling” and examples of this would include, customer success stories, testimonials, customer service ratings, or anything that tells the story of your business/brand positively and from a customers point of view

2.1.3 Entertainment style content: There are many examples of this on YouTube & social media platforms.

The underlying strategy used here is to publish an entertaining piece of content which people will watch and then use links in the post that sends viewers back to your main website or online store. On social media sites like Instagram, people also use entertaining videos or images to build up an audience and then sell other people’s products to their audience (this is an example of “affiliate marketing”)

#2.2 Attracting your target audience with online paid advertising
These days, all major online marketing channels have a built-in paid advertising platform. Examples include Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads etc.

It is now commonly accepted that most online channels have become “pay-to-play” and “organic” (free) reach is dropping at an ever-increasing rate across all of the online channels.

Once you have attracted your target audience, you can move onto the next phase….

Phase #3. Making Sales.

In this phase of the process, your main aim is to drive your audience from the platforms discussed above, back to your website or your “offline” place of business.

Important tip: Savvy business owners & marketers often use “intermediary” steps between phases #2 and phase #3. This could be:

Building an email list – If you want to build trust with potential customers first (i.e. before trying to make a sale) you can do so with regular emails to your list. Even if you don’t have a product or service yet, you could use this strategy to build up an audience by (for example) creating a newsletter and asking people to sign up.

Remarketing – This is perhaps best explained with a simplified example: Let’s say you targeted your audience with an ad on Facebook. As a result of your ad, some people did visit your website but, they left without buying any of your products/services. You can use a remarketing ad to target these people again on Facebook.

Phase #4. Measure and Optimise – The final step in the digital marketing process:

The best way to ensure that your digital marketing efforts are working and giving you a good return on investment is to keep doing it better. The best way to ensure this is happening is to continuously measure and optimise your process for better results.

Note: You can measure and optimise for free, using online tools such as Google Analytics.

Let’s say (for example) your analytics indicate that most of your website traffic (visitors) are coming from Google Ads and, they are converting (e.g. buying your products or booking appointments).

You will be able to see that in Google Analytics and then you can increase the amount of free content or paid ads on that channel to drive more sales or conversions.

Measuring what you’re doing online is extremely important because it is the only way for you to measure what’s working and to do more of that.

Conclusion

This article shows you (in a simple and easy to understand manner), exactly how to grow your business with digital marketing. I hope you find this content useful.

If you ever feel overwhelmed or confused by any aspect of digital marketing, read this article again and just stick to the basics as I have explained herein.

Are you trying to grow your business with Digital Marketing? Are you getting the results you hoped for? Do you have questions? Leave a comment or your contact details below (if you need help or an assessment)