A Beginner's Guide to Digital Marketing

With technology rapidly changing and consumers attention shifting towards the online world, digital marketing plays a crucial role in how people make daily decisions. So, with that in mind what exactly is digital marketing? It is the marketing of products or services that uses digital technologies for advertisement. It can be divided into two main groups: paid strategies and unpaid strategies. However, before determining which approach to use a company should first evaluate their budget, time, resources, and organizational goals. Then, they should create a solid website since both approaches will eventually lead back to it.

Paid Strategies: Pay per Click (PPC)

Paid strategies are ad campaigns, like Facebook or Google, that companies use to promote their business. Google is the most commonly used PPC service, but there are many others like Bing. When searching for a product or service there are millions of links that pop up, but have you noticed that most people tend to click one of the top 5 results? Companies pay for their websites to be the top ranked results, but it goes beyond that because customer interaction and attention, also, help promote those websites. When companies test their ad campaigns it can reveal ideal demographics and ranking, which they can use to improve their strategies. Digital marketing analytics is incredibly useful for PPC because it covers tools or services that identify ranking and performance of a site. Google provides tools such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Search and Console, and Google My Business. All of these help businesses become successful because they create insight-driven advertisements which allow businesses to deeply understand customers and their engagement. The Google tools, also, optimize your bids, tailor to your audience, and use advanced machine learning to create the best ads to promote your business to the appropriate consumers. While the tools greatly help build ads, it is important to identify competitors and what their rankings are so companies can further focus on how to improve themselves.

Unpaid Strategies: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO services are performed through blogs or keyword searches which are designed to raise sites ranking in search engine results pages (SERPS). By using effective link-building, sites can get up to the first SERPS due to algorithms tracking consumers attention on your site. One way to link-build is by partnering with local entities to promote each others company. This involves mutual cooperation, but in the end benefits both parties. Blogging and link-building go hand-in-hand. Blogs have the ability to improve key rankings because it engages users with your company, gains site traffic, and establishes a reputation by setting yourself apart from competitors. It, also, has the ability to establish relationships with customers because it shows a more transparent side to a company. Although social media a combination of both a SEO and PPC, social media brings in new users and improves SEO metrics because consumers online searches will focus on the businesses who post about their products/services the most. Social media can help any business because the analytics gives them the ability to evaluate consumer behavior. It's not about "do we use social media platforms", but "which platform is most suitable for your company".

An example of a digital marketing agency: Straight North

Straight North offers many services like SEO, PPC, display advertising, local SEO, and email marketing. While no agency can guarantee results nor is the same as another digital marketing agency, Straight North works diligently and creatively to exceed customer expectations. The company has a track record of working with thousands of clients over the course of 20 years. It has, also, grown to be the top online agency in the United States. Straight North claims to have positive results and even includes countless case studies on their site to prove it. They are also incredibly transparent by including detailed monthly reports with their services, hire only highly skilled staff who have both intense training and experience, and they lead validation.

Katy Klimovitsch

#wwudigimark