With nearly 5 billion Internet users these days almost all of your customers will be online in some form or another.

Even if you don’t do business or sell products and services online directly, you can still find your customers in the digital world.

Digital marketing is the means of reaching out to those customers and connecting with them in a way that makes them aware of your brand and services.

There are lots of different ways you can do this through a range of different online channels. Part of your digital strategy will be choosing the right methods and channels to suit you and your business.

Let’s take a quick look at what digital marketing is in this short guide.

Find Your Audience

The first thing you will need to consider is where your audience usually can be found. This will depend on factors such as their age, location, gender, and online habits.

You can find this information out by analyzing any data you already have on your digital identities. These can be your website and social media channels. A digital marketing agency will be able to help you find and analyze this data.

One of the great benefits of digital marketing is the amount of data it can provide you with. Once you have this data analyzed you can use it to great effect in your strategy. 

Types of Digital Marketing Strategies

When you know where to find your audience then you can begin to plan how you will approach them. One key element of all digital strategies will be your website. This is your central online hub where your customer knows they can find you.

Once you have a website you can promote it using various digital marketing strategies across various channels. Here are some of the main approaches businesses often take in their online marketing plan.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is the process of making your content discoverable on the web and to help it rank better than other websites. If you want to appear number 1 in Google’s search rankings, you will need to improve your SEO.

Paid Search Advertising

If you have the budget you can spend money to appear in advertising slots on the search engines, instead of trying to rank organically for a keyword. This method can pay dividends if you target the right keywords but is often expensive.

Social Media Marketing

Social networks are key to being able to reach different segments of the market where your audience may hang out on a regular basis. Your plan should include ways to reach out and engage them through these channels.

There are lots of ways to reach out to your audience through digital marketing. Conversion rate optimization, content marketing, and email marketing to name just a few. There are many more. If you need more advice a good digital agency will help you build a strategy that works for you.

Your Digital Marketing Plan

Now that you have a rudimentary understanding of digital marketing it is time to decide what you want out of your strategy and let your business take off on the web.

If you found this guide useful and would like to know more please take a look at the online marketing section of our website.