Digital Marketing for Beginners

You want to develop your presence on the web, but it seems complex and inaccessible to you. Rest assured; we will explain everything to you in a simplified way. What is digital marketing? What are its advantages? And above all, what solutions are available to you to implement this new strategy? After reading this article, you will understand the essentials. So, ready? Let’s go!

What is digital marketing?

In the digital age, the web presents new tools to integrate into your overall strategy in order to develop your business. Also called web marketing, digital marketing corresponds to the techniques that allow you to build a quality relationship with your customers through the Internet. In fact, digital marketing is similar to traditional marketing. The objectives are the same. It is the means that are different.

To understand, let’s take the example of a dealer who wants to invite his customers to test drive a new car model.

• In traditional marketing, he prints his invitation and sends it by post to all of his client lists. This is called direct mail;
• In digital marketing, the dealer sends his invitation by email, adds a banner to his website and schedules a publication on social networks. He uses the digital channels within his reach.

The main advantages of digital marketing

In order for you to understand how digital marketing can help you and why using it would be an opportunity for you, here are its main advantages.

1. A new proximity to customers

Since the explosion of the Internet and social networks, consumers have extremely easy and quick access to new resources. They inform each other, compare, react. Comments or opinions are accessible to everyone. The exchange is public. They are both freer and more active.

In this context, companies have adapted by creating new opportunities. The messages evolve according to the expectations expressed by consumers. Thanks to digital marketing, they can interact directly with their targets, personalize their messages, respond more quickly and even solve problems remotely. By providing information that is both useful and relevant, promotions or product descriptions, companies develop a “real” community relationship. This allows them to generate qualified traffic and, potentially, a digital word-of-mouth effect (viral marketing) which will have the benefit of attracting many other customers. Makes you want it, doesn’t it?

2. Adjusted costs

Digital communications have the immense advantage of targeting very precisely the people you want to reach.

In order to be as relevant as possible and to optimize your communication budget, digital marketing allows you to focus on the important segmentation criteria for your business:

• Demographic data (age, gender, education, marital status, etc.);
• Values ​​(interests, personality, lifestyle, etc.);
• Sector of activity (socio-professional category, field, etc.);
• Geographic areas (city, region, country, etc.).

Take the example of Facebook. Instead of mass communication, it is possible to create personalized audiences.

3. Quantifiable and easily exploitable results

The strength of web marketing is, moreover, to be able to analyze the results of your communication actions and to know your return on investment (ROI). The ROI allows you to know the real impact of your investment. It is a valuable tool to know if your campaign or your publications are successful.

In digital marketing, here are some of the measurement criteria:

• The number of unique visitors is the easiest way to measure the performance of your content. Whether calculated on a weekly or monthly basis, unique visitors indicate how much traffic there is to your articles.
• Conversion rate: this indicator tells you the number of people who have actually acted or reacted to your publication. In other words: beyond the people who visit your website, some will stop longer and even follow your call-to-actions, buttons placed on your pages and generating actions such as registering, buying, etc.
• Number of shares/views on social networks: This can be a good way to know the awareness of your brand.

The tools at your disposal

Any type of business or organization can use digital marketing, regardless of its budget or size. Thus, it is possible to communicate on the web with your customers and to develop your business as well as your notoriety, whether you are a merchant, craftsman, manager of a large company, freelancer, liberal profession, etc.

To do this, you have the possibility of using different digital tools. For instance:

• a website: often used as a showcase for the company, a website is, at a minimum, composed of an “about” page allowing you to present yourself as well as a product page listing what you offer for sale;
• blogging: a blog allows you to have many interactions with your audience. It is a medium similar to websites but which is much more flexible in its use. It allows ghostwriters for hire to create content and a universe around which a community gathers. It also has the immense advantage of increasing your visibility on search engines;
• social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.): the main advantage of social networks is the proximity to users who can directly let you know their opinions or expectations. It is also a direct communication channel that offers enormous potential for virality. A publication can very quickly reach a multitude of people in a potentially global geographical area.
• emailing (newsletters, welcome email, etc.): emailing allows you to write to your contacts while eliminating paper;
• paid advertisements: in addition to the other options, the use of paid web communication campaigns is sometimes useful. With Google Ads, for example, you can position yourself at the top of search results for certain keywords… for a fee of course!
• etc.

These examples are far from exhaustive. It is above all a question of showing you in a simplified way that the field of possibilities is adaptable to all according to your needs and your resources. Moreover, note that, to be effective, a digital marketing strategy must rely on a mix of these tools.

As you will have understood, digital marketing is an integral part of communication strategies. It can bring a lot to your business, both in time and budget. Today, you feel ready to use digital tools, but you need support, especially for content creation? Know that La Redact du Web offers you a free service of qualified professionals who have followed the training of Lucie Rondelet. In order to direct you to the right person, you will find a quick questionnaire that will allow you to list your needs. If you prefer to choose yourself among the list of freelancers, this is quite possible on the site. You now have all the keys to success, it’s up to you!