Oct 3, 20239 min read

Digital Marketing for Beginners: 5 Ways to Grow Your Business Online

A writing pad lies on a table next to a laptop, pen and lightbulb. The notepad has Content Marketing written on it.

In today's online world, digital marketing has become essential for any business to succeed. Yet, for many, the myriad of options - from social media to SEO to email marketing - are a confusing maze of acronyms and algorithms.

According to a 2022 survey conducted by Clutch, it was found that 57% of small businesses do not have a digital marketing strategy. This indicates that a significant number of small businesses are missing out on the potential benefits and opportunities that digital marketing can provide.

So, where do you start?

This guide will walk you through the basics of digital marketing. It will help you to understand the jargon, and teach you how to use digital marketing to suit your business goals. You'll learn how to define your target audience, establish an online presence, navigate the major social platforms, optimise for search engines, and use the power of email to connect with customers.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to the promotion of products or services using digital technologies like social media, emails, and websites.

The five key areas you should focus on are:

Understanding your audience: Who are they, where are they, and how can you help them?
Building a presence online: Creating and sharing content like photos, videos, blog posts, and podcasts to increase brand awareness and position yourself as an authority in your industry.
Social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. This is where you can build an online community whilst promoting your brand.
Search engine optimisation (SEO): Optimising your website content so you rank higher in search engines like Google. This can drive free organic traffic to your site.
Email marketing: Using email newsletters and campaigns to stay in touch with customers and promote offers. Email is a direct line of communication to your subscribers.

Digital marketing typically includes Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which involves placing ads on search engines and social media to reach new audiences, but we won’t be covering that in this blog post.

Understanding Your Target Audience

To market your business online, you need to know your target audience inside and out. Who are they? What are their interests? Where do they spend their time? The more you understand your audience, the better you can tailor your digital marketing strategy to reach them.

Demographics

Look at characteristics like age, gender, income level, education, location, etc. The more specific you can get, the better. For example, instead of "adults aged 18-65," try "parents of school-age children aged 25-45."

Interests and Values

What are their hobbies, passions, and priorities in life? For example, are they passionate about the environment, social issues or health and wellness? Aligning your brand with their values is a great way to build loyalty.

Online Behaviour

Where do they spend their time on the internet? Are they active on social media? What types of content do they find most engaging? Use tools like Google Analytics to see where your current traffic is coming from and make educated guesses about your target audience.

Defining your target audience may seem tedious, but it provides the solid foundation to build an effective digital marketing strategy. Take the time to really understand your audience, and your efforts will be rewarded. Adobe published a great article which looks at this topic in more detail.

Building a Strong Online Presence

Building an online presence is key to establishing your brand and connecting with your target audience.

Website

A well-designed website is your digital storefront and hub for all your online activity. Invest in a custom domain name and choose a simple, mobile-friendly layout to showcase your products or services. Update your content regularly to keep visitors engaged. Top Tip - make sure that it is really easy for a customer to connect with you. Nothing is worse than having to trawl a website looking for contact details.

Blog

Maintaining an active blog on your website is one of the best ways to boost your search engine ranking and connect with readers. Post as often as possible, focusing on relevant topics for your industry and audience. Think about questions that your audience is asking, and try to answer those questions in your posts. Aim for between 800 and 1500 words in an informative but conversational tone. Be sure to allow your personality to come through in your words.

Social media

The major platforms—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube—provide an accessible way to build brand awareness and nurture customer relationships. Post eye-catching images, behind-the-scenes clips, news updates, and case studies to engage your followers. Where possible, respond to all comments and messages to boost engagement. Don’t forget to be visible in your social posts. People love to get to know the person behind the business.

Email marketing

Collect email addresses from your website and social media to build an email list. Send a regular newsletter with company news, blog post previews, new product or service announcements and special offers. Keep content relevant and engaging, and always include a clear call-to-action like “shop now” or “learn more.”

With consistent and quality content distributed across your online channels, you'll establish a strong digital presence, raise brand visibility, and keep your business at the forefront of customers' minds. The key is not to spread yourself too thin. Focus on platforms that work for your specific business and audience, not what you think everyone else is doing.

Navigating Social Media Marketing

Navigating the world of social media marketing can feel like an endless maze of platforms, strategies, algorithms and metrics. The good news is that with some focus and the right approach, you can leverage social media to promote your business and connect with your target audience.

Choose which social networks to focus on

The major platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube. Your work defining your target audience should have highlighted where your audience spends the most time and which platforms best match your business. Don’t feel like you need to be on them all. Start with just one or two and build from there.

Develop a content strategy

Create a posting schedule and stick to it. Share a mix of content like images, videos, infographics and blog posts. Post consistently, but don’t pressure yourself to post too often - aim for 2-3 times per week. Keep your messaging consistent and aligned with your brand and tone of voice. Quality content and consistent posting are the two most important factors. A 2023 study by Sprout Social found that businesses that post consistently on social media have higher engagement rates than businesses that post inconsistently.

Engage with your followers

Don’t just post and run - listen and engage too. Like and comment on followers’ posts. Respond to messages and comments. Ask open-ended questions to spark discussion. Tag followers in posts they might find interesting. Engagement is the key to building relationships and loyalty.

Use lead magnets

Offer something of value to your followers, like a product sample, discount, or free digital download. Promote the freebie on your social networks and collect email addresses for your mailing list. This boosts engagement, increases brand exposure, and helps you capture more leads.

Analyse and optimise

Platforms have built-in analytics tools to see what’s working and what's not working. Track impressions, reach, engagement, referrals and conversions. See what content gets the most traction. Look to post at times when your audience is most active, but note that this might be different across different platforms. Make changes to improve performance and engagement over time.

Read my recent blog post for the answers to 'The 6 Most Frequently Asked Social Media Questions"

Mastering Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

You need to understand the basics of search engine optimisation (SEO) to boost your online visibility. SEO is the process of optimising your website to rank higher in the organic search results of search engines like Google. The higher your ranking, the more visibility you’ll gain. The world of SEO is a big one, but even understanding the basics will really help with your rankings.

Keywords

Choose keywords and phrases that relate to your business and include them in your page titles, URLs, headings, content, image alt text, and meta descriptions. Google looks for pages that rank highly for specific search terms, so optimise for keywords that your target audience is likely to search.

Page titles

Page titles appear at the top of the browser window and serve as clickable headlines in search engine result pages (SERPs). Research and best practices support the significance of well-optimised page titles. According to a study by Moz, page titles are a strong ranking factor that can impact a website's visibility in search results. Using target keywords in your page titles increases the likelihood of your pages being ranked for those specific terms.

To create effective page titles, Yoast recommends you to keep them short and relevant, ideally within 50-60 characters, to ensure they are displayed properly in search results. Including your target keywords near the beginning of the title can also help improve their visibility and impact.

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions play a vital role in search engine results by providing short summaries of your page content. These descriptions appear below the page title and URL in search results, giving users a preview of what they can expect when they click through to your site.

Including your keywords and writing compelling meta descriptions can help improve click-through rates, attract more visitors to your site, and communicate the value of your content to both search engines and users.

Heading tags

Use header tags to highlight important keywords and key sections of content. Header tags, such as H1, H2, H3, etc, are HTML elements that define different web page sections or headings. They are important because they provide structure and hierarchy to the content, making it easier for search engines to understand and index the page and improving user readability.

Internal links

Linking to other relevant content on your website is an effective practice for both search engine optimisation and user experience. By including links to related pages within your site, you facilitate the discovery and indexing of all your page content by search engines.

By strategically linking related content, you can establish connections between different pieces of information on your website. This helps visitors understand the broader context of the topics they are exploring and provides them with more comprehensive and valuable information. SEO experts Yoast explains that by offering a well-organised structure and logical flow of information, you can enhance user satisfaction and increase the chances of them finding what they're looking for.

Page content

Including target keywords in the first 100 words of page content is important because search engines, like Google, tend to place more weight on terms that appear early on a page.

By incorporating your main keyword naturally within the opening paragraph, you can signal to search engines the relevance and focus of your content. Additionally, repeating keywords 3-5 times per 500 words of content in a natural way, using synonyms and related phrases, can further enhance the visibility of your page. However, it's crucial to prioritise clarity, conciseness, and usefulness for your audience when crafting your content.

SEO is an ongoing process, but optimising your pages and content over time can improve your search ranking and gain more organic traffic. The key is simply creating a great experience for your visitors, and search engines will reward you. Google’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide is an invaluable tool to help you master the basics.

Harnessing the Power of Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. Think about it—most people check their email daily, so you have a captive audience. The key is to craft engaging emails that provide value and encourage people to take action.

Build your email list

The first step is gathering email addresses from your website visitors and social media followers. Offer an incentive like a free download or discount to get people to sign up. Double opt-in is best to ensure people give their consent.

Choose your email service

Use a reputable email service provider to manage your email campaigns. Options like MailChimp, Constant Contact and Mailerlite are affordable and user-friendly. They offer professional-looking email templates to choose from.

Create a weekly or monthly newsletter

Send a regular newsletter with business insights, blog updates, tips and tricks, product information and special offers. Keep content brief but valuable. Include images and social sharing buttons. If you can, schedule in advance so you can work on your content when it suits you and not when it needs to be sent.

Optimise and test

Check your email analytics to see open and click rates. Then, experiment with different subject lines, content and layouts to improve results. Surveys and polls are also useful for getting feedback and insights into your audience.

When done right, email marketing is a dynamic strategy that can lead to greater brand awareness, higher sales and a loyal customer base. Stay up-to-date with trends and best practices to make the most of this powerful digital marketing channel. A study by Experian found that email marketing campaigns can increase brand awareness by up to 26%.