A Beginner's guide to Digital Marketing
Are you a graduate or a student? Seeking digital marketing job opportunities?
This article will have your basic questions answered and give you a head start in the area of digital marketing. We will be talking about the importance of a product, how marketing can influence a product, knowing your target audience, and finding the niche. the whole idea behind the article is to give easy insights for students or graduates wanting to pursue digital marketing as a career. This article is for people who are at their beginner level. Throughout this article, I have given several links to other useful resources.
Marketing
One must know at least the basic concepts of marketing, and the importance of communication, before knowing about digital marketing. Marketing is a diverse term and is subjected to many interpretations.
Dr. Philip Kotler defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit”.
Marketing starts with knowing the target audience. Knowing their needs, values, etc. when there is a need, the customer is willing to spend. When they spend, businesses happen.
Marketing is all about sending the right message to the right people at the right time
But marketing is nothing when the product or service is not well defined. A successful product is not a certainty but an effort. One wise person helped me understand this in a better way. marketing accelerates the death of a product if that product is not distinct. Likewise, the product can market itself when it is neatly defined.
For example,
we do not message nowadays, we WhatsApp. We do not video call, we facetime.
One may able to find a specific niche for their business when they way work there knowing their customers better. Finding your niche help in making profit margins without worrying about your competitors.
Digital Marketing
The Internet has become an essential part of our lives. It is amazing to see that the world has become a small place. New opportunities unlock every day. In my opinion, life has become easy, thanks to the internet. We know that humans are born to survive in this world. We find better ways to live, It may sound Philosophical, but it’s the truth. we found better ways to do our business through the internet. It is funny when you realize that uber, a convenient, inexpensive, and safe taxi service does not own a single car. That is how much the internet can help our world progress.
Marketing has been routed in our subconscious. It has been around in the world for centuries. But throughout this journey, different mediums have been adapted for marketing. people nowadays prefer digital media to reach customers, that is one way to define digital marketing. Unlike traditional marketing, knowing about that target audience and the ways to reach them is very easy. It’s highly important to know the basic concepts of marketing, before taking things into digital mediums. The integrated digital marketing framework will help you understand the ways marketing can be done online.
A successful strategy can also use both traditional and digital marketing channels together. It is always about finding the balance. For beginners, the best practice would be to use marketing channels that are economical and cut the overall cost. It may or may not include traditional and digital marketing channels together.
CATT Marketing funnel
The CATT marketing funnel can help you with insights on how and where to use the different digital marketing channels effectively in your strategy.
n^CATT = profit. Allow me to explain it to you better
n- niche- Success depends on finding your niche
C- content- creating content like videos, images, and blog posts best suited for the audience
A – Attention – drive attention to the content through paid ads, referrals, social media, etc.
T – Trust- build trust with the customers through marketing automation and retargeting
T- Transaction – convert leads into sales with the natural sales method
Throughout the process, one thing I found to be very important is communication.
- You are communicating the need for attention through paid ads and referrals
- You are communicating believability when doing retargeting
- You are convincing and communicating trust while selling
- You are communicating a message to the customer when creating content like videos, webinars, etc.
However, Communication and language fluency are two different things. Having command and control over a language does not effectively mean that you are a good communicator.
Language fluency is essential and one of the many things that are needed to make communication, not the only thing. In fact, nonverbal communication has more involvement rate than verbal communication. Your body language and gestures are very important. Having a better perspective of the customer’s needs and sending messages in a way that will catch their attention is essential in marketing. For example. Effective content can be created in the form of images, and tutorial videos for an aspiring logo designers. Blog posts might not be an effective way to engage the audience.
Coca-Cola
Some successful digital campaigns involve both traditional and digital channels. In a marketing campaign run by Coca-Cola, the audience was able to drink coke via their smartphones. Yes, you heard it right. You can check out the video of the campaign here
It was a part of the coke Zero’ you do not know zero, til you’ve tried its campaign. It was an interactive campaign involving the Shazam app, that resulted in the guest receiving either samples of coke zero or a coupon for a free bottle. The marketing initiative involved everything from billboards, tv ads, flyers, social media, and interactive apps.
I believe that digital marketing is the future and it is here to stay. One good piece of advice for budding marketers is to learn to evolve along with the technologies and equip yourself accordingly. By getting your basics right, you will be able to adapt quickly.