Photo by bongkarn thanyakij from Pexels

I am sure you are familiar with this buzzword which has been around for quite some time. Yes. You got it right, Digital Marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?  How to get started with it?

Let’s dive a bit to uncover some basic essentials of digital marketing.

Basics you should know or you should learn

Before we get into concepts of digital marketing, there are some basic skills or know-how which is necessary to implement digital marketing successfully.

You need to be aware of which niche you are going to target, for example, it could be something specific like “How to build your personal brand on Linkedin” or “How to generate leads from Facebook”

Some basics of economics is a must-have like economics helps to understand how and why we make the purchasing choices we do. Four key economic concepts–scarcity, supply and demand, costs and benefits, and incentives–can help us explain many decisions that human beings make.

Now, this is a key skill that you need to have or you need to cultivate ie Communication skills. Here you need to learn to communicate to your audience as if you are talking to your friends. Writing is a really important communication skill that you can learn by listening to podcasts, reading books, writing 500-word articles/ blog posts, add humor to make your posts engaging.

How integrated digital marketing works

The main key to integrated marketing is content. Content can be something valuable for your target audience, it can be in the form of blog posts, videos,s or presentation slides. The important components of integrated digital marketing include email marketing, content marketing, paid advertising, SEO, social media, and sell & convert. All the components of digital marketing need to be in sync and need to be implemented in a professional manner, this will help to build trust.

You can build a community/tribe around your content. Content will help you to get attention, to build trust, and ultimately this can help you to collect payments for your valuable online information products.

How to find a niche market in demand

If you are looking for an evergreen niche, these are the evergreen niches, wealth, health, and relationships. You can include one more fashion. You should ideally target a niche where you feel you have a fair amount of experience and know-how.  Try to be specific when targeting a niche.

Like for example, the Digital marketing course is too broad, instead, you can target something like “Digital marketing course for beginners, or for working professionals. Here the google suggestion comes in handy, refer below

You can use Answerthepublic to get more data regarding your niche.

Amazon website is one of the best places to visit and check reviews about products in your niche. Here you will get insights about information and physical products in any particular niche.

Scratch your own itch

– means to do something out of motivation to solve a personal problem; to take matters into one’s own hands. Like you want to improve your work productivity and you create a plan, guide, or a book on this, but do this after you have successfully achieved your goals so that you provide a proven solution to your followers.

Talk to your customers, you can bounce off some questions to your customers, do a survey in your group. This will help you to get some valuable insights into your niche market.

Identify pre and post products/services of other products – Like to set up a digital marketing book, what all services you require. Like for example email marketing with automation, creation of landing page, social media tool for promotion, and other similar services/products.

Building your personal brand online

This is a very important topic on which we can write an entire blog post or even a book. For now, let’s dive into some key points on this topic.

• The best known will always beat the best.
• Do not hesitate to put your content out there. Do not have the fear of standing out. Stop trying to fit.
• Show your character and personality on social media.
• Publish content in different forms – with more content, you will “own more of the internet”.

What is Personal Branding?

Whether you like it or not, you have a personal brand, even if you consciously build it or not.

The beauty of personal branding is that you can control and decide about the world’s thinks, feels and what they say about you. Just think about it, isn’t it powerful. You have the power and control over what others say about you.

But you need to be authentic about your branding, it needs to be real.

You can build your brand in multiple ways

Let’s take a looks at some of the strategies you can use.

1. Storytelling

Let’s take the example of Uber. Uber says it is evolving the way the word moves.

“By seamlessly connecting riders to drivers through our apps, we make cities more accessible, opening up more possibilities for riders and more business for drivers,” the brand adds.

In short – you ride on demand.

It works because it is a rebellious taxi alternative that helped redefine transportation around the world

2. Check yourself on Search engine

Check your name on search engines. See what appears

What is written, you can add, edit or check how to optimize it. Your Twitter or your Linkedin profile will definitely pop up.

You have to judge for yourself how you show yourself to the world.

3. Motivate your followers

Your brand is of no value without any followers, you need to have a loyal fanbase who trusts you. Hence you need to develop mass trust.

You just need a group of followers who will then amplify your voice.

How do you do that?

Just ensure you deliver what you promise and your followers get the value that’s all.

You have to choose the best platform/channel where you can attract your followers. It could be a Facebook group, Linkedin group, small website or a Telegram Channel, or any other channel of your choice where your ideal audience hangs around.

Once you have a platform attract your followers to your platform with the help of valuable content.

But first you have to find your followers, if they find your message valuable they will follow you.

Attracting them is the first step, you have to follow it up with keeping them engaged regularly and keep them motivated.

Find out what they want or value, deliver it to them.

4. Set up your content marketing strategy

Content marketing is the key, you cannot ignore it.

Content is everywhere, it can be in the form of podcasts, blog posts, social media posts, webinar, just provide value to your tribe.

It’s always good to have a plan of content strategy in place.

If you want to establish yourself as an authority in your niche, then your content should be of the level of leaders in your niche.

Your personal brand can influence your revenue generation, for this you need to attach your content with a funnel. We will come to this in a bit.

Suggestion is to focus on 1-2 social media channels at a time.

5. Outreach

Personal branding requires personal approach.

Hence relationships are critical.

Make connections with people in any industry.

Note that personal branding is not all about business, you can develop relationships which could influence any aspect of your life.

Some ideas for outreach are guest blog on niche sites, co create content, webinars with influencers in your niche, attend offline and online events, join social media groups.

6. Find yourself a mentor

Let us all agree that behind every successful person there is a mentor or a guru.

It helps to have someone listen to you, give you advice or give you that push when things are not going your way.

Mentor can be someone who can be around virtually, not necessary that you meet him.

Some traits you can help you to identify your mentor, like his track record of success, he is clear and does not shy away by telling you the hard facts, is an influencer in the  industry and he has experience in your niche.

7. Work on it day and night

Work on it, provide value and keep doing it for years.

Without actual work you not reach anywhere

So take up this challenge, go out there, build your fanbase, show up daily and provide value.

Show the results you have generated for your followers.

Benefits of personal branding

• People trust you more.
• You have a much higher perceived value.
• You are differentiated from the competition.
• You are always 100% authentic.
• You are the “go-to” person in your area of expertise for your specific audience.
• You are known as an expert in your field.
• You attract ideal opportunities.

Funnel basics

Lets take and example of a B2B funnel.

The funnel has the 6 stages (refer the image)

Image Credit – TrackMaven

1. Awareness

Awareness is the top most stage of the funnel. You can draw customers to this stage through marketing campaigns and consumer research. You can achieve trust with advertising, events, trade shows, content, webinars, email campaigns, viral campaigns, search, and more. Here lead generation takes place and leads are pulled into a lead management system for further nurturing down the funnel. Free and valuable content is provided in multiple forms which are known as a lead magnet.

2. Interest

Once the lead enters the funnel, it moves to the interest stage, here the visitor learns more about the company’s services, products, and any other helpful information. This stage provides an opportunity to develop relationships with the people in the lead database and position itself. Leads can be nurtured with content that is targeted like classes, newsletters, etc.

3. Consideration

In the consideration stage, leads have been converted to qualified leads and are seen as prospective customers. Now you can send the prospects more information about your products, services through automated mail campaigns, and continue to nurture them with case studies, targeted content, trials, etc.

4. Intent

In the intent stage, qualified leads demonstrate that they are interested in buying the company’s service or product. This can happen after a product demo, after the person attends a webinar, or when a product is in the shopping cart of an eCommerce website. Here you can make a strong case about yourself why your product is the best choice for the buyers, you can show them testimonials and other details.

5. Evaluation

In the evaluation stage, the buyers are making a final decision about whether to buy the service or product. Generally, marketing and sales work in tandem to help close the deal and the decision-making process. You can help to convince the buyer that your brand is the best choice for your customer.

6. Purchase

This is the final stage of purchase, where the prospect has made the decision to buy and becomes your customer. At this stage sales takes care of the purchase transaction. After this stage, if the buyer has a positive experience, he will refer you to more potential customers that will fuel the top of the funnel and the full process repeats.

Key differences between B2C and B2B funnel

• Most B2Cconsumers go through the funnel alone or with a small group of trusted advisors (usually friends and relatives), while B2B consumers typically have a larger, cross-departmental buying group. The average B2B buying group is around 5 or 6 people.
• The B2C consumers never directly interact with a company representative, especially on e-commerce websites, while B2B consumers typically interact with a sales representative in the end of the funnel.

Now if you have come this far, hope you enjoyed my post.

If you have found value in this post, then please share it, this will motivate me to write more such articles.

Also, don’t forget to visit the site of DigitalDeepak where you will find tons of digital marketing-related information.

All the best!