A Beginner's Guide to Digital Marketing - Webinar Summary
Updated: Sep 13, 2021
Introduction
This last year has been tumultuous, with many businesses taking a massive hit as they were forced to close for months. This has impacted small businesses significantly more than large corporations, especially as many small organisations have not established an online presence and still rely on footfall in stores. We at reconynge want to help your business succeed in a digital-first world, so we recently ran our first webinar, "A Beginner's Guide to Digital Marketing".
Although we're not marketing specialists, we've learnt through experience that every small business needs a marketing plan, so we will share our knowledge to help your business succeed and grow. You can watch the webinar recording here, or continue reading for an overview of the content.
Digital Marketing
Digital, or online marketing, is the promotion of brands to connect with potential customers using the internet and digital communication. This includes email, social media, web-based advertising and even text and multimedia messaging.
The importance of Digital Marketing, especially nowadays, cannot be overstated. You can reach a vast audience in a way that is both cost-effective and easily measurable.
To name a few benefits:
Learning what your prospects are looking for
Reaching a global marketplace
Saving money but reaching more customers
Getting to know your audience - (creating brand loyalty)
Tracking responses to your marketing efforts immediately
Website
A website was once a luxury, but in the modern age, it's a necessity. A good website is a mandatory component of owning a business. Your website will reflect your business, so it needs to look good! There are plenty of templates available to get you started. Some businesses start with a tiny presence and a free page on sites like Facebook and Etsy. But, if you plan to grow your company beyond these limits and become a serious member of the marketplace, you should consider what your web presence will be, how much you will spend on it, and what you want to accomplish.
Social Media
Social media is another must-have for a modern business. It's an effective and growing resource that allows you to connect with consumers. If the people you want to communicate with are on social media (which they most likely are), then you need to be too. Sites like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter are almost essential for many companies, as they have the most business-centric communities present on them. Niche businesses may be better off using niche sites, such as Reddit or Pinterest. Social media marketing takes a lot of very skilled work and patience to see a return on your investment, but it is an effective and worthy way to connect to an audience.
Emails
You can create a list of subscribers and emails that go periodically out to engage readers. There are lots of services you can use (both paid and free) to help get your messages out in an appealing format that can be read on a range of devices. Be sure to check the terms of service about email marketing since the law in many places now states that you need permission to add people to your mailout list.
Search Engine Optimation (SEO)
Tags, keywords, related searches - these can be difficult to learn, but the effect that a good SEO will have on your website traffic will be immeasurable. The more optimised your website is for search algorithms, the more your website will appear in search results. Therefore, you will gain more traffic and more interest in your company.
5 Steps to create a good digital marketing strategy
If this all seems a bit overwhelming, don't worry - we thought so too. That's why we've organised everything you need to plan an effective digital marketing strategy into just five easy steps:
Step 1: Customer and Market Analysis
Conduct research about your consumer base. What are their needs? It might not be what you expect from your ideal consumer. Since we are looking at internet marketing, it makes sense to connect to your consumers through an Internet pathway to find out what you need to know. Your goal is to identify a demographic that your marketing money can be directly pointed at. What do they need? Who is buying/using our product? How can I make the most of their interest in buying from you? Will you offer supplementary services or products? How will connecting to them via the internet help to spread your digital reach
Step 2: Analyse the competition - and yourself!
You need to take an honest look at your operation to create a plan that helps you to exceed the competition. We can camouflage all kinds of things in analysis, so be truthful and protect the viability of your business. What are your advantages? What are your core competencies? What are your weaknesses? Where are your shortcomings? What can you do to capitalise on your strengths? What can you do to exploit the competition's weaknesses and shortcomings?
Step 3: Analyse distribution channels
There are plenty of options for getting your product to your customer. Deciding which ones to use will have an impact on pricing, profit, servicing and timing. In a product typically used by an individual purchasing in a retail store, the product can go from your production facility to a wholesaler, and then to smaller distributors to be sold to a retailer. Each step in the process has to produce a profit, just as it does when you sell a service. In a complex system, you may be surprised at how many people are involved. At each stop on the chain, the participant does something that adds value to the product: (Packages, labels, advertising) and earns a profit.
Step 4: Develop the digital marketing strategy
Your market research gets applied in a marketing plan based on the 5 P's of marketing: Product (or service)
Price
Place
Promotion
Packaging
Step 5: Implement, evaluate, review and revise
Once you have decided what you are doing and take action, you'll start to evaluate results, make revisions and keep going. It's worth remembering that marketing is a cyclical process. At any time in the cycle, you may need to return to an earlier stage to fix a problem. If you are pricing and realise that the product will not be affordable for your market segment, you'll have to step back and adjust. However, if you realise that your product is pre-selling in better volume than imagined, you'll need to make sure that production can keep up with the demand.
Be socially ready and trained up
Many IT professionals and senior executives are neither comfortable nor experienced with modern social media.
Effective training helps people get over the hump to engage and look more professional online effectively.
Basic digital marketing and social media marketing courses are available for as little as £10 - it is a good idea to invest, so marketing staff are trained in the best practices for digital strategies.
Make "soft-skills" a priority - the communication, negotiation and consulting skills that IT professionals need to be successful Business Relationship Managers (BRMs) are directly transferable to the digital age.
How can we help?
Still unsure? Need some extra guidance? Didn't sign up for all these complicated aspects of marketing? Don't worry, that's where we come in:
A free digital marketing campaign template
A free marketing strategy document template
A review of either or both of these documents
A fully completed digital marketing strategy and campaign management.
Closing Points
With digital marketing being an unavoidable part of running a business in the modern age, we can only hope that the ideas and assistance we've come up with here will be helpful to your journey through the digital business landscape.
If you have any further questions or confusion regarding digital marketing, please feel free to contact us.