Digital Marketing Basics: A Guide to getting you Started

Digital Marketing Basics: A Guide to getting you Started

Digital Marketing or Internet Marketing is a buzz word among online entrepreneurs’ community since last few years. To gain enough visibility for your online business in this competitive environment, it is essential to have a well-curated digital marketing strategy. It doesn’t matter whether you are an E-Commerce retailer, content blogger or solopreneur, you would definitely have to use digital marketing to expand and grow and expand your business. In this article, we would understand what is digital marketing and its types. Also, we would know about the career options available for digital marketing.

Digital Marketing 101

Digital Marketing involves promotion of your products, services or brand through world wide web. Since internet connects millions of people worldwide, it is one of the most effective methods to raise awareness for your offerings.

Those days are gone when people used print or digital media to advertise their products. Internet marketing is a cheaper and flexible alternative and has better outreach than any of the traditional marketing methods.

Let’s take the example of Joe, who is a budding E-Commerce entrepreneur. He started a website which sells shoes, but unfortunately, he is unable to attract many visitors. What should Joe do? Well, he has two options- he can publish an advertisement in the local newspaper or magazine to advertise his products OR he can leverage the power of internet to promote his website to millions of people. Let’s compare both these options in terms of various parameters:

Cost: To publish an Ad in newspaper Joe has to spend minimum 10$ per day and he has to pay even if the newspaper readers ignore his Ad. In contrast, Joe can set up a PPC (pay per click) Ad over social media or online forums where he has to pay only when someone clicks the Ad and lands on his website.
Reach: The newspaper advertisement can only reach the local audience or in some cases the resident state or country. While digital advertisement has a potential reach of millions of internet users
Targeting: Joe cannot laser target his newspaper advertisement to the people who like online shopping, or more specifically people who want to buy shoes. Everyone who is the subscriber of that newspaper would see his Ad. But through digital marketing, Joe can target people with specific interests or buying habits.

Considering the above 3 parameters, digital marketing obviously stands out in all respects.

Types of Digital Marketing

Creativity is the key to internet marketing. You need to be creative and smart at the same time to effectively promote your products or services through internet. Below infographic shows some of the popular types of internet marketing you can use right away:

Digital Marketing as a Career Option

Digital marketing has also emerged as a career option that people like to pursue. Every conglomerate has started working on a long digital marketing strategy to gain an online presence. Also, universities have started offering bachelors and the master course on this subject. You can definitely enroll in these courses if you envision a full-time career in digital marketing. There is no minimum qualification or prior knowledge required, you can sign-up just after your elementary school.