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This Digital Marketing Starter Guide can help give you clarity, confidence, and insight into how you can succeed online.
Here is some basic information to help you better understand how digital marketing works and how you can begin marketing your business online.
Let’s take the guesswork out of your digital marketing strategy together!
A website is just one component of effective digital marketing which involves using a variety of digital marketing activities such as:
to reach your audience.
Combining a variety of these activities based on your business objectives is what drives results.
You can reach and engage your target audiences in today’s online-driven world monitoring performance in real-time building brand awareness, generating leads, and driving business growth.
Your investment in digital marketing depends several factors such as your
The good news? There are plenty of affordable options to market your business online effectively.
Start by allocating a percentage of your revenue and focus on scalable efforts like your website or social media. Generally speaking a good rule of thumb is to start with somewhere around 5-10% of your revenue.
Highlight tangible results such as:
Communicate the fact that digital marketing is an investment in the growth of the organization to demonstrate the long-term value.
The time frame to see results varies depending on:
Consistency, traceability, and adaptability are key to long-term success.
Digital marketing uses online platforms such as:
Traditional marketing relies on offline methods like print, TV, and radio.
While both have value, digital marketing can provide more flexibility and precise reach. For optimal results, it is best to use a combination of both digital and traditional marketing methods.
Digital marketing can provide:
However, combining both traditional and digital marketing can maximize your impact.
Align messaging and branding for all mediums.
For example, use digital ads to amplify traditional campaigns or send your offline customers to online platforms to receive exclusive offers.
Social media is just one part of digital marketing, but to improve the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts you may want to combine multiple channels and tactics for greater effectiveness.
Yes! Digital marketing is scalable and highly effective for small businesses. Affordable strategies like
can help small businesses reach ideal customers and compete effectively.
You should be tracking metrics such as your:
Regular reporting and analysis can help you continually evaluate success and adjust your digital marketing investments to meet your goals.
Stay informed by following
A digital marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to achieve your goals by leveraging a variety of online channels such as:
It ensures your digital marketing investments are
helping you reach the right audience at the right time, and achieve meaningful results.
Identifying your target audience involves understanding your ideal customers’:
Tools such as:
can help you translate your current customer base to an ideal customer profile tailored to their preferences to help remain engaged with your current customers and grow your audience by providing value.
Setting achievable goals starts with defining clear, measurable objectives like:
The specific realistic KPIs are unique to where your business currently stands and what you would like to achieve.
KPIs help track whether or not you are meeting your goals so you can refine your efforts. Some informative KPIs:
The best channels depend on your industry, audience, and goals.
It is helpful to identify platforms that align with your business objectives and find where your ideal customers are online to get in front of them when they need you most.
An effective digital marketing strategy should include:
Being able to adapt to the ever-evolving digital landscape is helpful when implementing an effective digital marketing strategy.
ROI is measured by evaluating the cost of your digital marketing campaigns against the revenue generated from those efforts. Track metrics such as:
Using effective tools provide a clear picture of how you’re investments are doing such as:
Identifying your target audience involves understanding your ideal customers’:
Tools such as:
can help you translate your current customer base to an ideal customer profile tailored to their preferences to help remain engaged with your current customers and grow your audience by providing value.
As a smaller business you have the opportunity to focus on:
Your ability to quickly adapt, engage directly with your customers, and create more personal relationships can be used to your advantage against those corporate big wigs.
First, understand your audience and meet their needs.
Provide value to them by using platforms they are active on and:
You can start on your own with free tools and resources. However, partnering with professionals ensures expertise and saves time, allowing you to focus on what you do best.
Review your strategy at least quarterly and adjust based on:
Ensure your digital marketing investments are meeting your goals and providing a solid return or adjust accordingly.
It has been 42 years since the birth of the Internet on January 1, 1983. Now that the internet is practically everywhere using it is nearly second nature to most. With that being said your website reflects your business to your audience and sometimes is the first interaction they will have with you.
It has been 42 years since the birth of the Internet on January 1, 1983. Now that the internet is practically everywhere using it is nearly second nature to most. With that being said your website reflects your business to your audience and sometimes is the first interaction they will have with you.
The pages and content of your website will be unique to you and what you are trying to accomplish, but the following are examples of basic pages to help you get started:
Your website is your digital storefront and ultimately one of the first online impressions that your audience will get of your company.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of enhancing your website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) to attract organic (non-paid) traffic. Essentially, the goal is to appear on SERPs when someone searches for your brand, products, or services.
SEO is an important component of any successful digital marketing strategy making it easier for your target audience to find you. Successful SEO can bring in more visitors without paying a search engine to show you’re website in the paid section of search results.
Yes, SEO still helps improve your website’s visibility, even as search evolves with AI, voice search, and other advancements. It’s about adapting to these changes and staying competitive in the ever evolving digital landscape.
SEO focuses on organic (unpaid) search visibility, while SEM includes paid strategies like pay-per-click (PPC) ads to appear in the sponsored section of search results. Both should be components of your broader digital marketing strategy.
SEO focuses on earning organic traffic by optimizing your website for search engines, while PPC involves paying for ad placements in search engine results. SEO is a long-term investment, while PPC can deliver quicker results but requires ongoing ad spend.
SEO complements your efforts across other digital marketing channels, like social media and paid ads, by:
SEO works by aligning your website with search engine algorithms to improve ranking. This involves improving on-page factors like keywords, meta tags, and content, as well as off-page factors such as backlinks and social signals. Search engines then analyze these elements to rank your site based on its relevance and authority.
You can! Basic tasks, like keyword research, optimizing website content, and improving site speed, can be done on your own.
If you’re looking to implement more advanced techniques such as technical SEO, competitor analysis, and link building, you might benefit from hiring a professional.
SEO involves a variety of factors, including keyword research and implementation, performance and user experience (UX) optimization, and building quality links to improve search rankings. All of these factors and more contribute to increasing the ranking of your website on search platforms.
Keep in mind the algorithms used by search engines change so websites need to be kept up to date to remain relevant on search engines.
Key factors include:
Focus on:
AI prioritizes relevance and context over exact keywords.
When developing content for your website use:
Keywords are specific words or phrases users type into search engines when looking for information, products, and service. Using keywords relevant to your ideal customers wants and needs helps search engines match your website content with users’ search queries.
Keywords remain are still relevant but should be integrated naturally not forced or stuffed into content. Focus on user intent and crafting unique quality content that answers relevant questions rather than just matching phrases.
Use industry related tools like:
just to name a few to identify keywords and conversational queries that are popular in your industry. Analyze competitor keywords and explore AI tools for deeper insights.
Develop unique quality content that:
Include a variety of multimedia elements such as:
to ensure your content is engaging to your audience.
AI tools can assist with:
but the content you publish should be accurate, align with your brand voice, and provide real value to your audience.
On-page SEO involves optimizing web pages to improve their search engine rankings and earn more relevant traffic. It includes factors like meta tags, headers, image alt text, URL structure, and content quality.
Off-page SEO are factors outside the website that influence search engine rankings. This includes building high-quality backlinks, increasing brand mentions, and improving social media presence.
Technical SEO focuses on the backend and structure of websites ensuring it meets search engine requirements. This includes optimizing website speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, structured data, and ensuring secure HTTPS connections.
Yes, technical SEO helps search engines mere efficiently crawl and index your site, forming a more solid foundation for all other SEO efforts.
A mobile-friendly website ensures a seamless user experience across devices, which search engines reward with higher rankings. Mobile usability is critical, especially with Google’s “mobile-first indexing” approach.
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your site. They signal to search engines that your site is credible and trustworthy. High-quality backlinks from authoritative websites can improve your rankings significantly.
Focus on earning links from reputable websites through:
Avoid link schemes or buying backlinks these “black hat” strategies will ultimately hurt your overall digital marketing strategy.
Address:
Core Web Vitals measure page experience, including:
Improve them by:
Very important. This structured data helps search engines understand your content better and can enhance search results with rich snippets.
Black hat SEO refers to unethical practices that manipulate search engine algorithms, such as keyword stuffing, link spamming, or using hidden text. While these tactics may deliver short-term results, they can lead to penalties from search engines and harm your website’s long-term performance.
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your digital brand to attract customers from specific geographic locations. This is especially important for businesses with a physical presence, such as restaurants, retail stores, or service providers. It involves tactics like optimizing Google Business Profiles, local keywords, local directories, and managing online reviews.
Keep your profile updated with accurate information, including business hours, photos, reviews, and posts. Use keywords relevant to your local area.
A mobile-friendly website ensures a seamless user experience across devices, which search engines reward with higher rankings. Mobile usability is critical, especially with Google’s “mobile-first indexing” approach.
Test your site regularly on different devices to ensure usability.
SEO tools are software or platforms that help you analyze your website’s SEO performance by identifying opportunities for improvement.
Popular tools include:
These tools provide insights on traffic, rankings, backlinks, and more.
SEO can takes from 3-6 months to show meaningful results, though this may vary based on your:
Monitor metrics like:
SEO Tools mentioned in the previous section can help measure your ROI based on the goals and objectives of your organization.
A mobile-friendly website ensures a seamless user experience across devices, which search engines reward with higher rankings. Mobile usability is critical, especially with Google’s “mobile-first indexing” approach.
Trends include:
Follow best practices:
Social media marketing is the process of using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok to connect with your audience, promote your brand, and achieve your business goals. It involves creating and sharing content, running ads, and engaging with followers.
Social media is a critical component of digital marketing as it allows businesses to connect directly with their audience, share content, and promote products or services. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are often used to build brand loyalty and drive traffic.
Yes! Despite changes, social media remains an important digital marketing channel for building brand awareness, connecting with your audience, and driving conversions. A strategic approach can maximize both organic and paid reach.
Start by defining clear goals such as:
Then identify:
Take advantage of digital marketing tools such as:
to refine demographic, behavioral, and interest-based data.
Monitor platform-specific user trends to find where and when your audience is most active.
A mix is ideal, but everything in digital marketing is dependent on your company and your objectives. You can focus on major platforms for reach and visibility while exploring niche platforms to engage highly targeted audiences who value personalized interactions.
Results depend on your goals, strategy, and efforts. While paid ads can deliver quick results, organic strategies like content marketing and community building take time. Typically, you can expect to see meaningful results within 3 to 6 months with consistent effort.
Yes, many businesses start by managing social media in-house. However, as your business grows, you might consider hiring a social media manager or working with an agency to handle content creation, engagement, and ad campaigns effectively.
The cost of social media marketing varies based on factors like ad spend, content creation, and whether you hire an agency or manage it in-house. While organic efforts may cost less, paid campaigns require a budget to reach specific goals.
To create a social media marketing strategy, start by defining your goals, identifying your target audience, choosing the right platforms, and developing a content calendar. Measure performance regularly and adjust your strategy based on insights.
As always with digital marketing first you must know your audience.
Focus on:
Within the first 3 seconds, it’s important to capture their attention, you could use:
Take advantage of digital marketing tools such as:
to refine demographic, behavioral, and interest-based data.
Monitor platform-specific user trends to find where and when your audience is most active.
Explore AR/VR features offered by your audience’s platform of choice.
Develop interactive experiences allowing users to engage with your brand in unique and immersive ways.
The type of content that works best depends on the platform and your audience. Popular types include:
Testing and analyzing performance will help you refine your strategy.
Hashtags categorize content and make it discoverable to users searching for specific topics. Using relevant hashtags can increase the reach and visibility of your posts, helping you connect with a wider audience.
Video content grabs attention, boosts engagement, and communicates information quickly. Platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube prioritize video content, making it an essential part of any social media marketing strategy.
User-generated content (UGC) refers to content created by your audience, such as reviews, photos, or videos featuring your products or services. Sharing UGC can:
User-generated content (UGC) refers to content created by your audience, such as reviews, photos, or videos featuring your products or services. Sharing UGC can:
You can plan your content calendar while allocating time or assigning someone to engage with your audience daily.
Tools such as Buffer and Sprout Social can help manage both.
Platforms like Brandwatch and Mention track hashtags, and sentiment. Analyze conversations to gain insights and respond proactively. Seek out the platforms that fit your business goals, budget, and overall digital marketing strategy.
Take advantage of digital marketing tools such as:
to refine demographic, behavioral, and interest-based data.
Monitor platform-specific user trends to find where and when your audience is most active.
Address concerns:
Organic social media marketing is when you post free content to build relationships and engage with your audience.
Paid social media marketing involves running ads or sponsored posts to reach a larger or more targeted audience quickly.
Social media ads are paid promotions that allow you to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
Platforms like:
use algorithms to deliver your ads to users who are most likely to engage with them.
Use:
Develop compelling ad creatives tailored to specific buyer personas.
Rely on first-party data, use platform-specific tools like Meta’s Conversions API, and maintain transparency with users about data collection.
Leverage AI-driven tools for:
Take advantage of digital marketing tools such as:
to refine demographic, behavioral, and interest-based data.
Monitor platform-specific user trends to find where and when your audience is most active.
Tailor formats to suit platform capabilities and audience preferences.
Note, the metrics you will be tracking are dependent on your overall digital marketing strategy, your specific goals, and the campaign you’re running.
Just to name a few relevant metrics:
Use tools like Google Analytics and native platform insights to:
You can measure success by tracking key metrics such as engagement (likes, comments, shares), follower growth, reach, impressions, website traffic, and conversions. Most platforms offer built-in analytics tools to help monitor performance.
Social media engagement refers to interactions such as likes, comments, shares, and direct messages. It matters because it shows that your audience is connecting with your content, which can boost brand loyalty and improve visibility through algorithms.
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing where businesses partner with influencers (individuals with a significant online following) to promote products or services. It helps businesses tap into the influencer’s audience and build trust quickly.
Tools like Aspire and Upfluence can help you to better understand what influencers your audience may be paying attention to so you can create a mutually beneficial relationship.
Share blog posts and email sign-up links on social media.
Repurpose content across platforms, and use social media insights to inform SEO strategies.
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing where businesses partner with influencers (individuals with a significant online following) to promote products or services. It helps businesses tap into the influencer’s audience and build trust quickly.
To create a social media marketing strategy, start by defining your goals, identifying your target audience, choosing the right platforms, and developing a content calendar. Measure performance regularly and adjust your strategy based on insights.
Yes, social media is an excellent channel for providing customer service. Responding to comments, direct messages, and reviews quickly and professionally can enhance customer satisfaction and build trust with your audience.
A social media audit involves evaluating your current social media accounts to analyze performance, identify strengths and weaknesses, and uncover growth opportunities. It’s an essential step in refining your social media marketing strategy.
Social media is a critical component of digital marketing as it allows businesses to connect directly with their audience, share content, and promote products or services. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are often used to build brand loyalty and drive traffic.
SMS Marketing is the practice of sending promotional or informational text messages directly to customers’ mobile phones. Despite the rise of new marketing channels, SMS remains relevant in 2025 due to its:
SMS Marketing is the practice of sending promotional or informational text messages directly to customers’ mobile phones. Despite the rise of new marketing channels, SMS remains relevant in 2025 due to its:
SMS Marketing is a versatile tool that complements your other marketing efforts. It can be used for:
Yes, when executed properly. SMS Marketing can provide:
to encourage immediate engagement.
Yes, absolutely. Even though social media is prevalent in 2025, email marketing remains a direct and effective channel for audience engagement.
Email marketing’s key advantages include:
Email marketing should be a component of any effective digital marketing strategy:
Absolutely. If effectively implemented Email marketing can consistently deliver high ROI:
The emails your audience will appreciate will vary based on your industry, their preferences, and where they are in your sales funnel, but a few types of email content that can receive good good engagement include:
Automation can streamline repetitive tasks such as sending welcome emails or abandoned cart reminders. Benefits include:
Popular email marketing tools include:
Evaluate based on:
Depending on your goals you should consider the following:
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