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What Is Digital Marketing?

What is digital marketing?

The Guide to Digital Marketing

What is digital marketing? The Guide to Digital Marketing breaks it down for you with simple instructions. Learn how to do SEO, SEM, Display Ads, Content Marketing, Social, Email, and more.

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What is digital marketing? Let’s face it, digital marketing can be a real brain bender for small biz owners. But you know what they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way! With limited resources and no dedicated marketing squad, it can feel like you’re constantly playing catch-up in the ever-evolving digital landscape. There are so many channels and options to choose from, it’s hard to know where to begin and how to make sure you’re reaching your ideal customers. Despite its complexities, digital marketing is vital for the survival of small businesses in today’s digital age. With more and more consumers turning to the internet to make their purchasing decisions, digital marketing is the perfect cost-effective solution to reach out and engage with potential customers. By using digital marketing channels such as social media, SEO, and email marketing, small biz owners can increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and ultimately drive business growth. So, don’t let its complexities hold you back. Invest some time and effort to understand the basics of digital marketing and seek help from the experts. Trust me, it’ll be worth it in the end to reach your target audience.

 

What is digital marketing?  

Digital marketing is the promotion of products, services or brands using electronic media. It’s all about connecting with your audience in the digital space, and using various tools and tactics to get your message across. From social media and email marketing, to search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising, the possibilities are endless. With digital marketing, you can reach a global audience and track your results in real time, making it one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to grow your business.

Think of it this way, digital marketing is like a fun and exciting party, where you get to invite all of your favorite people (aka your target audience) and show them a good time (aka your products or services). You can use different decorations (aka tactics) to make the party more interesting, and you can even see who’s having a good time (aka track your results) in real time. Plus, you don’t have to worry about running out of snacks or drinks (aka budget constraints) because you can always adjust your strategy. So, why not throw a digital marketing party and see who comes to play?

Developing a digital marketing strategy:

It’s important to have a clear plan in place outlining your goals, target audience, and the channels you will use to reach them.

First, clearly define your business objectives and how you want to achieve them through digital marketing. Next, research your target audience and their online behavior, including the platforms they use and the type of content they engage with. Once you have a good understanding of your audience, you can then determine the best channels to reach them such as social media, email marketing, SEO and paid advertising. Finally, you should set specific and measurable goals, create a content calendar, and develop a budget. Keep in mind that your strategy should be flexible and adaptable as you gather data and insights to optimize your campaigns over time.

Building a strong online presence:

This includes creating a website, social media profiles, and other online assets that will help you connect with your audience.  Here are some steps you can take to build a strong online presence:

  1. Create a professional website: Your website should be easy to navigate, visually appealing and optimized for search engines. Make sure it includes all the important information about your business, such as contact details and services offered.
  2. Establish social media profiles: Establish social media profiles on platforms that are popular among your target audience, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok.
  3. Share valuable content: Share valuable content, such as blog posts, videos, and infographics, that will attract and engage potential customers.
  4. Build backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website, they help improve your website’s visibility on search engines. You can get backlinks by guest blogging, participating in online forums, and asking other websites to link to your content.
  5. Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and messages, and actively engage with your audience to build relationships and improve brand loyalty.
  6. Optimize your online assets: Optimize your website and social media profiles for search engines, and make sure they are mobile-friendly and easy to navigate.
  7. Have a consistent branding: Use consistent branding across all your online assets and make sure your logo, color scheme, and messaging are consistent and aligned with your overall brand identity.

 

It’s important to regularly monitor and update your online presence to ensure it stays relevant and effective.  Remember that building a strong online presence takes time and effort, but by taking small steps every day and consistently working on it, you can improve your visibility and reach your target audience effectively.

 

Creating valuable content:

Developing and sharing valuable content, such as blog posts, videos, and infographics, can help attract and engage potential customers.  Here are some steps you can take to create valuable content:

  1. Understand your audience: Understand your target audience’s needs, interests, and pain points, and create content that addresses them.
  2. Identify your niche: Identify a specific niche within your industry and become an expert in it, this will help you create unique and valuable content that stands out.
  3. Use various formats: Use various formats such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and social media posts to appeal to different types of learners and to keep your content fresh.
  4. Use keywords: Use keywords that are relevant to your niche and target audience in your content, this will help your content rank higher in search engines and make it more discoverable.
  5. Make it shareable: Make your content shareable by including social sharing buttons, and by making it visually appealing and easy to read.
  6. Measure and optimize: Measure the performance of your content by looking at metrics such as engagement and traffic and use that data to optimize your future content.
  7. Be consistent: Try to be consistent in your content creation and post regularly, this will help you establish a loyal following and build trust with your audience.
  8. Use storytelling: Use storytelling to make your content more engaging and memorable, try to tell a story that evokes emotions, solve a problem, or entertain your audience. Comparison:

 

Maria is a small business owner who runs a family-owned bakery that has been passed down for generations. She struggled to attract new customers and her bakery was often overlooked by those passing by. Maria tried advertising her bakery on Facebook. She created an ad campaign targeting people in her local area who were interested in baked goods, and also shared pictures of her products.  The response was immediate. The ad campaign generated a lot of interest and new customers. The extra business allowed her to expand her bakery and hire more staff. Maria realized that Facebook advertising was a cost-effective and efficient way to reach her target audience and share her family’s passion for baking. Maria made sure to always invest in Facebook advertising to continue to grow her business.

 

Once upon a time, there was a small family-owned bakery that had been passed down for generations. The bakery was known for its delicious homemade bread and pastries and had a loyal local following. However, the owner of the bakery, Maria, had always struggled to attract new customers. Despite her delicious products, her bakery was often overlooked by those passing by.

One day, Maria decided to invest in advertising her bakery on Facebook. She created an ad campaign targeting people in her local area who were interested in baked goods, and also shared pictures of her delicious products and the story of her family-owned business. To her surprise, the response was immediate. New customers started pouring in, and her bakery was suddenly the talk of the town.

Maria was overjoyed, as the extra business allowed her to expand her bakery and hire more staff. Her customers were happy too, as they were now able to enjoy her delicious bread and pastries even more often. But most importantly, Maria’s advertising had allowed her to share her family’s passion for baking with more people than ever before.

As the business continued to grow, Maria realized that advertising was more than just a way to attract new customers, it was a way to share her family’s story, and connect with others on an emotional level. It was a way to share her passion and bring people together over a shared love of delicious baked goods.

From that day on, Maria made sure to always invest in advertising, to share her family’s story and bring the community together through the simple pleasures of homemade bread and pastries.

 

This second story illustrates that advertising is not only a tool for promoting products and services, but it’s also a way to connect with people on an emotional level and share a story, a passion, or a message. Storytelling allows businesses to break through the noise and reach their target audience in a meaningful way, and connect with them on a level that goes beyond transactions.

 

Remember that creating valuable content takes time and effort, but it is a vital part of building a strong online presence and engaging with your target audience.

 

Utilizing SEO:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website on search engine results pages (SERPs). Here are some steps you can take to improve SEO on your website:

  1. Conduct keyword research: Use keyword research tools to find keywords that are relevant to your niche and target audience, and include them in your website’s content, meta tags, and URLs.
  2. Optimize your website’s structure: Make sure your website’s structure is easy to navigate and understand for both users and search engines, use clear and descriptive headings, and use a hierarchy of H1, H2, H3 tags.
  3. Optimize your images: Use descriptive file names and alt tags for images on your website, this will help search engines understand the content of your images and improve the visibility of your website.
  4. Use internal linking: Use internal linking to help search engines understand the structure of your website and to make it easier for users to navigate.
  5. Create high-quality content: Create high-quality, relevant, and informative content that is regularly updated and engage with your audience, this will help to establish your website as an authority in your niche and improve its visibility on SERP.
  6. Build backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website, they help improve your website’s visibility on search engines. You can get backlinks by guest blogging, participating in online forums, and asking other websites to link to your content.
  7. Use analytics: Use analytics tools to track your website’s performance, understand how users interact with your website, and identify areas for improvement.
  8. Optimize for mobile: Optimize your website for mobile devices, as more and more users are accessing the internet through mobile devices and Google heavily consider mobile-first indexing in its search algorithm.

Keep in mind that SEO is a continuous process, it takes time and effort to achieve and maintain good rankings on SERPs, but with consistent effort and the right approach, it can help your website to be more visible and drive more traffic to it.

 

Create digital advertising campaigns:

Digital advertising allows for targeted reach, reaching specific demographics and interests, through different platforms and devices. It also allows for real-time measurement and optimization of campaigns to improve ROI and reach business goals.

  1. Define your target audience: Identify the demographics, behaviors, and interests of the people you want to reach.
  2. Set your advertising goals: Determine what you want to achieve with your advertising campaign, such as increasing website traffic, generating leads, or driving sales.
  3. Choose your platforms: Decide which social media platforms, search engines, and websites you want to advertise on based on your target audience and advertising goals.
  4. Create ad content: Develop engaging and visually appealing ad content that aligns with your brand and message.
  5. Set a budget: Determine how much you’re willing to spend on your advertising campaign and allocate your budget accordingly.
  6. Monitor and optimize: Track the performance of your ads and make adjustments as needed to improve their effectiveness.
  7. Use remarketing: Use remarketing to target users who have interacted with your brand or website in the past.
  8. Test and Measure the Results: Continuously test and measure the results of your advertising campaign to identify what works best and make data-driven decisions to optimize your campaign.

The advertising dashboards of most platforms, such as Google, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), and TikTok, are user-friendly and simple to navigate, as they can be accessed through a user profile.

 

Develop an effective email campaign:

Yes, email marketing is still considered to be an effective marketing strategy. According to research, email has an ROI of around 4,400%, which is significantly higher than other marketing channels. It allows for direct communication with a targeted audience, and it can increase customer engagement and retention. Email marketing also allows for measurable results and the ability to track and analyze the success of campaigns. Additionally, email is still considered to be one of the most preferred communication channels by consumers, which makes it a valuable tool for businesses looking to connect with their audience.

  1. Define your target audience: Identify the demographics, behaviors, and interests of the people you want to reach.
  2. Set your campaign goals: Determine what you want to achieve with your email campaign, such as increasing website traffic, generating leads, or driving sales.
  3. Build your email list: Collect and organize email addresses from potential and existing customers.
  4. Create compelling content: Develop engaging and visually appealing content that aligns with your brand and message.
  5. Test and optimize: Test your emails with a small group before sending to the full list. Use the results to optimize and improve the email for better performance.
  6. Use segmentation: Segment your email list into smaller groups based on demographics, behaviors, and interests to personalize your message and increase engagement.
  7. Monitor and analyze: Track the performance of your emails using metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
  8. Use A/B Testing: Continuously test and measure the results of your email campaigns to identify what works best and make data-driven decisions to optimize your campaign.

 

Analyzing and optimizing:

Analyzing and optimizing digital marketing efforts involves regularly monitoring and measuring the performance of your campaigns and adjusting based on data and can help improve the effectiveness of your campaigns over time. Here are some steps you can take to analyze and optimize your digital marketing efforts:

  1. Set specific goals: Set specific and measurable goals for your digital marketing campaigns, such as increasing website traffic, leads, or sales.
  2. Use analytics tools: Use analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and LinkedIn Analytics to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and gather data on the performance of your campaigns.
  3. Track conversion rates: Track the conversion rates for your website, email marketing campaigns, and social media campaigns, and identify areas for improvement.
  4. Monitor engagement: Monitor engagement levels on your social media profiles, website, and email campaigns, and track metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates.
  5. Conduct A/B testing: Conduct A/B testing on various elements of your campaigns, such as subject lines, headlines, and call-to-action buttons, to determine what works best.
  6. Analyze your competitors: Analyze your competitors’ digital marketing efforts and identify areas where they are outperforming you, and use that information to improve your own campaigns.
  7. Adjust: Based on the data you have collected, make adjustments to your campaigns, such as modifying your targeting, adjusting your budget, or creating new content.
  8. Review and repeat: Regularly review and repeat the process of monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing your digital marketing efforts.

It’s important to note that optimization is a continuous process, it’s not a one-time thing and it requires consistency and patience to see the results. By regularly analyzing and optimizing your campaigns, you can improve their performance and achieve better results over time.

 

In conclusion, digital marketing can be one perplexing and overwhelming field, especially for small biz owners who may not have the resources or know-how to navigate it like a pro. But, don’t let that discourage you, because despite its complexity, digital marketing is a must-have for any business that wants to thrive in today’s digital landscape. It provides an efficient and cost-effective way to reach and engage with potential customers. Sure, it may be daunting for small biz owners to understand all the different channels and options available, but remember, investing time and effort to learn the basics of digital marketing can be a game-changer in the long run. And if you’re still feeling lost, hiring a professional digital marketer or agency can help you effectively reach your target audience and drive business growth. With the right approach, small business owners can take advantage of the opportunities that digital marketing provides and kill it in today’s digital landscape.

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