Digital Marketing 101: A Comprehensive Introduction for Beginners

But first, let’s look at what exactly is this phenomenon called Digital Marketing and why is it taking over the world?
Let’s take an example to understand this.

Imagine your uncle planning to open a new clothing store in a local market in your city. To promote the store using traditional marketing, you decide to print colourful flyers and distribute them in the neighbourhood, targeting nearby households and local shops.

But in 2023 you could take another route. You create a visually appealing website for your clothing store that showcases your latest collections, includes an online catalogue, and provides information about the store's location and opening hours. Additionally, you leverage social media platforms widely used in India, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to engage with potential customers.

This will enable you to reach a wider audience and engage potential customers online for little to no cost! This is Digital Marketing. 
 

Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services.

Why learn Digital Marketing?

Before moving on to digital marketing skills, you need to know why you should learn digital marketing. Apart from the obvious fact that the world is moving towards all things digital, here are some benefits of Digital Marketing which makes it a super lucrative career choice.

• Highly Detailed Targeting

  With Digital Marketing you have maximum control over who sees your product or brand. You can filter it down to demographics like age, city, profile and even interest in the subject matter. This helps you become visible to people who are most relevant to your business.

• Wider reach

  Your ability to reach an audience outside of your city, state and even country has amplified greatly with the advent of different types of Digital Marketing. With the click of a button, you can reach an audience globally, just as long as they have shown interest in your market.

• Cost efficient

  Apart from being extremely easy to access and master digital marketing basics, it also has the advantage of being way more cost efficient than traditional marketing channels. This has created a fair competitive environment for big corporations and small businesses alike as long as you have the digital marketing skills. 

• Ability to track data and measure success

  You can track the end to end movement of a potential lead. You can see how much time they spent on your ad or website, you can see whether they clicked through or not and many more such metrics.

Having realised all these benefits, it’s safe to say that most businesses find it only logical to adapt more to these new digital ways, so you should definitely learn digital marketing. Research also backs this claim.

Types of Digital Marketing 

Digital Marketing is an umbrella term for a plethora of channels that come under it. At each stage of a lead, one or more channels come into play to give the lead information that is relevant to them at that stage.  Before we dive into the channels let's understand these stages.

There are four major stages that a lead goes through,  and knowing what information to give when, happens to be one of the most important digital marketing skills.

Stage 1- Awareness: Where they need to be educated and made aware about your industry/product. So curiosity inducing, attractive content works here.
Stage 2- Consideration: Where they are interested in the product and are considering buying it. So informative & persuasive content works here.
Stage 3- Conversion: This is where they’ve bought your product and have now moved from being a lead to being a consumer. Confidence building and following through content works here.
Stage 4- Loyalty: This is the stage where they now decide whether they want to repurchase or promote your product. Promotional offers and engaging content works here.
 

The various types of digital marketing fall under these 3 broad categories. Let’s take a look at the difference between these.

The digital marketing basics start from these 5 important types.

1. Performance Marketing - Performance marketing is a results-driven approach to marketing that focuses on achieving specific goals or desired outcomes. It involves the use of measurable metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the effectiveness of marketing efforts and optimise strategies for maximum return on investment (ROI). Performance marketers usually work with paid media sources like advertising. 
2. Content Marketing - Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that involves creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a target audience. The aim is to acquire, nurture, and convert customers through the use of compelling content in different formats.
3. Social Media Marketing  - Social media marketing is the practice of leveraging social media platforms to promote products, services, or brands and engage with the target audience. Social media marketers usually spend little to no money on customer acquisition and rely on audience interaction to grow their organic traffic.
4. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the practice of optimising various elements of a website and content to enhance its visibility and organic ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). People who work in SEO primarily focus on building a credible online presence and visibility.
5. Affiliate & Influencer Marketing - Affiliate marketing involves paying out commissions to people for promoting products or services and influencer marketing utilises influential individuals on social media to endorse brands and expand visibility. The aim is to use other renowned and relevant people’s reach to increase your brand awareness.

How can you become a Digital Marketer?

Now that you know the Digital Marketing basics, let’s look at how you can become one by learning essential digital marketing skills. Digital Marketing is one such career option for which you don’t need a specific degree. All you need is the right set of skills and guidance. Here are the steps that will take you closer to learning digital marketing. 

1. Research
2. Skill Building
3. Pick a Niche
4. Practice
   
   

5. Portfolio Building & Network

   
   

6. Be consistent
   Now we understand that this sounds like a lot but we assure you that it is achievable. You could do all these steps on your own and succeed in a year’s time or you could just go for a Beginner to Pro, all-you-can-learn, Digital Marketing Course where you can give your career a head start to learn digital marketing. Look for a program that covers all the digital marketing basics, different types of digital marketing, and digital marketing skills, teaches all in-demand tools, gives practical training like working on projects, focuses on profile building, and also gives you placement training to become your best version.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are the basics of Digital Marketing?
The basics of digital marketing include utilising online platforms like social media, search engines, email, and websites to promote products/services, aiming to connect with a specific target audience and drive desired actions or conversions.

2. Why does Digital Marketing matter?
Digital marketing matters because it allows businesses to reach a vast online audience, engage with potential customers, analyse campaign effectiveness, and tailor strategies for better results in today's technology-driven world.

3. Why learn Digital Marketing?
Learning digital marketing equips individuals with essential skills to navigate the modern business landscape, harness online platforms effectively, and drive brand growth through targeted audience engagement and measurable results.

4. How to become a Digital Marketer?
To become a digital marketer, develop a strong understanding of online platforms, analytics, content creation, and advertising techniques through learning resources, courses, and practical experience.

5. Is Digital Marketing easy for beginners?
Yes, digital marketing can be easy for beginners as it offers a wide range of user-friendly tools and resources, allowing newcomers to gradually grasp and implement its fundamental strategies.

The importance of Digital Marketing is only going to increase with time as even consumers move completely to online channels. This is your time to take the leap and build a career in Digital Marketing.