in this video we're talking all about digital marketing. What it is, how it
works, as well as diving into some of the most proven and effective digital
marketing strategies available today let's get to it
hey there my name is Adam Earhart, Modern Marketing Strategist, and welcome to the
Modern Marketing Show where we help you generate more leads, customers and sales
by making better marketing so if you're interested in learning the latest and
greatest marketing strategies, tools, tips, tricks and tactics well you may want to
consider subscribing and hitting that notification bell. Alright so let's talk
digital marketing.
Specifically in this episode we're going to be pulling back
the curtain on what is arguably one of the most complicated and yet significant
and most powerful aspects of running a business and that is digital marketing
by the end of this episode you're gonna leave with not only a better
understanding of what digital marketing is and how it all works but actually how
it applies in the real world because theory and academic stuff and all that
kind of book knowledge is is nice to have and it can play a role in helping
you form a foundation and base knowledge but it's a completely different story
when we take all those concepts and theories and we actually apply them in
the real world and that's what I want to help you with here but before we dive
into the theoretical and academic stuff as well as the practical and actual
applications of digital marketing first we need to decode what exactly we're
talking about here after all when it comes to digital marketing there is no
lack of confusion and I blame myself as a marketer for being part of the problem
after all we're infamous for using complicated jargon and technical words
like SEO, PPC, CTA, CTR and I could go on with dozens and dozens more to make
matters worse people often associate digital marketing with complex online
software, coding or these really complicated funnels that take teams of
dozens and dozens of people just to keep running no wonder there's still so much
confusion around it and so many otherwise very smart and savvy business
owners still avoid it. Now of course digital marketing does
have some more complicated and technical aspects involved but that doesn't mean
you need to know what every single one of them is and how to do them all in
fact even just a broad or general understanding of all the different
pieces will allow you to thrive in today's digital marketplace because at
the end of the day digital marketing is actually a pretty simple concept but
before we dive to all the specifics first a quick shout
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check out the link in the descriptions below. Alright so let's get back to it.
What exactly is digital marketing? Well brace yourself for this one but digital
marketing is just marketing done digitally yep that's kind of it meaning
the same concepts and principles and theories that apply when marketing your
business well these are all going to be applied but done on digital platforms
like social media, through email and other online channels. Basically if
you're using a digital platform to communicate your business's value to
your customers then you my friend are digital marketing. So how does digital marketing work?
Well the reality like we just covered is that digital marketing
works much the same way as offline or traditional marketing does in fact when
you hear somebody talking about digital marketing they're referring more to the
tools and the digital and online aspect of those tools rather than the
underlying strategy behind it which should always be formed on foundational
and really marketing fundamentals. So now that we've got that covered that digital
marketing is really just marketing done with digital tools well what are the
best tools available and the best way to make digital marketing work for you well
the very first step when it comes to creating an effective digital marketing
strategy is to first identify your market you see this is going to be the
same whether we're talking traditional or digital marketing but the first step
is always in identifying that target market that ideal customer or prospect
or potential person that you really want to connect with now the reason this is
such a foundational piece of an overall strategic campaign is because without
the right person in mind well nothing else is really going to matter so spend
a little bit of time and do some digging into your ideal target market, what are
their demographic details like their age, gender, income, occupation, things of that
nature, also what are their geographic details
where do they live, what city, state, province, country, things like that and
lastly, and maybe most importantly, what are their
psychographic details, things like their attitudes, interests, opinions and
behaviors. The better you're able to form a really clear picture of who your ideal
market is well the more effective your digital marketing strategy or marketing
strategy in general is going to be all right so once you've got your market
clearly identified it's time to move on to step two message now when it comes to
creating a really effective message one of the things that I like to advise is
that you take a look at your clients or your customers basically the market that
you've just identified well take a look at their miracles and miseries. Their
miracles are going to be things like their wants and their needs, their goals
and their dreams, again the better you understand your market well the better
you're going to understand their miracles and ideally your business is
going to be the one that's positioned to deliver those miracles for them.
The flipside of that of course, is their miseries what are their fears, their
frustrations, their pains, their nightmares and all the things they're
trying to avoid again step two is going to be pretty much the same whether we're
talking traditional or digital marketing and the third step is media and this is
where things really differentiate between traditional and digital
marketing because it's here that we're going to be making the choice for which
platform we're going to be using to communicate our message with our market
now when we're talking about traditional media we're talking about things like
the newspaper or the radio or Direct Mail or any form of print really digital
on the other hand is going to include things like social media, online video,
email marketing, online pay-per-click advertising, things of that nature where
things get really exciting though and where digital marketing is such an
effective overall strategy to deploy is that well pretty much everyone
regardless of age or gender or income or occupation, pretty much everyone is
online these days which means that no matter who you're trying to reach you
can reach them with digital marketing. Not only that but digital marketing also
has some other benefits above traditional marketing namely the fact
that the targeting is just so dialed in with digital platforms also the time to
get data back is significantly reduced meaning if you create an ad and put it
in the newspaper or in a magazine you're gonna have to wait a period of days,
weeks, maybe even months for your market to see your message and react or not
react digital marketing on the other hand well you can create an ad and put
it out to your market in as little as a few hours and get immediate response
letting you know if you're on track or if something needs to be changed.
All right, so now that we've got all that covered what are some of the most
effective digital marketing strategies available today? Well when it comes to
digital marketing there's no shortage of available strategies no shortage of
opinions that goes along with each of those strategies either social media
gurus say you need to be using more social media, email marketing advocates
preach the benefits of reaching your customers directly in their email INBOX,
video marketing experts say everybody needs to be creating more videos and
online advertisers tell you that the best return on investment is with online
ads so who's right well in reality they all are because it's gonna depend on
your market your message and your media basically we need to figure out who
you're trying to reach what the message is that you're trying to communicate and
which online or digital platform is going to be best aligned with you your
business your industry and your customers. Unfortunately, where many
people get lost and confused is they take a look at all these different
things realize that they might all work so they start doing everything and one
thing I can tell you with certainty after years of being a digital marketing
consultant and owning a marketing agency is that you definitely do not need to do
everything in fact most of your results are going to come from one two maybe
even three carefully selected and strategically deployed channels at most
so to help you choose which one may be best for you and your business these are
some strategies we use inside the agency every single day for our clients and
have proven to be some of the most effective forms of digital marketing
available today. The first is, of course, social media marketing.
You simply can't argue with the proven results that you're able to achieve with
a strategically deployed social media marketing campaign now there are nuances
between how the campaign is deployed and how we're going to leverage it but it
really comes down to using one or a combination of Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube and LinkedIn depending on the market and depending on the client and
their customers. Regardless, having a social media presence today is pretty
much mandatory and doing the best you can will provide a real and tangible
return on investment. The other strategy that we consistently use is online
advertising. Again, most of the social media platforms do have the option to
use both organic social media which means unpaid or just
regular posting content as well as paid online advertising where you're
basically paying them for a distribution again we take a look at the market and
essentially what we're trying to get across and then make a strategic
decision between Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and the Google Display Network.
As a fun fact, some of our highest ROI campaigns have almost always come from
social media online advertising. Yeah, it can be a bit of a bear to learn when
you're first getting started and can be a bit of a trick to figure everything out
but once you do, once you've got it dialed in it's a really powerful concept.
The other strategy we almost always deploy and certainly with our local
clients is search engine optimization or SEO for short. Basically if you're
unfamiliar with SEO it involves optimizing the website to appear higher
in the search rankings so when someone's typing in a search term your business
appears top-of-the-line. All right, so now that we've got all that covered
the next thing you're going to want to do is check out the original
version of this video I've got linked up right here it's short but it's one of
the most popular videos on my channel and provides another perspective on what
digital marketing is and how it all works. So make sure to check that one out
now and thanks so much for watching and I'll catch you next time on
The Modern Marketing Show