by Marcia King | Nov 29, 2024 | Digital Marketing |
Ever wonder how businesses get their message out online? That’s digital marketing! It’s how businesses connect with people like you on the internet. This guide will give you a basic understanding of digital marketing and how it works.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing uses online channels to reach potential customers. Think websites, search engines, social media, email, and more. It’s like traditional advertising but uses the internet instead of billboards and magazines.
Why is Digital Marketing Important?
Digital marketing is essential because people spend a lot of time online. They search for information, connect with friends, and shop.
Businesses use digital marketing to:
- Find new customers: Reach people interested in their products or services.
- Build relationships: Connect with customers and create loyal fans.
- Increase sales: Drive traffic to their website and encourage purchases.
Key Types of Digital Marketing
Let’s break down some essential types of digital marketing:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO helps websites rank higher in search results. When you search for something on Google, SEO helps your favorite sites appear first, which involves using relevant keywords, building high-quality content, and getting other websites to link to yours.
- Content Marketing: Content marketing creates valuable content people want to read, watch, or listen to; this could be blog posts, videos, infographics, or social media updates. Good content attracts people to a business and helps build trust.
- Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing uses platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X to connect with potential customers. Businesses can share updates, run ads, and engage with followers.
- Email Marketing: Email marketing uses email to stay in touch with potential and current customers. Businesses send out newsletters, promotional offers, and other updates via email.
- Paid Advertising: Paid advertising includes things like Google Ads and social media ads. Businesses pay to show their ads to people likely interested in their products or services.
How to Get Started with Digital Marketing
Ready to give digital marketing a try? Here are some simple steps:
- Define your goals: What do you want to achieve? More website traffic? More social media followers? More sales?
- Identify your target audience: Who are you trying to reach? What are their interests?
- Choose your channels: Where does your target audience spend their time online?
- Create valuable content: Give people something they want to read, watch, or listen to.
- Track your results: See what’s working and what’s not.
Digital marketing can seem complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! Ready to take your business to the next level? Contact us today for a free consultation!
by Marcia L. | May 23, 2014 | Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Platform, Social Media, Twitter, Website |
Has your social media been left undone?
I’m sure you’ve been there. You’ve read an awesome blog post or social media post and you’d like to learn more about the person and maybe sign up for their newsletter. Lo and behold, there’s no reference to their website or other social media channel, thus starts a Google search, which can take you several minutes and then you realize it’s not worth your time and so you move on. Not good. You don’t want this to happen to you or your brand and miss out on that potential client or customer.
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by Marcia L. | Apr 19, 2014 | SEO, Website |
Fraud Alert: Don’t Get Duped!
Recently, several clients have reported that they received a call from someone offering to improve their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by registering their websites with various search engines and entering the ‘magical’ keywords and cleaning up or fixing negative comments or incorrect information throughout the world wide web, for a nominal fee of $200-$300. When they’re done, their content and reputation will be shiny and new, not to mention, their website ratings will be out of this world and bumped up to the top of each and every search engine.
Unfortunately, most negative comments and/or incorrect information on the web cannot be removed that easily. It takes an experienced SEO expert, hours to clean up this type of information, which can cost you thousands of dollars. Even if they’re able to clean up the information and you do not have your own social platform, it will hardly do you any good.
As for registering your web domain, you can do that yourself {free}, or you can have your web designer register it for you {the charge may already be included in the web design/development}.
If you manage your own WordPress blog, you may want to consider installing an SEO plugin like WordPress SEO by Yoast. It’s simple to use and is very helpful in guiding you in adding keywords, excerpt, title, and meta description. You may want to also sign up for his blog and keep yourself in the SEO information loop.
Buyer beware, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
On another front…
You may have also heard about an alert sent out by the Federal Government announcing that ISIS has been hacking into WordPress websites through outdated plugins. In an effort to protect yourself be sure to keep all of your plugins updated and if you’re not using an installed plugin, go ahead and delete it. While you’re at it, you may want to go ahead and change your password.
Try not to get frustrated with all the happenings and goings on in the social marketing industry. That’s why there are professionals trained to help you and take care of your social marketing needs. It’s important to find someone you can trust. Meet with them first for a short consultation. Trust me, they do not want to work with anyone that they don’t feel comfortable with either.
Fraud and hacking are a real problem. The best way to protect yourself is to stay informed and if your run across something or someone that is questionable, either check with someone else or move on. You can never go wrong with going with your gut instinct.
Have you been a victim of fraud or with being hacked? How did you handle it? Were there warning signs?
