Overview
This lecture provides a comprehensive introduction to digital marketing, covering its importance, main channels, the customer lifecycle, SEO, content marketing, social media, paid advertising, email, analytics, and essential tools.
Introduction to Digital Marketing
- Digital marketing promotes products/services using digital devices and technologies like websites, social media, email, and apps.
- Compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing offers broader reach, real-time results, cost efficiency, targeted audiences, and easy campaign measurement.
- Core digital marketing channels include SEO, SEM, social, email, affiliate, content, and mobile marketing.
Digital Marketing Channels
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Increases organic website traffic by ranking for relevant keywords.
- SEM (Search Engine Marketing): Uses paid search ads to appear in search engine results for chosen keywords.
- Content Marketing: Creates valuable content (blogs, videos, infographics) to attract and engage audiences.
- Social Media Marketing: Shares content and ads on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn.
- Email Marketing: Sends targeted, personalized emails to segmented audiences for leads and conversions.
- Affiliate Marketing: Partners with other sites (affiliates) to promote products/services for commission.
- Mobile Marketing: Engages users via mobile devices with SMS, apps, or mobile-optimized ads.
Customer Lifecycle Stages
- Awareness: Use content, SEO, SEM, social, and affiliate to let customers discover your brand/product.
- Consideration: Email, display ads, mobile, and remarketing help prospects compare and consider your product.
- Purchase: Incentives, positive reviews, and social proof encourage final buy; use email, mobile, and social.
- Post-Purchase: Follow up with emails and rewards, suggest related products, and gather feedback for loyalty.
SEO Essentials
- On-Page SEO: Optimize title tags, meta descriptions, headers, image alt text, URLs, internal linking, and sitemaps.
- Off-Page SEO: Earn backlinks from reputable sites, engage in guest posting, social sharing, and influencer outreach.
- Use keyword research tools (Google Keyword Planner, Moz Explorer) to target high-volume, low-competition keywords.
Digital Marketing Tools
- SEO: Google Keyword Planner, Moz, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Screaming Frog.
- SEM: Google Ads, Bing Ads, WordStream.
- Email: Mailchimp, HubSpot, Marketo.
- Social: Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, TweetDeck.
- Analytics: Google Analytics, YouTube Analytics, Adobe Analytics.
- Affiliate: CJ.com (Commission Junction), Amazon Associates.
- Optimization/CRO: Google Optimize, Hotjar, Pingdom (site speed).
Analytics & Measurement
- Use web analytics to track sources of traffic, user engagement, conversions, and campaign ROI.
- Set up goals and event tracking in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for comprehensive measurement.
- Benchmark performance, compare with competitors using tools like Moz, Sprout Social, and Spyfu.
Key Terms & Definitions
- SEO — Search Engine Optimization: practices to rank higher in organic search results.
- SEM — Search Engine Marketing: paid advertising on search engines.
- Backlink — A link from one website to another, important for SEO authority.
- Conversion — Desired action taken by a user, e.g., purchase or signup.
- Content Marketing — Strategy of creating and sharing valuable content to attract target audiences.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) — Percentage of users who click on a specific link or ad.
- Google Tag Manager (GTM) — Tool for managing tracking codes and marketing tags on websites.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review lecture notes and familiarize yourself with key digital marketing tools mentioned.
- Set up accounts with Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your website.
- Practice basic keyword research using Google Keyword Planner.
- Explore creating a content or social media calendar for planning future campaigns.