Get to know the basics of digital marketing
For beginners to digital marketing, the first obvious step is to understand what is digital marketing and the main components that make up digital marketing.
Digital marketing or online marketing as it is sometimes known is a broad term that is used to describe the process of marketing on the Internet.
It has a number of components that cover all areas of online promotion. You need to understand that it’s not a single discipline but it has a number of processes (channels) that can participate in a digital marketing campaign.
- Search Engine Marketing-
- covers two areas: search engine optimization (organic SEO) and paid search advertising.
- Website Marketing- promoting your website on the internet.
- Content Marketing – how to use different types of content in your digital marketing campaigns.
- Email Marketing – marketing products or services using email.
- Social Media Marketing – marketing on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media networks
- Mobile Marketing – marketing on the various App Stores (Google Play, Apple Store)
- Video Marketing – marketing on YouTube, Vimeo, and other video channels
- Affiliate Marketing– making sales by promoting other people’s products and getting an affiliate commission.
Start your own website
Once you get to know the basics, the next step is to get your hands dirty and start practicing digital marketing.
One of the best ways to apply different digital marketing concepts in the real world is to start your own website.
Digital marketing is not a theoretical concept, but it’s highly measurable and practical. It’s not enough to know the theory behind SEO and social media marketing but you need to know how to apply the different techniques in practice.
Throughout your digital marketing career, you’ll be asked to promote different kinds of websites to either increase their organic traffic (SEO) or sales through PPC and social media advertising.
To gain the necessary skills and confidence, start your own website that will combine both concepts.
In other words, set up a blog and work on increasing your rankings and at the same time either create a product or find a product to promote through advertising and try to make sales.
I know that this process will take time and if you are new to this, the learning curve will be big, but it’s the only way to build a solid foundation for your career.
Get a digital marketing job as a freelancer
The next step in your career path to becoming a digital marketing professional is to get a real digital marketing job.
Starting your own website is a great way to practice the different digital marketing techniques but doing digital marketing for a client, it’s a totally different story.
Handling client accounts will ‘force’ you to set up procedures, improve your analytics and reporting skills, learn how to handle budgets, and how to manage client communication
Learn how to use digital marketing tools
Besides learning how to use Google analytics, you also need to learn how to use other digital marketing tools.
When you climb up the ladder and become a digital marketing manager, you will have to manage a team of digital marketing specialists. The only way to evaluate their work and control the progress of multiple projects at the same time is through tools.
A good tool will allow you to create dashboards for all channels and meaningful reports to management or clients.
There are a plethora of good tools available, and although they are not free, the monthly fee is an investment for your career and another great item for your resume.
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