Introduction to Digital Marketing – Getting Started

If you want to learn more about getting started in the world of online advertising, you’ve come to the right place. Our introduction to digital marketing looks at everything you need to know. In the modern world, we are surrounded by digital media. We use our smartphones, computers, tablets, TVs and games consoles to access the internet for all kinds of reasons. And, as we’ll explore in our introduction to digital marketing, this constant connectivity is a goldmine for marketers. If you’ve always fancied getting started in digital marketing, this is the article for you. We take a look at what exactly it is, why it’s important, what different types there are, and how you can get a job in the industry.

What are the types of digital marketing? Digital marketing is often a collective effort, where professionals working across several different areas combine their knowledge and resources to meet the goals of the business. The next step in our introduction to digital marketing is to outline what these different areas are. It’s important to remember that not every company will necessarily use all of these methods. However, each channel presents an opportunity for a business to expand its brand reach and increase sales. We’ve highlighted some of the most frequently used types of digital marketing skills and what they entail.

Why digital marketing is important?

There are many stats that highlight the importance of digital marketing. With global eCommerce sales expected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2021, it’s clear that there’s significant potential for online promotional activity. What’s more, 51% of shoppers research their purchases on Google before making them.

With around 4.5 billion internet users worldwide, digital marketing gives businesses the chance to reach people on platforms where they spend a lot of time and money. It also gives smaller companies an opportunity to compete with their huge rivals, allowing them to use data and insights to target customers.

We’ve also seen how vital online shopping is in the first half of 2020. At the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown in the world, online orders were up 200% compared to the previous year. For all kinds of companies, digital marketing and the sales it generated were a lifeline when stores were closed.

What are the types of digital marketing?
Digital marketing is often a collective effort, where professionals working across several different areas combine their knowledge and resources to meet the goals of the business. The next step in our introduction to digital marketing is to outline what these different areas are.

It’s important to remember that not every company will necessarily use all of these methods. However, each channel presents an opportunity for a business to expand its brand reach and increase sales. We’ve highlighted some of the most frequently used types of digital marketing skills and what they entail.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
When you use a search engine such as Google or Bing, you type in your query and get a list of results. Often, the page you’re looking for appears in the top few links. But how does the search engine know which results to bring you? Well, it looks at a wide range of features on the website to determine how relevant it is. This includes things like the links to and from other web pages, the content of the page, the keywords and how they’re used, the number of other people who access/share the page, and more.

Search Engine Optimisation is the art of understanding how sites like Google index data, and optimising the page and its content to increase quality web traffic (visitors). The goal of SEO is often to make a page or website appear as high as possible in search engine results pages without having to pay for it.