Digital marketing for beginners: a guide

If you’re not familiar with any processes involved in digital marketing, the idea of learning more could be quite intimidating. In this guide we’ll simplify some of the techniques that serve as the cogs and components making up smooth running of the larger ‘machine’ of digital marketing.

With leading brands including KFC and Pizza Hut publicly announcing their excitement over digital growth, read on to find out the different components and benefits of an established digital marketing strategy.

Pay-per-click

Also known as PPC, pay-per-click is an advertising model allowing an advertiser and a publisher to come to a financial agreement for a displayed advert on a website. Generally, the advertiser pays the publisher every time with every click on their ad.

While PPC strategies fall into either flat-rate or bid-based models, the advertiser must prioritise and consider the potential value of each click. PPC helps web users to arrive at their intended destination more easily, which makes up a crucial part of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategies.

Conversion rate optimisation

An acronym for the process of generating better link conversions from existing traffic – or people using the website – through tweaking a website or content, conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is all about improving existing figures. It’s a good idea for small- or medium-sized businesses to seek the advice of an experienced digital agency before making any major technical changes to a website, as coding can be quite complicated!

While some marketing strategies focus entirely on generating new website traffic, CRO is aimed primarily at enhancing the user experience (UX) for the customers or clients already using a particular site.

Social

Paid social media marketing aims to drive and connect a much larger audience to a brand using popular social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok all have enormous followings, so it’s hardly surprising that 72% of surveyed UK marketers said they allocated most of last year’s spending on online channels.

With millions of people using social media every day, it’s a great place to advertise your brand.

Display advertising

Combining text, images and a URL linking to a website where a customer might be able to learn more about a certain product, display advertising comes in many formats. It is highly effective and can appear on banners, desktops, third-party websites, and social media platforms.

This type of advertising also makes the most of certain digital marketing techniques including geotargeting, a method of reaching a target audience for a certain product or service based on their current location.

In a nutshell, most digital marketing techniques use metrics from data already available on the internet to gain information about a client base and appeal directly to what they’re searching for.