Digital Marketing For Dummies: A Simple 5-Step Action Plan For Success

Launch Your Online Business in Just 7 Days

Are you looking to get your business online and start marketing to a global audience?


There are a few things you’ll need to do to get started with digital marketing.


We've put together a simple 5-step plan for you to follow to help you create the best digital marketing strategy for your business.


Let’s get to the action!

1. What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a term used to describe the promotion of products and services using electronic media.


It’s the way businesses and other organizations interact with their customers and clients through the internet.


Digital marketing is used in a wide variety of fields including, but not limited to:

  • Businesses
  • Governments
  • Educational Institutions
  • Non-profit organizations
  • Online communities

Let’s investigate some of the main types of digital marketing that you’ll need to be aware of.

2. Main types of digital marketing — Breaking down the basics

Online marketing is the most popular form of marketing today because it can run 24/7 and pretty much on autopilot.


There are many ways you can use digital marketing to promote your business through various online marketing techniques.


These include:

  • Advertising and PPC
  • SEO
  • Content marketing
  • Email marketing
  • Social media marketing
  • Mobile marketing
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Viral marketing

Let’s dig into the details of these techniques.

2.1. Advertising and PPC

Pay-per-click advertising, also known as PPC advertising, is an advertising technique where advertisers bid for a certain keyword.

Google Ads new campaign

Inside a Google Adwords account

When a user types that keyword into a search box, the ads with the highest bids appear first in the search results.


This is a very effective form of marketing because it targets only those interested in what you offer.


PPC advertising is a marketing technique that gets results faster than most, which is why it is so popular.


It can become pretty expensive, especially if you’re trying to compete in a saturated market for a popular keyword.

2.2. SEO

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another way of promoting your business online.


Search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo are the major players in this area.


They have their own search algorithms which determine how relevant your website is to the search terms entered by users.


If you create high-quality content optimized with the right keywords, your website is more likely to be listed on the first page of the search results when users search your keywords.

2.3. Content marketing

Content marketing is a marketing strategy that’s all about providing valuable information to your customers, prospects, and the general audience.


This content can be in the form of articles, blogs, videos, eBooks, podcasts, or anything else you can imagine.

Content marketing

The goal is to build authority, garner trust, and provide useful information so that your audience finds your content valuable and will want to share it with their own social channels and audiences.


It's important to create valuable content that's also optimized for SEO — you could see a conversion increase of over 40%!

2.4. Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing.


It involves sending emails to potential customers to increase sales or generate fans.


The emails usually contain information about your offers:

Email marketing

Depending on what kind of online business you’re running, there are loads of different types of emails that you can send to your audience.


These emails help you solidify your relationship, provide relevant information, and can assist with audience engagement.

2.5. Social media marketing

Social media marketing is the most popular form of digital marketing today.


It’s the process of marketing products and services through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.


The main advantage of social media marketing is that it reaches a large number of people at one time.


This makes it a very cost-effective way of reaching customers.

Inside a Facebook ads account

Inside a Facebook ads account

If you want to ensure that people who are most likely to buy from you see your ads, use Meta for Business (which is the former Facebook Ad Manager).


A user’s personal profile can be used to target your ideal customer.


The system will allow you to target the audience you want to reach based on various criteria, such as interests, gender, occupation, age, language, geolocation, etc.


Understanding your ideal customer is pivotal to growing your digital business — either by making more sales or gaining new leads.

2.6. Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is a relatively new form of digital marketing that involves sending messages to potential customers via their mobile phones.


You can do mobile marketing by sending text messages, posting on social networking sites, and creating apps:

Example of mobile marketing

Example of mobile marketing

With such a huge number of mobile phone users, it’s only logical that mobile advertising has been on the rise for the past few years and is a huge part of the online marketing world nowadays.


It's used to promote websites, apps, and everything else you can think of.


Mobile marketing is especially good for local businesses.


Location-based marketing allows you to target people who are close to your business' location.


It could be a great way of reaching out to your ideal customers.


Mobile advertising also involves mobile apps.


Ads hosted on apps can be a great source of income from in-app purchases.

2.7. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular and profitable ways to make money online.


It involves selling other people's products for a commission.


The great thing about this type of business is that it can be started with very little money.


You don't even need a website to start your business.


All you need is a product to sell and an affiliate program:

affiliate marketing example

Systeme.io is a great choice for anybody who wants to start with affiliate marketing because we provide an all-in-one solution at an unbeatable price — it pretty much sells itself!

2.8. Viral marketing

Viral marketing is similar to affiliate marketing in that you sell other people's products for a percentage of the sale.


The difference is that you can also use viral marketing as a way to drive traffic to your website or offer.


All you need is a video or a blog post:

Blog website example

Or, instead of creating a video or blog post, you can simply write a short email or letter and send it to your audience.


The best way to apply the above-mentioned techniques to make money online is to actually combine some of them or even use them all together to help increase sales and generate leads.

3. Marketing analytics — What to keep an eye on in your marketing campaigns

The internet has made it possible for businesses to reach out to potential customers from around the world at very little cost.


This has allowed businesses to reach new markets and increase sales.


As a newbie, it is important to know how to determine whether your digital marketing campaigns perform well, so here are some key performance indicators (KPIs) to always keep in mind:

digital marketing analytics
  • CPC (Cost Per Click)

This is the cost you pay for every click on your ad or link.


The more clicks you get, the more viewers you can convert, and the better the returns you're likely to earn.


For example, If you got 10 clicks and paid $10.00 for them, it means that you paid $1.00 per click.


If you received twice as many clicks (20) but still paid $10.00, then you are paying $0.50 per click.


This means that you need to increase the cost per click if you want more gains.

  • CTR (Click-Through Rate)

It’s the percentage of visitors who click on your ad or link before clicking anywhere else.


The higher the click-through rate, the better. A high click-through rate means that you’ll make more sales.


The click-through rate can be affected by several factors, including the quality of your landing page, your conversion rate, and the traffic sources you are using.

  • CPL (Cost Per Lead)

The cost that you pay for each lead. The cost per lead can be adjusted by changing your bidding price.


The minimum bid price is usually the lowest amount you are willing to pay.


The maximum bid price is usually the highest amount you are willing to spend.


You can also change your landing page.


If you use a high-quality landing page, you can get more leads.


There are also some other techniques to maximize your lead generation.

  • CPS (Cost Per Sale)

This is the amount of money you’ll need to spend to acquire a new customer.


The more customers you have, the more you’ll be able to make.


You can calculate the cost per acquisition by dividing the number of customers you have by the total amount of money you spent on acquiring them.


Keeping an eye on the parameters mentioned above will show you where to focus your marketing efforts, what to tweak and adjust, and what to abandon so that you get the best value for your investment.


And this is where a good digital marketing strategy comes into play.

4. Why your business needs a digital marketing strategy

Why do you need a digital marketing strategy list of reasons

Digital marketing has become an essential part of running a successful business.


There are several reasons why companies and individuals would use it in their strategic arsenal.


These include:

  • Promoting your products and services
  • Generating leads for sales
  • Building relationships with your customers
  • Building brand awareness
  • Increasing your search engine rankings
  • Increasing your social media presence

The key to successful digital marketing is to ensure that your company's digital footprint is consistent.


This means that you should:

  • Have a strong online presence
  • Make sure your website is well optimized for user experience — Designed to attract visitors, easy to navigate, provides valuable information
  • Ensure representation of your business in all of the major search engines
  • Keep your content regularly updated — On your website as well as your social media and all other communication channels
  • Train your employees to know how to use digital marketing tools like systeme.io

5. Digital marketing strategies for dummies A simple 5-step action plan

There are certain things you’ll need to do to get started with digital marketing:

1. You’ll need to create a plan for your marketing campaign

2. Then you need to be sure that you are using the right tools

3. You should also be aware of the competition in your area of expertise

But how do you go about creating a digital marketing strategy?


By following the 5 steps below, you'll be able to create a solid digital marketing strategy for your business.

5.1. Step 1 — Set up your goals

Before you can create a digital marketing strategy, you need to set some goals for your business.


These should include:

  • How many sales do you want to have each month?
  • How much profit do you want to make per month?
  • How much traffic do you want to drive to your website?

You should also set goals for your brand — are you going to focus on a particular industry?


How will your branding reflect this?

5.2. Step 2 — Define your target audience

Target audience

Once you've set your goals, you need to think about who your ideal customer is:

  • What are they like?
  • Where do they live?
  • How old are they?
  • What are their hobbies?
  • What type of devices do they use?
  • What do they spend most of their time doing?
  • What are they interested in?

Once you've got an idea of your perfect customer, then you can start thinking about the kind of people who are likely to buy from you.

5.3. Step 3 — Create your perfect offer

Special offer_example

Your product or service is the main thing you want to sell online.


You'll need to decide whether it's physical or digital.


If it's physical, then you'll need to think about where you're going to get it from — will you be making it yourself or do you want to try dropshipping?


If it's digital, then you'll need to think through how you're going to market it.


Once you've decided on your target market and how you'll sell your product or service, the next step is to create the perfect offer. You need to create a compelling offer to get people to buy from you.


You can use any number of techniques to create an offer. Here are some examples:

  • A gift (for example, a report)
  • Free trial
  • A discount
  • A guarantee
  • A limited time offer

When creating your offer, make sure that you have enough information for the customer to make an informed decision.

5.4. Step 4 — Get to know your competition

You'll also need to think about your competitors:

  • Who else is selling the same product or service as you are?
  • Are they doing anything different?
  • How can you beat them?

It’s extremely important to take this information into consideration while deciding on your plan of action - will you copy their techniques, how will you differentiate your offer from theirs?

5.5. Step 5 — Dedicate a budget

Finally, you'll need to think about how much money you have to spend on your digital marketing.


A budget is simply a plan for how you're going to spend your money. The goal is to have a plan for every dollar that comes in and goes out.


There are a lot of different ways to set up a business budget.


The best way to start is by creating separate categories for your major expenses.


Some people like to break their expenses into categories such as advertising, hosting, autoresponder subscription, outsourcing, etc.


Others prefer to create one big category called "Business expenses".


You can use any method you want to create a budget. You could use a Google spreadsheet, a simple notebook, or an Excel table.


Whatever method you choose, the most important thing is that you have it in writing because you should constantly be updating your budget as your income changes.


You'll need to track all of your expenses for at least 3 months.


At the end of that time period, you'll have a pretty good idea of where your money is coming from and where it's going.


This is when you can adjust your budget to reflect your new income.


Once you have set up a plan using these 5 stepping stones, you can start implementing your digital marketing campaign.

6. Execute your digital marketing strategy with systeme.io

systeme.io logo

systeme.io logo

Systeme.io is a fully-fledged SaaS marketing platform. It has everything you need to build and grow your online business from scratch.


With systeme.io, you can:

  • Build stunning landing pages and sales funnels
  • Create online courses and email campaigns
  • Conduct blog launches and webinars
  • Start an affiliate program

And more — the possibilities are endless!

All these are essential tools that will help you create and implement your digital marketing strategy and lead your way to success.


Systeme.io offers a free plan and 3 paid plans. You can scale up through the plans to meet the growing needs of your business.


We have a Free plan, which allows you to have up to 2,000 contacts and includes:

  • 1 email campaign with automated workflow and customer tagging
  • 1 blog type of website
  • 1 membership program
  • 1 custom domain
  • 1 coupon code
  • 3 sales funnels
  • 10 sales processes within the funnels
  • 1 one-click upsell, order bump and A/B split test

We have other plans for you to choose from, with each plan offering more features than the previous one.

Systeme.io pricing

You can select the plan that suits you best.


Just keep in mind that If you are looking for a business that allows you to market to a high volume of contacts for a reasonable fee, systeme.io is one of the best options out there.

7. Conclusion

As you can see, digital marketing can be very beneficial to both small businesses and large corporations.


However, it does take time to learn how to use these tools effectively.


The good news is that systeme.io provides all the resources you need to get started.


So, don’t delay — start your digital marketing journey today!

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