Digital Marketing In The UK: A Step-by-Step Guide To Online Marketing
Do you know what is digital marketing? You are about to learn everything about marketing digitally in the UK with this step by step online guide! First I want to get something clear for you about the difference between digital marketing and online marketing. Most of you might think both are same, but that’s not the case! In the UK people search on Google for digital marketin when they are actually looking for online marketing help or guides. We’ve noticed this because we do provide courses for online marketing but when people call us they ask to learn about digital marketing. So let’s get this clarified and learn about it all with this detailed guide.
What is digital marketing and online marketing?
Digital marketing has two aspects, one is online marketing which is using channels like search engines, social media, emails, mobile apps.
But digital marketing includes Electronic media channels like TV, Radio, using billboards, using CD and passing recorded media that does not need to be connected to the internet or we call it online these days.
Most people in the UK think digital marketing means online marketing and when they are looking for digital marketing on the web, especially on Google.co.uk, they expect online marketing.
Even the page that ranks #1 on the google.co.uk for the keyword “digital marketing” talks only about limited few and they are actually online marketing techniques and not digital. This is the page https://uk.marketo.com/digital-marketing/ if you want to go have a look.
Seeing those wrong results made me want to write a detailed guide on this subject and help people in the UK understand what’s the difference and also learn each of the advertising models well.
If you interested in digital marketing techniques and been searching for a source to learn about marketing on the web, this guide will show you how to get started online and utilize the best techniques to marketing, sell and help businesses grow online.
This is a guide that’s written after 5 years testing what works when it comes to marketing using digital media and ranking #1 on Google for SEO Consultant London.. We’ve created digital marketing courses that help thousands of people in the UK and internationally.
In this guide, you will learn all the things as well as get the guides to learn digital skills via online channels on the go through your mobile phone. You can check the ClickDo Academy and join in for free to see more courses and free blogs.
What is digital marketing in 2019?
Advertising and promotions did via digital channels such as TV, radio, billboards, CDs, DVDs, and using online channels like search engines, social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat, etc..), email marketing, mobile applications fall into digital marketing. However, as I explained online marketing can only be done connected to the internet and digital marketing can be done without the internet.
We will look into each technique and channel thoroughly but first, let’s look at an example of how Fernando used online marketing build ClickDo and many internet companies in the UK and internationally.
For a different source, you can read the HubSpot blog post that explains what is digital marketing. When you see what all those blogs have written you will get a goon idea about the subject before you use the right medium for your business or person growth in 2019.
How online marketing helped us?
Fernando started with search engine optimization and grew his way to learn about all the aspects of online marketing. Ranking for “freelance SEO consultant London” and then for “SEO consultant London” and even “SEO agency London” changed how he worked and his lifestyle. Became a digital nomad who travels and work from various locations even though ClickDo has offices in London, Liverpool, In Indian and in Sri Lanka.
The Laptop lifestyle is what he liked the most internet marketing work can be done on the go even while on the train. This is a photo taken on his way to Liverpool back in 2014.
Anyone can build a business or grow their current business with the internet and you can do that from home. You just need an internet connection and PC/Laptop.
When we say, people, that you just only need those to build a great lifestyle in the UK, we are not being overly dramatic or trying to make this up. We’ve done this and know so many people build a great lifestyle, a business that they enjoy by utilizing internet technologies and online channels.
Right now Fernando mostly works from the smartphone and run the companies like SeekaHost, which helps UK businesses get started online with affordable web hosting services and latest blogging and website building techniques.
You can also do that a business person or anyone who wish to enter the blessed digital economy.
At ClickDo, we’ve got proven track record that shows anyone how they can learn the skills to grow online. Hope Fernando’s story could motivate you to start digital marketing ASAP for your business.
You can get in touch with Fernando via email or best on Facebook.
Now we believe you have a good understand about the differences and know what you need depending on your business or the lifestyle you plan to build.
If you are a business owner you need digital marketing to grow your business and online marketing can be very helpful if you are a local business in the UK.
Neil Patel has a good guide that covers what is online marketing that you can read to get more knowledge.
For a startup that needs to get attention, you should use digital channels like TV, Radio as we all billboards but it’s costly. The thing is it can get your massive attention if your startup, products catering in a city like London. You should seriously think about how you can get as much as eyeballs for your products or services.
The next sections of this guide will look into all the online marketing strategies that you can use to grow a business online with the power of internet tools.
Next, we will look at the main online marketing methods that are explained by Zukas at ClickDo.
Best Online Marketing Strategies
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the act of optimizing your website for search terms that are put into search engines like Google.
For example, if your run a fitness blog and someone types into Google, “how to get a 6 pack”.
You may want to optimize your website for this search term. SEO is an incredible way to get laser targeted traffic.
In fact, I found that SEO is the best marketing strategy to get targeted traffic. If you were to put up a billboard advertising your local business, you have no idea who’s seeing it. Are the people who are interested in your business seeing it? You don’t have a clue.
Even with advertising your business in TV commercials, you don’t know who’s seeing it. All you can do is pick a niche relevant television station and cross your fingers that the people who are viewing the ads are sitting there paying attention to the advert.
Personally, whenever I watch TV, I can just download the shows I want and skip the advertisements. Again, SEO is an insanely incredible way to get targeted traffic. You know you are in front of your target audience because they are searching for your business.
How much will it cost to SEO my website and how do I do it? SEO may be the cheapest form of digital marketing. You don’t need any money to do SEO. There’s no need for you to have a massive budget like paid ads.
All you need to do is put up content targeting your desired search term/keyword and optimize that content for the search engines. Many channels can benefit from SEO such as websites, blogs, images, and videos.
Content marketing is just as it sounds. It’s putting content out there.
This content can be for your blog, YouTube channel, social media etc. Why do you need content marketing? Content marketing is the bread and butter for many online businesses. It allows you to add value to the world. Content marketing is also the essence of SEO.
We’ve talked about SEO in this post and if you’re serious about ranking on Google, content marketing is going to play a major role.
The more amazing, in-depth, and valuable content you have, the higher you’re going to rank on Google. If you want people to discover your company, you need to put out content. The way to think about content marketing is, the more pages you have, the more chances you have to hook someone on your business.
Growing a brand is extremely important today. Especially with people starting companies all the time and selling the same products and services as you.
A brand will separate you from the competition. Plus, once you put up that initial content and allow it to be slowly picked up by Google, it will bring in a ton of organic traffic for years to come. This is the power of content marketing. Sure, you won’t get instant results. But in the long run, you’ll be better off.
There are many types of content you can create: Blog articles Articles are an incredible way to pump out really valuable content. They cost nothing for you to make and you can put as much content as you want on the article. As many words as you’d like. The more words you put on your article, the more search terms you can target to rank on the Google search engine.
YouTube videos YouTube videos are another incredible way to publish highly valuable content. What I love most about YouTube is it’s so easy to get traffic. It has very little competition compared to Google. Put a search term into Google and see the amount of results that appear.
Now, put that same search term into YouTube and you will typically find a lot less results on YouTube. This means there’s a lot less competition on YouTube. You see, it takes a lot of time for you to rank on Google. However, with YouTube, you can start a new channel and instantly rank your video. This is one of the ways I bring in a lot of traffic.
Infographics are an incredible way to make your content go viral. An infographic is simply a big image which displays data in an easy to read manner. Infographics can be used in any markets or niche such as skincare, gaming, anime, make money online, and the list goes on.
You just have to find some data and put it in an image format. eBooks eBooks are another great way to get people running to your site and snatching up your content. If you’ve been living under a rock lately, an eBook is simply an electronic version of a printed book. You’re just getting it in a digital format.
You see, when you create an eBook, you’re nicely packaging your content and people love this. So when you tell people to get your eBook, many people will not mind checking it out, especially if it’s for free.
Case studies Case studies are a great way to get people running to your content like a zombie running at a piece of meat. If you’re doing marketing and sales, case studies are something that you definitely want to have.
Case studies are a proven way you get people on your site and keep them engaged. Let me tell you, when I see a case study published on SEO, I quickly give it a read. Do your own little experiments in your industry, record them, and then tell people about the results. You can even create a paid membership for your case studies to monetize it.
Blogging is one of the main aspects of online marketing. Starting blog and continuously posting blogs can greatly help online advertising.
Social media marketing is growing your business through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest etc. Doing this can generate a lot of traffic and leads to your website. Does social media marketing cost a lot to do? Not really.
At least if you’re doing it yourself. If you can create your own graphics and willing to post yourself, you can easily make it work without any money. Of course, if you want a professional to do it and get results much faster, then it will cost you money. Make sure your social profiles have got your logo on them so people know exactly who you are.
Make sure you sign up to the necessary social media platforms. For example, if you run a lawyer firm, it won’t be very effective to be posting about your business on Instagram. It would be more effective to be posting on places like Linkedin, where your target customers actually hang out.
Make sure you’re not being too self promotional and constantly giving people a sales pitch. You want a mix of posting both valuable content and promotional offers.
What is PPC AdWords?
Pay per click advertising or PPC as it is better known as, is a form of marketing that charges you money for each click you get. I know, it sounds similar to SEO. But with SEO, you’re working hard to rank your website organically.
With PPC, you’re just paying the platform to instantly rank you for any search term you want. The 2 most popular platforms for PPC are Google and Facebook.
With Google you just create an ad that appears above the organic listing or even at the bottom if you’re not paying much for a click.
With Facebook, the ad appears like an organic post that you can interact with. When doing PPC, you want to set yourself a budget and do a bunch of testing.
Let’s say you want to get traffic to a particular page, you should set up multiple ads targeting the same page. I would split test between different copies, audiences (audiences only applies to Facebook ads) and formats such as images and videos.
Find what works the best. To do this effectively, I would recommend spending very little money spending on each ad.
About $5 – $10 a day on each ad and see which one gets the most traffic and converts the best. Once you’ve found the winning ad, you can slowly scale it and stop the other ads from running. That’s pretty much the essence of PPC advertising. Don’t just stick to Facebook ads and Google adwords.
There are so many more platforms out there. Jump into Quora ads, Pinterest ads, and any platform that your target customer hangs out on.
Banner ads A banner ad is simply an image on a website that advertises a certain website.
The banner ad can be placed where you’d like such as the sidebar, within an article or on top of the website.
Banner ads can be a great way to monetize your website or advertise your business.
There are many platforms which allow you to advertise your website as a banner such as Google. You get charged or paid by the amount of people click and see your banner ad.
Do you remember when your friend recommended you a product and you purchased it? Well that’s pretty much affiliate marketing.
You recommend products and when people buy, you get a portion from the sale. How do I do affiliate marketing? First, you need to sign up to an affiliate network. This is going to allow you to have access to a whole range of products to choose from.
The most popular affiliate network is Amazon associates. Their commissions are small but what makes them special is for every time someone lands on Amazon through your link, whatever they buy, you get a commission for. They also sell every type of product out there. After that, you review that product and tell people what you think. I would recommend creating a YouTube channel and blog to put up content.
When someone purchases that product, you’re promoting it through your affiliate link, you then will get a commission.
You can drive traffic to your blog through many different ways such as SEO and paid ads.
I personally rank blogs on Google for different search terms and get traffic to them that way. But now I’m shifting to focussing on YouTube since it’s a lot easier to rank and bank on that platform. Don’t forget, affiliate marketing isn’t just a method for you to make money from your blog or YouTube channel.
You can find affiliates to promote your products and help grow your business.
Many marketers say that their email list is their biggest asset and I believe them.
You see email marketing is one of those things where it allows you to directly reach your customers instantly.
You’re simply collecting emails and when you have an email, you can directly contact that person. Did you know that you will get more engagement through email marketing than social media? Well it’s true! On top of that, email is a great way to create a long term relationship with your customer.
You see, people don’t change their email very often. So you can constantly be in touch with them. You can get people on your email for free or using paid traffic.
The way you get people on for free is by having a blog and having sections that allows users to opt-in. Another free way to grow your email list is through YouTube.
Create a YouTube video and tell people to opt-in. The best way to get people to jump the fence and opt-in is by giving something away for free. That could be an eBook, video, tool, etc. Email tools can come with a lot of useful features such as segmentations. Segmentations allow you to split up content that you send to users based on their actions.
For example, let’s say you had someone opt-in to your list and you then send them an offer and they don’t buy. You could send them another pitch for that offer Vs someone who opts-in and buy from you right away. You’ll be able to take them down 2 different funnels. A good email marketing tool should allow you to automate your emails and tag certain actions.