Updated August 2018

Being new to internet marketing doesn’t mean you’re behind the pack. Virtually anyone with the desire to learn the ropes can pick up internet marketing with some dedication and practice. In the ever-changing digital world, it’s more important than ever to understand your place on the internet.

Even non-digital businesses can benefit from learning internet marketing. One family tripled its business revenue after employing basic – but smart – online marketing techniques to get more leads to, and from, the business’ website for Debug Pest Control.

This guide to internet marketing will clue you in on some of the most basic, but essential, steps to take when targeting your customers, building your brand story, and creating authoritative content that makes people want to know about you and your business. These key steps can take your business – or your client’s business  – to the next level in the digital world.

What is Online Marketing?

Online marketing can take several forms, although many see it as a form of advertising. Truthfully, it is, but it’s many different types of advertising in one lump term. Online marketing, in its simplest form, is the art of combining what you know about your audience and your brand to reach out to a larger audience to grow your business.  

Online marketing for beginners will give you the most basic principles of this essential form of advertising, like how to learn about your customers and potential audience, branding techniques, and search engine optimization practices. It’s essential for you to understand how each of these factors work together to create the perfect internet marketing strategy.

Learn Everything You Can About Your Customers

Rule #1: Learn about your customers. What do they like and want to see more of? What seems to turn them off? Without a basic understanding of what your current and potential audience wants and needs, you can’t effectively market to them.

And, your understanding needs to go beyond what type of social media posts they seem to interact with the most. You’ll need to nail down everything from what email headlines get your audience to open them, what specific ads lead to the most sales, and what images seem to attract the most attention on your tweets.

Unfortunately, learning the answers isn’t as simple as trial and error, although that can help. You’ll likely have more success if you take the time to think like your ideal customer from the start. Where does he work? What does she need to make her life easier that your business, product, or service can help with? The answers can help you mold your ad campaigns, content, email marketing campaigns, and other marketing strategies to your customers’ needs.  

Create Your Story

After you feel confident in who you want to target, you’ll need to also work on creating your brand’s story. This story is what will help connect your audience with your brand in a way that keeps people coming back as loyal customers.

If you pay attention to engaging advertisements and web content – both essential components of internet marketing – you’ll likely notice that they tell a story in some form. Most successful campaigns are easy to understand and make people aware of a brand’s purpose. Your story will both explain your purpose and what your business can do for others in a way that people can connect with emotionally.

According to OneSpot, 92% of consumers want to see advertisements that tell a story, especially one that they can relate to. And, images can be more effective in developing that important relationship between you and your customer than words. So, stop thinking like a marketer and let your audience know why your brand does what it does and why it should matter to them.

Nail Down SEO Techniques to Drive Them In

Finally, the other main component of internet marketing for beginners is optimal Search Engine Optimization techniques that will target your audience and drive them to your website. The best SEO techniques will not only take people to your site, but will also cause them to engage with your site and continue coming back.

Although you can delve deep into research about SEO, there are so many components that may make the process overwhelming for beginners. Fortunately, helpful tools, like Long Tail Pro, have taken much of the guesswork out of SEO so that you can focus more on your audience and create stand-out content without spending hours on research.

Two of the most important parts of SEO that you’ll want to become familiar with as a novice internet marketer are keyword targeting and website content optimization.

Keyword Targeting

Keyword research is the first step you can take to drive traffic to your site. Using the right keywords in your blog posts, website content, social media posts, and advertisements can all help laser target the right people you want for your business.

Long Tail Pro can help you find the best keywords for your content based on search volume, competition, and other factors that you can use to narrow your list. The tool can show you short tail and long tail keywords – shorter phrases and longer phrases, respectively – that you can target to draw in your ideal audience.

You can even determine the profitability of each keyword to find out how much a keyword may be able to help you sell your products or services, increase affiliate sales, and more.   

Optimized Content

Once you have your keywords in place, it’s time to create content that’s optimized with your keywords to target an audience. Your content can be in whatever form you choose: social media posts, blog posts, advertisements, and web pages, for example. But, it’s best to eventually have a combination of several forms of optimized content to pull in as many people from a variety of sources as possible.

Now it’s time to pull together everything else you’ve done so far – understanding what your customers want and need, building your story, and finding the best keywords. Using your story and targeted keywords, you can create content that can inspire, engage, and help your ideal audience to connect them further to your brand.

Conclusion: Internet Marketing for Beginners

Internet Marketing is an integral part of digital business success, but it’s also something that can be its own business. Whether you want to market for yourself or clients, you still need to start somewhere, and these beginning steps can help you succeed in your efforts. To take some of the work off your shoulders, you can consider a tool like Long Tail Pro to maximize your keyword research while leaving you more time for content and campaign creation.

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