In the past few years, the growth of technology has been rising. Marketers have transitioned away from traditional methods to digital advertising. Using multiple platforms, marketers can reach their target audience in the right place at the right time.

In the digital marketing world, a lot of terms are used that not everyone is familiar with. It is important to get to know these terms if you want to work in the digital marketing field.

Digital Marketing Vocab to Know

• Analytics – information resulting from the systematic analysis of data or statistics. In digital marketing, analytics is the information resulting from systematic analysis of data gathered from marketing activity
• Brand – the sum total of a business’s users’ and customers’ opinion of that business
• Channels – a delivery mechanism; in digital marketing, a business’s message is delivered via one or more marketing channel such as email, social media or advertisements
• Click Through Rate (CTR) – the percentage of the targeted audience that is exposed to the marketer’s message that click on the link provided in the message and land on the marketer’s web property
• Conversion Rate – the percentage of unique visitors to a website that are “converted” into customers, users, or leads
• Engagement – a term for user interaction with a particular piece of shared content: Likes, shares, comments on Facebook; RTs, replies, favorites on Twitter, and link clicks on all social media
• Google Ads – the program operated by Google that enables paying customers to use hyper-targeting via Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to reach a certain specific audience via advertisements placed at the top and right sides of the search results
• KPIs – Key Performance Indicators
• Page views – the number of times a web page or set of web pages are viewed during a given time period
• Pages per visit – the average number of pages viewed by a single visitor during a given time period
• Retargeting – the technology, driven by web browser cookies, that enables a marketer to continually put a digital message in front of a user who has visited that marketer’s web property
• SEO – Search Engine Optimization – the practice of preparing a web property to be quick, easily, and properly indexed by a search engine, usually Google.
• Total reach – the total exposure of an advertisement or piece of content

How to Find Your Target Audience

When creating a website, blog, or social media page; looks are important. You want your page to be appealing, have great products, high-quality customer service and a page that is easy for potential customers to navigate. Those things are a great way to start, but when you begin to advertise your page, if you are not targeting the right people you will not see any progress.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

The first step is to determine who you want your target audience to be. Decide what type of customers you’re looking for, what they value, and how they will use every channel in the stages of the buying process. Digital marketers now have Google Analytics as a tool to help them discover their audience. With this program, Google can tell you how people are finding your business, and what they are doing when they are on your website. It is also possible to find out their age, location, interests and behaviors. All of this information is very beneficial when it comes to determining your target audience. As a marketer, you can use this information to understand what potential customers are like and what they are looking for.

How Do You Appeal to Them?

Once you know who your audience is, you need to rework your advertisements to appeal to them. Use keywords in your advertisements that some of your site viewers are using. Keywords are what people are typing into their Google search bar to find a certain object or business. Identifying the keywords that potential customers are using can drive traffic straight to your website. Optimize these keywords, and show these customers exactly what they’re looking for.

Retargeting Your Potential Customers

When you find out who your target audience is and know what they are looking for, the use of retargeting will keep customers engaged and coming back to your website. Not all purchases will be made on the first website visit. Retargeting your audience will keep your products on their mind, and will increase the probability of them coming back to your website to make a purchase. Keeping your products on their mind will begin to create familiarity with your business. Building a relationship with your audience is important for the growth of your business. When you begin to understand what your audience is looking for, you can reach more people and drive more traffic to generate more engagement, which will increase sales.

How to Determine Your Marketing Goals

Every digital marketer has different goals based on where they are in the growth of their business. If you are just starting out, you are probably looking to grow sales. If your business has been around for a while and is generating sales, you may be looking to save some money. When you are setting goals for your business, you want to be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.

When you set a goal for your business, make sure it is specific so everyone knows exactly what they are working towards. Know what your advertisement can achieve. When a business is created, there are many goals that you want to achieve, but it takes small steps to get there. Your goal should be specific to a small part of your overall goals. The goal of an advertisement should be something like, gain 100 visits this month or add 250 email addresses to our list. Goals should be measurable, because when you can measure something it relates to the quality of the success. When you have a specific and measurable goal, you have a number in your head that will determine success or failure. This number keeps everyone on track and focused on achieving a goal.

Setting a goal for your business keeps everyone motivated, but make sure that goal is attainable. Setting a goal that is too hard to reach is a set up for failure. Knowing what is too far-fetched for your business comes from your resources. You know how much money you have, what types of customers you’re reaching, and what your sales have been. An attainable goal is directly related to your measurable goals. Having those numbers sets a guideline for your goals and what is achievable.

Once you determine what your goal is and that it is possible to reach, you want to make sure it is relevant to business. Figuring out how to achieve a goal is important because it is the foundation of that goal. If you’re looking to generate more brand awareness, gaining social media followers may be a good goal for your business. The target audience is also relevant when setting goals. If you are looking to reach an age range that is older, posting content on Snapchat is not the best choice. Know your audience, figure out what the goal is, and determine how you’re going to achieve it. This process can help you achieve your goals, but you should also have a time limit on these goals. Everyone wants to achieve their goals, but it shouldn’t take too long. Setting a time limit motivates everyone and upkeeps productivity.

Digital Marketing Tactics Available

Choosing a digital marketing strategy that is best for you can be hard if you don’t know a lot about marketing. You know you want to generate more views to your website to generate more revenue, but aren’t sure which way will be the most beneficial.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the most popular forms of digital marketing because it is solely based on content, which is what every business is trying to promote. The type of content is based on your goals and your target audience. Whether you are creating blog posts, social media pages or videos, they can all reach your audience. The reason content marketing is so popular is that it is affordable and can still have big impacts.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is another popular form of digital marketing. With SEO, the use of keywords is helping to drive traffic to your website. The content on your pages aligns with keywords that potential customers will most likely use to find your products. SEO is not only used to generate traffic to your site, but also increase the quality of those site visits. When a consumer is looking for a specific product, they will look through countless websites. The keywords bring customers to your page and shows them exactly what they are looking for which can promote purchases.

PPC Advertising

Google is one of the most popular search engines, and the use of Google Ads can help give your business as much exposure as possible. Users will see your ad at the top of their page if they search the keyword that matches your products, giving your business optimal visualization.  Seeing an ad is one thing, but clicking on a link to visit the site is the goal. With Google Ads marketers only pay for each click they get on their ad. Google Ads can drive immediate traffic to your website.

Next Steps

Knowing all of the different types of digital marketing can help you make the best decisions for your business. It is important to be smart with your funding and make the right choices to boost site views and sales. Digital marketing strategies can be a trial and error. It can take some time to find what works best. Learn about the market you’re trying to get into, get to know your consumers, and determine a plan to achieve your goals. Digital marketing is growing with the use of technology, and advertisements on multiple platforms will gain you the exposure you want for your business.

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