February 14, 2009, 4:37 PM — Here are some digital marketing basics:
Identify keywords Steve Covey in his book 7 habits of highly effective people, taught us that we should begin with the end in mind. This is just as relevant to the digital marketing. You need to consider what people will be looking for - what terms someone will use when they are looking for your business. These terms are called keywords. Keywords will form the foundation of all of the future activities that will be performed on digital marketing.
The objective of digital marketing is to improve and increase your brand exposure and improve and increase sales. So let's discuss a real life example. I am a believer in the value of open source software and I have a website that educates the public on the savings that open source software can generate for small and medium businesses. So what keywords should I choose for these new website?
The obvious starting point would be 'open source software'. Then there are specific types of open source software that people would look for: Opensource CRM, Opensource ERP, Opensource alternative for Microsoft word and you would continue through the list. When you have identified your keywords, you have a starting point to work with the remainder of the additional steps. Remember, you will always be updating, changing and expanding your keywords based on the feedback from your customers and from your website analytics.
Structure website Now that you have your keywords you have the ability to structure your website such that those keywords can easily be found by the search engines and by users. In the structure of your website you need to make sure that these keywords are strategically placed in the site to maximize visibility and prominence of those pages to the search engines. There are many articles out there that explain methods of emphasizing keywords in your web pages. It is sufficient to say in this article that you need to include the words with enough frequency and placement to inform the search engine that the page is important on that particular word.
Generate links There are two types of links that are important: internal links contained within your website and external links. Internal links should be part of structuring your website keywords - they should be very prominent and link between the appropriate pages. External links are also an essential in identifying to the search engines that your website has information that it is useful to the public. Search engines use external links as part of their algorithm to determine the popularity and the relevance of a website. If lots of people make a determination that your website should be linked to because it provides useful information and they set up links from their web site to your site, the search engine algorithm will score that highly and place you a higher in the search results.
Directory and search engine submissions Now that you have identified the keywords, structured your site with those keywords and have appropriate internal and external links to your site, you need to let the world know. One of the most effective ways is through submissions to directories and search engines. Depending on where you live, search engines make out a significant amount of traffic to a website. Clearly you can still get traffic through word of mouth and through links from other sites, but if you neglect search engines and directories, then you are missing a significant opportunity. Google and Yahoo are major search engines but there are other regional and industry specific directories and search engines that you should consider.
Online public relations activities There's a greater level of skill and subtlety in performing your online public relations. It is important that you understand the behaviors of your customers, and potential customers, to determine the appropriateness and targeted nature of your public relations activities. For example, if your potential customers are in a younger demographic you may want to develop some public relations initiatives related to the hosting information on YouTube. If your customers are in the mid-fifties demographic, this might not be as appropriate. If your target audience is from overseas you may consider website localisation (the translation of your website into another language).
Adam Hodgson is recgonized expert in new entrepreneurial business creation: specifically using the power of the Internet to generate new business. He has started, grown and sold many businesses. The foundation for the success of these businesses has been his knowledge and experience in effective digital marketing and delivering superior client satisfaction.
