Have you ever wondered what online marketing is all about? You can read about it everywhere, and everyone seems to be talking about it – and know what they’re talking about. But do you? Are you one of the many people who think online marketing is sleazy? Maybe even immoral?

Then you’ve come to the right place! Let me help you understand the basics of online marketing with this series of posts dedicated to digital marketing for beginners. You’ll find it so EASY that you’ll change your mind about it, you’ll see! Think of online marketing as a giant puzzle – and we are going to cover one piece of that puzzle each week.

So let’s get started, shall we?

What Is Online Marketing?

Online marketing is the way brands and entrepreneurs communicate with their audience by means of using the Internet – instead of going door to door and ringing everybody’s bells to sell their products.

Getting your brand online is easy. It can even be free if you think of setting up a social media profile, for instance. However, with the thousands of millions of websites out there, it’s hard to get to the audience you really wanna reach – instead of only your friends and neighbors (whose doorbell you could actually ring anyway!)

So you have to find a way to make yourself findable. And once people find you, you want to be able to communicate with them in such a clear way that they automatically know what you’re offering – whether you’re selling hand-made birthday cards, teaching Maths to pre-schoolers, or giving cooking lessons, for instance.

How Easy Is Digital Marketing in Comparison to Traditional Advertising?

Digital marketing it’s not easier than traditional advertising techniques, but not harder either. Think about this: You want your visitors to know what your place (aka your website or business) is all about. The same way a new bakery would display cakes, muffins, and donuts at their storefront window.

The good thing about that bakery window? That you can see its muffins by just walking by. And if you like what you see or smell, you’ll probably go inside, even if you’ve set this impossible goal of not eating any sweets again until next Christmas! You just gotta have it!

The bad thing about the muffins displayed at the bakery shop? That you actually need to walk by that specific storefront to see and smell freshly-baked products and bite the bait – and the muffins 😋

Now, how many people are going to be able to see your storefront online? Theoretically, everyone with Internet access can, right? And what is that… Thousands? Millions of potential visitors? Unfortunately, they aren’t going to be able to smell any cake or talk to you, but you can offer as much specific info as you want them to get.

And that, my friend, is what online marketing is all about: Taking people to your shop, displaying your products on the storefront making it easier for them to find what they’re looking for, and starting a conversation to win them as loyal customers.

So how can we do that?

Well, that’s what we’re going to handle in this Online Marketing for Beginners Series! Go ahead and visit the next episode, where you’ll get to know the main pieces of our giant puzzle, which are the basic tools you’ll need to start a successful online marketing strategy.