Tips for Aspiring Digital Marketers

Digital marketing has been around for quite sometime and has definitely altered purchasing decision making. By featuring search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, banner advertising and other forms of online distribution channel, digital marketing aims at reaching consumers in a timely and cost-effective manner.

With digital marketing consumers are able to read online reviews about their favorite products or services, compare prices and share their views with other consumers on social media websites. This explains why more and more organizations choose to create a Facebook business page to advertise their products and provide consumers the opportunity to give feedback on these products. This information flow enables consumers to be in a constant contact with the business, but also allows the organization to actively participate in an open dialogue with consumers, thus facilitating consumer decision making.

Young professionals, who aspire to make a career in digital marketing, need to take into consideration the following factors:

a) Using specific SEO keywords

There are keywords and KEYwords and when it comes to digital marketing, keywords are a very important factor. Consumers are looking for specific products or services and enter specific keywords or keyword phrases in their browser. A digital marketer needs to be able to get into the mindset of consumers and think of these specific keywords or keyword phrases that consumers are more likely to type when searching for particular products or services.

Besides an insightful mind, digital marketers can use the help of search engine data keyword research tools that provide information about the effectiveness of the keywords. One very popular tool is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool that provides comprehensive information for the competition in a particular industry, the estimated cost per click (CPC) for each keyword per clicked ad and historical data on the number of searches for particular keywords or keyword phrases over the past moths. Other popular keyword research tools are WordTracker (www.wordtracker.com) and Keyword Discovery (www.keyworddiscovery.com) that both provide a comprehensive list of keyword phrases that match a particular keyword and an estimate of their popularity.

b) Analyzing the Web metrics

Digital marketers need to be able to analyze the Web metrics. In doing so, they gain a broad understanding of consumer behavior as well as an understanding of behavioral search pattern. By gathering and effectively interpreting data on user behavior when engaged in Web search-related activities, digital marketers can track online user behavior and collect SEO data to use them as a ranking factor. In doing so, it is easier to turn prospect into regular customers, thus gaining higher ranking on the web rating systems.

Some of the most popular Web metrics are bounce rate (it measures how many times a visitor comes on the website and leaves without visiting other pages); direct traffic (it measures the visitors who visit a website by typing directly the address on their browser); and unique visitors (it measures how many visitors visit a website over a month. Even if one visitor visits a website more than ten times over the last 30 days, it still counts as one unique visitor.)

c) Focusing on optimization

Content and image optimization are very important in digital marketing. In particular, internal site optimization guarantees constant high placement in search engine pages (SERPS). This can only be achieved with the choice of right keywords that can integrate on-page optimization, meaning the whole content of both visible and invisible items that contribute to the page description. Typically, each page of a website prioritizes 2 to 5 unique keywords or keyword phrases. As far as image optimization is concerned, each image should be optimized by using alternate-text tags (ALT tags). This is helpful because when alt tags are populated with the product name, the traffic driven to the website can be tremendously increased from Google Image search.

d) Offering specialization

Specialization in marketing is a must because marketing is a very broad discipline. Especially in digital marketing, one can acquire a basic knowledge of a wide range of areas including social media, paid and organic search, mobile Internet and so on. However, specialization in a specific marketing area enables digital marketers to hone their skills and become experts in their field. In doing so, they are better equipped to anticipate consumer behavior and demand and also become valuable assets for their companies.

e) Offering innovation

Digital world is all about innovation. Digital marketers who can innovate with digital platforms, Facebook tools and breakthrough technology, can also identify consumer behavior trends and expand a firm's customer base through social media and digital marketing. In the case of digital marketing, innovation combined with intellectual curiosity, are two fundamental factors that positive effect on the way digital marketers work.

All in all, digital marketing requires dedication, innovation and an open mind. Advanced technologies will always be available, but if people lack the innate passion to explore behind the lines, humanity will not take any step further. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the latest Foursquare, all represent the latest trend of social media. But what makes them so successful is the fact that prominent digital marketers have worked hard for those websites to be so attractive.

Sources:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20101002/tc_mashable/10_tips_for_aspiring_digital_marketers_1