Things to Know as a Beginner to Digital Marketing

At some point in our lives, we might have all encountered ourselves in a situation where we just got introduced in a new field that seems to have many different ways around, and we just don’t know where to start or know what is important. A field where this happens very often is in digital marketing where, due to its continuously evolving nature and broad range of possibilities, can confuse and might lead beginners to take the wrong path which could direct to the wrong perception of what marketing in the digital era is. I am a business and technology student and enthusiast; and was once introduced to the world of marketing and committed big mistakes in the process of learning, for which I assembled the wrong perception of how a digital marketing process works. The good news that I want to give to you are that I have already gone through the wrong path in this subject and I have knowledge which I want you to know and could hopefully be helpful to prevent you from taking the wrong direction that I once took. This article is about the top tips and things to know as a beginner to digital marketing processes and decision making. I hope it serves well and helps to inspire future marketers.

1.    Marketing is about making people happy

Think about people that you love and ask yourself why do you love those people. The answer is simple, you love them because they make you happy, and that makes you want to be with them. As crazy as it may sound, companies attract customers in a similar way. We bring solutions to problems that customers may have, satisfying needs thus attracting those who are satisfied with what we provide.

2.    Focus on people, not on products

A mistake many people do is to focus on what products or services can be developed before first thinking about people’s wants and the various segments that can be classified by differences in preferences or needs, which will ultimately lead to a target demand. Once demand is analyzed, we’ll have given a big step towards knowing our customers.

3.    We need to assume we do not know nothing about our audience, before we learn about our audience

When it comes to marketing, we cannot assume what people want by using our intuition or thoughts. While having an objective mindset can be very helpful for inspirational and brainstorming purposes, we must always validate our findings with real data that proves our facts. People think differently in different places.

4.    Aesthetics are great, but there is more world to it than just looks

While great looks may be detrimental, there are countless competitors already doing this. We cannot limit our value creation to good looks, but we should use them as a complimentary tool to attract customers. Think of bad aesthetics as demotivational but good aesthetics as non-motivational. In today’s increasingly competitive market that offers countless options, simple and pleasing user journeys are a mandate if we want to succeed.

5.    Markets evolve faster than you think, so evolve your strategy at a faster pace

An effective way of finding out how we are performing is by analyzing our market share and the market growth. As long as we are doing well in one of these two criteria, we might be doing good. If we have a high market share and the market is expanding, we might be the stars. However, these positions shift depending on the strategies that companies develop through time. We must always have a strategy ready to execute if changes in the market occur, which may threaten our position or provide us with great opportunities to improve positioning.