When it comes to digital marketing, nobody does it better than Google and this is one of the vibrant courses that Google provides globally for free. So, we have simplified few instances from Google Garage for you so that you can get a step-by-step analysis. Let's get started.
INTRODUCING TO THE DIGITAL GARAGE
Today, our online experience is so much more than just checking emails. From talking to friends and family to doing the weekly food shop, discovering new holiday destinations, and researching things to do locally, the online world is very much a part of our daily lives. As the time we spend online increases, so do the digital opportunities available. The online experience is constantly evolving thanks to content creators, businesses, and app developers who are able to find new and innovative ways to help us shop, learn, and connect. So, whether you own a business yourself or would like to work for one, now is a great time to jump in and see how you can get involved in the digital world. But where do you start? Right here. Google Digital Garage provides you with a simple way to navigate digital marketing concepts and gain the knowledge you need to feel confident. Whether it’s content marketing, online advertising, mobile marketing, or selling products online, we've organized it into bite-sized video lessons and quizzes so that it’s easy for you to either pick up new skills or brush up on your existing knowledge. Learn how to build an online business strategy, improve how a website ranks on search engines, and use analytics tools to understand online performance. Whatever your interest, there’s a topic here to help you meet your online goals. The digital marketing topics have been created by experts and allow you to learn at your own pace. Take the lessons in chunks or complete multiple topics at once - whenever and wherever you want. And if you’d like to get the most out of the course, there’s also an option to complete all topics and assessments, you’ll be awarded the official Google Digital Garage Certification, offered in partnership with the Interactive Advertising Bureau. No matter your skill level, or what you’d like to achieve, Google Digital Garage will help you build your digital marketing skills. Improve how your business performs online, boost your CV, or just jump in to learn something new.
YOUR DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY
Hi! So, you have seen how digital has transformed our daily lives. But now let's get practical! What does the growing number of online opportunities actually look like for you? In this BLOG we'll discuss the core components of digital and how they relate to your business and how to get started. Let's say you're a mechanic whose business has grown strictly through referrals and word of mouth. So far you've had no digital presence but now you want to take your business to the next level. How would being online help your business succeed? One of the biggest advantages of being online is reaping the benefits of search. Having a digital presence means you'll be visible when people go online and search for businesses like yours. So, let's assume someone searches for "mechanics Swansea" and your shop appears in the results. How can this benefit your business? Well, the possibilities are virtually endless. When a customer clicks a link to your website there is so much that they can learn about you. They might watch a video you posted about auto maintenance that demonstrates your knowledge. They could read testimonials from happy customers. They might look through your pricing guide find your shop on a map or find that you offer free towing within a 40-mile radius. Maybe they'll fill out a form to ask a question or request a quote. They might even click over to your social media sites where they'll find even more tips, photos, and videos. You might not stop by having all these features on your website but these examples should give you a sense of the many ways you can benefit from being online. And guess what? There's more. Your online presence can also give you valuable insight into your prospective customers, what they want and how to give it to them. How? Well, digital allows you to show targeted advertising to people right when they're looking for what you have to offer. For example, using search advertising you can show ads to potential customers such as people searching for "auto repair Swansea". You can also restrict ads to show within a certain geographic radius of your shop. You can learn to use analytics tools to find out if people clicked on your ad, visited your site, and took certain actions like filling out a form or watching a video. Exciting, right? But how do you get started? Well, first don't be intimidated. The tools and technology available today are easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to acquire. Many are even free. In fact, for many businesses, the biggest challenge to being online isn't getting used to the tools, but putting a plan together. We've got lots of videos that are gonna help you do just that. Let's run down a quick list of the major things you want to consider. The first is scope: web, mobile, social. There are many options, where do you want to start and where do you want to go? Next, is technology and content. Decide if you'll handle the technical and creative aspects of your site yourself which may take more time or get help, which may take more money. Finally, you want to consider cost and time. Set a realistic budget and an achievable schedule with clear milestones. And commit fully to both. Every day, thousands of small business owners are making the web work for them. The opportunity to reach customers from around the corner and around the globe is too big to ignore. It's time to take the plunge and go digital.
YOUR ONLINE GOALS
Every business has different objectives. Is good to know exactly what you want to achieve online as it can help you set the right priorities and put your plan into place. Let's hear from Rachel, the owner of Rachel's Kitchen about how setting clear goals helped when starting her online business. Starting an online business is daunting. We're all used to using the Internet from a consumer perspective but in terms of starting an online business, it can be difficult to know where to begin. I looked at some clear goals, for example, identifying customer profiles. For example, a guy wanting to send cupcakes to be delivered to his girlfriend for Valentine's Day or to his mom for Mother's Day. Once I identified customer profiles I could then set about creating Adword campaigns that specifically targeted the terms that that customer profile would look for. For example, with Valentine's Day cupcakes. There are lots of ways that digital can help your business such as building relationships on social networks, selling online maybe finding new customers, or even keeping existing ones. It's good to start by asking yourself a simple question: why exactly do you want to be online? Imagine you own a hair salon. Your ultimate goals could be: To cut more people's hair. Sell more premium services and sell more of the products that you offer. But before anyone can walk through your door, they have to know you exist. This is a great goal that digital can help with. So, let's start with that one, getting the word out in the digital world. One easy win is listing your business in local online directories so when people look for hairdressers on search engines or online maps, your business will show up. Then, you might decide to build a website to share your information about your business. This could be things like your opening hours your location, your prices, and the services that you offer. Maybe even photos and videos that could entice new customers to walk through your door. You could even set up a social media page like on Facebook, Google+, or even Twitter where you can post photos and creations offer special deals, and really connect with your customers. As you start achieving these goals, and more people become aware of you your goals may naturally evolve. And you might want to shift your focus towards turning visitors into paying customers. You can also add new features to your site things as online appointment scheduling, maybe a review section where people can say nice things about you, or even an e-commerce store, to sell your hair and beauty products online. Now that you are using digital to attract visitors and turn them into customers you could start expanding your business by investing in online advertising. Whatever your ultimate digital goals are, or where you currently stand your priorities will change naturally and grow with your business. Now, to make sure you're meeting your objectives it's really important to measure your progress along the way. This is called analytics. Analytics lets you know what's working well and what could be tweaked. We'll dive into this a little bit more later. But with digital, you have lots of options for measuring success. So, just a reminder, before you dive into the digital world think about exactly what you'd like to achieve then prioritize different online opportunities to help you accomplish those goals. In the next few videos, we'll help you look at different ways that you can establish a digital presence think about different ways to market yourself online, and lastly, understand how you can measure and improve your digital endeavors.
BUILDING YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE
Hey, we're going to look at the first step to going digital, staking your claim online. You've got lots of options for building a digital presence, including things like local listings, websites, mobile apps, and social media. If you get these basics right it could make a world of difference. These days it's easy for anyone to make a home online. But while a website might be the first thing that comes to mind, you don't necessarily need to start there. Let's say, for example, you're a hairdresser. Your first step to finding customers online and being found online might be to list your shop in local online directories, like Google My Business, Then, when someone searches Google for hairdressers in your area, you'll appear in the results, no website required. You could also start a Facebook page to give potential customers a glimpse into your business and what you can do, like photos or videos of some happy customers with great hairstyles that you've created. If this is all a bit much, don't worry. We've got loads of videos here to help you explore social media in more detail. There's a lot you can do without a website, but at some point, you might want to build a home of your own on the web, a one-stop shop where your customers can easily find everything they need to know about you online. Great. Let's get going. The most import thing as you start to plan your site is to think about what you want people to do there. For example, do you want them to ring you? If so, include your phone number prominently on every page. Perhaps you want them to find your physical shop? Well, include a map and driving directions. Maybe you want them to make appointments online. That's a feature that you can build in. Or lastly, you might want them to actually buy products from you online, by placing an order or submitting a payment. That's called e-commerce, and there are a range of options from simple to more complex that we'll discuss in more detail in other videos. Websites aren't the only online homes anymore. These days many businesses create mobile apps for customers, which they can keep on their smartphones or tablets. Apps open up all kinds of digital doors. For example, you can create loyalty programs, or automatically send reminders about upcoming appointments. Right, to be clear: if you want people to find you on the web, you need to stake your claim online. That can be in a listing for a local business directory, a presence on a social media site, a simple website, or one with e-commerce, a mobile app, or all of the above. Whatever you choose, this is the place where people will find you and get to know you, and hopefully become your customers.
MARKETING YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE
Okay, so you've established your online home, and now you're looking to bring in more customers to your virtual front door. Let's discuss some ways of doing that using search engines, other websites, social media, and email. But first, Rachel, the owner of Rachel's Kitchen, takes us through some of hers. We use a number of marketing channels, as part of our online marketing, including paid search, social, and also email marketing. We use paid search for our core products as well as to highlight calendar-based events, for example, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. We use social together with email campaigns, particularly to engage with existing customers getting them to interact with social media, leave all sorts of feedback, post pictures of how their cupcakes arrive and people's reactions. Which is fantastic because it's great for feedback for us that we're doing a good job. And equally, those customers then act as ambassadors for our products. How are you going to get your customers to find you online? There are a few ways you could do this using digital. Let me start with search engines. When people type something in a search engine, they're letting it know exactly what they're looking for. If you offer relevant services and products, search engines will show your business in the search results. There are two main ways you can use search engines. We've got lots of info to share on both. The first is search engine optimization, or SEO, which helps you promote your business in the unpaid search results. The second is search engine marketing, or SEM, which lets you buy ad space in the search results. SEO is all about getting your site in front of the right people who are searching for your products and services. There are lots of ways to do this and we'll explain them in detail later on. But the key is knowing what words people actually type in-- the keywords. These are the most relevant words to your business. Understanding these will help you improve the way you show up when these words are actually searched. SEM, on the other hand, is when businesses pay to advertise to people searching for specific keywords online. Most major search engines use an auction system, where lots of different businesses compete to show their ads by bidding on the keywords they'd like to target. Search is a great way to reach people, but we do lots more on the internet. We read news, check sports scores, browse recipes, watch videos, and generally browse all lots and lots of interesting content across the web. Alongside this content you might see ads; this is called display advertising. Display ads appear everywhere online and come in many different formats, like text, images, video, and ads you can click on and actually interact with. They can be a great way to get your message out there. And you're also able to choose the people you want to see your ads and the web pages and websites that you'd actually like to appear on. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ give another option for boosting awareness of your business. And they're especially useful for building relationships with customers. On most networks, you'll create pages or profiles for your business. You can connect with lots of people by starting meaningful conversations and sharing content you've created, whilst growing your business's online social presence. Before we wrap this up, let's not forget one pretty important way businesses can use digital: email marketing. We're not talking about junk email or spam that clutters up your inbox, but sending relevant information and offers to people who've already said they'd like to hear from you. You can get people to sign up or opt-in to receive emails from you. Then the rest is up to you. You can send coupons to people who have made an appointment on your site, maybe advertise a special event, or promote sale items. Knowing all the ways you can find people online and knowing how they can find you, can help launch your business big time. The more types of digital marketing you try, the more opportunities you'll have to reach your most valuable customers wherever they happen to be in the digital world.
Comments