Why Every Blogger Should Learn About Digital Marketing
By: Alice Chong
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Writing, Creative Writing, Digital Marketing, Writing Tips

Being a blogger takes a lot of guts. You share your story, and build an online community based on your experiences. As a Digital Marketing Specialist, I often receive questions that correlates to, ‘What exactly is Digital Marketing?’ This post isn’t intended to provide you a crash course on the subject, nor does it intend to change the way you blog. In essence, Digital Marketing is the method of strategizing your brand with the intent and purpose of growing your audience.

Did you ever wanted to expand your follower count but just didn’t know how? Digital Marketing is a method to meet business goals through effective marketing campaigns. Some key knowledge includes SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media advertising, content marketing, email marketing, PPC (Pay-per-click) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing). There are plethora of online resources you can read on your own time. The purpose of this article is to assist you in choosing the best strategy for your brand. Here are some of my recommendations that are budget friendly and resourceful:

1. Applying SEO Into Your Content

Most bloggers don’t have an exact business model (unless you own an e-commerce store). Blogging is usually about creating an open community where your audience may reach out and sponsor you. However, it’s very important for new visitors to find you on Google search engines. When writing, you would need to include ‘keywords’ into your content. Keywords are popular and trending words people search online. I recommend checking out Moz and SEMrush for SEO services. You can see some keywords that are high in volume search and currently trending on the web.

2. Understand Your Audience

Believe it or not — experienced marketers also make the mistake of forgetting their main audience. If you ever want to achieve a dedicated follower who may enjoy your content, it’s best to consider the type of readers who may come across your content. For example, are you considering reaching out to millennials? In WordPress, you can install Google Analytics or WordPress Analytics so that you can have a better insights of the demographics. You can also view the time length and durations of the viewer’s screen time.

3. E-mail Marketing

Want to directly reach out to your followers but don’t know how to present yourself? E-mail marketing is an effective tool in getting the message across. Tons of brands use e-mail marketing softwares such as MailChimp, Constant Contact or HubSpot. I currently use MailChimp for their basic free services that will provide you free e-mail template designs. If you know some coding, you can also hard code your designs to make your email unique, personal and engaging.

4. Brand Yourself but Show It Off

Most of the time, the key to a good effective marketing campaign is you! Complimenting your strategic content marketing campaign with an added personality will make you stand out from the group. However, it’s important to be consistent in the way you brand yourself. For instance, a study blogger would primarily post about books, stationaries, and updates on academic performance. There isn’t one formula for effective branding, but other methods include color psychology and the design of a website.

5. Consider Investing in Paid Advertisements

For many bloggers, staying within a tight budget can be challenging. A good marketing strategy would be getting the best return of investments for your campaigns. Depending on your current size of your follower count, you can start branding yourself through Google Adwords and social medias. Google Adwords are really for serious business owners who’s attempting to increase sales and establishing a professional client relationship.

For influential bloggers, the main goal is to promote content. The best way to achieve that is through various social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you run an e-commerce store, you can select a advertising campaign that would increase more sales. Meanwhile, an influential blogger would prefer increasing his or her brand awareness by likes and shares. Overall, paid advertisements are effective in reaching out to the right audience and at the right time.

Digital Marketing is an effective strategy to keep in mind. It’s all about generating leads, retaining your audience, and nurturing them so they can grow. It takes time to devise a system that works for you, and there’s no one method that will always work all the time. You may need to keep changing your marketing strategy based on the changing algorithms. Therefore, it is important for you, the blogger, to keep yourself updated on the trending features of Google, SEO/SEM, social media, and mobile technology.