The online landscape is a hotbed for creativity in terms of promotion and profile building, with limitless potential across countless unique channels. DIY digital marketing is a great way to begin your journey of growth online, with there being a range of ways to reach an audience without having to blow a massive budget. Of course, there might be a time to employ the services of a digital marketing company, but everyone has to start somewhere.
This article will share some straightforward choices for digital marketing DIY, so you can build a foundation for a strong online presence moving forward.
Creating a website is essential
Building a website is an absolute essential for attempting to build an online presence. These days, platforms like Squarespace and WordPress offer all sorts of cheap and even free options for creating a user-friendly website to act as your digital hub and online storefront. It also creates a base to which all of your following digital marketing efforts lead.
Some core elements that you need to keep in mind with your website include:
- Creating clear direction for visitors – purchases, subscriptions, enquiries
- Mobile-friendliness is absolutely essential
- Fast loading speeds
- Clear navigation for ease of use
- Compelling content with call-to-actions
- Comprehensive cybersecurity
Low-level content marketing
Creating content is one of the most important parts of building an online presence. Taking the time to build online assets that people can absorb, either from or driving back to your website is essential to becoming a known entity in your field.
General content production
In terms of the kind of content that can increase organic engagement, there are a few pillars that all budding digital marketing experts should take on.
- Blog posts that answer industry questions and offer relevant advice
- Extensive guides and how-tos relating to your industry or products
- Videos, such as tutorials, behind the scenes and product demonstrations
- Visual infographics to be used on different digital channels
However, it’s not just enough to make these pieces of content, set them and forget them.
SEO is vital
Within your blogs, guides and videos, you need to consider the importance of SEO. This means using things like keywords, structuring techniques and visual aids to increase search engine authority. This will increase your rankings on results pages, driving more organic traffic and engagement. Tools like Ahrefs offer free keyword research planning, so you can see how different terms and phrases rank online.
Beyond keywords and readability, everything from your content to your website needs to be supported by strong technical SEO. This means mobile friendliness, URL mapping, crawlability assurance and other elements.
Social media content creation
Social media is perhaps the ultimate invention in terms of DIY digital marketing. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok provide free, high-finesse tools for the creation of content that can be used to build a community and drive engagement. All it takes is a viral video or two to cement yourself as a player in the digital space. Social media content also benefits from a sense of authenticity, where lower production values and reflections of reality are often valued above high-budget marketing approaches.
Email marketing is direct DIY digital marketing
If you want to connect with customers or businesses directly, email marketing can be a powerful digital tool. It’s really as simple as (ethically) collecting addresses and sending out messaging en masse. Yes, it takes time and comes with a lot of rejection, but it’s still an effective way to make an impact.
All of these DIY digital marketing techniques come with a catch – you will have to work overtime in the early days of your business, considering all the other moving parts of running a company. Being a digital agency at the same time will start to weigh you down! However, over time, as your budget grows, you can start to leverage the services of a purpose-built digital marketing agency and focus on your core operations going forward.
Get started today and build your online present.
