Digital marketing for beginners

Having five-plus years’ marketing experience both in-house and through agency, digital has been a strong thread throughout Simone Sangha’s career. Since joining Liniar in May 2018, she has been struck by the number of customers who know they should have an online presence, but don’t know where to start. In Glass Times, she’ll be writing a regular column for those wanting to dip a toe into digital waters – and those already online may pick up a useful tip or two in the process.

As time goes on, I think few would argue that word-of-mouth marketing is increasingly important for both acquiring and retaining customers. Social sharing and recommendations make this really easy – but only if your business has digital content for your advocates to share.

Since entering this industry just under a year ago, I have seen a vast range of different businesses implement digital strategies really well, while some are not using digital marketing at all.

Traditional marketing such as print advertising still work extremely well, but by restricting your approach to these channels alone, you are ultimately limiting your potential reach. In most cases, new customers are likely to go online to carry out their own research before making an enquiry, so choosing a range of marketing channels is key.

So, where should you start?

Set up a Facebook business page. The simplest (and most cost effective – ie, free) digital channels are social media. If you don’t have an up-to-date website, and don’t yet have a Facebook page for your business, I strongly recommend you set one up now.

You can include information about your business, its location, photographs of completed projects, and even ask for reviews from happy customers, all in one place so it’s a really easy way to start on your online journey.

I’ll go into more detail next month, including which social media channels to focus on and how to get started. Throughout the year I’ll aim to give you one tip each month to focus on, whether you’re using an agency for your marketing or doing it all in-house. The tips will cover topics such as:

• social media
• website creation
• email marketing
• SEO tips
• the importance of PPC
• market research
• data analytics
• Google algorithms
• digital strategy
• integrating digital channels
• trends of the year and future predictions

If you have any questions or there’s a topic you’d like to see covered, please email me at marketing@liniar.co.uk