Digital Marketing Masterclass

Principles of basic Digital Markeitng
Basic Marketing Funnel
We can’t talk about marketing funnel without AIDAR model. 
AIDAR stands for:
A: AwarenessI: Interest D: DesireA: ActionR: Retention
Awarness:
Awareness is all about building your brand or identity using tools like social media so that people can get to know you.
Interest:Interest means having a content strategy to get people interested in your brand or in a product or services.
Desire:Moving that person like from what you provide to actually wanting it.
Which means creating a personal or emotional connection with your audience.
Action:Taking action is different. It depends on the stage of your customers. Initially, it could be liking your Facebook page, subscribing your YouTube channel or subscribing to your email newsletter. For different person it could be purchasing a product or service.
Retention:Retention is very important as it is a lot cheaper to retain a customer who purchased a product from us than to find a new customer. Person who purchased earlier are more likely to buy again. 
How do we build that loyalty?

• Email Campaign
• Exclusive content on our website
• YouTube Series by providing consistent content that people love and engage with.

We can break down the ways that you get attention into two buckets:

1. Content Marketing
2. Paid Marketing

1.Content marketing:

1. It includes the doing things like:
2. Putting YouTube Videos
3. Doing Podcasts
4. Blog Articles
5. Social Media Content 

Social media is also a great way of sharing your content on that you host on other platforms. You can also host your content on social media. for an example, videos on Facebook is huge now. 
2.Paid Marketing:There are two ways that we will cover:
Traditional Ads: Putting up Google Ads, Facebook Ads that directs people to some sort of product or services of yours or landing / Squeeze page or even to your social media profiles. 

Steps to growing your audienceStep#1. Create your online identity
Create WebsiteFirst, it means creating a website. Website is your home base where you control your story, messaging. It’s where you can sell your product or services. It’s a place where you can give lot of free content to grow loyal fans.
Include Social MediaIn the modern world, you must include social media profiles as well. We are talking about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc.  These are the places where your potential customers live. They spend there most of their time and that’s how we attract them to our own business. 
There are modern tools that also makes it easy to manage your social media. Tools like Buffer and Hootsuite schedule and sends all those post on all social media on the same time. 
Step#2. What Content Will You Create?The best way to find ideas for content to create is to just serve your audience. Figure out what problem do they have. How do you solve their problem. This is all about understanding your target audience.
Consistency is one of the most important part of your content marketing strategy. It means posting regularly. There is no rule for once a week, everyday of the week or once a month. But be consistent so that your audience learns to expect when you come out with a new content. 
Always keep the balance of quality and quantity. 
Have a plan to do weekly podcasts for at least 1 year. 
Stick with the YouTube series for at least a few month to see if it catches on.
Write weekly articles and don’t stop. 
Sometime being there for long time creates your own success.
Step#3. Learn How to Capture Your AudienceFiguring out how to capture that audience into your world. 
This typically means for a modern business is growing an email list.
So sending traffic from your content (Blog Posts, videos, podcasts, social media) to your website, to your landing page, to anywhere that has an optin form where you can capture that person’s information. 
Email marketing is still consistently the highest converting way to make a sale. 
These are the three steps to growing your fan base. 
Once you are growing your fan base you have the opportunity to actually sell your products or services to them. 
Basically can be broken into two parts Direct Sale or soft sale. 
Direct Sale: Direct marketing in an online world means a sales page, a sales video, a webinar or training where you are selling at the end of that video an email that is pitching your product to them. 
Soft Sale: Softer form of marketing includes having a blog article that solves that person’s need. But then also provide more answers to them if they want to pay.

DEFINING YOUR BUSINESS
Why do you want to make the world a better place?What problem are you solving?
For an example
Search Engine Bay, the world would be a better place if people could learn Digital and Internet marketing skills without paying for expensive schools.
At Search Engine Bay, we break down complicated subjects so people with no experience can not only learn the tool but learn how to use it right.
POSITIONING YOUR BRAND
Q. What makes your different?
Answers

• Our courses are available to the world.
• Our courses are available for low cost.
• Our courses are higher quality.
• You will learn as if you were being taught by a friend.

Q. Why do you do what you do?
Answers

• We teach others so that they can enjoy a new hobby.
• We teach others so that they can pursue a new career (or advance in theirs)

Positioning statement:For (target customer) Who (statement of need or opportunity) (Product name) is a (product category) That (statement of key benefit) Unlike (competing alternative) (Product name) (Statement of primary differentiation)
For _________________________________________________ Who ________________________________________________ ________________________ is a _________________________ That ________________________________________________ Unlike ______________________________________________ ________________________   ________________________________________________

Unique Selling Proposition:
What are similar companies?
What do they do that is great?
What can you do differently?

Personality:
What is your business personality?
How will that come across?
Find Your Audience:What is the broadest circle of prospective customers?What pain points are these customers experiencing?Where is your audience?

VALIDATE YOUR BUSINESS IDEA
You have what you think is a great business idea but you’re not sure if there are people that will actually want your product and services.
So the there is a need of validating your business idea.
There two ways of validating your business idea:

1. Soft Validation
2. Hard Validation

Soft Validation: Soft Validation is nothing but the doing a little market research by yourself by using tools like Google, Facebook, YouTubeto see if the topic is popular. 
Hard Validation: Hard Validation is process that includes:

• Cold Calling
• Surveys
• Emails

Cold calling people, sending out surveys and emails and asking them “Is this a good idea” or “What they want from you?”
If you are able to build up a reputation on Facebook or on social media, if you have any sort of email list you can ask your audience what they are looking for.
You can also post surveys online find social media groups related to that group and put up surveys. 
You can use surveymonkey.com or Google Forms to quickly and easily create surveys to get feedback.

BRAND STRATEGIESThis section is about branding and specifically about graphics for your brand. This is very important section for setting yourself for success. 
In this section, you will be using graphics to grow your brand and what a lot of digital marketing is using visuals and graphics to sell their products and services. 
So having a solid brand identity is so important. 
BASICS OF BRAND IDENTITY
So what do we mean by brand identity?
It’s the visual, it’s looks, it’s the style, it’s the type of images you use, the fonts that you use, the colors that you pick. 
Consistency

• Colors
• Fonts
• Images

Always remember, simplicity is better. Keep things simple.
Not only in terms of colors. Meaning, don’t have 20 different colors you use but pick one or two as your brand focus colors and then just have some accent colors that you use for your brand. 
Same with your fonts.
Pick something clean, something easy to read and not too fancy. 
Don’t pick the flavor of the week style either in terms of color or fonts or really any type visual.
One of the best examples of this is with your logo.  Symbol logo just end up being better because they’re more timeless. 

Choosing Colors
It’s great if you have already chosen the colors for your brand. But if you have no idea for what color you like the www.design-seeds.com is a great website that help you to choose colors for your brand.
Paletton.com is a website that help you find color more scientifically that compliment each other.
coolers.co is an another website that help you choose colors.

How to find High Quality Photos?
Photos are big part for any brand. If you’re not a photographer or don’t have budget to shoot photos for your brand then you’re going to find photos for your brand online. There are great websites that you can purchase photos from . But what about some good high quality free photos. There are couple of websites that  I want to mention.
Unsplash.compexels.compixabay.com

How to find fonts?
If you are looking for some unique fonts for your website, here are some of the website that you can find useful:
dafont.comfontsquirrel.com

How to create graphics for your website?
If you’re looking to create graphics for your website, social media or pinterest. Canva.com is a great website to sign up.

CHAPTER #4: Website

• Importance of Website:
• It’s your home base
• Control your story
• Share your personality
• Help others
• Direct people to your product and services

Choosing a domain name.
Ideally the name of your business.Easy to rememberShorter is betterUse keywords in your domain.com are the bestAvoid Trademark infringement. For example, I can’t use Google or Nike in my domain name.Avoid hyphens and numbersCheck social media account. Check if username on social media has already taken.
WordPress Website Setup

Chapter #5: Email Marketing
Easy Email Marketing Funnel
Email Marketing is so important. It’s still the highest converting tool as compared to social media or other content marketing like YouTube or blog writing.
So it’s very important that you start collecting email addresses from people delivering them the content.
Everyday, people check their social media accounts, and email. Their Email accounts are little bit more private than say social media. That’s why email tend to convert little bit better because they are getting emails from the people they like, know and trust unless spam of course.
How does the basic email marketing funnel work?
Here are the steps 

1. Awareness: First is awareness. These are the people who are aware of you or become aware of you. They search for something on Google and end up on your website or they type something on YouTube and find your video. This is the biggest part of the funnel.
2. Interest: From here we go little further and fewer people become interested in your product or services. These people start to spend more time on your website on reading or watching content and they start to take interest in what you offer as a product or services.
3. Decision: At some point they have to make a decision whether to purchase or not. And hopefully, you are helping them to make that decision reinforcing that you will solve their problem.
4. Action: And at last they take and action whether to buy or not. So the smallest part of the funnel is action. The goal is to work people through the entire funnel.

Basics of the funnel

1. Awareness
2. Opt-In
3. Lead Magnet
4. Email Sequence
5. Sales Pitch

We have already covered Awareness.
Opt-In is a Newsletter Sign up form where a visitors fill their information and subscribe to the newsletter.
Lead Magnet: The lead magnet is the very important part of the opt-in funnel. It’s not really the step in funnel but that’s what you give in exchange for someone’s email address. Sometimes you don’t really need a lead magnet. All you have to say is that, Hey! Join my newsletter and I’ll send you e-mail when there is something of interest.
Other times more specific like:
Join my newsletter I’ll send you weekly email with new tips.
Other times it take little bit more work to get people to give their e-mail address to you. After all, it’s more private.
Email Sequence: After they submit their e-mail, through the opt-in form you run them through a sequence of e-mail. Now this sequence could just be the one email but ideally its multiple email and that leads them to the sales pitch.
Sales Pitch: Here you offer for your product and services and ultimately that where they make their decision.

Now the question arises, how to drive people to your website to build your list?
There are two main ways:

1. Content Marketing
2. Paid Marketing

Content Marketing: With content marketing we are talking about YouTube videos, blog articles, creating some type of interesting, useful content useful to people that direct people to opt-in form.
Paid Advertising: Google & Facebook

Email Marketing Tools
Email marketing tools are very essential as mail services like Gmail or Yahoo! does not allow you to sent bulk emails to hundreds or thousands of people. If you do so your mail might set spammed or above 500 emails, you won’t be able to send e-mails.
Another good reason to use em-mail marketing tools is automation. Automation is a service that E-mail marketing companies provide. You can create different lists to categories your audience so that you better know what to market for various categories of people.
Popular Tools

• ConvertKit
• MailChimp
• aWeber
• Constant Contact
• Infusion Soft

What does your target audience need help with?
That’s where lead magnet come into play.

Create Lead MagnetLead Magnets are the giveaways. In which we give away in exchange of E-mail address. 
Lead Magnets includes:

• PDF
• eBook
• E-mail Course
• Online Course
• Webinar
• Video Series
• Template

or some other types of files or download. It’s easiest to have it to be a digital download so that you can just automate it.
Keep in mind that you keep these newsletter super duper high quality.
Lead Magnet Tools

• Microsoft Word / Google Docs
• YouTube / Vimeo
• Teachable / Thinkific
• Your Email Marketing Service

Lead Magnet Ideas
Go to the website for companies in your niche, see what they are doing, subscribe to their newsletter. This is smart even if they don’t give out a link magnet. Just see what type of email marketing they are doing to get the inspiration but also to see how you can improve. 
Opt-In Location

• Popup
• Home Page Header
• Single Post Sidebar
• After Single Post 

Opt-In Copy Tips

• Does it match your brand?
• Does it stand out?
• Is it irresistible?
• Put your face on it.

Segmenting & Tagging Your Audience
This is such an important part especially when you started building your list. It’s better to start segmenting your audience so it doesn’t get confusing as you go on as it is lot harder to go back and try to organize your e-mail list. 
Why Should you tag?The idea is that you are grouping together people who have similar interest so that you can send e-mails related to that particular niche to that group rather than if you have a large audience on all kinds of different topics and sending the same e-mail to everyone because the click through rate and engagement on those types of email won’t be as good as if you are targeting a specific group or segment of your audience.

Email Sequences
You also need to be writing email sequences that are automated and sent to new subscribers.
Email Sample Sequence:

1. Intro
2. Educational
3. Educational
4. Inspirational 
5. Soft Sale
6. Inspirational
7. Hard Sale
8. Follow Up

Goal of the sequence is to educate and inspire to make selling easy.
Write Better Sequences.

1. Use Evergreen Content: If you have a YouTube video or content related to the email sequence. People might get to click on the video or the article. This will keep old high quality content alive.
2. Personalize it with their name
3. Send at right time
4. Test different subject lines

How to write Better Email Subject Lines?

1. Keep it short and sweet
2. Use the word “You”. When you use the word YOU, people pay more attention.
3. Start with Action word
4. Fear of missing out. Like this deal is till midnight, last time deal etc.
5. Build curiosity. Like here’s my gift to you, dare not open this e-mail.
6. Pose a question. Like Do you know how you can build a better video.
7. Don’t use all Caps or lots of exclamation point.

Chapter #6: Copyrighting & BloggingKnowing how to write copies are so important that it’s everywhere on banners, on website, on video advertising, on videos etc. 
We need to understand the difference between copyrighting & blogging.
Copyrighting: Copyrighting is anything that has a purpose of selling. So this could be in a blog article but typically blog articles are meant to educate or inspire, to entertain but not necessarily sell.
Why Blogging is important?Why should you blog?
Blogging allows you to write long form of content. In-depth content that really attracts people to your brand. If people read your article and like what you are writing, it turn into a raving fan with a simple blog post. You can start to build a relationship with your blog articles.
With your blog articles you can rank in search engines for keywords and not necessarily big general keywords but specific keywords.
A.I.D.A.
A.I.D.A. is an acronym that describes marketing process or a principle from getting someone aware to actually purchasing your product.
It’s an important thing to understand with your copy-writing similar to e-mail marketing that we talked about before but a little bit more focused and practiced by marketers and advertisers around the world for many years.
What is A.I.D.A?

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action 

Attention

• Who is reading what?
• What demographic?
• What is their problem?
• What solution do you have?

Interest

• Build an argument for your brand.
• Tell your story
• Prove yourself

Desire

• Shift from interest to wanting your product
• Further demonstrate why you can solve their problem

Action

• Provide call to action
• Make it easy to purchase
• Think about design, button, text

A.I.D.A.R
Retention
It’s a lot harder to get a new customer than retaining a old customer.
10 Commandments of Copywriting
This will hep you with your sales pitches and even in your bog writing.

1. Know your audience
2. Determine your value preposition
3. Find a unique selling preposition: Why your product or brand is great.
4. Establish your objective
5. Use a compelling subject line
6. Avoid weasel words: These words are Maybe, Hope, Wish, Try, But, Perhaps, However. It sounds like you are unsure.
7. Use the present tense. Writing in the present tense will make people take action. Even writing in the future tense is also a good tactic. But prefer present tense while writing a sales page.
8. Include customer quotes and testimonials. This is one of the easiest way to get going and attract new customers.
9. Keep it clean and concise. No big long paragraphs one after the other. Use your headings and the bold font italics to separate the certain words.
10. Make it pretty. Include fonts, images, videos that are eye catching. Use brand colors.

Write Better HeadlinesSpending time on how to write a proper headline that will get people open up your article or page.
Here are some basic tips you should remember while writing a headline.

• Make it unique
• Make it specific
• Make it useful
• Have a sense of urgency
• Shorter is better

Write Quality Articles
Writing good blog articles can drive a lot of traffic to your website. So here are the basic tips:

• Research and use proper keywords.
• Be generous, give lots for free
• Attracts right people

Improve Your Website’s SEO

• Meta Description
• Page title and headers
• Anchor text – links to other pages
• Mobile optimization

Chapter #7 YouTube
YouTube Funnel Basics
First understand and identify your target audience. If your target audience is on YouTube, it’s a time to start using YouTube.
If your target audience is not on YouTube and they are not watching YouTube video you might better spend your time on another platform like Pinterest or on other social media platforms. 
There are lots of ways and places to actually host your video content e.g., Wistia, it allows you host videos anddesign and customize your video player. 
You can also host your videos on video platforms like Vimeo or directly to social media platforms like facebook, twitter or Instagram.

Why YouTube

• 2nd Largest Search Engine: Google owns 
• Amazing reach on mobile

Types of Marketing Videos

• Customer testimonials
• Product demonstrations
• Explainer videos & tutorials
• Thought Leader interviews
• Case studies
• Live streaming and events
• Vlogging

YouTube SEO
To get better views and results in YouTube, don’t go for views rather focus on getting more watch time. Higher the watch time higher the YouTube SEO goes. 
If you take an example, you upload a video with custom thumbnail. Video content is different from what you have uploaded in custom thumbnail, people might click a back button and as a result watch time is reduced.
So always focus on posting right content with right thumbnail.

YouTube Keyword Research
It is very much recommended that you do keyword research not only while starting a channle but when you start to create videos yourself.
Google Trends is one the best tool to analyze what is trending now.
So if you are creating a YouTube channel about just newsworthy things and you want to blog about something, this would be a great site to go on and just to find topics what people are searching for and interested in.
Start Your YouTube Channel
Design and Add Channel ArtAdd Your Channel Description: 

• Include main keywords for your channel in the channel description including some other keywords that are related.
• Ask people to subscribe to your channel to get weekly videos in your inbox.

Customize Your Channel LayoutOrganize your channel homepage with channel trailer, playlists and links.Add a YouTube Channel TrailerVerify Your Channel and More Important SettingsUpload Defaults Featured Content and BrandingUploading a Video Titles Descriptions Thumbnails and TagsAdding YouTube Cards and End ScreensYouTube AnalyticsThe Community TabGoing Live on YouTubeFree Music Library on YouTubeCreate a YouTube Ad Promote Your VideosSpy on Your Competitors with Social BladeTubeBuddy Tutorial Optimize Your YouTube Experience

Chapter #8 Video Marketing
Video Marketing Basics
In this section, we will  understand how you can create great videos specifically for marketers. First, lets understand why videos are so important.
Video is the most engaging form of communication right now. It is shared more on social media than any other forms of communication.
By 2019, video will be 80% of online content consumed this was put out by CISCO who does a lot of research in this area.
Videos can increase landing page conversions by 80%.
64% of the customers are more likely to purchase when there is a sales video. This is because videos allow you to truly explain and show what your product and services.
Videos are more memorable.
Video marketing helps website SEO.
Videos have viral potential. 
Video Equipment for Beginners

Tools to Help Make Your Videos Look Pro

• VideoHive for motion graphics
• BeLive.tv for YouTube and Facebook Live (Paid)
• BlueJeans for Social Broadcasting (Paid)
• Loom (Free)
• SoapBox by Wistia (Free)

Structure a Video that Sells
Make it about story, not the sale: People are smart and if you are just selling something unless that person is already in interested part of the funnel and about to make the purchase. Most people will turn it off and search for some other content or video.
That’s why we want to make our videos about story.
It does not mean that we can not sell our product or services in our video.
How does your product help the customer?
How does that change their life?
Make a video about that.
Watch television now a days and watch the super bowl commercials. In these commercials, they are smart. Most of them are stories and may be there’s a product within that story that is why they are actually making the commercial about.
If it’s not about a story it could be educational.
Make the first 5 seconds epic:
Show your personality: Especially if you are doing marketing for your own company. This is where you can shine. Show who you are. Talk. People will love you more if you are acting like yourself rather trying to be like someone else. Video is a perfect place to showcase that.
Remember your call to action:
Call to action: 3 Ways

• Visual / Audio
• Graphics
• Description & Cards

You Need These Things to Make a Great Video

1. Camera
2. Subject or Story: Something captivating, something that’s going to get people interested, something that will keep someone watching your video.
3. Light: Having enough light to see what you are trying to capture. This can come from both artificial light or day light.
4. Audio: Sound effects, voice over and music
5. Editing: Editing or post production where your video takes a shape. It takes everything that we have worked on so far. The writing, the shooting and we put it all together and editing is more than just taking your best shots. It’s about adding emotions or even comedy with proper peaces or using techniques like adding music or doing some color grading to give certain style to your film.
6. Distribution: 

Create the RIGHT Video for Your Brand
To create the right video for your brand you need to understand:What is the end goal?Who is the target audience?Where will the video be shared?
Tip#1: If you are going to be consistently making videos and trying to build an audience YouTube is really the best place right now to do so. There are lot people that have build entire careers around YouTube videos.
Tip#2: Instagram & Twitter: If you are making short videos that are under a minute and really more so to advertise your company and try and get people towards the website. Instagram and Twitter are the great platforms to share those videos.
Tip#3: If you are looking to make more creative videos and be a part of a community of filmmakers Dimi is a great place to do so.
Tip#4: Facebook is an another solution. A lot of people choose to share from other platforms onto Facebook but you can upload straight to Facebook. Now of course Facebook live is there. You can live stream things to it. 
Tip#5: To be focused and know what type of videos you are making and who your audience is and where they are going and where they are going to be watching it. They will help you grow faster and get more shares and likes all around. 

Come Up with a GREAT Video Idea
Great video tells a great story.
How to find a story?
Always be looking for a great story. If you are really struggling to find a great story then shoot something that you are passionate about it. You should be really excited about what you are shooting.
So if you start shooting your passion you may be able to evolve and develop a story or something out of that. 
Beginner tip: Find stories about your passion. 
Find inspiration online. 
See how other creators shoot their videos.
When you come up with the idea, think about engagement. How engaging your video will be. 
What is the perfect video length?There is a no perfect length for a video. Your video should be as long as it takes to tell the story. But always remember that attention spans are short. We live in a world now where people attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and shorter. 
So trimming the fact and keeping it more engaging will make the video more engaging. 
Increase engagement with editing tricks: Engagement comes with how you make your videos as well including what type of shots you have.
A video with one long shot of someone talking at the camera is not going to be as engaging as that same video with multiple shots or multiple people telling that same story. 
Also adding things like music, graphics or titles can make your videos more engaging. 
Here’s  a checklist to help come up with your next video to think about what you are passionate about.
Video Brainstorm Checklist

1. Think about your passion
2. Research other video creators
3. Ask friendly and family
4. See what’s trending online
5. How will your video be different?

Plan Your Video
Once you have an idea for your video the next step is to make a plan. This is the pre-production process.
Pre-Production: Making a planPre production is very important. It is something that helps you prodcution in post-production all run much much smoother because you’ve gone and you’ve had the foresight to know what you’re getting into just for this course alone.
Pre-Preduction inludes:

• Timeline
• Equipments
• Crew
• Budget

References can also be used so that you can keep track of everything you are doing while you are shooting. 
Setting up a timeline is an important part of your pre-production process. It is important even for YouTube.
It’s so important to have schedule on YouTube or any social media platform when it comes to video. 
Putting out consistent video is one way to grow your audience faster because people will expect and know that you’re coming out with more content on a weekly or a monthly or a bi-weekly basis.
There is no perfect rule for how often you should be posting but once or twice a week is a great rule of thumb.
So once you know that you want to be posting videos once a week or twice a week or whatever it is you can come up with the timeline for how long it will take to create that video that is going to include things like planning out the video, shooting the video, and editing the video.
Start from the end – When do you want to publish?
Crew & EquipmentThis can be covered by a one person or a whole team.
Do you have equipment?
Can you rent equipment?
When you get started use what you have what is available to you and really focus on what is in-front of your camera.
Now decide your budget. It means the paying for production and post -production.
Basic budget:

• Equipment
• Crew
• Transportation
• Food
• Post-production

Chapter #9. Facebook Groups
Build a community
It’s easier to engage with your audience. Pages are great for brands but not everyone who likes your page is going to see your post.
It’s also not an easy way for people who like your brand to engage with you but with a group people are at least currently the way that it’s set of you and people members of the group are all commenting on the same wall basically. 
Everyone who joins the group sees all the post of the group unless they change the notification settings which may happen. 
There is more engagement and there is more chance to be able to see or post in groups at least. 
Tips for choosing a Facebook group name

• Choose a name that stands out and is searchable
• Have and enforce group guidelines to stop spam
• Welcome new members and create initial engagement 
• Share resources with your group. It’s not necessarily have to be your own content.
• Use visual content marketing for each post. It makes post more engaging.
• Use live videos.
• Use your pinned post wisely.

Chapter#10: Facebook Pages
Create a Facebook page and add all the necessary information.Spy your Competitors on Facebook