Free Basic Digital Marketing Course

Taking your business online offers a lot of opportunities, but with so many options, it's easy to spin your wheels and lose focus. Setting specific goals can help as you begin to navigate the digital world. Every business has different objectives. It’s 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. Because you don’t want to feel too overwhelmed. There are lots of clear ways digital can help your business. Such as, building relationships on social networks, selling online, finding new customers. Or even keeping existing ones. It’s good to start by asking yourself a simple question: why, exactly, do I want to be online?

Let’s take a look at all the options for launching your business online, step by step. We’ll cover: local listings social media and video websites and mobile apps. 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.

You’re online, so now it’s time to bring in the customers you want. We’ll review how to best help them find you, using some tried-­and-­tested online marketing avenues: search engines other websites social media email. Let’s discuss some great strategies to do just that using search engines, other websites, social media and email. So let’s talk about you, how are you going to get customers to find you online? There are a few ways to do it using digital. Let’s start with search engines. When people type something in a search engine, they’re letting it know exactly what they are looking for.

To go digital and do it the right way, you need a well-thought­-out and flexible plan. In this lesson we’ll talk through: setting realistic expectations tracking and measuring how you’re doing adapting to changes in technology and your industry. By now, you know how important it is to figure out what you want to get out of digital, how to establish your online presence, and start using digital marketing to drive people to your digital home. But it’s also important to make sure that your digital plan is geared toward the long haul. Let’s go over a few ways to do that: setting realistic expectations, tracking your results and adapting to changes in technology and your industry. The first thing to remember: don’t expect too much too soon. It can take a bit of time to set up your digital presence and get noticed online.

There’s more than one place for people to find you online. In this lesson we’ll explore just how important being online is these days, as well as some common ways to do it, including: websites local business listings and review sites social media mobile apps. You can see just how important it is these days to be online, so let’s get going. The most obvious way to “go digital” is with a website. Early websites weren’t much more than online brochures that described the who, what and where. Today’s websites can do much more. Your site can help people do research, chat with experts, read customer reviews, watch videos, buy things, track orders – and much, much more. If you decide that a website makes sense for you, the key is to think about what your site actually needs to do in order to support your business goals.

If your business needs a website, the first step is to understand the basics. Here’s a quick summary of what you’ll need to know: what web servers do how domain names work how your website uses these. We’ll run down the basics — without getting too technical, promise! — on web servers and domain names, what they do for you and how to find what you need to get started. A website is your business’s home on the Internet. It’s where potential customers can come and learn about your business and what it has to offer them. Let’s say you decide to open a bakery in the real world. First you’d have to rent a space to house it, right? A website is no different.

A website consists of many parts. Build and blend them right, and you’re sure to succeed. In this lesson, we’ll cover: your name the website’s organisation text, photos and other interactive elements In this lesson we’ll talk you through some crucial early decisions you’ll make about your website: choosing a website name and planning how your site is structured. The goal is making it easy for customers to find their way around and get what they want. Because a happy customer equals a more successful business, right?

When creating your website, consider how to combine your business goals with what your visitors want. In this lesson, we'll talk about: using your site to further your business goals thinking like a customer telling your story online. It’s time to take a look at meeting your customers in the middle—that is, how your website can unite your visitors’ wants with your business needs. We’ll walk through how to think like a customer and design your website accordingly, all without losing sight of your own goals. So you’re starting to design your site. As you do this, keep your goals in mind, but also consider what your visitors are looking for. Marrying what you want people to do on your site and what they want to do is the secret to success.

Visitors to your website should be able to navigate and interact with your site easily – that's called usability. Bring them back again and again by: providing simple and clear navigation creating a consistent layout writing relevant and effective content. That’s digital speak for making it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for and accomplish what they want. We’ll go over the best ways to improve usability, from how to provide simple and clear navigation to the importance of a consistent layout. We’ll also explain how your writing can make your site more effective.

When designing your website, watch out for mistakes that often chase customers away. In this lesson, we'll outline some ways to avoid frustration, such as: quick-loading pages mobile-friendliness general accessibility. You’ve heard the expression “you only get one chance to make a first impression,” right? Well, it holds true online, too. This lesson can help you avoid common mistakes in your website design that can drive visitors away. We’ll cover how to make sure your pages load fast, making your site mobile friendly, general accessibility and the quality of your content.

An online business strategy can boost your chances of digital success, helping you to define clear goals and focus your online activity. In this lesson, we'll explore: how an online business can benefit from a business strategy best practices when creating a business strategy examples of common goals and popular strategies to achieve them. So you want to know more about online business strategy, or perhaps improve your current strategy? In this lesson, we’ll explore how creating an online business strategy can have a positive impact, what a good strategy looks like, and common things you can implement to achieve your business goals. An online business strategy helps get all the ideas out of your head and into a usable format. This can help define objectives to work towards, and increase your clarity and focus.

When taking a business online, understanding how customers browse on the web is an important factor in ensuring your online efforts are rewarded. In this lesson, we will explore: customer behaviours online, and how these overlap with offline behaviours the "See, Think, Do, Care" framework, and how to use this to help understand the online customer journey how to group your audiences using audience segmentation. In this lesson we will look at the differences between online and offline customer behaviours. We’ll also cover how audience segmentation can help you choose where to focus your digital efforts when moving online. So what are the key differences between a customer in a physical shop and a customer online?

Create the best possible online experience for customers by understanding how to make the most of the moments when they interact with a brand. In this lesson, we'll explore: what customer touchpoints are how to map common online customer journeys how to identify customer touchpoints that generate business goals. Customers are the key to success, which is why understanding and nurturing them is so important. In this lesson we’ll look at the importance of customer touchpoints, how to use them to map the journey customers take online, as well as how improving the customer experience can help you achieve your goals. So how can you make a customer’s experience better?

Understanding the competition is a key component of your online strategy, enabling you to position a business correctly in the marketplace. In this lesson, we'll explore: how to identify what makes a business stand out in a busy marketplace why Unique Selling Points (USPs) are important and how to construct them online tools available to help you research the competition. Healthy competition keeps us on our toes and increases our drive for success. In this lesson, we’ll explore how to identify what makes a business stand out online, why you should be checking out your competitors, and what tools can help you get ahead of the game. Let’s start with this question: what makes you stand out?

When marketing your business online, it's important to use the data and metrics available to evaluate how your online activities are performing. In this lesson, we'll explore: why setting goals and KPIs is so important to online businesses how to construct a KPI using the SMART framework how to analyse data gathered to help improve online marketing efforts. In this lesson, we’ll cover how setting and tracking specific goals can help you understand and improve business performance. You’ll also learn about Key Performance Indicators and how these can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of processes most important to achieving your goals. Let’s dive in: Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are quantifiable measurements used to focus attention on the metrics most important to meet business goals. They are also useful in helping a team understand how progress will be tracked and measured. There are many ways to construct KPIs, but they should all be measurable, practical, achievable, and provide direction. So what does a KPI look like in the real world?

Search engines catalogue the Internet to help connect searchers with exactly what they're looking for. That makes them a great marketing tool. This video covers: a brief history of search engines how search engines changed business why search is a good place to start. In this video, we’ll talk through some of the history behind search engines. We’ll explain how search engines have changed business, and tell you why they’re a great place to market your business on.

Search engines examine all the pages on the World Wide Web, categorise them and put them into a logical order when you search for something. Understanding how this works can help your business. This video will cover: how search engines find web pages what they do with the web pages they find how they decide what to show on search results pages. Welcome to our video explaining how search engines work. We’ll give you the basics on how search engines find web pages, what they do with the pages they find, and how they decide what results to show.

If you want to make sure your website turns up in more search engine results, stay tuned for this video, which includes: how search engines understand what's on a web page which parts of a web page help search engines do this how to make your web pages more visible to search engines. We’ll go over how search engines understand what’s on a web page, which parts of a web page specifically help them, and how you can make your pages more visible to search engines. In simple terms, when you ask a search engine to find something, it looks through a huge list of previously indexed pages, called “the index,” and pulls out relevant results based on what you’re looking for.

When it comes to your website, the more information you have, the better. In this video you'll learn: what Search Console is, and how it can help some of its useful features how to set it up. Hey! Want a great tool to get your website more traffic? Then this is the video for you. We’re going to tell you all about a free Google service called Search Console. And show how it can help you, and how you can get it set up. So what exactly is Google Search Console? Well, it's a service that gives you feedback about how your website is doing in Google search results. It has two primary functions. It monitors your performance in Google Search results. And it also shows you how Google “sees” your site.

Understanding how search engines work can help your business improve its online presence. This video explains: what search engine optimisation is how search engines understand your website what they value most. Welcome to our introduction to search engine optimisation, also known as SEO. In this video we’ll explain what SEO is, how search engines understand your website, and what they value most. Because when search engines understand your content, it will be shown to many more potential customers.

In this step-by-step process to create an SEO plan for your website, you'll learn how to: develop prioritise adjust the plan to best suit your goals. Once you have a good grasp of search engine optimisation (SEO), you are ready to optimise your website. Just follow this step-by-step process to create an SEO plan, and learn how to develop, prioritise and adjust the plan to best suit your goals.

This video explains the SEO process and the steps you need to take in order to optimise your website, including: discovering what words or phrases people use to search for your products or services improving the content on your site. In this video we’ll explain why search engine optimisation is an ongoing process, and the steps you’ll need to take to reach your goals. Such as discovering what words and phrases people use to search for your products or services, and improving the content on your site. There is no shortcut for search engine optimisation (SEO), which helps you improve your website’s visibility to people who are searching for products or services like yours.

Choosing keywords is the cornerstone of successful search engine optimisation. In this video, we'll discuss: why you need to do keyword research the difference between short tail and long tail keywords what to consider when selecting keywords. In this video we’ll discuss what to consider when selecting keywords, so that you can reach your SEO goals and benefit your business. Choosing keywords is the foundation of successful search engine optimisation. Why do you need to do keyword research?

Setting realistic goals for organic traffic and assessing them with measurements that matter will help you strengthen your SEO strategy. In this video, you'll learn: how to define success how to select measurements that matter what tools can help. Does search engine optimisation seem intimidating to you? One way to tackle SEO is to set clear goals, then measure your progress each step of the way. In this video we’ll talk about why it’s important to set SEO goals. We’ll look at how you should define success, how to decide what to measure, and what tools can help. When you set SEO goals, you can measure, track and report on the results. You’ll know which efforts are succeeding—and which aren’t. And then you can adjust things to make it work better.

Get started in search engine optimisation by improving the pages on your website. This video explains the elements that you can tweak to make your website easier for search engines to understand. We'll cover: title and description meta tags heading elements page copy. In this video we’ll talk about the simple things you can do to optimise the pages of your website so search engines can find you more easily. Because if they can, so can potential customers. On-page optimisation, or changes you can make on your website’s individual pages, can quickly help search engines better understand your content. Let’s say you run a small farm called Blake Produce and are looking to optimise a page about your fruits and vegetables selection. There are several elements on your page that can tell the search engine that the page is about fresh fruits and vegetables. These include: meta tags and title, headings and the page copy itself.

Traditional advertising broadcasts a message to the world at large. But search engine marketing targets a very specific group of people – those actively looking for your products and services. In this video, you'll learn: what SEM is how it works why it works so well. And welcome to our introduction to search engine marketing, or SEM. In this video we’re going to be talking about how SEM works, and more importantly, what makes it unique in marketing, and why it’s so effective. You’re probably already familiar with search engine marketing, even if you don’t know how it works.

When advertisers compete to show ads on the same search results page, search engines use an auction to determine which ads appear and in what order. But there’s more to consider than just the price. In this video, we’ll talk through: how an SEM auction works factors that influence the outcome a detailed example. When you’re starting a new search engine marketing (SEM) campaign, it’s important to understand what makes a keyword “good”. In this video, you’ll learn which factors to consider before bidding on keywords, including: relevance traffic competition.

The Internet connects businesses and customers worldwide. But if you’re a local business, you’ll want to reach people nearby. Let’s learn a bit about: what local means in digital how your business can build a local search presence and a perfect pair: local marketing and mobiles. One of the best ways to connect with customers online is to get listed in local directories. In this lesson we'll show you: where to start how to list your business how to manage your local profiles.

One of the best ways to connect with customers online is to get listed in local directories. In this lesson we'll show you: where to start how to list your business how to manage your local profiles. If you’re a business that operates out of a physical, brick and mortar storefront, then the odds are you want to attract and serve customers that are nearby - or local - to you. In this lesson we’ll be explaining the ins and outs of one of the best ways to connect with local customers: local directories. By the time it’s done you’ll know how to get started, where to list your business and how to manage your “local” profile.

Social media is everywhere, and people engage with it every day. Learn what it is and how you can take advantage of these networks by: understanding why you need to be there joining the right social media sites growing your presence and engaging with your networks. New social media sites pop up constantly. Here’s an overview of what’s out there and how to figure out which ones might be important to you. We’ll go over: different types of networks understanding their contexts the best ways to get involved.

Once you’ve learned the lay of the land when it comes to social media, it’s time to figure out what you’re trying to accomplish. Let’s talk about: setting specific goals for your social media efforts focusing your efforts on those goals putting your plan into action. Joining a social network usually starts with opening an account and creating a profile. In this video we'll explore: the basics of getting started with a social media site the difference between business and individual accounts the importance of your profile.

Today, people have so many different ways to access the Internet. We use computers, smartphones, tablets and now even smartwatches. Mobile marketing is constantly evolving; embrace it and your business will stay well ahead of the curve. In this lesson, you’ll learn: how mobile usage has changed in the last four decades what features are available on today’s mobile devices what the explosive growth of mobile use means for you. When people search for businesses, they are quite likely to be searching on a mobile device. Search engines are adapting to this new approach, and businesses need to adapt as well. In this video, you'll learn about: search engines and the mobile searcher ways to make your website mobile-friendly what you should consider for mobile SEO.

With so many businesses and brands online, content marketing is a valuable tool in helping you to stand out. In this lesson, we'll explore: what content marketing is, and why it can add value to an online business best practices for creating your own content marketing strategy. Making sure you are saying the right thing, to the right people, and are connecting with them at the right time is critical when it comes to content marketing. In this lesson, we'll explore: what audience segmentation is and how it can benefit a business how to use audience segmentation to boost your content marketing efforts some of the tools and systems available to help you segment your audience correctly.

Content is much more than just text on a screen. From entertaining GIFs to blog posts, whitepapers, and full-length videos, understanding which content format can make the most impact on your audience is critical. In this lesson, we'll explore: popular online content formats the four main purposes for content marketing how to match different formats to your content goals Knowing how well your content performs once it's published online will help you understand your audience, as well as provide you with insights as to how to improve campaigns in the future. In this lesson, we'll explore: the tools available to help track the success of your published content key metrics used to measure the success of content marketing campaigns how to use data gathered to better meet goals in future campaigns