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Elvis Ansima
Elvis Ansima

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Digital Marketing: What I Know So Far

A lot of people today claim they do digital marketing, but from what I’ve seen, many don’t really understand what it involves. It’s not just about posting nice pictures on social media or running a giveaway. Real digital marketing is about strategy, tools, testing, and results.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far in my journey.

1. Understanding the Customer Journey

One of the first things I learned is that you need to guide people from the moment they discover you to the moment they become customers. This is often called the customer journey.

There are usually three steps:

  • Top of the journey: People are just discovering your brand
  • Middle of the journey: People are considering what you offer
  • Bottom of the journey: People are ready to take action, like buying or signing up

2. Advertising Online Takes Real Skill

Running ads is not as easy as boosting a post on Facebook. You need to:

  • Choose the right audience
  • Create different versions of your ad
  • Manage your budget
  • Track how much you earn back from your ad spending

Free tool to explore: Google Ads lets you run search and display ads. Depending on your audience Facebook or Twitter(X) ads are also something to consider!

3. Testing is What Makes You Smarter

Real digital marketers do not guess. They test. For example, you might test two different headlines on your website to see which one works better.

This kind of testing helps you learn what people respond to and what brings better results.

Tool to try: PostHog is a tool that allows you to do these kinds of experiments.

4. Data Tells the Real Story

I realized quickly that if you are not looking at numbers, you are just hoping. You need to track:

  • Where your visitors come from
  • What pages they visit
  • How many take action (like signing up or buying)

Free tool to use: Google Analytics helps you understand your website traffic and user behavior.

5. Getting More People to Take Action

It’s not enough to get people to visit your site. You want them to do something like fill out a form or make a purchase. This is called optimizing your website so more people take action.

Free tools:

6. Watching User Behavior Opened My Eyes

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned: if you don’t know what users are doing on your site, you are guessing. Watching recordings of how people move and click on your site helps you find problems and improve.

Free tool: Microsoft Clarity gives you full session recordings and click maps for free.

7. Using a Tag Manager Makes Life Easier

I used to place tracking codes manually in the website’s code. Then I learned that you can use something called a tag manager. It’s a single tool that lets you control all your tracking like the Facebook Pixel, Google Ads tracking, and more without touching code every time.

Free tool: Google Tag Manager

8. Email Marketing Still Works

Another important part of digital marketing is sending emails to your audience. You can welcome new users, remind people about your offer, or send newsletters.

Free tools:

9. Search Engine Optimization is Free Traffic

If your website appears on Google when people search for something, you can get traffic without paying for ads. This is called search engine optimization and it requires keyword research, writing useful content, and making your site technically sound.

Free tools:

Final Thoughts

Digital marketing is not about showing off but learning, testing, analyzing, and improving. And most of the tools you need to get started are free.

If someone tells you they’re doing digital marketing but they’ve never used tools like analytics, heatmaps, or email automation they are just scratching the surface.

I’m still learning every day, and this is just the beginning.

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