Study Notes Phase 3 PDF

Wassup, welcome. So I used mainly the Hubspot resources to make these notes. I’d suggest also using Irma’s slides along with them AND to do a practice test or two yk? I used AI to help me summarise so also if something doesn’t seem right (that would mean I missed it, askies) just let me know then I...

Wassup, welcome. So I used mainly the Hubspot resources to make these notes. I’d suggest also using Irma’s slides along with them AND to do a practice test or two yk? I used AI to help me summarise so also if something doesn’t seem right (that would mean I missed it, askies) just let me know then I can update it for us that will be using these notes. You’re welcome. Also, if you want the actual notes I used to make these then here you go. Love, Kile 1 Digital Marketing Fundamentals 3 SEO 6 Paid Search Advertising 9 Website Performance 11 Email Marketing 13 Importance of High-Performing Emails 13 Key Components of High-Performing Emails 13 Creating a High-Performing Email 13 Email Structure and Content 14 Design and Compliance 14 Best Practices 15 2 Digital Marketing Fundamentals (Just a young recap) What is Digital Marketing? Digital marketing encompasses any marketing efforts that take place on digital platforms. It includes both inbound and outbound marketing strategies aimed at reaching a broad online audience. Digital Marketing: All online marketing tactics, both inbound and outbound. Inbound Marketing: Focuses on attracting customers through valuable content and experiences tailored to them. Utilises content to draw in target customers. Outbound Marketing: Aims to reach as many people as possible with marketing messages, regardless of relevance or welcome. Key Digital Marketing Channels: 1. Content Marketing: Creating and sharing valuable content to attract and retain customers. This includes blog posts, eBooks, guides, videos, and interactive tools. 2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Optimising website content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), thereby increasing visibility. 3. Social Media Marketing: Using platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to engage with audiences, share content, and build brand presence. 4. Native Advertising: Paid advertisements that blend seamlessly with the content on the platform, such as boosted social media posts and PPC ads. 5. Ad Retargeting: Delivering targeted ads to individuals who have previously visited your website, using data to better target these potential customers. 6. Email Marketing: Directly reaching audience members through personalised and targeted email campaigns. By adopting an inbound approach, emails can be a powerful tool for delivering helpful content. Effective Digital Marketing Strategy: 1. Build Buyer Personas: 3  ○ Create semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on research and data. ○ Tools: HubSpot Persona Template, Map My Persona. 2. Identify Goals and Tools: ○ Align marketing goals with business objectives (e.g., increasing online revenue by generating more leads). ○ Tools: HubSpot Marketing Plan Template, Inbound Goal Calculator. 3. Evaluate Digital Channels and Assets: ○ Owned Media: Digital assets your company owns (e.g., website, social media profiles, blog content). ○ Earned Media: Exposure gained through word-of-mouth (e.g., PR, customer reviews). ○ Paid Media: Paid advertising channels (e.g., Google Ads, sponsored social media posts). 4. Plan Your Campaigns: ○ Audit existing content and identify high-performing assets. ○ Develop a content creation plan, including the title, format, goal, promotional channels, and priority. Content Creation and Marketing Stages: Awareness Stage: Content to attract attention (e.g., infographics, short videos). Consideration Stage: Content that educates potential customers (e.g., eBooks, free samples, webinars). Decision Stage: Content that persuades (e.g., case studies, testimonials). Examples of Successful Digital Marketing: GoPro: Utilises user-generated content for unique video marketing. Delta Airlines: Engages customers on Twitter with timely and emotionally stimulating content. MasterCard: Uses travel blogs to showcase customer stories and adventures. Red Bull: Focuses on extreme sports content rather than the product itself. 4 Key Takeaways: Digital marketing integrates multiple strategies to create a cohesive approach. Content should be relevant and delivered through the right channels at the right time. A successful digital marketing strategy involves understanding your audience, setting clear goals, and leveraging the appropriate tools and channels. 5 SEO Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation: SEO refers to techniques that help your website rank higher in organic search results. SEM includes both organic and paid search strategies. It is important for your website to be listed on search engines to capture potential customers. Paid search can be costly, and organic listings are more beneficial in the long run. How Search Engines Work: Search engines aim to provide relevant results to user queries. They use bots to scan webpages for indexing, focusing on content and inbound links. Factors like geographic location, historical performance, and link quality influence search results. Google dominates the search engine market with a 64% market share. What it Takes to Rank: Rank, authority, and relevance are key factors in determining a website’s position on the SERP. Monitoring rank changes and authority metrics can help track SEO progress. Relevance is crucial for creating content that resonates with search engines and users. Long-Tail Concept & Theory: Focusing on long-tail keywords can attract more qualified traffic and improve search rankings. 6  Long-tail keywords target specific user intents and have higher conversion potential. Creating content around long-tail keywords can lead to better search engine visibility. Content is King: Quality content is essential for SEO success and user engagement. Regularly publishing content increases chances of ranking on search engines. Avoid keyword stuffing and focus on providing valuable information to users. How to Approach Your SEO Strategy: Split SEO efforts into on-page and off-page optimization. Optimise website content, URL structure, pictures, title tags, and meta tags for on-page SEO. Build relationships, attract inbound links, and leverage social media for off-page SEO. Importance of SEO: Majority of online experiences involve search. 68% of website traffic comes from organic search. 53% of global traffic comes from Google search, Google Images, and Google Maps. Understanding SEO: SEO stands for search engine optimization. It aims to increase the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through organic search engine results. Google values E-A-T: expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. How Search Engines Rank Content: 7  Google discovers, analyses, and ranks content through crawling, indexing, and ranking processes. Content must be discovered, relevant, and authoritative to rank well. Creating an SEO Strategy: Consider factors like business establishment online, resources for SEO, and industry. Determine goals for the website, using SMART goals and KPIs to measure success. Measuring SEO Authority: Links are key indicators of a website’s SEO authority. Backlink profile includes the number, quality, and domains of inbound links. Tools are available to analyse backlink profiles and improve search ranking. How do search engines rank your content? FIND: Search engine bots discover your content by crawling it. ANALYSE: Search engine bots decide how relevant your content is by indexing it based on signals like keywords. RANK: Search engine bots rank your content in search results based on your site’s SEO authority. Content ranking in search: Build DISCOVERY and RELEVANCE by creating high-quality content on desired topics. Build AUTHORITY by obtaining high-quality links to your website. Authority determination: 8  Content is talked about, referred to, and cited in other works. Authority, relevance, and discovery are interdependent. SEO approach for your business: Focus on building authority, relevance, and creating compelling, unique content. Measure website authority through link volume, quality, and backlink profile. Building relevance and authority: Create high-quality, relevant content that naturally attracts links. Balance content creation and link-building based on your SEO needs. Measuring website authority: Links are key indicators of website authority. Backlink profile measures inbound links, unique domains linking, and link quality. Tools for measuring authority: Sources: MOZ, MAJESTIC, AHREFS, SEMRUSH Measuring authority helps improve search rankings. Paid Search Advertising Paid search advertising, primarily through platforms like Google Ads, involves paying to have your advertisements displayed in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This method is advantageous due to the high volume of searches performed daily and the targeted nature of the ads. Advantages of Paid Search Advertising: 9  High Market Reach: Google handles 3.5 billion searches daily, making it a dominant platform for advertising. Profitability: Advertisers can earn $8 for every $1 spent on Google Ads. Competitive Edge: Ensures your brand remains visible even when competitors bid on your branded terms. Immediate Visibility: Paid search ads appear above organic search results, ensuring higher visibility. Keyword Research: Keywords: Essential words or phrases that potential customers use to search for products or services. They fall into two categories: ○ Brand Keywords: Include the brand’s name or variations of it (e.g., "HubSpot CRM"). ○ Non-Brand Keywords: Related to the product or service but do not include the brand’s name (e.g., "inbound marketing"). Match Types: Exact Match: Ads appear only if the exact keyword or a very close variation is searched. Phrase Match: Ads appear if the search term contains the same order of the words, possibly with additional words. Broad Match: Ads appear for any combination or variations of the keyword terms in any order. ○ Broad Match Modifier: Ensures specific keywords must be included in the search query. Negative Keywords: Exclude your ads from being shown for specific search terms. Creating Effective Paid Search Ads: 10  Components: Ads typically include up to three headlines, a display URL, and up to two descriptions. Best Practices for Ad Copy: Include keywords in your ad. Use specific language that resonates with your target audience. Provide clear and direct calls-to-action. Offer solutions to problems rather than posing questions. Best Practices for Ad Experience: Use ad extensions relevant to your business. Optimise ads for different devices. Ensure landing page alignment with ad copy. Quality Score: A measure from 1 to 10 of the relevancy of your ads. Low scores indicate a need for better content relevance and cost efficiency. Account Structure: Ad Groups: Contain one or more ads sharing a common theme. Campaigns: Comprise multiple ad groups, often categorised by product or service type. Website Performance Importance of Website Performance: Website performance refers to how quickly web pages are downloaded and displayed in a user’s browser. It affects several key areas: 11  SEO Rankings: Faster websites rank better in search engine results. User Experience: Slow websites result in higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates. Visibility on Social Media: Platforms like Facebook might reduce the visibility of links to slow websites. Key Performance Metrics: Load Speed: Best-in-class pages should load within 5.3 seconds. First Contentful Paint (FCP): The time for initial text or images to appear. Time to Interactive (TTI): When the page becomes responsive to user interactions. Improving Load Speed: Minification: Reduces the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files by removing unnecessary characters. Compression: Uses methods like gzip or Brotli to reduce file sizes by replacing repetitive code segments. Optimising Web Page Elements: Use Google Fonts. Host videos on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo. Compress images using tools like TinyPNG. Make images responsive with CSS. Reducing HTTP Requests and Maximising Caching: HTTP Requests: Aim to limit these to 30 or fewer by combining files and minimising redirects. Caching: Use client-side and server-side caching to store frequently accessed data, reducing load times and server strain. 12 Additional Tips: Use Bundlers: Tools like webpack or Parcel can combine JavaScript files. Optimise CSS and JavaScript: Move non-essential JavaScript to the bottom of the page and combine CSS files. Responsive Design: Ensures the site performs well on all devices without the need for redirects. Email Marketing Importance of High-Performing Emails ROI and Integration: Email is expected to become a platform that not only provides high ROI but also integrates with and enhances other marketing channels (Loren McDonald). Business Growth: High-performing emails drive engagement, fostering growth for both the business and its contacts. Recipient Value: It is crucial for recipients to perceive value in the emails they receive. Key Components of High-Performing Emails 1. Selecting the Right Goal: ○ Identify why you are sending the email and ensure each element supports this goal. ○ A clear goal helps align the content and purpose, making the email more effective. 2. Optimising Each Part to Drive Conversions: ○ Each part of the email should contribute towards achieving the specific goal. ○ Focus on the two primary actions: the open and the click. Creating a High-Performing Email Five Whys Framework: 1. Who: Identify the target audience for the email. 13  2. What: Define the content and action you want from the recipients. 3. When: Determine the optimal time to send the email. 4. Where: Specify the platform or device most used by your audience. 5. Why: Clarify the purpose and desired outcome of the email. Setting SMART Goals: Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Email Structure and Content 1. Subject Line: ○ It is the gateway to the email; make it short, sweet, and to the point. ○ Personalise when appropriate and keep it human and helpful. ○ Best practice: 41–50 characters for mobile visibility. 2. Preview Text: ○ This snippet, displayed below the subject line, should complement and enhance the subject line. 3. Email Body: ○ Write with clarity and purpose, always aligned with the primary goal. ○ Use a conversational tone and avoid overly complex language. ○ Personalization goes beyond just using the recipient's name; make the content relevant and engaging. ○ Focus on a single CTA (Call to Action) to avoid confusing the reader and to drive the primary goal effectively. Design and Compliance Email Template: ○ Use a clean, straightforward design that aligns with your brand and website. ○ Ensure the template is responsive for both desktop and mobile devices. Footer and CAN-SPAM Compliance: ○ Include your physical address and an unsubscribe link to comply with regulations and build trust. Images and Design: 14  ○ Use images to engage readers but ensure they do not overwhelm the message. ○ Test the email design on different devices to ensure compatibility and readability. Best Practices Consistency: Ensure your emails are consistent in style and tone with your overall brand. Testing: Always test emails on multiple devices before sending them out. Clarity and Purpose: Every element in your email should serve a clear purpose and contribute to the overall goal. The Blogging One Effective blog posts need structure for direction and efficiency. Choose topics based on industry relevance and keyword research. Optimise blog posts with engaging titles, formats, and multimedia. Use CTAs strategically for conversions. Follow writing tips like using contractions and simple language. Adhere to style guides and avoid jargon. Proofread for spelling errors. Keep content concise and engaging for reader retention. 15