Part 1 — Digital Marketing Essentials: The Fundamentals

The PM Playbook
4 min readSep 13, 2023

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In today’s hyper-connected world, where the digital realm reigns supreme, understanding the intricacies of digital marketing is no longer just an option — it’s a necessity. Whether you’re a seasoned product manager looking to expand your skillset or an entrepreneur aiming to grow your business, the world of digital marketing offers an array of opportunities waiting to be explored.

Welcome to my digital marketing journey. As someone deeply passionate about product management, I’ve realized that in this digital age, a solid grasp of digital marketing principles can significantly enhance your ability to promote products, connect with customers, and drive growth.

Why Digital Marketing Matters?

First, let’s address the elephant in the room: Why does digital marketing matter? Simply put, it’s the bridge that connects businesses to their audiences in the 21st century. It’s the art and science of reaching, engaging, and influencing people through various digital channels and touchpoints.

As traditional marketing methods become less effective in reaching today’s tech-savvy consumers, digital marketing steps in to fill the gap. It empowers businesses of all sizes to compete on a level playing field, reach global audiences, and measure the impact of their efforts with unprecedented precision.

Whether it’s the ads you see while browsing your favourite websites, the engaging social media posts that pop up on your feed, or the personalized emails that land in your inbox — all these are part of the vast digital marketing landscape.

But digital marketing isn’t just about pushing products; it’s about building relationships, solving problems, and delivering value. It’s a dynamic field that evolves rapidly, driven by technology, data, and consumer behavior.

Different types of Digital marketing

  1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO involves optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal is to increase organic (non-paid) traffic to your website. It includes on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.
  2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): SEM refers to paid advertising on search engines like Google. It includes Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, where advertisers bid on keywords, and their ads appear when users search for those keywords.
  3. Social Media Marketing (SMM): SMM involves promoting products or services on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others. It includes both organic (non-paid) and paid social media campaigns.
  4. Content Marketing: Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a specific target audience. Content can take various forms, including blog posts, videos, infographics, ebooks, and more.
  5. Email Marketing: Email marketing involves sending targeted emails to a list of subscribers or potential customers. It’s used for various purposes, including promoting products, nurturing leads, and building customer relationships.
  6. Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is a performance-based strategy where businesses reward affiliates (partners) for driving traffic or sales to their website through the affiliate’s marketing efforts.
  7. Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing leverages individuals with a strong online presence (influencers) to promote products or services to their followers. It’s often used on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
  8. Content Syndication: Content syndication involves distributing your content to third-party websites, often to reach a wider audience and generate backlinks to your site. It can include guest posting and article syndication.
  9. Display Advertising: Display advertising includes banner ads, video ads, and other visual advertisements placed on websites, apps, and social media platforms. These ads can be targeted based on user demographics and interests.
  10. Video Marketing: Video marketing focuses on creating and sharing videos to engage and inform your audience. This can include YouTube marketing, live streaming, and video ads on social media platforms.
  11. Mobile Marketing: Mobile marketing targets users on mobile devices through strategies like mobile apps, SMS marketing, and mobile-optimized websites.
  12. Remarketing or retargeting: Remarketing or retargeting involves showing ads to users who have previously visited your website or interacted with your brand but did not convert. It aims to bring them back to complete a desired action. It is one of the most feature to be at the top of the game and on top of user’s mind.
  13. Chatbot Marketing: Chatbots are used for automated customer service and marketing. They can engage with website visitors, answer questions, and guide users through various actions.
  14. Voice Search Optimization: With the growing use of voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, optimizing content for voice search is becoming increasingly important.
  15. Local Search Marketing: Local SEO and local search marketing help businesses promote their products or services to local customers. It includes strategies like Google My Business optimization and local directory listings.

So, whether you’re here to enhance your professional skills or simply curious about how this digital marketing magic works, you’re in the right place. In the upcoming articles, we’ll break down the key components of digital marketing, and explore concepts like on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and much more.

Ready to dive in? Let’s get started with the basics of digital marketing and unravel the mysteries one concept at a time.

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The PM Playbook

Open to Freelancing: Graphic design, content writing, Off-page SEO, Product manager, UX/UI designer. Actively looking for product opportunities.