Day: June 7, 2020

In today’s time, we frequently hear the term Digital Marketing and we all think that we kind of know what actually it is. This thinking sometimes limits the scope and opportunity that the complete Digital Marketing landscape can actually offer. This is why, when it comes to nailing digital marketing down, we either turn dumbfounded or get stuck.

To come out of such scenarios, it is very important to know the different types of Digital Marketing opportunities that are available to your business.

According to Salesforce, 75% Of Total Marketing Budget Will Go To Digital Marketing by 2021.

Now that’s going to be a massive change. Digital marketing today depends upon different types of audience interactions with various types of online marketing. It revolves around managing and harnessing of different types of Digital Marketing Channels. And sometimes they might be a bit difficult to deal with.

Free Digital Marketing Webinar

Date: 10th Jun, 2020 (Wed)
Time: 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM (IST/GMT +5:30)

That is exactly why we came up with this post to help you know how many types of Digital Marketing Channels are available to you. Once you know about various types of marketing and the optimal way to use each, you will be in a perfect position to craft a perfect Digital Marketing Strategy and execute it well.

“Inspiration is the most important part of our digital strategy.” – Paull Young

Therefore, without further ado, let us go through below given five types of Digital Marketing. We will answer your question of how many types of internet marketing tactics are there and we will also make you understand which one will serve your business objectives the best.

So, read on to know more about the types of online marketing.

Are you really interested in learning Digital Marketing in depth? 

Take a look at Asia’s #1 Digital Marketing Course now!

At Digital Vidya, we opine that the term Digital Marketing is an amalgam of using various online visibility methods to promote products, services or the brand itself.

You may want to make people find your website, have a look at your products, understand your services or get to know about your offers. For all this, you need promotions of different sorts. When this promotion is in its totality done by a sphere of online promotional activities, it is together called Digital Marketing.

So, in essence, you should know how many types of digital marketing channels & tactics come together to give rise to Digital Marketing.

By now, you should be clear in your understanding of what Digital Marketing actually is. And if it makes you feel excited to learn it in details, you can check out our digital marketing course.

Now, let us explore each of these platforms that are used for online promotions & visibility.

1. Search Engine Marketing & PPC

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is one of the most primary types of Digital Marketing activities that help businesses gain market online via Ads on search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo.

SEM assists in optimizing the brand presence and conversions for businesses through paid and unpaid advertising.

SEM = SEO + PPC

“Search marketing is the process of gaining traffic and visibility from search engines through both paid and unpaid efforts.”- Search Engine Land

Unpaid SEM is SEO while Paid SEM is PPC.

PPC is one of the speediest types of Digital Marketing channels that drives targeted traffic to your web pages and related services.

PPC can be understood as buying traffic via paid search listings that help marketers get more web traffic through desktop and mobile web searches.

There are different synonyms and acronyms related to SEM such as Paid search ads, Paid search advertising, PPC (pay-per-click), PPC (pay-per-call), CPC (cost-per-click), and CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions).

The formula to calculate PPC is: Pay per click ($) = Advertising cost ($) ÷ Number of ad clicks

PPC is from types of Internet Marketing tactics that helps marketers channelize an Online Advertising System for driving online traffic to their websites by paying a certain price to the publisher when their paid Ad is clicked.

Entities involved in PPC Advertising are:

Entities of PPC

(i) Product Seller

(ii) PPC Marketer

(iii) Landing Page

(iv) Landing Page Provider

(v) The viewer or the Visitor

PPC or Paid SEM works best for businesses that have a good spending plan and can afford costlier ways to gain traffic and ensure better online recognition in the quickest turnaround.

Using such types of Internet Marketing strategies needs AdWords experts who can exploit the paid advertising in the most targeted and result driven campaigns.

Free Digital Marketing Webinar

Date: 10th Jun, 2020 (Wed)
Time: 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM (IST/GMT +5:30)

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization helps marketers enhance the ranking of a site or website page in the unpaid “organic” search lists. SEO is from the types of Digital Marketing activities, businesses can make their website pages rank higher in the SERPs by increasing visibility, reach, authority and Alexa scores.

In case you did not understand what a SERP means, its the short form for Search Engine Results Page. 

SEO helps you gain higher positions in search results naturally. It means that it helps you to get more visitors, awareness, traffic, digital branding, leads, and conversions.

SEO Practices

Search Engine Optimization works around some of the well-characterized set of principles such as optimizing a page for specific keywords, and managing links from different sites that also use similar kinds of keywords, and so forth.

Manipulating the Search Engine framework is no more a prudent practice as your site can be penalized via Google’s Penguin update. So, you need to play it all clean.

39% of all global ecommerce traffic comes from search. (SEO Tribunal)

Some Of The Most Notable SEO Practices Are:

(i) High-Quality Content

(ii) Guest Blogging

(iii) Images and Videos

(iv) Public Relations

(v) Direct Mail

(vi) Social Presence

(vii) Collateral Material

(viii) Meta Data

(ix) Brand Evangelism, etc.

Different Steps Involved In Making A Site SEO Friendly Are:

1. Choosing SEO Friendly Website Domain

2. Knowing SEO Tactics & Methods

(i) White Hat SEO

(ii) Black Hat SEO (Never ever use these gray tactics)

3. Use of SEO friendly Design & Layout

4. Optimization of Keywords, Meta Tags, Title and Anchor

5. Link Building and Mobile SEO

6. Knowing activities performed by Search engines such as crawling, indexing, processing, calculating relevancy and retrieving results

7. On Page and Off Page SEO

8. SEO Copywriting, etc

SEO is one of the most evergreen Digital Marketing types that help businesses enjoy great recognition in front of their target base and the needed authority and reputation in the eyes of Search Engines as well.

3. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social Media Marketing is from the youngest and most popular types of Digital Marketing that help marketers advance their brand image in a most powerful and trendy manner.

SMM is nowadays preferred by different businesses for optimizing the image of a brand, business, product, or an individual. We all are mostly aware of different social networks around us such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat Pinterest, etc.

In addition to these, there are niche networks, discussions, forums, dynamic blog groups and the places wherever two-way discussion happens comes under the radar of Social Media Marketing.

Creating and distributing quality content in a well-targeted manner is the base of successful SMM campaigns.

Different Steps To Successful Social Media Marketing

SMM Steps

(i) Research and know your audience

(ii) Pick your Social Platforms

(iii) Pick your KPIs

(iv) Write a Social Media Playbook

(v) Align your company with your plan

(vi) Schedule an hour each week to Schedule post

(vii) Create a Content Bank

(viii) Post Relevant Content

(ix) Treat All Social Channels Separately

(x) Do Reporting and Reanalyzing

The latest in Social Media Marketing is Social Media Ads that businesses should know how to use to ensure better use of these platforms.

Let us understand different types of Ads that you can run on Social Channels.

Types Of Facebook Ads

(i) Photo Ads

(ii) Video Ads

(iii) Carousel

(iv) Slideshow

(v) Canvas

Types Of LinkedIn Ads

(i) Display Ads

(ii) Sponsored InMail

(iii) Sponsored content

(iv) Text Ads

(v) Dynamic Ads

Types Of Twitter Ads

(i) Promoted Tweets

(ii) Promoted Account

(iii) Promoted Trends

Types Of Instagram Ads

(i) Photo

(ii) Video

(iii) Carousel

Types Of Snapchat Ads

(i) Snap Ads

(ii) Sponsored Geofilters (for larger companies) or on-demand Geofilters (for smaller brands)

(iii) Sponsored lenses

Do you know? 

More than 40% of digital consumers use social networks to research new brands or products.

Businesses that see their target audiences on Social networks should always opt for these types of Digital Marketing techniques, as it quite easily widens the reach of businesses and ensures better branding and recognition and hence conversions.

Free Digital Marketing Webinar

Date: 10th Jun, 2020 (Wed)
Time: 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM (IST/GMT +5:30)

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the oldest types of Digital Marketing that is still highly contemporary and fruitful. Marketers use emails for developing relationships with their potential and existing customers that help them generate leads and ensure their conversions.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing includes the best ways to establish deeper relationships with a wider audience through Relationship Marketing for the nominal cost than your total spends on traditional media.

Via Emails, you can enjoy 6 times Click Through than Tweets.

The Digital World incorporates 3 times more Email Accounts compared to Facebook & Twitter combined.

Goals of an Email Marketing Campaign are:

(i) Driving new signups for specific products and services

(ii) Creating new and powerful leads for your sales team

(iii) Targeting more attendees for your event in a result driven manner

(iv) Converting more leads for your cause

Steps that You Need to use To Run Email Marketing Campaigns are:

(i) Know the components of Email Campaigns

(ii) Know ways to get permission for Email Sign Up

(iii) Use effective Email Marketing Content & Landing Pages

(iv) Avoid being spammed and black-listed

(v) Use best Email Automation Tools

(vi) Do Segmentation and utilize Email Marketing Metrics

(vii) Use Email Marketing Follow Ups

Different Email Marketing Components that You Can Use are:

(i) Newsletter

(ii) Announcements

(iii) Event Invitation

(iv) Marketing Offer

Email Marketing is advisable for all kinds of businesses as it is highly cost-effective and considered as the best types of Digital Marketing that ensure best conversions.

5. Content Marketing

Content Marketing is one of the most important types of Digital Marketing that revolve around the management and execution of different written, engaging, downloadable and visual Digital Media Content.

Content Marketing

Content Marketing focuses on attracting and converting targeted audiences into customers by designing, publishing, promoting, distributing and sharing valuable and relevant free content on different digital marketing channels. According to Copyblogger:

Content marketing means attracting and transforming prospects into customers by creating and sharing valuable free content.

Things To Pay Heed To When Making A Content Marketing Plan

(i) Your targe
t audiences

(ii) The problem your Content is going to solve

(iii) USP of your Content Marketing Campaign

(iv) Possible Content Marketing formats you can use

(v) Possible channels to publish and share your content

(vi) Awareness about Content Management System, content creation, curation, and publication

Content Formats

Best Content Marketing Techniques

(i) Blogs

(ii) E-Books

(iii) Podcasts & Webinars

(iv) Workbooks & Templates

(v) Landing Pages

(vi) Emails

(vii) Blogs

(viii) Infographics

(ix) Videos

(x) Social Media

5 Steps To Do Content Marketing

(i) Define your goal and conduct a persona research

(ii) Determine a Content Management System & brainstorm content ideas

(iii) Know which types of content would be the best fit for your Business

(iv) Start a blog and post at least once a week

(v) Publish and manage your content

Content is the base of all types of Internet Marketing and having a proper Content Marketing Strategy ensures better creation, channelization, and conversions for a business.

Free Digital Marketing Webinar

Date: 10th Jun, 2020 (Wed)
Time: 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM (IST/GMT +5:30)

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this article has answered your question of how many types of digital marketing activities are there.

Now the million dollar question to answer is, how to create a strategy that combines all the different types of digital marketing activities and produces sure results?

We know that all Digital Marketing Channels produce results. But each of them needs to be utilized well to produce ‘optimal’ results. Generally, only trained and experienced Marketers can do that. Creating a perfect working strategy doesn’t come easy. You need the expertise to craft one.

Which channel gives more ROI and which one is easier to execute can’t be ascertained by common sense. For someone who has years of experience in the Digital Marketing industry, the job might be easy. And even then, this industry keeps on changing and evolving every single day.

Digital Marketing Strategies that worked a year ago are obsolete now. At times, you might be even penalized by Search Engines for following old techniques that are now seen as spammy.

As you have seen, there are different types of Digital Marketing Channels & each one would require a different type of Digital Marketing Strategy. All this makes creating the best working methodology a struggle, especially for a new entrant.

Importance of a Digital Marketing Course

In such a situation where creating a perfect Digital Marketing Strategy would require a lot of hit and trial on the part of a newbie. Even when you know the basic strategies of using a channel optimally, it is a lot more sense to take a Digital Marketing Course and save yourself a lot of testing budget in the application of different types of online marketing.

Businesses entering the sphere of Digital Marketing should train their teams on the latest in Digital Marketing. Similarly, to be an awesome practitioner of Digital Marketing, professionals should invest time in learning how many types of digital marketing & the types of digital marketing activities and also the 7 P’s of Marketing.

It is recommended to get trained by the best Digital Marketing institute to get the best learning.  The Digital Marketing Strategies, the Case Studies & the demonstrated experience of the trainers is always going to help you in creating the perfect Digital Marketing Strategy for your Business.

Over to You 

On a concluding note, I hope this article guided you answer your question of how many types of digital marketing are there and know different types of Digital Marketing Channels that are the best fit for your business. Here are few Digital Marketing guides that will help you in your towards learning Digital Marketing.

If you are from Bangalore and looking for top Digital Marketing Courses in Bangalore, you can choose the best one as per your requirements.

Just in case, you are in a dilemma about choosing the best Digital Marketing channel/s for your business, share specific details of your business and we shall guide you through the process.

If you want to build a career in Digital Marketing, enroll in our Certified Digital Marketing Master Course.

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Communication with customers is the most crucial aspect of any Sales or Service is driven business. Any dropped calls, delays in replies, poor communication quality, expensive hardware, etc. can definitely result in loss of leads and existing customers. The best cloud based phone system was created to be a solution for all the above issues.

It shouldn’t be surprising to know that the Virtual Business Cloud Phone System is not much of a new concept. It has indeed existed for years now. But with the improved internet speeds and more sophisticated communication technology available now, there has been an enormous increase in the number of businesses adopting cloud phone systems also known as (internet-based phone systems) and as a result, a significant increase in the companies that provide small business virtual phone system service across the globe.

Regardless of the status of a business, be it an enterprise or even a billion-dollar Corporate Giant, the cost of adding a small business cloud VoIP phone system is hardly a fraction of the benefits it provides.

Why is a Virtual Phone System Necessary for Small Business?

Here’s why small business owners or managers like you must migrate to a cloud based phone system at the earliest.

• With a cloud phone system for small businesses in place, you can say goodbye to phone bills, answering tapes, and wire tangles as your phone system will be stored virtually.
• Apart from being affordable and convenient to use, the cloud based phone system will bring about positive improvements in the way in which your business operates.
• Cloud VoIP or hosted telephony will replace your traditional phone system, landline, PBX (Private branch exchange), etc. with cloud PBX backed by third-party VoIP (Voice over IP) services.
• The usage of Internet for voice delivery and multimedia communications will provide better connectivity with your customers and end-users alike.
• Cloud phone systems for small businesses are third-party products. Given this, they need not be maintained, made available, and updated by you in-house. This in turn reduces the overhead costs involved with server maintenance and results in enhanced productivity.

Overall, a cloud phone system takes care of concerns such as redundancy and data security to offer continuous support to SMEs. With virtually no cost for installation, a well-designed virtual phone system for small businesses will help the ROI (Return on investment) of your company show notable improvements.

Connect with Clients More Effectively

Providers of a scalable business cloud phone system, such as CallHippo, will help in setting a support center at the earliest. You can invite team members, assign them with numbers – all without investing heavily on skilled technicians or expensive equipment or skilled technicians. A computer, a working internet connection, and a headset are all you need to create a difference in how your business communicates with the world.

Get Going with Cloud Phone System

Sign up with CallHippo to manage your call analytics in the best possible manner.

• Get information like the details of your callers, time duration, call status, etc. for better analytics.
• You can listen to the call recordings from the dashboard directly and get real-time reports on the call status history.
• The virtual number so obtained will offer greater mobility for your operations as your business will no longer be limited to any specific place/location.

Go ahead and enjoy call recordings, tracking of calls, IVR, call distribution, and a host of other advantages to steer your business to the next level of success!

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Virtual Number

Virtual Number

Friends and family far away? Get a Vonage Virtual Number in one of 22 countries so they can call you without incurring international long distance rates.

Where do you want a Virtual Number?
Select a country to see available area codes and prices for that area.

3,000 miles away can still be a local call.

Have family in the U.K. but live in the U.S.? Get a Virtual Number in the U.K. and they can call you in the U.S. simply by dialing your U.K. Virtual Number. It’s an easy, affordable way to have them call you and save money.

Features

• International calling for the cost of a local call.
• $4.99 – $9.99 per month (plus taxes and fees), depending on country. See available countries.
• Add more than one Virtual Number, no matter the calling plan.
• Easy to set up. Just log in to your Vonage Online Account and select the country and area code of your Virtual Number.

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FAQs

Learn more about virtual numbers

• What is a Virtual Number?

  A Vonage Virtual Number allows you to have a local area code and phone number in another state or country. This means you can make calls, and be reached by people with the same area code, for the price of a local call. Note that your U.S. phone number will remain your primary Vonage number.

• In what countries can I set up a Virtual Number?

  You can get a Virtual Number in 22 different countries. To see the list, go to our Vonage Virtual Numbers page.

• Can I choose the entire number instead of just the area code?

  No, you can’t. When selecting a Virtual Number, you can only choose the area code. The rest of your number will be assigned during set-up.

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  Adding a Virtual Number to your Vonage service can be done in your Online Account.

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe problem solving strategies
• Define algorithm and heuristic
• Explain some common roadblocks to effective problem solving

 

People face problems every day—usually, multiple problems throughout the day. Sometimes these problems are straightforward: To double a recipe for pizza dough, for example, all that is required is that each ingredient in the recipe be doubled. Sometimes, however, the problems we encounter are more complex. For example, say you have a work deadline, and you must mail a printed copy of a report to your supervisor by the end of the business day. The report is time-sensitive and must be sent overnight. You finished the report last night, but your printer will not work today. What should you do? First, you need to identify the problem and then apply a strategy for solving the problem.

PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES

When you are presented with a problem—whether it is a complex mathematical problem or a broken printer, how do you solve it? Before finding a solution to the problem, the problem must first be clearly identified. After that, one of many problem solving strategies can be applied, hopefully resulting in a solution.

A problem-solving strategy is a plan of action used to find a solution. Different strategies have different action plans associated with them ([link]). For example, a well-known strategy is trial and error. The old adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” describes trial and error. In terms of your broken printer, you could try checking the ink levels, and if that doesn’t work, you could check to make sure the paper tray isn’t jammed. Or maybe the printer isn’t actually connected to your laptop. When using trial and error, you would continue to try different solutions until you solved your problem. Although trial and error is not typically one of the most time-efficient strategies, it is a commonly used one.

Problem-Solving Strategies

Method	Description	Example
Trial and error	Continue trying different solutions until problem is solved	Restarting phone, turning off WiFi, turning off bluetooth in order to determine why your phone is malfunctioning
Algorithm	Step-by-step problem-solving formula	Instruction manual for installing new software on your computer
Heuristic	General problem-solving framework	Working backwards; breaking a task into steps

Another type of strategy is an algorithm. An algorithm is a problem-solving formula that provides you with step-by-step instructions used to achieve a desired outcome (Kahneman, 2011). You can think of an algorithm as a recipe with highly detailed instructions that produce the same result every time they are performed. Algorithms are used frequently in our everyday lives, especially in computer science. When you run a search on the Internet, search engines like Google use algorithms to decide which entries will appear first in your list of results. Facebook also uses algorithms to decide which posts to display on your newsfeed. Can you identify other situations in which algorithms are used?

A heuristic is another type of problem solving strategy. While an algorithm must be followed exactly to produce a correct result, a heuristic is a general problem-solving framework (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). You can think of these as mental shortcuts that are used to solve problems. A “rule of thumb” is an example of a heuristic. Such a rule saves the person time and energy when making a decision, but despite its time-saving characteristics, it is not always the best method for making a rational decision. Different types of heuristics are used in different types of situations, but the impulse to use a heuristic occurs when one of five conditions is met (Pratkanis, 1989):

• When one is faced with too much information
• When the time to make a decision is limited
• When the decision to be made is unimportant
• When there is access to very little information to use in making the decision
• When an appropriate heuristic happens to come to mind in the same moment

Working backwards is a useful heuristic in which you begin solving the problem by focusing on the end result. Consider this example: You live in Washington, D.C. and have been invited to a wedding at 4 PM on Saturday in Philadelphia. Knowing that Interstate 95 tends to back up any day of the week, you need to plan your route and time your departure accordingly. If you want to be at the wedding service by 3:30 PM, and it takes 2.5 hours to get to Philadelphia without traffic, what time should you leave your house? You use the working backwards heuristic to plan the events of your day on a regular basis, probably without even thinking about it.

Another useful heuristic is the practice of accomplishing a large goal or task by breaking it into a series of smaller steps. Students often use this common method to complete a large research project or long essay for school. For example, students typically brainstorm, develop a thesis or main topic, research the chosen topic, organize their information into an outline, write a rough draft, revise and edit the rough draft, develop a final draft, organize the references list, and proofread their work before turning in the project. The large task becomes less overwhelming when it is broken down into a series of small steps.

Everyday Connections: Solving Puzzles

Problem-solving abilities can improve with practice. Many people challenge themselves every day with puzzles and other mental exercises to sharpen their problem-solving skills. Sudoku puzzles appear daily in most newspapers. Typically, a sudoku puzzle is a 9×9 grid. The simple sudoku below ([link]) is a 4×4 grid. To solve the puzzle, fill in the empty boxes with a single digit: 1, 2, 3, or 4. Here are the rules: The numbers must total 10 in each bolded box, each row, and each column; however, each digit can only appear once in a bolded box, row, and column. Time yourself as you solve this puzzle and compare your time with a classmate.

How long did it take you to solve this sudoku puzzle? (You can see the answer at the end of this section.)

Here is another popular type of puzzle ([link]) that challenges your spatial reasoning skills. Connect all nine dots with four connecting straight lines without lifting your pencil from the paper:

Did you figure it out? (The answer is at the end of this section.) Once you understand how to crack this puzzle, you won’t forget.

Take a look at the “Puzzling Scales” logic puzzle below ([link]). Sam Loyd, a well-known puzzle master, created and refined countless puzzles throughout his lifetime (Cyclope
dia of Puzzles, n.d.).

PITFALLS TO PROBLEM SOLVING

Not all problems are successfully solved, however. What challenges stop us from successfully solving a problem? Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Imagine a person in a room that has four doorways. One doorway that has always been open in the past is now locked. The person, accustomed to exiting the room by that particular doorway, keeps trying to get out through the same doorway even though the other three doorways are open. The person is stuck—but she just needs to go to another doorway, instead of trying to get out through the locked doorway. A mental set is where you persist in approaching a problem in a way that has worked in the past but is clearly not working now.

Functional fixedness is a type of mental set where you cannot perceive an object being used for something other than what it was designed for. During the Apollo 13 mission to the moon, NASA engineers at Mission Control had to overcome functional fixedness to save the lives of the astronauts aboard the spacecraft. An explosion in a module of the spacecraft damaged multiple systems. The astronauts were in danger of being poisoned by rising levels of carbon dioxide because of problems with the carbon dioxide filters. The engineers found a way for the astronauts to use spare plastic bags, tape, and air hoses to create a makeshift air filter, which saved the lives of the astronauts.

 

Link to Learning

Check out this Apollo 13 scene where the group of NASA engineers are given the task of overcoming functional fixedness.

 

Researchers have investigated whether functional fixedness is affected by culture. In one experiment, individuals from the Shuar group in Ecuador were asked to use an object for a purpose other than that for which the object was originally intended. For example, the participants were told a story about a bear and a rabbit that were separated by a river and asked to select among various objects, including a spoon, a cup, erasers, and so on, to help the animals. The spoon was the only object long enough to span the imaginary river, but if the spoon was presented in a way that reflected its normal usage, it took participants longer to choose the spoon to solve the problem. (German & Barrett, 2005). The researchers wanted to know if exposure to highly specialized tools, as occurs with individuals in industrialized nations, affects their ability to transcend functional fixedness. It was determined that functional fixedness is experienced in both industrialized and nonindustrialized cultures (German & Barrett, 2005).

In order to make good decisions, we use our knowledge and our reasoning. Often, this knowledge and reasoning is sound and solid. Sometimes, however, we are swayed by biases or by others manipulating a situation. For example, let’s say you and three friends wanted to rent a house and had a combined target budget of $1,600. The realtor shows you only very run-down houses for $1,600 and then shows you a very nice house for $2,000. Might you ask each person to pay more in rent to get the $2,000 home? Why would the realtor show you the run-down houses and the nice house? The realtor may be challenging your anchoring bias. An anchoring bias occurs when you focus on one piece of information when making a decision or solving a problem. In this case, you’re so focused on the amount of money you are willing to spend that you may not recognize what kinds of houses are available at that price point.

The confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms your existing beliefs. For example, if you think that your professor is not very nice, you notice all of the instances of rude behavior exhibited by the professor while ignoring the countless pleasant interactions he is involved in on a daily basis. Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Representative bias describes a faulty way of thinking, in which you unintentionally stereotype someone or something; for example, you may assume that your professors spend their free time reading books and engaging in intellectual conversation, because the idea of them spending their time playing volleyball or visiting an amusement park does not fit in with your stereotypes of professors.

Finally, the availability heuristic is a heuristic in which you make a decision based on an example, information, or recent experience that is that readily available to you, even though it may not be the best example to inform your decision. Biases tend to “preserve that which is already established—to maintain our preexisting knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and hypotheses” (Aronson, 1995; Kahneman, 2011). These biases are summarized in [link].

Summary of Decision Biases

Bias	Description
Anchoring	Tendency to focus on one particular piece of information when making decisions or problem-solving
Confirmation	Focuses on information that confirms existing beliefs
Hindsight	Belief that the event just experienced was predictable
Representative	Unintentional stereotyping of someone or something
Availability	Decision is based upon either an available precedent or an example that may be faulty

Link to Learning

Please visit this site to see a clever music video that a high school teacher made to explain these and other cognitive biases to his AP psychology students.

 

Were you able to determine how many marbles are needed to balance the scales in [link]? You need nine. Were you able to solve the problems in [link] and [link]? Here are the answers ([link]).

Summary

Many different strategies exist for solving problems. Typical strategies include trial and error, applying algorithms, and using heuristics. To solve a large, complicated problem, it often helps to break the problem into smaller steps that can be accomplished individually, leading to an overall solution. Roadblocks to problem solving include a mental set, functional fixedness, and various biases that can cloud decision making skills.

Glossary

algorithm  problem-solving strategy characterized by a specific set of instructions

anchoring bias  faulty heuristic in which you fixate on a single aspect of a problem to find a solution

availability heuristic  faulty heuristic in which you make a decision based on information readily available to you

confirmation bias  faulty heuristic in which you focus on information that confirms your beliefs

functional fixedness  inability to see an object as useful for any other use other than the one for which it was intended

heuristic  mental shortcut that saves time when solving a problem

hindsight bias  belief that the event just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t

mental set  continually using an old solution to a problem without results

problem-solving strategy  method for solving problems

representative bias  faulty heuristic in which you stereotype someone or something without a valid basis for your judgment

trial and error  problem-solving strategy in which multiple solutions are attempted until the correct one is found

working backwards  heuristic in which you begin to solve a problem by focusing on the end result

 

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What’s the best way to learn digital marketing in 2020 for free and at the comfort of your own home?

Fortunately, there are a lot of free and paid online resources that can help you acquire the skills needed to become a modern digital marketing manager.

In the guide, you will learn what are the required skills for digital marketers and a list of resources to teach yourself digital marketing in the fastest possible way.

Before we dive in, it’s necessary to explain what is digital marketing.

Digital marketing is the process of marketing on the Internet using all available online and digital channels. This is also known as online marketing and offline marketing respectively.

The diagram below shows the different channels that make up digital marketing and how they are grouped into online and offline.

It should be noted that the majority of people (if not all) when they talk about digital marketing, they actually mean online marketing which automatically excludes the non-online channels.

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How to Learn Digital Marketing for Free

To become a successful digital marketer, you need to develop the skills required to work with all online marketing technologies.

In addition, you need to acquire the necessary knowledge so that you can combine them together to achieve the best possible results.

It’s hard work that requires a lot of patience and perseverance but the good news is that you don’t have to attend college or a classroom course to become an expert in Digital Marketing.

You don’t even have to spend your time searching Google for which resources to follow.

What I’ve gathered below is the best resources (almost all free), you can follow and build your skills from the comfort of your home.

Digital Marketing Definition and Channels

To build up your digital marketing skills, you need to become an expert in the following areas:

• Search engine marketing (includes SEO and PPC)
• Content Marketing
• Inbound Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Digital Marketing Analytics Tools

Search engine marketing is a major component of digital marketing.

SEM has to do with marketing on the various search engines either using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Paid Search Advertising (Google Ads or Bing Ads).

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that it ranks higher in the search engine’s organic results.

SEO is important in online marketing because it can drive highly targeted traffic to your website. It’s a slower process compared to Paid Ads but it can generate better results in the long term.

To get started with SEO use the following guides:

If you are a beginner, it’s necessary to understand that SEO is not a static discipline but it changes all the time. Google is reportedly making more than 250 changes to their ranking algorithm per year.

Video: What is SEO

This means that if you want to pursue an SEO Career, you need to monitor the SEO industry for changes and adjust your digital marketing campaigns accordingly.

The following resources are a great place to monitor the SEO industry for changes:

PPC

Pay Per Click marketing or paid search advertising (PSA) is the other component of search engine marketing.

With Pay-Per-Click ads, you can reach your target customers faster than SEO but you pay every time someone clicks on your ads.

Currently, the biggest PPC network is Google Ads, which allows you to show your ads in Google Search Results, on Google properties (like Gmail and YouTube) and on websites that participate in Google AdSense.

Pro Tip: If you are confused about SEO, PPC, and SEM, read this: Difference between SEO and SEM

Learning PPC is not difficult, you can go through the various online courses (see below) and become a PPC Certified expert in a couple of months.

Getting a certification alone does not make you a good digital marketing specialist. You need to work with PPC campaign management and gain the necessary practical experience.

At the end of the day, your role as a digital marketing professional is to combine the results of PPC with other channels (like SEO or Social Media Marketing), and deliver the best possible outcome for your clients.

The following resourc
es are all free and can teach you everything you need to know about PPC:

Content Marketing

Every digital marketing campaign is based around content. Whether it’s SEO, social media marketing or email marketing, you need content to reach and engage with your target audience in the different channels.

Content marketing is the process to identify, create and promote the right type of content to the right audience.

To become a good content marketer, you need to have great writing skills, SEO copywriting skills and analytical skills.

The resources below will help you get started with content marketing:

Inbound Marketing

At the beginning of this post, I’ve mentioned that a good digital marketer, should be able to combine the different online marketing techniques for the best possible results.

That’s exactly what inbound marketing is all about. The role of Inbound marketing is to co-ordinate the activities of all other digital marketing campaigns to provide for remarkable user experience.

The overall goal is to have a solid process for attracting new customers, engaging with them, gaining their trust and earning their satisfaction.

Companies that can do this successfully are more likely to grow their customer base faster than companies who run isolated campaigns.

Your job as a digital marketing manager is to ensure that all digital marketing campaigns share the same goals.

To learn more about inbound marketing, visit the resources below:

I think that everybody agrees that nowadays is hard to imagine a world without Facebook or Twitter.

Social media networks have dominated our lives and our approach to digital marketing.

Since the goal of digital marketing is to connect with your potential customers in their favorite channels, a new form was marketing was born and that is social media marketing.

Social media marketing is what the name implies i.e. marketing on the various social networks for the purpose of finding and engaging with your customers.

Facebook is by far the most widely used network with more than 2.3 billion active monthly users.

A great place to start learning social media marketing is to follow the Facebook online courses. They will teach you everything you need to know about Facebook Paid Campaigns.

Once you feel comfortable with running social media campaigns on Facebook, you can enhance your skills by learning more about Pinterest, LinkedIn and twitter marketing.

Use the following resources to get started with social media marketing:

Email Marketing

Email marketing is not dead. Despite what you might think, email is still one of the most effective ways to turn visitors into customers and existing customers into repeat customers.

To run successful email marketing campaigns, you need to get to know your audience first otherwise your emails will end up in the spam folder of your users.

You can think of email marketing as the last piece in the digital marketing puzzle. While all other marketing techniques concentrate on finding new customers, email marketing is about closing the deal.

To get started with email marketing you first need to decide on the tool to use and then learn how to use it.

There are many options available, my recommendation is to start with the following resources:

Digital Marketing Analytics Tools

One of the skills each digital marketing professional should develop its analytical skills.

Remember that the role of a digital marketing manager is not to learn how to run SEO or social media campaigns (that’s the job of the SEO expert or Social media marketing manager), but to know how to orchestrate all processes so that they work towards the same goals.

To be able to do that, you need to learn how to use various data analysis tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Data reporting tools like the Google Data Studio and digital marketing tools like SEMRUSH.

Online Marketing Learning Tips

I’m sure that you’ve realized by now that learning digital marketing is not an easy job.

It requires a lot of reading and hours of practice to learn how each of the techniques works individually and how you can combine them together for maximum results.

The good news is that you can use the resources above to learn digital marketing at home and for Free. All you need is the willingness to learn and a lot of patience.

To make the process easier for you, follow the tips below:

• Start with SEO. Many of the concepts used by PPC, content marketing and social media marketing are based on SEO principles. Building your SEO skills first will make it easier to learn the rest.
• Practice, Practice, Practice. Internet marketing is not a theoretical concept but it’s mostly practical. Once you understand the theory behind a strategy, try to execute it in practice. Monitor the results, optimize it and learn from your mistakes.
• Get Certified. As you progress through your learning, try to get certified. It’s a great way to showcase your expertise. In the above resources, you will find links to online courses that offer a certificate upon completion.
• Work with experienced Digital Marketers. Aim to work under the supervision of experienced digital marketers. They can make the transition from theory to practice easier and you can learn a few tips and tricks not written in any books or courses.
• Start your own digital marketing blog. Having your own blog will help you practice what you’ve learned and prove your expertise. Also, when you start writing about digital marketing, you can assess how well you know a topic or not.
• Never stop learning. Digital marketing is an industry that changes all the time and learning never stops. It’s your job as a digital marketing professional to stay in sync with the latest developments and keep your clients informed.

What are your favorite websites for learning Digital Marketing for free? Let me know in the comments if I missed out on any useful resources.

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