Digital marketing has become the foundation of modern business strategy, and it’s only gaining momentum as we enter 2025. With the constant evolution of online platforms, from social media to search engine optimization (SEO), companies are increasingly focusing on digital channels to engage their target audience and drive business growth.
For beginners, entering the digital marketing landscape can feel overwhelming, with so many channels, tools, and strategies to choose from.
This beginner’s guide will walk you through the essential steps to start your online marketing journey, covering everything from basic concepts to advanced digital marketing strategies, tools, and certifications. You’ll learn how to develop a clear plan, launch effective ad campaigns, and optimize your efforts for success in this fast-paced industry.
Let’s begin by understanding the fundamentals of digital marketing and how they differ from offline or traditional marketing approaches.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use the internet or digital devices. It involves connecting with potential customers online through channels like search engines, social media, email, and websites. Unlike traditional methods, digital marketing enables precise audience targeting and tracking, making it an essential tool for businesses of all sizes to increase visibility and engagement.
The benefits of digital marketing
Digital marketing is essential for businesses today because it allows them to reach and engage with their target audience more effectively than traditional marketing methods. Here are some key reasons why we use digital marketing strategies:
- Reach a Wider Audience: Digital marketing enables businesses to reach a global audience. With billions of people using the internet, businesses can connect with potential customers from all over the world.
- Cost-Effective: Compared to traditional marketing methods like TV or print ads, digital marketing is often more affordable. This allows businesses of all sizes to compete on a more level playing field.
- Targeted Advertising: Digital marketing allows for precise targeting. Businesses can tailor their messages to specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, ensuring that their marketing efforts are reaching the right people.
- Measurable Results: One of the biggest advantages of digital marketing is the ability to track and measure results in real-time. This helps businesses understand what’s working and what’s not, allowing them to adjust their strategies accordingly.
- Increased Engagement: Through social media, email marketing, and other digital channels, businesses can engage with their customers in real-time, building stronger relationships and fostering loyalty.
- Improved Conversion Rates: With targeted advertising and personalized marketing messages, businesses can improve their conversion rates, turning more leads into customers.
- Flexibility and Adaptability: Digital marketing strategies can be quickly adjusted based on performance data. This flexibility allows businesses to stay agile and responsive to market changes.
By leveraging these benefits, businesses can not only increase their visibility and reach but also drive more sales and build lasting relationships with their customers.
Digital marketing approaches in the buyer’s journey
Digital marketing plays a crucial role in the customer’s journey, which consists of three main stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.
By effectively leveraging digital marketing at each stage of the buyer’s journey, businesses can guide potential customers from initial awareness to final purchase, ultimately driving sales and fostering long-term relationships.
Here’s how digital marketing impacts each stage:
Awareness
Digital marketing helps businesses increase their visibility online, making it easier for potential customers to discover them. Techniques like SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing ensure that your brand appears when users search for solutions to their problems
Here are some channels and strategies that can play a pivotal role in raising awareness to your brand’s name:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): By optimizing content for search engines, businesses can ensure that their educational materials appear in search results when potential customers are looking for information related to their needs
- Social media: Those digital platforms allow businesses to engage with a broad audience. By sharing valuable content and interacting with users, businesses can increase their visibility and build a community around their brand.
- Targeted advertising: Platforms like Google Ads and social media ads allow businesses to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. This ensures that the brand’s message reaches the right audience at the right time.
- Influencer marketing: Collaborating with influencers who have a large following can help businesses reach new audiences. Influencers can introduce your brand to their followers, increasing awareness and credibility.
- Newsletters: Regular newsletters can keep potential customers informed about your brand and its offerings. By providing valuable content, businesses can stay top-of-mind for their audience.
- Media outreach: Engaging with journalists and media outlets to feature your brand in articles, interviews, or news segments can significantly boost visibility.
Consideration
The consideration stage is where potential customers evaluate different solutions to their problems. Providing valuable content, customer testimonials, and case studies, you can build trust and credibility, making it more likely that potential customers will consider your offerings seriously.
Here are some effective digital marketing strategies for this stage:
- Webinars or tutorials: Hosting webinars or creating tutorial videos can provide in-depth information about your products or services, helping potential customers understand how they can solve their problems.
- Customer reviews: Displaying customer reviews and testimonials on your website and social media can reassure potential customers about the quality and reliability of your product.
- Retargeting ads: Using retargeting ads to remind potential customers about your product after they have visited your website can keep your brand top-of-mind.
- Comparison guidelines: Creating comparison guides that highlight the differences between your product and competitors’ products can help potential customers make informed decisions.
- Product demo: Offering live or recorded product demos can give potential customers a hands-on experience of your product.
- FAQs and knowledge hubs: Providing comprehensive FAQs and knowledge bases can address common questions and concerns, helping potential customers feel more confident in their decision.
- Personalized email marketing: Sending personalized emails with relevant content and offers can nurture leads and guide them towards making a decision.
Decision
The decision stage is the final touchpoint you will have with your customer before they complete a purchase on your website. Offering promotions, discounts, or free trials through digital channels can provide the final push needed for a prospect to make a purchase decision.
By effectively leveraging digital marketing at each stage of the buyer’s journey, businesses can guide potential customers from initial awareness to final purchase, ultimately driving sales and fostering long-term relationships. Here’s how a digital marketing strategy can help you convert your customer into a successful purchase:
- Free trial: Offering free trials or product demos allows potential customers to experience your product or service firsthand. This can significantly reduce any hesitation they might have about making a purchase.
- Case studies: Detailed case studies that highlight successful use cases of your product can provide concrete evidence of its effectiveness.
- Special promotions: Offering personalized discounts or special promotions can provide the final push needed for a customer to make a purchase decision.
- Limited-time offer: Creating a sense of urgency with limited-time offers can encourage potential customers to act quickly.
- Call-to-actions: Ensure that your calls-to-action are clear, direct, and compelling. They should guide potential customers towards making a purchase with phrases like “Buy Now,” “Get Started,” or “Claim Your Offer”.
- Customer support: Having knowledgeable support staff available to guide potential customers through the final steps of the purchase process can increase conversion rates.
- Diverse payment options: Offering various payment options can make it easier for customers to complete their purchase. You should also ensure a seamless checkout experience in the purchase stage.
Digital marketing vs. offline marketing
While digital marketing focuses on online channels, offline or traditional marketing includes methods like print ads, billboards, and TV commercials. Here’s how they compare:
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing refers to the use of digital channels and technologies to promote products or services to a target audience. This includes a variety of online platforms such as websites, social media, email, search engines, and mobile apps.
The primary goal of digital marketing is to reach and engage with potential customers where they spend a significant amount of their time—online.
Key digital marketing strategies targeted ads on Google, content on social media platforms, and personalized email campaigns. With tracking tools, digital marketing can provide detailed insights and is often more cost-effective for reaching specific audiences.
Offline Marketing
Offline marketing involves traditional marketing methods that do not rely on the internet. These strategies are designed to reach potential customers through physical or broadcast media.
Offline marketing strategies include traditional approaches like magazine ads, direct mail, and radio spots are effective for broad reach but offer limited tracking and customization. For instance, a local bakery might use radio ads to reach the community, while a national brand could use billboards along highways for visibility.
Each method of marketing has unique advantages, but when speaking about effectiveness, digital marketing stands out for its measurability and adaptability, making it a powerful option in today’s fast-paced business world.
8 Steps to start in digital marketing in 2025
Starting a career in digital marketing in 2025 is an exciting opportunity to connect with audiences, build brand presence, and drive results online. These eight essential steps will guide you through the skills, tools, and strategies you need to get started.
Step 1: Understand the digital marketing landscape
Before you dive into creating campaigns or managing social media accounts, it’s essential to grasp the fundamentals of digital marketing and why it has become such an important part of every business’s strategy.
Digital marketing refers to any marketing efforts that use digital channels to reach customers. This includes a wide range of tactics, including:
- SEO. Enhancing your website to improve its visibility on search engines like Google is known as SEO.
- Pay-per-click (PPC). This form of paid advertising involves placing paid ads on search engines or social media platforms. You pay only when someone clicks on your ad.
- Email marketing. This strategy involves engaging your audience through targeted, personalized emails.
- Social media marketing. This approach focuses on building relationships and brand awareness on platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
- Content marketing. This strategy involves developing valuable content such as blogs, videos, podcasts, and infographics to attract and retain an audience.
Marketing via digital channels allows marketers to take advantage of real-time data and analytics to make informed decisions. Unlike traditional marketing, which can be harder to measure, digital marketing provides clear metrics to evaluate the success of campaigns.
For example, in traditional marketing, you might place a print ad in a magazine, but measuring how many readers acted on the ad is difficult. In contrast, digital marketing allows you to track everything from website traffic to conversion rates, making it a more dynamic and responsive method of engaging with audiences.
Step 2: Choose the right digital marketing channel
One of the first decisions you’ll make in digital marketing is selecting the right marketing channels for your business or clients. This decision should be based on your marketing goals and target audience.
Here’s a breakdown of the most popular channels:
- Social media platforms. Platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are excellent for building community and engaging with potential customers in digital spaces they frequently use.
- Content creation. Blogs, podcasts, and webinars are perfect for providing valuable content to your audience. They can also boost your website’s SEO.
- PPC advertising. If you want quick results, investing in Google Ads or social media advertising is an excellent option. You can reach your target audience with tailored messaging and analyze performance in real time.
- Email marketing. This strategy involves sending targeted, personalized emails to engage your audience, build relationships, and promote your products and services.
Choosing the right platform means knowing where your potential customers spend their time. For instance, LinkedIn is ideal for B2B marketing since it’s a networking platform for business professionals, while TikTok is great for brands targeting a younger audience (the platform’s primary demographic of users).
You can also create different sections on your website for each target audience or personalized message. For example, IMD has its own website section focused on Solutions for Organizations, and personalizes the message to the corporate B2B audience of those programs.
Use tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and Meta Insights to track data and understand which platforms and campaigns deliver the best return on investment.
Step 3: Learn core digital marketing skills
To be successful in digital marketing, you need to master a variety of skills. These core skills will help you run effective campaigns and produce results:
- SEO. Mastering SEO is essential for getting organic traffic to your website. This involves keyword research, on-page optimization, and building backlinks.
- Copywriting. Strong copywriting skills help you engage your audience and drive conversions, whether you’re writing social media posts, blog articles, or email campaigns.
- Graphic design. Tools like Canva and Adobe Spark help you create eye-catching visuals for social media, email campaigns, and blogs.
- Social media management. Managing multiple platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook requires planning and execution. Tools like Hootsuite or Buffer can help you schedule and manage posts efficiently.
- Email marketing. Platforms like Mailchimp and Constant Contact make it easy to build and send email campaigns. Learn how to craft personalized emails that generate clicks and conversions.
These skills will allow you to create high-quality content, manage your online presence, and effectively engage with your audience.
Step 4: Explore digital marketing certifications and courses
To build credibility and expand your knowledge, consider pursuing digital marketing certifications. Many employers and clients view certifications as a sign of professionalism and expertise.
Here are some top digital marketing courses to consider:
- Google Analytics Certification. This will help you master web analytics and track the success of your campaigns.
- Google Ads Certification. Learn how to run effective PPC campaigns on Google.
- HubSpot Content Marketing Certification. This certification focuses on developing a successful content marketing strategy.
- Semrush Academy. This platform offers courses on SEO, content marketing, and digital marketing in general.
- Marketing Strategy in the Digital Age. This IMD online certification will teach how to enhance your digital marketing strategy using the main online platforms in the market.
Many platforms, such as Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning, also offer affordable online courses that can further your understanding of digital marketing.
Beyond certifications, learning through real-world examples, case studies, and webinars can help you gain practical insights that translate to tangible results. Look for those focused on digital marketing topics like SEO, PPC advertising, email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing.
Gaining practical knowledge in these domains can help you develop a well-rounded skill set for launching effective digital marketing campaigns.
Step 5: Build and launch digital marketing campaigns
Here’s a step-by-step guide to launching a successful digital marketing campaign on any marketing channel:
- Set your marketing goals. Define clear objectives – whether it’s to drive traffic, generate leads, or increase sales.
- Identify your target audience. Use demographic data, behavior analysis, and segmentation to refine your audience.
- Choose the right platform. Decide whether to focus on social media, Google Ads, content marketing, or email campaigns.
- Create compelling content. Make sure your message is tailored to your audience, whether through engaging blog posts, social media ads, or email marketing.
- Launch and monitor your campaign. Track key metrics such as click-through rates, engagement, and conversion rates. Real-time Google Analytics data will help you quickly adjust and scale your efforts based on what’s working.
This process applies to all digital marketing efforts, from small businesses to large enterprises.
Step 6: Use digital marketing tools
There’s no shortage of digital marketing tools that can make your job easier. Here are some of the most essential ones:
- Google Analytics is a must-have for tracking website traffic and understanding user behavior.
- Semrush is ideal for SEO and PPC analysis, keyword research, and competitive analysis.
- Mailchimp is for email marketing automation and tracking performance metrics.
- Hootsuite lets you schedule and manage social media posts across multiple platforms.
If you’re a startup or small business, you might also consider outsourcing your digital marketing to a digital marketing agency that can manage your campaigns so you can focus on core business activities.
Step 7: Stay updated on marketing trends
The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving, and staying informed is critical to remaining competitive. Here are some trends to watch in 2025:
- Influencer marketing. This strategy continues to grow in popularity, especially on video platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
- AI and automation. Chatbots and automation platforms help businesses interact with customers more efficiently.
- Video content. The use of video, including live streams and tutorials, is on the rise for driving engagement.
Subscribe to marketing podcasts, read industry blogs, and participate in webinars to stay updated about the latest marketing trends and tools.
Step 8: Measure success and optimize
One of the benefits of digital marketing is the ability to measure your success with data. Monitoring key metrics is essential to optimizing your campaigns. Here’s what to track:
- Conversion rates. Track how many of your website visitors or social media users take the desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
- Traffic sources. Understand where your website traffic is coming from – whether it’s organic search, paid ads, or social media.
- Engagement. Measure how your audience interacts with your content on social media platforms.
Use Google Analytics to examine these metrics and adjust your campaigns accordingly. The goal is to constantly improve your landing pages, content, and ad strategies for better results.
Dive into digital marketing in 2025
Digital marketing offers a wealth of opportunities, but the key is to approach it with a well-structured plan. From understanding the digital marketing landscape to launching and optimizing campaigns, success lies in mastering the fundamentals, acquiring the right skills, and staying updated with trends.
At IMD, we emphasize the importance of continuous learning and adapting to the changing landscape. Explore our leadership development programs to further develop your digital marketing skills. These learning journeys will help you build a strategic mindset, understand market dynamics, and lead successful digital marketing initiatives.
By following this guide, you’ve already taken the first step toward a rewarding career in digital marketing. Now, it’s time to put these strategies into action and make an impact. Take the next step by enrolling in IMD’s “Digital Transformation and AI Program” and positioning yourself as a leader in this transformative space.
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