How to Start Digital Marketing: Get Your First 100 Leads in 30 Days

Introduction

The world has changed. We no longer look for jobs in newspapers, and we don’t get excited by seeing a giant billboard. Traditional marketing methods were buried long ago. The world is now thriving online, and so are businesses. 

Whether you’re promoting a startup, a personal brand, or an established company, digital marketing is a need. 

In this guide, I will walk you through the steps to launch your first digital marketing campaign, allowing you to start your digital marketing journey confidently.

Why digital marketing?

Businesses allocate nearly 72% of their overall marketing budget to digital marketing because 92% of people check a business’s online presence before physically visiting the store or making a purchase. If you fail to convince your customers online, you jeopardize your 92% chance of converting them. If you talk specifically about advertising (paid marketing), then last year, 62% of advertising was online, leaving only 38% for other marketing means, including TV, newspapers, billboards, pamphlets, etc. It’s expected to increase by 8.4% in the coming years. 

The numbers depict how valuable digital marketing agency strategies are when it comes to convincing customers to buy your products. 

Large businesses are doing well in this regard, but for small businesses, digital marketing is like a godsend. With online marketing, small businesses can easily reach their target audience with minimal spending and can expect improved ROI. Isn’t that amazing?

1. Understand Digital Marketing

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing involves promoting products/services through online channels like social media, search engines, email, and websites. It’s cost-effective, measurable, and offers global reach. 

Digital marketing includes:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

These major digital marketing strategies fall under four major categories:

Paid Media: 

Paid media includes media you pay to reach your target audience, such as Google ads, paid online promotions, and paid social media ads. 

Earned Media: 

Anything spread without you investing any additional money to influence the algorithm falls under earned media. This includes online mentions, Links that link back to your website, a podcast, UGC content, service reviews, etc. 

Owned media: 

Media that you directly control. When you market directly from your platforms – an omnichannel strategy for building brand awareness including your website, social media channels, newsletter, and more. 

Social media: 

Social media platforms are rented platforms owned by third-party organizations that allow you to create UGC content. Major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, etc., fall under this category. 

Source

2. Define Clear Goals

Every digital marketing campaign starts with a clear goal in mind. That could be anything from increasing organic traffic on your blog to doubling your Instagram followers, boosting Facebook page likes, increasing website conversions, and boosting newsletter subscriptions. With the end goal in mind, you start by defining SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

For examples:

• Increase website traffic by 30% in 3 months.
• Generate 50 leads/month via email campaigns.

3. Identify Your Target Audience
Once you have identified the specific goals, the next step is to create a buyer persona. 

A buyer persona is a fictional person that depicts the characteristics of your ideal customer ICP.

How to create a buyer persona:

Creating a buyer persona starts with researching:

START  

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1. Conduct Market Research  

   │   • Surveys, Interviews  

   │   • Analytics (Website/Social Media)  

   │   • CRM Data & Customer Feedback  

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2. Segment Audience  

   │   • Group by Demographics, Behavior, Needs  

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3. Identify Demographics  

   │   • Age, Gender, Location  

   │   • Job Title, Income, Education  

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4. Define Psychographics  

   │   • Interests, Values, Lifestyle  

   │   • Personality Traits  

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5. Determine Goals & Challenges  

   │   • Personal/Professional Goals  

   │   • Pain Points & Obstacles  

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6. Analyze Buying Behavior  

   │   • Decision-Making Process  

   │   • Preferred Channels & Influences  

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7. Create Persona Profile  

   │   • Name, Photo, Fictional Quote  

   │   • Background Story (Job, Bio)  

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8. Validate & Refine  

   │   • Test with A/B Campaigns  

   │   • Collect Team/Stakeholder Feedback  

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9. Share & Implement  

   │   • Use in Marketing/Sales Strategies  

   │   • Align Product Development  

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10. Review & Update  

      │   • Revisit Annually or with Market Shifts  

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Once you define your buyer persona, the next step is to run dedicated campaigns directed to your target audience. Always ensure you do targeted marketing based on a single ICP in mind. If your business caters to multiple services, create multiple buyer personas and target your marketing for that specific individual.

Tools:

You can build buyer persona using the following tool very quickly:

• HubSpot persona builder
• Rockcontent persona builder

4. Choose Your Channels

Next comes the part where you choose which platforms will best suit your niche and help you achieve your goals. If you are just starting, then initially focus on 2–3 channels:

Platform	Purpose
Social Media	Ideal for brand awareness (e.g., Instagram, TikTok)
SEO/Content Marketing	Drives organic traffic
Email Marketing	Nurtures leads
PPC Ads	Delivers quick results (Google Ads, Facebook Ads)

Let’s say you own an e-commerce store. In that case, choosing SEO as an initial strategy could be a poor decision. E-commerce brands typically have their target market hanging around on social media platforms. 

Therefore, to build your brand awareness, opting for social media marketing and PPC ads is much wiser than choosing SEO. SEO and email marketing will be effective in the long run after establishing your brand identity.

5. Build a User-Friendly Website

The next step in establishing a winning digital marketing campaign is building a user-friendly website. Most businesses only operate on social media platforms, but at the end of the day, they are rented platforms. According to PR Newswire, around 28% of small businesses don’t have a website. It means they are operating but without their personal space. So, you must ensure you are building something sustainable. You have to create a website that represents your business and makes your audience aware of your products and services.

There are many website builders available for free, like Wix, Hostinger, GoDaddy, etc., which let you build a functional website with a simple drag-and-drop approach. This is great for a start. 

The good news is that there are also many AI website builders on the internet that do a fantastic job with a single prompt.

• Innove.ai
• Bookipi
• Renderforest
• Hubspot
• Wix
  

50% of consumers make their impressions about a business based on its website design. So, always create a simple, easy-to-navigate website with easy-to-understand and persuasive copy.

Your website should have the following features for customers to engage and convert;

• Mobile-responsive: 66% of online traffic comes from mobile phones, and 67% of consumers would likely buy if their mobile phone website experience was good. 
• It should be easy to navigate, as 94% of consumers agree that easy navigation is the first thing they prefer while interacting with any website.
• Fast-loading (use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights), as consumers leave websites if they take more than 3 seconds to load 
• Clear CTAs (e.g., “Sign Up” or “Contact Us”) and effective pop-ups that help convert an average of 9.28% of consumers.  
• SEO-friendly structure: Ensure your website has well-structured URLs, optimized metadata, and the correct technical SEO elements to avoid issues like duplicate content. For example, if you have multiple pages with similar content, implementing an alternate page with proper canonical tag helps search engines identify the preferred version, preventing ranking issues and improving SEO performance.

6. Creating Valuable Content

After building a website, the most important part is developing content for your site and other marketing channels. 

But should you post similar content on every channel? The answer is: your content should be synchronized, meaning the primary message should be the same, but the formatting and the way you present your message will vary on each channel.

For example: You cannot write creative copy just to impress your visitors on the website’s homepage, just to confuse and make them leave. 

And you cannot write direct sales copy on your social media channels just to make your followers feel bored and unfollow you. 

In short, your content should resonate with the platform audience you are publishing. 

Let’s break down the content types on your marketing channels. 

1- Website Homepage content:

Apart from the creative ad copy we see daily on social media, your website content should be direct, authoritative, and persuasive. Why? Because when your customers land on your website, they should instantly understand what your website/business is about. Whay you do. For whom you do. And what your customer gets from your service/product. That’s the information that goes above the fold. 

Website sales page:

The sales page is transactional; use it in that way. 

Every business solves a specific pain point, adds value, and provides solutions for their customers. But it doesn’t mean you go and simply write,

“We Sell Motorbikes That Are Great For Minimizing The Distance Between Places.”

Does this line persuade you (unless you just want to buy a bike), motivate you, make you feel good, or show you any transformation?

When there is fierce competition in the market, you cannot just pitch-slap; rather, you tell a story and build a narrative.

Your sales copy should tell a story that helps your visitors feel their pain points (if they haven’t passed the awareness stage yet), show them a transformation, motivate them, and add value to their lives. Walk them through a journey by establishing the context, highlighting their pain points, and gradually presenting your product/service as a solution they need.

Now, let’s see how we can rewrite the headline we discussed earlier.

Life’s bumpy enough; at least your bike shouldn’t be!

Ride a Motorbike That’s Sleek, Silent, and Smooth

Let’s look at this “ZOLA” sales page headline – how beautifully it depicts that it will cover all your big wedding decisions without selling itself. 

BLOG Content:

Then comes the blog content. First, you set the desired goals of your blog section. Do you want to educate your customers, build an email list by increasing newsletter subscriptions, attract new customers, improve SEO, or grow a loyal community of potential customers? And then go further. 

Always add a value proposition at the top of your blog page. It should clearly highlight the outcome your reader ultimately gets. If it’s an educational blog, write it down. 

But the exciting part is – you can still generate leads from your blogs. According to Master Blogging, 61% of consumers in the U.S. make buying decisions after reading content (blogs) published by a company or business. Websites generate up to 67% more leads simply from blogs. And it’s the 2nd most impactful content format for capturing leads.

Source: Semrush

Now, we can see that blogs are not like they were 10 years ago. Companies are putting a lot of effort into attracting leads with their content. They add lead magnets to their blogs to build an email list and provide free resources to gather leads’ emails or contact details. 

Social media content:

Social media content is much more creative than website content. You cannot simply promote your products/services on social media and expect people to buy. The primary purpose of social media is to build brand visibility and awareness. But with the right content that resonates with your target audience, you can also generate leads. According to Social Media Examiner, social media helps marketers generate 68% more leads. 

But what should you post on your social media?

Content Mix:

The next burning question will be – the proper content mix. Like blogs, you must set a SMART goal for your social media. Is it for educational purposes, entertainment, showcasing the work environment, or building brand voice and loyalty? What do you want viewers to feel when visiting your social media page? What is your intention when creating a content mix? Write the answers down, and then make your ideal content mix that aligns with your company’s long-term goals. 

The content mix includes the formats of content you will publish on your social media page in the appropriate order. 

Social media content plan by Hootsuite:

7. Start with basic SEO 

Now that you have written your content and published it across multiple marketing channels, the next step is to promote it to your target audience using search engine optimization, or SEO. 

If you are just starting out, you don’t need to buy multiple paid tools or even utilize multiple free SEO tools to build a perfect SEO strategy. You can simply pick one or two tools and build a working SEO strategy. 

Tool: Semrush 

Semrush is a great tool for building an SEO strategy. It has all the features that you need to start. 

With Semrush, you can;

• Perform keyword research.
• Do competitor analysis
• Perform audits
• Build backlink strategy 

Source: Human Marketing

Key considerations 

• As a new website, find LHF – Low-hanging fruit keywords with less competition and a decent search volume to rank faster. 

Learn how to find LHF keywords here. 

• Optimize meta titles, descriptions, and headers.
• Publish high-quality, well-researched blogs twice a week to build authority on Google. 
• Build backlinks through guest blogging or collaborations.

8. Social Media

Social media is great for building brand awareness and gaining customer loyalty. You can connect with your customers 1 on 1, get feedback, and nurture them before they eventually convert. 

Currently, there are more than 20 social media platforms. Businesses select platforms based on their niche, industry, and goals. 

If you are new to social media, don’t hop on more than three platforms at a time. If you believe most of your audience is on one specific platform (Like LinkedIn or Instagram), stick with it. Establish a strong presence there and gradually expand to other channels. 

• Post consistently: If you are starting out, post twice a week. Your posting frequency depends on the platform and your audience engagement. If you have a highly engaging audience, you can post five times a week, too.
• Schedule with Buffer or Hootsuite

• Engage with followers: Social media is great to engage with your follower in the mean time. Reply to comments, host Q&A sessions, run a contest/giveaway, publish a poll, and share interactive stories to get public feedback. 
• Analyze performance using platform insights: Review your post performance to understand what resonates with your audience. If you received more engagement from video, add more video into your content mix. If you get a lot of traction on your carousel, include more of them. Always analyze trends and what’s working, and optimize your social media strategy accordingly. But remember, don’t pursue every trend and compromise your company’s long-term goals for a few likes. 

9. Launch Email Marketing

4.6 billion people use emails worldwide. Email marketing is one of the best marketing approaches for businesses, especially B2B. Why? Because there is no more personalized approach to marketing than sending a personal email to make to your customers and make them feel valued.

Collect emails:

Remember when we talked about lead magnets in the blog section? Now it’s time to practically use the information you collect from those leads in exchange for a valuable resource like a free template. 

Segment your list: 

After collecting the leads, carefully segment them based on interest, demographics, sale funnel position, behaviour, purchase history or engagement, etc, and then send emails to each list based on your segmentation.

Automate campaigns : 

As you segment the list, you’ve completed 50% of the hard work. Next, you need to choose an automation platform. Start with a free version (like Mailchimp or ConvertKit) and then automate your emails. Your task isn’t finished yet. Now, you must monitor the performance as well – your email open rates, CTR, CTOR, positive responses, and so on. 

10. Experiment with Paid Ads

Paid ads are great for getting instant visibility and building brand awareness. But they work wonders when combined with SEO and content marketing. 

Write a blog, do its SEO, and then run an ad directed to this specific blog. 

This way, when a lead searches for the keyword you ranked your content for, your blog will show in the top results. One with paid ads and the other with SEO. And that’s how you build trust with your customers by giving them maximum value through your personalized marketing strategy.  

The same goes for social media posts. Run ads from your profile to keep showing up in your potential customers’ feeds. Once clicked, your customer lands on a dedicated landing page where the content perfectly aligns with the commitment we showed in the ad copy. 

Trust build, lead secured!

Launching your first PPC campaign:

1- Begin with Small Advertising Campaigns: 

Start your advertising efforts on platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. These platforms allow you to create targeted advertisements that can reach specific audiences. By starting small, you can manage your budget effectively and understand how online advertising works without a large initial investment.

2- Experiment with A/B Testing: 

A/B testing involves creating two different versions of your ad (Version A and Version B) to see which one performs better. This can include variations in the ad copy (the text used in the ad) or visuals (the images or videos used). By testing these variations, you can gather data on what resonates more with your audience, allowing you to optimize your ads for better results.

3- Monitor Return on Investment (ROI):

Once your ads are running, it’s important to track their performance to see how much return on investment you are getting. Use tools like Google Analytics to track metrics such as clicks, conversions, and overall revenue. This will help you determine if your advertising efforts are financially fruitful and guide future ad strategies.

11. Monitor & Adjust
Last but not least is to keep monitoring your marketing efforts.

Use analytics tools to track your website traffic (Google Analytics) and measure social media engagement on a daily/weekly basis. 

Keep your eyes on what’s trending and how you can align your strategy with social media seasonal and evergreen trends. 

Lastly, adjust and refine your marketing strategy based on the highest-performing content, content that is attracting the most traffic, content that is getting the most leads, ads that are generating better ROI, and social media where your audience is most active and interactive.

12. Budget Wisely

Allocate funds based on priorities, industry, and niche. If SEO is working great for your business, allocate a large portion of your budget to it. If social media marketing is generating the most leads, adjust your budget accordingly, and so on.

Here is a general overview about how you can strategically distribute your budget between different marketing strategies:

Conclusion
Starting digital marketing requires strategy, adaptability, and consistency. These steps will build a strong online presence and connect meaningfully with your audience. 

Excited to launch your first digital marketing campaign? Pick one step today and take action!

Download a free Digital Marketing Checklist to track your progress!