Welcome to www.rajeevratra.com, where you’ll find valuable information about marketing in general, and digital marketing in particular.

Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Rajeev Ratra.

I’m a business marketing expert and I’m here to help you grow your business.

I’ll show you why digital marketing is essential for business growth.

I’ll help you understand what digital marketing is, why you need it & how to use it for your business.

I’m also the CEO of Arnima Design, a digital presence agency based in Tampa, Florida.

With over 19 years of experience, I believe that I’m well positioned to help business owners get the most from their digital marketing efforts.

I invite you to learn about me and also review some case studies to see how I’ve helped clients grow their businesses.

In this article, you’ll learn about digital marketing fundamentals.

Let’s get to it.

Digital marketing is one of the most important tools in your online marketing arsenal.

• Please don’t overlook it
• Learn and understand it
• Give it the attention it deserves
• Take it seriously
• Watch it generate amazing results!

I’m going to focus on digital marketing from a theoretical approach.

So.

We’ll first work to understand what exactly digital marketing is all about.

After that, we’ll focus on why digital marketing is important.

And finally, we’ll look at how you should use digital marketing to grow your business.

At some point, we’ll also cover AI & ML-powered marketing automation, growth marketing, and advanced analytics.

Let’s continue.

Why am I doing this?

Because it’s important that you first understand what digital marketing is, why you need it, and, only then, work on the execution, i.e., the how.

Unfortunately, a lot of marketers, freelancers, and digital agencies, tend to miss the first two steps in their excitement to get you started.

They immediately want you to “do”.

They want you to immediately move ahead with different tactics such SEO, or Social Marketing. Or they want you to run PPC ads. Or they want to promote you on Facebook. Or start running ads on Instagram.

They don’t think it’s important to explain the what and, especially, the why.

You may ask: Why are the “what” and “why” important?

They are.

Regardless of your digital budget, whether it’s $10K or $100K or $1M or $5M, wouldn’t you want to understand what you were spending your money on?

Wouldn’t you also want to know why you were spending it?

I’m sure you do.

So, this is where I come in.

To help you understand the why, the what, and the how of digital marketing.

Marketing automation.

Advanced analytics.

How to interpret and optimize the results.

And pretty much everything else about digital marketing.

Let’s look at some background before we dive in.

Over the last 22 years in the industry, I’ve seen business owners, partners, managers & executives struggle with marketing.

Especially with digital marketing.

I’ve seen them deal with discomfort. Uncertainty. Unfamiliarity. Reluctance. Anxiety. Sometimes, even fear.

Given that the average of a business owner in the United States is 50.3 years, it should come as no surprise that many business owners are not as tech-savvy and exposed to the digital world as they need to be.

And that their struggle with digital marketing and even more so with social media, especially with Instagram, is real!

Mainly due to the lack of education and knowledge.

Most of these folks want to focus on running their business and not learning digital marketing.

Then, what’s the problem?

In its most simplistic sense,

Digital marketing is how you promote your business using digitally connected devices, channels, and platforms.

I realize that this is a very simplistic definition but it suffices for the moment.

Look.

I’m not here to show you how to run Facebook ads, PPC ads, or SEO.

There are plenty of other marketers who will help you with that.

I’m going to take a different approach.

My first job is to help you understand the fundamentals and principles of digital marketing.

Then, I’ll help you understand how you can leverage digital marketing to grow and sustain your business.

I’ll show you how to build, implement, and fine-tune your marketing strategy and how to optimize the results.

Whether you want to hire a marketing consultant or an agency or build an in-house marketing team, it is essential that you understand the what, why, and how of digital marketing.

This way, you spend money wisely, don’t get taken for a ride, and stay on top of your game.

Shall we move on?

When business owners or managers hire a freelancer, a consultant, or an agency, they are told what they should focus on (as in what should be done).

Most agencies or freelancers just don’t take the time, or they don’t think it important, to explain the basics.

They don’t take the time to educate their customers.

It’s counterproductive, really.

I understand that some of us are not interested in the basics, but shouldn’t we be?  Interested, that is?

Look:

I am not suggesting that you take a detailed course in digital marketing. Far from that.

But:

As a business owner, I do believe that you should understand the fundamentals of digital marketing so you can spend your hard-earned dollars wisely.

Below are some nuggets of advice routinely offered to business owners, managers & executives:

• “You need to update the content on your website – it’s outdated.”
• “You must do SEO on your website.”
• “You should consider paid advertising on Google.”
• “What? Are you not advertising on Facebook? You’re missing out!”
• “You don’t have a video channel on YouTube? Why not?”
• “You really should be on Instagram!”
• “Why aren’t you collecting email addresses on your website?

Does this sound familiar?

They don’t explain the “why”  – the thought processes – behind such advice.

A lot of them don’t even explain that “what” in detail.

Because they simply (and incorrectly) assume that their audience knows that “what.”

Most digital marketers simply focus on the “how“.

They jump in and start with the tactics.

In short, they don’t take the time to educate their clients about the fundamentals.

And then, there are some digital marketers that claim SEO as easy as following a checklist!

If SEO were that easy, why would SEO agencies & consultants exist?

And, unless you are a digital marketer, you, like, most business owners, want to focus on running your business.

Not on learning or “doing” digital marketing.

Right?

I’ve talked to many business owners about their challenges with digital marketing.

The ones that struggle with digital marketing can be loosely found in four groups:

• Some that do it partially (but consistently)
• Some that do incorrectly
• Some do it sporadically.
• And some not all!

I found business owners to be loosely categorized as follows (with some overlap)

• There are those that do it themselves or have attempted to do it themselves.
• Then there are those that outsourced to a company, or agency.
• And those that went with a freelancer, or freelancers.
• And yet, those that hired a marketing specialist (or consultant) to guide them.

Side note: Who got the best results? (I’ll address this in a separate article, stay tuned.)

The results were mixed.

But the good thing is that they all realize they totally need digital marketing.

Yet, there is a lot of apprehension with online marketing.

But, as I mentioned earlier, it is the why and the what that confounds them. More than the how.

When asked why they don’t actively use digital marketing, most of them cite one of the following reasons:

• Time: It takes time away from running their business
• Complexity: It’s too complicated, and there are too many choices
• Skills: It requires specialized skills that they don’t possess
• Uncertainty: Requires a certain amount of “experimenting” to get results
• Return: Agencies can be expensive, and the return can be hard to justify
• Budget: They don’t have a marketing budget so they don’t what to spend
• Results: The results are confusing to interpret unless someone explains
• Reliability: They don’t know how to find a genuine and reliable agency
• Freelancers: A lot of business avoid freelancers, citing trust & reliability issues

Of the above, business owners most often cited time and complexity as the two prevailing reasons to not use digital marketing.

I’m here to help you overcome your hesitation or reluctance by helping you understand the what, why & how.

Now, let’s look at the results:

When I asked business owners about the results they got from their digital marketing initiatives (whether their digital campaigns were successful or not), I got a mixed bag of replies:

• One business owner said, “Not that great.”
• Another said, “It was ok. “
• A handful said, “Encouraging.”
• Yet more said, “Excellent.”
• Yet a few more said, “Amazing.”

The general consensus was very positive.

In short, most agreed that they saw real benefits in digital marketing.

So, why me? Why this website? Why this blog?

Time and time again, I have counseled and advised my clients on how to go about digital marketing.

I’ve always started by educating. So, in the initial series of articles, I will focus on:

• What exactly is digital marketing.
• Why you need digital marketing to grow your business.
• And, finally, how you should use digital marketing.

Now:

Let’s circle back to digital marketing.

• It requires thought & planning
• It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach
• It’s not a quick fix
• It takes patience and perseverance
• It takes time and effort
• It costs money

But when done properly, the results can be gratifying. Stellar even. Sadly enough, this happens infrequently.

Again, why is that, you ask?

I’m going to cut to the chase and give you straight answers.

In the following series of three in-depth articles.

Starting with the why, followed by the what, and ending with the how.

We will also take an in-depth look at the psychology of (digital) marketing.

Stay tuned.

What do you think? What are your thoughts about digital marketing?

Let me know in the comments below what you think.