Ask HN: In-depth details about digital marketing | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: In-depth details about digital marketing

1 pointWorldDev5 comments

I have a side project that is getting serious traction, to the point that I am now considering how to make it a proper business.

It requires good marketing. And so I wonder : should I pay a digital marketing company, or should I try to do it myself? I lean towards the latter, but wonder if I am missing something.

To answer that question, I need to understand in depth what is digital marketing. My understanding so far is that it is:

- Website design

      I feel this is not too hard, and might not warrant paying a company for that

- Making sure my website is highly ranked via SEO methods.

      There are many guides on good SEO, so does a digital marketing agency really provide serious value there?

- Creating appealing videos

      I have some skills for that, and I feel I could hire freeelancers that could do the job more cheaply. In other words, this seems to me an easy area for me to measure the output

- Create social media communications (twitter, facebook, instagram posts).

      Is there a secret sauce here? Or is it mainly about communicating often wiht engaging visuals?

Is there any other important task that I am missing, or am I missing a critical aspect of some tasks?

https://ahrefs.com/seo start here for SEO basics. Learn what drives rankings (solid on page, content that people will link to) then get a handle on how building backlinks works-- then farm that out.

Going into an agency and saying "handle my marketing" will mean they will change goalposts (social this month, seo next, ppc after that-- typically focusing on billing you as much as possible while delivering bare minimum results) as necessary and can lead to wasted time/money vs. you handling the critical one off things like title/h1s matching terms with search volume/intent then having ongoing items like content/backlinks handled by a 3rd party.

thanks for the pointer!

Professional Marketer here.

Don't overthink the website. But the best thing you can do for your SEO is write clearly using words people might actually know. And post decent content on a regular basis. (Prominently featuring happy, recent customers is also a good idea)

Fancy videos are a waste of time IMHO. Good quality documentation or simple walkthrough videos are just fine.

Start promoting it everywhere, but unless your customers are obsessive over the product, it can take time and money to make social media work.

Hey, thanks a lot for your insights. Very valuable coming from a professional.

When you say "post decent content on a regular basis", do you mean to post it on the website itself?

Also, I am particularly interested in your view on the value-add of hiring a digital marketing agency versus doing the work myself.

> do you mean to post it on the website itself?

Correct. This is why basically every business website has a blog. Think of it as increasing your search surface area.

> value-add of hiring a digital marketing agency versus doing the work myself

I dunno, man. An agency can be crazy expensive for very few results. But then again, asking me is like asking a construction worker if they would ever hire a general contractor for a project. It's only a ripoff if you know how to do it.

Personally, if you don't mind acting as your own PM, you can get a lot of good, affordable work done on Fiverr or Upwork. Things like the graphic design and writing. Then make sure you build something that acts as a lead/customer funnel so you can track everything.

Actual social media/ad strategy is going to really depend on your market. If you don't want to spend a lot of time figuring that out, at least find an agency that specializes in your market/vertical and make sure you are paying for results and not just work done.

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