Ten essential tips for getting started in digital marketing

Executive overview

Digital marketing is growing post-pandemic as more people shift to online commerce, but the space is also becoming more competitive. Content saturation is real — "content blindness" is emerging, similar to banner blindness. Consistency beats virality; a sustainable content strategy beats chasing trends.

The best way to learn digital marketing is to do it — build a site, market it, and iterate.

The competitive landscape ahead

• Post-pandemic online commerce growth increases both demand and competition for digital marketing.
• More resources and budget are needed to achieve the same results as before.
• AI tools and platforms like Canva make content creation easier, accelerating volume without improving signal.
• "Content blindness" will cause audiences to ignore most content, just as banner ads are ignored.

Content formats worth prioritising

• Live streaming simultaneously across Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram accelerates audience growth.
• Short-form video (Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts) reaches beyond existing followers.
• Pinterest Story Pins are an underused repurposing target — up to 20 pages, strong organic reach.
• Pinterest is particularly effective for e-commerce sales.

Neil Patel's content mix formula

• 40% beginner content — high search volume, low shares and backlinks.
• 10% advanced content — data-driven, earns shares and backlinks.
• 20% rewriting older articles — compare traffic from last 30 days vs same period last year; rewrite declining pieces to beat competitors.
• 30% promotion — outreach on social, emailing people you link to, asking for shares.

How to learn digital marketing effectively

• Start by building and marketing your own website — the learning is in doing, not reading.
• Follow industry blogs: Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Moz, Backlinko.
• Track competitors' content and listen to their podcast interviews — they often reveal their tactics.
• After learning broadly, specialise in one specific niche or industry.

Consistency over virality

• Virality is not controllable; consistency is.
• Going viral creates an expectation trap — future posts feel like failures by comparison.
• 37 million video views built without a single viral moment — through sustained output.
• Focus only on what is within your control: showing up, creating, distributing.

Focus as a core principle

• Spreading effort across too many projects produces worse results than deep focus on one.
• Avoid chasing unrelated ideas; compounding returns come from sustained commitment.
• This applies to social platforms too — unless repurposing systems are in place, multi-platform presence dilutes effort.