ICDL Professional

DIGITAL MARKETING
Syllabus 1.0

Learning Material

Provided by:
BABCOCK UNIVERSITY NIGERIA
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ICDL Digital Marketing

With the rapid rise of consumers using the Internet for work, communication, shopping and
recreation, virtually every organisation should have an online presence and be effectively
leveraging digital marketing opportunities. This means keeping up-to-date with online tools
and knowing how to use them to achieve overall business and marketing goals. ICDL
Digital Marketing will guide you through the key skills you need to achieve your digital
marketing goals.
ICDL Digital Marketing sets out essential concepts and skills relating to the fundamentals of
digital marketing, including creating a web presence, optimising content for search engines,
using social media platforms, carrying out online marketing across a range of services, as
well as monitoring and improving campaigns using analytics.
Having completed this module you will be able to:
 Understand key concepts of digital marketing, including advantages, limitations
and planning.
 Understand various web presence options and how to select appropriate
keywords for search engine optimisation.
 Recognise different social media platforms, and set up and use common
platforms.
 Understand how effective social media management assists in promotion and
lead generation.
 Use a social media management service to schedule posts and set up
notifications.
 Understand various options for online marketing and advertising, including search
engine, e-mail and mobile marketing.
 Understand and use analytics services to monitor and improve campaigns.

What are the benefits of this module?

Covers the key skills and main concepts relating to digital marketing campaigns. Certifies
best practice in digital marketing. Developed with input from subject matter experts and
practising digital marketing professionals from around the world. This process ensures the
relevance and range of module content.
Once you have developed the skills and knowledge set out in this book, you will be in a
position to become certified in an international standard in this area - ICDL Digital
Marketing.
For details of the specific areas of the ICDL Digital Marketing syllabus covered in each
section of this book, refer to the ICDL Digital Marketing syllabus map at the end of the book.

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ICDL DIGITAL MARKETING

LESSON 1 - KEY CONCEPTS .................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Digital Marketing Overview.................................................................................................. 2

1.2 Digital Marketing Techniques .............................................................................................. 3
1.3 Digital Marketing Goals ....................................................................................................... 4
1.4 Digital Marketing Advantages .............................................................................................. 5
1.5 Digital Marketing Limitations ............................................................................................... 6
1.6 Legal and Regulatory Obligations ....................................................................................... 7
1.7 Review Exercise ................................................................................................................. 9

LESSON 2 - PLANNING ........................................................................................................... 10

2.1 Digital Marketing Strategy Considerations ......................................................................... 11

2.2 Design Considerations ...................................................................................................... 13
2.3 Content Marketing ............................................................................................................. 14
2.4 Policies and Access Controls ............................................................................................ 15
2.5 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 17

LESSON 3 - WEB PRESENCE OPTIONS ................................................................................ 18

3.1 Web Presence Solutions ................................................................................................... 19

3.2 Creating a Web Presence ................................................................................................. 21
3.3 Content Management Systems ......................................................................................... 23
3.4 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 24

LESSON 4 - WEBSITE CONSIDERATIONS ............................................................................. 25

4.1 Website Structure ............................................................................................................. 26

4.2 Website Design ................................................................................................................. 28
4.3 Website Content ............................................................................................................... 31
4.4 Website Promotion ............................................................................................................ 32
4.5 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 34

LESSON 5 - SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION ...................................................................... 35

5.1 Search Engine Optimisation Overview .............................................................................. 36
5.2 Keywords for SEO............................................................................................................. 38
5.3 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 42

LESSON 6 - SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS ............................................. 43

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 6.1 Social Media Platforms ..................................................................................................... 44
6.2 Social Media Marketing Campaigns .................................................................................. 46
6.3 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 49

LESSON 7 - SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS ............................................................................... 50

7.1 Social Media Profile Types ................................................................................................ 51
7.2 Creating a Social Media Business Profile .......................................................................... 52
7.3 Editing a Social Media Business Profile ............................................................................ 56
7.4 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 60

LESSON 8 - USING SOCIAL MEDIA ........................................................................................ 61

8.1 Social Media Actions ......................................................................................................... 62

8.2 Creating and Updating Posts ............................................................................................ 63
8.3 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 75

LESSON 9 - SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT SERVICES ....................................................... 76

9.1 Social Media Management Services ................................................................................. 77
9.2 Scheduled Posts ............................................................................................................... 77
9.3 URL Shorteners ................................................................................................................ 78
9.4 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................... 80

LESSON 10 - SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND PROMOTION............................................. 81

10.1 Influencers, Reviews and Referrals ................................................................................. 82

10.2 Targeted Audience .......................................................................................................... 84
10.3 Engaging Content ........................................................................................................... 85
10.4 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................. 88

LESSON 11 - SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT, LEAD GENERATION AND SALES .............. 89

11.1 Comments and Notifications ........................................................................................... 90
11.2 Calls to Action ................................................................................................................. 91
11.3 Review Exercise ............................................................................................................. 95

LESSON 12 - ONLINE ADVERTISING ..................................................................................... 96

12.1 Online Advertising Overview ........................................................................................... 97
12.2 Search Engine Marketing Platforms ................................................................................ 98
12.3 Online Advertising Platforms ......................................................................................... 102
12.4 Types of Online Advertisement ..................................................................................... 103
12.5 Social Media Advertising ............................................................................................... 105
12.6 Review Exercise ........................................................................................................... 109
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LESSON 13 - E-MAIL MARKETING ....................................................................................... 110

13.1 E-Mail Marketing Platforms ........................................................................................... 111

13.2 Creating an E-Mail Marketing Account .......................................................................... 112
13.3 Creating and Managing Contact Lists............................................................................ 112
13.4 Creating and Managing E-Mail Campaigns ................................................................... 114
13.5 Review Exercise ........................................................................................................... 116

LESSON 14 - MOBILE MARKETING ...................................................................................... 117

14.1 Mobile Marketing Overview ........................................................................................... 118

14.2 Mobile Applications ....................................................................................................... 119
14.3 Mobile Marketing Considerations .................................................................................. 121
14.4 Mobile Advertising ......................................................................................................... 122
14.5 Review Exercise ........................................................................................................... 125

LESSON 15 - WEB ANALYTICS ............................................................................................ 126

15.1 Analytics Overview ........................................................................................................ 127

15.2 Website Analytics Overview .......................................................................................... 128
15.3 Using Website Analytics ................................................................................................ 130
15.4 Review Exercise ........................................................................................................... 134

LESSON 16 - SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS............................................................................... 135

16.1 Social Media Insights Overview..................................................................................... 136

16.2 Using Social Media Insights .......................................................................................... 137
16.3 Review Exercise ........................................................................................................... 140

LESSON 17 - E-MAIL MARKETING ANALYTICS .................................................................. 141

17.1 E-Mail Marketing Analytics Overview ............................................................................ 142
17.2 Using E-Mail Marketing Analytics .................................................................................. 144
17.3 Review Exercise ........................................................................................................... 146

LESSON 18 - ONLINE ADVERTISING ANALYTICS .............................................................. 147

18.1 Online Advertising Analytics Overview .......................................................................... 148

18.2 Using Online Advertising Analytics ................................................................................ 149
18.3 Review Exercise ........................................................................................................... 150
ICDL SYLLABUS ..................................................................................................................... 151

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LESSON 1 -
KEY CONCEPTS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand the term digital marketing

 Define the main elements of digital marketing
 Identify typical goals when using digital marketing
 Understand the advantages of digital marketing
 Understand the limitations of digital marketing
 Recognise the main legal and regulatory obligations when digital
marketing in your country
Lesson 1 – Key Concepts ICDL Digital Marketing

1.1 DIGITAL MARKETING OVERVIEW

Concepts

Digital Marketing, sometimes called Internet or online marketing, can be described

as the set of techniques and technologies used to promote brands, products and
services to consumers over a range of online channels.

Digital marketing overview

People are spending more and more time online carrying out a range of tasks,
including shopping, searching for information, reading news, watching videos,
using e-mail, booking holidays, and using social media. They are also using a
wider range of devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, allowing them
to be online anytime, anywhere. What this means is that people are spending less
time using traditional media, such as print and television. Businesses therefore
need to get online in order to reach both their existing and potential customers.
They need to engage in digital marketing in order to promote and sell their
products and services over various online channels.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 1 – Key Concepts

1.2 DIGITAL MARKETING TECHNIQUES

Concepts

Digital marketing techniques

There are many digital marketing techniques and tools available to businesses to
help them market online, such as:
• Affiliate marketing – Rewarding a site or individual for each sale/lead it
generates as a result of promoting your business.
• Display advertising – Advertising online in a variety of formats. Display
advertising includes banner, text, image, and video ads on a webpage.
• Content marketing – Creating and sharing useful, relevant and quality
content to achieve marketing goals.
• Search engine marketing (SEM) – Increasing website traffic and visibility
in search engine results pages through paid and unpaid (organic)
methods.
• Mobile marketing – Reaching consumers through their mobile phone,
smartphones and tablets.
• E-mail marketing – Reaching consumers directly via e-mail using text
and rich media formats.
• Social media marketing – Reaching consumers through social media
sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to raise brand awareness,
generate sales and website traffic.

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Lesson 1 – Key Concepts ICDL Digital Marketing

• Search engine optimisation (SEO) – Optimising websites to increase

their visibility in search engine's unpaid results, also known as organic,
natural or earned results.
• Analytics – The process of using tools for tracking and analysing the
behaviour of website visitors to inform marketing strategy.

1.3 DIGITAL MARKETING GOALS

Concepts
As with any marketing activity, it is important to start by establishing the goals you
want to achieve with digital marketing.

What are your goals?

Some typical goals might include:
• Increased brand awareness – Increasing brand awareness among
current and potential customers.
• Lead generation – Generating ‘leads’: generating customer interest in
your product or service and creating contact lists of those users who have
expressed interest.
• Sales generation – Generating sales of your products or services –
probably the ultimate marketing goal.
• Informing customers – Keeping customers up-to-date by sharing news
and special offers with your target audience.
• Improved customer service – Strengthening your relationship with your
customers by improving customer service and assistance.
• Direct customer engagement – Engaging with customers directly.
• Generating Traffic – Increasing the number of visitors to your website.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 1 – Key Concepts

1.4 DIGITAL MARKETING ADVANTAGES

Concepts

Digital marketing has many advantages over traditional marketing techniques.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Cost Measurement Reach Engagement Mobile

Digital marketing advantages

More cost effective

Digital marketing is generally less expensive than traditional marketing channels
such as television, radio and print. The design and production costs for a print or
TV ad, plus the cost of buying advertising space in a magazine or on a television
channel, are usually much higher than an online banner ad or video ad.

Easier to track and measure progress

It is much easier to track and measure the effectiveness of a digital marketing
campaign than on traditional media. In non-digital campaigns, the majority of
audience data is estimated, such as magazine or newspaper circulation figures, or
audience numbers for a television or radio programme. These numbers may not
accurately reflect the actual number of people who saw or engaged with your
advertisement. However, the use of online analytics tools in a digital campaign will
give exact, reliable data for how many people saw and engaged with (clicked)
your ad.
Also, in traditional campaigns, campaign performance data is rarely real-time. For
example, you might have to wait and see if sales figures increase over a period of
time. However, in a digital campaign, online analytical tools offer real-time tracking
and behavioural data revealing your audience’s reaction to your ad, allowing you
to tweak your campaign and improve performance.

Larger demographic reach

Digital marketing campaigns also have a larger potential reach than traditional
campaigns. They can reach a global audience but they can also be targeted so
your message only reaches a specific group, also known as a demographic.
Demographics include things like gender, race, age, income, location, education,
marital status. Targeting your message to a particular demographic you are more
likely to reach people who are interested in your category of product or service.

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Lesson 1 – Key Concepts ICDL Digital Marketing

Higher engagement compared to traditional marketing

Digital marketing allows customers to engage with brands more directly than with
traditional marketing such as print and television. On social media for example,
customers can like, share and comment on a business’s content, and in turn
businesses can interact with customers by answering questions or responding to
comments. Even though the engagement isn’t face-to-face, online interaction can
happen in real time, at any time, and directly between businesses and customers.

Catering to mobile customers

Another advantage of digital marketing is the ability to reach mobile users with
campaigns tailored to their situation. This can include tailoring the type of content
that mobile users see depending on where they are and the device they’re using.
It also means ensuring that the content can be viewed easily on a mobile device.

Digital marketing advantages

1.5 DIGITAL MARKETING LIMITATIONS

Concepts
There are also some limitations to digital marketing to be aware of.

4.
1. 2. 3.
May not be
Lack of face-to- Can be Time
suitable for
face interaction obtrusive commitment
your product

Digital marketing limitations

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 1 – Key Concepts

Lack of face-to-face interaction

With digital marketing, contact with customers is online, so there is a lack of
real-life interaction. This means that your campaigns may not reach customers
who prefer real-life, face-to-face contact with businesses. It may also mean
that useful feedback and insights from people who purchase (and don’t
purchase) is lost.

Can be obtrusive
Some users consider some formats of online advertising as annoying or an
interruption to their online experience. Pop-up ads are the best example of
online ads that people dislike. Some people come to view online advertising as
clutter, and aim to ignore it. It is important to conduct your campaigns and
design your content in a way that doesn’t upset your audience or lead them to
view it as obtrusive. Testing your campaigns with small groups first is a good
way to ensure this is the case.

Time commitment to manage it professionally

Another consideration is that planning and managing a digital marketing
campaign professionally will require a considerable amount of time and
resources. A business profile account on a social media site might be free, but
time and resources are needed to manage it well. A badly-managed or
abandoned campaign or social profile can have negative consequences for
your business. This is why the planning stage is so important.

May not be suitable for your product

There will be some customers you can’t reach through online channels. For
example, some customers in an older age bracket may not be online, or in
some countries online access may not be prevalent. It is important to know
about your target audience’s lifestyle and habits, and whether you will be able
to reach them online.

1.6 LEGAL AND REGULATORY OBLIGATIONS

Concepts
Online activity is governed by laws and regulations to protect internet users, such
as online buyers or those who have created content (copyright owners).
It is important to follow any applicable laws and regulations related to your
marketing activity. These may differ depending on the country and may also
change to respond to technology. You should check the latest laws and
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Lesson 1 – Key Concepts ICDL Digital Marketing

regulations, which can typically be found on government or regulatory authority

websites or by consulting with a legal professional.
Many countries have restrictions around advertising of alcohol for example. In
many countries, alcohol can only be advertised to someone over 18 years old.
However in Sweden the age is 25, in the United States it is 21, and in Canada and
South Korea it is 19. In some countries alcohol may be prohibited, so advertising
such a product in these markets could lead to heavy penalties.
Some considerations include the regulations and laws around data protection and
privacy, copyright and e-commerce. For example, privacy laws may require a user
to consent to a website gathering and analysing their data through the use of
cookies. Using photographs and video on social media that were created by
someone else may be infringing copyright. If you have an e-commerce website,
you should also be familiar with the terms and conditions of your payment
provider.
Some advertising platforms have their own regulations that you should be aware
of. For example, Facebook prohibits the advertising of any tobacco-related
products, weapons, and pharmaceutical drugs on their platform. They also have
strict guidelines on imagery, and won’t allow images that they feel depict a
negative body image, such as a body portrayed as overweight or perfect.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 1 – Key Concepts

1.7 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Digital Marketing can be described as the set of ____________ and

________________ used for promotion of brands, products and services over a range
of ______________.channels.

2. Which one of the following is a digital marketing technique used to improve website
traffic and visibility in search engine results pages through paid and unpaid options?
a. Display advertising.
b. Search engine marketing.
c. E-mail marketing.
d. Analytics.

3. List three business goals you might want to achieve using digital marketing:
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________

4. List three advantages of using digital marketing over traditional marketing techniques.
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________

5. Which three of the following are possible limitations of digital marketing?

a. It may be seen as clutter and ignored.
b. It is more expensive than traditional marketing.
c. It requires considerable time and resources to manage.
d. It is only useful if your customers are online.

6. List three considerations in relation to the legal and regulatory obligations when using
digital marketing in your country.
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

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LESSON 2 -
PLANNING

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand the main elements of a digital marketing strategy

 Recognise the need for a consistent online presence in line with corporate
identity and design
 Recognise types of content used to drive traffic and enhance engagement
 Understand the importance of policies and access controls for staff using
company digital marketing accounts
ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 2 - Planning

2.1 DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY CONSIDERATIONS

Concepts

Defining a comprehensive digital marketing strategy before starting any activity is

key to making the best use of resources and achieving your business goals on
time and on budget. With so many potential channels and activities to try, it’s easy
to just experiment with different approaches, and get a scattered, incoherent
digital marketing campaign as a result.

What are digital marketing strategy considerations?

You should take a structured approach and consider the following when defining
your digital marketing strategy.

1.
Goals

7. 2.
Reporting Audience

6. 3.
Budget Competitors

5. 4.
Content Platforms

Digital marketing strategy considerations

Goals
First, make sure that the goals of your digital marketing strategy are aligned with
your high-level business goals and overall marketing strategy. Make sure your
goals are specific and measurable, for example, rather than ‘increase online
sales’, your goal might be to increase the online sales of a product line that has a
high profit margin and low postage costs. Often, the most effective way to
increase sales is to increase the rate of returning customers. Set a time period for
achieving your goals and be aware that it takes time to develop a successful
online presence.

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Lesson 2 - Planning ICDL Digital Marketing

Audience
You should clearly identify your target audience, or target market. Your target
audience is the group of people that you believe are likely to be interested in your
product or message. Usually they have a problem that your business or product
can solve. Target audience information can include their values, needs, location,
interests, spending habits and what device they use. It could also include
demographics such as age, gender, education level, and marital status. Targeting
several small audience groups and then comparing their engagement is a
common technique in digital marketing.

Competitors
It can be helpful to analyse a competitor’s digital marketing activities and use the
information to inform your own strategy. Look at the content they post and see
what the audience engages with and what it doesn’t like so you can avoid the
same mistakes. If Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is important to your strategy,
you should look closely at your competitor’s online presence to determine any
SEO techniques they are using. There are online tools available to help track and
monitor competitors.

Platforms
Selecting the online platforms appropriate to your campaign and your target
audience is key.
If you are planning to advertise online, consider where your target audience are
online. If you want to attract more customers on social media, check which social
media platform your target audience spends the most time on.
You should research the various platforms to determine which ones are best
suited to your brand. Some platforms will offer demographic user information
about their platform for this purpose. For example, on Snapchat’s advertising
page, they cite research that 41% of all 18 to 34 year-olds in the United States
use the Snapchat social media app daily.
Regulators and research bodies also offer relevant user statistics. For example,
Pew Research Centre found that the average American Instagram user is female,
aged between 18 and 29, and lives in an urban area. Ofcom reports that UK
adults over 55 are more likely to have a profile only on Facebook (65%), and this
is more common among women than men (50% vs. 36%). Get the latest audience
figures for your region through online resources such as Global Web Index, IAB
Research, Ofcom and Pew Research Centre.
Also consider how much time you have to spend on digital marketing and select
the number of platforms and tools accordingly. It’s usually better to spend more
time creating a quality presence on one or two platforms popular with your target
audience, rather than spreading time and resources thinly across many platforms.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 2 - Planning

Content
Engaging content such as infographics, photos, animations, reports, blog posts
and video can be effective in engaging with customers on social media, attracting
visitors to your site, and increasing brand awareness. However, creation of quality
content is time consuming. Your strategy should include a content calendar: a
plan for the type of content you want to create, how long it will take to produce,
who will produce it and when it will be published. Free calendar templates are
available online, for example Hubspot or the Content Marketing Institute.

Budget
Another important part of the strategy is to determine the overall budget available
and how to allocate it across different activities. Consider whether you have the
resources and skills to manage your digital marketing in-house or whether you
need additional help. Also consider the most effective way to spend across the
different aspects of a campaign and within the given time period.

Reporting
Measurement is essential in a marketing strategy. To determine whether your
campaign has met the goals you set, also known as KPIs (key performance
indicators), you must decide how these will be measured and what reporting tools
are required. Reports should be set up to track and measure performance before
your marketing campaign begins, so you can measure the effectiveness and
make adjustments as required.

2.2 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

Concepts

With a digital marketing strategy in place, the next consideration is how your
brand is presented in the digital world. Any design elements used online such as
logo, colours, images, messaging, tone of voice and visual style should be in line
with your corporate identity and design. This should be consistent with your offline
identity and maintained consistently across all online channels.
Customers who are aware of your brand offline should be able to easily recognise
your brand online. A brand seems more credible and trustworthy if your design
and tone are consistent.

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Lesson 2 - Planning ICDL Digital Marketing

2.3 CONTENT MARKETING

Concepts

Content marketing involves the creation and sharing of free, relevant and valuable
content to attract and convert leads into customers, and turn customers into
repeat buyers. It has been used in marketing for over a century, when in 1904 the
food company that produced Jell-O distributed free cookbooks filled with Jell-O
recipes to households door-to-door.

What is online content marketing?

Content is very effective in digital marketing too and can take many forms. It can
be used to drive traffic and engagement. Here are some examples:

Infographics – These are representations of information and statistics in graphic

format. They are a visually appealing way to convey information.

Example of an infographic

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 2 - Planning

Meme – These are photographs, of celebrities or animals, reused with overlaid

text for different jokes. They are typical of Internet humour.
Videos – These can be entertaining, humorous, informative; or all three. They
range from funny videos to how-to tutorials. For example, a make-up brand could
create video content showing how to use their new eyeliner for sixties-style eyes.
Guides – These include information on specific products or services, for example
"How to use our detergent to get rid of grass stains". These also include tutorials
such as "How to learn the piano in a week."
Product reviews – These include opinions on products from customers on
commercial websites or from experts on news websites or blogs. For example,
they could include "The latest tablet reviewed", or a customer review of a
restaurant or hotel.
Testimonials – These are endorsements from real customers or celebrities, for
the brand, product or service. For example, "I saved €200 on my car insurance
when I switched. Sam, Madrid".
Lists – These are simple web articles with ranked lists and images aimed to be
read quickly, for example "20 wedding video mistakes to avoid" or "10 National
Parks to see before you die".
Whitepapers – These are informational reports explaining a topic or presenting
case studies relevant to the brand's industry. These are editorial in style and are
not a sales brochure. They aim to promote a particular solution, product or
service.

2.4 POLICIES AND ACCESS CONTROLS

Concepts
Businesses need to consider how to protect their corporate image and reputation
when conducting their business online. Misuse of digital marketing accounts can
have a negative impact on a company’s reputation. For example, a disgruntled
employee could use the company account to reveal trade secrets or make
offensive comments. More often an employee mistakenly posts a rude reply or
offensive picture, thinking they are logged into their personal account.
To protect your reputation, businesses need to set appropriate policies and
access controls for staff using accounts such a social network accounts, company
websites, or representing the organisation on forums or sites such as the industry
regulator.
Organisations should define policies and codes of behaviour for employees who
use the company’s online accounts. These should outline the type of language,
tone and images that can be used, and what is prohibited. Also, they should
include what the protocol is if a mistake is made, or if a user makes offensive
comments directed to the business online.
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Lesson 2 - Planning ICDL Digital Marketing

The ability to publish or comment on behalf of the company should be limited to a

small number of trusted people to ensure accountability. Access levels should be
based on job roles and responsibility. For example, business accounts on social
networks can have different levels of permissions, and only trusted employees are
granted permission to make changes.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 2 - Planning

2.5 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. List seven things to consider when defining a digital marketing strategy:

1. ______

7. ________ 2. ________

6. _______ 3. _________

5. _______ 4. ________

2. Which two of the following statements are TRUE in relation to online corporate identity
and design?
a. Logos, colours, and images should be unique on each online platform.
b. Online and offline corporate identity should be consistent.
c. Content should reflect the personality of the person publishing the content.
d. Corporate identity should be consistent across all online channels

3. List four types of content you might use to increase traffic and engagement online:

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

4. Which three of the following are appropriate ways of protecting a company’s online
reputation?
a. Set access levels for staff using online business accounts.
b. Allow all staff access to update the company’s social media accounts.
c. Create policies on what is appropriate on online business accounts.
d. Allow a limited number of people to use online business accounts.

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LESSON 3 -
WEB PRESENCE OPTIONS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand possible web presence solutions

 Outline the typical steps to create a web presence
 Understand the term content management system (CMS)
ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 3 – Web Presence Options

3.1 W EB PRESENCE SOLUTIONS

Concepts

There are a variety of ways to have a web presence. Which solution or solutions
you choose will depend on your strategy and goals.

Business
Directory

Mobile
Social Media
Application

Web
Presence
Solutions

Website:
Web •Information
Application •E-commerce
•Mobile

Blog

Web presence solutions

Business Directory
A simple web presence can be established on a business directory: a website
where businesses are grouped by category or local area. These can be
appropriate for a service provider or sole trader who doesn’t need a full website,
or a local business who wants to be found by those searching for a category by
area, for example, “Indian restaurants in Moscow”.

Social Media
Social media are online platforms where people connect in online communities to
create and share various types of content. It is an essential part of a digital
marketing strategy for businesses to be active on at least one social media
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Lesson 3 – Web Presence Options ICDL Digital Marketing

platform. For example, a fashion brand for young women would almost certainly
have an Instagram account for sharing photos of models wearing new products,
whereas as for customer service they might primarily use a Twitter account.

Website
The most common form of online presence is a website. At a minimum, a website
should provide information to explain what a brand or business does, any
products or services it offers, opening hours and contact information.
Some businesses include e-commerce functions in their website so customers
can buy in an online store using a credit card or an online payment system such
as PayPal.
Some brands have separate websites for mobile users to ensure website content
is optimised both for mobile and desktop visitors. The alternative is that some
websites are developed to be ‘responsive’: they automatically adjust the layout of
content to the available screen size, so the same site can be navigated on any
device. Websites that are not optimised for mobile can harm a digital marketing
effort.

Blog
A blog is a type of online journal that is regularly updated with content, known as
posts. Businesses often include blogs as part of the overall website, as blogs are
much easier to update with content and news than other sections of the site.
Blogging is also a key technique in SEO as search engines prioritise websites that
are updated regularly. A blog post could include content such as infographics,
case studies, how-to guides, videos and articles. For example, the website of a
marketing agency will probably have a very active blog, presenting their opinions
on industry updates, job openings, and examples of recent client work. Company
blogs often have many authors, as several employees and guest bloggers
contribute.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 3 – Web Presence Options

Web Application
A web application is an application program that is stored on a remote server, but
that a user can access over the Internet through a web browser. Businesses often
include these in their online presence as a part of their service to customers.
Common examples include online auctions, online banking, webmail, and web-
based office software like word processors and online spreadsheets.

Mobile Application
Alternatively, brands can use mobile apps, which are applications designed to be
installed and run locally on mobile devices. Examples include mobile banking
apps, social media apps, and a retailer’s mobile app.

3.2 CREATING A WEB PRESENCE

Concepts
One of the most common web presence solutions is a website. When creating a
website, there are several different steps to be completed.

1.Register an 2.Register with a

3.Design the
appropriate website hosting
site
website address service

5.Promote 4.Build the

Your site is ready!
the site site

Website creation process

1. Register an appropriate website address – Firstly, choose the domain name

or web address (also known as a URL) where your site will live. It must be
unique and appropriate to your business name, and easy to remember. For
example: www.myuniquebusinessname.com. It will become part of your
brand identity, and it will be an important factor in online searches. You’ll also
need to choose a top level domain (TLD): the suffixes such as .com, .net, and
.org. If you are a local business, it’s best to get a country level TLD, such as .fr
if you are in France, .ie if you are in Ireland, or .sg if you are in Singapore.

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Check your chosen domain name is available and then register it with a
website hosting service or domain registrar.
2. Register with a website hosting service - You also need to register with a
website hosting service who will host your website on a web server. This
server is where all the files and folders that make up your website will live.
Often, a hosting provider is the same service you can use to register the web
address.

3. Design the site - Next you need to consider the design elements of your site.
Consider the purpose of the website, for example is it a simple blog or a more
complex e-commerce site, and the audience. This includes designing the
structure of the website: the hierarchy of different pages and sections based
on how a user would navigate it. Design will also include the look and feel of
the site, and how this might appeal to your target audience. You must also
consider usability; so that the site is easy to use on all devices, but especially
the one your target audience uses most often.
4. Build the site - After the design stage, the website needs to be developed.
You can develop the web pages and content yourself, or hire a web developer.
This includes creating the webpages and content such as text, images and
video. Before going live, the site must be tested on different browsers and
devices, and all internal links checked.
5. Promote the site - When the site is live you can begin to attract visitors with
marketing activities.

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3.3 CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Concepts

A content management system (CMS) is an authoring and administration tool for

developing and maintaining a website. A CMS offers a simple user interface for
creating and modifying web content, so a user can publish and manage changes
to the site even if they have no programming skills.
Some CMS are very easy to use, and creating a website just involves selecting a
layout template, colour theme and then adding your own content. WIX and
WordPress.com are examples of these. Other CMS are used for more complex
websites, such as the Magento CMS that was developed specifically as an e-
commerce platform.
Some CMS are open-source, so they are free to use. WordPress and Magento
both fall into this category. Others include Drupal and Joomla. There are also
bespoke or ‘closed source’ CMS providers who charge a fee but usually offer
better security and technical support. Shopify is a popular example of a closed-
source, e-commerce CMS.

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Lesson 3 – Web Presence Options ICDL Digital Marketing

3.4 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. List six common web presence solutions.

1.______

6.______ 2.______

Web
Presence
Solutions

5.______ 3.______

4.______

2. Complete the steps below to create a website:

1.___________ 2._________ 3.________

5.__________ Your site is ready! 4.________

3. Which one of the following could you use to build a website?

a. AUP
b. SEO
c. CMS
d. SEM

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LESSON 4 -
WEBSITE CONSIDERATIONS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand the main parts of a website

 Understand some common website design terms
 Recognise good practice in creating website content
 Recognise various methods for promoting a website
Lesson 4 – Website Considerations ICDL Digital Marketing

4.1 W EBSITE STRUCTURE

Concepts

The design stage of a new website requires a lot of planning and thought. Firstly,
you have to consider what actions you want a visitor to take on your site. This
might be reading a blog post, subscribing to a newsletter, sharing your content, or
buying your product or service.
Once you have listed these actions, they will influence the structure of your site,
what pages to include, how to arrange them, and how you want your site to look.
Your site can be simple with just a few pages, or you could have an e-commerce
site with thousands of product pages.

What are the main parts of a website?

Most websites follow a basic structure with the homepage as the main page.
Information is organised in a hierarchy usually branching out from the homepage
at the top. The hierarchy should be simple and intuitive because it will be the basis
of the site’s navigation and URL structure.

Homepage example: ICDL Asia

The main parts of a typical website are:

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Homepage

About us Products Services News Contact us

Website categories example

 The homepage, which typically contains links to the main parts or

categories of the website, usually in a prominent menu bar. It’s advisable to
have between two and seven categories, and each should be unique and
distinct. Related subcategories branch out from each main category.
 A Company Information page, sometimes called “About us”, which may
include the history of the company and its founders or current directors. A
common mistake made by companies is considering this a very important
section and filling it with lots of information, but site visitors often rarely look
at it. The ‘work with us’ or job vacancy section often falls under this
category.
 A Product page may link to several subcategories of products in an e-
commerce site, or might just feature the one product the company offers
such as an app.
 A Services page outlines what services the brand can offer for a customer.
Client testimonials, logos of other clients, and the benefits of the service
are common here.
 A News page will contain company news about products, services and
sales, and any relevant press releases. This is usually too corporate to be
considered the company blog, but some websites combine the news
section and blog.
 A Contact page, sometimes called “Contact us”, lists contact details
including postal and e-mail addresses, phone numbers, social media
accounts and ‘find us’ information with an embedded map. Opening hours
are important to include here too, especially for mobile visitors. Sometimes
this section includes information on contacting specific staff or
departments, such as Recruitment, Sales, or Customer Service.
A company blog is often the last section, but the most regularly updated category.
It should contain posts written by several authors, with engaging content that is
appealing to both customers and employees. If a company takes its blog
seriously, it can often be the most popular part of the site, getting more traffic than
the homepage and product page combined.
Websites can also contain an e-commerce facility, which allows users to make
purchases on the website quickly and easily. It should be secure, and visitors
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Lesson 4 – Website Considerations ICDL Digital Marketing

should be confident that the data they provide is safe, such as the delivery
address and payment details.
Most sites also include a search function accessible from every page so visitors
have an alternative way of finding content on the site.
Some sites have a sitemap that lists all the pages on the website and can act as
an index or table of contents. This type of page is less common in modern
websites.

Tip: Users should be able to reach any webpage in three clicks or less.

4.2 W EBSITE DESIGN

Concepts
Your website should provide the best possible experience for visitors. The overall
experience of a visitor to your site is known as the User Experience (UX). The
user experience on your website is as important as a customer experience in a
shop because it is a big part of the overall customer sales journey.

What makes a positive user experience?

The customer interacts with your site through the content on the webpage, known
as the User Interface (UI).
The design, look and feel of a UI can determine whether the user has a positive or
negative experience. For a positive user experience, the site structure and user
interface should be designed so that the site is easy to navigate, information can
be found easily, there are no errors, and it meets the needs of your target
audience. The user should be able to navigate around the site consistently
regardless of which page they are on.

Some examples are outlined below:

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a.

b.

d.

c.

Example of well-designed UI offering a positive UX

a. The section at the top of the page (known as the breadcrumb) indicates to
the user what section of the website they are in. It also offers an easy way
to get to the homepage.
b. The eye is drawn to the ‘call to action’ in the blue button and red arrow. It
uses the least amount of words possible, and it is a clear next step for the
user.
c. The blue icons and statements underneath offer clear, easy to understand,
value propositions for the policy.
d. The photo features a woman in a positive situation (smiling behind the
wheel of a car), and making eye contact with the viewer.

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Lesson 4 – Website Considerations ICDL Digital Marketing

b.
a.

c.

d.

e.

Example of badly designed UI offering a confusing UX

a. The left menu bar offers a confusing amount of options to the user.
b. The photo shows a car accident which could trigger bad memories.
c. The value proposition is too long and has too many clauses.
d. There are three calls to action, two more than the ideal. Each button is the
same colour, which disguises the most important ‘get a quote” button. This
forces the user to read all three and then decide which button applies to
them.
e. There are too many words and industry terms which users don’t
necessarily understand, such as “step back no claims bonus protection”
and “uninsured driver promise”.

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Other important terms in website design include:

 Responsive Design - Users should have a consistent experience
regardless of the type of device or screen size they are using. If the site is
responsive, it will adapt its content to the size of the display.
 Accessibility - A website should be accessible, so it can be viewed and
navigated by people with disabilities. Ensure that images include alternative
text (‘alt text’) for people with vision impairments using screen readers, and
include a subtitle file with videos for people with hearing impairments. The
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) offers guidelines on accessibility and
best practice for website design.
 Performance optimisation – Webpages should download quickly so users
do not have to wait to view pages or videos. Users expect pages to
download almost immediately and if they don’t then they are likely to move
on to another site. Webpages can be optimised to download faster by
reducing image and video file sizes, combining stylesheets, and removing
unnecessary scripts or cookies.
 Browser compatibility - A website should work on different types of
browser without loss of content or browsing experience.

4.3 W EBSITE CONTENT

Concepts
The content on your site contributes greatly to your customer’s overall experience
so it should be good quality, professional and appealing to your target audience.

Some tips for creating good quality content include:

1. Audience focused
 Tailor your content to suit your target audience.
 Use formats and topics that appeal to your target audience.

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 Use visual styles that your target audience will be familiar with.
 For example, if your target audience loves baking, a vintage kitchen
aesthetic might appeal to them.
2. Clear and concise content
 Use clear and concise language and a tone of voice to suit your target
audience.
 For example, if you are providing legal services, a formal tone would be
appropriate; but use accessible language and don't use terms that
customers won't understand.
3. Use of keywords
 Include keywords that visitors might use when searching online for your
product. This can improve your website's search engine ranking.
 For example, if you are selling wedding flowers you might include keywords
like 'fresh flowers', and 'wedding bouquets'.
4. Consistent branding
 Use consistent branding across all digital and traditional marketing
channels.
 Use design elements that match your corporate look and feel.
5. Quality images and videos
 Use quality images and videos that appeal to the audience.
 Avoid stock photos if possible.
 File sizes should be small so that they download quickly.
6. Regularly updated

 Update your website regularly. Visitors want to see that the site is current
and well-maintained, which adds credibility to your brand and reassures
potential customers of your legitimacy.
 For example, update company news and don't let seasonal messaging
appear on the site after the event or holiday.

4.4 W EBSITE PROMOTION

Concepts
Once your site is live, you want to attract as many new visitors as possible.

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There are a variety of ways to promote a newly published website:

 Share links to your content on social media sites from your personal
profiles and encourage other users to share your website links.
 Use online advertising to place ads on other sites with links back to your
website.
 Run a competition and offer a prize that will appeal to your target audience.
 Earn links from other websites to your website, also known as inbound
links or backlinks. This involves building your reputation so that other
websites recommend your site by linking to it.
 Use e-mail marketing to send promotions and advertisements with links to
your website.
 Register your website address with web directories and search engines,
which can help users and search engines find your website.
 Add your website address and links to your latest blog post in your e-mail
signature.
 Include the website address on the business's printed marketing
materials, for example leaflets, flyers, posters, advertisements on
billboards, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines.

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Lesson 4 – Website Considerations ICDL Digital Marketing

4.5 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. List the main parts of a typical website in the diagram below:

____________

___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________

2. Complete the following:

The user ______________ is used to describe how a user feels about using a website.
A user ______________ is used to describe the parts a user interacts with onscreen.

3. Which of the following three should you consider when designing your website?
a. E-mail marketing
b. Accessibility
c. Responsive design
d. Browser compatibility

4. List four ways to promote your website.

________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

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LESSON 5 -
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand the term search engine optimisation (SEO)

 Understand the term keyword
 Create a list of keywords which can be used when optimising content for a
website, social media platform
 Understand the terms page title, URL, description tag, meta tag, headings,
and alternative text and their importance for SEO
Lesson 5 – Search Engine Optimisation ICDL Digital Marketing

5.1 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION OVERVIEW

Concepts
How do search engines work?
The majority of Internet sessions begin with an online search. Users turn to search
engines to ask questions, find products and services, and search for videos and
images. Popular search engines include Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Search engines use automated robots to “crawl” the web, find web pages,
understand them, and store specific information about them in their databases.
When a user enters a term or phrase (search query) in a search box on a search
engine, the search engine will search its databases for web pages that best
respond to the user’s search query. When the search engine finds web pages that
it considers to be the best match for the search query, it returns a list of results. It
is therefore vital that search engines can easily find your website and understand
what it is about.
Search results are listed in a search engine results page (SERP). The SERP
usually contains paid results (advertisements) and unpaid (organic) results.

a.

b.
a.

Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

a. Advertisements typically appear at the top of a SERP. Advertisers are

charged when the user clicks these results.
b. Organic results typically appear below the ads. The organic results are
ranked in order of relevance and popularity with web pages at the top
deemed the most relevant and popular by the search engine. Website
owners do not pay when the user clicks these results.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 5 – Search Engine Optimisation

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

For website owners, traffic from search engines is a very important source of
visitors. By actively searching for a product or service online these users
demonstrate strong interest and purchase
intent.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the
technique of increasing the visibility of a
website in the organic (unpaid) results of a
search engine result page (SERP). The order
of organic results is not determined manually:
instead it uses a mathematical equation known
as an algorithm.
The algorithms are very complex and usually include hundreds of variables known
as ‘ranking factors’. These algorithms continuously change, and the ranking
factors are rarely revealed by the search engines to stop site owners and digital
marketers manipulating the search results. Each search engine uses its own
algorithm, and therefore will display a different SERP for the same query.
As a website owner, you want users to find and select your site when they are
searching for a product or service that you offer. You can use SEO techniques to
improve your ranking factors and increase your webpage’s visibility in organic
results for search queries relevant to your site.

What are typical ranking factors?

There are two broad but consistently influential ranking factors across all search
engines: keywords and links.
Keywords are phrases or words in the webpages that match
1. or are considered relevant to the search query. Search
engines look for keywords in the on-page content of your site
Keywords and also the website code.

2. The number and quality of hyperlinks to your website from

other websites and social media platforms and the words in
Links the hyperlinks (anchor text).

Tip: Different search engines use different ranking factors and they change over
time so it’s good to keep up-to-date on what search engines are looking for.

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5.2 KEYWORDS FOR SEO

Concepts
What are keywords?
Keywords are descriptive and information-rich words or phrases used in web page
content and often the key items in a search query. For example the keywords in
the search ‘Is a maxi dress considered office wear?’ are maxi dress, office
wear. Keywords that are more than three words are known as long tail keywords.

How are keywords used to optimise webpages for search?

Optimising your webpages for search using keywords involves:
1. Identifying important keywords for your webpage.
2. Adding those important keywords to your on-page content and website
code.
This enables search engines to understand what your webpage is about and
index it appropriately.

Identifying Keywords for SEO

There are a number of ways to identify important keywords for your webpage:
1. Start by researching and defining a list of keywords and phrases that relate
to what your website is about – your activities, services and products.
Identify a range of keywords, both specific and general. Identify search
queries used in relation to your product or service. Check what search
queries have already brought your target audience to your website using
analytics tools such as Google Search Console. Check the volume of
search queries using online tools such as keywordtool.io and Moz.
2. Consider which keywords are going to be most effective for your business
goals. For example, there might be a lot of search volume for “cheap
dresses”, but if you don’t do regular sales or discounts, you will be
misleading any visitors to your site who have landed there based on that
search. If a search user goes to your page and then clicks ‘back’ to the
search results seconds later (called Pogo-sticking), it indicates to the
engine that your result was not relevant, so your page becomes less likely
to rank.
3. Analyse the user’s intent in a keyword. For example, a user who searches
for “formal dress ideas” or “wedding guest dress ideas” is probably still
browsing for ideas and not ready to make any purchases just yet. But a
search for “formal dress next day delivery” shows a strong intent to
purchase. A search for “fancy dress ideas” may be a search for Halloween

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costume inspiration, and not worth optimising a page for. When a user
enters a highly specific search phrase, they are usually looking for exactly
what they want to buy. Someone searching for “Bose QC 25 noise
cancelling headphones Apple devices” is much closer to purchase than
someone searching for “headphones for iPhone”.

Using Keywords for SEO

Once you have identified your keywords you can use them for SEO in your
webpage content and code. You can include keywords for SEO in:
 Headings (tagged <h1>, <h2> etc. in the html code).
 The main content on the webpage.
 URLs (web page addresses).
 Page titles (displayed at the top of the browser window and in the SERP).
 Alternative text (text descriptions of images included in the alt attribute in
the webpage code) and image file names.
 Description tags (brief descriptions of the contents of the webpage shown
only on the search engine results page).
 Meta tags (descriptive information about the website in the code used by
search engines).
For example, let’s say you own a women’s clothing company based in Ireland.
SEO tools indicate that the search query “dresses” is popular in Ireland, getting
around 20,000 searches a month. This is a broad keyword, but it’s a good start for
the website address, so you could use the domain name dress.ie.
Further keyword research shows that the full-length “maxi dress” style is popular
in Ireland, getting 4,000 monthly searches. So you could create a web page for
that product category, and put the keyword in the page URL: www.dress.ie/maxi-
dress.
Long tail searches around that keyword include “maxi dress for weddings”, “maxi
dress with stripes”, or “maxi dress with sleeves”.

Long tail searches

You can optimise the content on www.dress.ie/maxi-dress by including some of

these long tail keywords in the text at the top of page, and later in the product

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Lesson 5 – Search Engine Optimisation ICDL Digital Marketing

descriptions. You can further optimise the webpage by including the keyword
“maxi dress” in the heading at the top of the page.

Using keywords for SEO

As well as including your keywords in the headings and main content visible on
your webpage you can include keywords in the webpage code in the page title
and in the Meta description.

a.

b.

c.

d.

Keywords for SEO in webpage code

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 5 – Search Engine Optimisation

a. Page title
b. Meta description
c. Heading
d. Main content

If you use images, you should also include keywords in alternative text for any
images. In the example the image of a model in a blue dress could be described
in the alternative text as “blue maxi dress from spring/summer 2015”. And the
image file name could be “blue-maxi-dress.jpg”.

Search Engine Results

If a search engine shows your webpage as a reaction to a search, it will appear in
the SERP showing:
a. The page title
b. The URL
c. The Meta description or snippets from your webpage that include the
search term

a.
b.
c.
a.

SERP example

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Lesson 5 – Search Engine Optimisation ICDL Digital Marketing

5.3 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Which one of the following best describes SEO?

a. Using a search engine to search for information online.
b. Paying for your webpages to appear in search engine results.
c. Increasing your webpage’s visibility in organic search results.
d. Ensuring your webpages are colourful and visually appealing.

2. Which three of the following are SEO techniques?

a. Gaining quality links to your website from reputable websites.
b. Advertising your website on social media.
c. Adding relevant keywords to your webpage code.
d. Adding relevant keywords to your webpage content.

3. Identify a list of keywords that are relevant for your webpages.

____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________

4. As part of your SEO, you are adding keywords to your webpage code. List three places
you could include keywords.
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________

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LESSON 6 -
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

 Understand the term social media platform

 Identify the main uses of some common social media platforms
 Understand common social media marketing campaign elements
Lesson 6 – Social Media Marketing Considerations ICDL Digital Marketing

6.1 SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Concepts
What is a social media platform?
A social media platform is an online environment that allows users to connect and
create online networks through the creation and exchange of content. Social
media use has grown as social media platforms and broadband connections have
made it easier for users to share content such as text, pictures, links, video and
audio clips. People spend so much of their time using social media, that it is
important for organisations to have a presence on social media and understand
how to use the platforms effectively to reach their audience and their goals.

What are the main uses of common platforms?

There are many social media platforms used globally, with Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter among the most commonly used. Each social media platform has its
own identity: they are used for different purposes, by different users for sharing
different types of content. Remember when you are choosing platforms to join,
choose those popular with your audience and industry.
Facebook is a global phenomenon. While used as
a personal networking site for connecting with
friends and family, it also has business pages,
events and groups. It was founded in 2004 and is
the most active social media platform with over 1.5
billion monthly active users (June 2016). Most
organisations interested in digital marketing have
a presence on Facebook.
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform used for
sharing information in a public network. It allows
users to send and read short 140-character
messages called "tweets." It launched in 2006 and
is known as a place for breaking news and
updates from celebrities and politicians. It has
over 310 million monthly active users (July 2016).
LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and is a business-
orientated social network used for professional
networking, information sharing and job seeking. It
was bought by Microsoft in 2016, and has more
than 450 million members and 106 million monthly
active members (June 2016). It is good for
business to business connections, and is popular
with technology, finance and marketing industries.

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Instagram is a mobile photo- and video-sharing

social network. Users add filters to images before
sharing them privately or publicly to the app and
to other social networks. It was launched in 2010
and bought by Facebook in 2012. It has 300
million monthly active users (June 2016). It is
good for visual industries such as fashion and
entertainment.
Flickr is a site for hosting, editing and sharing
photos (and later videos). It launched in 2004 and
was bought by Yahoo in 2005.

Google+ is a social network created and operated

by Google. It launched in 2011, allowing users to
share updates to different groups or “Circles” in
their communities.
YouTube is a video-hosting and sharing platform
that launched in 2005 and was acquired by
Google a year later. It is one of the most popular
websites in the world. In the first quarter of 2015,
more than 80 percent of all internet users had
visited YouTube in the last month.
Pinterest is a photo-sharing website and app
launched in 2010. It allows users to curate
personal “pinboards” centred on a theme by
uploading, sorting, and sharing images and other
media from around the web. Many e-commerce
websites have a ‘Pin it’ button to encourage
visitors to share the product on their Pinterest
board. The network has 100 million monthly active
users (April 2016).

If you are a global company, consider using the popular social media platforms in
the countries in which you operate. For example Qzone, a Chinese social media
platform, has over 600 million users in China and South Korea.
And social messaging platforms such as Snapchat and WhatsApp, with their
young active audience, are becoming increasingly important to digital marketing.

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Lesson 6 – Social Media Marketing Considerations ICDL Digital Marketing

6.2 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Concepts
What is a social media marketing campaign?
Social media marketing involves building a presence and your audience over time.
An effective social media campaign is based on making connections and having
conversations rather than broadcasting marketing messages.
When you are planning your social media marketing campaign there are a number
of things to consider:

1. Select
2. Plan suitable 3. Create
appropriate
content content
platforms

5.Evaluate 4.Track
performance campaign

Social media campaign considerations

1. Select Appropriate Platforms

Look at the different social media platforms available, and identify which one(s)
your target audience uses. For example if you are selling fashion jewellery to
young women then reaching them on Instagram might be the most beneficial
option to take, sharing photos of models and real customers wearing your
designs.
If your business provides training services to sales professionals you could reach
your target audience by posting sales tips and advice on LinkedIn.
Identify what goals you want to achieve with your social activity, such as
generating engagement and awareness among your target audience, and
generating traffic to your website. Ensure your targets are clearly measurable so
you can check if your activity is effective.
There are many ways to find out where your target audience is on social media
platforms such as:
 Survey your current customers and ask which platforms they use.
 Research the demographics of social media users using reports such
as those by the Pew Research Centre, and usage reports from the
social platforms themselves.

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 Use the analytics tools on the social media platforms to measure the
size of your audience: Facebook Ads Manager is a good example.

2. Plan suitable content

Planning ahead is important on social platforms. You should work from a defined
schedule, and not be ad hoc in your social activity.
Create a content plan to schedule for your development and posting activity. It
should outline the type of content suitable to publish on your chosen social
media platforms as well as the best time to publish. You can do this using a
specially designed tool or just a spreadsheet-based calendar. Whatever tool you
use you should answer these standard questions.

Who will create any new content or source

Who? existing content? Do you have the capacity
and skills to create content?

What topics and format types will interest your

What? target audience? Do they prefer video, images
or text-based content? Will you create new
content or reuse content from other sources?

When is the best time to publish content on

When? social media to reach your audience? When
are upcoming promotions or events? What are
the timelines for developing new content?

Where will you publish your content? On one

Where? platform or across multiple platforms?

How will you publish content? Manually on

How? each platform or using a specially designed
tool?

3. Create Content
The content plan will outline what content you should create such as text, images
or videos. Don’t overlook existing content, which can be repurposed for different
channels. For example, behind-the-scenes photos and clips taken during a
fashion shoot would work well on Instagram, and facts used in a sales brochure
could be reused on Twitter. Once you have your content you can post it to
different platforms.

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4. Track Campaign
Track the performance of your activity on social media against your campaign
goals. For example, have you increased visitors to your website from Facebook?
Has your number of Twitter followers gone up? To do this, you can monitor the
data and set up suitable reports using analytics tools from the social media
platforms themselves and website tools like Google Analytics.

5. Evaluate Campaign Performance

Evaluate and analyse the data and reports, comparing them against your targets.
Look for trends and indications of what your followers liked and didn’t like. For
example, if the same photo got a lot of engagement on Facebook but not on
Instagram, that might encourage you to use a different visual style on Instagram,
with more filters and interesting angles. In many cases it can be a case of trying
different approaches and monitoring the reactions from your audience until you
get better results.

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6.3 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Which of the following best describes a social media platform?
a. An online tool for recording and editing multimedia files.
b. An online environment for creating online networks.
c. An online platform for creating websites.
d. An online tool for managing calendars.

2. Match the social media platform listed below to the correct description:

1.Facebook 2.Instagram 3.Twitter 4.LinkedIn

a. __________ is most commonly used for sharing photographs.
b. __________ is a microblogging site used for sharing information in a public
network.
c. __________ is most commonly used for professional networking.
d. __________ is the most popular social media network.

3. Complete the following stages in a social media marketing campaign:

3.
1. ___________ 2. ___________
Create content

5. 4.
Evaluate performance ___________

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LESSON 7 -
SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

 Understand the term social media profile

 Distinguish between different types of profiles
 Create a social media business profile
 Edit a social media business profile
ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 7 – Social Media Accounts

7.1 SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE TYPES

Concepts

When you have decided on a social media platform or platforms you need to set
up your account on those relevant platforms. A user account on a social media
platform is also known as a social media profile. There are different types of
profiles for individuals, businesses, groups, and events. The features vary
between profile types in functionality such as private/public visibility, and analytical
tools.

Personal Business
• This type of profile is used by • This type of profile is used by
individuals most commonly for businesses, brands, organisations
connecting with friends and family. and public figures. It is typically
You can set the privacy level to suit public and offers additional features
your preferences. such as advertising and analytics.

Groups Events
• This type of profile is used by groups • This type of profile is used for
of people to communicate about notifying people about events. You
shared interests, hobbies or can include details like the date, time
professional interests. As with a and location, and invite individuals to
personal profile you can usually set attend.
the privacy level to suit the needs of
the group.

Tip: Social media platforms continuously update their features and

functionality. Keep up-to-date by following their blog posts, looking at Help
pages and engaging with user communities.

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7.2 CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS PROFILE

Concepts

Setting up a business or organisation profile on a social media platform requires

information such as a company history, URL, contact details, business type, a
profile image and a cover image.
This information should be professionally presented and in keeping with your
brand identity. It is important to regularly review this information and keep it
accurate and up-to-date.
On Facebook this type of profile is known as a Page. When you create a page you
are automatically given a role as the Page Administrator (Admin). As the Admin
you can also give other people different levels of access to manage the page.
Admins need to have a personal Facebook account before they can create or
manage a Page.

Tip: Check the size requirements when you are creating images such as your
profile and cover images as they vary across different social media platforms.

Steps
Creating a Social Media Business Profile:
1. Sign in to Facebook.
2. Select the down-pointing arrow in the toolbar and select Create Page from
the drop-down menu.

3. Select a Page type that best describes your business.

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4. Select a category for your business from the drop-down list, enter your
name as appropriate and click Get Started.

5. In the About page complete your business description and enter your
website address or links to your other social media profiles if desired and
click Save Info.

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Note: This business description is about 155 characters and is used by

search engines to find your page so ensure it contains keywords that are
relevant to your business.
6. In the Profile Picture tab upload your profile picture from your computer or
import from website. To upload from your computer, click Upload from
Computer, browse to where the image is stored, and select Open.
Note: Your profile image appears beside the name of your business or
organisation whenever it appears on the social media platform. It is
recommended that your profile image is 180 pixels tall by 180 pixels wide.

7. When the page is uploaded click Next.

8. Click Add to Favorites (optional) and click Next.
9. In the Preferred Page Audience page identify your page’s preferred
audience and click Save.
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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 7 – Social Media Accounts

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

This preferred page audience information should be based on your target

audience demographics.
a. In the Locations fields specify whether you want your audience to
be living in or visiting the location and specify the location.

b. Select the age range of your preferred audience.

c. Select the gender of your preferred audience.
d. In the Interests field select the topics that your audience might be
interested in. Note: Facebook provides suggestions and the number
of people who have expressed an interest in the topic on Facebook,
which is useful for determining your potential audience on the
platform.
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Lesson 7 – Social Media Accounts ICDL Digital Marketing

e. Select the language.

7.3 EDITING A SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS PROFILE

Concepts
When you have created your initial Page in Facebook you can update the
information and add to it. Visual elements such as the cover photo are important.
The Page information varies depending on the category you selected but it is
good practice to complete as much of the Page information as possible.

Steps
Editing a Social Media Business Profile
1. To add a cover photo to your Facebook Business Page, click Add a cover.
Your cover image appears at the top of your profile page. It is
recommended that your cover photo is an RGB (not CMYK) JPG file that is
828 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes. It should not
be any less than 399 pixels wide by 150 pixels tall.

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2. To select a previously uploaded image, click Choose From Photos.

Alternatively, to add an image from your computer, click Upload Photo,
browse to where the image is stored, and select Open.

3. Drag the photo to reposition it as desired and click Save.

4. To update the profile image or cover photo, click the camera icon on
the image. To upload a photo, select a previously uploaded image, edit the
current image or remove the current image select the relevant option and
follow the instructions.
5. To add or update your Page information, click About in the menu in the
left-hand pane.

6. To add new information, click the relevant section in the About page.

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7. Add and save the information, which will vary depending on the selection.
For example, to add a user name click Create Page @username, enter
the username in the Username field and click Create Username. Note: A
unique username helps people find your page when searching and gives
you a custom web address for your Page that you can share more easily.

8. To edit information, hover over the relevant section in the About page and
click Edit.

9. Update the information and click Save Changes.

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7.4 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Which of the following terms is used to describe an account on a social media platform?
a. Social media post
b. Social media pin
c. Social media profile
d. Social media tweet

2. Which of the following social media profiles is suitable for a community of people with
similar interests?
a. Event
b. Group
c. Business
d. Personal

3. Create a business profile on a social media platform.

4. Edit a business profile on a social media platform to add a cover photo and any other
relevant details.

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LESSON 8 -
USING SOCIAL MEDIA

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

 Understand some common social media actions

 Create, edit and delete news, event, poll and offer posts
Lesson 8 – Using Social Media ICDL Digital Marketing

8.1 SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIONS

Concepts

When you’ve set up your profile, you can begin to engage and interact with your
audience. The number of comments, shares, and likes a post receives can
indicate how your audience is engaging with your content. Each action means
something different, as explained below:
Post means to publish content to your profile, such as a status
update, image or video, but it also stands for the update itself.
Some platforms use different terms for publishing content, for
example on Facebook you ‘post’, but on Twitter you ‘tweet’ and
on Pinterest you ‘pin’.
A comment is a response to post. Your customers and clients
can comment on your posts and you can respond to their
COMMENT comments. You can also make connections and start
conversations by commenting on posts by other people or
organisations.
Sharing is a way to republish content from other profiles and
sites on your social media platform that still includes the origin of
the content (who posted it first). The highest compliment an
audience can give you is to share your content.
A Like button is a way for an audience to express consensus or
support for a post or a Page. Different platforms use different
LIKE Like buttons, for example on Facebook it’s a thumbs up symbol
and on Instagram and Twitter it is a heart symbol. The amount
of likes and shares that a post gets is a key metric in its
success.
A tag is way to identify a person or organisation mentioned in a
post or in a photo or video. The tag creates a link to the profile
so if someone clicks on the tag they go to the profile. Tagging a
name in a comment under a post is also an alternative (and
quick) way of sharing a post with a friend.
A Hashtag is word or phrase preceded by the # character.
HASHTAG Hashtags are used to categorise posts and other media by topic,
which facilitates easy searching. Clicking a hashtag shows all
the posts and media using that hashtag. Hashtags were used on
social media on Twitter in 2007, and are now common on other
channels including Instagram, Pinterest and Google+.
If a social media user is interested in your profile or content they
can follow you. This means they allow your public posts to
show in their News Feed. Different platforms have different ways
of doing this.

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8.2 CREATING AND UPDATING POSTS

Concepts

There are different types of posts on different social media platforms. For example
on Facebook:
A news post is a way of keeping your audience up-to-date on
what’s happening. You can post text, images and videos that
interest your audience. For example, the Juice bar could post a
photograph of their ‘Smoothie of the Day’ on Facebook to
encourage customers to come into the bar and try it.
An event is a way of notifying people about an upcoming event
and managing who is coming. People can share events and add
them to their profile or Page calendars. For example, you could
have launch event for your new smoothie or a nutritional talk from
an expert.
A poll is a way of asking your audience a question. It is a good
way of engaging with your audience and asking for their opinion.
For example, to get feedback from Juice Bar customers you could
ask for a vote “which smoothie would you like to see us try next:
banana and lime or strawberry and blackberry?”
An offer is a way of giving discounts to your customers via your
Page which can be redeemed at a website or at a physical
location. For example, you could give a discount to the first five
customers who ask for your new banana and lime smoothie.

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Lesson 8 – Using Social Media ICDL Digital Marketing

Steps
You can create, edit and delete the different posts on Facebook: news, event, poll,
and offer posts.

Creating a News post:

1. In Facebook, click the Status field at the top of the Page's timeline.

Alternatively, click Publishing Tools in the menu at the top of the page and click
the Create button.

2. Add relevant content to the post and click Publish:

a. Text
b. Images and videos
c. Location information

b.
a.

c.

Editing or Deleting a News post:

1. Click the down pointing arrow at the top right of the post.

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2. Select the relevant option from the menu – Edit Post or Delete.

a.

b.

a. If you selected Edit post, edit the relevant information in the post and
click Done Editing.

b. If you selected Delete, click Delete Post.

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Creating an Event:
1. Click Offer, Event +.

2. Select Event.

3. Enter the relevant event details in the New Event page and click Publish.
Event Details include:
a. Event photo
b. Name
c. Location
d. Start and end date and time
e. A Description of the event
f. Tags to describe the event to make it easier to find
g. A website where people can buy tickets

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h. People or Pages you want to be able to edit the event

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Editing or Deleting an Event:

1. Click Edit in the top right of the event page.

2. To edit the event, update the relevant information in the Edit Event page
and click Save.
3. To delete an event, click Cancel Event in the Edit Event page.
4. Select the Cancel Event radio button to notify guests that the event is
cancelled or Delete Event radio button to notify guests that the event is
cancelled and to remove all posts.

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5. Click Confirm.

Creating a Poll:
1. Click Create Poll in an event or group. Note: a poll can only be created in
an event or group in Facebook but other social media platforms have
different functionality, for example polls can be added in all types of profiles
on Google+ and Twitter.

2. Enter a question and click Add Poll Options.

3. Click Add an option to enter relevant poll options and click Post.

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Editing or Deleting a Poll:

1. To view the Poll post, go to the event discussion.

2. To edit or delete the poll, click at the top right of the poll post.

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3. To edit a poll, click Edit Post in the menu, update the relevant information
and click Done Editing.

4. To delete a poll, click Delete Post in the menu, and click Delete.

Creating an Offer:
1. Click Offer, Event + in the post.
2. Select Offer.

3. Complete the offer information as appropriate in the Create an Offer page.

a. Select the Offer Availability - Online or In Store - and complete the
details as appropriate.
b. Select the Offer Type – Percent Off; Amount off; Buy One, Get One;
Free stuff – and enter the details as appropriate.
c. Enter the offer Title.
d. Enter the offer Description.
e. Add a Photo.
f. Set the Expiration Date.
g. Set a Discount Code as desired.
h. Enter Terms and Conditions as desired.

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4. Preview how the offer will appear in the News Feed on desktop devices.

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5. Click Mobile News Feed to preview how the offer will appear in the News
Feed on mobile devices.

6. Click Create Offer.

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Editing an offer:
You need to delete your offer and create a new offer.

Deleting an Offer:
1. Click Publishing Tools.
2. Select the checkbox beside the offer.
3. Click Actions.
4. Select Delete.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 8 – Using Social Media

8.3 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Match the social media action below to the description:

1.COMMENT 2.LIKE 3.HASHTAG

a. A way to identify a person mentioned in a post.

b. A way to respond to post.
c. A way to republish content from other profiles.
d. A way to publish content to your profile.
e. A word or phrase preceded by the # character.
f. A way for an audience to express consensus for a post.

2. Create a news post, an event, an offer and a poll.

3. Edit the news post, event, offer and poll.

4. Delete the news post, event, offer and poll.

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LESSON 9 -
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT SERVICES

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand the term social media management service

 Identify some common social media management services
 Understand the term scheduled post
 Schedule a post
 Understand the term URL shortener
 Use a URL shortener to track links
ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 9 – Social Media Management Services

9.1 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Concepts

Managing social media accounts professionally involves managing content

publishing, interactions, advertising, and tracking and analysing activity. All this is
time consuming.
Most social media platforms provide tools to schedule posts and track and
analyse activity. For organisations that manage many social media profiles across
multiple platforms, social media management services can help make the tasks
more efficient.
There are a wide variety of social media management services available that with
a range of functionality and features. You should research which option is the best
fit for your needs. Some common tools include:
 Hootsuite (hootsuite.com) allows you to manage up to three social media
accounts in its free version, or 50 accounts and multiple users in its paid
plans.
 IFTTT (ifttt.com) which means "If This Then That" allows you to create
‘recipes’: automatic actions that are triggered by one action. For example, if
you send a tweet on Twitter, then it is also posted on Facebook or
LinkedIn.
 Sproutsocial (sproutsocial.com) is a premium service often used by social
media agencies as it manages multiple social accounts easily and offers
detailed analytics.
 Buffer (buffer.com) is a tool to schedule the posting of content across
social media. It chooses the best time to post and provides analytics for
engagement and reach of content.

9.2 SCHEDULED POSTS

Concepts

A scheduled post is a feature that allows you to draft posts and define when they
will be posted in the future. Most social media platforms provide the functionality
to schedule a post or you can use one of the social media management services.

Steps
To schedule a post in Hootsuite, create a Hootsuite account and add your social
networks.
1. In Hootsuite select Publisher.
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Lesson 9 – Social Media Management Services ICDL Digital Marketing

2. Select the social network or networks you want to post to.

3. Create the post in the compose box.
4. Click Scheduling to schedule the post.
5. Select the future date and time to publish the post.
6. Click Schedule.

9.3 URL SHORTENERS

Concepts

A URL shortener is an online service for creating short versions of URLs and
tracking their use. Shorter links are easier to use in all types of marketing
communications. For example if you are posting a link in an e-mail or on a social
media site like Twitter where characters are limited, it is important to have shorter
URLs.
As well as shortening links these services typically allow you to track the links and
how they were used. You can see how many times the link was clicked, in which
country it was clicked and from which site.
There are many URL shortener services available but some common ones include
 goo.gl (Google’s URL Shortener)
 tinyurl.com
 ow.ly
 bit.ly

Steps
Use a URL shortener to create a short URL and track links:
1. In a web browser go to goo.gl.

2. Enter the long URL that you want to shorten.

3. Click Shorten URL.
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4. Click Copy Short URL to copy the short URL and use it as needed.
5. Click See analytics data to view details on the usage of the link.

6. Click Done.
7. To track how the short URL has been used you can view the analytics data.
Rollover the relevant row in the dashboard and select the number in the All
clicks column. Data tracked includes the number of times the URL was
clicked, when it was clicked, where the click originated (known as
referrers), the browsers used, the platforms used, and the countries where
the clicks originated.

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Lesson 9 – Social Media Management Services ICDL Digital Marketing

9.4 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. What is a social media management service?
a. For managing media files on your hard drive.
b. For managing multiple social media accounts on multiple platforms.
c. For searching for products and services online.
d. For uploading files to your online storage account.

2. List two social media management services:

_______________________________
_______________________________

3. What term describes a draft post that will be published at a later time?
a. Linked
b. Scheduled
c. Planned
d. Designed

4. Create a post in a social media management service and set it to be published next
week.

5. List two URL shortening services:

_______________________________
_______________________________

6. Use a URL shortener to shorten a link of your choosing.

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LESSON 10 -
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND PROMOTION

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand the term influencers and the importance of connecting with

them
 Understand the term targeted audience and the importance of optimising
your content to suit them
 Understand the term video marketing and its importance in online
promotional campaigns
 Understand the terms review, referral and their importance in promoting
your business through social media
 Understand the term viral and recognise its importance in promotional
campaigns
 Recognise elements that make content viral
 Recognise good practice in creating engaging social media content
Lesson 10 – Social Media Marketing and Promotion ICDL Digital Marketing

10.1 INFLUENCERS, REVIEWS AND REFERRALS

Concepts

Social media is a powerful marketing tool because it can effectively leverage word
of mouth and recommendations. Research shows that recommendations from
family, friends and peers influence purchasing decisions more than anything else.
You can use online word of mouth by connecting with influencers, encouraging
reviews and earning referring links.

What are Influencers?

Influencers are social media power users who have built up a large number of
followers on social media in their field. Influencers are highly respected by their
followers. Their actions and endorsements can influence their followers’ actions,
behaviours or opinion. Influencers can also help a brand build an audience.
To connect with influencers begin by identifying the influencers in your field, and
seeing whom your target audience follows. You should consider if they are the
right fit for your organisation and the level of engagement they have with their
audience. Contact the influencers that you like and see if they will work with you or
try your product. Influencers can be open to product reviews and sometimes
sponsored endorsements. It can take time to build relationships with influencers
and their audience because the process is about building trust and being
authentic.
If you are an online health food store, you could reach out to food bloggers asking
if there are any of your ingredients they would like to try. If the blogger tries and
likes the products, he or she will mention the supplier in the recipe post.
Celebrity endorsements are big business, and they will charge a fee to casually
include a product in an Instagram post or tweet.

What are Reviews?

Reviews are an evaluation of a product or service by a customer or a third-party.
Online reviews can affect a business’s reputation, their search engine ranking,
and influence conversions.

Example of an online review

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It is important for businesses to carefully manage reviews. Businesses can

encourage satisfied customers to leave a review on a third party site. Positive
reviews can be an important way to promote your business.
If a customer is unhappy, an organisation should always try and resolve the issue,
especially as negative online reviews can damage reputations or stop someone
from buying your product. You should give your customers the option to resolve
issues before they leave a negative review.
If you do get negative reviews, respond to them in a professional and polite
manner. You should act on any feedback and resolve issues to the customer’s
satisfaction.
People can leave reviews on review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, the
retailer’s website such as Amazon, or through local review sites such as Google
My Business and Yahoo! Local listings. You can also include a review feature on
your own website. Social networks Facebook, Twitter and Google+ also include
review functions. Facebook users can post a review or rate a business on the
business Page by leaving a star rating and writing an optional review.

They can set ratings and reviews to be public, visible to friends, or visible only to
them.

What are referrals?

A referral is a website visitor that has come to your site from clicking a link on
another site. Social media sites are an important source of referring links like this,
sometimes referred to as social referrals.

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10.2 TARGETED AUDIENCE

Concepts
What is a targeted audience?
A targeted audience is a particular group which a product or service is aimed
towards. On social media this is the audience you want to reach with your posts.

How do you optimise content on social media to suit your audience?

You can optimise your content by posting content specifically tailored to appeal to
your audience. The key difference of social media when compared to traditional
media channels is the potential for two-way communication with your target
audience. So you should aim to share content that will prompt your target
audience to engage and interact with your content: like it, comment on it and
share it with their network. Think about what format types and topics are likely to
appeal to their interests, when they are likely to be online, and if they use mobile
or desktop devices. For example, if they mostly use social media on mobile
devices, then you might consider using video to fit their screens.
Social media platforms allow very specific audience targeting to help you reach a
particular audience. You can define a target audience for paid posts (ads) by
demographics such as gender, age, location, languages spoken, as well as by
interests, browsing habits, and social network habits. For example, the audience
for an ad on Facebook can be defined by basic demographic info, and also details
like intent to travel, educational level and marital status. Facebook and Twitter
offer the functionality to show ads to people who have visited your website in the
past month (known as retargeting). You can also omit a group of people from
seeing your ad. For example, if you have an introductory offer available only to
new customers, Facebook can stop past customers from seeing the ad if you
upload their email addresses to a custom audience list. Facebook can estimate
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how many people your ad is likely to reach and you can modify audience
parameters as desired.
Some platforms allow you to define a target audience for unpaid posts. For
example, in Facebook you can define a preferred audience for a post by their
interests and you can limit who sees your post based on age, gender, location and
language.

Setting your preferred audience in Facebook

10.3 ENGAGING CONTENT

Concepts
What is Video Marketing?
Video marketing is widely used in digital marketing because good quality videos
are highly engaging and can be easily shared to a larger audience. Videos tend to
get higher engagement on social media than text-based or image-based posts.
Depending on the type of video, they can appeal to people’s emotions, leave a
lasting impact and convey information more easily than written articles or
manuals.

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In order to engage an audience, videos should be good quality in both production

values and content. And it is good practice to provide an alternative way for the
audience to get the information in the video.
Some popular types of video on social media include:
 Emotionally appealing or humorous ads that make people remember
your brand or product. Old Spice did this well with their ad ‘The man
your man could smell like’.
 How-to video tutorials that help people learn new skills or complete
tasks step-by-step. Beauty brands often produce makeup tutorials to
illustrate their expertise.
 Product demonstrations that provide visual instructions that remove
the need to read product manuals. For example, manufacturer
Samsung has YouTube tutorials showing how to install a washing
machine.
 Humorous videos that make people laugh are more likely to be
shared. Electrical retailer Currys hired Hollywood actor and comedian
Jeff Goldblum to make a series of online Christmas ads. They all went
viral, as well as the out-takes reel showing Goldblum making the other
actors laugh.
 Testimonial videos provide recommendations from real customers and
give a sense of authenticity. Teamwork messaging service Slack used
real client Sandwich Video to make a professional testimonial video
about how they use the service.
 Events that are streamed live and then can be replayed. Red Bull
sponsors countless extreme sport events such as cliff diving and
mountain biking that can be replayed on YouTube and their website.

What is Viral content?

Viral content is content that is shared quickly and widely over the Internet. It is
often videos or memes that “go viral”, and social media is full of this kind of
content.

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Content is more likely to become viral when it is:

 Humorous – People tend to engage and share content that they find funny
or that they think their network will find funny. The most watched video on
YouTube is the pop video Gangnam Style made famous by the amusing
dance moves of the musician.
 Original – People tend to share things that they haven’t seen before. There
is so much content on social media that it needs to be original to stand out.
For example, Volvo’s video ad featuring action movie star Jean-Claude Van
Damme doing a split between two moving trucks went viral because it was
a daring stunt that hadn’t been done before.
 Resonates with the audience – People tend to share things that have an
emotional impact on them and that they think will have the same impact on
their network. The Dollar Shave Club video on YouTube went viral because
it was funny, but also because the audience shared the frustration of the
star of the video that store razors were expensive and inconvenient to buy.
 Generates discussion – People tend to share things that they want to
discuss and debate with their network. They might comment on the post
and share it with their network to keep the conversation going. The Dove
‘Real Beauty’ campaign included videos of women describing themselves
to sketch artists that generated thousands of comments and discussion
about self-confidence and real beauty.

Good Practice for creating engaging content

Some tips to ensure your content is engaging and reaches your target audience
include:
1. Post regularly and ensure you avoid long and irregular intervals between
posts.
2. Post at times that your target audience are most likely to be online so your
message reaches them.
3. Post content that is relevant and tailored specifically to appeal to your
target audience.
4. Research other companies and look at relevant websites and blogs to
search for ideas and content.
5. Design and post competitions to encourage interaction.
6. Post good quality images and videos to engage your target audience.

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10.4 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Which of the following best describes an influencer on social media?
a. They follow lots of people on social media.
b. They post negative comments on the profiles of celebrities on social media.
c. They can lead their audience in actions and behaviour on social media.
d. They use advertising on social media to improve their reach.

2. List three types of content that would appeal to your target audience:
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________

3. List three types of video you might use to promote a new product on social media:
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________

4. What is the term used to describe the following on social media: “The bike was easy to
assemble and I love it but there was a lot of packaging!”

a. A Like.
b. A Review.
c. A Comment.
d. A Follow.

5. Which of the following best describes viral content on social media?

a. It is a customer evaluation of a product.
b. It is any type of ad on social media.
c. It is any content that is shared widely and quickly.
d. It is content that is scheduled for publishing at a later date.

6. List three typical characteristics of viral content:

_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________

7. Which three of the following are good practice techniques to create engaging social
media content?
a. Leave long and irregular intervals between posts.
b. Post when your target audience are online.
c. Post content that appeals to your target audience.
d. Design and post competitions to encourage interaction.

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LESSON 11 -
SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT, LEAD GENERATION
AND SALES

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Outline good practice in managing social media comments and complaints

 Set up notifications for profile mentions and comments
 Understand the term call to action and its importance in generating leads
through social media platforms
 Identify common call to action examples
Lesson 11 – Social Media Engagement, Lead Generation and Sales ICDL Digital Marketing

11.1 COMMENTS AND NOTIFICATIONS

Concepts
Managing comments in social media marketing
Comments are an important aspect of generating interaction and engagement on
social media. Comments demonstrate engagement with a post and are an
opportunity for building relationships and gathering leads. They can act as a form
of electronic word of mouth and can influence potential customers.
Brands should provide timely and appropriate responses to all comments on their
posts or page.
Positive comments can act as recommendations and have a positive influence on
potential customers. It is important to acknowledge positive comments as this lets
your audience know that you are listening to them.
Any negative comments and complaints on social media sites should be dealt with
quickly and appropriately. Often it’s best to ask the customer to contact you and to
try resolve the issue offline.

Notifications
Notifications alert you when there has been some activity on your social media
profile such a mention or a comment. This is important for responding to
comments and enquiries in a timely manner. Most social media platforms include
this feature or you can use a social media management service.

Steps

To set up notifications:
1. In Facebook go to the relevant Page.

2. Select Settings in the Business Profile Page.

3. Select Notifications .
4. Set your preferred notification settings. On desktop and mobile you can
receive new notifications on Facebook – they appear in the top-right corner
of the page over the friend requests, messages and globe icons. You can
also receive notifications by e-mail. If you are using a desktop you can also
receive pop-up notifications. And if you are using a mobile you can set up
text notifications, depending on your mobile phone network.

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Setting up notifications on Facebook

11.2 CALLS TO ACTION

Concepts
What is a call to action?
A call to action is an instruction to an audience to complete a specific action or
goal. It should be enticing, attention-grabbing and clearly explain what the
audience will get in return for the action.
An effective call to action can increase website traffic and generate leads. For
example, a call to action might prompt someone to sign-up to receive regular
marketing communications, subscribe to receive emails, make a purchase,
request a brochure, ask for a quote or ask for a call back.
Some examples include:
 Get a quote
 Sign up

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 Buy now
 Shop now
 Learn More
 Download app
Social media ads such as News Feed ads and sponsored posts often include call
to action buttons, so it is clear to the user what step they should take next.

‘Shop Now’ call to action in a Facebook ad

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‘Get a Quote’ call to action example on a Twitter ad

The different social media platforms have different ways that you can include a
call to action. On Twitter you can add a call to action in tweets and promoted
tweets such as Get a Quote, Install, Shop, visit site, watch now, and subscribe.
On Facebook you can also add a call to action button on your Page, such as
Contact Us, Book now, and Call now.

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Adding a call to action button to your Facebook Business Page

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11.3 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. What is the best approach if a customer writes a comment on social media complaining
about your product?
a. Respond to their comment and disagree.
b. Ignore their comment.
c. Respond to their comment quickly and in an appropriate manner.
d. Delete your social media profile.

2. Set notifications on your social media profile to alert you each time there is a comment
on your Page posts.

3. Which of the following best describes a call to action on social media?

a. It is content that is shared widely and quickly.
b. It is an instruction to an audience to complete a specific action.
c. It is a review of a product posted on social media.
d. It is a negative comment posted by an unhappy customer.

4. List three types of call to action that you might include in a social media post:
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

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LESSON 12 -
ONLINE ADVERTISING

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Identify some common examples of search engine marketing (SEM)

platforms
 Identify some common examples of online advertising platforms
 Understand different types of online advertisement
 Understand the term sponsored post
 Recognise the importance of sponsored posts in increasing interaction
and engagement on social media
ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 12 – Online Advertising

12.1 ONLINE ADVERTISING OVERVIEW

Concepts

You can advertise through different online channels such as search engines
(search engine marketing), websites and blogs (display advertising), and social
media (sponsored posts and promoted tweets).

Search
Engine
Marketing

Online
Advertising

Social Media Display

Advertising Advertising

Online advertising channels

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12.2 SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING PLATFORMS

Concepts

Search engine marketing (SEM) includes ads that appear in search engine results
pages. This is known as pay-per-click advertising (PPC), as you only pay when
someone clicks your ad. Search engine advertising enables you to reach
customers at the exact time that they are searching for your product or service. It
also allows you to target customers effectively by specifying exact search terms
and location – for example if you are a local business you can reach only
customers in your area.
SEM platforms allow you to create advertising campaigns to target your audience
when they are searching online. The two most common SEM platforms for search
engine advertising are:
 Google AdWords (https://www.google.com/adwords/)

 Bing ads (https://bingads.microsoft.com/)

How does Search Engine Marketing work?

Getting started with search engine advertising involves a series of steps:

1. Create an
2. Create an 3. A user
SEM platform
ad campaign searches
account

5. Your ad is 4. Your ad is
clicked displayed

Step 1: Create an SEM platform account. For example, set up a Google

AdWords account.
Step 2: Create an ad campaign. You complete relevant details in a standard
template. For example, create a SEM campaign in Google AdWords:

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a. Set your budget – this is based on how much you want to spend. For
example, in Google AdWords you can set how much you want to spend per
day.
b. Select your target audience location – you can target customers by
location, either globally or locally.
c. Select the type of advertising network – for example in Google AdWords
select Search Network, which is made up of Google search sites and sites
using the Google search engine. Note: For SEM, don’t select Display
Network (sites that allow you to display ads to people while browsing).
d. Select keywords – these are the words that you think people will search
for when looking for your product or service. Include negative keywords
that will prevent your ad from showing to eliminate unwanted clicks.
Google’s Keyword Planner, available if you use Google AdWords, offers
keyword information for search ads:
adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner.
e. Decide on your bid – This is the maximum amount you want to pay for a
click on your ad. The SEM platform calculates this based on your budget
and the keywords you have selected or you can set it manually.
f. Write your ad text – This is text-based and typically includes a URL where
the user goes after clicking your ad, known as the landing page; Headline

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text which is the title for your ad or webpage and contains keywords or a
call to action; and a short description of what you are offering.

Step 3: A user searches for a word or phrase in a search engine.

Step 4: Your ad is displayed. If the search term matches the keywords you have
identified in your ad, your ad is shown in the search results page. Typically ads
appear at the top or to the right of the organic results in the search engine results
page and are identified as ads. The position of your ad will be determined by your
budget relative to other advertisers and the quality of your ad. For example, if you
identify the keyword “ECDL” and someone searches for ECDL, where your ad
appears will depend on whether you have bid higher for that keyword than other
advertisers who also bid on it.

a.

b.
a.

Google SERP
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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 12 – Online Advertising

a.

b.
a.

Bing SERP

a. Advertisers are charged if a user clicks an ad in the results.

b. Organic results typically appear beside or below the ads.
Step 5: Your ad is clicked. If your ad appeals to the person searching they might
click your ad. You only pay when your ad is clicked. Depending on how your ad is
set up the person clicking your ad might visit your website, get directions to your
premises or call you.

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Lesson 12 – Online Advertising ICDL Digital Marketing

12.3 ONLINE ADVERTISING PLATFORMS

Concepts

There are many online advertising platforms but the biggest is the Google Display
Network (https://www.google.com/ads/displaynetwork/).

The Google Display Network includes sites, blogs, videos or apps that belong to
Google or are in the Google network. This includes sites that sell advertising
space using Google AdSense, another Google product.
Other examples include the Yahoo! Bing Network and YouTube ads (part of the
Google Display network).

How does display advertising work?

Online advertising platforms support display advertising,
1. Create an which shows ads to online visitors. In display advertising you
Online pay for ads to appear where your target audience are likely to
Advertising
account be, for example looking at sites, blogs or mobile apps that
interest them. For example, if you are selling wedding
bouquets your ad might appear when someone is browsing a
blog about weddings. Display advertising enables you to grow
awareness of your product or service, but it can be expensive.
2. Create an ad
campaign Getting started with display advertising involves a series of
steps:
Step 1: Create an online advertising account – For
example to use the Google Display Network, you must set-up
a Google AdWords account.
3. Create your ad Step 2: Create an ad campaign – For example in Google
AdWords create a new campaign and complete the relevant
details. Select the advertising network, for example select
Display Network only to advertise on the Google display
network only. Select if you want your ads placed on relevant
4. Your ad is sites automatically or if you want to specify sites. Select your
displayed maximum daily budget and your bidding preferences - pay
by the number of clicks (the number of times your ad is
clicked), impressions (the number of times your ad is seen) or
conversions (the number of actions, as specified by you that
are completed). Select the audience for your ads based on
factors such as age, interests, preferences and locations.
5. Payment
Step 3: Create your ad – For example in Google AdWords
you can create text, image, display or mobile ads.

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Step 4: Your ad is displayed – If a user browses a page that is relevant to your

offering, your ad appears, typically at the top or side of the page.
Step 5: Payment – Your payment depends on whether your ad is viewed, clicked
or a specified action is completed. This depends on what you specified during set
up.

12.4 TYPES OF ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT

There are a variety of ad formats and types to choose from depending on what is
suitable for your product or service and marketing goals. Online advertising
platforms provide tools to help you create different types of ads. For example, the
Google Display Network provides templates and the Display Ad Builder tool.

Text ads
Text ads contain text-only. For example, Google Search ads are text only and
contain headline text, a
landing page URL, and
description text. Text ads in
the Google Display Network
are known as responsive ads
as they adjust to fit the
available space. They should
include a call to action, the
main keywords and any promotions.

Image ads
Image ads contain images and can include text. In the Google Display Network
you can use the Display Ad Builder tool to build an image ad. You select a
template and then customise it by adding headline text, description text and button
text with a call to action. You can add a logo, set a display URL that appears in
the ad and a destination URL for the landing page (the page the user will visit if
they click the ad) and you can set the ad size.

Video ads
Video ads are very popular online because they are very effective at capturing
attention. They can appear on websites while people are browsing. They can also
appear on video sharing platforms such as YouTube before another video starts.
Advertisers can choose if their ad is ‘skippable’ or if the user must sit through the
full ad.

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Floating ads
Floating ads open in a window that floats over the content of the webpage you are
viewing and darken the underlying content. Their aim is to capture the user’s
attention. Sometimes they don’t have a close button so you have to wait until they
close before you can continue what you were doing.

Pop-up ads
Pop-up ads open in a window on top of the main window or behind the main
browser window (known as pop-unders). These can contain different formats such
as text, images, videos and forms. Most web browsers include an option to block
pop-up windows.

Google Chrome pop-up settings

Banner ads
Banner ads are traditionally rectangle in shape and appear as a “banner” at the
top of a page. They can come in different sizes and appear at the side or bottom
of a page. They can contain text, images or animations that typically link to the
advertiser's website.

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12.5 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

Concepts
Why use social media advertising?
There are many benefits to social media advertising.
1. Social networks, by design, allow brands to leverage real word of mouth
and recommendations between friends, by targeting ads to friends of a
brand’s followers, for example.
2. Sponsored posts are an opportunity for brands to be more playful, fun and
experimental than on traditional media ads.
3. The levels of engagement (or lack of) are clear on social media ads, so you
get useful feedback on your message or offer immediately.
4. The turnaround time for producing and getting ads live on social media is
also attractive. A limited time offer, such as a flash sale, can be promoted very
quickly and heavily, and stopped just as quickly.
5. Clicks on social media ads are often more cost-effective than other ad
platforms.
6. The platforms offer a high level of detail available in audience targeting.

Audience targeting
Facebook determines an audience’s interests and preferences through the
information on their profile, information they share on Facebook such as the
pages they like and interact with, the ads they click on, other apps and websites
they use and other information from data providers. Advertisers can use this
information to target an audience very carefully.

In Facebook you can select the audience you want to reach based on factors such
as:
 Demographics – for example age, gender, interests and language.
 Location – for example the country, region, and proximity to your business.

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Lesson 12 – Online Advertising ICDL Digital Marketing

 Interests – for example music, film, sport, games, shopping and many
more.
 Behaviours – shopping habits, intentions to travel, just back from travel,
and devices used.
 Connections – this includes the people who have shown an interest in
your Page or Profile, and their friends or network.
 Partner Categories – this is information about offline behaviour provided
by third-party data providers.

How does social media advertising work?

Social media platforms offer a variety of tools to help you create and manage ads.
For example, in Facebook you can promote posts straight from your Page or you
can use the ad creation and Power Editor tools to set additional options. You
can also manage all ads regardless of where they were created in Ads Manager.
Most social media platforms have a similar series of steps to post an ad:

1. Select 2. Create 3. Your ad is

your ad type your ad displayed

Step 1. Select your ad type: What type of ad you create is based on your
business goals and what you want to achieve with the ad.
For example, on your Facebook Page you can promote your website to increase
visits to it. To do this, click Promote and select Promote Website.
Alternatively, you can promote your Page to get more Likes. To do this, click
Promote and Promote Page.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 12 – Online Advertising

Or you can boost a post to get more people to see it. To do this, select Boost
Post in an existing post.

Step 2: Create your ad: Next you create the ad and select your targeting options
and budget. For example, in Facebook a sample ad is created and you can modify
your ad text and image as desired. If you are promoting a Page the headline is
automatically the Page name. When you promote a Page or a website you can
add video instead of an image. You can select your audience, budget, ad
duration, and payment options. Your budget and ad duration is based on the
number of people you want to reach with your ad, which is the number of people
you want to see your ad. You can preview how your ad will appear.
Step 3: Your ad is displayed: Finally your ad is shown to the audience you
selected. In Facebook you can decide if the ad shows in a desktop news feed,
mobile news feed, or both. If you have chosen to promote a page or a website,
your ad can also be shown to your audience in the right column on the desktop.
The Facebook ad network also offers placement of ads in Instagram.
Facebook ads include sponsored posts.

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And Twitter ads include promoted tweets.

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12.6 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Which two of the following are search engine marketing platforms?
a. MailChimp.
b. Google AdWords.
c. Bing Ads.
d. Wix.

2. Which one of the following is an online advertising platform?

a. WordPress.
b. SEO.
c. Google Display Network.
d. URL Shortener.

3. List three types of online advertisement:

____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________

4. Which two of the following are commonly used to describe ads on social media
platforms?
a. Pop-up post.
b. Scheduled tweet.
c. Sponsored post.
d. Promoted tweet.

5. List three reasons to use an ad on social media:

____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________

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LESSON 13 -
E-MAIL MARKETING

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Identify some common examples of e-mail marketing platforms

 Create an account in an e-mail marketing application
 Understand the terms opt-in, opt-out
 Create, edit and delete a contact list in an e-mail marketing application
 Create an e-mail campaign and select a template in an e-mail marketing
application
 Send an e-mail in an e-mail marketing application
 Schedule an e-mail in an e-mail marketing application
ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 13 - E-mail Marketing

13.1 E-MAIL MARKETING PLATFORMS

Concepts

E-Mail marketing involves reaching consumers directly via e-mail. E-mail

marketing is cost effective, can reach large numbers of recipients with little effort,
and is relatively easy to implement.

Marketing e-mails can be promotional, emphasising special offers or sales. They

can also be used to update and engage customers as newsletter e-mails with blog
posts embedded, or post-purchase e-mails offering the customer tips on their
purchase and a chance to give a review. E-mails can take the format of text and
rich media.
For recipients, you can use contact lists you have gathered from customer sales
and subscribers, or you can buy e-mail lists. If you are managing large numbers of
contacts, multiple lists and multiple marketing campaigns then an e-mail
marketing platform will be necessary. They allow the creation of e-mail campaigns
and measure their success by tracking behaviour of recipients. This information
can be used modify and improve campaigns.
There are many e-mail marketing platforms but two widely used options are:
• MailChimp ( www.mailchimp.com)
• Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com)
Both offer free and paid options depending on requirements and volume.

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Lesson 13 – E-Mail Marketing ICDL Digital Marketing

13.2 CREATING AN E-MAIL MARKETING ACCOUNT

Concepts

To begin using an e-mail marketing platform, you need to create an account.

Steps

Create an account in MailChimp:

1. Go to www.mailchimp.com.
2. Click Sign Up Free.
3. Enter your e-mail, username and password.
4. Click Get started.
5. Click Activate Account in the confirmation e-mail sent to the e-mail
address you provided.
6. Complete the steps to verify who you are and click Confirm Signup.
7. In the Welcome screens enter your name, your business name, your
website, your physical address, whether you sell online, connect your
social media accounts, subscribe to help and support emails and click
Let’s Go!.

13.3 CREATING AND MANAGING CONTACT LISTS

Concepts
Opt-in and opt-out
The success of an e-mail marketing campaign depends greatly on the quality of
your contact list. Your contact list should include people who have subscribed to
or chosen to opt-in to receive marketing communications. These people have
already expressed an interest in your offering so will be more receptive of your
message.
If people haven’t given permission to be contacted by e-mail they might view your
mail as spam or unsolicited e-mail. Unsolicited e-mails might be ignored or create
a negative view of your brand and in some countries they can be illegal. In all your
marketing e-mails you should give people the option to unsubscribe or opt-out of
the email contact list.
It is also good practice to tailor your marketing e-mails to different audiences.
Contact lists can be created based on many details, such as how the recipient
subscribed; through a competition, at an event, or on the blog.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 13 - E-mail Marketing

E-mail marketing platforms enable you to set up and manage contact lists of
subscribers.

Steps
Create a contact list in an e-mail marketing application:
1. In MailChimp navigate to the Lists page.
2. Click Create list.
3. Complete the list details - enter a descriptive list name. This will be seen
by the recipients.
4. Enter the email address and name that you want to appear in the “From”
field of your email.
5. Enter text to remind the recipient why they are receiving the mail. This can
let them know the mail is genuine and not spam.
6. Set how you want to be notified about subscribe/unsubscribe activity.
7. Click Save.
8. Click Import subscribers to import existing subscribers.
9. Select the relevant source and click Next. You can use a .csv or.txt file, or
copy and paste from a .xls or .xlsx file, or import contacts from services like
Google Contacts and Salesforce.
10. Complete the information depending on the source selected and click Next.
11. Click Import. And your list is created.

Edit a contact list in an e-mail marketing application:

1. In MailChimp navigate to the Lists page and click the down pointing arrow
to the right hand side of the list
2. Click Manage Subscribers.
3. To add someone to the list, click Add subscriber, enter e-mail address,
first name and last name, select the permissions checkbox, and click
Subscribe.
4. To remove someone from the list, click Unsubscribe people, enter the
relevant e-mail addresses and click Unsubscribe.

Delete a contact list in an e-mail marketing application:

1. In MailChimp navigate to the Lists page and click the checkbox beside the
list
2. Click Delete.
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3. Type DELETE to confirm.

4. Click Delete.

13.4 CREATING AND MANAGING E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS

Concepts

E-mail marketing platforms provide tools that enable you to create, send and
schedule customised and professionally-designed e-mails.
You can define the list of recipients, select an appropriate template, add your
content, and schedule when the mail is sent. MailChimp offer a range of templates
from basic layouts to professionally designed templates where you just add your
own text.
Some platforms also provide tracking options such as who opened your e-mail,
who clicked a link, and how many times a link was clicked.

Tip: Keep subject lines descriptive and interesting to entice the recipient to open
the mail.

Steps
Create a campaign using a template in an e-mail marketing application:
1. In MailChimp navigate to the Campaigns page and click Create
Campaign.
2. Choose a campaign type – Regular campaign, Plain-text campaign (text
only), A/B testing campaign (used for comparing two types of campaign
to see which works best), or RSS campaign (automated based on an RSS
feed).
3. Select the recipients and click Next.
4. In the Campaign info page, enter the campaign name, the e-mail subject,
the From name and the From email address. You can also personalise
the To field, set tracking options and link to your social media
accounts.
5. Click Next.
6. In the Select a template page, choose an appropriate template and click
Next. The Basic page contains basic layouts and the Themes page
contains professionally designed templates grouped by categories.
7. In the Design page complete the content and design.
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8. Click Preview and Test to preview the e-mail content and design.
9. Click Save as Template to save your e-mail content as a template for later
use, enter your template name and click Save.
10. Click Next.
11. In the Confirm page, review the feedback and make any necessary
changes.

Send an e-mail in an e-mail marketing application:

1. To send an email straight away, select Send in the Confirm page
2. Click Send Now.

Schedule an e-mail in an e-mail marketing application:

1. To schedule the e-mail to go at a later time, select Schedule in the
Confirm page.
2. Enter the relevant date and time
3. Click Schedule campaign.

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Lesson 13 – E-Mail Marketing ICDL Digital Marketing

13.5 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Which two of the following are e-mail marketing platforms?
a. MailChimp.
b. Google Display Network.
c. YouTube.
d. Constant Contact.

2. Which one of the following terms describes when someone chooses to receive
marketing communications by e-mail?
a. Opt-out.
b. Opt-in.
c. Unsubscribe.
d. Submit.

3. Create an account in an e-mail marketing application.

4. Create a contact list in an e-mail marketing application.

5. Create an e-mail campaign in an e-mail marketing application using a predefined

template.

6. Send an e-mail campaign from an e-mail marketing application.

7. Schedule an e-mail campaign to be sent in two days.

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LESSON 14 -
MOBILE MARKETING

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Outline some reasons to use mobile marketing

 Understand the term mobile application
 Understand how mobile applications can be used for marketing
 Outline some considerations for a mobile marketing campaign
 Understand options for mobile advertising
Lesson 14 – Mobile Marketing ICDL Digital Marketing

14.1 MOBILE MARKETING OVERVIEW

Concepts
What is mobile marketing?
Mobile marketing is the use of marketing techniques to reach people directly on
devices, including smart phones, tablets and mobile phones.

Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, mobile devices have evolved to be a
central part of modern life. Consumers can use mobile devices to text, watch
video, listen to music, send e-mail, search, take pictures, bank online, order food,
browse the web, hail a taxi, and shop. A large majority of mobile users keep their
device within arm’s reach 24 hours a day, making audiences more reachable than
ever.
Reaching people through these devices represents a huge marketing opportunity
for organisations, but also challenges.
Users expect any mobile marketing activity to offer a convenient, personalised
and smooth experience. If websites, ads and apps have not been tailored to at
least the user’s device and location, they will switch to one of thousands more
enticing mobile experiences.

Why use mobile marketing?

Access to more customers - In 2015, mobile overtook desktop to become the
primary means of accessing the Internet worldwide. If businesses overlook mobile
in their marketing plans, they will be missing a large percentage of their potential
audience. The platform offers the chance to reach more customers, more often,
and in real-time.
Targeting customers based on location – Smart phones and apps use data
from global positioning system (GPS) and Wi-Fi to determine the location of
users. Geolocation allows operating systems such as Android and iOS (the iPad
and iPhone operating system), and apps granted location-tracking permission, to
determine the workplaces, homes, and weekly routines of users. You can use

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geolocation data to offer content, promotions and coupons relevant to the user’s
proximity and commute. For example, an in-app ad could target a user within a
certain distance of a business for a real-time promotion.

Help customers find you

Search engines such as Google use location data to enrich mobile searches.
They aim to give mobile searchers a convenient and intuitive experience. So a
local search result page could include a map view, with names and opening hours
of the closest businesses, and buttons for calling and getting directions to them.
Businesses who optimise their online presence for local searches will get more
mobile customers.

14.2 MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Concepts
What is a mobile application?
A mobile application, commonly known as an app, is an application designed to
run locally on mobile devices, such as a smartphones and tablets.
Smartphones and tablets come pre-installed with apps for tasks such as e-mail,
calendar, maps, photos and video.
Apps can also extend the functionality of the mobile device. There are
entertainment and game apps like Candy Crush; productivity apps such as word
processing; video and image editing apps; social networking apps such as
Facebook and Twitter; and social messaging apps such as Snapchat and
WhatsApp.
Some businesses are completely app-based, for example Uber uses its app to
determine the customer’s exact location and provide its ride-sharing service.
Apps are designed for the mobile operating system (OS) they run on, and
available through that OS store. So iPhone and iPad apps are available from
Apple’s App Store, while apps for devices running Android come from Google
Play.

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How can apps be used for marketing?

Promoting businesses and services
Apps can be used by organisations for promoting their business
and services. Promotion can be done through a business’s own
app, or a third-party app.
You can send communications directly to people who have downloaded your app,
known as push notifications. For example, an online retailer such as Amazon
could send a discount promotion to customers who have their app with a push
notification that says:
“We’re giving 20% off to our loyal customers. Use code ‘20X’ at checkout”.
The retailer could also promote the discount through a third-party app like
Facebook though a News Feed ad shown to past customers. On clicking the ad,
the user would be sent to the mobile site with the discount code applied to their
basket. Amazon would have to pay for the click on the Facebook promotion, but
traffic from its own app would be free.

Offering services
Many businesses create apps to offer a better service to mobile
customers.
For example, mobile banking is such a core part of modern life
that many customers would close their account if their bank’s app
did not meet their requirements. Airline apps let passengers save boarding passes
on their phone, check in, and monitor a flight status easily.
In the Airbnb app, users can browse the accommodation directory (with a ‘nearby’
option), but also message their accommodation hosts, edit their profile and
payment options, and access customer service.
The cost for businesses to develop a mobile app is considerable, especially as
each operating system (Android and iOS primarily) requires a different app. For
this reason, many small businesses decide to invest in a mobile or responsive
website instead.

Generating Sales
Naturally, many businesses hope to generate sales from their
app. Large retailers develop apps to make it easier for
customers to purchase their products and services on mobile.
Some businesses successfully generate revenue from sales of the app itself.
Some apps operate on a freemium model: making the available for free and then
charging for additional features, known as in-app purchases. This is popular with
games like Candy Crush Saga, which makes millions of dollars a month in
revenue.

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14.3 MOBILE MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS

Concepts

A marketing campaign targeting mobile users must offer a tailored, convenient

mobile experience, or you will risk frustrating potential customers and losing
money. This includes creating a mobile-friendly website and tailoring keywords
and ads for mobile.

Creating a mobile-friendly website

Every page on your website must work
smoothly on mobile.
Mobile users should be able to navigate
easily and complete actions. Links should
not be close together. Font size should be
suitable for small screens, buttons should
be easy to interact with, and typing should

be minimised.
A responsive website design automatically adjusts to the resolution of the screen
it is viewed on. This avoids the development of separate websites for desktop and
mobile. Mobile-friendly websites should also load quickly. Large file sizes take
longer to download so use smaller files to improve performance. Mobile-friendly
websites should embed videos hosted on other sites rather than forcing the user
to download them.
A mobile–friendly website encourages mobile users to interact with your site. It is
also a factor used by search engines to determine mobile search engine rankings.
A mobile-friendly site should work well across different mobile devices and across
different mobile operating systems.

Tip: There are online tools available for testing your site on mobile including
Google’s Mobile-Friendly test: www.google.ie/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly.

Tailoring keywords for mobile

When mobile users are performing a search
they are typically on the move, using smaller
screens and keyboards, and looking for
something specific. Their search terms tend
 to be
shorter than desktop users. You should
consider the context and intent of the search and cater to mobile-specific
situations.

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Lesson 14 – Mobile Marketing ICDL Digital Marketing

For example, Google advises that “near-me searches” for local services such as
petrol stations, hairdressers and restaurants are becoming more popular.
Businesses should optimise their online presence for mobile search by being
listed on directories such as Yelp and Google My Business. Contact details,
opening hours and descriptions should always be kept updated.
On a mobile search result page, most users won’t scroll down past the third or
fourth result, so ranking highly for keywords is very important.

Tip Research the keywords your audience uses on mobile devices with tools such
as Google’s Keyword Planner or Bing’s Keyword Research Tool. Then include
those in your content and webpage code.

Tailor your ads for mobile


Ads should be customised for mobile devices.
They must be tested on all devices to ensure
the font size, image dimensions and length of
text fit smaller screens. Calls to action should
be clear, concise, and offer value to a mobile user such a ‘call now’ or download
app’ button. The website that the ad leads to must be mobile-friendly.

14.4 MOBILE ADVERTISING

Concepts
What is mobile advertising?
Mobile advertising targets ads directly to customers on mobile devices such as
smart phones and tablets. Mobile ads can be targeted based on geolocation,
device model, operating system, telecom carrier, apps used in the past, as well as
demographic targeting and behavioural targeting like purchase intent.

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Mobile advertising platforms include Google AdWords and InMobi. These

platforms can automatically create a version of your ad for mobile or give you the
option to create customised ads for mobile.
You can advertise on mobile devices using the same types of ads available on
desktop devices however mobile ads should be optimised for mobile devices.

Video ads – These use video at the core of the advertisement and appear on
apps and mobile websites. Retention rates are higher for mobile video ads than
those viewed on the desktop.
Mobile video ads should autoplay only when viewable, and set to silent by default,
giving the viewer the option to turn up the sound. Many platforms including
Facebook recommend that the video be designed with the sound off, using visual
cues and subtitles to tell the story. A user’s attention must be captured very
quickly. The framing of the video is important: some advertisers use a square
format to use more mobile screen space.

Search ads – These appear on search result pages on mobile devices. You can
target people with ads exactly when they are searching for something you offer.
The search-to-purchase time period is much shorter on mobile than desktop, so it
is worthwhile considering the context and intention of the mobile searcher. For
example, most mobile searches for a hotel are for a booking that night, so many
hotels will include a button in their ad saying ‘Book for Tonight’. Mobile search ads
can include a ‘download app’ or ‘click to call’ button too, and these can be tracked
as conversions.

Display ads – These appear on mobile sites and apps in a variety of formats,
such as text, image, animation, audio and video. Banner ads are common in free
apps as they provide revenue for the app developer.

Social media ads – These appear on social media websites so you can target
people when they are using social media apps or visiting social media mobile
sites. Most social media users are mobile (91% of Facebook’s daily active users
are mobile) so these platforms have developed engaging ad formats specifically
for mobile users. For example, Facebook mobile ads include call to actions such
as “install app” or “play game”; “get directions” or “call now” for local businesses;
and image carousels so users can swipe through a series of product photos.

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Social media ad for mobile

Application ads – these appear on mobile apps so you can target people when
they are using a mobile app. They can include any of the ad types above.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 14 – Mobile Marketing

14.5 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. List two reasons why you would use mobile marketing:

_______________________________
_______________________________

2. Which of the following terms describes a program designed to run on mobile devices,
such as a smartphones and tablets?
a. Tag.
b. App.
c. Post.
d. Download.

3. List three ways a mobile app might be used for marketing:

_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________

4. List three things to consider when developing a mobile marketing campaign to ensure
the best customer experience:
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________

5. Which three of the following are mobile advertising options?

a. Search.
b. Display.
c. Social Media.
d. Magazine.

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LESSON 15 -
WEB ANALYTICS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand the term analytics

 Recognise the importance of analysing the performance of a digital
marketing campaign
 Understand the term web traffic and the importance of attracting quality
web traffic
 Understand common analytics terms: unique visitors, bounce rate,
conversion rate, tracking code, referrals
 Identify some common website analytics tools
 Create an account in an analytics tool
 Set up and export an analytics report as a .csv file using a website
analytics tool
 Schedule an analytics report e-mail using a website analytics tool
ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 15 – Web Analytics

15.1 ANALYTICS OVERVIEW

Concepts
What are analytics?
Analytics for digital marketing is the process of capturing, reporting and analysing
data based on user behaviour, to find patterns and gain actionable insights.

At the start of a digital marketing campaign you set goals. Tracking and evaluating
your campaign involves measuring your results against your goals, looking for
trends or opportunities for improvement, and implementing changes that you
continue to track and measure. Analytics includes a set of techniques and tools to
manage this process.

1.Set Goals

2.Track and
Measure

3.Identify
Improvements

4.Implement
Changes

5.Continue to
Track and Measure

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Lesson 15 – Web Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing

Why are analytics important?

One of the greatest weaknesses of non-digital advertising is that the return on
investment (ROI) is so hard to calculate.
It’s claimed that in digital marketing, there is nothing that can’t be measured. This
makes ROI much easier to understand, among many other benefits.
Analytics offers real-time insights into the effectiveness of marketing and even
business practices. When interpreted effectively, it offers concrete, actionable
information for making decisions and changes in campaigns.
Campaigns can be monitored in real time and adjusted quickly, saving time and
money.
The volumes of data that can be collected in digital campaigns, and the power of
tools to interpret the data for analysis, can provide insight into the buyer’s journey
on your site, and highlight any obstacles to conversions.
If your campaign isn’t meeting your goals, analytics can reveal the reasons why
and suggest adjustments to your approach. You can also use analytics to test
different campaigns to see which delivers the best results.

What are analytics tools?

Most digital marketing platforms include analytics tools. Analytics tools are used to
measure:
 Key website metrics
 Social media campaigns
 E-mail marketing campaigns
 Online advertising
campaigns

15.2 W EBSITE ANALYTICS OVERVIEW

Concepts
What is website analytics?
Website analytics is the process of tracking, reporting and analysing the behaviour
of visitors to a website (web traffic). It is an essential part of digital marketing.

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Website analytics

Analytics reports are made up of dimensions and metrics.

Dimensions are attributes applied to the data. For example, the dimension
Browser indicates the web browser used by the visitor, such as "Chrome" or
"Safari". Dimensions are usually words.
Metrics are the quantitative measurements. So the metric New Users is the total
number of first time users. Metrics are usually numbers.

What can you track using analytics tools?

You can track a variety of behaviours of web traffic using analytics tools:
You can see how visitors came to your site by seeing what channels they came
from, such as
 Direct traffic (if they typed your site address into their browser)
 Organic search (unpaid traffic from search engines)
 Social media sites (traffic from social media sites)
 Referrals (referral traffic is when a visitor follows a link from another site to
get to your site)

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Lesson 15 – Web Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing

Examples of web traffic sources

You can see other dimensions such as what device the user is on, their network
provider, their geolocation, and language setting.
You can track metrics such as the number of unique visitors, which is the total
number of unique visitors in a specific time frame, regardless of the number of
times a user visited.
It’s very important to understand what visitors do when they arrive on your site.
For example, you can track whether visitors follow any internal links on your site
or whether they leave after visiting one page, known as the ‘landing page’. The
percentage of visitors who only accessed one page of your website, without
visiting any other pages, is known as the bounce rate.
You can also track whether visitors performed specific actions on your website,
such as conversions. For example, if you want a visitor to download a form or
sign up for a newsletter you can track these as conversions. The number of
unique visitors who convert divided by the total number of unique visitors
expressed as a percentage is known as the conversion rate.

15.3 USING WEBSITE ANALYTICS

Concepts
How do website analytics work?
To use analytics tools you need to set up an account on a website analytics
platform. Some common providers are:

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 15 – Web Analytics

 Google Analytics
 Crazy Egg
 Moz
 Kissmetrics

When you create a website analytics account you receive a piece of code known
as a tracking code. You add this piece of code to your website or app. This is
used to collect and send data from your website or app to the analytics tool.
In the analytics tool you can view and manage your data in many different ways.
You can view data in pre-defined reports and you can also set up customised
reports.
In Google Analytics in Reporting you can select from a list of pre-defined reports
in the left-hand column. You can view and customise these reports. There are a
variety of reports in sections on Audience, Acquisitions, Behaviour, and
Conversions.

Google Analytics Reporting

You can export reports in formats such as CSV (comma separated values), TSV
(tab-delimited), MS Excel, Google Spreadsheets, and PDF.

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Lesson 15 – Web Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing
Google Analytics report formats

You can also set up reports to be sent as email attachments on a daily, weekly,
monthly or quarterly basis.
You can also create custom visual views of data known as dashboards that show
key metrics at a glance. Dashboards can be customised by adding widgets which
display a metric over a period of time. Widgets can appear as a timeline, a map, a
table, a pie chart, or a bar chart. Dashboards can also be exported as a PDF.
Dashboards are useful for monitoring the most important traffic metrics at a
glance, without the need to analyse the details of a report.
A Starter Dashboard includes metrics such as New users, Users, Sessions,
Sessions By Browser, Bounce Rate, Average Session Duration, Goal
Completions, and Revenue.

Google Analytics Starter Dashboard

Steps
Create an account in an analytics tool
1. Go to the Google Analytics website.
2. Click Sign in and select Google Analytics.
3. To create an account, log in with an existing Google account or create a
new one. Click Sign up.
4. In the New Account page select what you would like to track: Website or
Mobile app.

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5. Enter the account name, property name, industry, reporting time zone,
and URL if it is a website.
6. Click Get Tracking ID and accept the terms of service agreement.
7. Add the tracking code to the web page or app that you want to monitor
using the appropriate method for your website. If you are using third-party
web hosting providers such as WordPress and Wix follow the steps they
provide to set up Google analytics.
8. You can now monitor the web page or web app in the analytics tool.

Set up a website analytics report for a campaign and export it as a .csv file
1. Log in to Google Analytics and navigate to the relevant account.
2. Select the Reporting tab.

3. Select a relevant report in the left hand column, such as Audience,

Behaviour, or Conversions.
4. Set the time period in the date range. Click on ‘advanced’ if you want to
add extra parameters to the data: either dimensions or metrics.
5. To export the report as a .csv file, click Export and select CSV.

Schedule a website analytics report e-mail

1. In Google Analytics, select E-mail in the relevant report.
2. In the E-mail Report section set the recipients, frequency, day, and e-
mail text.

3. Click Send.

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Lesson 15 – Web Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing

15.4 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Which two of the following would you complete with analytics tools?
a. Upload an image to a website.
b. Measure a social media campaign.
c. Create a display ad for mobile.
d. Track an e-mail marketing campaign.

2. List two reasons why analysing a digital marketing campaign is important:

______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

3. Which of the following terms is commonly used to describe visitors to a website?

a. Conversions.
b. Subscribers.
c. Web traffic.
d. Impressions.

4. Complete the following sentences with the common analytics term:

a. Sources of web traffic from other sites are known as ______________.
b. The percentage of visitors who only access one page of a website is known
as the _____________ rate.
c. The number of unique visitors who convert divided by the total number of
unique visitors, expressed as a percentage is the ______________ rate.

5. List two website analytics tools:

_______________________________
_______________________________

6. Create an account in an analytics tool.

7. In a website analytics tool export a report as a CSV file.

8. In a website analytics tool schedule an email with a report to be sent weekly to an email
address of your choosing.

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LESSON 16 -
SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand the term social media insights

 Recognise the importance of analysing the influence of your marketing
activities on social media platforms
 Understand social media insights terms: engagement, reach, mentions,
trends, inbound links
 Identify some common social media insights tools
 Set up an analytics report for a social media campaign and export it as a
.csv file
 Schedule an analytics report e-mail for a social media campaign
Lesson 16 – Social Media Insights ICDL Digital Marketing

16.1 SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS OVERVIEW

Concepts
What are Social Media Insights?
Social media insights involve tracking and analysing the behaviour of visitors to a
social media account. This involves using social media insight tools to measure if
goals are achieved, such as growth in likes and followers, engagement with posts,
and page visits or views.

Social media insights

Common insights include:

 Engagement – This is number of interactions people have with a post, and
can include number of link clicks, likes, comments, reactions and shares.
Posts with high engagement rates are more likely to show in the Facebook
News Feed and get more ‘reach’. Engagement rate is a metric for both
sponsored posts (ads) and organic posts.
 Reach – This is the actual number of people to whom a social media post
was served, also known as impressions. Posts that get negative
engagement (are hidden, reported as spam or cause people to unlike your
Page) will have a small reach.
 Mentions – This is the number of times an account name or handle is
tagged in a social media message.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 16 – Social Media Insights

 Trends – This is a topic or hashtag that is popular on social media at a

certain moment.
 Inbound links – This is the number of links from another site that links to
your profile.
 Views – This is the number of people who viewed your Profile or Page.
 Actions – This is the number of actions performed on your Profile or Page.
On a Facebook Page, users can get directions, click a phone number, click
a website, or any other action button.
 People – Many platforms offer insights into the demographics of fans and
followers, such as gender, country and city they’re based in, interests,
language, and age range. You can also discover the influence of your
Twitter followers.

16.2 USING SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS

Concepts
Most social media platforms provide tools that enable you to view social media
insights. Social media management services also provide insights tools. Some
common social media insights tools include.
 Facebook Page Insights
 Twitter Analytics; TweetDeck
 Pinterest Analytics

Steps
Set up an analytics report for a social media campaign and export a report as a
.csv file:
1. Log in to Facebook, navigate to your Page and click Insights.

2. To export a report, select Overview.

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Lesson 16 – Social Media Insights ICDL Digital Marketing

3. Click Export Data.

4. Set the date range you want for the report.
5. Set the data type:
 Page data includes metrics for engagement including Daily Likes
and Unlikes, and the number of people giving negative feedback.
 Post data metrics include metrics for reach, impressions and
feedback.
 Video data metrics include metrics for different types of views.
6. Select the file format to export the report as a Comma-separated values
(.csv).

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 16 – Social Media Insights

7. Click Export Data.

Schedule an analytics report e-mail in social media

Note: you are unable to schedule a report e-mail in Facebook. You can schedule
a report email for social media in Google Analytics.
1. In Google Analytics, select Email in the relevant social report in
Acquisition.
2. In the Email Report section set the recipients, frequency, and email text.
3. Click Send.

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Lesson 16 – Social Media Insights ICDL Digital Marketing

16.3 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Which of the following is the term used to describe the process of tracking and
evaluating the behaviour of visitors to a social media account?
a. Referrals.
b. Insights.
c. Split testing.
d. Bounce rate.

2. List two reasons why analysing a social media marketing campaign is important:
_______________________________
_______________________________

3. Complete the following sentences with the common social media insights terms:
a. _________________ is a term used to describe interactions with a social
media profile.
b. _________________ is the people who see a social media post.
c. A _________________ is when a user's handle or account name is tagged in
a social media message.
d. _________________ are topics or hashtags popular on social media at a
certain moment.
e. _____________ links are the number of links to a website from another
source.

4. List two social media insights tools:

_______________________________
_______________________________

5. Export a social media insights report of your choosing as a .CSV file.

6. Schedule an e-mail report for social media in a platform of your choosing.

Page 140 NG-ETC0001T © 2016

LESSON 17 -
E-MAIL MARKETING ANALYTICS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand common e-mail analytics terms

 Understand split testing and its importance in measuring the success of e-
mail marketing campaigns
 Set up an analytics report for an e-mail marketing campaign and export it
as a .csv file
 Schedule an analytics report e-mail for an e-mail marketing campaign
Lesson 17 – E-mail Marketing Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing

17.1 E-MAIL MARKETING ANALYTICS OVERVIEW

Concepts
Why track e-mail marketing campaigns?
E-mail marketing is one of the oldest tools in digital marketing, but still one of the
most effective.
The surge in mobile device usage means that your audience can pick up e-mail
anywhere and anytime. In fact, around 80% of smartphones users check e-mail
and Facebook within 15 minutes of waking up.
E-mail marketing is relatively cheap, but it requires time and there are costs
associated with some e-mail marketing platforms. To make your efforts effective
you should set campaign goals, such as generating leads or turning past
customers into repeat buyers. To measure performance against these goals, all
elements must be tracked.

What is e-mail analytics?

In a campaign, you must know how many e-mails were sent, who opened them,
and what happened next. Analytics tracks the acquisition, behaviour and outcome
of e-mail marketing efforts.
The e-mail marketing platforms track many of the key metrics, but not all of the
figures are fully accurate (particularly Open Rate). You can also use reports from
website analytics to track what e-mail recipients did after they clicked a link in the
e-mail. Did they buy the product mentioned in the email, for example? Or did they
perform another goal, such as asking for a call back? Every link in the e-mail must
be tagged with campaign tracking parameters that your web analytics tool can
read. Most platforms do this automatically.

E-mail marketing analytics

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 17 – E-Mail Marketing Analytics

What are key e-mail marketing metrics?

Delivery rate
The delivery rate is the first metric to work out. It is the percentage of total e-mails
that were successfully delivered to the recipients’ inbox. It involves subtracting the
amount of “bounces” that result from an invalid, closed, or non-existent e-mail
address, from the total number sent, and calculating that as a percentage.
Delivery rate = (number of e-mails sent – number of bounces) / number of e-mails
sent

Bounce rate
The bounce rate is the inverse of the delivery rate: the percentage of e-mails not
delivered to an inbox. All bounced addresses should be deleted from your e-mail
list.

Open rate
The open rate is the percentage of e-mails that were opened out of the total that
were successfully delivered.
Open rate = number of e-mails opened / number of e-mails delivered

However, no e-mail marketing platform provider will be able to give a totally

accurate open rate. They can only track on “open” if the recipient downloads the
images in the e-mail (including a tiny ‘tracking’ image). As a default, most e-mail
clients (Outlook, Gmail etc.) will not load images unless the reader clicks ‘show
images’. There is also no way to record open rates on text-only e-mails. This
means that the actual open rate is probably higher than the percentage given, but
the figure will always be unreliable.

Click rate
The click rate (or click-through rate) is the percentage of clicks a link in an e-mail
receives or the percentage of e-mail recipients who clicked on one or more links in
an e-mail. It is a key metric for the effectiveness and relevance of your campaign
content. It is also a good indication of the quality of your e-mail recipient list.
Click rate = number of clicks / number of emails delivered

Total subscribers
The total number of people who have opted to receive e-mails from you make up
your subscriber list.
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Lesson 17 – E-mail Marketing Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing

Lists can be drawn from past customers who gave their e-mail address. It is good
practice to ensure that at the time you collected the customer’s details, they were
offered the chance to opt-out of marketing correspondence. And each time you
send a marketing e-mail, you must offer the opportunity to opt-out of further
messages, also known as unsubscribing. There are laws and regulations around
this topic, so check what they are in your jurisdiction.
You can also buy a contact list but this means that recipients did not opt-in to be
contacted by your business specifically, so the response rates on these lists can
be low. It is usually preferable to use confirmed, opt-in subscriber lists and not
bought lists.

Unsubscribes
People who have opted to stop receiving marketing e-mails from you are
unsubscribes. The number of unsubscribes can be used to calculate your
subscriber retention rate, which is another strong indication of the quality of your
list and marketing message.
Subscriber retention rate = (number of subscribers – bounces – unsubscribes) /
number of subscribers

What is split testing in e-mail analytics?

Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a way to test two elements of an e-mail
campaign to determine which version returns the best results. Two different
versions of the campaign are sent randomly to selected parts of the list.
The version with the highest click rate (or sometimes open rate) is considered the
winner, and then this version is sent to the remainder of recipients on the list.
Split testing is a useful tool for determining the effectiveness of different e-mail
campaign elements such as subject line, sender name, call to action, body text,
hyperlinked images, or time sent.

17.2 USING E-MAIL MARKETING ANALYTICS

Concepts

Most e-mail marketing platforms provide tools that enable you to view analytics
data.

Steps
Set up an analytics report for an email marketing campaign and export a report as
a .csv file:

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 17 – E-Mail Marketing Analytics

1. Log in to MailChimp and select Reports.

2. To view a report Overview for a specific campaign, click View Report next
to the relevant campaign.
3. To export a report Overview for a specific campaign, click the down-
pointing arrow beside View Report.
4. Select Download.

Send an e-mail marketing analytics report e-mail:

Note: You cannot schedule a report e-mail but you can share a report email.
1. Log in to MailChimp and select Reports.
2. Click the down-pointing arrow beside View Report.
3. Select Share Report.
4. Enter the recipients in the Add viewers field.
5. Click Share Report.

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Lesson 17 – E-mail Marketing Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing

17.3 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Complete the following sentences with the common e-mail analytics terms:
a. Recipients should have the option to ______________ from an e-mail mailing
list.
b. The ___________ rate is the percentage of opened e-mail messages.
c. The ___________ rate is the percentage of clicks a link in an e-mail receives.
d. The total ____________ is the number of people who have opted to receive
e-mails.
e. The ____________ rate is the percentage of e-mails not delivered to an
inbox.

2. Which of the following is the term used to describe the process of evaluating two
options in an email marketing campaign?
a. Posting.
b. Split testing.
c. Insights.
d. Click rate.

3. Export an e-mail marketing analytics report of your choosing as a .CSV file.

4. Send an e-mail marketing analytics report e-mail to a recipient of your choosing.

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LESSON 18 -
ONLINE ADVERTISING ANALYTICS

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

 Understand common online advertising analytics terms: clicks,

impressions, click through rate (CTR), pay per click (PPC), cost per
thousand (CPM), cost per acquisition (CPA), cost per conversion (CPC)
 Understand split testing and its importance in measuring the success of
online advertising campaigns
 Set up an analytics report for an online advertising campaign and export it
as a .csv file
 Schedule an analytics report e-mail for an online advertising campaign
Lesson 18 – Online Advertising Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing

18.1 ONLINE ADVERTISING ANALYTICS OVERVIEW

Concepts
What is online advertising analytics?
Online advertising analytics is the process of tracking and analysing the
performance of online ads.

Online advertising analytics

There are many tracking options, for example you can track:
 The number of times an ad is clicked, known as clicks
 The number of times an ad is displayed to a user, known as impressions
The number of clicks an ad receives divided by the number of times the ad is
shown, expressed as a percentage is known as the Click through rate (CTR).
Some other common online advertising analytics terms are:
Pay per click (PPC) – The term for the Internet advertising model where an
advertiser pays the website owner/publisher when an ad has been clicked. It is the
common model for search engine advertising.
Cost per thousand (CPM) – The price paid to display an advertisement 1,000
times, sometimes referred to as cost per thousand impressions. CPM is the most
common model for display advertising, because advertisers are paying for
awareness rather than action from the viewer.
Cost per acquisition (CPA) – The price paid for acquiring a lead or customer. It
is the total price paid divided by the number of acquisitions.
Cost per conversion (CPC) – The price paid for a completed action defined by
the business, for example, a purchase or download. It is the total price paid
divided by the number of conversions.

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ICDL Digital Marketing Lesson 18 – Online Advertising Analytics

What is split testing in online advertising?

Split testing is a way to test two or more elements of an ad to determine which
version performs best. Audiences are shown one version of the ad at random, and
do not know they are part of an experiment.
The tester must wait for a significant difference to emerge in behaviour (such as
CTR or conversion) before deciding which versions wins, or to create another
iteration.
You can test elements including the title, headline, text, call to action, or images
used.

18.2 USING ONLINE ADVERTISING ANALYTICS

Concepts
Most online advertising platforms provide tools that enable you to view analytics.

Steps
Set up an analytics report for an advertising campaign and export a report as a
.csv file:
1. Log in to Google AdWords and click the Campaigns tab.
2. Navigate to the tab containing the relevant statistics table.
3. Set the date range, columns, filters, and segments.
4. To export a report, click the download icon.
5. Select .csv in the Format drop-down list
6. Click Download.

Schedule an online advertising analytics report e-mail:

1. In Google AdWords, click Email and schedule report in the relevant
report.
2. Set the recipients and frequency.
3. Click Download.

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Lesson 18 – Online Advertising Analytics ICDL Digital Marketing

18.3 REVIEW EXERCISE

1. Complete the following sentences with common online advertising analytics terms:
a. __________________ is an advertising model where the advertiser pays
when their ad has been clicked.
b. __________________ is the price paid to display an advertisement 1,000
times.
c. __________________ is the price paid for acquiring a lead or customer.
d. __________________ is the price paid for a completed action defined by the
business.
e. __________________ is the number of times an ad is clicked.
f. __________________ is the number of times an ad is displayed to a user.
g. __________________ is the number of clicks an ad receives divided by the
number of times the ad is shown, expressed as a percentage.

2. Which of the following can be tested if you are split-testing an online advertising
campaign?
a. Subject.
b. Images.
c. Sender.
d. Call to action.

3. Export an online advertising analytics report of your choosing as a .CSV file.

4. Schedule an online advertising analytics report e-mail to a recipient of your choosing.

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ICDL Syllabus

Ref ICDL Task Item Location Ref ICDL Task Item Location
1.1.1 Understand the term Digital 1.1 Digital 1.2.1 Understand the main 2.1 Digital
Marketing. Marketing elements of a digital Marketing
Overview marketing strategy like: Strategy
alignment to business goals Considerations
1.1.2 Define different elements of 1.2 Digital and marketing objectives,
digital marketing like: Marketing identification of target
content marketing, social Techniques audience, analysis of
media marketing, e-mail competitors, selection of
marketing, mobile appropriate platforms,
marketing, affiliate planning and creation of
marketing, search engine content, allocation of
marketing (SEM), search budgets, reporting.
engine optimisation (SEO),
1.2.2 Recognise the need for a 2.2 Design
display advertising,
consistent online presence Considerations
analytics.
in line with corporate
1.1.3 Identify typical goals when 1.3 Digital identity and design.
using digital marketing like: Marketing Goals 1.2.3 Recognise types of content 2.3 Content
increased brand
used to drive traffic and Marketing
awareness, lead
enhance engagement like:
generation, sales
infographics, meme,
generation, informing
videos, guides, product
customers, improved
reviews, testimonials, lists,
customer service, direct
whitepapers.
customer engagement,
generating traffic. 1.2.4 Understand the importance 2.4 Policies and
of having policies and Access Controls
1.1.4 Understand the advantages 1.4 Digital
access controls in place for
of digital marketing like: Marketing staff using company digital
more cost effective, easier Advantages
marketing accounts.
to track and measure
progress, larger 2.1.1 Understand possible web 3.1 Web
demographic reach, higher presence solutions like: Presence
engagement compared to business directory, social Solutions
traditional marketing, media, information website,
catering to mobile blog, e-commerce website,
customers. mobile site, web
application, mobile
1.1.5 Understand the limitations 1.5 Digital application.
of digital marketing like: Marketing
lack of face-to-face Limitations 2.1.2 Outline the typical steps to 3.2 Creating a
interaction, can be create a web presence like: Web Presence
obtrusive, time commitment register an appropriate
to manage it professionally, website address, register
may not be suitable for your with a website hosting
product. service, design and build
your site, promote your site.
1.1.6 Recognise the main legal 1.6 Legal and
and regulatory obligations Regulatory 2.1.3 Understand the term 3.3 Content
when digital marketing in Obligations content management Management
your country. system (CMS). Systems

© 2016 NG-ETC0001T Page 151

s

Ref ICDL Task Item Location Ref ICDL Task Item Location
2.2.1 Understand the main parts 4.1 Website 3.1.2 Understand common social 6.2 Social Media
of a website like: Structure media marketing campaign Marketing
homepage, company and elements like: choosing Campaigns
contact information, news, appropriate platforms for
services/product target audience, planning
description, search, e- and creating suitable
commerce facility, sitemap. content, tracking campaign,
evaluating campaign
2.2.2 Understand website design 4.2 Website performance.
terms like: user interface Design
(UI), user experience (UX), 3.2.1 Understand the term social 7.1 Social Media
responsive design, media profile. Distinguish Profile Types
accessibility, performance between the different types
optimisation, browser of profiles like: personal,
compatibility. business, groups, event.
2.2.3 Recognise good practice in 4.3 Website 3.2.2 Create, edit social media 7.2 Creating a
creating website content Content business profile information Social Media
like: audience focused, like: biography, images, Business Profile
clear and concise, use of URL, contact details,
keywords, consistent category. 7.3 Editing a
branding, quality images Social Media
and videos, regularly Business Profile
updated.
3.2.3 Understand social media 8.1 Social Media
2.2.4 Recognise various methods 4.4 Website actions like: post, comment, Actions
for promoting a website Promotion share, like, tag, hashtag.
like: social media, online
3.2.4 Create, edit, delete a post 8.2 Creating and
advertising, inbound links,
on a social media profile Updating Posts
e-mail marketing,
like: news, event, poll, offer.
submitting your website to a
directory/search engines, e- 4.1.1 Understand the term social 9.1 Social Media
mail signature, physical media management service Management
marketing materials. and identify some common Services
social media management
2.3.1 Understand the term search 5.1 Search
services.
engine optimisation (SEO). Engine
Optimisation 4.1.2 Understand the term 9.2 Scheduled
Overview scheduled post. Schedule a Posts
post.
2.3.2 Understand the term 5.2 Keywords for 4.2.1 Understand the term 10.1 Influencers,
keyword. Create a list of SEO influencers. Recognise the Reviews and
keywords which can be
importance of connecting Referrals
used when optimising
with them.
content for a website, social
media platform. 4.2.2 Understand the term 10.2 Targeted
targeted audience. Audience
2.3.3 Understand the terms page 5.2 Keywords for Recognise the importance
title, URL, description tag, SEO of optimising your content
meta tag, headings,
to suit them.
alternative text and their
importance for SEO. 4.2.3 Understand the term video 10.3 Engaging
marketing. Recognise its Content
3.1.1 Understand the term social 6.1 Social Media importance in online
media platform and identify Platforms promotional campaigns.
the main uses of some
common platforms.

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 Ref ICDL Task Item Location Ref ICDL Task Item Location
4.2.4 Understand the terms 10.1 Influencers, 5.1.3 Understand different types 12.4 Types of
review, referral. Recognise Reviews and of online advertisement like: Online
their importance in Referrals floating, pop-up, video, Advertisement
promoting your business image, banner, text.
through social media.
5.1.4 Understand the term 12.5 Social Media
4.2.5 Understand the term URL 9.3 URL sponsored post. Recognise Advertising
shortener. Use a URL Shorteners its importance in increasing
shortener to track links. interaction and engagement
on social media.
4.2.6 Understand the term viral. 10.3 Engaging
Recognise its importance in Content 5.2.1 Identify some common 13.1 E-mail
a promotional campaign examples of e-mail Marketing
and elements that may marketing platforms. Platforms
contribute to success like:
humour, originality, 5.2.2 Create an account in an e- 13.2 Creating an
resonance with audience, mail marketing application. E-mail Marketing
generating a discussion. Account
4.2.7 Recognise good practice in 10.3 Engaging 5.2.3 Create, edit, delete a 13.3 Creating and
creating engaging social Content contact list in an e-mail Managing
media content like: post
marketing application. Contact Lists
regularly, post relevant
content, research relevant
5.2.4 Create a campaign, select 13.4 Creating and
blogs and companies, post
a template in an e-mail Managing E-mail
competitions, use images
marketing application. Campaigns
and videos.
4.3.1 Outline good practice in 11.1 Comments 5.2.5 Send, schedule an email in 13.4 Creating and
social media marketing like: and Notifications an e-mail marketing Managing E-mail
timely and appropriate application. Campaigns
response to
comments/complaints, take 5.2.6 Understand the terms opt- 13.3 Creating and
certain enquiries offline. in, opt-out. Managing
4.3.2 Set up notifications on a Contact Lists
11.1 Comments
social media profile to alert and Notifications 5.3.1 Outline some reasons to
when the profile has been 14.1 Mobile
use mobile marketing like: Marketing
mentioned or a comment access to more customers,
has been added to the Overview
targeting customers based
profile.
on location.
4.3.3 Understand the term call to 11.2 Calls to 5.3.2 Understand the term mobile 14.2 Mobile
action and identify common Action application. Understand
examples like: get a quote, Applications
how mobile applications
sign up, buy now, download can be used like: promoting
app. Recognise its a business/service, offering
importance in generating services, generating sales.
leads through social media
platforms. 5.3.3 Outline some 14.3 Mobile
considerations for a mobile Marketing
5.1.1 Identify some common 12.2 Search marketing campaign like:
examples of search engine Engine Marketing Considerations
creating a mobile-friendly
marketing (SEM) platforms. Platforms
website, tailoring keywords
for mobile, tailor your ads
5.1.2 Identify some common 12.3 Online for mobile.
examples of online Advertising
advertising platforms. Platforms

© 2016 NG-ETC0001T Page 153

s

Ref ICDL Task Item Location Ref ICDL Task Item Location
5.3.4 Understand options for 14.4 Mobile 6.2.2 Understand common 15.2 Website
mobile advertising like: Advertising analytics terms like: unique Analytics
video ads, search ads, visitors, impressions, clicks, Overview
display ads, social media bounce rate, conversion
ads, application ads. rate, click through rate 15.3 Using
(CTR), tracking code, Website Analytics
6.1.1 Understand the term 15.1 Analytics referrals. 18.1 Online
analytics. Recognise the Overview
importance of analysing Advertising
performance of a digital 15.2 Website Analytics
marketing campaign. Analytics Overview
Overview
6.2.3 Identify some common 15.3 Using
6.1.2 Create an account in an 15.3 Using website analytics tools. Website Analytics
analytics tool. Website Analytics
6.3.1 Understand the term social 16.1 Social Media
6.1.3 Set up an analytics report 15.3 Using media insights. Recognise Insights Overview
for a campaign: website, Website Analytics the importance of analysing
social media, e-mail the influence of your
marketing, advertising. 16.2 Using Social marketing activities on
Export a report as a .csv Media Insights social media platforms.
file. 17.2 Using E-mail 6.3.2 Understand social media 16.1 Social Media
Marketing insights terms like: Insights Overview
Analytics engagement, reach,
18.2 Using Online mentions, trends, inbound
Advertising links.
Analytics 6.3.3 Identify some common 16.2 Using Social
social media insights tools. Media Insights
6.1.4 Schedule an analytics 15.3 Using
report e-mail: website, Website Analytics 6.4.1 Understand common e-mail 17.1 E-mail
social media, e-mail
16.2 Using Social analytics terms like: open Marketing
marketing, advertising.
Media Insights rate, click rate, bounce rate, Analytics
unsubscribe, total Overview
17.2 Using E-mail subscribers.
Marketing
Analytics 6.4.2 Understand common online 18.1 Online
advertising analytics terms Advertising
18.2 Using Online like: pay per click (PPC), Analytics
Advertising cost per thousand (CPM), Overview
Analytics cost per acquisition (CPA)
and cost per conversion
6.1.5 Understand the term split 17.1 E-mail (CPC).
testing. Recognise its Marketing
importance in measuring Analytics
the success of campaigns Overview
like: e-mail marketing,
online advertising. 18.1 Online
Advertising
Analytics
Overview

6.2.1 Understand the term web 15.2 Website

traffic and the importance of Analytics
attracting quality web traffic. Overview

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Congratulations! You have reached the end of the ICDL Digital Marketing book.
You have learned about the key skills relating to key digital marketing activities, including:
 Understanding key concepts of digital marketing, including advantages, limitations
and planning.
 Understanding various web presence options and how to select appropriate
keywords for search engine optimisation.
 Recognising different social media platforms, and setting up and using common
platforms.
 Understanding how effective social media management assists in promotion and
lead generation.
 Using a social media management service to schedule posts and set up notifications.
 Understanding various options for online marketing and advertising, including search
engine, e-mail and mobile marketing.
 Understanding and using analytics services to monitor and improve campaigns.
Having reached this stage of your learning, you should now be ready to undertake ICDL
certification testing. For further information on taking this test, please contact your ICDL test
centre.
s

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P.M.B. 4003
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Nigeria

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