You know having a website and online presence is important but that might be as far as you’ve gotten. That’s a great start, but it’s only the beginning. Understanding why a good website and active online presence are important comes next. As you dive into blogs and tech articles to do some good ol’ fashioned learnin’ about digital marketing it can become overwhelming.

“But, I’m not a website developer! What are all these terms? SEO, SEM, UX, CMS, CSS, PHP…I give up!” you exclaim.

Have no fear! Not that long ago I was also a digital beginner. When I entered this industry I possessed a defensive shield against masses of acronyms: Ten years of military experience. As a result, I had experience with understanding acronyms in that context, but I had no idea what any of the ones mentioned in my first paragraph stood for. Fortunately for me, I’m now deep in the digital marketing industry and get to talk about and execute these ideas on a daily basis. But, as a former digital novice, I wanted to write this beginner’s guide to digital marketing to ease you into the fast-moving world of digital.

This abbreviated guide will get you started while helping you avoid the pitfall of being overwhelmed by acronyms and jargon. To start you out, I’ll focus on three major areas that will help kick off your journey to digital success without getting lost in the details.

1. The Digital Hub: Website

Have you ever been to a website that is frustrating to use? A variety of symptoms can cause this frustration. Small text, images that won’t load, poor load times, broken graphics, confusing layout, link…LINKS EVERYWHERE! Problems like these can cause users to leave websites without having found what they came for—which means lost business and revenue for you. One of the most effective solutions to this problem is improving your user experience (UX). Responsive design is Google’s recommended best practice for treating your site’s visitors to an engaging and helpful experience. The most basic definition of responsive design is that it describes a website that will work well and similarly on any platform. You’ll get the same information efficiently and quickly on a desktop (Mac or Windows), an iPhone, Android phone or tablet. Having a well designed experience will keep users on your site longer, help them find what they need, and indirectly help you rank higher on search engines like Google.

2. Directing People to the Hub: Search Engine Optimization

The best analogy for search engine optimization (SEO) is the old real estate adage: “Location, location, LOCATION!” Similar to how constructing your new storefront or headquarters in a busy area or just off the highway with easy access is much preferred to placing it on a country road in the middle of nowhere, the same applies to your website. If your site is a digital storefront and the Internet is the world, then Google and the other major search engines are the roads, highways, and intersections. It is important to make sure that your website is reachable without a lengthy search because on a long enough timeline anyone will give up looking for you no matter how important it is they find you. The goal of search engine optimization is to upgrade you from sitting in the middle of a barren wasteland absent any customers, to being right along the superhighway with a huge sign that says, “shop here!” This effort builds upon the user experience, as without it you’ll be driving customers to a storefront that looks run down and abandoned. Both are mutually necessary and beneficial at the same time.

3. Amplifying The Hub’s Content: Social, Email and Search Engine Marketing

SEO will help users find your website, but you don’t want to just sit back and wait. Social media, email marketing and search marketing are active ways to find your target audience. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat…social networks are everywhere! Is it a requirement to have a presence on all of them? Probably not. It will be dependent on your target audience. However, the more social media presence your business has the better. It would be prudent to at least cover the major ones such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin as a baseline. The beauty of Social media is that the average person often times is perusing it with no actual goals in mind, and a good presence there can bring these users to you completely on accident on their part. It is a great way to funnel aimless news feed scrollers to your site, bringing in revenue that you might never have attracted otherwise. In addition to this, a strong email marketing campaign that keeps current customers in the loop, as well as reaching out to potential ones can have a multiplication effect paired with a good Social Media presence. These are free (or almost free) activities that lead to revenue for the business—and can be paired with paid advertising to amplify your reach even further.