Digital Marketing

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Abstract:

Digital marketing overlays both traditional and digital marketing strategies for providing customers with the latest news and developments about products and services. There is no limitation on good ideas. However they don't just come from marketers they can come from anywhere inside or outside of your organization. How open are to new ideas? What is your appetite for risk in marketing? How prepared are you to trial a new way of doing something?

This paper gives an overview of the digital marketing framework, strategies and difference between digital marketing and Internet marketing.

Digital Marketing is the practice of promoting services and products using data-driven online distribution channels to reach customers timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner (Dewanjee). What is the difference between digital marketing and Internet marketing? The big difference is in the type of marketing techniques used. Internet marketing, although using the digital Internet, focuses on every means of getting information to potential customers about products and services a merchant is offering using only the Internet. Digital marketing uses all the channels available in the digital media to get information to customers, and it does not limit itself to the Internet.

Marketing principles in the digital age requires a company listen to what is being said about the brand, also “digital communication encourages individuals and marketers to share information easily and spread electronic word of mouth (e-WOM)” (Levy S., p. 95). However the need to run focus groups and commission expensive market research to find out what people think about a brand is no longer necessary. Today, such information can be gathered in the digital arena such Twitter, FB, third party review sites such as Yelp and Trip Advisor. Listen! Search! Analyze! Some of these are free tools but require some basic how to knowledge but even small businesses can take advantage of it.

Digital marketing requires strong branding plan and value proposition - this needs to be a very clear idea of what's in it for the consumer. Ideally, your brand delivers a clearly differentiated position and creates a genuine emotional connection with the consumer. Marketing integrated into long term business planning that is treated as seriously as the annual budget development, delivers stronger, more valuable, more adaptive and more in demand products and services for organizations.(Vien, p.4)

It’s vital that the long term business goals and objectives for the business owners are inseparably linked to long term marketing strategy. But the idea of having an annual plan, that's measured quarterly and reviewed and rewritten again next year is now imperfect. Today, brands must be more nimble, more responsive and more flexible than ever before, the new buzz word - Agile Marketing (Rooney, 2014).

It’s important to understand that anyone can positively or negatively influence a brand hence strategy should be built on how to Influence the Influencers. “Marketing communication is concerned with conveying information or messages to customers that might influence their behavior” (Rowley, p. 538). YouTube has given access to anyone to become a celebrity and social success is all about Twitter followers and Facebook like. This is on top of traditional print media, books, guides, hot lists, and top 100 lists.

The important thing is for brands to: 

• know who their consumers are and therefore who they want to influence
• know who those consumers follow, watch, and are therefore influenced by 
  have effective meaningful strategies to speak with these influencers and get them onside with their brand 
• listen and actively engage in the dialogue 
• know how, when and to what to respond to
• have the ability to put it all in perspective 
• Be Transparent and open.

Today's consumers have more access to information and product awareness and tend to more skeptical than in the past. In the digital age, there are very few secrets. Brands are increasingly visible on the outside and on the inside.  Therefore it is important to actively engage consumers and empower them help define the brand. Engagement can be defined as a meaningful and mutually beneficial collaboration (Drell). Consumers now want to actively "own" and influence their favorite brands. This is a shift in thinking for marketers and has a massive impact on the idea of brand control.

Feedback and measurements are essential to the plan. The need to understand the right things to measure, how to measure them and report on them. But it needs to happen more organically in business than it does today.  This mean report on less information more often and challenge the team to identify what's really important to know. There are a lot of wasted reports and analysis out there, mostly because people don't understand what they need to measure and how.        

Types of Digital Marketing:

Pull-digital marketing in which the consumer must actively seek the marketing content, often via web searches

Push- digital marketing where the marketer sends the content to the consumer.

“Push marketing strategies can create additional profit opportunities within the marketing channel.” (Levy M. p.29)

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. For example:

What Does Digital Branding Consists of?

• Website Design
• Graphic Design
• Online Brand management
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• SMO (Social Media Optimization)
• E-Mail Marketing
• Banner Advertising
• Mobile Marketing
• Facebook Marketing
• Blog Marketing

The digital marketing sector uses many different digital marketing media channels, such as:

• Cell phone Short Message Service (SMS) – text messages
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds
• Podcasts
• Voice Broadcast
• Video E-mails
• Banner ads on affiliate websites
• Outdoor digital displays
• Websites
• Blogs

Steps in Digital Marketing

1. Acquire  → (2) Convert → (3) Retain, Grow and Measure → (4) Optimize
   

 Acquire Stage

Search engine marketing is a pull techniques and tends to play an increasingly important role in internet marketing. More than 60% internet users use search engines on a daily basis. They seek relevant information, which is instantly available and free of cost. Search engines give them the option of finding any information anywhere and no specific time is required. For small companies search engine marketing provides more opportunities to market their products worldwide, and generate significant sales with limited budget.

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