Digital Marketing Foundations
What is digital marketing?
According to the Oxford dictionary, New media are defined as “means of mass communication using digital technologies such as the Internet”. Digital marketing is defined within the parameters of technologies using digital formats and internet. This can range from computer, to mobile, to digital billboards. It encompasses online shared experience such as social media or digital marketing software’s that helps marketers created distribute and track their campaign on digital platforms.
Some instances of how old media translates into a new media format today:
Books → E-books, wikis
Journalism → blogs
Music → Pandora Newspapers,
Magazines → e-zines
Radio → podcasts
Television → Full episodes on the web, Netflix
Telephone → VOIP
Film → Amateur videos on the web, Netflix, Vimeo
Photography → Flickr,
Picasa Art → Museums on the web
Historically Digital Marketing began with the start of new media and the Internet bubble of the 1990s. From the first clickable web-ad from AT&T in 1994, prophetically asking, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.“ Today banner ads are so common that we have even developed technologies to block them from appearing and invading our screens. That being said, digital marketing has developed to be a much more complex network of communication, collaboration, community, creativity, and convergence beyond simple display ads.
Notoriously, the development of Digital Marketing has lead to two marketing concepts known as Inbound and Outbound marketing.
With the new digital marketing experience, reaching out to an audience and bringing them through the buyer’s journey requires new skills and positioning that were not required in the past.
In a knowledge-based world providing a myriad of messages, not only do audiences rely on advertising to inform them of new products, they can also review, comment, ask questions and watch videos of other users testing a product. All of this is happening without Brands being able to monitor or influence their audience. If a community doesn’t approve of a product or the product doesn’t resonate, it will be much more difficult to attract the desired audience.
That is where the concept of inbound marketing comes into play. According to one of the big payers of inbound marketing, HubSpot, inbound is defined as an approach focused on attracting customers through content and interactions that are relevant and helpful — not interruptive. With inbound marketing, potential customers find you through channels like blogs, search engines, and social media.
Outbound marketing is an attempt to initiate a conversation about a product or service by rapidly spreading word of its existence, using volume and repetition. This applies to digital as much as traditional media, while inbound marketing is a much more web-based practice.
The development of inbound marketing came from the realization that traditional tactics did not perform well at developing healthy relationships with customers as they were too intrusive and disruptive. In addition to this, inbound was influenced by the change in consumer behavior with new media development, resulting in a shorter attention spans, more choice, information and the possibility to reduce marketing noise in one click. For instance, in 2017, nine out of ten ad blocking users blocked ads via desktop or laptop – translating to 24.0% of US internet users (emarkter.com). This could prove to be a serious issue for brands focusing mainly on outbound strategies such as online banners and advertising. We see this similarly with pre-roll banners, where 52% of US digital video viewers in 2016 said they simply skip a pre-roll ad when presented with it. In the new media era, brand have little control over their ad viewing as users have gained back control of the content. Inbound marketing can be achieved through all media types, but is mostly developed through owned and earned media.
Principles of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is the use of new media or digital technology to achieve marketing goals through owned, paid and earned media.
Marketing planning is tied to the buyer’s journey from the stages of Awareness, Interest , Consideration, Conversion, and Retention.
Digital marketing revolves around five Marketing Functions: Planning, Awareness, Conversion, Retention, Analysis & Optimization.
Traditional and digital marketing work together to take the consumer through the buyers journey using broad and personalized messages and mediums.
The DMI 3i Methodology approaches digital marketing through the concept of Initiating, Integrating and Iterating actions.
Each digital marketing channel serves a business opportunity and revolves around a core value proposition.
Developing Digital Marketing Objectives
When planning your marketing efforts keep in mind: Market trends, product value proposition, target audiences, goals, touchpoints, budget, timeframe and creative execution.
Each step helps you to focus better, quantify, and optimize your strategy for effective results.
SMART Objective are used to develop a result driven marketing strategy.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time –bound.
Digital Marketing Industry
Social media that resonates with your audience will be on the list of platforms used on a daily basis to either post, monitor or analyze your content performance and audience engagement. Besides the social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat, there might be a social media platform that are more niche which could also be used by the stakeholder. That platform will also be your place for developing paid social media advertising and selecting influencers. Usually the social media platforms offer an intricate offer of ad formats and services that can deliver based on your objectives. Similar to a CMS platform, depending on your account type you might be eligible to work with an account manager and have a team of stakeholders to work with.
Social media platforms fit under the core marketing function of awareness, conversion and retention by providing multiple tools to reach user organically or via paid content.
The key assets of social media are:
Profiles/ Accounts: This can be the company or employees profile and can be used to provide extra content and personalised experiences that are valuable in the awareness and retention phase. Creating deeper conversations and showcasing personal interest on the company or public figure that represents the company.
Pages: This is a more official window over your company. It is the flagship store of social media on Facebook or LinkedIn, for instance. This creates awareness of search and also a point of contact for consumers that have more questions as they consider your company in their search. This is where all branded content lives and is shared on a regular basis.
Groups: These are a great way to create awareness and retention by starting or participating in discussions geared towards a specific community of interests.
Advertising: The content that is posted and created can be advertised according to an objective. The power of social media advertising resides in its targeting and formats capabilities, it can be a strong tool for converting users in customers, but can also increase followers and engagement.
Overall, the social media platform is a central place for content. The marketer will work with the platform regularly and depending on the level of investments, work with the social media sales and account teams to develop better strategies. Agencies who specialize in social media strategies can come into play as a key stakeholders to increase social media performances. But the main stakeholders in social media are the audience and the followers.