Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is the practice of promoting products or services through digital channels, such as search engines, social media platforms, email, mobile apps, and other online platforms. It involves leveraging various digital technologies and tools to reach a specific target audience and engage with them in a meaningful way.

Digital Marketing encompasses a wide range of tactics and strategies, such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and many others. It allows businesses to reach their target audience more effectively, measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, and adjust their strategies accordingly.

One of the most significant advantages of digital marketing is that it enables businesses to reach a much larger audience than traditional marketing methods. With the rise of the internet and mobile devices, people are spending more time online, making digital marketing an essential part of any modern marketing strategy.

Overall, digital marketing has become an increasingly important aspect of business, providing companies with new and innovative ways to reach their target audience and grow their brand.

History of Digital Marketing

The development of digital marketing is inseparable from technology development. One of the first key events happened in 1971 when Ray Tomlinson sent the first email, and his technology set the platform to allow people to send and receive files through different machines. However, the more recognizable period as being the start of Digital Marketing is 1990 as this was when the Archie search engine was created as an index for FTP sites. In the 1980s, the storage capacity of computers was already big enough to store huge volumes of customer information. Companies started choosing online techniques, such as database marketing, rather than limited list broker. These kinds of databases allowed companies to track customers’ information more effectively, thus transforming the relationship between buyer and seller. However, the manual process was not as efficient.

In the 1990s, the term Digital Marketing was first coined. With the debut of server/client architecture and the popularity of personal computers, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications became a significant factor in marketing technology. Fierce competition forced vendors to include more services into their software, for example, marketing, and sales service applications. Marketers were also able to own huge online customer data through eCRM software after the Internet was born. Companies could update the data on customer needs and obtain the priorities of their experience. This led to the first clickable banner ad going live in 1994, which was the “You Will” campaign by AT&T over the first four months of it going live, 44% of all people who saw it clicked on the ad.

In the 2000s, with increasing numbers of Internet users and the birth of the iPhone, customers began searching for products and making decisions about their needs online first, instead of consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a company. In addition, a survey in 2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had not registered their own domain address. These problems encouraged marketers to find new ways to integrate digital technology into market development.

In 2007, marketing automation was developed as a response to the ever-evolving marketing climate. Marketing automation is the process by which software is used to automate conventional marketing processes. Marketing automation helped companies segment customers, launch multichannel marketing campaigns, and provide personalized information for customers based on their specific activities. In this way, the user’s activity triggers a personal message that is customized to the user in their preferred platform. However, despite the benefits of marketing automation many companies are struggling to adapt it to their everyday uses correctly.

Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s when the proliferation of devices capable of accessing digital media led to sudden growth. Statistics produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that digital marketing was still growing. With the development of social media in the 2000s, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in their daily lives. Therefore, they expected a seamless user experience across different channels for searching for product information. The change in customer behavior improved the diversification of marketing technology.

Digital marketing is also referred to as ‘online marketing, ‘internet marketing‘ or ‘web marketing. The term digital marketing has grown in popularity over time. In the USA online marketing is still a popular term. In Italy, digital marketing is referred to as web marketing. Worldwide digital marketing has become the most common term, especially after the year 2013.

Digital media growth was estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spending at 48% growth in 2010. An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises concerns about consumer privacy and data protection.

The new non-linear marketing approach

The new non-linear marketing approach is a modern marketing strategy that focuses on creating a personalized and engaging experience for the consumer, rather than following a linear sales funnel.

Traditionally, marketing was seen as a linear process where the consumer was taken through a series of steps from awareness to purchase. The new non-linear approach recognizes that consumers have become more sophisticated and that their journey is no longer predictable. This approach aims to create a more dynamic and interactive relationship between the brand and the consumer, providing personalized experiences that are tailored to the consumer’s needs and preferences.

The new non-linear marketing approach focuses on building relationships with the consumer through various touchpoints across multiple channels, such as social media, email, video, and content marketing. It seeks to create a seamless customer experience, where the consumer can engage with the brand at any point in the journey, rather than being limited to a predefined linear path.

By using data and analytics to better understand the consumer’s behavior and preferences, businesses can deliver targeted, relevant messages that resonate with the consumer and drive engagement. This approach allows businesses to build stronger, more loyal relationships with their customers, leading to increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, and revenue growth.

Nonlinear marketing strategies involve efforts to adapt the advertising to different platforms and to tailor the advertising to different individual buyers rather than a large coherent audience.

Tactics may include:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
2. Social media marketing
3. Video marketing
4. Email marketing
5. Blogging & affiliate marketing
6. Website marketing
7. Paid search/contextual advertising
8. Search engine marketing

Channels of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing Channels are systems based on the Internet that can create, accelerate, and transmit product value from a producer to a consumer terminal, through digital networks. Digital marketing is facilitated by multiple Digital Marketing channels, As an advertiser one’s core objective is to find channels that result in maximum two-way communication and a better overall ROI for the brand. There are multiple digital marketing channels available namely http://blcieindia.in/.

Affiliate marketing – Affiliate marketing is perceived to not be considered a safe, reliable, and easy means of marketing through online platforms. This is due to a lack of reliability in terms of affiliates that can produce the demanded number of new customers. As a result of this risk and bad affiliates, it leaves the brand prone to exploitation in terms of claiming commission that isn’t honestly acquired. Legal means may offer some protection against this, yet there are limitations in recovering any losses or investments.

Display advertising – As the term implies, online display advertising deals with showcasing promotional messages or ideas to the consumer on the internet. This includes a wide range of advertisements like advertising blogs, networks, interstitial ads, contextual data, ads on search engines, classified or dynamic advertisements, etc.

Email marketing – Email marketing in comparison to other forms of digital marketing is considered cheap. It is also a way to rapidly communicate a message such as their value proposition to existing or potential customers. Yet this channel of communication may be perceived by recipients to be bothersome and irritating, especially to new or potential customers, therefore the success of email marketing is reliant on the language and visual appeal applied. In terms of visual appeal, there are indications that using graphics/visuals that are relevant to the message which is attempting to be sent, yet less visual graphics to be applied with initial emails are more effective in turn creating a relatively personal feel to the email.

Search engine marketing – Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate Search engine optimization, which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results in pages to enhance pay-per-click (PPC) listings.

Social Media Marketing – The term ‘Digital Marketing’ has a number of marketing facets as it supports different channels used and among these, comes Social Media. When we use social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc.) to market a product or service, the strategy is called Social Media Marketing. It is a procedure wherein strategies are made and executed to draw in traffic for a website or to gain the attention of buyers over the web using different social media platforms.

Social networking service – A social networking service is an online platform that people use to build social networks or social relations with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections.

In-game advertising – In-Game advertising is defined as the “inclusion of products or brands within a digital game. The game allows brands or products to place ads within their game, either in a subtle manner or in the form of an advertisement banner. There are many factors that exist in whether brands are successful in the advertising of their brand/product, these being: Type of game, technical platform, 3-D and 4-D technology, game genre, congruity of brand and game, prominence of advertising within the game. Individual factors consist of attitudes towards placement advertisements, game involvement, product involvement, flow, or entertainment.

Online public relations – The use of the internet to communicate with both potential and current customers in the public realm.

Video advertising – This type of advertising in terms of digital/online means are advertisements that play on online videos e.g. YouTube videos. This type of marketing has seen an increase in popularity over time. Online Video Advertising usually consists of three types: Pre-Roll advertisements which play before the video is watched, Mid-Roll advertisements which play during the video, or Post-Roll advertisements which play after the video is watched. Post-roll advertisements were shown to have better brand recognition in relation to the other types, where-as “ad-context congruity/incongruity plays an important role in reinforcing ad memorability”.

Native Advertising – This involves the placement of paid content that replicates the look, feel, and oftentimes, the voice of a platform’s existing content. It is most effective when used on digital platforms like websites, newsletters, and social media. Can be somewhat controversial as some critics feel it intentionally deceives consumers.

Content Marketing – This is an approach to marketing that focuses on gaining and retaining customers by offering helpful content to customers that improve the buying experience and creates brand awareness. A brand may use this approach to hold a customer’s attention with the goal of influencing potential purchase decisions.

Sponsored Content – This utilizes content created and paid for by a brand to promote a specific product or service.

Inbound Marketing- a market strategy that involves using content as a means to attract customers to a brand or product. Requires extensive research into the behaviors, interests, and habits of the brand’s target market.

SMS Marketing: Although its popularity is decreasing daily, SMS marketing still plays a huge role in bringing new users, providing direct updates, providing new offers, etc.

Push Notification: In this digital era, Push Notifications are responsible for bringing new and abandoned customers through smart segmentation. Many online brands are using this to provide personalized appeals depending on the scenario of customer acquisition.

How can I start digital marketing?

If you are interested in starting digital marketing, here are some steps to help you get started:

Learn the basics: Start by learning the fundamentals of digital marketing. There are plenty of online resources available, including blogs, courses, and tutorials, that can help you understand the different types of digital marketing and how they work.

Identify your target audience: Determine who your target audience is and where they spend their time online. This will help you create a more targeted and effective digital marketing strategy.

Set goals: Establish clear goals and objectives for your digital marketing efforts. This could include increasing website traffic, generating leads, improving brand awareness, or increasing sales.

Choose your channels: Decide which digital marketing channels are most relevant to your audience and goals. This could include search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing, or a combination of these.

Develop a strategy: Create a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that outlines your goals, target audience, channels, messaging, and tactics. This should include a plan for measuring and analyzing the success of your efforts.

Create content: Develop high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience and aligns with your brand messaging. This could include blog posts, videos, infographics, whitepapers, or social media posts.

Implement and monitor: Launch your digital marketing campaigns and monitor their performance regularly. This will allow you to make adjustments and optimizations based on real-time data and insights.

Starting digital marketing can seem daunting, but by following these steps and being willing to learn and adapt as you go, you can develop a successful digital marketing strategy that helps you achieve your business goals.