Digital Marketing Channels

With the growing popularity of internet, the business persons have shifted their attention towards internet. It has several benefits and the benefits which business persons perceived is, it can be used as effective marketing medium. Digital marketing is also known web marketing, online marketing, e marketing and internet marketing. Today many companies and businesses are using digital marketing method to get popularity in market. Digital marketing uses various tools and techniques to promote the business. This marketing method helps to target audience and also helps to analyze the results easily (Garrigos-Simon, Lapiedra Alcami & Barbera Ribera, 2012). Digital marketing is totally different from traditional marketing methods as in traditional marketing,  print media, radio, television, bill boards and business cards are mainly being used where as in digital marketing medium search engine optimization, search engine marketing, online display advertisement, blogging, social media marketing and many other similar methods are being used. In company the marketing department members mainly do marketing activities (Leeflang et al., 2014). Researchers have analyzed that digital marketing methods are more effective than traditional marketing methods. Some digital marketing channels which companies use for online promotion are discussed in the section given below.

Digital marketing channels help to target audience directly. It the current market condition it becomes very essential to have an online presence of business and digital marketing channels help in that. Digital marketing channel provides support to accomplish business’s goals. There are different digital marketing channels available and marketers select channels according to their need. Some popular digital marketing channels are listed below.

• Online display advertising
• Affiliate marketing
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Search engine optimization
• Content marketing
• Online public relations (Chaffey & Smith, 2013)

In all the above mentioned digital marketing channels social media marketing and online display advertising are widely being used by marketers. Facebook advertising is very popular in social media advertising. In next some paragraphs, the role of Facebook advertising and online display advertising for targeting audience are explained.

Facebook advertising is very simple and effective. The numbers of Facebook users are increasing day by day because people love this social networking site where they can easily share their feelings and make connectivity with friends. According to research conducted in April, 2017, The numbers of Facebook users were recorded 219 million users in United States, 213 million users in India, 123 million users in Brazil, 111 million users in Indonesia, 76 million users in Mexico, 63 million users in Philippines, 50 million users in Vietnam, 48 million users in Turkey, 47 million users in Thailand and 42 million users in United Kingdom (Statista, 2017). People love to use Facebook because on Facebook people can easily chat, share posts and can see activities of other Facebook friends. Now day’s marketers are using Facebook for marketing. Marketers can create Facebook page and can start Facebook campaign. Facebook PPC advertising is also popular where marketers prepare sponsored advertisement. Audios, videos and content can be easily shared on Facebook and marketers also analyze the audience’s reaction through Facebook adverts (Ramsaran-Fowdar & Fowdar, 2013).

On the other side some advertisers use online display advertising method. Many people like to see websites, forums and blogs because they find them useful. Digital marketers can transfer the message to potential customers by placing display ads on these platforms. Display ads include video ads, banners, interactive ads, animated ads and other similar ads which can be posted on these platforms. A display ad is useful to create brand awareness and also helps to generate traffic of customers which overall gives result in high sales (Johnson, 2013). Payment of display ad is usually in form of cost per impression. The success of online display ads depends upon the number of users’ click the advert gets. Display ads can be shown to customers according to their geographic locations. The advert tool which works to manage display ad helps to know customer’s interest by which the marketers can select the target location for the advertisement.

Facebook advertising versus online display advertising

Some researchers have analyzed that Facebook advertising gives more effective results than display advertising. Through Facebook advertising, the post can be easily reached to the target audience because the monthly Facebook users are recorded in millions. Facebook advertising includes low cost (Treadaway & Smith, 2012). Target customers can see the shared post on Facebook easily. For Facebook advertising, it is being assumed that target customers spend most of their time on Facebook. On Facebook the most appropriate bidding structure can be CPM, CPC or CPA and the marketers can select appropriate bidding structure to reach campaign objectives. Facebook can target customers according to customer’s interest and also demographic wise (Holzner, 2008). Through Facebook advert marketers can check post reach and customer’s interest on each post. If customers like the post they tend to share the post with others. To promote product or services the marketers should do Facebook marketing. Some marketers integrate digital marketing with traditional marketing mix to promote their brand. By integrating the benefits of marketers can achieve their goals easily.

Marketing is not a simple process. For marketing of goods and services, the marketing manager formulates a marketing plan after conducting some major analysis like market analysis, product or service analysis, competitor analysis and environment analysis. Marketing managers plan multiple activities to promote products or services. Although digital marketing activities give various advantages but to increase effectiveness digital marketing can be integrated with traditional marketing mix to increase the value of marketing. Marketers are familiar with traditional marketing mix elements because they are being used for a long time. Digital marketing method uses electronic devices for promotional activities. In digital marketing the marketing elements are also related to digital devices. The marketing concepts are based on marketing mix elements like product, price, place and promotion.

Product

Digital marketing helps to launch new product in market. For launching new product in market, research process is required. Research process can be more effective through digital devices. In digital marketing the products or services can be promoted easily. Product image can be posted on digital mediums like on social media sites, websites and blogs. Customers can see image of product and get important information like product size, shape, warranty and guarantee condition, color, specification, etc. Various e commerce sites are showing products on the websites and customers can check all the required information easily on the site. The marketers can check demand of the products by analyzing customer’s interest (Dominici, 2009).

Price

On digital marketing channels, product’s prices are shown which are comparatively lower than other platforms. Customers can get various pricing options like cash on delivery, credit card payment or debit card payment. Customers can check the price of same product on different e commerce websites so customers like to shop online because through it they get more benefits. Customers can select the product in affordable price and companies also get benefits because less numbers of intermediaries are required for product distribution which overall gives impact on product’s price (Chen, Y. & Xie, 2008).  

Integration of digital marketing with traditional marketing mix

Place

Through digital mediums the services can be provided to different places. Customers can place order from any place and get services easily. Digital marketing requires a strong distribution network to provide services to customers who live at different places (Goi, 2009).

Promotion

For digital marketing some promotional methods like webinars, search engine optimization, social media advertising, content marketing and display advertising can be used. These platforms work effectively for promotion. Both paid promotional methods and free promotional methods can be used (Mangold & Faulds, 2009)

One more influential method in digital marketing is content marketing. It is also effective to create awareness among customers. Whenever customers’ think to purchase a product they tend to search information about the product. Many people like to read content related to the required product.

Content marketing is very important for any organization. Content marketing mainly focus to develop an effective content which can engage maximum numbers of customers. Content should be relevant and easily available so that customers can read content without difficulty. Effective content development is not a simple task. An organization which uses excellent content development strategy can get competitive advantage (Scott, 2015). The success of content depends upon the numbers of readers who have purchased the product after reading the content. Readers get frustrated when they do not found the content relevant. The information flow in the content should be proper so that readers do not get distracted while reading. For developing an effective content first the content developer needs to recognize the needs of customers. After analyzing the needs the developer should develop effective content which can make connectivity with customer’s needs. The content should be informative and influential which can persuade customers to take action. Customers’ buying behavior is also affected by the quality of content customers read before purchasing the product (Holliman & Rowley, 2014).

The first and foremost step of content development is designing the objective of content. The objective should be clear and specific. The content can be posted on social networking sites, in blogs or in comments. Once the marketers have identified the customers the objectives should be designed for content development. For content development the developer should see some best contents posted for similar type products and should get the idea how best content can be developed for target customers (Hanna, Rohm & Crittenden, 2011). They should check the review of best content to know reactions of customers. Primary motive should be the content should satisfy the expectations of readers. Customers should get the feelings that the content is informative and useful for them. The time and place of availability of content also have significant impact on the success of content marketing. People do not like to read outdated information. Organization which uses content marketing should post good content regularly so that connectivity with customers does not breakdown. Customers like when they get similar content on multiple platforms like social media sites, websites and blogs because through this customers can read content anywhere in digital platforms (Jefferson & Tanton, 2013).  

For developing content, the content developer, collects all the necessary information related to the subject and analyzes the customer’s demand. This information works as base structure for development. The content should not only satisfy the expectations of customers but also helpful for the growth of the business. To increase the attractiveness of content some pictures can be added with content. The content which includes picture looks more attractive and influential.  While developing content for website and blogs some keywords should be given attention, which help to get good rank on search engines (Palmer & Koenig-Lewis, 2009). The keywords should be included properly in the content. The keyword should be stuffed properly within content through which the readers do not get distracted from it and the content also gets good ranking on search engines. The information which marketers want to give through content marketing should be clearly visible in the content. The information should be organized and presented properly (Goh, Heng & Lin, 2013).

Content marketing method works effectively to react out to target customers. First to get success in content marketing, customers’ trust is very much required. In the absence of customers’ trust all the efforts which developers made for content development give no results. The effective content works as sales person for the company because from content the customers can make up their mind for purchase. The researchers have analyzed that content marketing mainly focus to develop trust in customers (Ho & Dempsey, 2010). For developing trust the information available in content should be real or authentic. There should be no grammatical mistakes in the content and correct sentence structure should be used. Articles, blogs and forums are also included in content marketing. On forums, customers can ask questions and give reviews and feedback for services. Marketers can post best answers for the questions through which the customer’ get satisfaction. Through this method customers develop loyalty and get attached to the brand. The quality of content should be kept high because low quality can give negative results so high quality content should be delivered by marketers. When customers find the content good they like to read more about the subject. To win hearts of customers the marketers should provide best quality content.

Many marketers have shown benefits of content marketing. Content development is not as easy as it looks. Some laws content developers have to follow while developing content.  Content marketing includes blog posts, website’s content, feature articles, press releases and social media content. Many companies are using content marketing strategies to get recognition in market. Competition is increasing very rapidly because the organizations are providing similar type of services to customers then to create uniqueness the marketers develop effective content which includes catchy phrases to attract customers. There are various laws which content marketers have to follow while using content marketing. Some major laws are described in below mentioned points.

Original thinking

The content writers cannot copy work of others. The content should reflect original thinking of writer. Copying the work of other writer is illegal and the search engines do not give ranking to the content which is copied. Customers like to read the content which is unique. When a writer publishes his work it should be real and authentic. The content writer should avoid plagiarism to get good ranking in search engines. Before submitting a work on digital platforms the content writer should check for plagiarism. Content can be shared by others on social media sites and other different digital platforms but persons who share cannot declare the content their own work (Botha & Reyneke, 2013).

Cannot include negative words for competitors

The content writers cannot use abusive or negative words in content for competitors. If a competitor finds that the writer is doing negative publicity then the competitor can file complain against the company in court. The content should not be developed to harm reputation of competitors. The content writers can write about benefits of company’s services but cannot write to harm image of competitors (Bertrand et al., 2010).

Clarity

The content should be clear and understandable. The writer should write clear sentences. The readers should easily get information without deep thought. There should be no grammatical and sentence structure errors. The writers who mix keywords within content just to get ranking on search engines cannot attract customers through content because customers will not understand the message of content easily because of interruption of keywords. The keywords should be inserted properly within content with maintaining regular flow of information (Rose & Pulizzi, 2011).

Accessibility

The content should be visible to audience.  The activity in content marketing where content developers publish content and soon delete it, gives negative impression to customers. Consistency should be maintained in publishing content. Content marketing will be effective when marketers participate in conversations. Availability of good content helps to develop good relationship with customers (Rowley, 2008).

Reciprocity

The content writers cannot force others to share their content. People will share content if they find it useful and interesting. So the content writers should invest some time to make good relationship with customers. Marketers should involve themselves in discussion with customers so that customers show their interest and share the content, which helps to spread the message.

Digital marketers put their best efforts for marketing their services on digital mediums. Some popular analytics tool like Google analytics, they can use to measure the performance to maximize marketing effectiveness. Analytics helps to measure, maintain and analyses marketing efforts and helps to examine return of investment.

Analytics plays an important role in digital marketing. Analytics helps to strengthen relationship between customer and the company. It also helps to plan future strategies according to current condition. It helps to find potential customers by which the company can plan effective sales approach and can design best possible message for target customers. Analytics can be used throughout digital marketing cycle in very efficient manner. Analytics tool helps marketers to know the areas where more efforts are required for improvement. There are some benefits of using analytics tools in digital marketing which are mentioned in below given points.

Scoring leads

Analytics helps to score leads from customers on the basis of predictive analytics. Customer’s buying behavior can be understood through the use of analytics tools.

Customers’ segmentation

Analytics tools helps to focus on digital marketing efforts by doing segmentation of potential customers into targetable group. Through marketing analytics, the marketers can know who will purchase their products and who will not without investing money in search efforts. Marketers will not target the people who do not require the products or services and they can save their time. Marketers can get demographic and geographic details of customers through analytics and can do segmentation accordingly (Järvinen & Karjaluoto, 2015).

Evaluating intent

Identify the customers is the primary and most important step of digital marketing campaign. In current situation where social media lovers are increasing rapidly, the best place to search potential customers is social networking sites. On social networking sites people show their feelings, behaviors and sentiments by which marketers can know democratic characteristics of audience (Vien, 2015). Descriptive analytics data can be used to define potential buyers.

Creating message

Once the target customers segment is identified; best message can be prepared for them to get effective results. Analytics is the only method which can provide strong support to marketing activities. Customer specific behavioral analytic makes it possible to analyze click patterns on the website of the company through which marketers can prepare message content which can be more influential for customers. Marketers can take small group of potential customers and can design message to meet their needs. Effective marketing message can be easily designed by the use of analytics tools.

Increase return on investment

The marketers put marketing efforts to get expected outcomes. Digital marketers use marketing campaigns for marketing and can measure the ROI of each campaign to check the effectiveness. Web analytics tools can be used by marketers to analyze return of investment. Marketers focus to meet financial goals which are important to enhance the growth of company.

Analytics data is important to gain required information for digital marketing activities. The digital marketers can know whether their digital marketing activities and paid search are giving prospecting customers to them. Analytics give information about valuable performance indicators like conversion rates, number of clicks, impression, number of page views, bounce rate and average session duration. Through the use of analytics tools the marketers can track visitors’ location or also keep an eye on customers throughout their visit (Chaffey & Patron, 2012). They can check which pages are getting more likes than others. Marketers can plan effective marketing strategy for customers’ engagement. Analytics helps to understand what customers actually do and what marketers believe for customers. Web analytics is a well known method which helps to understand customers’ behavior through activities happening on website. Audiences’ interest on the particular page can be known by digital marketers by number of clicks and time spent by viewers on the particular page. If a viewer spends less time on the page that means the page needs some improvement so that viewers like it. By the use of analytics the marketers can check their efforts are giving good results or not. Marketing professionals require actual data for planning and analyzing, which they can get only through analytics tools (Ellaway et al., 2014). One popular tool for analytics is Google analytics.  Google is a popular name in search engine marketing. Google Company provided various free tools that companies can use to manage their operations effectively.

Google analytics not only helps to know the numbers of persons who got attracted by digital marketing efforts but also give the idea to marketers about the numbers of customers who will use the products or services again. Google analytics tool helps to analyze keywords and trends. Google analytics provides list of keywords which customers use to get information related to the organization and product on Google (Clifton, 2012). People use some combination of words through which they get related results. The combination of words reflects search queries of customers. Google analytics provides this valuable information to marketers. Marketers can use this knowledge to optimize their site and they can also add some additional related keywords which customers can use to search information. Marketers need to attach Google analytics with webmaster tools account. Google analytics gives information about query report, geographical summary report and landing page report (Plaza, 2009). Through query report the marketers can know which keyword is getting more popularity than others. Marketers can also know details about average click through rate and can check Google ranking of their websites. The report produced by Google analytics helps to increase traffic on the website. To get rank on Google, marketers mainly target to improve click through rate which can only be increased by using right mix of on page search engine optimization and off page search engine optimization techniques. Good and popular keyword should be used in website’s title and description to get good raking on search engines. Good keywords selection helps to get more customers. Marketers should use query report of Google analytics to select good keywords for the website (Tonkin, Whitmore. & Cutroni, 2011).

Google analytics also works for trend analysis. Trend analysis is used to find out the number of visits the website received in a particular period time. Trend analysis report helps marketers to know whether the number of visitors are increasing or decreasing. The reports generated by Google analytics can be extracted for further analysis. Trend analysis helps to check performance of digital marketing campaigns over a period of time and also helps to predict future results. Through trend analysis marketers can know top selling products, top converting keywords, bidding keywords, investments areas to get high return of investment and effective marketing channels. In trend analysis the marketers predict future outcomes on the basis of historical data. For trend analysis the marketers will need good experience because any wrong integration can become cause of heavy loss in the business.  The time period which is selected for interpretation should be right and accurate for predicting future. The time period should not be too old because conditions will not be same for business after some years. The selected data should not be corrupted. Marketers can compare data to give more effective judgment. While conducting trend analysis some factors like pricing, competition, multiple channels strengths, customers’ buying behavior and market conditions should be considered (Plaza, 2011).

Search engine optimization is a technique which helps to get ranking on search engines. There are two types of search engine optimization techniques such as on page search engine optimization and off page search engine optimization. Good knowledge of keywords and trends help search engine optimizers to know the areas where improvements are required. Search engine optimization technique is a digital method through which company’s website gets good ranking on search engines because of presence of target keywords. Some off page search engine optimization methods organization can use to get popularity are article submission, video submission, link building, directory submission, social media engagement, social bookmarking, forum submission, blog submission, question-answer, power point submission. In On page search engine optimization the digital marketers make some changes on the website like change in heading, description, content, etc according to requirement.   

Conclusion

Digital marketing is related to online efforts of the company. Today many companies are using digital marketing because of the known benefits of this marketing method. In digital or online marketing, companies do various activities like social media advertising, display advertising, email marketing, content writing and many other marketing activities. The digital marketer uses digital marketing strategies for marketing and promotion (Ryan, 2016). This report gives information about Facebook advertising, online display advertising and also shows integration of digital marketing with traditional marketing mix. The report also describes some content marketing laws and shows the importance of content marketing for customers’ engagement. At last the report demonstrates importance of analytics for improving performance of the company and role of Google analytics for analyzing keywords and trends is also represented in the report.

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