Digital Marketing Introduction

Introduction to Digital Marketing

• Digital marketing uses digital technologies and media to achieve marketing objectives.
• Manages various online assets like websites and social media pages alongside online communication techniques.
• These techniques include search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM), online advertising, email marketing, and partnerships with other websites.

Types of Media Channels for Marketers

• Paid media requires investment for visitors, reach, and conversions through search, display, and affiliate marketing.
• Traditional offline methods which include print, TV, and direct mail continue to account for a large portion of paid media spending.
• Owned media are online assets the brand owns such as websites, blogs, email lists, mobile apps, and social media presence which can also include offline assets like brochures and retail stores.
• Earned media includes publicity from public relations (PR) and influencer engagement to raise brand awareness.
• Word-of-mouth marketing through viral and social media enhances brand awareness in social networks, blogs, and communities.

Key Concepts in Digital Marketing

• Positioning is how customers perceive a product and brand relative to competitors.
• Online Value Proposition (OVP) are the benefits that online services offer, reinforcing the core proposition and differentiating it from competitors' offline and online offerings.
• Value proposition defines the advantages or value that a brand provides to its customers.

Applications of Digital Media and Technologies

• Digital platforms serve as advertising medium.
• Platforms that enable direct response.
• Platforms for sales transactions.
• Platforms for lead generation.
• Used as distribution channels.
• Used as customer service mechanism.
• Used to build customer relationship.

Core Focus of Marketing

• The main goal of marketing is to identify, anticipate, and fulfill customer needs while ensuring profitability.
• Digital marketing supports identifying customer needs through internet-based research.
• Anticipating needs through the internet and e-marketing requires additional purchase channels to access information.
• Customer satisfaction is a key success factor in e-marketing.

Four strategic directions when using the internet

• Market penetration
• Market development
• Product development
• Diversification

Benefits of Digital Marketing - The 5Ss

• Sell aims to grow sales through direct online channels and indirect offline channels.
• Serve aims to add value by offering extra benefits and informing product development.
• Speak aims to get closer to customers through two-way communication and online market research.
• Save aims to reduce costs through online communications, sales, and service transactions.
• Sizzle aims to extend the brand online by providing new experiences and building communities.

E-Commerce Transaction Types

• Electronic commerce includes all financial and informational exchanges electronically mediated by an organization and its external stakeholders.
• Sell-side e-commerce handles transactions between a supplier organization and its customers.
• Buy-side e-commerce involves transactions between a purchasing organization and its suppliers.
• Social commerce encourages customer participation in rating, selecting, and group buying, occurring on e-commerce or third-party sites.

Challenges in Strategy Management

• Unclear digital responsibilities
• Setting objectives
• Lack of budget
• Wasted budget through experiments or duplication
• Developing new propositions and campaigns to compete
• Lack of measurement

Areas of Business Challenges

• Planning
• Organizational capabilities
• Integration of digital channels into marketing
• ROI evaluation

Web Presence Forms

• Transactional e-commerce sites enable online purchases.
• Relationship-building websites provide information to stimulate purchases and build relationships.
• Brand-building sites deliver an experience to support the brand.
• Portal or media sites offer a range of information or news.
• Social network or community sites enable interactions between consumers.

McKinsey's 7-S Framework

• Strategy
• Structure
• Systems
• Staff
• Style
• Skills
• Superordinate goal

Digital Media Channels and Methods

• Digital media channels are online tools crucial for modern marketing campaigns.
• Digital media channels boost brand awareness, familiarity, favorability, and encourage site visits for purchase consideration.
• Display ads use graphics and rich media on webpages for brand recognition, familiarity, and purchase intention.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) is purchasing text ads on search engine results pages, where payment occurs per click by the user.
• Search engine optimization (SEO) strategically improves a company's position in organic search results for specific keywords.
• Affiliate marketing is offering commission-based incentives to referring sites for sales or leads generated.
• Email marketing targets outbound communications to encourage purchases or enhance branding.

Key Marketing Communications Concepts

• Medium conveys a message and acts as a touchpoint with the customer.
• Discipline refers to the craft technique or promotion tools used in marketing communication.
• Channel is the combination of a discipline with a medium.
• Vehicle is the specific channel used to reach the target audience.

RACE Framework for Digital Marketing

• Reach: Build awareness and drive web presence through online and offline media.
• Act (Interact): Engage the audience with the brand on websites and other online platforms.
• Convert: Achieve marketing goals such as acquiring fans, leads, or sales through web presence and offline efforts.
• Engage: Strengthen customer and fan relationships over time to achieve retention goals.

Categories of E-Communications Tools

• Search engine marketing uses search engine placements to encourage website visits through paid ads and SEO.
• Online PR maximizes positive brand mentions on third-party sites, like social networks and blogs.
• Through online partnerships, third parties promote online services, including link building and affiliate marketing.
• Display advertising uses online ads to enhance brand awareness and encourage click-throughs.
• Opt-in email marketing uses rented or in-house email lists for customer activation and retention.
• Social media marketing involves companies actively engaging within social networks and communities, which closely relates to viral marketing.
• Viral marketing shares a marketing message peer-to-peer via various media, notably social networks and blogs.
• Social Media Marketing involves monitoring and facilitating customer interaction.

New Distribution Models

• Disintermediation removes intermediaries between a company and its customers.
• Reintermediation creates new intermediaries between customers and suppliers.
• Countermediation involves established companies creating new intermediaries.
• Customer-centric marketing considers customer needs through personalization techniques.

Situation Analysis Components

• Collection and review of information about external environment.
• Collection and review of information about internal resources.
• Collection and review of information about internal processes.
• Situation analysis is needed in order to refine the strategy.

Factors of Business Environment

• Review customers.
• Review market analysis.
• Review potential intermediaries.
• Review influencers.
• Review potential partners.
• Review competitors.
• Review wider macro-environments.

Environment Types

• Micro-environment is the operating one with stakeholders influencing an organization.
• Macro-environment involves broad forces affecting organizations, including social, technological, economic, and political factors.

Personas and Customer Scenarios

• Personas are fictional profiles representing target audiences, summarizing characteristics, needs, and motivations.
• Customer scenarios are alternative tasks or outcomes customers require.

Kotler’s Buying Process Stages

• Awareness: recognize the brand.
• Interest: show interest in the product.
• Evaluation: examine the product.
• Trial: test the product.
• Adoption: accept the product.

Six Stages of Online Buying

• Problem recognition
• Information search
• Evaluation
• Decision
• Action
• Post-purchase

Marketing and Online Intermediaries

• Marketing intermediaries help promote, sell, and distribute products through media, comparison, and search sites.
• Online intermediary sites facilitate exchanges between consumers and suppliers.
• An online social network enables connection and data exchange among individuals.
• Channel structure configures partners in the distribution channel.
• Revenue models describe the methods of generating income.

Types of Online Revenue Models

• CPM: cost-per-mile display advertising
• CPC: cost-per-click advertising
• Sponsorships of site sections
• CPA: affiliate revenue (could be CPC)
• Transaction fee revenue
• Subscription access
• Pay-per-view access
• Subscriber data access

Digital Rights Management

• DRM protects the distribution of digital content like software, music, and movies.

Macro-Environment Factors – PESTLE

• These include political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental forces.
• Internet is a global network linking computers via network servers and communication links.
• World Wide Web (WWW) is a medium for publishing and offering services online with websites supported by web servers.
• URL is the technical name to locating addresses of webpages.
• HTML is the standard for defining webpage text and layout.
• Metadata describes the structure and content of data.
• XML is a standard for transferring data.
• JPEG is a graphic format for photographs.

Security Considerations

• Security is a key technological factor.
• E-commerce security risks include data and password breaches, transaction theft, and server compromise.

Certificates and Encryption

• Digital certificates uniquely identify individuals via keys.
• Secret-key encryption uses the same key for encoding and decoding.
• Public-key encryption uses related yet different keys for encoding and decoding.
• Digital signatures are online identifiers using public-key encryption.
• Certificate authorities manage certificates, public keys, and identification information.
• Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) is a standard for secure e-commerce.
• Firewalls are security applications preventing unauthorized access.

Trends and Customer Adoption

• Technology convergence is when different devices merge functions.
• Innovators
• Opinion leaders / early adopters
• Early majority
• Late majority
• Laggards

Components and Processes

• Digital marketing strategy is defined as the approach that applies digital platforms to support marketing.
• Channel marketing strat defines objectives for digital channels.
• Social media
• Mobile
• Vary proposition and communications for each channel.
• Customer touchpoints include communication channels.
• Web services
• Email
• Mobile phone
• Multichannel marketing strategy integrates marketing channels focusing on customer and company needs.

Strategic Objectives of Digital Marketing

• Cost reduction and value chain efficiencies
• Revenue generation
• Channel partnership
• Communications and branding

Challenges in Managing Digital Media

• Gaining buy-in and budget
• Overcoming conflicts of ownership
• Coordinating different channels
• Managing customer data
• Achieving consistent reporting
• Structuring the digital team

Potential Problems from Poor Planning

• Underestimated customer demand
• Market share loss to startups
• Resource duplication
• Lack of resources for planning
• Poor customer data collection
• Missed efficiencies
• Unused marketing tools
• Unprioritized IT changes
• Inadequate result tracking
• Weak senior management support

Michael Porter on Distinctive Strategy

• Start with the right goal
• Define a value proposition
• Create a distinctive value chain
• Be prepared to make trade-offs
• Create a fit
• Establish continuity

Models and Elements

• Strategy process model is a framework for strategy development.
• Marketing planning is the process of setting objectives.
• SOSTAC planning elements: situation analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, actions, and control.

Emergent and Tactical Strategies

• Emergent strategy involves interrelated analysis and implementation for agility.
• Strategic windows involves identifying opportunities.
• Online tactical marketing relies on customer journey behavior to identify target areas.

Key Decisions in Marketing

• Market and product development strategies
• Business and revenue models strategies
• Target marketing strategy
• Positioning and differentiation strategy
• Customer engagement and social media strategy
• Multichannel distribution strategy
• Multichannel communications strategy
• Online communications mix and budget
• Organizational capabilities and governance

Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical evidence

• Marketing mix is a series of variables that are a part of the customer offering.
• Online branding uses online channels.

The 4Ps of Marketing

• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

Extended 7Ps of Marketing

• People
• Process
• Physical Evidence

Digital Media’s Opportunities

• Varying marketing mix
• Developing new competitive advantages
• Creating new market positions
• Building innovative relationships
• Removing barriers

Partnerships, Product, and Customer Needs

• Co-marketing is forming partnership to leverage each other's resources through sharing content to their audiences.
• Product variable accounts for researching customers' needs to develop relevant products.
• Core product is the main benefit purchased by the consumer.
• Extended product includes services built around the core product.

Variables and Consumer Behavior

• Mass consumption uses scale for tailored offerings.
• Bundling combines product options at a discounted price.
• Price variable defines pricing models.
• Pricing models describe payment forms like purchase, auction, and rental options.
• Price transparency increases customer pricing knowledge.
• Differential pricing prices similar products differently by customer.
• Satisficing behavior suggests consumers don't make rational choices.
• Promotion variable involves communication.

Main Elements of Promotional Mix

• The main elements are advertising, selling, sales promotion, public relations, sponsorship, direct mail, exhibitions, merchandising, packaging, and word-of-mouth.