Digital Marketing Overview Quiz

Session 1: Introduction to Digital Marketing

• Topics covered include Course Introduction, Course Overview, Assessment Methods, Digital Landscape, Drivers of Digital Transformation, and the New Marketing Normal.
• Digital marketing is the use of digital channels to promote a company, products, or services.

Examples of Digital Marketing

• Wellcome launches a mobile app for customers to order groceries online and pick-up in store.
• Wellcome has a website with company information, but doesn't sell products online.
• Wellcome updates product promotions on Facebook.
• Wellcome uses self-service checkout counters in their stores.

Digital Marketing Channels

• Owned channels: Website and mobile, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, email marketing, and organic social media.
• Paid channels: Paid social media, search advertising, affiliate marketing, and display advertising.
• Earned channels: User-generated content, online reviews, influencer marketing.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

• Digital marketing offers more precise customer targeting compared to traditional marketing, enabling faster deployment.
• Measurable results are readily available, allowing for data-driven adjustments and analyses.
• It's often cheaper than traditional marketing approaches.
• Improved customer engagement, customization, and adaptability are facilitated.
• Unlike traditional techniques, digital marketing is not location-specific.

Discussion: Digital vs Traditional Marketing

• Digital marketing allows for more precise customer targeting compared to traditional marketing methods.
• Digital marketing campaigns can be deployed faster than traditional campaigns.
• Digital marketing results can be measured precisely, which facilitates the ability to make data-driven decisions and adjust the marketing strategies accordingly.
• Digital marketing is often cheaper than traditional marketing.
• Digital marketing campaigns can be more adaptable and customizable, and not limited by geography.
• Traditional marketing approaches usually have limited targeting capabilities and lengthy execution times.

Food for Thought

• Given the advantages of digital marketing, should traditional marketing be ignored?
• Learning Digital Marketing offers good job prospects, high earning potential, and various specializations.

Four Drivers of Digital Transformation

• Access to information: Easier and cheaper access to information due to internet connectivity and advanced search algorithms.
• Ease of communication: Real-time communication and accessibility to a large audience through numerous online platforms are easier.
• Location independence: Access to the internet and digital services is available from anywhere with adequate connectivity
• Better prediction: Increased data capture and machine learning algorithms improve the prediction capabilities of marketing strategies

Access to Information: Impact on Marketing

• The shift from push to pull marketing is a key consequence.
• The democratization of information empowers consumers and leads to more transparency and informed product and price comparisons.
• Market fragmentation due to the ease of comparisons and wider choice.
• A preference for unique "long-tail" products (lesser commonly seen ones) emerges with greater product variety.

Location-Independence: Impact on Marketing

• The increase in availability of affordable and faster mobile devices and broader internet access leads to micro-moment decision-making.
• Geo-location services become more critical, with consumers using location data more in research and buying decisions.
• Geographic targeting improves marketing to specific audiences.

Ease of Communication: Impact on Marketing

• Shifting from one-way to consumer-to-brand, and consumer-to-consumer interactions
• Brands have less control over consumer-to-consumer interactions (e.g., ratings/reviews)
• Increased consumer power and advocacy influence purchasing decisions.
• Greater demand grows for easily shareable experiences.

Better Prediction: Impact on Marketing

• Reduction in cost and increased accuracy of predictions regarding consumer purchasing behaviour.
• Advanced predictive analytics enable anticipatory recommendations, dynamic pricing, programmatic advertising, and more effective use of voice and image recognition technologies.

The New Marketing Normal

• Shifting from segment-based to individual-based targeting strategies.
• Data-driven targeting using real-time behavioral and contextual data becomes critical.
• Transition from outbound to inbound marketing, where customers lead the discovery process.

Customer Value: From Loyalty to Advocacy

• Transition from customer lifetime value (high-spending) to customer referral value (social influence).

Next Class, Topics

• Topics will include Digital Consumers, Buyer Personas, Customer Journey Maps, and Case Presentation Briefing.

Characteristics of Digital Consumers

• Digital consumers have higher expectations of information access, multiple choices from various global vendors, and platforms for expressing opinions and dissatisfaction.
• Several marketing implications include clearly communicating promises regarding service times, delivery, and policies for returns or exchanges.

Problem with Privacy - Paradox

• Consumers want personalized recommendations while being wary of sharing personal data.
• Transparency and obtaining consent are crucial.

Desire to Connect

• Internet connectivity facilitates but often isolates and disconnects people.
• Consumers increasingly value connections with like-minded people and communities.
• The Rise of influencer marketing and social commerce results in a preference for real-time and video communication.

Buyer Personas

• Definition: Fictional, but realistic, representatives of typical customer segments.
• Development purpose: Help to better understand customers' motivations, and expectations to guide marketing campaigns.
• Features of a strong persona: detailed information on the persona, as well as insights into their preferences or pain points to aid effective marketing.

How to develop Buyer Personas?

• Use in-depth interviews (3 to 5), and quantitative surveys.
• Capture demographics and psychographic data, communication channels, goals, frustrations, and considerations.

Key Takeaway

• Customers don't buy because of any single channel but a combination of channels in a specific sequence that influences the consumer buying decision.

Website

• The website is vital; it serves as a central hub for digital marketing activities and is the primary channel through which customers access and interact with the company.
• Marketing activities are to bring customers to the website for performing desired actions.

Website Design Process

• Understand Website Function: Define needs and expectations of target customers from online channels for the website.
• Plan Website Navigation Structure: Design site navigation based on user expectations and ease of use.
• Design Webpage Layout: Design a webpage layout incorporating clear and easily navigable content.
• Test Website Usability: Conduct usability tests to determine the ease of use of a website by identifying potential usability problems.
• Launch Website and Monitor: Deploying the website and measuring the performance of the site.

Website Usability

• Usability refers to the ease and intuitiveness of website usage, influenced by prior experiences or mental models.

• Important features for usability include use of clear category labels, limited clicks to reach critical pages, inclusion of search functions, and breadcrumbs (linking to prior pages) to guide website usage. Improving ease of navigation ensures that users can easily locate the page or information they seek.

Website Navigation Structure

• Types of structures: Flat hierarchy (all contents are immediately available), deep hierarchy (multiple layers of contents), linear (sequential viewing), or networked (interconnected resources).

Improving Website Navigation

• Use clear and easily understood category labels to improve ease of navigation for use of the website.

• Implementation of the 3-click rule (no more than 3 clicks to view important pages) or sitemaps will improve ease of navigation for users.

• Website features that affect usability: Website navigation structure, overall layout of the webpage & arrangement of individual webpage elements.

Tree Testing

• Identifying how easy it is to locate content on a website for users.
• Participants are given a menu structure to quickly locate items without any additional information provided (other than the menu).
• Recording the first click, errors, time taken, and success rates.

Webpage Layout

• Using a wireframe to plan how easy it is to scan information on a webpage, guided by a scan pattern (typically "F" shape).
• Use of chunking, headers, and bullet points aid scanning.

Webpage Elements

• Visual cues to show which elements are clickable or "interactive"
• Immediate feedback for interactive elements
• Limiting choices helps users avoid confusion.

Usability Testing

• Identifying potential issues and problems with website functionality and assessing usability with test users.
• Types of testing: Moderated testing involves having a trained moderator guiding test users through tasks, allowing for questioning or explanation.
• Unmoderated testing involves test users completing tasks on their own, which is more natural and less expensive, but less manageable to capture insight.

How is Mobile different?

• Usage context is important, with the need for smaller files that load quickly, information must be concise, and site speed is important for ranking.
• Mobile-first indexing means that Google usually uses the mobile version of a website for search ranking (as opposed to the desktop version).

Mobile Web vs Mobile Apps

• Mobile Web is generally easier to convert from existing websites and is easily discoverable on search engines.
• Mobile apps provide more convenience with user preferences or settings being saved.
• Mobile web has more advantages when compared to apps; it's typically significantly easier to update, it does not require installing the app on a device, and updates are immediate.
• The ease of accessibility and ability to use the application without internet access makes mobile applications more convenient.
• Often mobile applications must be developed individually for each operating system, adding to the cost and time for development.

Converting Desktop to Mobile Website

• Responsive design facilitates creating only one version of the website; the layout will adapt to fit different screen sizes.
• Adaptive design is associated with making multiple website layouts for varying screen sizes, with the website recognizing and selecting the most suitable layout.

Mobile Apps in Marketing

• Mobile apps provide multiple benefits in brand building, commerce, and service fulfillment, which is the most common use of applications.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and keyword relevance

• Relevance of content, keywords, traffic volumes, and competition are all important criteria in SEO.
• Long-tail keywords (more specific and detailed) and higher conversions are recommended.
• Determining search intent will also improve the SEO strategy.

Search Advertising

• Driving quality traffic to your website through intent-based targeting (based on user search queries).
• Performance-based payment (pay-per-click -PPC) and control over budget allow more accurate calculations and transparency.
• Easier implementation and speed facilitate quick adjustments to your campaign.
• High-quality leads and better control over cost are key advantages of this approach, though exposure is not guaranteed.

Keyword Selection Strategies

• Bidding on more popular keywords leads to higher traffic and visibility but comes with increased competition and higher bid costs compared to less competitive, long-tail keywords.
• Carefully consider keywords to target, prioritizing relevance, volume and competition, and considering the likelihood of conversion for maximum effectiveness, and minimum cost.

Keyword Matches

• Understanding various matching types (Broad, Phrase, Exact) for keywords is necessary to decide the level of relevance for ads based on search terms.

Ad copy

• Important to capture the target audience to improve ad relevance.
• Include keywords, solve searcher's needs, highlight USP, includes an offer, clear calls-to-action, test different ad variation to improve impression but little clicks, and study competitor ads.

Ranking Factors

• Ranking may need to be optimized for search engine, while considering relevant keywords and traffic quality while also analyzing the financial cost.

Getting High Quality Traffic

• Address customer objections or concerns regarding the product or service.
• Outline clear steps for achieving conversions, such as creating accounts, scheduling appointments, or making purchases.
• Identify and remove keywords (or ads) that receive low conversion rates despite high impressions from a campaign.

Display Advertising

• Advertising on relevant third-party websites/platforms.
• Used for building brand awareness, promoting events, offerings, driving sales or re-engaging customers.
• Commonly conducted on an ad network to manage the targeting, bid, and placement of ads.

Display Ad Placement

• Includes banner ads (in various sizes), interstitial ads (large, full-screen ads), and others.
• Best placement on websites should be determined based on ad design, user experience, and performance metrics.

Contextual Targeting

• Ads are displayed on websites containing related content based on topics or categories, creating better user experience.

User Targeting

• Ad targeting based on users’ demographics, interests (derived from browsing history), or retargeting existing website visitors provides targeted visibility.
• Differentiating between generic targeting and dynamic retargeting.

Targeting Effectively

• Combine various targeting options to reach specific audience segments based on location, interests, demographics, and past interactions.
• Ensure efficient targeting through identifying suitable platforms and pages to display ads.

Ad Content

• Ad content must include a logo or branding; a concise representation of a product; a value proposition; and a highly visible, clear call-to-action button to increase visibility and improve ad engagement.

Ad Message

• The ad message should be concise, easy to read, impactful for the target audience, establish a sense of urgency, generate curiosity, and clearly indicate an offer to encourage conversions.

Ad avoidance techniques

• Experiment with different ad sizes, colours or placement to identify areas of improvement.
• Using rich and engaging visuals within ads and content is important for user engagement.

Ad Fraud

• Ads should have similar performance across channels.
• Indicators for ad fraud include low click rates with high bounce rates and short session durations, which might be due to ad stacking or pixel-stuffing, click farms or low-quality websites falsely advertising premium products or services

Content Marketing

• Building trust and awareness by creating valuable content related to a specific audience.
• Increasing visibility, establishing credibility, and expanding the customer base.

Content formats

• Variety of content formats, e.g., videos, articles, interactive demos, or case studies.
• Important to repurpose content for broader appeal.

Influencers Marketing

• Influencers are online authorities whose opinions are valued by their followers.
• A targeted strategy involving identifying appropriate influencers enhances engagement and boosts trust with the target audience.
• Benefits are that the correct influencers can generate more trustworthiness and engagement with the target audience.

Affiliate Marketing

• An external partner (affiliate) is rewarded with a commission for delivering desired results, such as sales, leads, or subscriptions.

Affiliate vs Influencer Marketing

• Affiliate focuses on performance, with measurable results easily scalable across different brands.
• In contrast, influencer strategies may involve more diverse campaigns, with more emphasis on brand alignment and creative content, though ROI may be less clear.

Email Marketing

• Targeted communication with customers through emails based on needs or interests.
• Email content can inform, promote offers, or provide valuable content to target audience, and can be categorized as either informational, promo'tional or value-based.

Email List Building

• Building a high-quality email list through opportunities presented on the company website/contact page.
• Use of incentives to increase subscriptions, and by providing exclusive content or offers to gain consent from the customer to receive emails.

Lead Magnets

• Offer customers a valuable piece of content (e.g., free eBook or report) in exchange for their email address.
• Content should be attractive and useful, driving subscriptions to the email distribution list.

Getting Consent for Email Campaigns

• Clearly communicate how email addresses will be used and provide options for customers to manage or opt out of email communication.
• Offer incentives or exclusive benefits to motivate customers to subscribe.

Planning an Email Campaign

• Define campaign objective, target audience, call to action, triggers for automated emails, and set up A/B testing for identifying the best ad variants.

Drip Campaigns

• Drip campaigns are a series of automated emails delivered at specific time intervals, providing value to customers.

Improving Spam Filters

• Ensure that email campaigns do not trigger spam filters, protecting sender reputation to maintain customers’ engagement and responsiveness.

Email Campaign Goals in the Customer Lifecycle

• Identify specific goals for email campaigns based on the customer lifecycle stages (new subscribers, first purchase, lapsed customers), and develop relevant email content.

Social Media Marketing

• Using platforms to engage with consumers, build brand, increase sales, and/or enhance relationships.

Social Media Platforms

• Determining which platforms are best for the target audience, understanding different social media platforms, which platforms have the highest engagement with the audience.

YouTube (Social Media)

• A social media platform that offers both unique searching and a video feed;
• Ranking of YouTube videos relies on the frequency and watch time, and relevance of keywords.

Common Social Media Platforms

• Various platforms—including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube—with varying purposes. Different platforms may resonate with different segments of your target audience and/or serve different objectives.

Social Media Advertising

• Paying to advertise on social media platforms to encourage engagement, increase traffic, and drive sales.
• Identifying different audience groups to facilitate accurate targeting.

Measuring Advertising Performance

• Evaluating the effectiveness of marketing strategies by monitoring clicks, cost, conversion, and customer engagement.

Digital Marketing Analytics

• Using data to measure the impact of digital marketing efforts.
• Including insights on customer behavior, campaign performance, channel strengths/weaknesses, and the return on investment.

A/B Testing

• Method for identifying the best marketing version or strategy of a campaign that yields the best results, by testing variants to determine best performance.
• Should use data-driven insights to guide decisions or improve campaigns/optimize marketing strategies.

Attribution Models

• A method for allocating value to each channel in the customer's journey.
• Important for understanding which channels (i.e., email, website, social media) drive the most conversions and optimize future campaigns.

Test your knowledge of digital marketing concepts with this quiz. Explore topics ranging from mobile app functionality to content creation strategies. This assessment will help you identify key principles and practices in the field of digital marketing.