WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING
Digital marketing is the advertising and promoting of businesses and their brands though digital media channels.
Digital media, at the moment, includes websites, social media, radio, television, mobile and even forms of traditionally non-digital media such as billboards and transit signs. Essentially any marketing media that is delivered electronically is considered digital marketing.
The leaves only various forms of person-to-person (P2P) marketing, print advertising and direct marketing outside of the digital marketing umbrella. Even then, print ads, direct mail, print directories, billboards and posters are starting to connect to their digital counterparts.
WHY THE FOCUS ON DIGITAL MEDIA?
The shift to digital media is being driven by marketing agencies, business owners and consumers alike. The ever-increasing demand to show quantifiable results makes going digital a dream for digital marketing agency
Most digital media, including websites, social media and mobile advertising is much easier to track then traditional marketing media such as print advertising.
For business owners, many forms of digital advertising are very low cost. Having a web presence, engaging customers in conversation through social media and e-mail marketing are low cost alternatives to print advertising and direct mail.
These digital channels are available to businesses of any size, and help to even the playing field for start-ups, small businesses and independent consultants seeking new business.
For consumers, the fast pace of life makes digital advertising a must. When consumers are in need of goods and services, gone are the days of thumbing through a phone book to find them. Now, we whip out our mobile devices or head to our computers for answers-and we find them fast.
USING DIGITAL MEDIA TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS AND BRAND
No matter what size your business is - large or small to medium sized business / enterprise (SMB or SME) you can effectively market your business through low-cost digital channels. Invest wisely in your website, and be sure that it does the following:
- Adequately represents your business and brand (look and fell, messaging)
- Adequately speaks to your target audience
- Can be found by searchers on top search engines
- Is up -to-date and easily navigable
- Provides multiple channels for customer communication
- connects to other marketing efforts
It is recommended that you work with a professional web design firm that is skilled in web development and search engine optimization. Because your website is the the foundation to and from which all other digital channels will lead, it should be considered one of your top business investments.
Once you have your website complete, the next stapes would be to launch regular monthly or bi-monthly e-mail campaigns, and connect with customers via social media. If you are truly on a shoestring budget, these are efforts that can be done in-house (by someone with the proper knowledge) or for a low cost by an outside digital marketing agency.
Be sure that all of your efforts lea customers back to your website where they can fully engage with your business, products and services, and choose the channels through which they contact you.
If you're interested in getting aggressive with search marketing, you can set aside some digital marketing dollars for search engine optimization and pay par-click advertising. Many businesses today rely heavily on found online to gain new customers.
A common misconception among business owners is that simply having a website means that customers will find it. Not So. Your site must be built with specific key words and phrases, metadata, page content and linking strategies that will help it reach top search rankings.
Because many key words and phrases have stiff competition for top search rankings, you will need to supplement your organic search engine optimization efforts with pay-per-click advertising.
Getting established with pay-per-click advertising campaigns can be a little daunting, but with a little time, effort and instruction, that too can be accomplished in-house, or for a reasonable cost through an outside digital marketing agency.
Beyond e-mail, social media marketing and search engine marketing, you can venture into a host of other digital marketing efforts. Mobile advertising, radio, television electronic billboards and much more are available as marketing outlets.
DIGITAL MARKETING AND ITS IMPACT ON CONSUMER PERCEPTION
This chapter is based on the efficiency of digital marketing and it impact over developing customer perception. Based on the customer perception, business entities used to develop brand image and awareness in the market and the digital marketing platform accelerates such process very rapidly.
Consumer perception is the most important factor for all business entities since it help in developing their brand awareness and perception. Thus, both for online and offline marketing it is essential for management to understand consumer perception more effectively and efficiently.
There are some of the reasons behind the maintenance of consumer perception of the business and industries:
- Creating brand awareness
- Creating brand loyalty
- Enhancing consumer loyalty
- Developing brand image
- Competitive advantage
Before purchasing or experiencing products and services customers have a tendency to develop to certain perception. Perception usually varies from customer to customer, product as well as service quality.
Hence from business or marketing point of view, it is essential for them to track down the customer behavior pattern and their perception and therefore need to address with the same efficiently.
During purchasing a product or services, customer always have a tendency to gather knowledge about the same over the same over the internet. Thus, based on the online presence and rating, mainly from Google, customer landing into conclusion for buying decision process.
Therefore, developing perception prior to buying is essential for the business to track down. Customers also develop after buying behavior and it depends on the user experience. Actually, based on the user experience, perception varies and it is essential to address according.
Organization in order to have competitive advantage ahead of their competitors need to develop and maintain its brand awareness and image based on the market presence and performance , customers used to develop own perception that guides them to undertake purchasing decisions.
Digital marketing is a platform that accelerates the marketing activities to a different level that provides the organization ample enough opportunity.
Thus, a digital marketing platform operates under using digital technologies and the primary and the most effective medium is the interned. This therefore helps the organizations to attach with a million customers within a short span of time.
Some of the various platforms organizations do undertake while implementing the digital marketing process are search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media optimization and e-mail marketing.
Some of the digital marketing platform like Google Ad Words , Google Webmaster tool, Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, Linked in , which help to track customers , Perform customer engagement and thus interact with them effectively and efficiently.
Thus, it also stated as the online marketing platform that helps to connect with the clients and the audiences and thus helps in effective customer engagement.
From the customer end, they face problems and often they share various recommendations and reviews. It is essential for the organization to respond to those queries and the digital marketing platform provides mobility in such process.
These digital marketing platform, thus make the communication more effective and result oriented and thus helps in managing the customer perception more effectively Facebook , Twitter and other social media sites help to target larger community and thus it because easy to connect with the audiences more effectively.
Customer all the digital marketing activities and developing customer perception, helps the organization to develop the consumer awareness. Developing effective customer perception helps in redefining brand awareness and brand image.
While conducting a digital marketing process, it is very essential to maintain the proper pace and quality. This will ensure proper customer attraction, which helps in developing better customer perception towards various product and services.
