MODULE 3: UNIT 2: SETTING UP OF E-COMMERCE BUSINESS

Social Media and E-Commerce: Emerging trends in E commerce, E-commerce

applications in commerce and business, SEO, Digital Marketing

DIGITAL MARKETING: MEANING

The term digital marketing refers to the use of websites, apps, mobile devices, social media,
search engines, and other digital means to promote and sell products and services. Digital
marketing started to become popular with the widespread adoption of the internet in the
1990s.

Digital marketing involves many of the same principles as traditional marketing and is often
considered an additional way for companies to approach consumers and understand their
behavior. Companies often combine traditional and digital marketing techniques in their
strategies. But digital marketing also comes with its own set of challenges.

HISTORY OF DIGITAL MARKETING

The term Digital Marketing was first used in the 1990s. The digital age took off with the
coming of the internet and the development of the Web 1.0 platform. The Web 1.0 platform
allowed users to find the information they wanted but did not allow them to share this
information over the web. Up until then, marketers worldwide were still unsure of the digital
platform. They were not sure if their strategies would work since the internet had not yet seen
widespread deployment.

In 1993, the first clickable banner went live, after which HotWired purchased a few banner
ads for their advertising. This marked the beginning of the transition to the digital era of
marketing. Because of this gradual shift, the year 1994 saw new technologies enter the digital
marketplace. The very same year, Yahoo was launched.

Also known as "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" after its founder Jerry Yang, Yahoo
received close to 1 million hits within the first year. This prompted wholesale changes in the
digital marketing space, with companies optimizing their websites to pull in higher search
engine rankings. 1996 saw the launch of a couple of more search engines and tools like
HotBot, LookSmart, and Alexa.
1998 saw the birth of Google. Microsoft launched the MSN search engine and Yahoo brought
to the market Yahoo web search. Two years later, the internet bubble burst and all the smaller
search engines were either left behind or wiped out leaving more space for the giants in the
business. The digital marketing world saw its first steep surge in 2006 when search engine
traffic was reported to have grown to about 6.4 billion in a single month. Not one to get left
behind, Microsoft put MSN on the backburner and launched Live Search to compete with
Google and Yahoo.

Then came Web 2.0, where people became more active participants rather than remain
passive users. Web 2.0 allowed users to interact with other users and businesses. Labels like
‘super information highway’ began to be applied to the internet. As a result, information flow
volumes –including channels utilized by digital marketers- increased manifold, and by 2004,
internet advertising and marketing in the US alone brought in around $2.9 billion.

Soon, social networking sites began to emerge. MySpace was the first social networking site
to arrive, followed by Facebook. Many companies realized all these fresh new sites that were
popping up were beginning to open new doors of opportunities to market their products and
brands. It opened fresh avenues for business and signaled the beginning of a new chapter to
business. With new resources, they needed new approaches to promote their brands &
capitalize on the social networking platform.

The cookie was another important milestone in the digital marketing industry. Advertisers
had begun to look for other ways to capitalize on the fledgling technology. One such
technique was to track common browsing habits and usage patterns of frequent users of the
internet so as to tailor promotions and marketing collateral to their tastes. The first cookie was
designed to record user-habits. The use of the cookie has changed over the years, and cookies
today are coded to offer marketers a variety of ways to collect literal user data.

Products marketed digitally are now available to customers at all times. Statistics collected by
the Marketingtechblog for 2014 show that posting on social media is the top online activity in
the US. The average American spends 37 minutes a day on social media. 99% of digital
marketers use Facebook to market, 97% use Twitter, 69% use Pinterest and 59%
use Instagram. 70% of B2C marketers have acquired customers through Facebook. 67% of
Twitter users are far more likely to buy from brands that they follow on Twitter. 83.8% of
luxury brands have a presence on Pinterest. The top three social networking sites used by
marketers are LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
7 Cs OF DIGITAL MARKETING

The 7 Cs of digital marketing offer a scalable and reproducible contemporary framework

intended to assist marketers in achieving their objectives.

 Customer: Whatever be the marketing strategy or business plan, a business or company

has to put customers first. With the help of digital marketing, companies can tailor each
campaign, communication, and service to the audience that they target as closely as
possible.
 Content: A great digital marketing strategy in addition to other elements should have
high-quality, original, and knowledgeable content creation. Other important
considerations include inventive content formats, updating obsolete information, and
adhering to the most recent changes to search engine algorithms.
 Context: In order to get the brand message effectively among the customers, companies
must be aware of the wider context of their target audience. This, essentially, means
taking into account buyer intent, correlating it to what is currently happening in the
world, then producing and promoting content that is truly relevant to audience’s needs.
 Community: Community marketing is an excellent strategy to use to interact with
audience in a genuine, non-intrusive way. It will assist companies in fostering long-
lasting positive relationships with both current and potential clients by bringing them
together around themes that are pertinent to and consistent with their brand.
 Convenience: Convenience is not only a key competitive distinction, but it also offers
digital marketers a creative lens which enhance their efforts. If properly implemented, it
will assist you in lowering obstacles, enhancing client relations,reducing stress,
expanding accessibility, and clarifying the value proposition of companies.
 Cohesion: Regardless of the channel being utilised, cohesive marketing refers to
providing the same service, content quality, and brand values. Bringing all of the
platforms that support the business under one overarching omnichannel marketing
approach is the goal.
 Conversion: A conversion could be any desirable user action that aids a company in
achieving its objectives, depending on your campaign.

3 i PRINCIPLES OF DIGITAL MARKETING

Towards attaining their objectives, digital marketers might be guided by a methodology for
digital marketing. The three concepts of this methodology- initiate, integrate, and iterate.
 Initiate: The initiate principle states that the customer is the starting and finishing point
of all digital activities. The core of this principle can be summed up as: “Let the
customer decide”
 Iterate: Iterate emphasizes the importance of tweaking a digital marketing campaign in
response to user interaction. In short, the more iterations undertaken, the more effective
the campaign becomes as you seek to adjust and scale based on feedback, customer
engagement, and data
 Integrate: The integrate principle is about taking your efforts across digital channels to
drive an outcome that is greater than the individual channels on their own. This also
involves integrating both digital and any traditional marketing efforts in a unified way
into your overall marketing campaign strategy

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL MARKETING AND DIGITAL

MARKETING

Parameter Traditional Marketing Digital Marketing

Meaning Traditional marketing is a Digital marketing is a

marketing strategy that modern marketing technique
promotes a company’s that promotes a company’s
products and services products and services
through traditional through digital channels such
advertising media such as as search engines and social
TV, radio, newspapers, media platforms
magazines, and so on

Cost Traditional marketing costs Digital marketing is a low-

more cost way of product
promotion

Contact Traditional marketing only Digital marketing allows

allows for one-way contact advertisers and audiences to
between the advertiser and communicate in both
the audience directions

Trustworthy Traditional marketing is The level of trustworthiness

more trustworthy because it in digital marketing is
is an old marketing method determined by the content
and the channel’s
 dependability

Engagement Traditional marketing can Digital marketing has the

only reach a small number of potential to reach a vast
people number of people

Communication Traditional marketing is Digital marketing allows for

characterized by delayed instant communication
communication

Conversion The conversion rate for The conversion rate for

traditional marketing is low digital marketing is really
high

time Traditional marketing Digital marketing requires

requires more time less time

ROI The ROI (Return On The ROI of digital marketing

Investment) of traditional is comparatively high
marketing is minimal

Flexibility Traditional marketing is less In terms of adaptation,

flexible in terms of change digital marketing provides a
significant degree of
versatility

TYPES OF DIGITAL MARKETING/DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNELS

Digital marketing is so beneficial because of its flexibility. It comes in various forms, which
gives businesses more opportunities than ever before to connect with their target audiences.
Following are the 12 key types of digital marketing.

 Content marketing
Content marketing is a type of digital marketing that aims to educate and share value to
readers instead of promoting a product or service. It isn’t outwardly promotional in nature,
but establishes your business as a thought leader and a trustworthy source of information.
Businesses use content marketing to attract leads and convert them into loyal customers. It’s
also an effective strategy because it offers potential customers something for free, which
entices them into (hopefully) making a purchase at some point.

Like digital marketing, content marketing also comes in many forms, including:
 Blog posts
 E-books
 Newsletters
 Guides
 Infographics
 Audio content, like podcasts
 Video content, like YouTube Shorts

Content marketing is not only affordable, but it’s also effective.

 Search Engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of optimizing the content, technical setup, and reach of your website so
your pages appear at the top of a search engine result page for a specific set of keyword terms.
With SEO, businesses analyze their website’s performance, score it against competitors, and
create a data-backed strategy to improve their rankings over time.
In digital marketing, the goal is to get your content to the top of the search engine results page
(SERP). This is important because 67.6% of organic traffic clicks come from the first five
results on the SERP. Most businesses boost their rankings on the SERPs by:
 Creating quality content
 Fostering user engagement
 Ensuring marketing material is mobile-friendly

Businesses also have to consider on-page and off-page SEO, as well as technical SEO. On-
page SEO focuses on optimizing aspects of your website that users engage with. This facet of
SEO leans heavily into keyword research. With the right list of target keywords, you can
optimize your web copy to answer your audience’s most important questions.
Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is the practice of optimizing activity outside of your
website that could affect your rankings. With off-page SEO, you look at all the ways you can
garner external attention to your website. This generally focuses on gathering quality
backlinks to your site, which can affect your rankings in the long term.
Finally, technical SEO looks at the back end of your website and the coding of each page.
Search engines crawl the back end of your site code to determine SERP rankings, so you’ll
need programming knowledge to optimize this. With technical SEO, you’ll look at page
speed, image compression, and metadata to ensure you’re set up for SERP success.

 Search engine marketing (SEM)

Not to be confused with SEO, SEM revolves around paid ads that display in the SERPs. Paid
search typically refers to the sponsored result on the top or side of a SERP. These ads appear
when users enter a certain search term. As the advertiser, you pay every time someone clicks
on your ad. The two most popular SEM platforms are Google Ads and Bing Ads.
SEM works because 68% of online experiences start with organic and paid searches. By
promoting your brand at the source of most online experiences, you can attract more
interested leads to your site.

 Social media marketing

Social media marketing involves promoting your business organically through various social
networks. But this isn’t just a promotional channel — social media is effective for digital
marketing because it gives businesses the power to chat with their most engaged followers
one-on-one.
Social media is everywhere, so your business must be active on different platforms.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are the most popular social platforms
right now. But depending on your industry and target audience, LinkedIn can also be a
lucrative platform. However, the key to effective social media marketing goes far beyond
simply having a few social media accounts.
Many social networks, like Instagram, allow your followers to make direct purchases within
the app, although sales alone might not be your goal. Companies often use social media
marketing to start conversations with their audience. It’s also a fantastic tool for promoting
your content marketing pieces to a wider audience.
Follow these best practices to increase your reach on social media:
 Know your audience, including their favorite social media platforms.
 Produce engaging, high-quality content.
 Respond to comments and questions within 24 hours, if possible.
 Stick to a consistent posting schedule.
 Post at optimal times for your target audience.
 Hire a social media manager to facilitate campaigns.
The goal of social media marketing is to engage with your followers. The more your audience
is inspired to engage with your content, the more likely they are to share it, potentially
inspiring their peers to become customers as well.
 Pay per click (PPC)
Pay-per-click advertising is a type of digital marketing where you pay every time someone
clicks on your ad. With PPC, you only pay when someone interacts with your ads. PPC is
similar to search engine marketing, but businesses can do PPC on both search engines and
social media platforms.
Google Ads is the most popular PPC platform for search engines, but Bing Ads is the second
most popular. Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, and even Amazon Ads are also valuable
platforms for PPC.
PPC is a paid digital marketing strategy, so it’s critical to make every cent count by
optimizing your campaigns. Follow these quick best practices to get more out of your paid
ads:
 Improve ad quality by optimizing your Quality Score in Google Ads.
 Create ads that are relevant to your target audience’s pain points.
 Optimize the quality of your landing pages.
 Use smart bidding strategies to bid an appropriate amount — not too much, and not
too little.
PPC can generate results almost instantly, but it isn’t without its risks. Ad prices vary a lot,
and without a solid plan and experience, PPC can become very expensive. Make sure you
understand the nuances of bidding on your PPC platform of choice, and that you’re tracking
the right metrics along the way to ensure return on investment (ROI).

 Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a strategy that recruits affiliates to promote a business’s product or
service to their followers. When a customer makes a purchase through that affiliate, the
affiliate earns either a percentage commission or a flat-rate finder’s fee. Affiliate marketing
overlaps with influencer marketing, but the main difference is that you only pay affiliates an
agreed-upon amount if someone makes a purchase based on their referral.
With affiliate marketing, you’re promoting your business through someone with an
established platform and connections to your target audience. The affiliate’s audience already
trusts them, and if the affiliate recommends your brand, their audience is more likely to trust
your business by association.
Affiliate marketing comes in different forms. For example, some affiliates will do reviews or
unboxing videos for products. Other affiliates might use your products and will link to your
company in their content.
Affiliates often insert promotions within helpful content, which increases the odds that your
target audience will pay attention to the messaging. That might look like a mixologist on
YouTube promoting a barware company’s goods, or a makeup content creator on TikTok
reviewing the durability of different eyeliners. More often than not, these affiliates will share
a unique code or URL provided by you to track their sales.

 Native advertising
Native advertising is a type of paid advertising that creates ads that mimic the look and feel of
a platform. The goal is to make the ads not seem like advertising, but as just another piece of
content. Native ads blend in with their surrounding environment, so it’s not immediately
obvious that you’re advertising something.
More businesses embraced native ads because users are so skeptical of mainstream paid ads.
Shoppers assume paid ads are biased and ignore them, so native ads are advertisers’ answer to
declining conversion rates.
Native ads attempt to circumvent consumer cynicism with entertaining and informative
content, or by downplaying the promotional nature of the content. For example, a business
with a native ad might design it to look like a typical Facebook post, or a business might write
a sponsored article on a news site.
Native ads are tricky because they mimic the look and feel of organic content, but advertisers
still need to be transparent about the fact that these are ads. Native ads usually include
qualifiers like “sponsored” or “promoted” so it’s clear that it’s paid content. Even though
they’re ads, users tend to react better to native ads because they appear to be less intrusive
than traditional paid ads.

 Marketing automation
Marketing automation is a digital marketing strategy that streamlines marketing tasks by
automating them. This type of digital marketing uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine
learning (ML) software to power digital marketing campaigns. While it isn’t a replacement
for human labor, marketing automation handles mundane and repetitive tasks so marketers
can focus on high-level strategy and creativity instead.
Marketing automation tools can handle a lot of work for small or overwhelmed marketing
teams, including:

 Streamlining marketing tasks and workflows.

 Measuring results.
 Calculating campaign ROI.
 Determining which marketing efforts are working, and which aren’t.
With automation, you can analyze larger amounts of customer data in no time at all. Use these
insights to create better, more personalized campaigns that increase the odds of conversions
and sales.
 Email marketing
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing where you reach out to your customers through
strategic email messages. After more than two decades, email is still the quickest and most
direct way to reach customers. However, to avoid getting buried by competing content in your
subscribers’ inboxes, your content needs to be incredibly engaging, relevant, informative, and
entertaining.
Email marketing can take many forms, but these are the more common types of emails
businesses send:
 Blog subscription newsletter
 Welcome emails to new customers
 Holiday or special event promotions
 Post-purchase follow-ups that include tips, tricks, and best practices
Email might be the oldest form of digital marketing, but it’s kept up with the times. Follow
these best practices to get even more out of your email marketing campaigns:
 Your audience expects personalized emails, so include their name in the email body
and subject line, at a minimum.
 Always make the intention of the email clear with a single call to action.
 Include an unsubscribe link in all of your email signatures.
 Timing and scheduling are important. Don’t bombard customers’ inboxes with
repetitive or irrelevant messaging, or they could hit the unsubscribe button.
 Integrate transaction and promotion emails.

 Mobile marketing
Mobile marketing, which is also called SMS marketing, is a type of digital marketing tailored
to mobile devices and mobile users. It engages your target audience on mobile devices, like
smartphones and tablets, as well as wearables like smartwatches.
With mobile marketing, businesses reach out to subscribers via SMS messaging. Since most
of us have our phones on us 24/7 no matter where we are, mobile marketing makes it possible
for businesses to send timely messages. Like email marketing, mobile marketing gives you a
one-on-one connection with your customers. It’s no wonder why companies report a 102%
ROI on SMS marketing.

 Video marketing
Video marketing is a type of digital marketing where you promote your business through
either long-form or short-form video. Video content allows you to communicate more
information in less time, so it’s no surprise that many platforms allow — and even encourage
— video marketing.
YouTube is the most obvious place to do video marketing, but social media platforms like
TikTok and Instagram are also great for promoting your brand with videos.
If you want to go all-in on YouTube, remember that this isn’t primarily a social network —
it’s
actually a search engine. In fact, 70% of shoppers have made a purchase after seeing a brand
on YouTube. While the majority of people stream TV shows and movies online, 46% also
watch videos on YouTube or Facebook for entertainment.
Video content is valuable to so many users, so tap into this growing area of digital marketing.
If you have a smartphone, you have the capability to make quality videos for your company’s
website, social media, email campaigns, and paid ads.

 Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a digital marketing strategy that brands use to promote their products
or services through popular content creators. Influencer marketing is similar to affiliate
marketing in that you can capitalize on an established, captive audience that inherently trusts
the influencer.
While many of us think of influencer marketing as a B2C tactic for selling consumer goods, it
can also work for B2B companies selling office supplies, SaaS subscriptions, and nearly
anything else. It just comes down to partnering with the right influencer for your audience.
Influencer marketing is different from affiliate marketing because it doesn’t involve profit
sharing. Instead, you typically pay the influencer a flat fee in exchange for promoting your
product. With this digital marketing strategy, the influencer is paid regardless of sales related
to their promotion. You can certainly add an affiliate spin to the arrangement to incentivize
sales, but it isn’t necessary.
With an average engagement rate of nearly 16% on platforms like TikTok, it’s no wonder
why more brands are embracing influencer marketing. However, you need the right strategy
to glean value from these partnerships. Follow these tips to make the most of influencer
marketing:
 Partner with influencers who are familiar with your industry and who have a good
reputation — they’re representing your brand, after all.
 Establish a clear and precise written agreement for compensation.
 Provide the influencer with clear guidelines on language, tone, and logistics.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs) IN DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketers use key performance indicators (KPIs) just like traditional marketers. KPIs
let them measure the long-term performance of their marketing initiatives and compare those
to their competitors' efforts.

The following are some of the most common KPIs that marketers can use to gauge how well
they're doing:

 Click-through rate: This KPI is commonly used to measure the effectiveness of

online advertising, by counting the number of people who clicked on a particular ad
as a percentage of all the people who might have seen it.
 Conversion rate: The conversion rate goes even further than the click-through rate
to compare the percentage of people who took some desired action, such as making a
purchase, to the total audience that a particular ad or promotion reached.
 Social media traffic: This tracks how many people interact with a company's social
media profiles. It includes likes, follows, views, shares, and/or other measurable
actions.
 Website traffic: This metric tracks how many people visit a company's website
during a given time period. Among other uses, it can help companies judge how
effective their marketing efforts are at driving consumers to their site.

BENEFITS OF DIGITAL MARKETING

Regardless of whether a company is B2B or B2C, digital marketing helps businesses to better
understand their customers and deliver tailored experiences across every channel.Digital
marketing can help in knowing the audience, understand their pain points, and provide
metrics that will give a company’s marketing team credibility. Digital marketing has several
benefits:

 Reach a large demographic

Digital marketing allows companies to reach a wider customer base with less effort. When
you post an ad online, it can reach anyone, regardless of their location. You can connect with
customers on the other side of the world, in multiple time zones, as seamlessly as though you
were taking out an ad in the local newspaper. You can expand your market reach and grow
your business in ways that would have seemed impossible before.

 Cost efficiency
Traditional marketing channels like TV, radio, and print media typically have higher costs
than digital channels. Posting on social media and creating blogs doesn’t have a cost beyond
the time you spend producing the content. You can create a slick, professional website for a
relatively low cost by using one of the many templated systems or paying more for a bespoke
creation. You can create social media accounts for free, and partner with an email service
provider (ESP) for a competitive price.
Plus, digital channels remain on the internet for as long as you maintain them. People will
continue to find your content again and again long after you’ve posted it. This amounts to
greater staying power than a temporary TV ad.

Traditional marketing is more ephemeral because it only plays at certain times — and usually
outside of your control — before it’s gone forever. A newspaper ad doesn’t run continuously
unless you keep paying for it, and then it disappears when people recycle the paper or toss it
in the trash.

Whether you have a small business or you work at a big business that’s trying to cut costs,
digital marketing is the way to go.

 Results are measurable

Digital marketing comes with a host of analytics opportunities that traditional marketing just
can’t match. You can track the number of conversions and leads, visits to your website, and
much more — giving you plenty of valuable insight to help grow your business. For example,
digital marketing allows you to:
 Measure social media engagement with built-in analytics.
 Track the organic traffic and SERP rankings of every blog post.
 Pull accurate data on paid ad views, clicks, and conversions.

Traditional marketing doesn’t allow for further engagement and only allows for one-way
communication. But digital marketing gives you the opportunity to chat one-on-one with
customers. You can engage with them directly on a blog or social media post to learn how
they found you, what they think, and what they need. This gives you both quantitative and
qualitative information on your marketing efforts, which is worth its weight in gold.

 Easier personalization for customers

Customer data is the foundation of digital marketing. Because it requires so much data,
businesses naturally learn a lot about their ideal customers during a digital marketing
campaign. Thanks to this data, it’s never been easier to personalize your marketing
campaigns.
For example, businesses use customer data to:
  Monitor the behavior of their social media followers to see which types of content
and post formats they prefer.
 Segment customers based on their demographics, which makes it easier to
personalize messaging based on their pain points.
 Address customers by name in email campaigns.
 Acknowledge key events like customer birthdays and anniversaries.

 Opportunity to engage with customers at various stages

Digital marketing is more cost-effective, which means you can engage with customers at
several points during the buying process. For example, you can create a paid advertising
campaign and then follow up with those leads after they’ve made a purchase. This could be as
simple as saying thank you, or using it as an opportunity to upsell with related items or a
subscription. A traditional TV ad can’t do that.

 Easy and convenient conversions

Thanks to its cross-channel connectivity, digital marketing makes it a cinch to increase
conversions. Shoppers can move from a social media platform to your ecommerce store to
make a purchase in just a few taps. Digital marketing also allows for automation, so if
customers don’t make a purchase right away, you can quickly follow up with them to
recapture their business before they forget about you.

LIMITATIONS OF DIGITAL MARKETING

Skills Requirement

In order to effectively carry out marketing campaigns, it is important that the company has the
proper expertise and knowledge about the digital platform. With the evolution of technology,
it is also important that the company continuously updates its offerings and tools.

High Competition

The goal of a digital marketing campaign is to stand out from the crowd and grab the attention
of the target audience. A well-thought-out strategy will allow the brand to stand out from the
competition and win the battle.

Time-consuming

Getting the most out of digital marketing can be very time-consuming and challenging. This
is why it is important that the organization has the proper strategy and methods in place to
ensure that the campaign is successful. This can be done through the use of tools such as
Tweetdeck, Hubspot, and Ahrefs. Besides being able to handle the various tasks involved in
digital marketing, these tools can also help boost the effectiveness of the campaign.

Dependability on Technology

Due to the nature of digital marketing, there are bound to be errors. One of these is when the
links may not work or the landing pages may not load properly. This can lead to potential
customers switching to another brand. To avoid this, it is important that the website be
thoroughly tested. In addition to ensuring that the campaigns are working properly, it is also
important that the content is proofread.

Feedback and Complaints

Through digital platforms, anyone can provide critical or negative feedback about your
products or services, which can be seen by your customers on social media and review sites.
When it comes to reputation management, having strong brand loyalty and providing good
customer service are two of the most important factors that businesses consider. However,
handling these types of comments can be a challenging task, as it involves competing against
other companies in order to maintain their reputation.

Security and Privacy Issues

The security of a brand is very important for any organization. This is why it is important that
digital marketers have the proper tools and resources to protect their websites. One of the
most effective ways to do this is by using a good antivirus program. Besides this, it is also
important that the legal considerations related to the acquisition of customer data are done in a
way that is secure.

The increasing number of global customers and the potential for them to provide feedback
and complaints will result in a higher competition and a bigger scope for businesses. This will
also affect the brand's image and reputation.

HOW TO DO DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketing can take so many forms that it can feel overwhelming to choose from all
the options. That’s why it’s so important to understand how to pair digital marketing with
your overall business strategy.
Regardless of your industry or business model, you can follow this six-step process to
strategically embrace digital marketing.
Define your goals

Goals are a necessary part of any marketing strategy, and digital marketing is no exception.
The first step is to define measurable, achievable, and relevant goals for your digital
marketing campaigns that align with your company’s objectives.
Think of your goals as the guiding principles that shape your approach to digital marketing.
For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, maybe you invest in social media
marketing to get the word out.
You should back up every goal with metrics, too. This makes it easier to determine whether
your campaigns are on track or if you need to course-correct. Important metrics include:
 Impressions
 Reach
 Clicks
 Click-through rate (CTR)
 Engagement rate
 Conversions
 Cost per lead (CPL)
 Effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPM)
There are also the back-end metrics like return on investment (ROI), return on ad spend
(ROAS), first-touch and multitouch attribution, and customer lifetime value (CLV).
Regardless of the goals you set, it’s easier to develop effective digital marketing strategies
when you have realistic goals first. This ensures your marketing activities will actually make
a difference for your business.

Identify your target audience

Now that you know your goals, you need to define your target audience. These are the people
your campaign will reach. Every audience is different, so it’s critical to understand the people
consuming your messaging. Plus, the target audience varies from channel to channel, so put in
the effort to understand your followers on every platform.
Digital marketing helps you reach more people, minimize costs, and
better engage with your target audience.

Set a budget for each digital channel

Setting a budget helps you allocate resources appropriately. This is especially important if
you’re using a mix of organic and paid advertising — you don’t want your paid channels
using too much of your budget.
Generally speaking, B2B companies have a longer buying cycle, so they might need a bigger
marketing budget. Your goals, target metrics, and existing costs will also have a big impact
on your budget.
If you have a variable budget, assign a percentage of your budget — instead of a flat dollar
amount — to each digital marketing strategy. This way, you can invest in the digital strategies
that are important to you without breaking the bank.

Select your digital marketing channels

With a budget in place, it’s time to decide which channels you’ll focus your digital marketing
efforts on. The goal is to strike a balance between paid and organic channels. While paid
strategies like PPC can garner immediate results, organic strategies like SEO come with long-
term gains. Pursuing both types of strategies will set you up for digital marketing success.
Since you know your target audience at this stage, opt for the channels they use the most. For
example, if you’re targeting Gen Z college students, you would go for platforms like TikTok
instead of Facebook. By going where your audience already is, you’ll increase your odds of
connecting with the right people.

Optimize your digital assets for mobile

In Q1 of 2023, mobile traffic accounted for 45.49% of all internet traffic in the United States.
Mobile traffic is on track to outpace desktop traffic in the coming years, so make sure all of
your marketing content performs well on mobile devices, too — even if it was designed for a
traditional browser. It’s also important to design a seamless experience between mobile and
desktop so you don’t lose users moving between the two.

Refine your marketing efforts

Digital marketing is never truly done. It evolves over time, which is why it’s so important to
monitor and analyze your performance. Consumers and trends are never static, so you’ll need
to use data to constantly refine your strategy and remain current. Review your social media
metrics, email marketing data, and site analytics to become a leader in this high-impact, high-
demand space.
Rely on a powerful platform for your digital marketing efforts

Since digital marketing channels are so accessible and affordable, marketing your business on
these platforms will give you a wider reach. Digital marketing helps you reach more people,
minimize costs, and better engage with your target audience. While there are many forms of
digital marketing available to businesses today, this variety makes it easier than ever to see
results from your marketing efforts.
When you’re ready to get started, evaluate your current marketing platform to see if it can
handle multifaceted digital marketing campaigns. These campaigns can get complicated, but
tools like Adobe Marketo Engage help businesses reduce complexity and increase ROI.
Marketo Engage specializes in customer engagement for complex B2B buying journeys. As a
complete solution for lead management, it brings marketing and sales together to nurture
leads, orchestrate personalized experiences, optimize content, and measure business impact
across every channel.