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WHAT ARE TRENDS IN MARKETING?

A marketing trend is anything that changes the area your organisation operates
in. It's important to pay attention to and utilise these trends to help your
company succeed and stay ahead of the competition. Marketing trends usually
focus on technology, customer interaction, social media and privacy.

TYPES OF MARKETING TRENDS:

1. Interactive content:

Adding interactive content is an effective way to allow potential customers to

interact with a company and feel connected to the brand. There are several ways
to achieve this level of interaction, including:

• interactive 360-videos where users can move the camera

• various quizzes and polls related to the products

• interactive augmented reality ads

• polls on issues related to the company's products or its areas of activity

2. Mobile expansion:

Marketing on mobile platforms is becoming more important as consumers

spend more and more time on their mobile devices. Ads differ in the way they
appear on mobile devices, such as cell phones, tablets and other smart
appliances, versus desktops, so strategies that work on one don't always work as
well on the other. Implementing creative strategies is necessary when
addressing these differences.

3. Social messaging apps:

People usually use social messaging apps for private conversations, but they can
also be an effective marketing tool. Adding a messaging component to a
company's website can make consumers feel closer to the brand as they have the
possibility to interact and communicate directly with the company. Companies
can make this process easier by creating automated messaging for the most
frequently asked questions.

4. Audio content:

Audio content is becoming much more common online. Audio chatrooms and
podcasts are a way for people to feel connected and allow for a new form of
interaction. The audio format enables brands to focus on more long-form and in-
depth content. Audio content also tends to increase brand awareness among
companies.

5. Influencer marketing:

Influencer marketing is a powerful marketing tool where a company hires a

recognisable person to promote their products or brand. Often these influencers
have a large social media following, so when they partner with a company, the
company often gains more fans and brand awareness. Consumers consider
influencers to be regular people whose opinions and recommendations they can
trust.

6. Automation:

Using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to automate some of a company's

marketing efforts save time and money and remains an effective way to get
people's attention. By utilising customer data and other analytics, a company
can automate various processes in a way that enhances customer personalisation
and gives the marketing team time to focus on the customer experience. One
way to use AI-based technology is by setting up a chatbot for the website that's
programmed to have conversations with visitors regarding the brand and
products.

7. Prioritising social responsibility:

The modern consumer values a company that prioritises social responsibility.

This means having a code of business ethics and following them. It also means
having transparency regarding business transactions to increase consumer trust.
Customers are more likely to support companies that treat their customers and
their employees fairly. A company can prove its social responsibility by making
its values public and upholding them.

8. Live video streaming:

Live videos draw significantly larger audiences than pre-recorded videos.

Companies can occasionally stream live videos on their social media channels
to interact with existing and potential customers. The purpose of a live video
could be to launch a new product, share a relevant piece of information or teach
the audience how to use a certain product.

9. Shorter content:

Shorter content is key when appealing to people on the Internet. Many social
media apps thrive on short, 60-second videos, as people often divide their
attention on the Internet among different sites. While longer videos can offer
more information about a product or brand, a shorter video that gets directly to
the point can be more effective. Producing shorter content also means freeing up
employees to focus on other things.

10. User-generated content:

Encouraging customers to create and post various types of content related to a

product is a great way to make users feel more involved and connected to a
company. The content can be user videos, reviews, social media posts and any
other form of shareable media. A company can encourage user-generated
content in various ways, like asking customers to film themselves using a
certain product or asking for their opinion on how future products may look.

11. Experiential marketing:

Experiential marketing allows customers to interact with the product or brand at

an event. An example of this could be an ice cream brand setting up a pop-up
ice cream parlour in the middle of a big city, allowing potential consumers to try
the new flavour. These events are fun and highly shareable on social media. A
company can receive free advertising when attendees feature them on their
social media pages.

12. Story-driven content:

People pay more attention to content that includes stories and narratives than
they do to content that only contains facts. A company that explains their history
or how they make products can see an increase in engagement and interest. For
example, companies could create a short video explaining their history or get
real-life testimonials from previous customers.

13. Virtual reality experiences:

Virtual reality is a computer-generated experience that allows a person to

interact and explore a three-dimensional environment. This can help consumers
imagine an environment or scenario and think of products and services that may
be beneficial. For example, a company that sells hiking boots may have a virtual
reality experience where customers can hike a famous trail or summit. This can
inspire them to visit these places in reality and encourage them to purchase new
hiking boots in preparation.

14. Voice search:

As voice recognition gets more and more accurate, potential customers choose
to use their voice when they search for something online. Voice searches differ
from text-based searches in the sense that people use longer sentences than they
would in text. Being prepared for voice-based marketing ensures that customer
searches related to the company’s products and services get accurate and direct
answers.

VIRTUAL MARKETING:

WHAT IS VIRTUAL MARKETING:

Virtual marketing, also known as digital marketing, refers to those marketing

efforts carried out through the internet. Marketers use a variety of tools,
channels, and data online to develop business relationships, attract new business
opportunities, and create a brand identity. The tools and channels that marketers
use can range from email providers to mass texting apps to social media
publishing services, and anything else in between. They do so by delivering
tailored messages to a particular audience.

WHY IS VIRTUAL MARKETING IMPORTANT?

With more than half of the world’s population active on the worldwide web, it is
wise to reach them where they are. Virtual marketing has become important for
businesses across all verticals today because it connects them with their
audience online. Collaborating with a performance agency can amplify these
connections, ensuring that your marketing strategies are not only effective but
also measurable and results-driven

It links businesses with their prospective customers when they’re on social

media through social media marketing, on Google through SEO and PPC, on
email through email marketing, and so on.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF VIRTUAL MARKETING?

Here is a list of the various advantages of virtual marketing.

1. Affordable than many other marketing techniques out there.

2. Makes your business available to them over their smartphones and other
mobile devices.

3. Offers the flexibility of choosing from a variety of options likes SMM,

email marketing, PPC, content marketing, influencer marketing, and
more.

4. Helps expand your business’ reach.

5. Allows your marketing to be more effective by letting you incorporate

multimedia into it.

6. Facilitates you to communicate directly with your consumers.

7. Enables monitoring your marketing activities better.

8. Helps establish your authority in your niche.

9. Helps boost your reputation through influencer marketing.

10. Complements your print advertising.

What Are the Different Virtual Marketing Strategies?

A successful virtual marketing strategy includes some of the following

elements-

1. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM is a form of virtual marketing that directly caters to what consumers are
searching for online. It is done either in the organic ways (Search Engine
Optimization) or the paid way (by buying ad space on the search engine page
results). While this blog will discuss the former elaborately in the next section,
here are more details on the latter.

Paid SEM involves paying Google or other search engines for ad space on
specific pages. So, the search engine will visibly distinguish your webpage from
the rest of those that appear in the regular search result. You can also apply this
technique to social media searches.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a crucial digital marketing strategy that helps you rank higher in search
engine page results, increase leads and customers, and create brand authority. It
is essential for the success of your online marketing efforts as 90% of Google
users click on the search results that appear on the first page of the SERPs.

To achieve this, you should hire the best SEO experts. The techniques employed
for SEO are optimal keyword usage, internal link building, external link
building, easy site navigation, fast site loading, upgrading old blog posts,
embedding long-tail keywords in title tags, writing compelling title and
description tags, and more.

3. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

SMM is probably the most popular virtual marketing trend of this era. It’s
because the platform has 4.48 billion active users and provides a new level of
engagement that it has grown enormously. Brands use it to promote brand
awareness, build their reputation, sell their products and services, and even go
viral!

There are several social media sites to choose from. There is Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Brands choose those
networking sites where their audience are spending a lot of time to post content,
respond to comments and queries, get their content shared, and thus engage
their audience.

4. Effective Website Design:

our website is your most vital digital marketing asset. When people who’re
looking for the products or services you offer to land on your site, it should be
captivating enough to convert them. This involves hiring the right frontend
development services to create a responsive and aesthetic web design. Here are
some techniques employed for successful website conversion.

• Improve your organic search engine ranking using SEO.

• Offer value to your visitors.
• Engage your visitors with rich media such as images, embedded videos,
animations, GIFs, and online catalogues.
• Keep your site navigation simple and clear.
• Keep your site’s content regularly updated.
• Have a blog section and post there consistently.
• Make your CTAs (Calls-To-Action) compelling and prominent.
• Keep your branding consistent across your site.

5. Email Marketing:

With 4 billion active email users across the world, email marketing never loses
its luster. It brings unmatchable returns on investment when compared to other
virtual marketing strategies.
Businesses and brands use it to attract, engage, and retain customers
with personalized messages. Email marketing software come with a customer
segmentation feature that facilitates this.

Additionally, these tools also allow businesses to automate the sending of

marketing emails. You just need to set the triggers in the email autoresponder.
The tool will automatically send the right campaigns to the right audience.

For instance, if a person signs up for your newsletter, immediately the tool with
segment him/her under the new subscriber category and start sending him/her
your series of welcome emails at scheduled intervals.

6. Content Marketing:

Another sure-fire and cost-effective virtual marketing strategy is content

marketing. It involves educating and engaging your market on the solution
offered by your company by publishing a variety of content pieces. These can
take shapes such as articles, blogs, press releases, videos, white papers,
newsletters, infographics, quizzes, digital flipbooks, and more.
You can make use of a content workflow to keep track of your production and
deliveries. To find success in content marketing, you need to post useful,
relevant, informative, and valuable content consistently over the net.

This is important because stats say that 47% of consumers consume three to five
pieces of content before making a purchasing decision. Further, brands with
blogs gain 67% more leads than their counterparts. Another sure-fire and cost-
effective virtual marketing strategy is content marketing, including the use
of online copywriting services.

7. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing:

PPC marketing, which is better known as PPC advertising, helps in increasing

search traffic for online businesses. In this technique, advertising of the brand is
done on search engines. Highly targeted and valuable ads are presented before
consumers. Their relevancy often increases the CTRs (click-through
rates). under ‘PPC’ section which says You’ll need to set a PPC budget which
aligns with your conversion goals – Too low and Google’s machine learning
won’t be able to optimize your campaign, too high and you run the risk of
getting too many conversions for your sales team to handle!”

In this kind of advertising, you pay only when a user clicks on your ad. So, this
method allows you to buy your site visits. It’s advantageous in that it drives
website traffic organically, making it particularly effective for corporate
marketing training initiatives.

8. Influencer Marketing:

Influencer marketing involves partnering with an influencer (an individual who

influences your potential audience) in your niche to get endorsed by him/her. It
is an effective form of digital marketing today as it instantly gains the entire
following of the influencer for you. Here are a few tips to find success
in influencer marketing.

• Define your goals and target audience

• Carry out thorough research of the influencers in your niche.
• Go for influencers who have a ‘high-quality’ engaged audience.
• Get comfortable handing over some control regarding your marketing
approach to influencers.
• Focus on building long-term influencer relationships.

9. Remarketing:

Remarketing also referred to as retargeting, is another popular form of virtual

marketing. In it, businesses serve ads to users who have visited their site, or a
particular page, and who have or haven’t taken a particular action. This method
is effective as it gets your brand in front of people who’ve already expressed
some interest in your brand.

Remarketing gives businesses a second chance to convert, retain, or up-sell

customers. This works because first-time visitors rarely convert. Statistics say
that the conversion rate is as low as 2.86%. So, re-targeting capitalizes on your
lost website traffic. And the additional exposure to your brand increases their
chances to convert.

10. Marketing Automation:

Marketing automation refers to using software to automate monotonous tasks

involved in marketing. It enables scaling your marketing efforts effortlessly.
You can automate your marketing through different marketing channels such as
email, social media, push notification, SMS, advertisements, and more.
Marketing automation not only increases its efficiency but also personalization.
This is because it helps reach the right person with the right message at the right
time by understanding the buyer persona and user’s history.

Besides, it can also offer seamless, omnichannel marketing experiences to your

audiences. That is, they get the same experience irrespective of the channel
through which you engage with them. 5

GREEN MARKETING:

DEFINITION:

Green Marketing is a relatively new concept, which involves the promotion of

products and services which are safe for the environment. It involves
development, manufacturing, promotion, distribution, consumption, and
disposal of the products and services in a sustainable fashion so that least
damage is caused to nature.

In this way, the marketing of the company’s offering is done on the basis of its
environmental advantages. Activities may include product adjustment, change
in the process of production, change in advertising and sustainable packaging of
products.

The primary aim is to reduce the adverse effects of the products and its
consumption and disposal, on the environment. This means that the products
and services are either eco-friendly or produced in an eco-friendly manner,
which does not harm the environment.

OBJECTIVES OF GREEN MARKETING:

The objectives of green marketing are boiled down in the points given below:

• To adhere to corporate social responsibility.

 • To reduce expenses.
• To showcase how environment-friendly the company’s offerings are.
• To communicate the brand message
• To implement sustainable and socially accountable business practices.

Example:

1. Whole Foods: An American supermarket chain, owned by Amazon,

known for selling organic products, which does not contain hydrogenated
fats, flavours, preservatives, sweeteners, flavours and artificial colours.
2. Starbucks: Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse chain in the world with a
presence in more than 70 countries. It promotes sustainable practices to
grow coffee.
3. The Body Shop: A British cosmetic and skincare giant, which offers
products which are cruelty-free, and use natural ingredients.

GREEN MARKETING PRACTICES:

It involves a wide spectrum of activities, to create an eco-friendly image

of the company, to its target audience, such as:

1. Using recycled and renewable material for production.

2. Use of green energy to produce products, such as solar energy,
geothermal energy and wind energy.
3. Reduce product packaging or use ecofriendly packaging.
4. Not using toxic materials, which are harmful to the environment.
5. Making products which are reusable as well as recyclable.

So, basically, green marketing is all about developing and promoting

products and services that fulfil customer requirements, in terms of
 quality, performance, affordability, availability and safety, but without
causing any damage to the environment.

PRINCIPLES OF GREEN MARKETING:

• Consumer-Oriented Marketing: The notion says that the firm should

perceive the marketing activities from the consumer’s viewpoint, so as to
develop a lasting and profitable relationship with them.
• Customer Value Marketing: As per this notion, the company should
allot its resources that add value to the product or service they offer,
rather than simply changing the product packaging or making a huge
investment on the advertisement. this is because, when the value is added
to the product, they will be valued by the customers also.
• Innovative Marketing: To strive for real product and marketing
improvements, says the third principle, i.e. innovative marketing. We all
know that the world is ever-changing and so does the tastes and
preferences of the customers. therefore, the company should always look
for new and improved methods, to not lose customers easily.
• Mission Marketing: The company’s mission should be broadly defined,
in social terms and not in the product. This is due to the fact that if a
company states the mission that has some social welfare hidden in it, the
 employees feel proud to work for a good cause and work in the right
direction.
• Societal Marketing: As per this principle, the marketing decisions made
by the company must take into account the wants and interest of the
consumers, company’s requirements and the social welfare.

Therefore, green marketing demands products and services which are

not only eco-friendly but also beneficial for society.

AFFILIATE MARKETING:

Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns a

commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products. The
affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes that
product and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make. The
sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to drive sales and generate significant

online revenue. Extremely beneficial to both brands and affiliate
marketers, the new push toward less traditional marketing tactics has
certainly paid off.

HOW DOES AFFILIATE MARKETING WORK?

Seller and product creators:

The seller, whether a solo entrepreneur or large enterprise, is a vendor,

merchant, product creator or retailer with a product to market. The
product can be a physical object, like household goods, or a service, like
makeup tutorials.
Also known as the brand, the seller does not need to be actively involved
in the marketing, but they may also be the advertiser and profit from the
revenue sharing associated with affiliate marketing.

For example, the seller could be an ecommerce merchant that started a

drop shipping business and wants to reach a new audience by paying
affiliate sites to promote their products. Or the seller could be a SaaS
company that leverages affiliates to help sell their marketing software.

The affiliate or publisher:

Also known as a publisher, the affiliate can be either an individual or a

company that markets the seller’s product in an appealing way to
potential consumers. In other words, the affiliate promotes the product to
persuade consumers that it is valuable or beneficial to them and convince
them to purchase the product. If the consumer does end up buying the
product, the affiliate receives a portion of the revenue made.

Affiliates often have a very specific audience to whom they market,

generally adhering to that audience’s interests. This creates a defined
niche or personal brand that helps the affiliate attract consumers who will
be most likely to act on the promotion.

The consumer:

The affiliate system to work, there needs to be sales — and the consumer
or customer is the one who makes them happen.

TYPES OF AFFILIATE MARKETING:

In 2009, renowned affiliate marketer Pat Flynn categorized affiliate

marketing into three types — unattached, related and involved — to help
differentiate between affiliate marketers who are closely tied to a product
versus those who are not.

Unattached:

In the unattached business model, the affiliate marketer has no connection

to the product or service they are promoting. They have no expertise or
authority in the niche of the product, nor can they make claims about its
use.

Typically, an unattached affiliate will run PPC (pay-per-click) marketing

campaigns, using an affiliate link in hopes that shoppers will click it and
make a purchase on their own.

While unattached affiliate marketing may be attractive due to its lack of

commitment, it’s generally for those who simply want to generate an
income without investing in the product or customer relationship.

Related:

A happy medium between unattached and involved, related affiliate

marketing is for those who don’t necessarily use the product or service,
but who are somehow related to the niche audience. These affiliates often
have some sort of influence in the niche and an established following, and
can therefore offer some authority.

For example, perhaps you’re promoting a clothing brand you’ve never

used before, but you have an audience through a fashion blog or
YouTube channel. In this case, you would be considered a related
affiliate marketer.
The advantage of this type of affiliate marketing is that the affiliate has
the expertise to generate traffic, however they may risk recommending a
bad product or service if they’ve never actually used it before, potentially
costing them the trust of their audience.

Involved:

As the name suggests, involved affiliate marketing describes those who

are closely tied to the product or service they’re promoting. The affiliate
has tried the product themselves, trusts that it will provide a good
experience and has the authority to make claims about its use.

Rather than relying on pays per click, involved affiliate marketers use
their personal experiences with the product in their marketing efforts, and
customers can trust them as reliable sources of information.

HOW DO AFFILIATE MARKETERS GET PAID?

The affiliate may get paid in various ways:

Pay per sale:

This is the standard affiliate marketing structure. In this program, the

merchant pays the affiliate a percentage of the sale price of the product
after the consumer purchases the product as a result of affiliate marketing
strategies. In other words, the affiliate must actually get the investor to
invest in the affiliate product before they are compensated.

Pay per lead:

A more complex system, pay per lead affiliate marketing programs

compensates the affiliate based on the conversion of leads. The affiliate
must persuade the consumer to visit the merchant’s website and complete
the desired action — whether it’s filling out a contact form, signing up for
a trial of a product, subscribing to a newsletter or downloading software
or files.

Pay per click:

Affiliate marketing is largely about generating traffic to websites and

trying to get customers to click and take action. So, the myth that affiliate
marketing is all about SEO (search engine optimization) is no surprise.

However, while organic traffic is free, SEO simply can’t sustain affiliate
marketers in such a saturated market — which is why some affiliate
marketers utilize PPC.

PPC (pay per click) programs focus on incentivizing the affiliate to

redirect consumers from their marketing platform to the merchant’s
website. This means the affiliate must engage the consumer to the extent
that they will move from the affiliate’s site to the merchant’s site. The
affiliate is paid based on the increase in web traffic.

TIPS TO HELP YOU BECOME A SUCCESSFUL AFFILIATE

MARKETER:

Develop a rapport with your audience:

When beginning your affiliate marketing career, you’ll want to cultivate

an audience that has very specific interests. This allows you to tailor your
affiliate campaigns to that niche, increasing the likelihood that you’ll
convert. By establishing yourself as an expert in one area instead of
promoting a large array of products, you’ll be able to market to the people
most likely to buy the product.
Make it personal:

There is no shortage of products you’ll be able to promote.

You’ll have the ability to pick and choose products that you personally
believe in, or even products from your favourite brands, so make sure that
your campaigns centre around truly valuable products that consumers will
enjoy. You’ll achieve an impressive conversion rate while simultaneously
establishing the reliability of your personal brand.

You’ll also want to get really good at email outreach to work with other
bloggers and influencers. Use a tool like Contact Out or Voila Norbert to
gather people’s contact information and send personalized emails to
garner guest blogging and affiliate opportunities.

Start reviewing products and services:

Focus on reviewing products and services that fall within your niche.
Then, leveraging the rapport you have created with your audience and
your stance as an expert, tell your readers why they would benefit from
purchasing the product or service you are promoting.

Almost anything sold online can be reviewed if there is an affiliate

program — you can review physical products, digital software or even
services booked online, like ride-sharing or travel resort booking.

It is especially effective to compare this product to others in the same

category. Most importantly, make sure you are generating detailed,
articulate content to improve conversions.

Use several sources:

Instead of focusing on just an email campaign, also spend time making
money with a blog, creating landing pages, posting on review sites,
reaching out to your audience on social media and even looking into
cross-channel promotions.

Test a variety of digital marketing strategies to see which one your

audience responds to the most. Make frequent use of this technique.

Choose campaigns with care:

No matter how good your online marketing skills are, you’ll make less
money on a bad product than you will on a valuable one. Take the time to
study the demand for a new product before promoting it.

Make sure to research the seller with care before teaming up. Your time is
worth a lot, and you want to be sure you’re spending it on a product that
is profitable and a seller you can believe in.

Stay current with trends:

There is serious competition in the affiliate marketing sphere. You’ll

want to make sure you stay on top of any new trends to ensure you
remain competitive.

Additionally, you’ll likely be able to benefit from at least a few of the

new marketing techniques that are constantly being created.

Be sure you’re keeping up to date on all these new strategies to guarantee

that your conversion rates, and therefore revenue, will be as high as
possible.

DIGITAL MARKETING:
 WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?

According to TechTarget, digital marketing is a method that helps

marketers promote and sell their products or services to prospective
customers through online platforms such as email, social media, mobile
marketing, webinars, and video-based content.

Unlike traditional marketing, where audience reach is limited, digital

marketing provides access to a worldwide audience.

TYPES OF DIGITAL MARKETING:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a digital marketing strategy that uses certain keywords and helps
marketers optimize their website ranking in search engine result pages.

2. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

A Social Media Marketing (SMM) marketing strategy helps marketers

build an organic presence of their brand on social media platforms such
as LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

3. Email Marketing:

It is a digital marketing strategy that lets marketers directly connect with

their leads by sending relevant information, offers, and blogs straight to
their inboxes.

4. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising:

PPC ads are paid advertisements where advertisers need to pay a fee to
publishers each time their ads are clicked.

PILLARS OF DIGITAL MARKETING:

There are three key pillars of digital marketing: data, technology, and
people.

1. Data:

There are three types of data: demographic—related to who your

audiences are and what their interests are; behavioural—data related to
customers’ activity; and contextual data—events occurring in real-time.

2. Technology:

Technology can’t resolve a problem alone. Combined with the right data
and talent, it has the power to solve critical problems and become a game
changer. Three types of technology for successfully implementing digital
marketing strategies are facilitative (third-party tools), internal (on-
premise or in-house technologies), and web analytics (software to collect
customer activity online).

3. People:
 The right technology and data can’t give you the desired outcomes until
you don’t have skilled people to use them. People with the required skill
set can optimize each aspect of a digital marketing strategy and transform
the business.

ADVANTAGES:

• Helps marketers find new markets and trade worldwide in a cost-effective

way
• It is easily trackable and measurable with the help of web analytics and
online metric tools
• It has a wide variety of digital marketing approaches such as SEO, SMM,
video marketing, and PPC, which leads to large-scale brand visibility
• It enables businesses to target customers based on their age, gender,
occupation, hobbies, and interests

DISADVANTAGES:

• If precautionary measures are not put in place, digital marketing may lead
to cybercrimes
• Although digital marketing strategies provide local and global reach, 38%
of the population still doesn’t get covered in its radar
• Successful digital marketing methods require modern software and
devices, which is an expensive deal for small businesses
• Using digital marketing to reach worldwide audiences introduces
roadblocks like competition on a global scale

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

 Gartner describes social media marketing as a strategy that uses social
media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and
Facebook to connect with audiences to build the company’s brand,
increase sales, and drive website traffic. Using social media marketing,
marketers can:

• Deliver tailored and relevant content to prospects

• Reach hidden leads who are unaware of your business
• Foster long-lasting relationships and powerful engagement with prospects

TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:

Four major types of social media marketing strategies are content

marketing, advertising, influencer marketing, and social media
management.

1. Content Marketing:

The process of creating and curating content such as text, videos, images,
graphics, and e-books/guides and distributing it through paid, owned, and
earned media is called content marketing.

2. Social Media Advertising:

Also known as paid social, social media advertising is a method of

running paid ad campaigns on social media channels, such as Instagram,
YouTube, Twitter, and Meta.

3. Influencer Marketing:

It’s a type of social media marketing that includes brand or product

endorsement through influencers on social media who use their large
 following to create brand or product awareness, engagement, and
potential sales.

4. Social Media Management:

This involves analysing social media audiences, developing strategies,

creating and dispensing content across social media platforms,
monitoring online conversations, collaborating with influencers, and
monitoring and measuring social media performance.

PILLARS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:

Social media marketing encompasses five key pillars: strategy, planning

and publishing, listening and engagement, analytics and reporting, and
advertising. Let’s look at each pillar in detail.

Strategy:

Before publishing anything on social media platforms, designing a robust

strategy is crucial. It helps you determine the type of content that can
attract audiences, the goal of your social media posts/campaigns, and the
platforms suitable for them.

Planning and Publishing:

Planning or scheduling your post in advance helps you to showcase your

reliability to your audience. Furthermore, it ensures you are consistently
engaged on social media platforms.

Listening and Engagement:

It takes time for a brand to grow its social media followers. While you
may start with small numbers, with regular posting of engaging and
 personalized content, you can increase the followers count and audience
engagement.

Analytics and Reporting:

This is one of the crucial pillars of social media marketing. You should
know how the content you have posted has been received by the
audience. This is where analytics and reporting come into the picture.
Social media analytics tools help you track the performance of your
content on a daily, weekly, or monthly.

Advertising:

Advertising, especially paid ads, helps you to reach a wider audience.

Depending on your budget, you can launch and run paid campaigns for
your company on different social media platforms.

ADVANTAGES:

• The over three million social media users ensure a large audience reach
• Social media channels like LinkedIn allow marketers to post organic
content for free
• It helps marketers with an option to run paid advertisements
• It allows marketers to build the brand image of their company

DISADVANTAGES:

• You may receive negative feedback about your brand, products, or

services
• If you’re not careful about the kind of content posted, it may create a poor
brand image
• A big roadblock to a successful social media marketing campaign is that
it is time-consuming
• It doesn’t give immediate outcomes

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING:

Social Media
Parameters Digital Marketing
Marketing
Social media
Emails, websites, and
marketing channels,
social media platforms
Online including Twitter,
encompass online
Channel Instagram, TikTok,
channels for digital
WhatsApp, and
marketing
Facebook
Audience engagement
Audience
is based on visiting
Audience engagement depends
websites, blog posts,
Engagement on social media
social media platforms,
platforms only
and emails
Digital marketing
The prime goal of
strategies aim to
SMM is to drive
acquire new
Goal traffic to websites,
customers, create
generate leads, and
brand awareness, and
make sales cost
make conversions
Digital marketing
Cost- Social media
efforts include using
effective platforms enable
advanced technologies,
 which can be marketers to post
expensive for small content free of cost
businesses
SEO, SMM, and PPC Blog posts, videos,
are some of the proven and podcasts are
Strategy
digital marketing some of the SMM
strategies tools