What Is Marketing?

Marketing refers to the activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of its
products or services. Marketing includes advertising and allows businesses to sell products and
services to consumers, other businesses, and organizations.
Professionals who work in a corporation's marketing and promotion departments seek to get the
attention of key potential audiences through advertising. Promotions are targeted to certain
audiences and may involve celebrity endorsements, catchy phrases or slogans, memorable
packaging or graphic designs, and overall media exposure.

Understanding Marketing
Marketing as a discipline involves all the actions a company undertakes to draw in
customers and maintain relationships with them. Networking with potential or past clients is
part of the work too and may include writing thank you emails, playing golf with prospective
clients, returning calls and emails quickly, and meeting with clients for coffee or a meal.
At its most basic level, marketing seeks to match a company's products and services to
customers who want access to those products. Matching products to customers ultimately
ensures profitability.

Formal Definition:
"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and
Society at large”. Official definition from the American Marketing Association, approved
2017.1

What Are the 4 P's of Marketing?

Product, price, place, and promotion are the Four Ps of marketing. The Four Ps collectively
makes up the essential mix a company needs to market a product or service. Neil Borden
popularized the idea of the marketing mix and the concept of the Four Ps in the 1950s.
Product:
Product refers to an item or items the business plans to offer to customers. The product should
seek to fulfill an absence in the market or fulfill consumer demand for a greater amount of a
 product already available. Before they can prepare an appropriate campaign, marketers need to
understand what product is being sold, how it stands out from its competitors, whether the
product can also be paired with a secondary product or product line, and whether there are
substitute products in the market.

Price
Price refers to how much the company will sell the product for. When establishing a price,
companies must consider the unit cost price, marketing costs, and distribution expenses.
Companies must also consider the price of competing products in the marketplace and whether
their proposed price point is sufficient to represent a reasonable alternative for consumers.

Place
Place refers to the distribution of the product. Key considerations include whether the company
will sell the product through a physical storefront, online, or through both distribution channels.
When it's sold in a storefront, what kind of physical product placement does it get? When it's
sold online, what kind of digital product placement does it get?

Promotion
Promotion, the fourth P, is the integrated marketing communications campaign. Promotion
includes a variety of activities such as advertising, selling, sales promotions, public relations,
direct marketing, sponsorship, and guerrilla marketing.
Promotions vary depending on what stage of the product life cycle the product is in. Marketers
understand that consumers associate a product’s price and distribution with its quality, and they
take this into account when devising the overall marketing strategy.

What Are the Benefits of Marketing?

Well-defined marketing strategies can benefit a company in several ways. It may be challenging
to develop the right strategy or execute the plan; when done well, marketing can yield the
following results:
 Audience Generation. Marketing allows a company to target specific people it believes will
benefit from its product or service. Sometimes, people know they have the need. Other times,
 they don't realize it. Marketing enables a company to connect with a cohort of people that fit the
demographic of whom the company aims to serve.
 Inward Education. Marketing is useful for collecting information to be processed internally to
drive success. For example, consider market research that finds a certain product is primarily
purchased by women aged 18 to 34 years old. By collecting this information, a company can
better understand how to cater to this demographic, drive sale, and be more efficient with
resources.
 Outward Education. Marketing can also be used to communicate with the world what your
company does, what products you sell, and how your company can enrich the lives of others.
Campaigns can be educational, informing those outside of your company why they need your
product. In addition, marketing campaigns let a company introduce itself, its history, its owners,
and its motivation for being the company it is.
 Brand Creation. Marketing allows for a company to take an offensive approach to creating a
brand. Instead of a customer shaping their opinion of a company based on their interactions, a
company can preemptively engage a customer with specific content or media to drive certain
emotions or reactions. This allows a company to shape its image before the customer has ever
interacted with its products.
 Long-lasting. Marketing campaigns done right can have a long-lasting impact on customers.
Consider Poppin' Fresh, also known as the Pillsbury Doughboy. First appearing in 1965, the
mascot has helped create a long-lasting, warm, friendly brand for Pillsbury.3
 Financial Performance. The ultimate goal and benefit of marketing are to drive sales. When
relationships with customers are stronger, well-defined, and positive, customers are more likely
to engage in sales. When marketing is done right, customers turn to your company, and you
gain a competitive advantage over your competitors. Even if both products are exactly the same,
marketing can create that competitive advantage for why a client picks you over someone else.

What Are the Limitations of Marketing?

Though there are many reasons a company embarks on marketing campaigns, there are several
limitations to the industry.
 Oversaturation. Every company wants customers to buy its product and not its competitors.
Therefore, marketing channels can be competitive as companies strive to garner more positive
 attention and recognition. If too many companies are competing, a customer's attention may be
strongly diluted, resulting in any form of advertising not being effective.
 Devaluation. When a company promotes a price discount or sale, the public may
psychologically eventually see that product as worth less in the future. If a campaign is so
strong, customers may even wait to purchase a good knowing or remembering what the sale
price was from before. For example, some may intentionally hold off buying goods if Black
Friday is approaching.
 No Guaranteed Success. Marketing campaigns may incur upfront expenses that hold no
promise of future success. This is also true of market research studies, where time, effort, and
resources are poured into a study that may yield no usable or helpful results.
 Customer Bias. Loyal, long-time customers need no enticing to buy a company's brand or
product. However, newer, uninitiated customers may. Marketing naturally is biased towards
non-loyal patrons as those who already support the company would be better served by further
investment in product improvement.
 Cost. Marketing campaigns may be expensive. Digital marketing campaigns may be labor-
intensive to set up and costly to maintain the scheduling, implementation, and execution of the
plan. Don't forget about the headlines that promote Super Bowl commercial expenses in the
millions.
 Economy-Dependent. Marketing is most successful when people have capital to spend.
Though marketing can create non-financial benefits such as brand loyalty and product
recognition, the ultimate goal is to drive sales. During unfavorable macroeconomic conditions
when unemployment is high or recession concerns are elevated, consumers may be less likely to
spend no matter how great a marketing campaign may be.

Types of Marketing:
• Traditional Marketing
• Digital marketing

Traditional Marketing:
The traditional way of marketing lets businesses market their products or administrations on
print media, radio and TV commercials, bill boards, business cards, and in numerous other
comparable ways where Internet or web-based
social networking sites were not utilized for
promoting.
▪ However, traditional promoting approaches had
constrained client reach ability and extent of
driving clients’ purchasing conduct. In addition,
traditional marketing methods were not quantifiable
too.
▪ There are many facets of traditional marketing
and examples might include tangible items such as
business cards, print ads in newspapers or
magazines. It can also include posters, commercials on TV and radio, billboards and brochures.
Traditional marketing is anything except digital means to brand your product or logo.
▪ Another overlooked means of traditional marketing is when people find a particular business
through a referral or a network and eventually you build a rapport with them.
▪ Because of its longevity, people are accustomed to traditional marketing. Finding ads in
magazines and newspapers, or reading billboards are still familiar activities and people still do
them all the time.
▪ Most of the time, traditional marketing is reaching only a local audience even though it is not
limited to one.
▪ There are some aspects where traditional marketing wins over the online advertising battle,
which include Target Local Audience, Materials are for keeps, More personal and Simpler
process.
▪ One of the primary disadvantages of traditional marketing is that the results are not easily
measured, and in many cases cannot be measured at all.
▪ In most cases, traditional marketing is also more costly than digital marketing. And perhaps the
biggest disadvantage today is that traditional marketing is static which means there is no way to
interact with the audience. It’s more like you are throwing information in front of people and
hoping that they decide to take action.
Digital Marketing: Digital Marketing can be understood as a well-targeted, conversion-
oriented, quantifiable, and interactive marketing of products or services by utilizing digital
innovation to achieve the customers, and transform them into clients in a sustainable fashion.
The whole concept and functionalities of Digital Marketing are more competent, effective,
result-oriented and measurable, which make it very different
from traditional marketing.
 Digital or online marketing is the marketing mode of
the global village. It is only obvious that the era of
the internet will have its influence in every realm of
life.
 The world of digital marketing continues to evolve
and as long as technology continues to advance,
digital marketing will as well.
 Examples of digital marketing include things like
websites, social media mentions, YouTube videos, and banner ads. Specifically, digital
marketing is similar to traditional advertising, but using digital devices.
 However, digital marketing is considered a form of inbound marketing and its goal is for
people to find you. Businesses put content (or ads) out for individuals to find.
 People may conduct an organic online search, a paid search, find your business on a
social network or by reading content that has been published online such as a blog or an
article. The more they see you or your content, the more familiar they will become with
your brand and they will eventually develop a trust and a rapport with you through this
online presence.
 One benefit to using digital marketing is that the results are much easier to measure; and
another is that a digital campaign can reach an infinite audience. It is also possible to
tailor a digital campaign to reach a local audience but it can also be used on the web and
reach the entire globe when appropriate.
 Digital marketing is also a very interactive means of reaching an audience since it makes
use of social outlets. There can be plenty of direct contact between the audience and the
business which means that the business can get some very valuable consumer feedback.
  Benefits of Digital Marketing over Traditional Marketing include reduced cost, real time
result, brand Development, non-intrusive, higher exposure, higher engagement, Quicker
publicity, Non interruptive, Good For All Stages Of Fields, Easy analytics and Strategy
Refinement.
 One of the disadvantages to using digital media marketing strategies is that it can take
some time to realize measurable success.

Differences between Traditional Marketing & Digital Marketing:

Sr.No Traditional Marketing Digital Marketing
1 Communication is unidirectional in Communication is bidirectional in Digital
traditional marketing, which means, an Marketing as businesses can communicate
organization communicates about its with customers and customers can ask
services with its audiences. queries or make suggestions to businesses as
well.
2 Medium of communication in traditional Medium of communication is more powerful
marketing is generally phone calls, and involves social media websites, chats,
emails, and letters. apps and Email.
3 Campaign in Traditional marketing Digital marketing campaigns can be
takes more time as designing, preparing, developed quite rapidly and with digital
and launching are involved. tools, channelizing Digital Marketing
campaigns is easier.
4 It is best for reaching local audience. It is very effective for reaching global
audiences.
5 It is almost impossible to measure the Digital Marketing lets you measure the
effectiveness of a traditional marketing effectiveness of a digital marketing campaign
campaign through analytics.
6 Traditional Marketing is not cost- Digital Marketing is more cost effective-
effective. promoting.
7 It is difficult to quantify the return on It is simple to calculate in the case of digital
investment in traditional marketing marketing.
8 It is not so good for Brand building It is efficient and fast for brand building
 9 After the posting of the advertisement, it Even after the posting of an advertisement, it
cannot be altered. can be amended

Introduction to Digital Marketing:

Today’s time of Internet has opened the gateway of tremendous digital marketing opportunities
for businesses. By utilizing different channels of digital marketing, businesses cannot just share
their product and services online; additionally they can gain clients for their business, entice
them and can convert them to boost their business profits. The speed and straightforwardness
with which the digital media transmits data and support a business is astonishing. The world is
super-connected nowadays and all things considered, marketing and advertising are no more the
same as they once were. This is particularly valid because of the ascent of online networking,
which has changed how organizations speak with potential and existing customers. Essentially, it
is an aggregate term, which is utilized where advertising and marketing meet web innovation and
different types of online media platforms.

Meaning/Definition:
Digital marketing refers to the use of digital channels, platforms, and technologies to
promote products, services, or brands to a target audience. It encompasses a wide range of
online marketing strategies and tactics aimed at reaching potential customers and engaging
with them in the digital space. Digital marketing leverages the internet and electronic devices,
such as computers, smart phones, and tablets, to connect with consumers, build brand
awareness, drive website traffic, and ultimately, achieve various marketing objectives.
Digital marketing offers several advantages, including precise targeting, measurable
results, cost-effectiveness, global reach, and the ability to adapt to changing trends and
technologies. It has become a fundamental component of modern marketing strategies as
more and more consumers engage with brands and make purchasing decisions online.

Characteristics of Digital Marketing:

We are living in the digital age today. Outdated marketing won’t help you get profits you desire
for. Digital Marketing is a necessity today of almost every business. There is no way around it.
The way you dedicated a lot of your time and effort to making your product, similarly it is
important to invest in a complete digital strategy to launch and show your product or services to
your targeted audience and continually improve your brand presence online. Make sure that you
evaluate all your options so you get aware of your digital marketing platforms and whether or not
you’re really boosting the potential of your marketing campaign. When done correctly, this can
help you stand out from the crowd and get succeed. Digital Marketing is a great way of
increasing brand awareness, customer engagement and long-term loyalty and generating a short-
term boost in sales, despite the fact that every digital marketing campaign is different in their
own ways, the reality is that many of them are built on common basics and a few key elements.
Successful Digital Marketing Campaign requires a lot of time following through analytics and
data to find insights. But, as we have analyzed which characteristics successful campaigns share
to help you.
1. Get a Quality Company Website: What was a novelty a mere decade ago is a critical
requirement today. A business website is a pseudo B2B portal, allowing businesses and
customers from around the world to connect with you. A business website is similar to your
Company brochure, available 24×7, and projects you as a professional outfit.
2. Social Media Presence: The biggest achievement of this digital era has been the ease with
which people have learnt to communicate- Social Media websites like Facebook, Twitter,
Google+, Pinterest, YouTube etc. are the latest methods to communicate across wide
demographics of age, taste and culture. By actively promoting your company on these social
media, you are getting the world to talk about you.
3. Blogging and Forums: Here is a powerful axiom- 'Content is King'. Produce powerful,
genuine and compelling content as part of your Company blog. Be a regular on relevant forums
and discussion panels. Learn the art of connecting your business themes into the content that you
produce. In time, your content will stand up to be the biggest promoter of your brand.
4. List your business on the three biggest listing services: Register your business on 'Google
Places'- this allows your business to feature on Google searches and be listed on Google Maps.
Other business databases that you must be part of include 'Yahoo! Local' and Microsoft's 'Bing'.
Joining these services is free; setting up an 7 | P a g e D i g i t a l M a r k e t i n g account takes
very limited time and the far reach of these services translates to free promotion for your
business.
5. Email Marketing: In recent times, bulk emailing isn't a very favored promotional concept.
However, if done well, and with good intentions, email marketing could be a powerful tool in
your Company's online promotional arsenal. Personalized emails speak directly to the target
audience, helps you get an immediate response and can aid in the opening of a line of
communication with your prospective customer base. It's free and fast promotion- with an
impactful feedback.
6. A Dedicated Digital Marketing Expert: If you aren't sure about pulling off a good
promotional job individually, maybe it's a good idea to hire an innovative, enthusiastic Digital
Marketing Consultant to handle your Company's online promotional strategy. This action will
allow you to be on top of your promotional ideas while employing a professional to implement
concepts that drive towards your expected results.

Types of Digital Marketing:

1. Website Marketing:
A website is the centerpiece of all digital marketing activities. It is a very powerful channel on its
own, but it’s also the medium needed to execute a variety of online marketing campaigns. A
website should represent a brand, product, and service in a clear and memorable way. It should
be fast, mobile friendly, and easy to use.
2. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising:
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising enables marketers to reach Internet users on a number of digital
platforms through paid ads. Marketers can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, LinkedIn,
Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook and show their ads to people searching for terms related to the
products or services. PPC campaigns can segment users based on their demographic
characteristics (such as by age or gender), or even target their particular interests or location. The
most popular PPC platforms are Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
3. Content Marketing :
The goal of content marketing is to reach potential customers through the use of content. Content
is usually published on a website and then promoted through social media, email marketing,
search engine optimization, or even PPC campaigns. The tools of content marketing include
blogs, eBooks, online courses, info graphics, podcasts, and webinars.
4. Email Marketing:
Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels. Many people
confuse email marketing with spam email messages, but that’s not what email marketing is all
about. This type of marketing allows companies to get in touch with potential customers and
anyone interested in their brands. Many digital marketers use all other digital marketing channels
to add leads to their email lists and then, through email marketing, they create customer
acquisition funnels to turn those leads into customers.
5. Social Media Marketing :
The primary goal of a social media marketing campaign is brand awareness and establishing
social trust. As you go deeper into social media marketing, you can use it to get leads or even as
a direct sales channel. Promoted posts and tweets are two examples of social media marketing.
6. Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing, and the internet has brought new life
to this old standby. With affiliate marketing, influencers promote other people’s products and get
a commission every time a sale is made or a lead is introduced. Many well-known companies
like Amazon have affiliate programs that pay out millions of dollars per month to websites that
sell their products.
7. Video Marketing:
YouTube is one of the most popular search engines in the world. A lot of users are turning to
YouTube before making a buying decision, to learn something, read a review, or just to relax.
There are several video marketing platforms, including Facebook Videos, Instagram, and even
TikTok to use to run a video marketing campaign. Companies find the most success with video
by integrating it with SEO, content marketing, and broader social media marketing campaigns.
8. SMS Messaging :
Companies and nonprofit organizations also use SMS or text messages to send information about
their latest promotions or give opportunities to willing customers. Political candidates running
for office also use SMS message campaigns to spread positive information about their own
platforms. As technology has advanced, many text-to-give campaigns also allow customers to
directly pay or give via a simple text message.
 9. Instant Message Marketing:
This type of marketing leverages messaging apps and platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook
Messenger, and Slack to connect with customers in real-time. Businesses can use these platforms
to provide customer support, send promotional messages, and engage in personalized
conversations. Instant message marketing allows for direct and immediate communication with
customers, enhancing the customer experience and driving sales.

Trends of the Digital Marketing Industry:

1. Influencer Marketing:
Influencer marketing is the practice of using an influencer’s image and goodwill to promote and
advertise a brand’s product or services. Influencers can be individuals or groups with a massive
fan following. Here are some of the reasons why influencer marketing has gained momentum in
the current business milieu:
• Persuades audience: Influencers have a loyal fan base, meaning they can sway the audiences
in a jiffy. Many brands opt for influencer marketing to attract a diverse set of audiences to their
products.
• Increases trust: Influencers use social media applications to promote or advertise products or
services. Therefore, many brands opt for influencer marketing to increase brand awareness and
amplify their social media presence.
• Supports content strategy: Influencer marketing is best suited for filling the gaps in content
marketing strategy.
2. Omni Channel Marketing:
Omni channel marketing is believed to be one of the most effective ways to reach the target
audience. It is an approach that stands true to the definition of digital marketing – using different
digital mediums to promote, engage, and serve customers. Omnichannel marketing offers a
varied set of benefits, which are as follows:
• Attracting new customers and market segments
• Engaging customers after sales
• Increasing trust and loyalty of customers
• Boosting sales and customer satisfaction
• Helps understand customer demand and needs
Omnichannel marketing is widely used in retail, entertainment, food service, business, and other
industries.
3. Artificial Intelligence:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the process of developing smart computer systems that can perform
similar functions to the human brain. Companies can use AI to gauge the needs and demands of
their customers. Simultaneously, it can be used to find out patterns in customer buying behavior,
monitor and offer a solution to formulate a marketing strategy. Moreover, AI applications like
machine learning, deep learning, and others can be used for various customer and marketing-
related activities – including content creation, ad monitoring, promoting products, interacting
with customers, and more. Therefore, as a digital marketing trend, AI is a boon for companies
looking to level up their advertising game.
4. Video Marketing:
Social media platforms have offered a new space for companies to promote their products or
services to their target audience. Video marketing is a potent digital marketing tool popular
among businesses trying to increase their customer base. Experts believe that videos are more
effective than any other form of content; that’s why many brands are shifting their focus to
developing content-rich and enthralling videos to promote their products or services. Similarly,
social media applications like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and others have also integrated
short-form content into their algorithms, helping brands proliferate to their target audience.
Therefore, brands looking to increase their customer base can opt for video marketing as their
promotional strategy.
5. Long-form Content:
Content marketing is a popular digital marketing trend using which companies often promote
their product or services. Similarly, long-form content is the subsect of content marketing that
consists of blog posts or articles of more than 3000 words to promote a product or service.
Companies create long-form content intending to increase their visibility, industry expertise, and
customer engagement. In addition to this, here are some other reasons why businesses opt for
long-form content:
• Increases traffic on the website:
More people visit the company’s website due to the long-form content’s popularity. However,
people are less likely to explore more products and services of the brand.
• High ranking on search engine: Search engine ranking and website traffic have a direct
correlation. Therefore, an increase in traffic would lead to a high ranking on a search engine,
further increasing customer interaction and engagement on the website.
• Increases customer engagement and interaction: Long-form content helps in initiating a
conversation between a brand and its customers. Furthermore, it also increases customer
engagement and loyalty.
6. Social Media Shopping:
The advent of social media has helped businesses closely interact with their audience and
provide a medium to sell their goods and service. The integration of social media and e-
commerce has opened doors for an online marketplace for customers from different strata of
society to buy products and services that match their expectations. It is a popular social media
trend that transcends different industries. Moreover, it is an effective way to make your products
available to customers while interacting and engaging with them.
7. Progressive Web Pages:
Progressive web pages are online websites that perform the functions of a mobile application.
They send push notifications, load faster than other sites, and are accessible offline, among
others. A progressive web page is one of the latest digital marketing trends that have addressed
the need for websites that can offer a versatile user interface to customers with different devices.
Furthermore, this latest digital marketing trend is expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the
forthcoming years.

Importance of Digital Marketing:

Digital marketing has become prominent largely because it reaches such a wide audience of
people. However, it also offers a number of other advantages that can boost your marketing
efforts. These are a few of the benefits of digital marketing.
1. A Broad Geographic Reach:
When you post an ad online, people can see it no matter where they are (provided you haven’t
limited your ad geographically). This makes it easy to grow your business's market reach and
connect with a larger audience across different digital channels.
 2. Cost Efficiency:
Digital marketing not only reaches a broader audience than traditional marketing but also carries
a lower cost. Overhead costs for newspaper ads, television spots, and other traditional marketing
opportunities can be high. They also give you less control over whether your target audiences
will see those messages in the first place.
With digital marketing, you can create just one content piece that draws visitors to your blog as
long as it's active. You can create an email marketing campaign that delivers messages to
targeted customer lists on a schedule, and it's easy to change that schedule or the content if you
need to do so.
When you add it all up, digital marketing gives you much more flexibility and customer contact
for your ad spend.
3. Quantifiable Results:
To know whether your marketing strategy works, you have to find out how many customers it
attracts and how much revenue it ultimately drives. But how do you do that with a non-digital
marketing strategy?
There's always the traditional option of asking each customer, “How did you find us?"
Unfortunately, that doesn't work in all industries. Many companies don't get to have one-on-one
conversations with their customers, and surveys don't always get complete results.
With digital marketing, results monitoring is simple. Digital marketing software and platforms
automatically track the number of desired conversions that you get, whether that means email
open rates, visits to your home page, or direct purchases.
4. Easier Personalization:
Digital marketing allows you to gather customer data in a way that offline marketing can't. Data
collected digitally tends to be much more precise and specific.
Imagine you offer financial services and want to send out special offers to internet users people
who have looked at your products. You know you'll get better results if you target the offer to the
person's interest, so you decide to prepare 2 campaigns. One is for young families who have
looked at your life insurance products, and the other is for millennial entrepreneurs who have
considered your retirement plans.
How do you gather all of that data without automated tracking? How many phone records would
you have to go through? How many customer profiles? And how do you know who has or hasn't
read the brochure you sent out?
With digital marketing, all of this information is already at your fingertips.
5. More Connection with Customers:
Digital marketing lets you communicate with your customers in real-time. More importantly, it
lets them communicate with you.
Think about your social media strategy. It's great when your target audience sees your latest post,
but it's even better when they comment on it or share it. It means more buzz surrounding your
product or service, as well as increased visibility every time someone joins the conversation.
Interactivity benefits your customers as well. Their level of engagement increases as they
become active participants in your brand's story. That sense of ownership can create a strong
sense of brand loyalty.
6. Easy and convenient conversions:
Digital marketing lets your customers take action immediately after viewing your ad or content.
With traditional advertisements, the most immediate result you can hope for is a phone call
shortly after someone views your ad. But how often does someone have the time to reach out to a
company while they're doing the dishes, driving down the highway, or updating records at work?
With digital marketing, they can click a link or save a blog post and move along the sales funnel
right away. They might not make a purchase immediately, but they’ll stay connected with you
and give you a chance to interact with them further.
7. Affordable:
Digital marketing is a lot more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods, which is ideal
for businesses that have limited funds and resources. You also have complete control over how
you spend your money, targeting certain marketing streams depending on your needs. For
example, using Google Ads or commissioning some time with a videographer.
It also allows you to be flexible with your money, pivoting to different marketing strategies when
required. This reduces the risk of wasting precious finances and ensures money gets allocated
effectively.
8. Interacts with Customers and Solve their Problems:
You can always interact with your customers and offer solutions to their problems with live chat
access. With your website and social media pages, you can make them relate to your product and
improve your conversion ratio by solving their queries, their frustrations, and their exact
requirements. Hence you can make suggestions, fulfill their needs and associate with your
customers on a positive level with digital marketing.
9. Applicable Even with a Small Budget:
A small business has to craft its way towards success saving upon its resources. And Digital
Marketing gives you the scope to reach out to large audience by remaining in the budget. You
can design your marketing strategies considering your budget, business model, and business
goals. If there is a budget constraint then you can always opt for targeting your niche audience.

Planning and Designing

a Website :: 171

6
PLANNING AND
DESIGNING A
WEBSITE
6.1 INTRODUCTION
The main pu rpose of
any website is to
deliver specific
information or
services in an
organized and user
friendly
manner. The success of
the website is
measured in terms of
the number of visitors
to the site and the ease
with which the
visitors find the
required information.
An effective and
efficient
website is highly
influenced by how well
interface is designed
and managed. Keeping
the scenario in mind,
one cannot ignore
the importance of
proper planning and
designing considering
the legal rights and
hosting the website in a
reliable web hosting
server.

PLANNING AND DESIGNING A WEBSITE

INTRODUCTION
The main purpose of any web site is to deliver specific information or services in an organized
and user friendly manner. The success of the website is measured in terms of the number of
visitors to the site and the ease with which the visitors find the required information. An effective
and efficient website is highly influenced by how well interface is designed and managed.
Keeping the scenario in mind, one cannot ignore the importance of proper planning and
designing considering the legal rights and hosting the website in a reliable web hosting server.

OBJECTIVES
After going through this session, you would be able to:
 explain the concept of website planning
 define the principles of Website Designing
 Define Website its various types and components
 Describe website Hosting and its types
 Get acquainted with domain name registration
 Host a sample website into a free web hosting serve
6
WHAT IS A WEBSITE?
A Website is a collection of documents written in the HTML code for an individual, a business
house or any other organization. It is typically dedicated to some particular topic or purpose.
Based on their functionality, there are two types of website, Static Website and Dynamic
Website. In static website contents are not expected to change frequently whereas in dynamic
website contents are changing frequently.

Planning and Designing a Website :: 171

6
PLANNING AND DESIGNING A
WEBSITE
6.1 INTRODUCTION
The main pu rpose of any website is to deliver specific
information or services in an organized and user friendly
manner. The success of the website is measured in terms of
the number of visitors to the site and the ease with which the
visitors find the required information. An effective and efficient
website is highly influenced by how well interface is designed
and managed. Keeping the scenario in mind, one cannot ignore
the importance of proper planning and designing considering
the legal rights and hosting the website in a reliable web hosting
server.
COMPONENTS OF A WEBSITE:
Basic Components of any website are as follows:
Home Page and site-wide template design: to ensure an attractive, functional and consistent
appearance of your website.
Integrated site navigation: to provide clear and consistent access to your site’s content.

Look and feel of your website, including colors, text and graphics, as well as the way it
functions.
A Logo: to be displayed in the left corner of each page of your website.
A site map to provide a list of all pages on your site.
Website Search features allowing user to search the website for content relevant to their
specific interests.
About page that includes:
 A complete description of you and / or your company
 Your website and / or company objectives
 Your name, address, phone numbers and e-mail addresses
Feedback: that facilitates the customers to ask some queries about your Products and Services.
A domain name: Your ‘address’ on the internet, what people type into their browser to find you.
You choose a word or phrase (Example: - mywebsite) and an extension (Example:
- .com, .net, .edu), your domain name could be mywebsite.com.
Web Hosting: The physical place your website resides; includes the computer (called a server)
as well as the connection to the Internet and the technology that makes your website work.
Copyright: Displaying your copyright information at the bottom of each page. Your copyright
might look like this: Copyright @ Year CompanyName

WEBSITE PLANNING
Planning is the most important part of building a website. Before designing a website, it is
necessary to do proper planning as we do in the case of building a house. If you start building
your house without giving a thought of planning, the house may end up into an uncomfortable
dwelling. Therefore, for building a good website proper planning is required. The basic steps that
help in planning a website are:
 Define your target audience
 Organize your concepts and materials
 Create a directory structure (also called site map)
 Create a sketch of the pages you intend to create
 Design and refine the look and feel of the site

1. Define your Target Audience:

Your site should facilitate the information or services to visitors the way they are looking for.
The keys to successfully communicating with your audience are first to identify who they are
and then anticipate their reaction to the various elements of your web site. You can tailor almost
every aspect of your web site to your target audience - from the way you organize information to
the kinds of fonts and images you use. You need to consider the following points for meeting the
above said objectives.
 The viewer’s background and previous experience
 Their interest and tastes
 The reason why they are visiting your site
 What is their general age

2. Organize your Concepts and Materials

You should be clear about the aim of creating your site, whether the aim of the site is:
 to inform
 to promote a product
 to educate audience
 to entertain the audience
Your vision of creating the web site needs to be well defined. Once the goals are defined,
organize all your materials and put together any other related documents and pictures you want
to work with.

3. Create a Directory structure:

If you think that the site will contain very few files then you can store all of them in just one
directory. But if the site is going to be very large and complex, then you will need to organize
files into separate directories and sub-directories. Developing a logical directory structure is an
essential part of planning your web site. You can have a subdirectory for sound clippings.
4. Create a Sketch of the web pages
You may like to create a drawing of web pages (Fig. 6.1).
After setting up a general site plan and
directory structures, your contents may fall into
certain types. It may be possible to work within
various pre-designed templates available on the
web designing tools such as Macromedia
Dreamweaver.

5. Develop a Look and Feel:

The term Look and Feel means the overall representation of your site. It is the combination of
colour, graphics, type and text that help to convey your meaning with style and impact. Some of
the factors you can take into consideration to improve the look and feel of the web site are:
Space and Balance: Everything should look proportionate and proper.
Color: The colors should look pleasant to the eyes.
Font type and size: Type face of the text and size of the text in the Web pages should be
comfortable to read and make the matter easy to understand.
Textures: Background graphics or textures can be annoying while reading text. So be very
careful and selective.
Special Effects: Multimedia can be added to your site to make your site appealing. More
animation, graphics, sound may cause delay while accessing through a browser.
Consistency: Using a single color scheme throughout is a good way to achieve consistency.