Digital Marketing Defined

Strauss et al (2004:2) defines digital

marketing as the application of a broad range
of information technologies for transformation
of marketing strategies to create more customer
value through more effective segmentation,
targeting, differentiation and positioning
strategies. This definition takes a broader
stance as it defines digital marketing i.e.
marketing techniques which include digital
marketing research, segmentation, positioning,
and the 7Ps are being conducted online
Digital marketing definitions
Dave Chaffey (2008) defines digital marketing as
the application of technologies which form online
channels to market: Web, e-mail, databases, plus
mobile/wireless & digital TV, PCs, PDAs) to
support marketing activities aimed at achieving
profitable acquisition and retention of customers
Digital marketing, refers to the promotion of
goods and services using Digital technologies.
The Digital world acts as a medium to
communicate messages that a business drafts for
its audience.
Analysis of Digital Marketing Definition

Digital marketing is interactive

Digital marketing uses two-way flow of
communication. This dyadic relationship
results in immediacy of feedback. The
prospect or customer becomes an active
recipient of information.
Digital marketing uses one or more
advertising media
This means that Digital marketing can be
implemented via a wide range of media. These
include all media used by general marketing such
as TV, radio, print and many others, as well as
those traditionally associated with Digital
marketing, such as Digital mail and telephone. In
addition, the new media that are revolutionizing
modern communication such as internet and
interactive TV are tailor-made for Digital
marketing applications
Digital marketing stimulates behaviour
The results are measureable. This means that
the financial return on Digital marketing
campaigns can be calculated down to the last
cent. With the exception of personal selling, no
other communication activity can be measured
with such complete accuracy.Measurability
fosters accountability. This has been the
principal reason for the growing popularity of
Digital marketing. It links cause and effect
between marketing programmes and financial
results.We can measure the response rate, the
effectiveness of the copy, headline or offer
incentives
Digital marketing environment

Digital marketing technologies

The Internet
Website
E-Mails
Mobile phones
Personal Digital Appliances
Databases
Secured Online transactions
Personal Computers
Internet

 The Internet was the result of some visionary thinking by people in

the early 1960s that saw great potential value in allowing
computers to share information on research and development in
scientific and military fields. Since the Internet was initially funded
by the government, it was originally limited to research, education,
and government uses.
 As the Internet has become ubiquitous, faster, and increasingly
accessible to non-technical communities, social networking and
collaborative services have grown rapidly, enabling people to
communicate and share interests in many more ways. Sites like
Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, YouTube, Flickr, Second Life,
delicious, blogs, wikis, and many more let people of all ages rapidly
share their interests of the moment with others everywhere. The
Internet is therefore a Global network of computers. There are two
types of networks that form the internet. These are:
Intranets

An internal network confined to an organization.

It runs internally within the organization. Makes
use of the LAN but, if the intranet connects
branches of a single organization it makes use of
a Wide Area Network (WAN). Can be used to
store information within the organization such as
customer databases, inventory levels, and
financial statements, staff information e.t.c
assists in making everyone within the
organization to be customer focused uses a
browser such as Mozilla Firefox, internet
explorer
Extranets

Link value chain members to the organization

e.g. suppliers of raw materials, manufacturer
and distribution. Raw materials can be
secured online; manufacturers can be
informed of products to be produced in terms
of size, color e.t.c. e.g. Levi Strauss and Wal-
Mart. Makes use of the WAN
Types of Digital Marketing Platforms
Email Marketing
This refers to marketing that is done by sending
advertisements and promotional content through
emails. Businesses usually maintain email
Digitalories for email marketing.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This refers to increasing the visibility of a
website, its content or the words within the
content such that they appear in search results.
This is done using on-page and off-page
optimization.
Digital marketing platforms continue
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
This refers to the increasing website’s
visibility in the search engines using paid
reach (paid advertising) and organic reach
(SEO).
Social Media Marketing
This refers to promoting a business on social
media, such as Facebook, MySpace and
Twitter.
Affiliate Marketing
It refers to the hiring of third parties, also
called affiliates, who market a business’s
content online
Benefits of Digital Marketing
 Convenient and hassle free
 Saves time
 Introduces customers to a largest selection of merchandise
 Can do comparative shopping by browsing through mail
catalogues and online shopping services
 Customers learn about available products and services without
tying up time in meeting sales people
 Has ability to segment and group customers according to
characteristics for the benefit of sellers
 Permits target market selectivity
 Can be personalized
 Is flexible
 Allows early testing and response measurement

Drawbacks of Digital Marketing
Research****
Activities in the Digital marketing Process
Interactive marketing
Digital marketers include a telephone number and web
address, and offer to print coupons from the website.
Recipients can contact the company using interaction as
an opportunity to up-sell., cross-sell and deepen the
relationship.
Real-time personalized marketing
Digital Marketers know enough about each customer to
customize and personalize the offer and message.
Life-time value marketing
Digital marketers develop a plan for lifetime marketing
to each valuable customer, based on knowledge of life
events and transitions.
Differences between Digital Marketing and
Traditional Marketing
Research*****
Important Differences between Digital and
General Marketing
Research*****
Differences between Digital Marketing and
General Advertising
Research****
Generic Objectives of Digital Marketing
There are four broad objectives of Digital
marketing namely:
sale of a product or service;
lead generation;
lead qualification; and
establishment and maintenance of customer
relationships.
The 5 ‘S’ Objectives of Digital Marketing
sell – using the Internet as a sales tool
speak – using the Internet as a
communications tool
serve – using the Internet as a customer-
service tool
save – using the Internet for cost-reduction
sizzle – using the Internet as a brand-building
tool
Social Media strategy
 Social media employ web- and mobile-based technologies
to support interactive dialogue and “introduce substantial
and pervasive changes to communication between
organizations, communities, and individuals.” Social media
are social software which mediate human communication.
Classification of social media
 Social media technologies take on many different forms
including emagazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social
blogs, micro blogging, wikis, social networks, podcasts,
photographs or pictures, video, rating and social
bookmarking.
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining
website traffic or attention through social media sites
(Koekemoer 2005)
Mobile social media

Social media applications used on mobile

devices are called mobile social media. In
comparison to traditional social media
running on computers, mobile social media
display a higher location- and time-sensitivity.
One should be able to differentiate between
four types of mobile social media applications
Mobile social media applications
Space-timers (location and time sensitive): Exchange of
messages with relevance for one specific location at one specific
point-in time (for example, Facebook Places; Foursquare)
Space-locators (only location sensitive): Exchange of messages,
with relevance for one specific location, which are tagged to a
certain place and read later by others (for example, Yelp; Qype)
Quick-timers (only time sensitive): Transfer of traditional social
media applications to mobile devices to increase immediacy (for
example, posting Twitter messages or Face book status updates)
Slow-timers (neither location, nor time sensitive): Transfer of
traditional social media applications to mobile devices (for
example, watching a YouTube video or reading a Wikipedia
entry)
Social media platforms
Name them and their relevance in marketing
today***** Research
Drawing up a social media strategy
social media strategy is a process that is
quiet unique for each company, as each
company has distinctive goals and the
methods that are to be used in the realization
of those goals.
Steps
Have a plan
Develop goals
Choose a platform
Implement the plan
Monitor and control
Benefits of social media marketing

Read on Advantages and disadvantages*****

Digital Customer Behaviour

Ensure customer motivation

 Tempt customers by offering channel choice and, something
customers can’t get elsewhere, the online value proposition
(OVP)
 We suggest that you consider the 6Cs of customer motivation to
help define the OVP (Chaffey, 2004):
 Content – We know that relevant content is still king. Online
content should provide something that supports other channels.
Often this means more detailed, in-depth information to support
the buying process or product usage. As well as text-based
content which is king for business-to-business there is also
interactive content which is king for consumer sites and
particularly brands. Remember that context is also king. Context
provides the right information, personalized for the right
segment using the right media to achieve relevance.
 Customization – Mass customization of content delivers personalized content
viewed as web site pages or e-mail alerts. This is commonly known as
personalization or tailoring of content according to individuals or groups – see
Siebel.com for a great example.
 Community – Community, these days known as ‘social networks’. Online
channels such as the Internet are known as ‘m any-to-many’ media meaning that
your audiences can contribute to the content. For consumer retail, review sites
such as Epinions (www.epinions. com) are important for informing customer
perceptions of brands. Similarly in business markets some specialist
communities have been set up. For example, e-consultancy (www.e-
consultancy.com) has forums and reviews which discuss issues in the supply of
e-business services.
 Convenience – Convenience is the ability to easily find, select, purchase and in
some cases, use products, from your desktop at any time; the classic 24/7
availability of a service.
 Choice – The web gives a wider choice of products and suppliers than
traditional media. The success of online intermediaries such as Kelkoo
(www.kelkoo.com) and Screentrade (www.screentrade.com) is evidence of this.
 Cost reduction – The Internet is widely perceived as a relatively low-cost place
of purchase. In the UK, Vauxhall have keyed into this perception by offering
Vauxhall Internet Price (VIP), in other words lower prices than through dealer-
based distribution. Similarly a key component of the easyJet OVP when it
launched was single tickets that were £2.50 cheaper than phone bookings. This
simple price differential together with the limited change in behaviour required
from phone booking to online booking has been a key factor in the easyJet online
ticketing channel effectively replacing all other booking modes.
Managing online customer expectations
 Here are three stages:
 Understanding expectations. Managing the expectations of the demanding
customer starts with understanding these expectations. Use customer research
and site benchmarking to help this. Use standard frameworks to establish the
gap between expectation and delivery and prioritize to solve the worst
shortcomings. Use scenarios to identify the customer expectations of using the
services on your site.
 Setting and communicating the service promise. Expectations can best be
managed by entering into an informal or formal agreement as to what service
the customer can expect through customer service guarantees or promises (see
box). It is better to under-promise than over-promise. A book retailer that
delivers the book in two days when three days were promised will earn the
customer’s loyalty better than the retailer who promises one day, but delivers in
two!
 Delivering the service promise. Commitments must be delivered through on-site
service, support from employees and physical fulfilment. If not, online
credibility is destroyed and a customer may never return. Detailed techniques
on delivering the service promise are given in the following ‘Service guarantees
and promises’ box.
Online consumer Fears and phobias
 Security risks such as identity theft and stolen credit card
details, hackers, hoaxes, viruses, SPAM and lack of privacy –
big brother syndrome – is probably top your list. Others fear
having their computer taken over remotely by a malicious or
criminal hacker. You may have also noted less significant
anxieties such as not knowing what to do, fear of getting lost,
fear of too much information or fear of inaccurate information.
These fears centre on lack of customer control. There are also
fears about how the Internet will destroy the lives of
individuals, families and so the whole of society. Safety needs
such as security, protection, order and stability are of great
importance in our hierarchy of needs. Finally, we have e-
nasties such as cyber stalkers, hate mail, fake mail, mail
bombs, cults and pedophiles lurking in children’ s chat-rooms.
 Follow these guidelines to achieve reassurance, gain trust and build loyalty:
 Provide clear and effective privacy statements. Visit the sites of EasyJet (www.easyJet.co.uk)
and RS components (B2B) www.rswww.com for plain privacy statements which directly address
customers’ fears and phobias.
 Follow privacy and consumer protection guidelines in all local markets . In 2003 the European
Electronic Communications Regulations came into force to supplement existing European data
protection laws. The essence of this law, implemented in the UK as the Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulations Act, is to make permission-based e-mail marketing a legal
requirement. Opt-in and opt-out are both legal requirements for e-mail marketing to
consumers (individual subscribers) in the UK. For B2B e-mail communications in the UK this isn
’t currently a requirement, but it is in many European countries with fines of hundreds of
thousands of Euros in some countries. It is also necessary to have clear privacy statements
which inform users about cookies and web analytics tracking.
 Make security of customer data a priority. This is a requirement of data protection law. For
example, you should offer the strongest encryption standards possible and use firewalls and
ethical hackers to maximize the safety of customer data.

 Present independent site certification. Companies can use independent third-parties who set
guidelines for online privacy and performance. The best known international bodies are Truste
(w ww.truste.org) and Verisign for payment authentication (www.verisign.com). Other UK
certification bodies include SafeBuy (w ww.safebuy.org.uk), Web trader UK
(www.webtraderuk.org.uk) and the IMRG Hallmark (www.imrg.org).
 Emphasize the excellence of service quality in all communications. This is explained in Section
4.3 on meeting customers’ expectations.
 Use content on the site to reassure the customer. Explain the actions they have taken. Ask them
to confirm. Allow them to revoke or cancel an action. Amazon takes customer fears about
security seriously judging by the prominence and amount of content it devotes to this issue.
 Leading-edge design. Marketers should challenge their site designers to make the customer
experience as easy as possible by customer-centred site design.
The online buying process
 Problem recognition. This can occur through changed circumstances such as a new
job, new money or the existing car breaks down, etc. Peer pressure or clever
advertising or editorial (online or offline) which highlights the problem (or the need
or the want) can also help the customer to recognize it themselves.
 Information search. Having established a need, i.e. the problem is recognized, the
customer gathers information. We need to understand how customers gather
information – online and offline. Online the web is increasingly used for searching.
Remember there is a difference between searching and surfing. Think about the
timing and frequency of when online customers seek information. Get the timing and
the targeting right and you create ‘relevance’ which allows the information through
the customer’s perceptual filters. Get it wrong and your information gets screened
out by an uninterested audience.
 Evaluation. We need to use the content on our site to communicate the features and
benefits of the brand in what may be a fleeting visit to the site or an in-depth
analysis. Independent reports prominently positioned on site may save the buyer
from having to search elsewhere. We also need to think about how to cater for
different customer buying behaviour according to Internet experience. Remember
that search behaviour will differ according to familiarity with the Internet, the
organization and its web site.
 Decision. Some car buyers may have already physically test-driven several cars and
now want to decide and buy online. Some sites help the decision by offering payment
facilities that match the customer’s personal financial situation. Once the decision
has been made to purchase, we don’t want to lose the customer at this stage, so
make purchasing slick and simple. And if the customer has anxieties, give them the
choice of buying through other channels by prompting with a phone number or a call-
back facility.
 Action (sale). Often an appropriate incentive to ‘buy now’ either online or offline
Tips on online buying process
Search marketing has compressed the cycle – the
buying process often starts with a generic search
Supplier search is now also compressed by visits
to comparison sites which often feature well in
search engines
Recommendations from other customers through
user-generated content are now an important
influencer as we saw in the previous chapter
Brand has become more important at later
decision stages since it provides trust.
Cialdini’s six weapons of influence

As per assignment*****

Digital Marketing Models

A model is anything that represents reality.

Models describe the process by which
business is conducted between an
organization, its customers, suppliers,
distributors and other stakeholders.

Research****
 Loyalty Model
 MARKETING
DIGITAL You need
INSIGHT to identify and target your ideal customers and then move
them up the ladder of loyalty (Considine and Murray, 1981) so that they
become loyal lifetime customers.
 The IDIC loyalty model
 Peppers and Rogers (1998) have applied their work on building one-to-
one relationships with the customer to the web. They suggest the IDIC
approach as a framework for using the web effectively to form and build
relationships. IDIC stands for:
 Customer identification. This stresses the need to identify each customer
on their first visit and subsequent visits. Common methods for
identification are use of cookies or asking a customer to log on to a site.
 Customer differentiation. This refers to building a profile to help
segment customers.
 Customer interaction. These are interactions provided on site such as
customer service questions or creating a tailored product.
 Customer communications. This refers to personalization or mass-
customization of content or e-mails according to the segmentation
achieved at the acquisition stage.
Building an Attractive Website

Essay Assignment
TYPES OF WEBSITES
There are three types namely:
Informational website
Transactional Website
Interactive
Building an attractive site

Building a good ecommerce environment

helps attract customers and creates repeat
business. It isn’t as simple a process, but it
does have tremendous potential in terms of
revenues and profitability. Good ecommerce
website design makes this task a lot easier
by providing a customer-friendly site.
Digital marketing models