Digital Marketing (Essay Sample)

Digital marketing Student Name Institution Affiliation Introduction The business world is changing very fast from analog to digital. The consumption of digital content is evident on the daily basis through devices such as desktop computers in the workplace, laptops, and mobile phones. This has driven businesses to adopt digital marketing strategy to keep in line with technological advancements. Only very few companies have not embraced this technique in their marketing strategies. However, that have embraced this trend have enjoyed increment in sales as well as meeting the customer demands satisfactorily. Currently, the thinking of marketing trends among many marketers is focused on digital marketing. This is because the business word is very dynamic and thus, a need for the marketing managers to stay abreast with the changes in the business environment. Digital Marketing Concept Technology is fundamental business environment factor that has the great influence on the marketing activities. The frequent changes and advancement in technology have forced the marketers to align their marketing strategies with these changes. This has enhanced marketing in reaching the large pool of prospective customers. Through digital marketing, the marketers can monitor the content to be marketed, the time frequency of marketing and the time the marketing should take. The internet is the most appropriate and convenient to carry out digital marketing. Therefore, it is the duty of each marketing manager who is anticipating to succeed in marketing to apply this technique. Digital marketing allows consumers to access information from any part of the globe whenever they want. The benefits derived from digital marketing supersedes the traditional form of marketing and the scholars argue that digital marketing will soon replace the traditional way of marketing. Although the old generation may find it difficult to do away with the traditional form of marketing those who have been brought up in the era of mobile phones and the internet, have already embraced the new world of digital content consumption ( Yasmin, Tasneem, & Fatema, 2015). Digital methods of communication are speedy, practical and versatile and thus once the technology becomes available to all, the shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing is deemed to take place. Benefits of Digital Marketing Cheap: Online marketing is cheaper than traditional offline marketing methods. For example, social media campaign or email marketing has the potential to transmit the marketing information to consumers within the short span of time than print media. In addition to being fast, digital marketing also has the potential of reaching the large pool of audience. Ease in tracking and monitoring results: Via digital marketing, the marketers can track and monitor results with ease, unlike traditional marketing which requires conducting customer research. Online marketing offers instant customer response rates which the marketers can use to evaluate the performance of the marketing campaign. Khan & Siddiqui (2015) noted that it is convenient and easy for a business to conduct an online survey to obtain information from the consumers to help the marketers in analyzing results. Additionally, the tracking and monitoring of the results enable the marketers to plan efficiently for the next marketing campaign. Creates definite direction: Companies with digital marketing technique have clear strategic goals of what they want to gain in terms of attracting new customers and establishing a solid relationship with the already existing customers. This offers a clear direction for the companies as they strive towards realizing their strategic goals. Feasible: Digital marketing offers an opportunity for any business to compete with the competitor regardless of its size. Besides, the internet provides a platform whereby any business can engage in marketing with much-reduced costs. This outshines the traditional marketing technique whereby the small businesses such as retailers need to struggle to match the competition power of the large competitors. Applicability of Digital Marketing For the businesses to maintain sustainable and successful competitive advantage, they need to establish very robust online marketing strategy. Even though the traditional marketing methods do not apply in the current business digital world, there are new business opportunities and markets that can be reached via digital marketing strategies. The Internet has availed several marketing tools that the marketers can use to introduce the company products to the customers and consumers. However, this comes with a challenge of selecting which tools should be applied. This paper suggests that marketers should analyze and evaluate the type of the business they have as well as the type of customers they intend to target. This will enable the application of the appropriate marketing channel that suits the strategies of the business. It is crucial for the marketing managers to scrutinize all online marketing channels before making the decision which channels to use. This paper briefly discusses some of these channels below: Email Marketing: According to Digital Marketing Philippines (2016) email marketing is one of the most appropriate channels that can enable the business to realize the returns on investment up to three hundred percent. The adoption and implementation of digital marketing can be adopted by obtaining emails from the potential customers and then sending them emails on the information pertaining the company brands. Social Media Marketing: Yasmin, Tasneem, & Fatema (2015) noted that social media is one of the essential technique in digital marketing.This is because marketers can get their product information reaching the target group of customers without paying for publishers as it is in the traditional form of marketing. Through social media, digital marketers can reach a relatively high number of the target customers directly. The number of social media users is increasing on daily basis, and thus companies should take this opportunity to expand their online marketing campaign. The findings indicate that Social media channel is the most used in digital marketing. Online marketing offers a variety of marketing networks that the digital marketers can use to pass their product information. Some of the commonly used networks are Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln, Google, Pinterest, and Instagram. However, not all social networks are appropriate as they majorly depend on the type of the business and the targeted audience. Content Marketing: Despite the significant number of changes in the marketing arena, content marketing is one of the essential marketing channels among many marketers (Digital Marketing Philippines, 2016). Digital marketers use relevant and high-quality content to create traffic on their websites and other internet marketing sites. The content used in marketing may include videos, graphics, texts and any other material people may be searching for. Affiliate Marketing: The goal of each marketer is to increase market share to realize high revenues in return. To achieve this, digital managers should engage in expanding their market share by encroaching into the new regions. However, the managers will only achieve this goal effectively if they have someone acting on their behalf in other locations. The businesses can achieve this by hiring affiliate marketers to facilitate targeting the global audience. Pay-Per-Click Advertising: This type of advertising use traffic to target potential customers within a very short span of time. However, this method proves effective depending on how the business is willing and able to pay for placing the advertisement as well as for acquiring a new customer. Despite this channel being a bit expensive, the budget of marketing is still in control of the marketer and thus can determine how much the business intends to use in marketing within a specified framework of time. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Majority of internet users frequently use search engines to search for information. Similarly, people use search engines to seek for any information pertaining a product or a service. Search Engine Optimization entails the application of various activities such as organic link building, linkable asset creation, off-page and on-page optimization and other related activities. Considerations in Selecting Online Marketing Channel For the digital marketing channels to be effective for any business, it is essential for the marketers to select and use the channels that suit their business independently. This paper offers the primary factors which digital marketers should put into consideration during the selection process. Defining the company goals: The Company should have clear and definite goals before em...