Digital Marketing – A world of opportunity for Marketers!
28 Oct 2016
28 Oct 2016
Digital Marketing has taken the world by storm in recent years and is synchronous with today’s generation of marketers. In stark contrast its definition for those representing the old school of thought is probably that it is something that children engage with on the internet.
In reality any marketing related activity done over the internet platform using digital technologies may be termed as Digital Marketing. But the question that continues to plague the uninitiated are the burning questions – How did this phenomenon become so big? What are the reasons for its growing adoption and popularity?
Breaking it down further, anything that you do on the internet is trackable and therefore the reverse economics is digital marketing. Tracking ones digital footprint has become so accurate these days, that it even zeroes in on the speed of the internet provider, his/her browsing histories, email key words used, site preferences, etc. Armed with such data, marketers are in turn taking advantage of this data in targeting customers with ease.
With the internet being so vast, there are varied branding options available today on the web. From search engines to website banners to widgets to mobile apps, social media and much more. Most marketers have all these options at their disposal but the key challenge that they face is in optimising usage of each of these options and bringing in the best value for the brand.
The shift towards social media is perhaps the most significant recent development in online marketing. Who hasn’t heard about the spectacular rise of Facebook to the top of the social networking tree or the explosive growth of Twitter? And how do we discount the big daddy and pioneer of internet advertising i.e. Google. All these companies rely on two elements, large user base and in harnessing their customer behaviour patterns.
Truth is that internet advertising is heavily influencing our lives no matter how many ad blockers are used. Marketers in turn come up with some new channels to target the consumer.
Let us take the example of Rahul who is searching for shoes online.
If you look at this case, Rahul just wanted to check out the shoes but with the incessant follow up and discounts offered, Rahul was being able to convert from just a ‘window shopper’ to a buyer and that is the real power of ad tech platforms. They help you reach out to target audiences and convince them to buy a product even when you don’t need it in reality at times.
While Rahul is the consumer here, let’s also look at the case study of a start-up who leverages only digital marketing for their business. Let’s leave out the conventional unicorns of E-commerce and focus on something as simple and vintage as ordering handwritten letters online. For an extremely small start-up like The Indian Handwritten Letter Co (www.tihlc.com), it’s quirky to have a product like this but their only source of generating leads is through digital marketing as they neither have the budget for offline advertising or have too big a team to get into a whole marketing cycle. But with digital marketing getting people to their website is as easy as taking a stroll in the park.
“We have a very simple product and our consumers are online, so even while we are a handwritten letter company it makes sense for us to use the digital ad platform to increase our conversions and have had more visitors on the site at the least possible cost”, says Anubhav, Co-Founder TIHLC.
This is a classic case, where small ideas and start-ups are able to launch with their respective businesses by just relying on the infrastructure provided by ad tech platforms. While traditional marketers might say, brand value is something that the customer looks at, but a smart marketer would ask only one thing and i.e ‘What is the Cost of Acquisition of the consumer?”
Postscript
Star Squared PR believes in harnessing the power of digital marketing in all their campaigns. While online media and social media are the two obvious extensions of PR, it is crucial to develop 360 campaigns that integrate digital in all efforts for the success of a brand.
Compiled by the content team of Star Squared PR.
