Digital marketing is hot and more and more companies are implementing this form of marketing within their strategy. But what is digital marketing? We discuss it in this article.
1. WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?
Digital marketing is marketing through digital technologies. Digital marketing encompasses more than just online marketing, because it includes not only channels that can be accessed via the internet, but everything that is digital. So, for example, also television, SMS and DOOH (Digital Out Of Home) and radio. There are few of today’s marketing channels that don’t fall under digital marketing. A paper newspaper, a bus shelter or a poster are examples of non-digital marketing, also known as traditional marketing.
The person responsible for digital marketing within a company is often the digital marketing manager, the marketing manager or the online marketing manager. Within the department that deals with digital marketing, the team can have the following disciplines at its disposal: SEO , SEA , email marketing, social media, CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization), UX (User Experience), DTP, programming, app development, copywriting, PR and video production.
2. DIGITAL MARKETING MEANING
So digital marketing is marketing through digital technologies. But what is marketing and what are digital technologies? Marketing can be explained in many ways, a simple but fairly comprehensive definition is the promotion of products and services. But then you are doing the marketing profession short, because it is about understanding the customer and tailoring the product and communication to the customer. It is therefore also about gathering insights and building a relationship with the customer.
Digital technologies is a broad concept, but you can think of the technologies and media that work via the internet, are shown on a screen and/or devices that work on electricity. In addition to the aforementioned examples (TV, SMS, DOOH), we provide a number of others to give you a better idea of what digital technologies and platforms are: Narrowcasting (screens in shops), Facebook, Google, digital newspapers (news websites), e- mail, apps, CRM, chatbots, Bluetooth, GPS, VR and AR.
3. THE WORLD OF DIGITAL MARKETING
As you read, the world of digital marketing is very extensive. Digital is not something new, but since the emergence of the internet in the 1990s, people have increasingly come into contact with it on a daily basis. Due to this shift, more and more technologies, platforms and tools have emerged and companies are spending more and more on their digital marketing activities.
The world of digital marketing is one of many developments. Some of these are: the increasing internet speed, the increasing consumption and thus the generation of data, the more mobile of media, the increase in voice searches, the more visual content (through images and videos) and the acquisition of a permanent place for social within the media budget.
Development
The customer is in the midst of all these developments and expects companies to provide the optimal experience. As a result, buyer and customer journey mapping is increasingly being used within digital marketing. The customer journey can go across different channels and platforms. Journey mapping looks at which channels the (potential) customer touches in the different stages of his purchase journey and/or customer life cycle.
This involves looking at what behavior he exhibits, what his (information) needs are, what touchpoints there are, what content matches this and possibly what the current customer experience is during that step. The journey can be divided in different ways, the easiest way to divide the buyer journey is through the following principle: awareness, consideration and decision. Where awareness is the stage in which the customer becomes familiar with the brand and the solution. In the consideration phase he makes comparisons and considerations. In decision phase he makes his decision.
Organizational point of view
There are numerous extensions to these stages, often depending on company specific situations. From an organizational point of view, there are stages that run parallel to the above phases. These are: reach, lead generation, lead nurturing and conversion. Digital marketing is not only about potential customers, but also customers. When looking at the customer journey, the following phases can be taken into account: initiate (possibly divided into welcome and onboarding), engage (keeping a customer active, possibly with ‘grow’: upsell and cross sell) and advocate /recommend, which is all about ambassadors.
4. WHY YOU DO DIGITAL MARKETING
People are spending more time online and are increasingly in contact with digital technologies. If you want to be where your customer is, you will have to participate in this development. There are also many advantages to digital marketing:
Measurable : Because the interaction with digital technologies often generates data (in many cases anonymously), the number of interactions can be measured. These can be, for example: impressions of a web page, clicks in an email, the number of conversions on an advertisement and the number of orders for a product. This creates more insight and grip on activities, costs and results and allows you to evaluate better.
Cost : You can reach a larger audience for less money with digital media than with traditional media. This of course depends on the channel and content type you choose.
Targeting & segmentation : It differs per channel what you know about a customer and/or on which you can target and segment, but in many cases it can be specific to the person (anonymised), such as: visitors to your website, people with a specific interest or a determining characteristic such as age or occupation. This allows you to communicate in a more targeted manner and makes you more relevant to the recipient.
Geographical reach : You can reach people almost all over the world through digital technologies. This means that you do not have to have an office abroad or send promotional material around the world, for example.
Availability : Digital technologies are in many cases available 24 hours a day, allowing you to operate at times when the customer is open to it.
Automate : Many of the digital marketing channels can be partly automated, so that you can communicate continuously with prospects and customers with a one-off effort.
Non-linear : Because the communication expressions can be automated, it means that this does not necessarily have to be communicated to all sides at the same time. This can be different down to customer level, so that communication is more in line with that specific customer. As you can see, there are many advantages of digital marketing over traditional marketing. Enough reason to make it work.