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Digital Marketing as Seen by Shalom

Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.[1] Digital marketing channels are systems based on the internet that can create, accelerate, and transmit product value from producer to the terminal consumer by digital networks.[2][3]

Digital marketing's development since the 1990s and 2000s has changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing.[4] As digital platforms are increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life,[5] and as people use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops,[6][7] digital marketing campaigns are becoming more prevalent and efficient.

Digital marketing methods such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing,[8] e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, Display advertising, e–books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace. Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones.[9] The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates digital marketing from online marketing, another catch-all term for the marketing methods mentioned above which occur online.

History

The development of digital marketing is inseparable from technology development. One of the key points in the start of was in 1971, where Ray Tomlinson sent the very first email and his technology set the platform to allow people to send and receive files through different machines.[10] However, the more recognisable period as being the start of Digital Marketing is 1990 as this was where the Archie search engine was created as an index for FTP sites. In the 1980s, the storage capacity of computer was already big enough to store huge volumes of customer information. Companies started choosing online techniques, such as database marketing, rather than limited list broker.[11] This kind of databases allowed companies to track customers' information more effectively, thus transforming the relationship between buyer and seller. However, the manual process was not so efficient.

In the 1990s, the term Digital Marketing was first coined,.[12] With the debut of server/client architecture and the popularity of personal computers, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications became a significant part of marketing technology.[citation needed] Fierce competition forced vendors to include more service into their software, for example, marketing, sales and service applications. Marketers were also able to own huge online customer data by eCRM software after the Internet was born. Companies could update the data of customer needs and obtain the priorities of their experience. This led to the first clickable banner ad being going live in 1994, which was the "You Will" campaign by AT&T and over the first four months of it going live, 44% of all people who saw it clicked on the ad.[13]

In the 2000s, with more and more Internet users and the birth of iPhone, customers started searching products and making decisions about their needs online first, instead of consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a company. In addition, a survey in 2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had not registered their own domain address.[14] These problems made marketers find the digital ways for market development.

In 2007, the concept of marketing automation was raised to solve the problem above. Marketing automation helped companies segment customers, launch multichannel marketing campaigns and provide personalized information for customers. However, the speed of its adaptability to consumer devices was not fast enough.

Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s, when[15][16] the proliferation of devices' capable of accessing digital media led to sudden growth.[17] Statistics produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that digital marketing was still growing.[18][19] With the development of social media in the 2000s, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in daily lives. Therefore, they expected a seamless user experience across different channels for searching product's information. The change of customer behavior improved the diversification of marketing technology.[20]

Digital marketing is also referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing' or 'web marketing'. The term digital marketing has grown in popularity over time. In the USA online marketing is still a popular term. In Italy, digital marketing is referred to as web marketing. Worldwide digital marketing has become the most common term, especially after the year 2013.[21]

Digital media growth was estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spend at 48% growth in 2010.[22] An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises concern of consumer privacy and data protection.[17]

New non-linear marketing approach

To engage customers retailers have shifted from the linear marketing approach of one-way communication to a value exchange model of mutual dialogue and benefit-sharing between provider and consumer.[23] Exchanges are more non-linear, free flowing, and both one-to-many or one-on-one.[7] The spread of information and awareness can occur across numerous channels, such as the blogosphere, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and a variety of other platforms. Online communities and social networks allow individuals to easily create content and publicly publish their opinions, experiences, and thoughts and feelings about many topics and products, hyper-accelerating the diffusion of information.[24]

The Nielsen Global Connected Commerce Survey conducted interviews in 26 countries to observe how consumers are using the Internet to make shopping decisions in stores and online. Online shoppers are increasingly looking to purchase internationally, with over 50% in the study who purchased online in the last six months stating they bought from an overseas retailer.[25]

Using an omni-channel strategy is becoming increasingly important for enterprises who must adapt to the changing expectations of consumers who want ever-more sophisticated offerings throughout the purchasing journey. Retailers are increasingly focusing on their online presence, including online shops that operate alongside existing store-based outlets. The "endless aisle" within the retail space can lead consumers to purchase products online that fit their needs while retailers do not have to carry the inventory within the physical location of the store. Solely Internet-based retailers are also entering the market; some are establishing corresponding store-based outlets to provide personal services, professional help, and tangible experiences with their products.[26]

An omni-channel approach not only benefits consumers but also benefits business bottom line: Research suggests that customers spend more than double when purchasing through an omni-channel retailer as opposed to a single-channel retailer, and are often more loyal. This could be due to the ease of purchase and the wider availability of products.[26]

Customers are often researching online and then buying in stores and also browsing in stores and then searching for other options online. Online customer research into products is particularly popular for higher-priced items as well as consumable goods like groceries and makeup. Consumers are increasingly using the Internet to look up product information, compare prices, and search for deals and promotions.[23]

Use in the digital era

There are a number of ways brands can use digital marketing to benefit their marketing efforts. The use of digital marketing in the digital era not only allows for brands to market their products and services, but also allows for online customer support through 24/7 services to make customers feel supported and valued. The use of social media interaction allows brands to receive both positive and negative feedback from their customers as well as determining what media platforms work well for them. As such, digital marketing has become an increased advantage for brands and businesses. It is now common for consumers to post feedback online through social media sources, blogs and websites on their experience with a product or brand.[27] It has become increasingly popular for businesses to use and encourage these conversations through their social media channels to have direct contact with the customers and manage the feedback they receive appropriately.

Word of mouth communications and peer-to-peer dialogue often have a greater effect on customers, since they are not sent directly from the company and are therefore not planned. Customers are more likely to trust other customers’ experiences.[24] Examples can be that social media users share food products and meal experiences highlighting certain brands and franchises. This was noted in a study on Instagram, where researchers observed that adolescent Instagram users' posted images of food-related experiences within their social networks, providing free advertising for the products.[28]

It is increasingly advantageous for companies to use social media platforms to connect with their customers and create these dialogues and discussions. The potential reach of social media is indicated by the fact that in 2015, each month the Facebook app had more than 126 million average unique users and YouTube had over 97 million average unique users.[29]

Brand awareness

Ease of access

A key objective is engaging digital marketing customers and allowing them to interact with the brand through servicing and delivery of digital media. Information is easy to access at a fast rate through the use of digital communications. Users with access to the Internet can use many digital mediums, such as Facebook, YouTube, Forums, and Email etc. Through Digital communications it creates a multi-communication channel where information can be quickly shared around the world by anyone without any regard to who they are.[30] Social segregation plays no part through social mediums due to lack of face to face communication and information being wide spread instead to a selective audience. This interactive nature allows consumers create conversation in which the targeted audience is able to ask questions about the brand and get familiar with it which traditional forms of Marketing may not offer.[31]

Competitive advantage

By using Internet platforms, businesses can create competitive advantage through various means. To reach the maximum potential of digital marketing, firms use social media as its main tool to create a channel of information. Through this a business can create a system in which they are able to pinpoint behavioral patterns of clients and feedback on their needs.[32] This means of content has shown to have a larger impingement on those who have a long-standing relationship with the firm and with consumers who are relatively active social media users. Relative to this, creating a social media page will further increase relation quality between new consumers and existing consumers as well as consistent brand reinforcement therefore improving brand awareness resulting in a possible rise for consumers up the Brand Awareness Pyramid.[33] Although there may be inconstancy with product images;[34] maintaining a successful social media presence requires a business to be consistent in interactions through creating a two way feed of information; firms consider their content based on the feedback received through this channel, this is a result of the environment being dynamic due to the global nature of the internet.[31] Effective use of digital marketing can result in relatively lowered costs in relation to traditional means of marketing; Lowered external service costs, advertising costs, promotion costs, processing costs, interface design costs and control costs.[34]

Effectiveness

Brand awareness has been proven to work with more effectiveness in countries that are high in uncertainty avoidance, also these countries that have uncertainty avoidance; social media marketing works effectively. Yet brands must be careful not to be excessive on the use of this type of marketing, as well as solely relying on it as it may have implications that could negatively harness their image. Brands that represent themselves in an anthropomorphizing manner are more likely to succeed in situations where a brand is marketing to this demographic. "Since social media use can enhance the knowledge of the brand and thus decrease the uncertainty, it is possible that people with high uncertainty avoidance, such as the French, will particularly appreciate the high social media interaction with an anthropomorphized brand." Moreover, digital platform provides an ease to the brand and its customers to interact directly and exchange their motives virtually.[35]

Developments and strategies

One of the major changes that occurred in traditional marketing was the "emergence of digital marketing" (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015), this led to the reinvention of marketing strategies in order to adapt to this major change in traditional marketing (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015) .

As digital marketing is dependent on technology which is ever-evolving and fast-changing, the same features should be expected from digital marketing developments and strategies. This portion is an attempt to qualify or segregate the notable highlights existing and being used as of press time.[when?]

Segmentation: more focus has been placed on segmentation within digital marketing, in order to target specific markets in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sectors.

Influencer marketing: Important nodes are identified within related communities, known as influencers. This is becoming an important concept in digital targeting. It is possible to reach influencers via paid advertising, such as Facebook Advertising or Google Adwords campaigns, or through sophisticated sCRM (social customer relationship management) software, such as SAP C4C, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage CRM and Salesforce CRM. Many universities now focus, at Masters level, on engagement strategies for influencers.

To summarize, Pull digital marketing is characterized by consumers actively seeking marketing content while Push digital marketing occurs when marketers send messages without that content being actively sought by the recipients.

Online behavioural advertising is the practice of collecting information about a user's online activity over time, "on a particular device and across different, unrelated websites, in order to deliver advertisements tailored to that user's interests and preferences [36][37]

Collaborative Environment: A collaborative environment can be set up between the organization, the technology service provider, and the digital agencies to optimize effort, resource sharing, reusability and communications.[38] Additionally, organizations are inviting their customers to help them better understand how to service them. This source of data is called User Generated Content. Much of this is acquired via company websites where the organization invites people to share ideas that are then evaluated by other users of the site. The most popular ideas are evaluated and implemented in some form. Using this method of acquiring data and developing new products can foster the organizations relationship with their customer as well as spawn ideas that would otherwise be overlooked. UGC is low-cost advertising as it is directly from the consumers and can save advertising costs for the organization.

Data-driven advertising: Users generate a lot of data in every step they take on the path of customer journey and Brands can now use that data to activate their known audience with data-driven programmatic media buying. Without exposing customers' privacy, users' Data can be collected from digital channels (e.g.: when customer visits a website, reads an e-mail, or launches and interact with brand's mobile app), brands can also collect data from real world customer interactions, such as brick and mortar stores visits and from CRM and Sales engines datasets. Also known as People-based marketing or addressable media, Data-driven advertising is empowering brands to find their loyal customers in their audience and deliver in real time a much more personal communication, highly relevant to each customers' moment and actions.[39]

An important consideration today while deciding on a strategy is that the digital tools have democratized the promotional landscape.

5. Remarketing: Remarketing plays a major role in digital marketing. This tactic allows marketers to publish targeted ads in front of an interest category or a defined audience, generally called searchers in web speak, they have either searched for particular products or services or visited a website for some purpose.

6. Game advertising: Game ads are advertisements that exist within computer or video games. One of the most common examples of in-game advertising is billboards appearing in sports games. In-game ads also might appear as brand-name products like guns, cars, or clothing that exist as gaming status symbols.

The new digital era has enabled brands to selectively target their customers that may potentially be interested in their brand or based on previous browsing interests. Businesses can now use social media to select the age range, location, gender and interests of whom they would like their targeted post to be seen by. Furthermore, based on a customer's recent search history they can be ‘followed’ on the internet so they see advertisements from similar brands, products and services,[40] This allows businesses to target the specific customers that they know and feel will most benefit from their product or service, something that had limited capabilities up until the digital era.

Ineffective forms of digital marketing

Digital marketing activity is still growing across the world according to the headline global marketing index. A study published in September 2018, found that global outlays on digital marketing tactics are approaching $100 billion.[41] Digital media continues to rapidly grow; while the marketing budgets are expanding, traditional media is declining (World Economics, 2015).[42] Digital media helps brands reach consumers to engage with their product or service in a personalised way. Five areas, which are outlined as current industry practices that are often ineffective are prioritizing clicks, balancing search and display, understanding mobiles, targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic, and cross-platform measurement (Whiteside, 2016).[43] Why these practices are ineffective and some ways around making these aspects effective are discussed surrounding the following points.

Prioritizing clicks

Prioritizing clicks refers to display click ads, although advantageous by being ‘simple, fast and inexpensive’ rates for display ads in 2016 is only 0.10 percent in the United States. This means one in a thousand click ads are relevant therefore having little effect. This displays that marketing companies should not just use click ads to evaluate the effectiveness of display advertisements (Whiteside, 2016).[43]

Balancing search and display

Balancing search and display for digital display ads are important; marketers tend to look at the last search and attribute all of the effectiveness to this. This then disregards other marketing efforts, which establish brand value within the consumers mind. ComScore determined through drawing on data online, produced by over one hundred multichannel retailers that digital display marketing poses strengths when compared with or positioned alongside, paid search (Whiteside, 2016).[43] This is why it is advised that when someone clicks on a display ad the company opens a landing page, not its home page. A landing page typically has something to draw the customer in to search beyond this page. Things such as free offers that the consumer can obtain through giving the company contact information so that they can use retargeting communication strategies (Square2Marketing, 2012).[44] Commonly marketers see increased sales among people exposed to a search ad. But the fact of how many people you can reach with a display campaign compared to a search campaign should be considered. Multichannel retailers have an increased reach if the display is considered in synergy with search campaigns. Overall both search and display aspects are valued as display campaigns build awareness for the brand so that more people are likely to click on these digital ads when running a search campaign (Whiteside, 2016).[43]

Understanding Mobiles: Understanding mobile devices is a significant aspect of digital marketing because smartphones and tablets are now responsible for 64% of the time US consumers are online (Whiteside, 2016).[43] Apps provide a big opportunity as well as challenge for the marketers because firstly the app needs to be downloaded and secondly the person needs to actually use it. This may be difficult as ‘half the time spent on smartphone apps occurs on the individuals single most used app, and almost 85% of their time on the top four rated apps’ (Whiteside, 2016).[43] Mobile advertising can assist in achieving a variety of commercial objectives and it is effective due to taking over the entire screen, and voice or status is likely to be considered highly; although the message must not be seen or thought of as intrusive (Whiteside, 2016).[43] Disadvantages of digital media used on mobile devices also include limited creative capabilities, and reach. Although there are many positive aspects including the users entitlement to select product information, digital media creating a flexible message platform and there is potential for direct selling (Belch & Belch, 2012).[45]

Cross-platform measurement: The number of marketing channels continues to expand, as measurement practices are growing in complexity. A cross-platform view must be used to unify audience measurement and media planning. Market researchers need to understand how the Omni-channel affects consumer's behaviour, although when advertisements are on a consumer's device this does not get measured. Significant aspects to cross-platform measurement involves de-duplication and understanding that you have reached an incremental level with another platform, rather than delivering more impressions against people that have previously been reached (Whiteside, 2016).[43] An example is ‘ESPN and comScore partnered on Project Blueprint discovering the sports broadcaster achieved a 21% increase in unduplicated daily reach thanks to digital advertising’ (Whiteside, 2016).[43] Television and radio industries are the electronic media, which competes with digital and other technological advertising. Yet television advertising is not directly competing with online digital advertising due to being able to cross platform with digital technology. Radio also gains power through cross platforms, in online streaming content. Television and radio continue to persuade and affect the audience, across multiple platforms (Fill, Hughes, & De Franceso, 2013).[46]

Targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic: Targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic all are aspects used by marketers to help advocate digital advertising. Cookies are a form of digital advertising, which are tracking tools within desktop devices; causing difficulty, with shortcomings including deletion by web browsers, the inability to sort between multiple users of a device, inaccurate estimates for unique visitors, overstating reach, understanding frequency, problems with ad servers, which cannot distinguish between when cookies have been deleted and when consumers have not previously been exposed to an ad. Due to the inaccuracies influenced by cookies, demographics in the target market are low and vary (Whiteside, 2016).[43] Another element, which is affected within digital marketing, is ‘viewabilty’ or whether the ad was actually seen by the consumer. Many ads are not seen by a consumer and may never reach the right demographic segment. Brand safety is another issue of whether or not the ad was produced in the context of being unethical or having offensive content. Recognizing fraud when an ad is exposed is another challenge marketers face. This relates to invalid traffic as premium sites are more effective at detecting fraudulent traffic, although non-premium sites are more so the problem (Whiteside, 2016).[43]

Channels

Digital marketing is facilitated by multiple channels, As an advertiser one's core objective is to find channels which result in maximum two-way communication and a better overall ROI for the brand. There are multiple digital marketing channels available namely;[47]

Affiliate marketing - Affiliate marketing is perceived to not be considered a safe, reliable and easy means of marketing through online platform. This is due to a lack of reliability in terms of affiliates that can produce the demanded number of new customers. As a result of this risk and bad affiliates it leaves the brand prone to exploitation in terms of claiming commission that isn't honestly acquired. Legal means may offer some protection against this, yet there are limitations in recovering any losses or investment. Despite this, affiliate marketing allows the brand to market towards smaller publishers, and websites with smaller traffic. Brands that choose to use this marketing often should beware of such risks involved and look to associate with affiliates in which rules are laid down between the parties involved to assure and minimize the risk involved.[48]

Display advertising - As the term implies, online display advertising deals with showcasing promotional messages or ideas to the consumer on the internet. This includes a wide range of advertisements like advertising blogs, networks, interstitial ads, contextual data, ads on the search engines, classified or dynamic advertisement etc. The method can target specific audience tuning in from different types of locals to view a particular advertisement, the variations can be found as the most productive element of this method.

Email marketing - Email marketing in comparison to other forms of digital marketing is considered cheap; it is also a way to rapidly communicate a message such as their value proposition to existing or potential customers. Yet this channel of communication may be perceived by recipients to be bothersome and irritating especially to new or potential customers, therefore the success of email marketing is reliant on the language and visual appeal applied. In terms of visual appeal, there are indications that using graphics/visuals that are relevant to the message which is attempting to be sent, yet less visual graphics to be applied with initial emails are more effective in-turn creating a relatively personal feel to the email. In terms of language, the style is the main factor in determining how captivating the email is. Using casual tone invokes a warmer and gentle and inviting feel to the email in comparison to a formal style. For combinations; it's suggested that to maximize effectiveness; using no graphics/visual alongside casual language. In contrast using no visual appeal and a formal language style is seen as the least effective method.[49]

Search engine marketing - Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate Search engine optimization, which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings.

Social Media Marketing - The term 'Digital Marketing' has a number of marketing facets as it supports different channels used in and among these, comes the Social Media. When we use social media channels ( Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc.) to market a product or service, the strategy is called Social Media Marketing. It is a procedure wherein strategies are made and executed to draw in traffic for a website or to gain attention of buyers over the web using different social media platforms.

Social networking service - A social networking is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relations with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections

In-game advertising - In-Game advertising is defined as "inclusion of products or brands within a digital game."[50] The game allows brands or products to place ads within their game, either in a subtle manner or in the form of an advertisement banner. There are many factors that exist in whether brands are successful in their advertising of their brand/product, these being: Type of game, technical platform, 3-D and 4-D technology, game genre, congruity of brand and game, prominence of advertising within the game. Individual factors consist of attitudes towards placement advertisements, game involvement, product involvement, flow or entertainment. The attitude towards the advertising also takes into account not only the message shown but also the attitude towards the game. Dependent of how enjoyable the game is will determine how the brand is perceived, meaning if the game isn't very enjoyable the consumer may subconsciously have a negative attitude towards the brand/product being advertised. In terms of Integrated Marketing Communication "integration of advertising in digital games into the general advertising, communication, and marketing strategy of the firm"[50] is an important as it results in a more clarity about the brand/product and creates a larger overall effect.

Online public relations

Video advertising - This type of advertising in terms of digital/online means are advertisements that play on online videos e.g. YouTube videos. This type of marketing has seen an increase in popularity over time.[51] Online Video Advertising usually consists of three types: Pre-Roll advertisements which play before the video is watched, Mid-Roll advertisements which play during the video, or Post-Roll advertisements which play after the video is watched.[52] Post-roll advertisements were shown to have better brand recognition in relation to the other types, where-as "ad-context congruity/incongruity plays an important role in reinforcing ad memorability".[51] Due to selective attention from viewers, there is the likelihood that the message may not be received.[53] The main advantage of video advertising is that it disrupts the viewing experience of the video and therefore there is a difficulty in attempting to avoid them. How a consumer interacts with online video advertising can come down to three stages: Pre attention, attention, and behavioural decision.[54] These online advertisements give the brand/business options and choices. These consist of length, position, adjacent video content which all directly affect the effectiveness of the produced advertisement time,[51] therefore manipulating these variables will yield different results. Length of the advertisement has shown to affect memorability where-as longer duration resulted in increased brand recognition.[51] This type of advertising, due to its nature of interruption of the viewer, it is likely that the consumer may feel as if their experience is being interrupted or invaded, creating negative perception of the brand.[51] These advertisements are also available to be shared by the viewers, adding to the attractiveness of this platform. Sharing these videos can be equated to the online version of word by mouth marketing, extending number of people reached.[55] Sharing videos creates six different outcomes: these being "pleasure, affection, inclusion, escape, relaxation, and control".[51] As well, videos that have entertainment value are more likely to be shared, yet pleasure is the strongest motivator to pass videos on. Creating a ‘viral’ trend from mass amount of a brands advertisement can maximize the outcome of an online video advert whether it be positive or a negative outcome.

It is important for a firm to reach out to consumers and create a two-way communication model, as digital marketing allows consumers to give back feed back to the firm on a community based site or straight directly to the firm via email.[26] Firms should seek this long term communication relationship by using multiple forms of channels and using promotional strategies related to their target consumer as well as word-of mouth marketing.[26]

Self-regulation

The ICC Code has integrated rules that apply to marketing communications using digital interactive media throughout the guidelines. There is also an entirely updated section dealing with issues specific to digital interactive media techniques and platforms. Code self-regulation on use of digital interactive media includes:

1.       Clear and transparent mechanisms to enable consumers to choose not to have their data collected for advertising or marketing purposes;

2.       Clear indication that a social network site is commercial and is under the control or influence of a marketer;

3.       Limits are set so that marketers communicate directly only when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the consumer has an interest in what is being offered;

4.       Respect for the rules and standards of acceptable commercial behavior in social networks and the posting of marketing messages only when the forum or site has clearly indicated its willingness to receive them;

5.       Special attention and protection for children.[56]

Advantages and limitations

The whole idea of digital marketing can be a very important aspect in the overall communication between the consumer and the organization. This is due to digital marketing being able to reach vast numbers of potential consumers at one time.[57]

Another advantage of digital marketing is that consumers are exposed to the brand and the product that is being advertised directly. To clarify the advertisement is easy to access as well it can be accessed any time any place.[57]

However, with digital marketing there are some setbacks to this type of strategy. One major setback that is identified, is that Digital marketing is highly dependent on the internet. This can be considered as a setback because the internet may not be accessible in certain areas or consumers may have poor internet connection.[57]

As well as digital marketing being highly dependent on the Internet is that it is subject to a lot of clutter, so it marketers may find it hard to make their advertisements stand out, as well as get consumers to start conversations about an organizations brand image or products.

As digital marketing continues to grow and develop, brands take great advantage of using technology and the Internet as a successful way to communicate with its clients and allows them to increase the reach of who they can interact with and how they go about doing so,.[4] There are however disadvantages that are not commonly looked into due to how much a business relies on it. It is important for marketers to take into consideration both advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing when considering their marketing strategy and business goals.

An advantage of digital marketing is that the reach is so large that there are no limitations on the geographical reach it can have. This allows companies to become international and expand their customer reach to other countries other than the country it is based or originates from.

As mentioned earlier, technology and the internet allows for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service for customers as well as enabling them to shop online at any hour of that day or night, not just when the shops are over and across the whole world. This is a huge advantage for retailers to use it and direct customers from the store to its online store. It has also opened up an opportunity for companies to only be online based rather than having an outlet or store due to the popularity and capabilities of digital marketing.

Another advantage is that digital marketing is easy to be measured allowing businesses to know the reach that their marketing is making, whether the digital marketing is working or not and the amount of activity and conversation that is involved.

With brands using the Internet space to reach their target customers; digital marketing has become a beneficial career option as well. At present, companies are more into hiring individuals familiar in implementing digital marketing strategies and this has led the stream to become a preferred choice amongst individuals inspiring institutes to come up and offer professional courses in Digital Marketing.

Disadvantage of Digital Marketing

A disadvantage of digital advertising is the large amount of competing goods and services that are also using the same digital marketing strategies. For example, when someone searches for a specific product from a specific company online, if a similar company uses targeted advertising online then they can appear on the customer's home page, allowing the customer to look at alternative options for a cheaper price or better quality of the same product or a quicker way of finding what they want online.

Some companies can be portrayed by customers negatively as some consumers lack trust online due to the amount of advertising that appears on websites and social media that can be considered frauds. This can affect their image and reputation and make them out to look like a dishonest brand.

Another disadvantage is that even an individual or small group of people can harm image of an established brand. For instance Dopplegnager is a term that is used to disapprove an image about a certain brand that is spread by anti-brand activists, bloggers, and opinion leaders. The word Doppelganger is a combination of two German words Doppel (double) and Ganger (walker), thus it means double walker or as in English it is said alter ego. Generally brand creates images for itself to emotionally appeal to their customers. However some would disagree with this image and make alterations to this image and present in funny or cynical way, hence distorting the brand image, hence creating a Doppelganger image, blog or content (Rindfleisch, 2016).

Two other practical limitations can be seen in the case of digital marketing. One,digital marketing is useful for specific categories of products,meaning only consumer goods can be propagated through digital channels.Industrial goods and pharmaceutical products can not be marketed through digital channels. Secondly, digital marketing disseminates only the information to the prospects most of whom do not have the purchasing authority/power. And hence the reflection of digital marketing into real sales volume is skeptical.[citation needed]

Measuring The Effectiveness of Digital Marketing Campaigns

Although the ultimate criteria to evaluate any business initiative should be its return on investment or any other financial metrics in general, the evaluation criteria and metrics for the digital marketing campaigns can be discussed in more details.

The criteria and metrics can be classified according to its type and time span. Regarding the type, we can either evaluate these campaigns "Quantitatively" or "Qualitatively". Quantitative metrics may include "Sales Volume" and "Revenue Increase/Decrease". While qualitative metrics may include the enhanced "Brand awareness, image and health" as well as the "relationship with the customers".

Shifting the focus to the time span, we may need to measure some "Interim Metrics", which give us some insight during the journey itself, as well as we need to measure some "Final Metrics" at the end of the journey to inform use if the overall initiative was successful or not. As an example, most of social media metrics and indicators such as likes, shares and engagement comments may be classified as interim metrics while the final increase/decrease in sales volume is clearly from the final category.

The correlation between these categories should exist. Otherwise, a disappointing results may happen at the end in – spite of the illusion of success perceived early during the project.

Strategy

Planning

Digital marketing planning is a term used in marketing management. It describes the first stage of forming a digital marketing strategy for the wider digital marketing system. The difference between digital and traditional marketing planning is that it uses digitally based communication tools and technology such as Social, Web, Mobile, Scannable Surface.[58][59] Nevertheless, both are aligned with the vision, the mission of the company and the overarching business strategy.[60]

Stages of planning

Using Dr Dave Chaffey's approach, the digital marketing planning (DMP) has three main stages: Opportunity, Strategy and Action. He suggests that any business looking to implement a successful digital marketing strategy must structure their plan by looking at opportunity, strategy and action. This generic strategic approach often has phases of situation review, goal setting, strategy formulation, resource allocation and monitoring.[60]

1) Opportunity

To create an effective DMP, a business first needs to review the marketplace and set 'SMART' (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-Bound) objectives.[61] They can set SMART objectives by reviewing the current benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) of the company and competitors. It is pertinent that the analytics used for the KPIs be customised to the type, objectives, mission and vision of the company.[62][63]

Companies can scan for marketing and sales opportunities by reviewing their own outreach as well as influencer outreach. This means they have competitive advantage because they are able to analyse their co-marketers influence and brand associations.[64]

To cease opportunity, the firm should summarize their current customers' personas and purchase journey from this they are able to deduce their digital marketing capability. This means they need to form a clear picture of where they are currently and how many resources they can allocate for their digital marketing strategy i.e. labour, time etc. By summarizing the purchase journey, they can also recognise gaps and growth for future marketing opportunities that will either meet objectives or propose new objectives and increase profit.

2) Strategy

To create a planned digital strategy, the company must review their digital proposition (what you are offering to consumers) and communicate it using digital customer targeting techniques. So, they must define online value proposition (OVP), this means the company must express clearly what they are offering customers online e.g. brand positioning.

The company should also (re)select target market segments and personas and define digital targeting approaches.

After doing this effectively, it is important to review the marketing mix for online options. The marketing mix comprises the 4Ps – Product, Price, Promotion and Place.[65][66] Some academics have added three additional elements to the traditional 4Ps of marketing Process, Place and Physical appearance making it 7Ps of marketing.[67]

3) Action

The third and final stage requires the firm to set a budget and management systems; these must be measurable touchpoints, such as audience reached across all digital platforms. Furthermore, marketers must ensure the budget and management systems are integrating the paid, owned and earned media of the company.[68] The Action and final stage of planning also requires the company to set in place measurable content creation e.g. oral, visual or written online media.[69]

After confirming the digital marketing plan, a scheduled format of digital communications (e.g. Gantt Chart) should be encoded throughout the internal operations of the company. This ensures that all platforms used fall in line and complement each other for the succeeding stages of digital marketing strategy.

Understanding the Market

One way marketers can reach out to consumers, and understand their thought process is through what is called an empathy map. An empathy map is a four step process. The first step is through asking questions that the consumer would be thinking in their demographic. The second step is to describe the feelings that the consumer may be having. The third step is to think about what the consumer would say in their situation. The final step is to imagine what the consumer will try to do based on the other three steps. This map is so marketing teams can put themselves in their target demographics shoes.[70] Web Analytics are also a very important way to understand consumers. They show the habits that people have online for each website.[71] One particular form of these analytics is predictive analytics which helps marketers figure out what route consumers are on. This uses the information gathered from other analytics, and then creates different predictions of what people will do so that companies can strategize on what to do next, according to the peoples trends.[72]

Sharing economy

The "sharing economy" refers to an economic pattern that aims to obtain a resource that is not fully utilized.[73] Nowadays, the sharing economy has had an unimagined effect on many traditional elements including labor, industry, and distribution system.[73] This effect is not negligible that some industries are obviously under threat.[73][74] The sharing economy is influencing the traditional marketing channels by changing the nature of some specific concept including ownership, assets, and recruitment.[74]

Digital marketing channels and traditional marketing channels are similar in function that the value of the product or service is passed from the original producer to the end user by a kind of supply chain.[75] For instance, a typical digital marketing channel is email. Organization can update the activity or promotion information to the user by subscribing the newsletter mail that happened in consuming. In addition to this typical approach, the built-in control, efficiency and low cost of digital marketing channels is an essential features in the application of sharing economy.[75]

See also

Digital marketing engineer

Digital marketing system

Digital marketing channels in the sharing economy

Distributed presence

Interactive marketing

Mobile marketing

Online advertising

Pay per click

Social media marketing

Visual marketing

Customer Data Platform

User intent

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How To Create a Profitable Instagram Advertising Campaign That Drives Sales

If you have been avoiding Instagram because it’s new and unfamiliar to you, you may be missing out on some of the best exposure you can get for your business. Instagram is a high-engagement platform where many from the Millennial and Gen Z demographic spend their time online. By combining organic interaction with a well-crafted Instagram advertising campaign, you can get your product in front of this audience and begin seeing profitable results. Our guide can help you understand the platform and the best ways to make your Instagram advertising campaign a success.

What Is Instagram Advertising?

When we talk about Instagram advertising, we are specifically referring to paid placement of posts on the app. If you have only promoted on social media using organic campaigns, it can seem counterintuitive to spend money to be seen. However, a paid Instagram advertising campaign can yield results that free posting just cannot match.

As of late December, 2019, Instagram had 800 million active users who have posted 300 million stories. Among those are 25 million businesses, many of whom are vying for the same prospects your business is. If you only use organic placement – that is, posts that you add for free to be seen by those who come to your posts naturally through search and suggestion – your content may never be seen.

Paid advertising gets your posts in front of people who would otherwise never see them, whether it is because of the times of day you and they are online or because of the sheer volume of content on the site. It also puts your posts in front of the right people. With a paid Instagram advertising campaign, you can choose who sees your posts, and when they see them.

Instagram is a visual medium. When you advertise here, you will use images or videos as the focus, rather than creating purely text-based ads like you might on another platform. You will also be able to add a headline, a small amount of ad text and a call to action.

In general, these ads will look very much like a regular Instagram post. This allows them to fit seamlessly into the Instagram users’ experience. When people do not feel that their browsing experience is interrupted by ads, they are more likely to be receptive to them, rather than considering them an intrusion.

Is Instagram Right for Your Business?

Instagram has provided powerful results for businesses in a wide range of niches. According to professionals at Instagram, in March 2019, 44% of users on the site visited a website, contacted a brand or got directions to a business after viewing an Instagram advertising campaign. Additionally, 60% of people who use Instagram say that they have discovered new products on the platform. Three out of four say that they were inspired to take some action after seeing a promoted post.

However, the Instagram audience has many characteristics that will make it a good fit for some brands but not for others. For instance, Instagram skews heavily mobile. This is because, while you can view content in your browser, you can only add it through Instagram’s mobile app. Since most people have and use a smartphone, this is not an issue for most brands. If your brand’s audience tends to be more desktop based than mobile, however, Instagram may not be for you.

Since Instagram is a visual medium, it is most useful to brands whose products have some visual appeal, as well. A company that sells data processing software, for instance, may not gain as much traction as one that offers home furnishings. If you can’t think of an obvious visual edge for your Instagram advertising campaign, you may not be in a place to post on this network yet. However, even brands with no visual product may still have success using meme-like illustrated text ads with clever slogans. Look at what others in your niche are doing to see what approach may be best for you.

Instagram’s audience is primarily those in the 18 to 29 year old demographic. The app is so popular that 59% of internet users in that age group use the app. However, the app’s popularity drops off with older audiences. Only about a third of people between the ages of 30 and 49 use Instagram. One in five people between the ages of 50 and 64 do.

The last thing to understand about Instagram’s huge user base is that it is largely international. About 80% of Instagram users are outside the United States. This can be a big boon to global sellers, but less useful to people who are trying to attract local users to a brick and mortar location. However, just because an Instagrammer can’t visit your business, that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful to you. Instagrammers from around the world may choose to interact with your ads, increasing your engagement and making your brand look even more popular.

Instagram’s Advantages Over Other Outlets

Instagram’s biggest advantage is its intuitive and engaging interface. Users spend a great deal of time on the app looking at photos and videos, liking content, and leaving comments. Because of this, the app has become extremely popular with brands.

Instagram offers excellent targeting and analytics. The app allows you to choose the gender, age group, geographic area, and habits of those who will see your ads. It can also allow you to choose the time of day your ads are deployed. Instagram’s analytic features make it easy to see who is viewing your ad and how they behave when they see it.

How Instagram and Facebook Incorporate

When Instagram began, it was a 13 person start-up. The platform became popular quickly, though, and big companies took notice. The app ultimately sold to Facebook for $1 billion.

This union with Facebook is good news for advertisers. Facebook now allows you to run your Instagram advertising campaigns through the same dashboard that you use for managing your advertising on Facebook. The Ads Manager works exactly the same for both social networks once you have set up and connected your Instagram account.

How to Get Started with Your First Instagram Advertising Campaign

The first step in creating your first Instagram advertising campaign is connecting your business’s Instagram account. If you don’t have one yet, you can start one from any mobile phone by providing your email and phone number. For convenience, you can also start an account using your existing Facebook account by tapping “Log in with Facebook.” It is also possible to create an Instagram account on your computer by visiting Instagram.com.

Be sure to completely fill out your business name and profile. The profile can only be 150 characters, so make every one of them count. Using a character counter app can allow you to rearrange text until you’ve made the most of it.

By the way, it is necessary to have a Facebook Page to run ads on Instagram. If this is something you have been neglecting to set up for your business, now is the time to claim your spot on this massive social network.

After creating your Instagram account, you can sign up for a Business Manager account on Face

book or add your Instagram account to an existing Business Manager account. Visit Business Manager, then go to Business Settings>Instagram Accounts. From there, you will follow the cues to claim your new Instagram account and incorporate it into your marketing.

In the Ads Manager, simply click “Create.” You can either opt for Guided Creation or Quick Creation. We recommend Guided Creation for your first ad so that you can get a better handle on the process of creating an Instagram advertising campaign.

The Guided Creation starts with choosing an objective for your campaign. This is where you define what you want to accomplish by advertising on Instagram. Are you looking to increase brand awareness? Bring traffic to your site? Get people to view your videos? Convert from prospect to sale?

The objective you choose for your Instagram advertising campaign will influence what you see throughout the ad creation process. Instagram’s advertising creator is designed to help guide you through the process and steps that are most likely to get you the results that you want.

Choose a name for your Instagram Advertising campaign that reflects the content and the objective of your campaign. This will make it easier for you to tell one campaign from another when you revisit them later on.

During creation, you’ll have the option to use either a single image or video or a series of images to be displayed together. You can use up to eight images in a single ad. Ensure that they work well together for the best impact and engagement.

The creation process will also guide you through linking your campaign to your Facebook and Instagram pages and adding creative elements like a headline, text and a call to action button. Accessing the advanced options will reveal additional elements that can be put into your ad. Which ones are available to you will depend on the objective you chose.

Once you are happy with the ad, you need only review and publish. In the Guided Creation version, this involves simply clicking “confirm.” If you wish, you can also save an ad as a draft by clicking “Close.” This allows you to revisit an ad at a later date to complete it and publish.

Which Type of Instagram Advertising Campaign Is Best?

Instagram ads are broken down into four basic types: image ads, video ads, carousel ads with multiple images and stories.

1. Photo Ad

A photo ad uses a single image. It should be an image that features your brand and tells a story with one image. These ads can be highly beneficial even when people do not click. You still get an impression as the Instagram user navigates the site, even if they do not interact with your ad.

2. Video Ad

A video ad can be up to 60 seconds long. However, researchers with Wista say that the first 30 seconds of your video are the most important. It is vital that you engage your viewer right away in your Instagram video, otherwise they are likely to continue to scroll. Video ads can be great for brands whose products are most interesting in motion. A designer who has launched a new, flowy circle skirt can capture views with video of a twirling model, for instance. You also want to be sure that your video is captivating without sound, as many users do not play videos in their feed with sound.

3. Carousel Ad

Carousel ads are great for when you have a new line of products to showcase. For instance, a company with a new furniture collection can create a series of images that focuses on each piece in turn. A restaurant can also showcase the many fresh ingredients that go into a new dish.

4. Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are a fairly new feature that has gained a high number of converts. Story ads are full screen ads that appear as users scroll along the Stories feed on their account. About 150 million Instagram users visit their stories feed every day. Since stories feature content that expires after a short amount of time, people check in regularly to see what is going on with their community and the people who they follow.

In the current algorithm, Instagram prioritizes posts and are published during the times when users are most active. On the other hand, Instagram stories are visible for 24 hours after they were published. Add that to the fact that they are positioned at the top of the feed where users can easily see them. This is what makes IG stories worth publishing too.

Instagram Ad Design Best Practices

The images that look best on Instagram are square images with a 1:1 ratio. You can, however, also choose to use portrait images with a 4:5 ratio or landscape ones with a 1.91:1 ratio.

The minimum image size is 600 by 315 pixels for a landscape images. To ensure that your pictures look great, aim for an image size of 1080 x 1080.

On Instagram, the image speaks loudest. If you wish to incorporate text, it should not make up more than 20% of the image. You can also add a caption; up to 125 characters is recommended, but a maximum of 2,200 characters is possible.

Images should be clear and well-lit. A simple background is best. Images with one dominant color catch the eye on small screens. The image below, for instance, shows an ideal background and elements with related colors that are pleasing to the eye.

Setting a Budget

Often, the first thing a person wants to know is how much an Instagram ad costs. However, there is not one set answer. Like ads on Facebook, ads on Instagram vary in cost depending on the targeting options and how much you are willing to spend to reach your potential customers.

You can choose to either pay per engagement or to buy interaction by the impression, which is expressed as cost per thousand (CPM). In the last quarter of 2016, the average cost per click on an Instagram ad was $0.72. Your costs will vary depending on how competitive your niche is.

When you are setting your budget, you can choose to set up either a daily budget or a lifetime budget for your campaign. With the daily budget, your ad will show throughout the day until you have hit your budget. With the lifetime option, the algorithm will pace your spending throughout the life of your Instagram advertising campaign.

You can also manually set bids if you have a hard budget and know how much you are willing to spend. This feature can be found in the Optimize for Ad Delivery section.

Creating a Great Call-to-Action

Marketers have long understood that a powerful call-to-action (CTA) is one of the most important elements of a successful campaign. Telling your prospects what you want them to do makes it far more likely that they will complete the desired action.

In 2015, Instagram allowed their advertisers to access this important feature by adding Call-to-Action buttons to their ads. They recently improved the feature to blend more seamlessly into an Instagram user’s experience. In the past, the call to action button was white for a few seconds, then turned blue once it had lingered on the screen. Now, the color is chosen based on the dominant colors in your image. This makes the experience more organic and makes the user more likely to show interest in the ad.

These buttons can be used to link to any destination on or off Instagram. You can send people to your Instagram profile to follow your brand. Or, you can send them to your website where they can browse your products and make a purchase.

The wording of your of CTA should be brief, clear, and compelling. “Follow us” or “Click on our profile to find a 10% off code” are great examples. These tell people what you want and what is in it for them.

Summing Up

Great results are possible when creating an Instagram advertising campaign. However, to ensure that you are using the platform to its best advantage, you need to make sure you understand the audience, the look and feel of the platform and which messages are most likely to make the customers you want engage with your ad. Study other brands’ advertising to see what works for them. Learn from your own analytics. Over time, you can hone your advertising campaigns to increase your success. 

We know that managing social media content and campaigns can prove to be overwhelming as a small business owner, so our social media agency provides packages for social media to help you off set responsibility. Feel free to check out our services to see what will work best for your company, or you can schedule a time to contact us, and we can help you determine the best fit for your.