What Is Digital Marketing? And Why Do We Need It?

Why so much change in the powerhouses of the industry in such a short time? In a word—

search. Google became the leading search engine in the early 2000s because it was easy to use and gave useful results. As more and more internet users turned to search as their entry point to the web, there was less need for portals, whether a “walled garden” like AOL or an open portal like Yahoo! The portals were eclipsed, and Google and its smaller competitors thrived. As the internet became more pervasive in marketing, the terminology used evolved from internet to digital marketing. Digital Marketing can be defined as using any digital technology to facilitate the marketing process, with the end goal of customer interaction, engagement, and measurement. So digital marketing encompasses the process of engaging the customer and measuring the results of that engagement. Building up on internet marketing, Add24 has set its sight on the rank of best digital marketing agency in Patna.

Generic Direct Marketing Strategies

It is difficult to do successful digital marketing without understanding the basics of direct marketing. Essentially, the capabilities of the internet drive the four types of direct marketing strategies, which are acquisition, conversion, retention and value growth. These strategies in turn parallel a basic customer lifecycle and are used extensively in digital marketing.

Practically speaking, first, a customer must be attracted to the brand. This state represents a trial of a product or a service. In the acquisition stage, the customer has been attached to the brand, made a single purchase, or perhaps engaged in free use as a result of a sample or a demonstration but is not yet committed to the brand. The second stage is conversion, so-called because, in this step, the prospect changes status and converts to a customer. More generally, a marketing conversion can also be thought of as the customer taking a desired action, such as downloading the whitepaper, signing up for a webinar or, indeed, making a first purchase. This stage may require multiple purchases to be made first, to recognise a purchasing pattern. The first two stages collectively are called retention, which determines the consumer purchasing patterns further enabling the digital marketer to target the patterns which come out of its analysis.

Each of the basic strategies require a different type of effort on the part of the marketer. Acquisition is roughly equivalent to the awareness stage of general-advertising with an action component added. The step is focused on a conscious attempt to get the attention of the prospective customer through media placement and creative execution and interest them in completing a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or another specific request. Direct marketers often add an incentive to clinch product trials.

The conversion step means getting the onetime purchaser to convert to being a prospective buyer or taking another desired action. Product or service satisfaction is crucial for any brand to achieve this goal. Customer contact, through media ranging from personal selling to newsletters, is often useful. Sequential incentives have also been used with good results.

After conversion, it is important to retain buyers to create the highest possible consumer lifecycle value (CLV). Sometimes called lifetime customer values (LCV) is the monetary value of the customer over time and is used to prioritize customers and to develop targeted marketing strategies for particular customer segments. Retention is most often the result of adding value to the customer purchase, user experience, and superior customer service. A planned program of customer contact, carried out at appropriate points in the purchase cycle, can also be a useful component of retention programs. 

Digital Marketing Macro-Environment

The macro-environment is a broad set of forces generally not under the control of the marketer. There exists certain kinds of parameters which have been coagulated when it comes to digital marketing principals. The analysis of such parameters is called PESTEL analysis, which incorporates Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Environmental and Legal influences which affect digital marketing.

Digital Marketing Micro Environment

The micro-environment of digital marketing includes specific factors over which the organization may have some control. The micro environment consists of the organization itself, its suppliers, digital marketing intermediaries, competitors, publics, and its customers. Organizations may need to adjust their digital marketing initiatives based upon the assessment of the environment.

Types of Digital Marketing

Email Marketing

As a tool, email marketing can be very effective. It involves sending carefully crafted messages to pertinent audiences; it may include promotions, new products, newsletters, or messages intended to keep a regular connection with customers. It may send a promotion related to a purchase or an offer for accessories for a recently bought item. Strategies such as Call-to-Action (CTA), an item that promotes a desired action.

Website Marketing

This is done through one or more websites. Even if no direct sales are being conducted on a website, it is important to have a web presence. Other websites and digital sources may link to an organization’s website, and a key goal may be to drive traffic to the site. Websites may be viewed on a desktop, mobile device, or other devices, and it is important to consider how the website looks on each device.

Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves improving a website to optimize its use by search engines, which often prefer websites that have relevant content and that are secure and accessible. A key benefit of SEO includes ranking highly on search engines results pages (SERPS), the page that displays ads, weblinks, and other materials based on a search input into a search engine. Within their search engine account, an organization may bid on keywords that are relevant to its products and services. Based on the bidding and the parameters of the search engine, the organization’s keywords may be displayed on the search engine result pages.

Social Media Marketing

It includes various activities such as advertising, promotion, sharing, branding, and otherwise connecting consumers through social media. Because each social media platform is different, a social media marketing strategy will involve careful consideration of popularities associated with each. Relatedly, community marketing may take place through social media but also through platforms like websites, forums and blogs. IT involves making a connection, promoting engagement, and building a community with consumers.

Mobile Marketing

Today, many markets have expressed their firm desires to market their product exclusively through their own channels. App stores such as App store, or Play store offers brands a channel to market their own mobile application. A mobile marketing strategy involves operating a mobile app, promoting it, and mobile-app advertising such as in-app advertising. Apple Search Ads is a service that allows consumers to be shown app promotions without having searched for specific terms.

Setting up new benchmarks in digital marketing with Add24

Onboarding your business with Add24, gets your business the multichannel marketing that makes sure that the visibility of your brand and awareness about your business’s product or service always remain in the mind of prospective buyers. We are Add24, creating new benchmarks in digital marketing that excites, engages and encourages the audience to make a decision.