Digital marketing?

In this video, I’m going to introduce you to digital marketing. Digital

marketing is the way in which companies reach out to their customers and
interact with them. It’s mainly done through the Internet and other digital
channels, such as social media. The aim of digital marketing is to get as
many people over to your website or app as possible and to raise awareness
of your brand, product, or service. In the past few years, there has been a
significant shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing. Traditional
marketing includes things like newspapers, magazines, or TV
advertisements, and it is still important and widely used today.

Digital marketing, on the other hand, is now the dominant form of

marketing, and getting it right is important for the success of your product.
One of the great things about digital marketing is that you can easily see
how well you’re doing and measure your performance. Whereas with
traditional marketing, this can be slightly trickier to do. For instance, with
digital marketing campaigns, you can see the number of people viewing
your content, who they are, and how they’re engaging with you. There are
lots of other benefits to digital marketing. Firstly, digital marketing allows
organizations to interact and engage with their customers in real time.

For instance, a company posting something on Twitter can see

almost instantly how well their customers have engaged with them by
counting the number of likes and retweets. Digital marketing also allows
you to reach out to people on a global scale, through multiple online
channels, such as email, social media, and websites. Compared to
traditional marketing, where you might only be able to reach out to people
across a limited area through local newspapers, and radio channels, for
example, with digital marketing, you really can go global. Businesses can
use digital marketing to build platforms that allow them to build their
brands, reputation, and closer relationships with their clients, which they
wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.

Because content is posted over the internet, it means your messages

can be seen on whatever devices your target audience are using, such as
laptops, tablets, or mobile phones. Another great benefit of digital
marketing is that it’s often cheaper compared to traditional marketing. And
lastly, digital marketing allows companies to compete on a level playing
field via the internet, despite their size or their marketing budgets. So let’s
put these benefits into context. An example scenario is when McDonald’s
updated their Monopoly marketing campaign to incorporate digital
elements into it. Customers previously playing the game had to take a
physical sticker and put it onto their paper board to compete for prizes.

However, once they went digital, those same physical stickers could
be added to a virtual, online board found on their mobile phone by adding
a unique code found on the back of the sticker. By going digital,
McDonald’s could see how many people were participating in the games,
and customers could see who they were competing against. It also gave
customers the opportunity to participate wherever they were in the world.
What is digital marketing?
Let’s start by looking at what digital marketing is all about, six of the
key benefits associated with it, and an example of a company that has
benefited from going digital.
The six key benefits of digital marketing are:
1. Engagement with customers in real-time (e.g. using Twitter)
2. Global reach through online channels such as email and social media
3. Brands can further develop themselves and build relationships with
clients
4. Messages can be accessed over multiple devices (including PCs,
tablets, mobiles)
5. Cheaper than traditional marketing
6. Creates a level playing field for companies to compete, no matter
what size or budget
Do you prefer receiving digital marketing over traditional marketing? Let
us know in the comments what you see as the benefits of digital marketing.
If you want to read more, the blog provided below (under ‘See also’)
illustrates seven advantages of using digital marketing for a small business.

The 5 aims of digital marketing

In this video, I’ll take you through the five aims that you should bear
in mind when creating the content for digital marketing campaigns. The
first aim is to ensure you’re sending out the right message to the right
people at the right time. An example of this is when you go onto any social
media website, such as Facebook, and you notice the adverts being
displayed to you are products or services that you have previously
browsed. This happens because companies start collecting information
based on what you like and dislike and start targeting specific adverts
towards you. The second aim of digital marketing is engaging your
audience. Brands often use online campaigns to get people engaged in
talking about their products.

Social media is a great way for companies to flex their brand

personality. For example, Innocent Smoothies used Twitter to launch a
successful and engaging campaign to promote their Bolt From the Blue
smoothie. Whilst they marketed their smoothie as blue, they knew in
advance that it was, in fact, green and that this will cause fans to react over
social media. They leant into this by replying to people’s comments with a
funny response that sparked even more attention from the campaign. This
cleverly thought-out campaign resulted in thousands of likes and retweets
for the brand on Twitter. The third aim of digital marketing is motivating
your users to take action. This doesn’t have to be a customer buying
something.
It can be encouraging a customer to simply engage with your brand.
You can then share user-generated content to strengthen your brand’s
relationships with your audience. Apple used this successfully with their
Shot on iPhone campaign. This campaign, which centred mainly around
Instagram, encouraged iPhone users to share photos and videos they took
on their Apple devices. The winners, judged by a professional panel, were
showcased on billboards around the world. The campaign generated an
enormous interest with over 15 million posts shared to date using the
#ShotOniPhone hashtag. The fourth aim of digital marketing campaign is
spending efficiently. Brands should think about how they can spend less
money but still reach out to a great number of people.

An example of this is Beats by Dr. Dre, a headphones manufacturer

who used a selfie campaign. This campaign is the call to action, which is a
message that encourages your audience to act immediately. The call to
action here was to post a video selfie on Instagram or Twitter with the
hashtag #SoloSelfie. By doing this, they were able to create a buzz and get
their fans engaged and interacting with the brand. The final aim is simple,
improving the return on your investment. This means increasing the money
you make as a percentage of the money you initially invested through your
marketing campaign.
Now you know the five key aims of digital marketing, we’ll look at
the various types of digital marketing that brands can use.

There are several things that you should keep in mind when
developing a digital marketing campaign. In this video, Sandip
explains the five key aims of a digital marketing strategy, and some
real world examples of campaigns that have met these aims.

Before you move on, why don’t you let us know what have been the best
digital marketing campaigns you’ve seen and why? You can share your
examples in the comments.

Check out the blog post below (under ‘See also’) if you want to know more
about setting up a digital marketing campaign.