Managing Digital Communications

Dr. Gobinda Roy

1
International Management Institute Kolkata
2 Learning Objectives

1. What is digital marketing?

2. What are the pros and cons of Digital marketing?

3. How can companies carry out effective social

media campaigns?
4. What are some tips for enjoying positive word of

mouth?
3 1. What is Digital Marketing?

 Philip Kotler defines digital marketing as ‘a form of direct marketing

which links consumers with sellers electronically using interactive
technologies like emails, websites, online forums and newsgroups,
interactive television, mobile communications, etc.’
 Digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an
electronic device or the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels
such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to
connect with current and prospective customers. (Hubspot, 2019)
4 1. Digital marketing Characteristics

Characteristics of digital marketing are:

 Two-way Communication
 Targeting of One
 Measurability
 Push and Pull
 Real-time
5 2. Online Marketing Categories
 Categories of online marketing communications
 Web sites
 Search ads
 Display ads
 Social Media
 e-mail
6
3. Online Marketing
Advantages
• Can offer or send tailored
information/messages
• Lower cost
• Global reach
• Can trace effects by clicks on a
page/ad
• Contextual placement
• Can place advertising based on
search engine keywords
Disadvantages
• Consumers can screen out most
messages
• Time consuming
• Ads can be less effective than they
appear (bogus clicks)
• Complaints and feedback
• Lost control over online messages
via hacking/vandalism
 Major Media Time Spent Per Day
7
8 4. Online Marketing
 Communication Options

Web sites

Search ads

Display ads

E-Mail
9
4. Online Marketing
 Web sites (KW- “best hotel in Shimla”)
 Ease of use
 Physical attractiveness (https://www.clarkesshimla.com/ vs.
https://www.hotellandmarkshimla.com/ )
 Microsites
 Search ads
 Paid search or pay-per-click ads
 Search engine optimization (SEO)
 E.g. use Keyword “online grocery shopping”
10 4. Seven Key Design Elements of a Web site
– 7C
 Context. Layout and design
 Content. Text, pictures, sound, and video the site contains (Virtual
tour)
 Community. How the site enables user-to-user communication
 Customization. Site’s ability to tailor itself to different users or to
allow users to personalize the site (PC vs. Smartphone users)
 Communication. How the site enables site-to-user, user-to-site, or
two-way communication
 Connection. Degree that the site is linked to other sites
 Commerce: All the product price along with the add-ons available for
it is all visible in the website

Example: Samsung India, HelpageIndia

11 5. E-mails marketing

 Give the customer a reason to respond

 Personalize the content of your e-mails
 Offer something instead of direct mail
 Make it easy to opt and unsubscribe
 Combine e-mail and social media
 5. Maximize the Marketing Value of e-mails
12
13 6. Social Media
 Means for consumers to share text, images, audio,
and video information with each other and with
companies, and vice versa

Online
(Quora, TripAdvisor, GitHub)
communities/forums
(HubSpot Blog)
Blogs

Social networks
 6. Social Media
14  Social media are rarely the sole source of marketing
communications for a brand
 Only some consumers want to engage with some brands, and, even
then, only some of the time

(Marketingprofs, 2019)
15 7. Word of Mouth
 Face-to-face and phone
 Online
 Viral marketing (“word of mouse”)
16 7. Creating Word-of-Mouth Buzz

 Identify and devote effort to influentials

 Supply key people with product samples
 Work through community influentials
 Develop WOM referral channels
 Provide compelling info to pass along
17 7. Measuring the Effects of Word of Mouth

 Advertising, PR, and digital agencies

 Demographic information or proxies for that
information and cookies
 Gatorade’s “Mission Control Center”
18 8. Task – How to plan digital marketing campaign
for the following types of companies?

 Start-up company
 Mid-size company
 Large Firm
Start-up: 2 Lakh budget
Mid-size : 12 Lakh
Large Firm: 1 Crore
19 8. Task – How to plan digital marketing campaign
for the following types of companies?

 Factor to be considered
 Type of industry: Service or manufacturing or hybrid
 Target customer segments: B2B or B2C
 Buyer persona (demographic details, interests, and behavioral traits)
 Time needs (Immediate or long term or both)
 Suitability of channel for TG
 Select of channel based on secondary data (if available)
 Select the channels
 Measure ROI of each channel
 Realign strategy
20

Thank you
21 Case Study Question- Sephora Direct:
Investing in Social Media, Video, and Mobile

 What do you make of Sephora‘s digital and social media

efforts as of the fall of 2010?
 Was it wise in your opinion to create beauty talk as a
separate social media platform to Facebook. 
 What should be strategic goal of Sephora’s digital and social
media marketing programs?