Characteristics of the Web as a Marketing Medium.
Digital Marketing is the marketing of a product and/or a service through various digital technologies, mainly the internet or via mobile technology. Like general marketing the process involves identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer’s needs and wants at a profit. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing achieves this aim through various unique techniques such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Email Marketing, Viral Marketing, Micro Blogging (Twitter, Snapchat), Podcasting, Social Networking and Mobile Campaigns, Plus many more.
Digital Marketing also has its own characteristics that are unique to digital marketing. These include;
1) Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Search Engine Optimisation such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have primary search results of webpages, videos and other online content is ranked and closely match the users search questions or query. This is achieved through the search engine using algorithms and matching keywords. Integrated with other software, such as Google Adwords, it returns the users website in first few pages or within the first page of results. A user can customise his/ her website to further optimise this feature to ensure better search results and higher levels of traffic to the website.
2) 24/7 Access to a consumer: Due to the nature of the internet consumers can now access online products or services whenever they wish. This allows for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week service for customers. This is not possible with traditional direct marketing. 24/7 access enables the consumer to shop online at any hour of that day or night, not just when the shops are open. This is a huge advantage for retailers to use it and direct customers from the street store to its online store.
3) Easy Feedback: With internet and mobile technologies it is now easier than ever for both Consumers and Business’ alike to gain instant, relative feedback. A business can now see exactly what consumers are looking at, pricing and comparing online. This allows a business to alter or change their digital campaign in a short period of time. On the flip side it allows consumers to interact with the brand through servicing and delivery of digital media. Information is easy to access at a fast rate with the use of social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Email Marketing. This can create brand loyalty and an instant communication network with consumers anywhere in the world.
4) Inter-Activity: Through websites, blogs and forums, it is now easy and effective for companies to communicate their product or service directly to the consumer or other businesses. Through websites such as Blogger, Tumblr and Squarespace companies can now deliver their digital marketing campaigns to consumers and other businesses directly while potentially highlighting the business’s expertise in that industry sector. This type of digital marketing via blogging can allow consumers to post product reviews along with comments about the business and its services.
5) Rich Media: Rich Media is a digital marketing advertisement that uses features such as video, audio, flash games etc to further engage the consumer. While text ads sell or promote a product/ service with words, Rich media offers more ways to engage the consumer and involve the audience with the ad. Rich media can allow an ad to more effectively illicit a response in a consumer compared to the standard text based advertisement.
6) Google Adwords and Pay-Per Click (PPC): Google Adwords is an online advertising platform and service provided by Google for businesses wanting to display ads. It works by businesses biding for keywords that people searching the web with the Google search engine. This allows companies to better customise its advertising campaign and be more effective in attracting consumers to the company’s website. Adwords adverts are the top ads that appear on the ‘Sponsored Links’ found on the right hand side or above Google search results. PPC is then the subsequent charge of a consumer clicking on the company’s ad and is directed to the company’s website. It is a very cost effective way to market as the company only pays for the actual traffic to the website.
7) Global Nature: Online digital marketing has no physical or geographical boundaries. Traditionally a company would have been physically restricted with their advertising campaign due to inability to reach consumers further afield. For example, a traditional newspaper, radio or magazine advertisement would have a limited reach specific to that town, city or region. As mentioned above the 24/7 availability of the web and mobile technologies allow the company to reach consumers anywhere on the planet.
8) Cost: Digital marketing is a cost effective way of advertising in the modern world. Compared to more traditional marketing which usually requires the company or business to outsource the service of advertising, companies can now customise and control their own adverts via social media or Google Adwords. This point also ties into the fact that a business can at any time update, change or completely remove their ad with relative ease. This would not be possible with traditional print adverts such as in a newspaper because once the ad has printed it can no longer be changed.
9) Push vs Pull Marketing: Digital Marketing is associated with Pull Marketing meaning that the consumer can pick and choose which material or advert he/she views and engages with. The goal of the pull marketing is get the consumer to come to you. Pull marketing can achieve brand loyalty for a company as the aim is to keep the consumer coming back in the long term. Push Marketing, on the other hand, takes the opposite approach. The goal of push marketing is to take the product/ service directly to the consumer without the consumer having any choice in it. This can often back fire as the consumer’s may not want to be exposed this type of approach.
10) Virial Marketing: Virial Marketing is a digital marketing technique that encourages people to pass on and spread the information and so, like a virus, the message spreads. Virial marketing uses pre-existing social networks, such as Facebook, to achieve this and increase brand awareness. Virial marketing may take the form of a video, a meme, Images or a flash game. For virial marketing to be successful the receiver needs to be encouraged to pass on and share the message. The material will need to engage the recipient’s attention so it will need to be creative or different otherwise the recipient may not spread the message.
11) Google Analytics: Google Analytics is the free service offered by Google and integrated with Google Adwords. It is used in the breakdown of data when applied to Google Adwords. This data can be used by the business to analyse their advertisement campaign. The integration with Google Adwords allows the business to track and monitor traffic to their website.
Furthermore Google Analytics can show the user where exactly the traffic is coming from ie: from email links, search engines etc. This can give an indicator to the strength of the companies SEO or SEM. Google Analytics can show the visitor profiles and the behaviours of the visitors to the company’s website. The visitor’s demographics can also be tracked such as age and gender. The popularity and bounce rate of the users website can be tracked which allows for instant feedback. Knowing where the bounce rate is occurring is important because it will allow for the content to be altered and structure the website so these bounce rates are reduced