1.1    Overview

Product innovations and quality are not the only driving force for a customer to choose a specific brand in the plethora of product and service offerings in today’s market. Reach and reputation along with minimal marketing costs has become the key to success for businesses. The report discusses how digital marketing provides solution to this hurdle in the current business scenario.

     1.2 Report purpose and structure

The report aims at understanding involvement of digital marketing in today’s businesses. It also explores the advantages of using digital marketing and highlights the disadvantages of the technology. The report critically looks at the challenges of digital marketing implementation using the five-element approach and provides a fair argument to adopt digital marketing.

2.0 Digital Marketing Approach

       Digital marketing or social technology is the new generation marketing tool which deploys internet driven resources to access a global market not restricted by the  geographical boundaries. The cost involved is much lesser as compared to other means of advertising and promotion. Scott Klososky (2012) gives a five-element formula for effective implementation of digital marketing.

     2.1 Building productive websites

            Websites are virtual shops or stores which a customer may visit in anticipation of information about products/company. However, the website has to be effective enough to provide the desired information leading to a repeat visit and positive recommendation.

 2.2   Providing social technologies

        Tools such as social networking sites and blogs enable two-way communication with the customers which translates into trust and value-building by sharing important information with clients and receive feedback.

 2.3 Mobile Tools

Mobile tools ensure anytime anywhere accessibility to companies information.

 2.4 Driving online traffic

       After ensuring that clients have all mediums to reach the website, the organization should invest in directing the traffic towards it using SEOs, pay per clicks, online ads etc.

 2.5 Measurement systems

        Tools such as Google Analytics enable substantiating the success of all the efforts given above which is imperative to take corrective measures and constantly cater to clients’ demands.

3.0 Digital Marketing- Advantages and Challenges

        Marketers agree that digital tools and technologies are valuable, though many of their companies struggle to measure the financial impact and capture customer data. (Mckinsey, 2011). Like all other planning tools of business, digital marketing also poses challenges to marketers and promises benefits on efficient implementation of the same.

      3.1   Opportunities of digital marketing

             3.1.1 Unlimited accessibility- Digital marketing surpasses all other communication mediums in terms of people it can reach. A website, for example, is accessible to a global market.

             3.1.2 Interactive mode of communication – Communication can be two-way and hence a company can immediately rectify or respond to a query. This gives a feeling of “involvement” to the customer and goes a long way in building brand loyalty.

      3.2 Challenges of digital marketing

            3.2.1 Micro relevancy – The more precisely targeted the audience, the most effective recommendations on social platforms. (Comstock,B and Boff, L. 2011). Engaging specialists and updating the content is of utmost importance.

            3.2.2 Technology know-how- Effective digital marketing needs investments by the organizations in procuring sufficient technological knowledge or getting experts to give a customized solution to company’s digital marketing needs.(Gay, R., Charlesworth, A.  and Esen, R.2007,p.4) 

4.0 Digital marketing implementation solutions

         Identifying the need of digital marketing for a business is the first step in implementation. For eg., a small grocery store catering to a local area may not find digital marketing very fruitful but a megastore providing home delivery over a large city may need a robust website for client servicing. Businesses also need to identify the extent to which their customers and competitors are using social technology. On evaluating these issues, organization can adopt a one of the following digital marketing solutions based on the result is wants to derive from implementing it.

            4.1 eCommerce – A website which enables actual financial transactions i.e. purchase of the product or services or offer some kind of deal that actually leads to a transaction. A Bank’s or travel agency’s website is one such example.

            4.2 Customer service- A website providing 24-hr chat-assistance or product user guide. For e.g.- Apple Inc. provides 24*7 online assistance to its customer and guides them to nearest Apple store for hardware assistance.

            4.3 Brand Marketing – A website giving information about company’s vision, mission, product launches or building brand and value by informing customers about its philanthropic efforts. For e.g. PepsiCo and Coco Cola propagate widely about their CSR through their websites.

5.0 Recommendations

        Digital marketing boasts of numerous advantages in its favor such as cost effective, relevant and dynamic. However, it is the “digital customer” who presents a strongest argument in its favor. There is a change in the mindset of the customer and they are looking for new ways of communicating and aggregating in specialized niche online communities making it imperative for the marketer to think on the same lines and connect with them. (Ryan, D and Jones,C 2009)

             5.1 Use of digital marketing in banking industry is an apt example of this new age tool can take localized branch experience to a global banking experience. Some of the leading global banks today have state of the art websites providing the ease of transaction as well as updating information about products and services. They have created a virtual branch online which caters to all customers demands without the hassles of visiting a branch personally.

            Digital marketing takes investment and experimentation before specific goals are met but the results are stacking up. Because the customer is now digital. (Comstock,B and Boff, L. 2011).

 NA48

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