Digital Marketing – Is It the Next Traditional Marketing?

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2. Social Interaction

Studies on consumer behavior suggest that importance is given to information found and shared online such as third party reviews while making purchase decisions (Huang et al. 2009). The widespread use of digital media is giving rise to other forms of new media. Review portals like Yelp are created to provide information seekers with clear objective feedback of listed brands. Consumers are more than willing to microblog about their experiences and other consumers are utilizing this information to their benefit.

3. Targeted Markets

The depth of how detailed the targeting for any given marketing campaign can only be experienced while setting up an advertisement on Facebook or Google. Consumers are using social networking sites such as Facebook more or less as a journal to log in entries about where they are, what they like, what they are interested in, how they feel, etc. All this data is being recorded and stored and is invariably used for targeting purposes. For example, one can now target Males and Females between 25-45 years of age from the UK flying out of Heathrow Airport on any given day and like cocker spaniels in dog breeds!

4. Analytics

This is by far one of the most important advantages of digital marketing. The tracking of analytics is brilliantly designed and being further developed so that marketers can fine-tune their campaigns on the basis of this information. In comparison with traditional marketing, digital takes the cake. For example, one cannot track the exact number of times someone has viewed their newspaper print ad. The newspaper’s readership may provide a vague projection but an exact number is hard to gauge. Whereas in digital display advertising, one can find out the number of exact views and clicks made to a certain ad in a given time frame.

Disadvantages

1. Time Intensive

Digital marketing may have multiple advantages and benefits of usage for businesses but at the same time, is a very time-intensive process. A service or service personnel should be dedicated to observing the network, consumer behavior, actively engage all questions and comments on time and with patience. Building a successful online presence involves a significant time investment (Barefoot & Szabo, 2010)

2. Trademark & Copyright Issues

The risk of being on the digital medium comes with its fair share of copyright problems. Replications of posts, content or similar naming can prove damaging to one’s brand reputation as consumers are constantly using relevance filters. In such a situation, it helps to monitor one’s own social media account and utilize various screening services that can weed out such replicas for you (Steinman & Hawkins, 2010)

3. Privacy & Security Issues

One study conducted has proven that one of the detrimental reasons of not engaging in online shopping has been the fear of credit card fraud (Ratnasingham, 1998). The use of verified and well known third party vendors for data collection or payment portals can help one’s brand in two ways:

a. It can successfully protect the brand and its consumers and help conduct transactions in a secure manner.

b. It can help build positive brand associations for a consumer and the sense of trust will increase.

4. Negative Feedback

A downside to increased social sharing and microblogging is oftentimes negative feedback. A disgruntled customer wanting to share his/her experience can prove damaging to one’s business. However, as there is no control on whether or not the posting happens, brands can take appropriate measures to deal with the feedback and not ignore it (Cheung, Lee & Thadani, 2009). Immediately responding publically shows strength and that the brand cares about what its consumers think and feel (Hennig et al. 2004).

Conclusion

To conclude, we have briefly understood the role of digital marketing in the current world and how consumers are utilizing this digital space to express their opinions and interests. Apart from this expression, they are also actively seeking information and engagement from social communities, experts, peers and brands themselves. Owing to the fact that today’s consumers are spending immense amounts of their time online, it is crucial that brands understand the need for healthy online presence.

That being said, it is not necessary that digital marketing is the solution to all advertising problems. Most B2B businesses still rely on traditional forms of marketing majorly and may take time to shift to a digital front. Remote geographic areas of the world still act as the perfect target markets for traditional advertising such as radio or print for consumer based industries. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach but rather a tailor-to-fit approach that must be undertaken. An online presence does not hurt a brand. Whether the brand chooses to engage its target market online, offline or both is ultimately the million dollar question.

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References

Barefoot, D. and Szabo, J. (2010). Friends with benefits. San Francisco, CA: No Starch Press.

Cheung, C., Lee, M. and Thadani, D. (2009). What drives consumers to spread electronic word of mouth in online consumer-opinion platforms. Decision Support Systems, 53(1), pp.218-225.

Huang, P., Lurie, N. and Mitra, S. (2009). Searching for Experience on the Web: An Empirical Examination of Consumer Behavior for Search and Experience Goods. Journal of Marketing, 73(2), pp.55-69.

Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K., Walsh, G. and Gremler, D. (2004). Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet?. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(1), pp.38-52.

Ratnasingham, P. (1998). Internet‐based EDI trust and security. Information Management & Computer Security, 6(1), pp.33-39.

Ryan, D. (2017). Understanding digital marketing. 4th ed. Kogan Page Ltd., pp.12-17.

Steinman, M. and Hawkins, M. (2010). When marketing through social media, legal risks can go viral. Intellectual Property