By Alveena Nazir
Marketing: A Marketeer’s Strength
If you are a student of business administration or management, then you are no stranger to the concept of marketing. Oftentimes, the prospects of freedom and profit offered by a career in business is attractive to young dreamers looking to make it big in the world. The concept of the American Dream alone rests on the sturdy shoulders of business. And within the broad field of business studies, marketing takes a dominant and important share. Marketing is a set of strategies or practices that involve promoting a business to encourage the sale of products and services. Usually, marketing is considered a present job in which salesmen and marketeers set up open shops or road-side stands with products at display to entice onlookers and pedestrians to purchase their products. Other times, these same salesmen travel door-to-door and use their proficiency of language and their tongues trained in persuasion to coax buyers into acknowledging the value of their services.
Though, with evolution in the conduct of our daily practices, our technology has also revolutionised the way we deal in businesses. Traditional methods of face-to-face meetings, body language, and display of services are marketing practices which are now on the decline. Online networking brought upon an age of technology in which these traditional (physical) methods have been replaced by online methods. The actions and practices of marketing products have also been adapted to facilitate the surge in technology and reliance on the internet.
Digital Marketing: The Future of Business Studies
So, our first question is, what exactly is digital marketing. Simply, it is a mode of online marketing in which brands promote themselves to locate and connect with potential customers using some form of digital communication. On the internet, such forms of connection include social media networking sites, web-based advertisements, emails, and multimedia messaging services. In short, any campaign or engagement which involves some kind of digital communication is included in the domain of digital marketing.
Aspects of Digital Marketing to Know
With the limitless resources and possibilities of the world wide web, there come countless innovative ways of use. Various ways of interacting through digital media have been introduced for specialised marketing purposes. In this blogpost, we mention the most important specialisations for digital marketing which need to be considered by learners of marketing.
Social Media Marketing
This practice is perhaps the most common and well-known marketing tactic in use nowadays. Social media networking sites house platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among others, which generate traffic worth billions each day. For the purpose of marketing, these sites become hubs where this traffic comes into contact with brands and promotions. So, brand awareness and engagement attain a wider audience’s attention through these sites. This same audience is not only introduced to the products and the brand itself, but the community also allows a wider participation among audience members. These networking sites also allow brands to measure their engagement and gather an estimate of their audience number and feedback. The numbers of likes, purchases, and reviews add to the brand’s image and profile. The purpose of social media marketing shifts the focus from solely meeting purchase goals to encouraging people to spend their money.
Content marketing
Content marketing is a strategy of attraction and promotion which involves creating pleasing, informative pieces of digital media which captures the attention of the audience. The purpose of digital content marketing is no different from those of traditional advertisements. In traditional marketing, the audience is brought into contact physically with the product or the service which is being sold. The product’s prospects and potential value is highlighted either through demonstration or through flyers and pamphlets. However, in content marketing, these same prospects and value is reflected through written words. Content marketers consist of writers who need to write engaging pieces of prose with impactful words and an edge. The material should be persuasive enough to encourage the reader to like, share, buy, and follow the brand. For this reason, these written works need to satisfy the rules of search engine optimisation to rank well in results.
Search Engine Optimisation
A word, here, needs to be said about this important marketing tool which is an important aspect in all digital marketing strategies. Also referred to as SEO in common parlance, search engine optimisation is a tool with set standards which allows us to review and weigh different factors to attain the highest possible ranking in Google results. However, there is no one set consistent rules in achieving a good rank. Since Google search engine regularly modifies its algorithm, it involves a manual process of revision of content. These factors of optimising a webpage include setting an adequate title with good word length, engaging keywords, and high-ranking words. Titles are just one of the few important features in search engine optimisation tactics which help a blog reach a wider audience. All these factors allow social media marketers and content marketers to monitor their pages and their performances.
Key Advantages of Digital Marketing
Firstly, it is key to note how far digital marketing has brought businesses as compared to traditional marketing strategies. Arguably the most important of these is that digital marketing brings about greater engagement. It allows businesses and brands, in particular, to achieve precise-targeting. However, despite being aimed at a specific audience and satisfying specific demands, digital marketing is a global venture.
Digital marketing also allows businesses and its marketeers to enhance their brands through brand development. These strategies and practices enable a brand to use platforms and promotions to build their reputation and image. This is possible because digital material is easy to access and also easy to share. Not just that, but digital marketing also allows us to easily measure our progress and easily adjust and incorporate much needed changes to our brand image. This is especially significant since such techniques and ease of access and use makes digital marketing a cost-efficient procedure which yields great and huge investments and profit.
All in all, digital marketing is a monumental step into the future of businesses.