"Digital India" is no longer a dream but a reality. Be it corporates, media organisations, government organisations, NGOs or SMEs, everyone is active in the digital world today. We have already discussed the difference between online marketing and digital marketing. Despite the nuances between the two, online marketing is just a part of the vast digital marketing mix, which itself is a part of the overall Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) (IMC ＞ Digital Marketing ＞ Online Marketing). As explained, it includes online, SMS, online banners and ads, SEO (search engine optimisation):- www.deekpay.com

Read about various marketing strategies for online business to understand the basic difference between online and digital marketing.

Digital marketing strategy: a brief explanation

As mentioned above, it covers all your online marketing efforts and more. Digital marketing broadly covers both types of marketing strategies:

Paid Digital Marketing Strategy

SEM

Search engine marketing ideally covers the complete range of paid forms of advertising. You can perform a small exercise to understand how SEM works on search engines and how it can best work for your online business.

For example: Use any search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to enter what you want to search for and click "Search". You may see the following:

The first and last 3 or 4 results will have "adverts" written underneath them. This means that these are highly SEM intelligent. Marketers will show adverts on search engines to:

Improved visibility: because it is at the top of the page, it is more likely to be seen and therefore clicked on.

Increase clicks: High visibility means more clicks. People think it's on the first page and at the top, which means it's a reliable source (which may be the case), but they don't understand the "advertising" part here.

Increased brand value: Surfers rely heavily on the first two pages of search engines, and SEM-controlled searches get more clicks, resulting in increased credibility and brand recognition.

Marketers bid for high-traffic search terms and concepts related to key search terms to get very visible ad placements on the first page of search engine results.

*SEM is a broader concept that includes SEO, CPC, display ad placements and more. But in this blog it is mentioned as separate points just to show each concept better.

Display Ad Position

This type of digital advertising is mainly found on websites. There are two main types of adverts displayed:

Retargeting Ads: For example, if you see a product on Site A, then close the site and jump to Sites B and C. The product you previously saw on Site A will be flashed on Sites B and/or C. The product you saw on Site A will be displayed on Site B and/or C. The product you saw on Site A will be flashed on Site B and/or C. Basically, Site A is trying to sell you a product you are interested in. This is called retargeting.A wants you to buy, so it will follow you wherever you go on the web.

Infomercials: These are adverts you may not have seen before. They are new to you and perform the basic function of an advert - you create product or brand awareness among your audience.

The main contributors to display ad positions are:

Impressions: it refers to the number of people who have viewed the advert at least once. So, if there are 5 adverts on the page, the impression calculated each time someone visits the page will be 5.

eRPM: It denotes, effective revenue per thousand impressions. This term informs you how much money you can earn per 1,000 views, and it is a standardised method of calculating the monetisation of website traffic. the higher the eRPM, the more money you earn.

CPC

Cost per click or PPC (Pay Per Click) means that when your display or search engine advert is clicked, you pay a certain amount to the website. For example, if your advert gets 5 clicks and each click is worth Rs. 5, then you owe the website 5*5 = Rs. 25. Another way of calculating CPC is per thousand (CPM), which takes into account 1,000 impressions, regardless of whether the viewer clicks on the advert or not.CPM is more or less similar to eRPM.

Digital PR

Digital or online public relations is not esoteric. What PR pros do in traditional media (e.g., newspapers, events, talk shows), digital PR pros do online. There are many versions of e-zines, e-newspapers, blogs, podcasts and more. PR has proven to be a very powerful and effective tool, useful both offline and online, as it expands your reach, sharing and awareness to target a wider audience. The main advantage of digital PR is that it is more measurable than traditional PR. You can use UTM links and SEO tools to gain insights. You can extract exactly the exact data you want to understand. It also focuses on assessing domain authority (DA) and organic opportunities.

Social Media Marketing

This term is very familiar to us. Simply put, social media marketing is the most important part of digital marketing. It refers to the process of welcoming traffic or target audience through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. Social media marketing is highly favoured by today's marketers due to its popularity, high reach and greater visibility. This component is essential in your digital marketing plan. Social media content is highly driven by SEM and SEO.

affiliate marketing

It's a way to earn commissions by promoting other people's products. Affiliate marketing is when you find a product you like, promote it to others and earn a portion of the profits for each sale. It is a very popular strategy due to its effectiveness and cost efficiency.

content marketing

This is one of the tools that can help you achieve these goals. Not only is it a cost-effective strategy, it is also a very important aspect of digital marketing. If you watch, you'll see it everywhere - social media, adverts, announcements, emails, blogs, search engines and more. It's the art of storytelling. Digital is not just limited to blogs and YouTube, it is expanding to OTT (over-the-top content.) OTT involves the distribution of a wide range of content, such as audio, video, and other media, through a Multi-System Operator (MSO) using an Internet connection. For example, you can watch Hotstar programmes on your TV, laptop/desktop or even your mobile phone.OTT makes it possible for content to be widely distributed and therefore consumed.

influencer marketing

Nowadays, as the world becomes more social, marketers want to reach their audience with the best channel, time and place. A recent report states that over 1.8 billion people are currently actively using social media. Marketers want to reach these people, mainly millennials, by using influencer marketing to reach their consumers. Often, marketers will work with social media influencers to promote their brands and products for specific projects or time periods (depending on their influence and impressions among their followers).

viral marketing

Whether it's a video, a story or a picture, all interesting, effective and realistic content is viral. It is primarily targeted at social media. Do you know the day when your Facebook newsfeed doesn't have a modal or a GIF with any likes or comments?It is very effective on social media channels.

Referral Marketing

The name says it all. It refers to referrals! Your customers will refer your business to 10 people, and those 10 people will refer it to 20 other people. The effect of this reference and the power of word of mouth only happens when you provide great service and products to your customers.

CRM

Customer relationship management is important not only in digital marketing strategy but in other aspects as well. It's about restoring relationships with your customers in a crisis or disaster. For example, you sell a product to a customer, but it doesn't meet their needs or turns out to be defective. Then CRM comes into play. You may be able to offer an upgraded product at a lower price, or introduce cashbacks, etc. Maintaining a good relationship with your customers is important to maintain and expand your business.

mobile marketing

It includes in-app advertising and promotion of your products and services. You can also use digital mobile games for promotion. Mobile has become a very important part of our lives. Rich or poor, rural or urban, utilising viable data packages for entertainment and information is a supernova. Marketers today are exploring all avenues to reach out to their customers through this small screen that can easily slip into one's pocket. Mobile is power and confidence to instantly realise whatever people want.

Organic Digital Marketing Strategy

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is a part of SEM, but the only difference is - SEO is organic. Search engines have always been the main platform for driving large amounts of traffic to websites. With the changes in Google's algorithm, you need to be extra careful when optimising your website. Implementing the right SEO techniques is the best way to create a Google-friendly website. It helps you to maintain your SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings.

Outstanding content + targeted outreach + value proposition = links

Social Media Marketing

Yes, it is also mentioned as part of a paid digital marketing strategy. Social media marketing may not necessarily be 100% paid or organic. A combination of the two can be beneficial to the business as the paid one will target deeper and more, while the organic one will improve credibility.

content marketing

Similarly, with content marketing, you don't have to pay for drafting blogs or posting timely social media content yourself. As mentioned above, it is a very important part of any form of marketing. People see your content, whether it's text, images, or video, and that content helps them gain a deeper understanding of the decision-making process.

viral marketing

Not all forms of viral marketing are paid or promoted. Agencies work harder to get their videos and other content to spread contagiously on social media. In the process, they end up paying a lot of money to the agency or social media channel. A classic example of organic viral marketing is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The gist of the content is so succinct that no money needs to be invested. In fact, this noble cause garnered millions in charitable donations.

Referral Marketing

If you have a business, you can become an advocate and communicate your business to your circle of friends and family, talk about your products and even offer testers. All of this is free of charge. The word-of-mouth effect starts with you and eventually reaches millions of people. All of this is free. The bottom line for both paid and unpaid forms of referral marketing is the same - the product or service needs to be very real and useful.

CRM

You don't have to offer your customers cashback and reduced-price products to maintain a relationship, recognition in your business - on your social media pages or website - is very welcome and appreciated by your customers. Recognition is more important than money spent.

Planning a digital marketing strategy

target identification

Determine what your purpose is in creating a digital marketing plan. Ask yourself why you created it? Who is it being created for? What return will it bring to your business? Also understand what your customers are looking for? Answering these questions will make your marketing strategy stronger and more relevant, and once you know what you actually want to achieve on digital platforms, measuring your success will be easy compared to the final report.

explore

Having a strong digital marketing plan requires a lot of research. Understanding your target audience (TA) is important because you will be strategising, creating and promoting based on your chosen TA. However, your research should not be limited to this; it should also include:

Target Audience: Based on the categories below, you can narrow down what and who you're looking for and how you want to target the best audience.

Online marketplaces: what sites are your audience viewing? How long are they being viewed? What types of digital content are your competitors marketing to users? What online content are people consuming? What are they sharing? What are the online trends? Where are the gaps?

Keyword Search : SEO is the most important part of online digital marketing. What are the most frequently used keywords in the market? From that list, which keywords are best suited to your business for maximum search engine optimisation?

Unleashing creativity

It's time to sit down with your team and come up with some great digital marketing ideas that are eye-catching and attention-grabbing enough for your target audience. Here's what to consider when creating a campaign:

Campaign theme (central idea): What do you want to communicate in your campaign? How do you want your target audience to react and behave after viewing your campaign?

Tagline: this will explain what your campaign is about in one line. For example: Coca-Cola - Unlocking Happiness.

Campaign Duration: Here you need to decide how long the campaign will last. How long do you want your target audience to see it? How long will it take to run the campaign to achieve success?

Creativity: a picture is worth a thousand words! Your ideas are the face of your campaign. They cannot be weak. Creatives/images are the first thing your audience sees and then decides whether to move on or delve deeper into the campaign. You need to answer the following questions: how will the creative be created, what are the best fonts, colours, textures, copy for the creative? What is visually appealing to your audience? How will your creative prompt them to click on your campaign and take action? How will the feel and look of your entire campaign cause them to stay on your page or follow your campaign for an extended period of time?

Duration: every campaign has a duration. Typically, your digital marketing campaign can run for 3 months, 6 months, a year or a duration for a specific occasion. Whether you then extend or shorten the actual duration depends entirely on your analytics data and campaign results. For example, you can plan a summer campaign, a Diwali campaign or even an Independence Day campaign. Here, you need to ensure that you create and launch the campaign with visibility and awareness even before the campaign starts. If you are planning for a summer campaign, then there is no point in launching your campaign during Diwali or Christmas. You need to plan and prepare your event well in advance so that when the time comes, you just execute your event instead of creating it from scratch.

Digital channel mix: once you've clarified what you want and how, now it's time to know where ? Digital marketing is a very broad field with many overlapping options. You need to choose whether you want to use only paid or only organic digital media?Google search ads or web banners? Do you want to use content marketing only or combine it with referral and influencer marketing? You need to choose the best arrangement and combination for your campaign.

Managing content: even in the digital world, content is king! No industry or campaign can work without content. Content can be in the form of text or in the form of videos or images. But it needs to direct your audience somewhere, a place where they have a deep-rooted interest. For example, if your audience is searching for "best marketing strategies for online business" then they should arrive somewhere after clicking on your link - a blog, a video, statistics, comparison charts, infographics and so on. Your campaigns must provide quality and value to your searches, and you can do this through valuable content.

circulate

Social Media or SMS? Mobile or online marketing? Where you want to distribute your digital marketing content and strategy to reach the right audience is critical. Once you've decided which channels you want to use, distribution is as easy as 1-2-3! Thanks to digital marketing, buying your preferred media space takes less time than buying traditional media space (e.g. newspapers, magazines, TV, etc.).

analysed

You need to know which type of campaign strategy or idea works best. Where do you need to improve? How can you attract more audience to your campaign? How can your results figures increase? Also check if you achieved your objectives? Is your message getting through to your audience in the way you intended? And so on. Analysing your digital marketing strategy and its impact on the market should be part of your routine!

Digital marketing budget

There is no designated budget for any digital marketing campaign. It all depends on your analysis at the end of the day. However, it is advisable not to bet all your budget on one channel or online media. Allocate or invest your money in various channels - email, SMS, social media, YouTube, online PR, etc.

Before you make an allocation, you need to know:

Which digital platforms are leading the way in terms of audience and conversions. Here are some insights that

Analyse other successful digital marketing campaigns and programmes based on the following:

Appeal: whether the cited activity is successful because of its humorous angle or because of its logical or practical angle. Basically, you need to figure out which element or activity appeals most to your audience.

Emotional: do people prefer P&G products for their emotional and light-hearted mother and child videos? Or the Dove Real Beauty Test advert which creates real empowerment, gentle self-love and celebration for women?

Usability: By utilising these emotional and appealing and other creative elements, what actually makes an audience decide to buy that particular product or, for example, actively participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to support a cause? How easy is it for them to make a decision in favour of what they see?

OPINION: What are people actually viewing on digital platforms? This question is important because almost every brand today - big or small - has some form of media presence on social media, websites, search engines, and other digital media.

Your budget can be as high as hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of millions, or as low as a few thousand, and putting in the money is always your choice. What really matters is choosing the right mix of channels for your business and driving it until you get satisfactory results.

According to FICCI Report 2016 statistics, India is expected to grow by 15.51 TP3T, which indicates that the country is the fastest growing advertising market in the world with a large consumer base. Further, the most reliable source of insights states that although India is growing by only 12.71 TP3T in the digital ad spend space, it is the fastest growing medium with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.51 TP3T from 2015 to 2020.Consumption of online video content has risen sharply in the last one year, from 491 TP3T to 661 TP3T ( afaqs.com).

These statistics are not just about growth rates, but clearly show that digital advertising and content is on the rise and is also taking the business to the next level.

Flexibility and change are key to owning and creating any digital marketing campaign. Considering the above information, successful digital marketing does take time, creativity and a work plan to put in place. But it's worth all that effort!

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