The Role of Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing - Theory and Examples

This report explores the role of digital marketing and social media marketing in contemporary business. It covers theories, examples, and benefits of these marketing strategies.

Bmp3006 The role of
digital marketing and
social media marketing –
theory and examples

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
What is marketing ?....................................................................................................................3
Marketing mix and where communication mix fits ?................................................................3
What is Digital marketing ? ......................................................................................................4
What is Social media marketing ? ..............................................................................................4
Why digital and social media marketing is important to contemporary business ?....................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................5
Two examples of social media contents that really works and why ? .......................................5
Effective campaigns with established models and standards for digital marketing....................6
Why social media is effective ?..................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the set of activities which an organisation undertakes to introduce or
communicate the product or service which it is willing to sell. Marketing can be done in many
ways and at present digital marketing is prevailing which helps in capturing larger market share
due to activeness on internet accounts. Digital marketing refers to communicating the product
through internet medium to reach large customers. It covers broad area with connecting
customers through emails, social media, search platforms, etc. Social media has been the most
prevalent platform to connect with younger generation and this kind of marketing involves use of
social media accounts to market or advertise the product or service. This report shall cover
marketing together with marketing mix and communication mix. Further it will deal with digital
marketing and social media marketing, its benefits and how it is used for effective
communication strategy.
PART 1
What is marketing ?
Marketing refers to the process of creating, communicating, exchanging and delivering
the product or service which add value to the customer, partner, client and society at large. It is
an essential function which every company undertakes which link the customer and marketer
through informations. With the rise in competition level, marketing has become an integral part
of every organisation to communicate the offering in the most attractive manner so that large
market share is captured by battling the competitiveness of the market (Parsons, and Lepkowska-
White, 2018).
Marketing mix and where communication mix fits ?
Marketing mix is an effective tool which involves set of tactics and actions that an
organisation uses for promoting its product or service into the market. There are 7Ps to
marketing mix which involves firstly the product which refers to the offering which company
offers to its customer. For example Nestle has wide product range from chocolates to baby food,
dairy products, ice cream etc. second is the price which means the value which customer has to
pay to purchase the product. For example, Nestle uses competitive pricing strategy to offer
product to the customer in the rate on which its competitor offers. Third is the place which refers
to the distribution options which company uses to deliver the product. For example, Nestle

follow FMCG distribution channel. Fourth is the promotion which means the communication
tool which organisation uses to promote its product. For example, Nestle focuses on extensive
marketing of its products which includes TV, radio, newspaper, etc. Fifth is people which refers
to the staff and employees of the enterprise who help in promoting the product. Sixth is the
process which means the medium to deliver the product or service to the customer and last is
physical evidence which refers to the everything which customers see when it interact with the
business. For example the environment of the company (Saura, Palos-Sanchez and Correia,
2019).
Communication mix includes the tools which can be used by an organisation to
communicate with its potential or existing customers. These may involve advertising, direct
marketing, exhibitions, digital marketing, social media marketing, etc. An effective
communication mix tool helps the companies to create a better multi or omni channel campaign
to communicate their offerings.
What is Digital marketing ?
Digital marketing refers to the efforts which company makes to promote its product or
service into the market using the internet or electronic devices like mobile phones, TVs, etc.
More creativity is needed to communicate the product through this medium because it has
become a new way for people to learn about new brands and companies use it for creating brand
awareness. The tools of digital marketing involves websites, social media, search engines, etc.
This marketing helps in analysing the campaign in more effective manner. It includes 5Ds, which
are digital devices which involves websites and mobile phone applications to interact with
audiences, digital platforms which includes communication through browser or applications,
digital data which involves collecting profile of audiences by businesses, digital media which
includes mediums like email, messages, social networks, etc. and lastly digital technology which
involves email campaigns or marketing technology which can be used to interact with customers.
What is Social media marketing ?
Social media marketing involves usage of different platforms of social media by
businesses to connect with the people so that their brand is built and sales are increased.
Traditionally, this channel of marketing was used to create contents for publication but now as
the time has evolved, this channel has become the most active medium to interact with
audiences. Social media is used not only to promote the products or services but it is also used by

organisations to conduct market research as to what audiences want and what they think about
the brand. The five pillars of this marketing are strategy, planning and publishing, listening and
engagement, analytics and reporting and advertising.
Why digital and social media marketing is important to contemporary business ?
There are many benefits attached for businesses with the digital marketing which
includes firstly flexibility. It means that businesses which has learned successful creation of
creative campaigns can easily identify the poor performing campaigns which first helps in testing
and then stopping the ineffective content easily. Second is easy expansion. The companies can
use digital mediums to easily expand their reach to different people. This will help in expanding
the brand recognition of the company. For example Coca Cola uses digital marketing campaigns
where the logo of the company was supported with the names to reach large customers which
helped in increasing the sales of the company (Leung, Bai and Erdem, 2017).
The social media marketing is also very important for business because firstly it is cost
effective which means that it only involves creating a profile and signing up for free which
involves no cost on social media. But there are paid advertisement strategies if any business
chooses but it involves small amount to begin with. Second is brand loyalty which means that
social media makes it easier for customers to connect with the business which makes high
possibility of gaining customer loyalty. This medium does not limit itself to introducing a
product but also involves promoting the product easily. For example Puma uses celebrities to
promote its promote on their social media account to grab more attention and loyalty.
PART 2
Two examples of social media contents that really works and why ?
Social media is a vast field to connect with end number of audiences. There are different
contents posted on different social media accounts to interact with the customers so that brand is
reached easily and effectively. There are different kinds of contents which businesses tends to
post and each has different impact on different people. Some of the social media contents are
discussed below-
User generated content- These kind of content are earning high engagement and
impressions on the social media. It is commendable on Instagram especially because it boost
reach and interactions. Some examples of User generated content includes story contest, review

contest or caption contest. Under this, the companies gift their merchandise to big influencers or
celebrities and in return ask for a tag with a beautiful captioned post. Usually the business write
the content for the caption and influencers wrote it on their post. This helps the business in
reaching the fan following of the influencer or celebrity to capture larger market share. For
example, Puma gift its merchandise to different celebrities who either post a story or a captioned
post on their account with the picture of goodies gifted from company and tag the organisation
with hashtags to increase the exposure of the content. People get influenced easily from
celebrities so companies promote their products through this medium and get high exposure
easily (Goldfarb and Tucker, 2019).
Interactive content- This is the most effective form of content on social media which
helps the viewers and audience to respond to the post or comment of the company so that
effective communication channel is developed and people are participative. This helps in
creating more brand awareness. For example businesses organise virtual quiz or contest for
audiences rather than just posting an article so that people respond and participate in it. It helps
companies to test their brand reach and comes to know about the demands of the audience. For
example Adidas came up with a idea to launch its Neo Label through Snap chat competition. The
campaign provided the people to customise their design for the product and the company
announced 4 winners who were able to convert their design into real Adidas collections. This
boost the sales of the company by reaching to potential customers.
Effective campaigns with established models and standards for digital marketing
MARKS & SPENCER

Marks & Spencer use aggressive social media marketing to promote its products. It uses
many social media accounts like Twitter, Instagram, etc. It promote its goods through its
websites and social media accounts to reach large audience. So this company uses social media
model to reach target audience (Dwivedi and et. al., 2020).
APPLE

Apple uses digital as well as traditional mediums to promote its promote. It initially uses
social media as the digital marketing medium to announce the launch its product and then
organise a virtual event to launch the new product which streams live on its social media
channels. It uses digital hoardings to promote its products which helps in reaching target
potential customer easily (Confos and Davis, 2016).
Why social media is effective ?
Social media is a platform which can help the business to reach large audience in just a
click away. It not only helps in promoting the product but also helps in knowing the trends and

demands of the market. It is an effective platform for marketing because of the following
reasons-
Increased brand recognition- Social media help the businesses to maintain a healthy
relationship with the existing customers by becoming more familiar with their base while on the
other hand, it helps in reaching the new potential customers where the voice of the company can
be heard by large audience. This creates brand recognition in the new world of social media
through the invaluable visibility of the brand.
Create richer experience- Social media marketing allows the companies to
communicate faster and relevantly so that brand is promoted effectively. A satisfied consumer
shares its experience online with others which helps in building new customer. This marketing
helps in sharing dynamic content more simply on different platforms to reach specific target
market easily. It is relevant and reliable form of marketing. For example Marriott hotel uses
social media marketing to promote its services.
Cost effective- The social media marketings help the companies to save their marketing
cost which may be huge in traditional marketing techniques. It only requires time to create a
creative marketing ad so that large the product or service is reached large audience. The results
from social media marketing is quick and significant. The companies which tend to spend more
on traditional methods of marketing have started shifting to social media due to availability of
large number of people on single platform (Algharabat, 2017).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that marketing plays a vital role in the success and
growth of the organisation as it communicate and introduce the product into the market. Digital
marketing is the new method used by businesses to reach large customers in short span of time.
Social media marketing is a part of digital marketing which is effective form of promoting the
offering of the company. It is cost effective and helps in building brand recognition (Armstrong,
Delia and Giardina, 2016). Further it is concluded that social media marketing is an effective
because it helps in reaching the ideals customers more easily and helps in creating customer
loyalty by continuous interactions with specific target audience.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Algharabat, R.S., 2017. Linking social media marketing activities with brand love. Kybernetes.
Armstrong, C.G., Delia, E.B. and Giardina, M.D., 2016. Embracing the social in social media:
An analysis of the social media marketing strategies of the Los Angeles
Kings. Communication & Sport. 4(2). pp.145-165.
Confos, N. and Davis, T., 2016. Young consumer-brand relationship building potential using
digital marketing. European Journal of Marketing.
Dwivedi and et. al., 2020. Editorial introduction: Advances in theory and practice of digital
marketing.
Goldfarb, A. and Tucker, C., 2019. Digital marketing. In Handbook of the Economics of
Marketing (Vol. 1, pp. 259-290). North-Holland.
Leung, X.Y., Bai, B. and Erdem, M., 2017. Hotel social media marketing: a study on message
strategy and its effectiveness. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology.
Parsons, A.L. and Lepkowska-White, E., 2018. Social media marketing management: A
conceptual framework. Journal of Internet Commerce. 17(2). pp.81-95.
Saura, J.R., Palos-Sanchez, P.R. and Correia, M.B., 2019. Digital marketing strategies based on
the e-business model: Literature review and future directions. In Organizational
Transformation and Managing Innovation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (pp. 86-
103). IGI Global.