Digital Marketing: Overview, Consumer Trends, Tools, and Strategies

This document provides an overview of the digital marketing landscape, including the difference between online and offline marketing concepts. It discusses key consumer trends and insights that fuel the growth of digital marketing. It also explores the key digital marketing tools and hardware available to marketers and the development of digital marketing and e-commerce channels and platforms. Additionally, it presents a digital marketing plan for Marriott Hotel and measurement techniques in digital marketing.

Digital Marketing

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Overview of digital marketing landscape...............................................................................3
P2 Key consumer trends and insights..........................................................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
P3 Key digital marketing tools and hardware available to marketers.........................................5
P4 Development of digital marketing and e-commerce channels and platforms........................6
LO3..................................................................................................................................................7
P5 Digital Marketing Plan for Marriott Hotel.............................................................................7
P6 Omni-channel marketing........................................................................................................8
LO4..................................................................................................................................................9
P7 Measurement techniques and performance metrics in the digital marketing.........................9
P8 Actions to enhance performance in digital marketing..........................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing is the marketing of products and services through the use of internet
and reach customers through various digital media platforms. It is advertising through digital
channels such as search engines, websites, mobile apps, emails etc. Marks & Spencer is a British
multinational retailer which has its headquarters in London, England, UK. It specialized in
clothing, home products and food products. It was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas
Spencer. In the further report light will be put upon the difference between online and offline
marketing concepts and the customer trends and insights that fuel in the growth of digital
marketing. Also key digital tools available to marketers and development of e-commerce and
digital marketing platforms will be touched upon. Digital marketing plan strategy will be
developed and methods of monitoring and measuring digital marketing effectively will be
evaluated.
MAIN BODY
LO1
P1 Overview of digital marketing landscape
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that takes the use of internet and online
based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media in
order to promote products and services of the business (Kannan, 2017). Websites, emails, social
networks, videos, mobile devices collective are known as digital landscape. It can also be
defined as a collection or system of man-created spacess in the digital world.
Comparison between online and offline marketing concept
Basis Online marketing Offline marketing

Focus The focus of M&S while
doing online marketing is on
the content.
The focus of M&S while
doing offline marketing is on
the product.
Source of communication M&S use emails, chat, social
media to communicate online
(Chiang, yi Lin. and Huang,
2018).
While doing Offline
marketing M&S do it by the
mobile number and staff.
Meeting place Target audience of M&S in
case of online marketing
meets at one place.
Target audience of M&S in
case of offline marketing is
scattered.
Cost Cost incurred by M&S in
case of Online marketing is
comparatively less.
Cost incurred by M&S in
case of offline marketing is
higher than online marketing
(Todor, 2016).
Buyer visibility Online marketing is not
visible to Prospective buyer
of M&S.
Offline marketing is directly
visible to their prospective
buyers.
Key benefits of digital marketing to M&S:
It is cost-effective and helps the company to save money and obtain more leads.
It increases the customer loyalty because of frequent communications by personalized email
offers and social media engagement (Storm, 2020).
Helps in targeting the right audience through appropriate tools and keeping an eye on the
purchasing pattern.

P2 Key consumer trends and insights
Data related to the customer is very important for the growth of digital marketing. As
most of the customers are using online platforms and they leave a trial of data on the online
platforms and websites. Customer insights is all about understanding the potential customers
better which ultimately helps the company to decision on what to sell, how, when etc. This data
of consumer trends and insights helps M&S to develop and implement such digital marketing
strategies that influences the brand. There are various tools to identify customer trends and
insights so that it fuels the growth of digital marketing which are:
YouTube analytics – there is an option on YouTube by which M&S can use information
about the consumer location, age, gender etc. of the people who watched the ad r video. The
option is “demographic tab” after analysing this option M&S will be able to produce more
personalized content that caters to the consumers need and increases conversions.
Google audience retention tool – it is used by M&S to track viewer engagement and
which help them understand who their real customers are. Various questions are made and
google put these questions out to the relevant consumers.
Google trends – this tool is also used for gaining in-depth consumer insights. By this tool
M&S confirms the interest and taste of consumer. “Related searches” option can be used which
helps the company to find out what the consumers are looking for.
Google analytics – it is a software to track the traffic of M&S website and also the
performance of various web pages. All the information regarding the time spent by the
consumer, number of visitors coming to the websites. Goal funnel is also used and important to
the marketers as this feature allows you to find out number of customers going through the
purchase process.
Customer insights are important as they helps in enhancing the marketing campaigns. It helps the
company to better understand the behaviour of their audience. On the basis of this insights M&S
can personalized their homepage and sopping experience (Wieneke. and Lehrer, 2016).
Customer engagement can be increased and brand loyalty can be created.

LO2
P3 Key digital marketing tools and hardware available to marketers
Bricks and mortar is a traditional street-side business which have physical location and
offers products and services to its customers face to face. It relates to the company that possesses
or leases retail shops, factory production facilities or warehouse for their operations. And in
contrast digital marketing platform does not have any physical presence of the business. The
retail supermarket of M&S comes under Bricks and Mortar and the online website of M&S is the
digital platform which has no physical presence of buildings or infrastructure. The following are
the digital marketing tools available to marketers such as:
Social media platforms – social media platforms like Facebook, instagram etc are a
great way for marketers to make their customers engage with their brand and create a buzz. M&S
gets some features on this platforms like Facebook ads manager, buffer and hoot suite.
Design tool – design tool helps the company to create ads and content for the posts these
tools include canva and Photoshop (Taiminen, 2016).
Analytical tool – this tool track the stats for web traffic to M&S site. It also includes
Facebook insights and twitter analytics which helps in increasing the engagement and help
marketers optimize their campaign.
There are many more tools such as content marketing tool, email marketing tool etc..
P4 Development of digital marketing and e-commerce channels and platforms
In this modern and dynamic world, digital marketing and e-commerce channels and
platforms are highly used by different companies and businesses in market place. Basically,
these all channels and platforms helps to a company for attracting customers in this digital era.
Currently upper management of Marks and Spencer also completely understand the value of
these all channels and platforms, and this is the main reason that currently this local retail
organisation of the United Kingdom is very gaining very effective advantages in market place.
These all channels and platforms of digital marketing and e-commerce was generally developed
in the last decade when digitalisation term came in market place. However, still day to day many
new channels and platforms comes in market place and businesses uses these all platforms

according their comfortability and suitability (Cameron-Kitchen and Ninja, 2019). There are
some major digital marketing and e-commerce channels and platforms has been discussed below;
Social media marketing: This is one of the most popular and productive platforms of digital
marketing and e-commerce right now. With the support of this channel or platform, Marks and
Spencer (M&S) can simply improve its efficiency in the market place. Currently channel is used
by many of companies in different market segments, because this is really a productive platform
or channel.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization): This is another useful channel or platforms which currently
uses marks and spencer for boosting its official website on the internet. When company uses this
platform, then its e-commerce site reach many of people on the internet. This provides an
effective way of promotion to M&S.
On the other side, physical channel of marketing also very effective to a company in
market place, but in this modern world maximum businesses giver higher priority to digital
channels and platforms in the comparison of physical channel. (Noam, 2018) Currently direct
selling, selling through intermediaries, dual distribution etc. are major physical channels.
However, these channels are also very productive as well useful to marks and spencer, and this is
the main reason that upper management and marketing manager at this retail firm highly
considers these physical channels of marketing as well.
LO3
P5 Digital marketing plan for and strategy to build multi-channel capabilities
Digital Marketing Plan
Aim
To increase is the market share with 10% in the retail industry of the UK.
Objectives
 To gain loyal customer base by providing quality products and services.
 To improve effectiveness of its products after taking online feedbacks from customers.
 For informing maximum customer about its exclusive range of products to increase
sales ratio.

 To run advertisement campaigns through digital strategy of marketing to reduce the
cost of promotion.
Strategies
Currently there are various strategies simply available to company in market place, in
which marketing management of company need to adopt and implement these all operations in
its workplace. For example, 4Ps of marketing mix strategy and STP model are very useful to
M&S, in which this strategy has been discussed below;
4Ps of marketing mix
Product Strategy
Currently company products wide range of retail products and services in market place
and most people in market place are really like to consume products and services of company,
because it is able to provide quality products and services to customers (Shaviro, 2017). This
company follow different approaches of operations management for maintaining effectiveness
in its retail products.
Price Strategy
Due to having high competition in the UK’s retail industry, currently M&S follows
competitive based pricing strategy in the market place. Basically, this strategy has enabled to
company for setting prices of its retail products something cheaper than competitors. In this
situation, this strategy attracts many customers in market place.
Place Strategy
M&S is the multinational retail business, so it currently serves in many countries.
However, its home country the United Kingdom is the main market place for this company.
Currently M&S is the second largest retail business in the UK after Tesco, so this data shows
this country is the main market to M&S.
Promotion Strategy
In this dynamic and modern world, marketing department of company highly depends
on the digital marketing strategy, because this strategy is not costly as well as provides better
results to different organisations in market place. However, this company uses traditional
strategies of marketing also in some cases.
STP Model Segmentation

Segmentation is the first stage in the STP model, in which marketing department of
company have to divide it’s all customers demographically and geographically (Hackley,
Hackley and Bassiouni, 2019). Targeting
Targeting is the main step in this model, because in this stage the department have to
target various customers on the basis of their interest and behaviour etc. Positioning
In this positioning stage, marketing team and upper management of company have to
improve its supply chain for timely delivering products and services to customers.
Situation Analysis
There are PEST analysis has used for analysing market situations. PEST analysis
generally informs about for external factors of the business environment.
Political factors: These factors influence to company for production such products which can
harm health aspect of people.
Economic Factors: These factors affect to company in negative way, because the corona virus
pandemic has badly affected to the UK’s economic environment.
Social factors: Social factors affects to company for CSR (corporate social responsibility) in
market place.
Technological factors: Technological factors of company can influence to M&S for
improving efficiency of performance by using different digital tools (Green, 2018).
Implementation
The upper management and marketing manager of company have to be focused on the
proper management of digital marketing plan. This is necessary to gain effective outcomes
from the plan. After using this plan, company can simply increase its market share with 10%
in the UK’s retail sector.
P6 Omni-channel marketing
Involvement of the omni-channel marketing is very necessary to a company while
conducting its different marketing campaigns in market place. Currently omni-channel marketing
plays an effective role to the Marks and Spencer. Basically, it is method of product selling to

different customers in market place with the integrated experience of shopping. There are
company can enable to various customers for shopping through M&S by using mobile phones,
desktop, tabs, laptops etc. Currently this strategy of marketing plays an effective role to existing
retail company in growing the digital landscape. Omni channel strategy of marketing enables to
company for connecting with various customers with a personalized experience (Osei and et.al.,
2019). At the end, this attribute if strategy allows to company for making an effective loyal
customer base in market place. For maintaining an effectiveness within Omni channel marketing,
there are upper management and marketing management at M&S takes different productive
steps. For example; marketing department of company always ensures that its official website is
mobile friendly, because customers highly uses mobile phones in their daily lives.
On the other side, marketing department determines that which digital platforms
customers has frequently used in the market, because when department knows about these
platforms, then it chooses only those platforms for running its various campaigns of digital
marketing. Many times, marketers ta M&S takes steps towards mapping the decision-making
journey of customers as well for making its products and services according to actual needs and
requirements of customers. It divides its various customers into different segments as well for
targeting them specifically. This department of business has provided cross-channel customer
support also to various customers in market place for taking huge advantages through omni
channel marketing (Sam-Martin, 2020). Currently this strategy of very useful to company for
attracting many new customers in existing highly competitive market place. It enables to
company for establishing an effective interaction with customers in market place. After properly
interacting with customers, company can put very positive impression on these customers, and
this is the main reason that, existing marketing manager at M&S should always consider this
strategy of marketing in its digital marketing campaigns. By using omni-channel marketing
technique, the company can simply gain huge competitive advantage in international retail
industry as well.

LO4
P7 Measurement techniques and performance metrics in the digital marketing
The marketing management of M&S is highly responsible to use different measurement
techniques and metrics of performance in its workplace for always checking effectiveness of its
digital marketing campaigns. Basically, marketing departments within all businesses uses these
techniques and metrics to effectively run their campaigns of digital marketing in the selected
market places. There are some productive performance metrics and measurement techniques has
been discussed below, in which marketing manager at M&S should always consider these all
campaigns while running different digital marketing campaigns.
Web traffic sources
Web traffic sources are basically very way to marketing management of company
measuring performance of its digital marketing in the market place (Boyle, 2018). Currently
M&S has effectively maintained its official website on the internet, in which currently IT team of
company can easily see that how many people comes on its official website after implementing
digital marketing campaign in the selected market place. In this situation, IT department of
company need to provide web traffic data to marketing department, then this department will
ensure that its digital marketing campaign is going well or not. After analysing web traffic
sources, marketing team can easily measure its digital marketing strategy’s performance in the
business environment.
Online conversation rates
This is another major technique that enables to different businesses and companies for
systematically measuring their digital marketing campaigns in market place. Currently existing
marketing manager of M&S also completely aware about the impact of this technique of
measurement, and this is the main reason that it highly considers this technique as well for
measuring performance of its digital marketing campaign. Online conversation means interaction
of company with customers through various digital platforms. For example; marketing team post
promotional image on the social media, and then customer starts to comments on that image,
then company’s officials also have replayed them on below their comment. In this situation, this
technique enables to company for checking how many people are interacting with M&S’ ads on

the digital platforms, in which if this numbers are high, then company can simply know that its
digital marketing is performing well. On the other side, if conversation rate is low, then
marketing team of M&S can simply know that its existing digital marketing campaign is not
performing very well.
Social media metrics
This measurement technique or performance metric is also very useful to M&S’
marketing team for measuring performance of its digital marketing campaign (Stone and et.al.,
2019). Currently when marketing team of company runs its various social media platforms, like;
Facebook, Instagram Twitter etc. then these platforms informs marketing team of company about
how many people has engaged any advertisement of the marks and spencer. These platforms also
inform team about how many people has visited official profit of company on social media after
seeing story and feed advertisements of the M&S. This is the main reason that this measurement
technique and metric is very useful to business for knowing effectiveness of its marketing
campaign.
P8 Actions to enhance performance in digital marketing
Some productive ways available to company in market place which can help its
marketing team for improving its performance of digital marketing, in which some ways have
been discussed below to M&S.
Assess own technologies: After proper assessing own different technologies, the marketing team
can simply improve effectiveness of its digital marketing campaign (Asher, 2019).
Hire effective content writers: This strategy also very helpful for improving own digital
marketing campaigns.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above findings, it can be concluded that upper management should
always need to give order to its marketing department to highly use digital marketing tools,
platforms and channels for effectively achieving large customer base in market place. However,
currently Marks and Spencer have gained huge profit margins by conducing different effective

marketing campaigns in market place. In this report above, some productive strategies and
techniques of digital marketing has been discussed to M&S, in which marketing team should
always consider these all techniques and strategies for increasing its market share in the retail
industry.

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