Digital Marketing: Opportunities, Impact, and Challenges

This report provides an overview of digital marketing, including its opportunities, impact, and challenges. It explores the growth factors, digital tools, and hardware, as well as the development of e-commerce and marketing platforms. The report also discusses the importance of digital marketing planning and performance metrics. It offers insights into Sainsbury's digital marketing strategies and their impact on the market.

DIGITAL MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Overview of digital marketing ...............................................................................................3
P2 Factors for growth of digital marketing .................................................................................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Digital tools and hardware......................................................................................................6
P4 Development of e-commerce platform and marketing platform............................................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P5 Digital marketing planning.....................................................................................................9
P6 Omni-channel.......................................................................................................................12
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................12
P7 Performance metrics in digital marketing.............................................................................12
P8 Actions for improvement......................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing is predominately the efforts as well as the activities which the
organizations carry out for advertising the products and services on large platform and thus
attracts the customers through the use of some form of electronic media.
Sainsbury is basically the growing chain in supermarkets being established in 1869 by John
James Sainsbury and headquartered in London, U.K. It is a renowned grocery and retailer which
mainly deals in supermarkets, fuels, cafe, banks etc.
This report gives a brief about opportunities, impact and challenges of digital
environment, Digital tools and channels in comparison to physical channels, Organizing digital
marketing activities and multi-channel capabilities and measuring and evaluating digital
marketing.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
Opportunities, impact and challenges of digital environment
P1 Overview of digital marketing
Digital marketing is basically all the activities as well as the efforts which the
organizations carries out in order to reach the consumers with the help of some electronic media
or internet. In short, it encompasses the use of mobile devices, social media websites, search
engines etc for attracting the new customers and retching the existing customers. This has been
the most popular concept which is being used by the organizations and thus helps them to
understand the changing needs as well as demands of the customers (Chaffey and Ellis-
Chadwick, 2019). Digital marketing generally targets the particular market and thus helps to
interact with them through the use of various digital tools in order to generate the revenues and
enlarge customer base.
Comparison between online offline marketing concept

Online marketing concept Offline marketing concept
Online marketing concept is basically
marketing the products and services through
the use of online platform and tools like
internet (Yadav, Joshi and Rahman, 2015).
Offline marketing concept encompass
advertising the products and services via
traditional methods like newspaper ads, radio,
magazines etc.
Online marketing have a wide exposure area
and thus reaches the wider audience as the
customers are targeted through various tools.
Offline marketing limits the exposure and
viewership and thus poses restrictions on the
marketer as it only reaches the audience who
reads newspaper or listens radio.
In terms of the cost-effectiveness, online
marketing is less costly and thus does not incur
much cost for promoting the products and
services.
Offline marketing is costlier as it requires
posting ads on billboards, banners etc.
P2 Factors for growth of digital marketing
The various factors which are vital in the growth of digital environment to Sainsbury are
Importance of consumer insight
The various digital marketing tools like internet, social media websites etc helps
Sainsbury to understand the needs as well as demands of the customers (Ryan, 2016). As through
these tools, company can easily connect with their target customer, this will eventually help them
to know the current market trends as well as expectations of consumers from the retail market.
Effective marketing activities
Another opportunity which is available to the Sainsbury due to the growth of digital
marketing is that they will come to know the pros and cons of various marketing activities which
will eventually help them to select the best one. Through a profound research on digital
marketing, company will be able to estimate that which activity will leave a long term effect on
consumers which which will help them in generating revenue.
Rise of consumer power
Due to the emergence of digital marketing, there has been a rise in the consumer power
due to which it has given rise to immense opportunities to the marketeers of Sainsbury. As more

and more consumers have become technology-oriented and thus now wants innovative products
thus this has enabled the marketeers to modify their products as per the needs of consumers and
bring innovation.
M1 Challenges to digital marketing
Although digital marketing helps the organizations to attract the customers and establish
position in the market place but it also impacts the companies in negative way and thus they face
various challenges
Negative publicity
The most important challenge which the Sainsbury faces is the impact of negative
publicity. Now even the small business entrepreneur is engaged in the social media websites and
thus is continuously engaged in promoting their products and services. The competitors generally
in order to show other company inferior posts bad comments on the website and this results in
the negative publicity of that organization. This impacts the company in negative way and thus
reduces sales. Sainsbury faces this challenge due to its competitors like TESCO (Kannan, 2017).
Tracking the devices
The most important challenge which the Sainsbury might face due to the growth of
digital marketing is tracking as well as monitoring the various devices which the customers use
while browsing or searching. Customer uses smartphones, tablets etc in order search for products
and services and for browsing. Thus, the company might face problem for tracking these
smartphones in order to know what the customer searches most and what are their preferences.
For example When the customer is looking for a particular product related to food and beverege,
then it might be difficult for Sainsbury to monitor their activity due to high code of security and
this prevents them from knowing their preference.
Opportunities
Managing competition and rising above the noise
Rising above noise means establishing the position lost in the crowd again by beating the
competition and rising above the noise. This is the main opportunity which is available to
Sainsbury while promoting its products and services. As now each and every organization is
engaged in making innovation in their products through digital marketing and fulfilling the needs
by approaching customers through various tools thus this has provided golden opportunity to the
company for establishing their position. Hence, the main opportunity that is available to

Sainsbury is raising above the noise and enticing more and more customers to gain the
competitive advantage.
Reaching customers
This is the main opportunity available to the company where digital marketing provided
the various tools to the organization for reaching the customers effectively.
D1 Impact of growth of E-commerce
Since the inception of globalization, there has been the growth of E-commerce platform
and other online transactions. Initially, people were not engaged much in the technology and
innovation but with the advent of the latest technology, people has become more oriented
towards innovation and thus wants technology and digitalization in each and every aspect. In
today's scenario, each and every consumer have become mobile-driven and thus does not want to
step out of their comfort zone. With their fast growth of mobile apps, people have become
addicted to the shopping and thus are more likely to pay the various utility and shopping bills
online (Baltes, 2015). This increasing demand of the customers for online transaction for paying
bills has enabled the organizations to raise their standards and thus focus on e-commerce sales.
Due to the growth of e-commerce, now each and every consumer can easily pay their bills and
thus transfer the money online without any hesitation. This has allowed Sainsbury to develop
their own app by the name Sainsbury bank app through which customers can easily transfer
money as well as pay the bills online. Along with this, customers can also while purchasing their
products online can make payment through credit card, net banking etc.
LO 2
Digital tools and channels in comparison to physical channels
P3 Digital tools and hardware
There are various types of digital tools as well as hardware which helps the organization
to enhance their sale and thus increase the marketing activities.
Google analytic
This is the most important digital tool which will help the Sainsbury to enlarge its
customer base and thus increase their marketing activities. This is the tool which helps the
organizations to track as well as monitor the activities happening on website. This is basically a
key metrics which will help Sainsbury to increase the promotion of products and services. For

example this tool will help Sainsbury to track the activities of their customer like what they are
searching and what they need.
E-mail marketing
This is the another most important tool that can help Sainsbury to increase the marketing
of their products and services (Todor, 2016). This tool enables the organizations to send the
personalized messages and e-mails to their customers regarding any product, their company
services or other aspects. This eventually makes the consumer aware of the various attributes and
thus increases the communication between company and consumer. For example- When
Sainsbury releases any new offer on their products, then the company can send e-mails to their
customers to make them are and thus this will increase their marketing and sales.
Digital hardware
The various digital hardware are
Smartphones
This is well-known and most digital hardware which ultimately helps the organizations to
increase the marketing of products ans services. In this, the organization reaches the target
audience through websites, apps, SMS etc. This helps the company to effectively promote selling
of their products and thus increase the revenue. For example- Sainsbury can reach the customers
regarding the launching of new product by sending SMS, mails, on their mobile devices which
will eventually engage more and more consumers.
P4 Development of e-commerce platform and marketing platform
Automated & Non-automates sales and support activities
The automated sales and support activities are generally the activities which helps the
organization to mechanize the time-consuming and manual sales activities through the use of
numerous software and other digital tools. It helps the sales team of the company to manage their
work effectively. Its role are
Identifying potential customers
It helps the sales team of Sainsbury to identify the prospective customers. This plays an
important role where the sales team can easily through this, filter the potential clients as well as
customers and thus convert them to interested ones (Taiminen and Karjaluoto, 2015).
Customer information

Automated sales and support activities generally encompasses the software in which the
statics and data of the customers are stored. This is vital for the sales team of Sainsbury as it
helps them to gather the information about customers and thus promote them the products and
services.
Non automated sales and support
The non-automated sales and support activities normally encompasses the various
marketing automation activities. Their major role are
Creates database
The non-automated activities enables the marketing team to create a database of their
prospects as well as the customers who are much likely to be converted into consumers. This
helps the team to interact with customer on periodic basis and thus generate brand awareness
among them (Confos and Davis, 2016). For example- these activities helps Sainsbury to develop
a separate database of their target customer and thus communicate with the regarding different
offers and products.
Leveraging cookies
These activities help the marketers of Sainsbury to leverage the cookies which are
installed within website and web browser. This eventually enable them to track their customers
with the help of website pages and thus build a credible customer base. Besides this, it also helps
the organization to remain in close contact with their customers and thus promote their products
and services.
M2 Digital platforms and its use
Since the advent of advanced technology, the use of internet as well as other digital
media platforms is imperative and thus helps the organization to achieve success by enlarging the
customer base. Various digital platforms like social media websites, internet, pay per click etc
helps the Sainsbury to reach large audience and thus fulfill their needs and demands (Stephen,
2016). As through theses digital tools when the company reaches the customer with their
innovative products and services, then their sales automatically increased and thus they generate
more and more revenue. Besides this, When the Sainsbury brings out any new offer or deal then
in order to make the consumers aware of this attribute, company takes the assistance of digital
marketing tools like E-mail marketing, online selling, social media for reaching the consumers.
Thus, increasing awareness makes the customers to purchase the products and thus this

eventually not only helps the company to generate profit but also helps the in enlarging their
customer base.
Along with this, the online channels like internet helps the organization to reach the
wider audience and also the online tools results in the great exposure of the customers to the
brand and thus builds high degree of brand recognition due to which more and more customers
wants to buy the products from Sainsbury and thus helps in increasing their revenue ratio.
LO 3
P5 Digital marketing planning
The Sainsbury will use a variety of digital marketing strategy in order to attract the
customer and thus generate a sens e of loyalty among them. The company will mainly use the
mixture of various strategies which will eventually helps the to generate more and more revenues
and thus generate leads.
Email marketing
This is one of the most important and significant strategy which the company can use in
order to make the consumer aware of the different products and services and thus attracts the
new customers. E-mail marketing is basically the method through which organizations sens
personalized messages and emails to their customers regarding the various offers, products, deals
etc. Sainsbury can use this strategy to entice the customers (Yasmin, Tasneem and Fatema,
2015). For example- If the company has brought a deal or offer on the food products, then the
marketers can use this method and thus send emails to their customer through which customers
will come to know about the offers and thus will visit stores more often. The major implication
and benefit of this method is that it will allow the company to design a creative content and thus
incorporate the information which they want to give to the consumers.
Social media
This is the another coherent digital marketing strategy which Sainsbury can utilize in
order to enlarge the customer base and thus generate more and more revenues. There are various
social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, twitter through which company can promote
their products and services as well as can increase brand recognition. This method helps the
organizations to engage more and more customer as well as enter the new market by serving the
new customers. This is the most intensive strategy which the company can use. For example-
While launching the new product, Sainsbury can generate awareness about that product by

posting it on the social media website (Heinze and et.al.,2016.). The main advantage and
implication of this method is that it will help the organization to reach a wider audience as
nowadays, each and every consumer access the various website. Thus, through promoting the
product on social website, Company will be able to approach not only the young generation buy
also the older generation.
Multi-channel capabilities and impact on consumer engagement and ROI
Multi-channel marketing is basically the different channels which the organizations carry
out in order to promote their products and services and their brand. The main difference between
single and multi channel capabilities is that the multi-channel makes use of wide variety of
channels and activities in order to satisfy the needs and demands of the customers. The
organization does not depend on just one channels rather uses the mixture of various channel.
Sainsbury generally uses wide variety of channels in order to reach the customers like E-mail
marketing,social media, content marketing etc (Järvinen and Karjaluoto, 2015).
Sainsbury mainly uses Email marketing for attracting the customers. This channel helps
them to reach their target customers and thus make them aware of the various products and
services as well as the deals and offers. The company use this channel because in this they can
easily instill the content according to their preference. For example while promoting for the food
products, Sainsbury will make a personalized mail that will contain information of that particular
food products and thus will send to prospects.
Along with this, Sainsbury also uses social media marketing to establish their position in
the market. The company believes that single channel is nit sufficient to reach the consumers as
not all consumers are engaged in single platform thus company also uses social media where
they promote their products and services by posting it on the social media websites. Various
social websites like Facebook, twitter, Instagram helps the company to advertise their products
on large platform.
One more strategy and channel which they use is catalogs through which the company
reaches its target customer by promoting their products through catalogs. For its different outlets,
company designs various catalogs which contains the description of product, its features,
characteristics etc and thus through this are able to make consumer aware of the products. The
main rationale behind using catalog marketing is that they are able to design the catalog in a very

innovative way which eventually catches the eye of consumer and thus compels them to visit the
outlets.
Impact on consumer engagement
The various multi-channels used by Sainsbury helps them to engage more and more
customers and thus increasing their revenues. The E-mail marketing, social media etc helps the
company to reach a wider audience and thus fulfill their needs and demands. Through these
tools, Sainsbury is able to connect with the customers and thus promote their products and
services. When the company sends personalized message a and mails to their customers, then it
catches the attention of customers and thus become more engaged in the activities of that
company (Karjaluoto, Mustonen and Ulkuniemi, 2015). Besides this, Sainsbury spends a lot of
money on the various social media platforms for advertising products thus through these stools
when their products become successful then their spending becomes worth. They get the high
return for the time and money which they invested in promoting in terms of revenues and
customers.
Developing personalized and customized products
Each and every consumer nowadays wants products which fulfills their all needs and
demands and thus is affordable in therms of price along with high quality. In view of this,
Sainsbury is continuously engaged in making their services and products more customizes and of
high quality. In order to provide the personalized products, Sainsbury uses various strategies and
tactics which eventually helps them to meet the needs and expectations of customers. The first
strategy used by the company is consumer feedback. Company uses online survey as well as
feedback through which it solicits the feedback from customers regarding the level of services as
well as to know what they want from particular product. This information is valuable for the
company as it helps them to design innovative and personalized products according to the data
given by customers (Patrutiu-Baltes, 2016). In this way, the company provides customized
products and services. Another strategy which the organization uses is the market research.
Sainsbury conducts the extensive market research to know the market trends as well as recent
technology. Through the market research, company comes to know what other competitors are
providing, What is the new technology for innovation. Thus, this all information helps the
company to develop customized products having high quality at affordable price.

P6 Omni-channel
Omni-channel is basically the content strategy which the organizations use for improving
and enhancing the customer's experience. This basically combine the online as well as offline
modes of digital technology and thus provides the customers with the integration of both the
concept and enhances their experience. The evolution of omni-channel took place due to the
changing perception of the customers as more and more customers remains busy in their work.
Omni-channel was first established in 2010 within the world of marketing and thus extend
beyond multi-channel retailing (Kingsnorth, 2019). It is the integration of brick and mortar as
well as the online digital tools. The main rationale behind its evolution was the changing
lifestyles of the consumer and the demographics. Not all the consumers are engaged in the online
activities due to their busy schedule and thus some takes the helps of traditional methods for
shopping. When the customers were unable to pick the phone of the company then the marketing
world devised a new concept of omni-channel where if the customer is unable to receive call,
they can easily reach the organization through text message, emails etc. This was the main
reason why this omni-channel was introduced. This the demand of consumers for online as well
as offline modes resulted in the development of this channel strategy. Thus, the use of omni-
channel helped the customers to have both the sources for shopping as per their requirement and
provided them with the mixture of various tools like social media, text messages etc.
M3 Tools for developing omni-channel marketing campaign
The company uses a wide variety of tools for developing the omni-channel marketing
campaign like social media, Email-marketing etc. Each and every tool provides the organization
with the advantage and thus helps them to attain competitive advantage. This eventually helps
the organization to develop a great customer engagement and thus promote the products and
services.
LO 4
Measuring and evaluating digital marketing
P7 Performance metrics in digital marketing
There are wide variety of performance metrics which Sainsbury uses in order to measure
the effectiveness of digital marketing

Total number of visit
This is the performance metric which measures the total number of customers which have
logged in on the official website. More the number of visitors means mire chance of converting
them into prospects. Thus, if the number of visit is high it means customers are interested in
products of company.
Conversion rate
Conversion rate is primarily the rate at which customers are being converted into
consumers. When the conversion rate is high it shows that the company is performing better.
Thus, high conversion ratio shows that the performance of company is good.
P8 Actions for improvement
Sainsbury can improve the effectiveness of their digital marketing with the help of
various performance metrics. These metrics are basically the system through which helps the
organizations to improve the effectiveness of the marketing campaign and the overall
performance. These performance metric are
Number of visit
This is the performance and marketing metric which shows the organization the number
of visitors which has visited their website (Dodson, 2016). Sainsbury can improve the
effectiveness of their digital marketing by increasing the number of visitors on their website.
This can be done through optimizing the website and designing it in more innovative way. The
number of visits will also help the organization whether their particular product is successful or
not. Company can reduce the website traffic and thus can increase by incorporating more content
on website and making it creative to attract the attention of consumers.
Conversion rate
This is the another performance metric which helps the organizations to know the success
of particular product and service. The conversion rate is generally the rate at which the customers
are converted to the prospects or consumers. This is basically used to measure the effectiveness
of the digital marketing and the performance of overall company. Sainsbury can enhance the
effectiveness of digital marketing and enlarge its customer base by increasing this conversion
rate. For doing so, company can conduct the well-through market research to know the interest
of consumers and then encourage them to consider their products. This will eventually help in
converting those customers into prospects.

M4 Applications of techniques
The various techniques which are being used for measuring the effectiveness of digital
marketing helps the organization to know where they currently stand in the market. The main
advantage of these techniques is that it helps the Sainsbury to know where they lack behind and
where action of improvement is required.
D2 Digital marketing plan
The effective marketing plan helps Sainsbury to know which digital tool will be efficient
in attracting the customers and thus tools the organization how to target customers. Once they
have developed the plan, company uses various performance metrics for measuring the
effectiveness of plan and thus makes improvement where needed.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that digital marketing is basically the activities which the
organizations carry out to promote their products ans services through internet or any electronic
medium. There are various factors which contribute towards the growth of digital marketing.
Besides this, the organizations also faces various challenges due to growth of digital marketing
like increasing competition, negative publicity etc. In comparison to traditional channels, there
are various digital tools and platforms which helps the organizations to reach wider audience like
E-mail marketing, smartphones etc. Due to the change bin preferences of consumer and their
shift to digital technology, the growth of e-commerce has been imperative and thus have helped
customers to easily make online transaction. To promote the products there are multi-channels
which the organization uses for increasing consumer engagement and return on investment.

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