Digital Marketing: Evolution, Strategies, and Future Trends Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of digital marketing, exploring its advantages, strategies, and evolution. It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of digital marketing in today's business landscape, emphasizing its cost-effectiveness, reach, and immediacy compared to traditional marketing methods. The discussion section delves into the differences between traditional and digital marketing, the impact of mobile phones and social media platforms, and the significance of web design and SEO. The evaluation section assesses the role of digital marketing in communication, brand image creation, and customer retention. It also discusses the importance of digital tools like CRM and HRS. The report concludes by summarizing the key trends in digital marketing and its increasing dominance in the market. The report also includes references to books, journals and online resources.

DIGITAL MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................1
EVALUATION................................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
“We want to know what consumers are looking for, what their values are, and how can
we meet their needs. It’s not just about Big Data; it’s about translating that into the truth” (Gayle
Fuguitt). Digital marketing is one of the vast and ever growing segment that every business
organisation is looking forward to. It is one of the best ways of marketing and promoting
business at a lower cost than traditional marketing (Wertime and Fenwick, 2011). It has a better
reach, quality, frequency, immediacy and it is permanent in nature. All these factors make digital
marketing a boom in the market. Today everything is linked through internet and technology.
The more people use it, the more aware they become about what is happening around the world.
Technology blended with internet has become an amazing mix providing business leaders with
best marketing solutions.
DISCUSSION
Traditional marketing uses media other than internet for promoting business. It uses TV,
radio, leaflets, newspapers, print ads, brochures, etc. These have limited reach in terms of market
share. It cannot give the same quality and frequency that digital marketing provides. This is the
major reason that why everything and everyone has shifted from traditional to digital marketing.
But traditional marketing cannot be removed from the scenario and businesses cannot only
depend on online media because it has its own impact and results. Digital marketing has many
advantages which has made it a blessing for organisations. It is quick, impactful and catches
attention easily. Mobile phones has been the biggest advantage to internet marketing (Kotler,
2015). People use mobile phones throughout the day and this helps marketing people to take
advantage of this factor. Examples of some websites are Face book, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Pinterest, etc. These are vast social platforms that help organisations to present their products ,
services and inform people about it.
Web designing is important as the content mentioned on the website should be creative as
it gives information and a presentable website will be impactful and attention drawing. Web
crawlers present in SEO search websites based on the content they have, how important it is and
with what frequency organisations publish on their website, all these factors help crawlers to
search for the website and keep it on top when a query comes from users. Web designers are in
demand now a days. These people write creative and innovative content which attracts users and
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can turn readers into customers as well. In addition to this, it can be stated that by having an
assistance of web designers the businesses can improve presence over social media. It allows to
attract more customers and ensure that long term sustainability can be advanced effectively.
There are large databases required to store billions of user's data into the system. It is immensely
confidential. There are chances of theft with the data, security systems should be very strong in
order to maintain it and keep it intact. Through this customer relations have been promoted and
made stronger as keeping in contact with the customer has now become easier which helps the
organisations to better understand the trends that prevail in the market. Through improvement in
customer relations the business firm can attain better opportunities in the market. Knowing what
customers prefer and then offering value to them is the main aim of businesses (Karjaluoto,
Mustonen and Ulkuniemi, 2015). In this manner, customers can be acquired easily and the reach
is wider than before. Digital marketing has proved to be the best solution for organisations who
wanted to increase their market share.
EVALUATION
Digital marketing serves communication demand of both consumers and organisations
and make it better with the use of internet. It is of major help to all the business people who find
out a way to reach people quicker and in an easier manner. Websites need immense attention in
order to make them eye catching and retain customers. It creates and maintains the brand image
of an organisation. It give a face to the business as users can only see the website and cannot
directly communicate with people. It is a virtual market space created for buyers and sellers for
the exchange of goods (Truong and Simmons, 2010). Website becomes the entity for customers
and if that is only not pleasing then they do not prefer to buy from any such portal. Options are
many and therefore, there is a threat of people switching to other buyers. Customer retention and
brand loyalty comes from the value that business is providing to the customer. Traditional
marketing has been replaced to a major extent by digital marketing but still has its own
importance and impact. Today also there are many people who do not use internet for shopping
and reading, they demand newspapers and TV ads. In this way traditional marketing has its
charm alive and digital marketing is an addition to the marketing arena. In addition to this, it can
be said that if business firm is focused towards use of traditional methods then overall cost of
work activities might get advanced effectively. Traditional methods might be useful to target the
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people who do not use internet but it might advance the financial issues. On the other side,
through digital tools such kind of issues might be overcome effectively.
Along with this, it has been noticed that CRM is one of the best example of digital tools.
By having a use of e-crm the businesses can easily maintain relationship with customers. It helps
in identification of customer needs and ensure that appropriate actions are being taken into
account. Through application of CRM the business activities can be recorded effectively so that
long term sustainability can be advanced. HRS is also a method that helps in day to day activities
management. It is mainly referred by hospitality firms in order to ensure about price, quality, etc.
It is a digital tool which make process convenient and help in meeting customer satisfaction. It is
also referred as hotel reservation portal which helps business firm to meet goals and objectives.
Furthermore, many organisations are now dependent on digital marketing and people
know them only through internet. They are only present in virtual market space and not in the
form of brick and mortar. Examples are Flip kart, amazon, etc. These have only their website as
their store therefore, it should be presentable enough to attract people from all around the world.
Th internet has given a cost effective way of conveying messages to people and making them
aware about the products and services an organisation wants to offer.
CONCLUSION
The study on digital marketing helps us in understanding the trends prevailing in market
and what is the demand of today's scenario. Everyone is switching their marketing strategies
from traditional to digital. This is the wide capture of online media. It has made things quicker,
easier, better with magnificent quality and in less time. It makes it possible for the new start ups
to be able to promote their products in lower budgets as they do not have the financial resources
to invest much on TV ads, radio, print media, brochures, newspaper ads, etc. It is free of cost at
times if the organisation itself is taking care of the digital marketing department. This has been a
boom in the marketing industry and will continue to increase more and be on the upper side of
the graph always. It is a solution to many virtual start ups and face to many organisations which
people will not go and visit actually.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dunne, Á., Lawlor, M.A. and Rowley, J., 2010. Young people's use of online social networking
sites-a uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing,
4(1), pp.46-58.
Farrar, M., 2010. Understanding digital marketing. The British Journal of Administrative
Management, p.12.
Karjaluoto, H., Mustonen, N. and Ulkuniemi, P., 2015. The role of digital channels in industrial
marketing communications. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 30(6), pp.703-
710.
Kotler, P. and et. al., 2015. Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Ofek, E. and Wagonfeld, A.B., 2011. Sephora direct: investing in social media, video, and
mobile. Harvard Business School Marketing Unit Case, (511-137).
Truong, Y. and Simmons, G., 2010. Perceived intrusiveness in digital advertising: strategic
marketing implications. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 18(3), pp.239-256.
Wertime, K. and Fenwick, I., 2011. DigiMarketing: The essential guide to new media and digital
marketing. John Wiley & Sons.
Yadav, M.S. and Pavlou, P.A., 2014. Marketing in computer-mediated environments: Research
synthesis and new directions. Journal of Marketing, 78(1), pp.20-40.
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Online
Digital marketing channels, 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.theidm.com/marketing-courses/digital-marketing>. [Accessed on 28th
October 2016].
Digital Marketing, 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/marketing/digital-marketing.html>. [Accessed on
28th October 2016].
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