Zada's

📳Tactics for a new online store to conducting social media

This blog will share my idea on some possible social media marketing tactics, which suitable for a new online store selling a variety of sporting gear and equipment.

Set up an achievable objective on social media

Social media marketing could effective on word-of-mouth marketing, market research, new product development, public relationship, web traffic, customer loyalty and so on (Levinson, 2010). Social media marketing strategy for the new online store is focused on the short-term needs, the strategy is mainly about increase sales in order to survive, therefore, only a little attention is paid to long-term planning (Karimi & Naghibi, 2015). In suggestion, how to get the consumer’s attention and drive sales is the short-term objective for the new online store.

https://jsmtmedia.com/services/social-media-marketing/

Don’t ignore the power of KOL

Word-of-mouth recommendation is crucial to the small business (Stokes & Lomax, 2002), research has shown that people tend to trust the existing customers. In suggestion, let the Key Opinion Leader (KOL) recommend the product to their followers, use their power to build the brand image among the potential consumers. The KOL in here which relevant to the sporting gear and equipment could be fitness coach, fitness lover and fashion model. Those people may not as popular as the super celebrities, but they also have a strong influence among their fan circle.

https://www.impossible.sg/3-reasons-to-boost-your-seo-with-influencer-marketing/

Consider the different feature of different social media platform

Not all social media are the same, different platform has a different feature (Weinberg & Pehlivan, 2011). For example, LinkedIn normally considers as a professional platform for business while Facebook is more friendly; Instagram could be effective in sending the business new promotion while YouTube is better to provide a detailed tutorial video; Reddit is a community that gathering all the genius in different aspect while Blog is where people feel free to post whatever they like. In suggestion, consider the consumer’s different responds on a different platform and find suitable channels to reach them. However, focus on too many platforms at one time and regardless of the feature of different social media, could result lost in send right message to the target audience.

https://www.twitterbackgroundsize.com/best-social-media-management-tools-year/

Focus on increasing the engagement with customers

One key feature of social media is two-way communication, compare with traditional communication tools, social media is effective in increasing the engagement with a lower cost (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Therefore, it is suggesting driving conversation on social media. In order to get more attention as well as create the community, remember to keep using hashtags, and it is better to create some unique and distinguishable hashtags.

https://curatti.com/social-media-influencers/

Be aware of the risk of social media

As social media marketing is extremely time-consuming, for a new started an online business, it is better to have a team to work together on a few selected platforms. Moreover, social media content may increase the risk of reputation management or legal issues, one mistake may lead the whole company to failure. Therefore, it is necessary to educate the social media team about which content could post online.

https://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/social-business-means-risk-profile/

Best wish for all the online business!

Reference

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68.

Karimi, S., & Naghibi, H. S. (2015). Social media marketing (SMM) strategies for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 7(4), 86.

Levinson, J. (2010). Guerrilla social media marketing: 100+ weapons to grow your online influence, attract customers, and drive profits. Entrepreneur Press.

Stokes, D., & Lomax, W. (2002). Taking control of word of mouth marketing: the case of an entrepreneurial hotelier. Journal of small business and enterprise development, 9(4), 349-357.

Weinberg, B. D., & Pehlivan, E. (2011). Social spending: Managing the social media mix. Business horizons, 54(3), 275-282.

👕The impact of the internet and digital technologies on the marketing mix elements for the fashion industry

Marketing mix refers to the different choice that the brand used to promote the product or service to the market, perhaps the most well-known definition is 4Ps. 4P include product, place, price and promotion, it was first to come up by Borden (1964), now many brands use 4Ps to guide their marketing strategy.

E-commerce is one of the results that brought by the internet, as the internet also add a new identification to the consumer–online user, this new role of consumer has changed the traditional business communication in the fashion industry. Compare with one-way communication which is mainly about the brand send the message to the consumer, now the consumer also has the initiative to select the message (Küng, 2008). Meanwhile, various digital technologies have rich the choice for the marketer to choose, how could the fashion industry better conduct the internet and digital technology became the hot topic.

Product/Service

Except for the physical product, the intangible service is also crucial to e-commerce in the fashion industry. One reason people chooses to purchase luxury fashion brand is the premium service that provides by the brand. With the help of the internet and digital technologies, the fashion brand could provide a better service for attracting consumers, the digital service includes business-support, consumer services and digital communication (Kleindle & Burrow, 2005).

Example – Burberry uses their chatbot during 2016’s London Fashion Week, it allows the customer to know deeper about the behind-the-scenes insight into the inspiration for their collection (Shriftman, 2017).

image source: https://www.luxurysociety.com/en/articles/2017/03/chatbots-5-luxury-brand-examples/

Place

Just like in real life that brand should decide where is a suitable place to open a new store, place distribution did not abandon because of e-commerce (Kleindle & Burrow, 2005). As the Internet has changed the traditional shopping method, it also extends the physical store into the official website. Other places for setting up the online store could be Amazon or Instagram shop. The brand could base on the popularity of social media to increase engagement with consumers.

Example – J.Crew has used Instagram sold 50 pairs of new sunglasses even before the official product launch (Biron, 2017).

image source: https://www.falcon.io/insights-hub/topics/social-media-strategy/5-examples-brands-instagram-stories/

Price

As online shopping could decrease the layers of intermediaries, some fashion brand could achieve from the factory directly to the consumer and shorten the distribution chain, which could provide a lower price to customers. Consumers could search for the similar product but chose the lower price online, which means when there is not distinctive differentiation between the product, the internet-relation marketing could result in price competition (Kiang & Raghu & Shang, 2000).

Example – when customer sign up for newsletter, they will receive 10% off on their first order online at Charles& Keith, but there is no price difference when first purchase in a physical store. Therefore, with the same product, the price dropped due to purchased online.

Promotion

Internet and digital technologies have brought significant impact on promotion (Chen, 2005). Because all information be received without geographical and time restriction, online advertising could increase exposure. Moreover, the internet-based analysis tool could allow brands to send customized advertising to consumers. Other interactive digital technologies such as VR and AR has added fun to advertising which could easy for the consumer to accept and spread.

Example – Timberland use the virtual fitting room to help customer chose their clothing (Sheehan, 2018).

image source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TZmQPdhpak

However, while e-commerce has brought benefit to consumer’s shopping experience, it has also intensified the competition between online and physical store. The brand should consider the balance between online and offline business.

Moreover, as e-commerce has brought impact to traditional business, it also changes the way of consumer’s decision-making process. Some study also considers 4Ps no longer satisfy the social marketing requirement in terms of maintaining a long-term relationship (Gordon, 2012). Under the internet and digital technology, the marketing strategy requires the brand rethinking of the existing marketing mix, such as how the internet and digital technology change the strategy on promotion (Chen, 2005).

Reference

Biron, B. (2017). How H&M is using Instagram to drive buzz for its latest brand. Retrieved from https://digiday.com/marketing/hm-using-instagram-drive-buzz-latest-brand-arket/

Borden, N.H. (1964). The concept of the marketing mix. Journal of Advertising Research 4(2), 2-7.

Chen, S. (2005). Strategic management of e-business. England: John Willey & Sons.

Gordon, R. (2012). Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), 122-126.

Kiang, M. Y., Raghu, T. S., & Shang, K. H. M. (2000). Marketing on the Internet—who can benefit from an online marketing approach?. Decision Support Systems, 27(4), 383-393.

Kleindle, B., & Burrow, J. (2005). E-Commerce Marketing. United States: Thomson.

Küng, L. (2008). Strategic management in the media: Theory to practice. Sage.

Sheehan, A. (2018). How these retailers use augmented reality to enhance the customer experience. retrieved from https://www.shopify.com/retail/how-these-retailers-are-using-augmented-reality-to-enhance-the-customer-experience

Shriftman, J. (2017). 5 examples of luxury fashion retailers using chatbots. Retrieved from https://www.snaps.io/blog/5-examples-luxury-fashion-retailers-using-chatbots

💳Afterpay business model evaluate

In the last post, we talk about the innovative business model of Afterpay (If you haven’t read it, click here~). Now let’s look at how the business could learn from Afterpay and what is the limitation of it.

image source: htpps://www.wetseal.com/pages/afterpay

What we can learn from Afterpay?

Afterpay has deeply focused on the insight of potential customers (Andrew, 2019), and those customers would be easily stimulated on one trigger to do the purchasing. By offering a new way for the potential customer, the new payment method also increases the purchase of the existing customers. Therefore, through created a bridge to customers and brands.

Afterpay did a lot of researches on understanding consumer shopping behaviour, it starts with consumer’s needs and desires. The new payment method could stimulate rational purchase behaviour, thus could both benefit the brand and the customer.

image source:https://blueocean.ca/weighing-the-pros-and-cons-of-cross-trained-contact-center-agents/

What is the limitation of using Afterpay?

Afterpay has the great potential to bring traffic to the brand, the customer normally will be attracted by the Afterpay platform (McGowan, 2017). As brands who join the Afterpay will pay for merchant fee if the brand couldn’t get more sales, which means the brand would cost more money.

As Afterpay will charge the customer for late payment, this could affect the customer credit rating. Even though Afterpay doesn’t need the credit check before the customer using the platform, but Afterpay reserve the right to do the credit checks ( Talese, 2018).

What is the risk for Afterpay?

As brands will pay 4% to Afterpay for every transaction made based on that platform, customers may ask for a 4% discount to the brand (Emmerton, 2019). For a brand, rather than pay the merchant to the Afterpay, directly give the discount to the customer would be better?

Well, I know shopping has a lot of fun, but remember to stick to your budget👌~

image source: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2019/02/18/google-shopping-feed

Reference

Andrew, J. (2019). Should your business use Afterpay? All the pros and cons explained. Retrieved from https://www.smartcompany.com.au/business-advice/strategy/afterpay-pros-cons-explained/

Emmerton, K. (2019). Love Afterpay? Here are the traps you should know about. Retrieved from https://mozo.com.au/fintech/love-afterpay-here-are-the-traps-you-should-know-about

McGowan, M. (2017). Afterpay: buy-now pay-later scheme soars in popularity but experts sound warning. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/21/afterpay-buy-now-pay-later-scheme-soars-in-popularity-but-experts-sound-warning

Talese, B. (2018). Buy now, pay later: the risks of Afterpay for consumers and retailers. Retrieved from https://legalvision.com.au/risks-of-afterpay/

💳Afterpay – an innovative business model case study

image source: https://www.stuckonyou.com.au/afterpay-information

Have you ever had the experience that gives up on something that you really want to buy, but because of the tight money you have to save for another couple of weeks? Have you used Afterpay? Have you ever tried to bring the product home first for use and then pay for it?

Afterpay is an Australian financial technology company which formed in 2014, its 2018 revenue plus other income has over $142 million. The business model can be easily seen from the slogan – “Shop now, enjoy now, pay later”, which mean it allows consumers purchase the product first and spread their payment into four equal payments every fortnight, however, the retailer who offers Afterpay will get paid immediately (Andrew, 2019).

image source: https://www.afterpaytouch.com/images/FY2018-Results-Presentation.pdf

In 2018, 17.7k retailers have joined in Afterpay and 2,3 active customers globally (Afterpay Touch, 2018). Myer, Jetstar and many female fashion brands in Australia have all offering this service to encourage consumers to enjoy their life of shopping (Chau, 2017).

For consumers, Afterpay is free for users to use as long as the consumer has met the payment in the four-stage cycle. However, missing one instalment, Afterpay will charge for $10 penalty; remains outstanding after a week will continue the charge for $7; missing all the instalment will charge %68 for each transaction (Chau, 2017).

For retailers, Afterpay will charge a 4.17% commission for each transaction (Andrew, 2019). As Afterpay is a new payment method that could encourage consumers to make the purchase decision, the commission fees could only be a small amount for increasing the sales.

image source: https://www.myweeklypreview.com.au/opinion/are-you-a-shopping-addict/

Reference

Afterpay Touch. (2018). FY2018 results presentation. Retrieved from https://www.afterpaytouch.com/images/FY2018-Results-Presentation.pdf

Andrew, J. (2019). Should your business use Afterpay? All the pros and cons explained. Retrieved from https://www.smartcompany.com.au/business-advice/strategy/afterpay-pros-cons-explained/

Chau, D. (2017). Afterpay: consumer advocates fear ‘instant approvals’ will cause serious financial hardship. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-26/afterpay-consumer-debt/8988394

💰What is happening in the financial services industry in relation to its use of social media

With the help of social media, the financial services could better serve the consumer with the on-time announcement, global reach and convenient customer service. What is the financial service industry? Banks, insurance companies, investment funds, credit-card companies… in short, the service which related to economic could be financial services. In the last post, we evaluate the online influencer’s social media strategy with SMMF (Click to read more) model, this blog will discuss how could financial services industry use SMMF (Felix & Rauschnable & Hinch, 2016) model in better conduct the social media.

Image source: https://www.socialfresh.com/finance-social-media-tactics/

Scope – in our daily life, we could feel the benefit from social media in financial services, I guess the most common social media in everyone’s phone is the Bank APP, the mobile APP allow the company to publish the announcement directly to the users, and also allow users leave suggestion through the specific sector through APP. Moreover, many financial companies have an official account on social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn, this provides an easy way for consumers to know about the company and engage with the community.

Image source: https://regroup.us/2015/blog/social/challenging-the-credit-union-social-media-status-quo/

Culture – the purpose for using social media is to increase the engagement and promote the service, as for financial service company, if the content on social media is just about advertising (Day, 2019), the consumer will easily lose their interest. Therefore, the company should aware of the characteristic of social media platform, the important thing is to engage with the consumer, by focusing on people and community could let consumers keep their interest. Moreover, the financial industry may contain much sensitive information, the customized service could make the consumer feel safer and respect.

Image source: https://thesociallights.com/blog/status-update-recapping-q1-social-media-marketing/

Structure – cooperate with the influencer could be an effective way to promote the product and service. Create hashtags to allow users free to communicate with each other. But in total, the social media strategy should be centralised control, only allow specific people to monitor and post social media.

Image source: https://www.callcentrehelper.com/better-documentation-improve-financial-compliance-138194.htm

Governance – financial services are highly regulated, any negative content on social media could result in failure. The risk includes consumer privacy, spam and hackers so that financial services should also educate employees about privacy (Day, 2019).

Reference

Day, C. (2019). How to be great at social media for financial services. Retrieved from https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/social-media-financial-services-challenges

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, A. and Hinch, C. (2016) Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework, Journal of Business Research, 70, 118–26. c

💄Kylie Cosmetics social media strategy – Evaluate with SMMF

Image source: https://www.kyliecosmetics.com/

According to Felix, Rauschnable, and Hinch (2016), the Social Media Marketing Framework (SMMF) which include Scope, Culture, Structure and Governance are effective in evaluating the complexity of the social media communication. First, let’s use SMMF to evaluate Kylie Cosmetics social media strategy.

Image source: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/social-media-marketing-101/

Scope – Kylie Cosmetics is one of the successful brands that well-integrated the social media platform to increase the engagement, it has a website, and official account on Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn (looks like use could find the brand on every popular social media platform.

As one of the best advantages that the social media offered is the interactive between end-uses and company, to increasing the engagement, Kylie Cosmetics is posting more often on social media. In contrast, the brand website is acting more like a dashboard for the announcement, therefore the website is the one-way communication tool for Kylie Cosmetics to maintain the brand image.

Image source: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/kylie-jenner-drops-metallic-lip-colors-102725446.html

Culture – the reason why we say that Kylie Cosmetics has well understood the advantage of social media is because the brand has based on the different feature of each platform to create specific content for the consumer.

For example, they use YouTube as a channel for shopping recommendations and use Instagram as the platform to increase exposure (Talbot,2018).

Image source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCJ6U7mQmYw

Structure – even though the social media strategy is centralised control, Kylie Cosmetics is not working alone on social media, for increasing the engagement, it also cooperates with other online Influencers such as MakeupShayla, not to mention her half-sisters Kardashian (Talbot,2018).

Moreover, the #KylieCosmetics on social media also give followers freedom of the online content (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016), therefore Kylie Cosmetics could gain more free advertising from the hashtag users.

Image source: https://www.socialbakers.com/blog/instagram-engagement

Governance – besides promoting the product, the other function of Kylie Cosmetics is educating. No matter is about makeup tutorial or positive power that Kylie has spread from social media, all the content is about brought confidence to the customer. Therefore, Kylie Cosmetics has to ignore the negative information and focus on bring the positive to the fans and benefit the community.

Image source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-kylie-jenner-youngest-self-made-billionaire-made-the-personal-so-profitable

Reference

Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Digital marketing (6th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.

Talbot, K. (2018). 5 social media lessons to learn from Kylie Jenner. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/katetalbot/2018/07/24/5-social-media-lessons-to-learn-from-kylie-jenner/#6a6c37fd1677

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, A. and Hinch, C. (2016) Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework, Journal of Business Research, 70, 118–26.

Online customer experience analysis with Charles & Keith

As e-Commerce has also changed the way of evaluating customer satisfaction, all the element in digital marketing should benefit the brand long-term performance. In this blog, I use Rose and Hair (2011) online customer experience evaluation framework to share my online shopping experience with Charles & Keith (C&K).

Image source: Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016

Information processing 📜

When I open the website, the first thing that gets my intention is the promotion picture along with a short sentence.

Image source: https://www.charleskeith.com/au/

Then look down to the page we could see the website has divided into different sections. Through the picture and the word description, I could gain some idea of the product.

Sometime when I am browsing the product list, the pop-up advertising could also show me the discount information or newly released product.

Perceived ease of use ✨

The website has based on more than 70 countries to adjust the language on their website, I’m sure there will be one just suit you.

The detailed category and navigation menu could allow me easy to find products. However, the search button is set on the right corner with a small ‘magnifying glass’ icon.

In my view, this may not be noticeable for people who use the website for the first time. For suggestion, the search icon could place along with the navigation menu.

Perceived usefulness 💌

I already subscribe to their newsletter via my email, also, I could add my interested product to my wishlist, in this way I could monitor the product trend via my email.

However, during browsing the product detail page, I feel that the product pictures are more like advertising that only show the best angle of the product, rather than showing the full detail that allows customer have a clearer understanding about the product.

For example, the above screenshot is a handbag detail page from C&K, even though they put a detailed description, but if I consider to buy it, I’m also want to know what is the inside looks like and what is the length of each adjustable strap level.

Perceived benefits 🎁

From Australia website, the reward includes free delivery on every spends, 10% off for subscribing the newsletter, or 10% off for recommending to a friend. The promotion may be different due to a different location.

However, I did not get an attraction that could encourage me to do the re-purchase, which mean only through the digital promotion aspect, it may not contribute the keep long-term relationship.

Perceived control 🙌

The online customer service is available, the icon is located at the upper right and bottom right of the page. The response is very quick as long as during their working hour. The live chat is design to solve the online customer’s question.

Skill 👍

I love C&K! So of course, I check their website very often. I already subscribe to the newsletter. Even though I may not prepare to buy a product, still, I would love to browse their website just for killing time.

Trust and risk💥

Oversea delivery is always my first concern about online shopping. I was worry about the lost package or poor customer service. Well it turned out there’s nothing to worry about, C&K provides every step with detail via the email, such as electronic receipt and oversea tracking number. Even the refund is automatically completed through their system, no other complicated procedure, everything is recording in the digital system.

Enjoyment😍

No mention, I enjoy the online customer experience with C&K very much, I would love to shop with C&K again, and happy that online shopping could bring such a benefit to my life.

Above is the whole online customer experience evaluate procedure based on Rose and Hair (2011), obviously, the consequence is positive, C&K has achieved customer satisfaction overall. But whether the consumer re-purchased intention will be stimulated due to the digital technology or the brand image itself, it’s hard to say.

Reference

Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Digital marketing (6th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.

😱A video that recorded Forky in my real life!

Ever since I watched Toy Story 4, Forky – the little toy made by trash and always thought he is a trash, has come into my life. 💗💗💗

Last week, my friend got me three Forky! But looks like something is happening…😲

😜

Forky wants to run away again? 😉

I recorded with my phone, go check the video on my YouTube channel! You will get surprised! 🎊🎊🎊

Alright! Who’s ready for the video? 👇👇👇

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65LZKxjJjAc

eBay case study – How eBay has had to evolve its online brand proposition and communicate it to achieve continued growth?

(image source: https://www.ebay.com.au/)

Stay at home with few clicks, then your package is on the way, how simple that eBay made the shopping become. eBay as one of the successful shopping websites, the well understanding of the digital marketing allow eBay to integrated various digital marketing element to serve the one goal, which is to become the pioneer commerce communities (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016).

—Platform—

As eBay is a mobile terminal based online marketplace, convenient and fast operation is what it tries to bring to buyers as well as sellers. With so many digital platform choices for consumer in the digital era, eBay also following the consumer’s interest and create the site on a different platform (Dave, 2019).

Website

eBay’s official website is its core platform where consumers and sellers interact. As the website will leave the first impression in the consumer’s mind, attractive design with simple use could get consumer’s interest to keep browsing. Therefore, eBay’s website through divide into different market segmentation to guide the consumer to get what they want.

(Image source: https://www.ebay.com.au/)

Mobile App

The APP provides consumer and seller to have ease of access at the tip of a finger. The App could solve many problems, such as the website doesn’t show well on different browser and couldn’t operate without a computer. eBay mobile App provides more platform selection for both sellers and buyers to use.

(image source: https://9to5mac.com/2016/05/02/ebay-ios-update/)

Social media shop

As social media has the power to increase market exposure, which makes social media become the most popular platform for consumers to gain information (Max, 2018). eBay also make use of this advantage to use social media to better communicate with their audience. For example, Instagram allows eBay to have its own online shop inside the Ins App, so whenever a consumer sees the promotion on their Instagram account, they could directly click into the link and open the shop.

(image source: https://www.nembol.com/e-commerce-for-retailers/instagram-introduces-shop-now-feature)

—Promotion—

Except for showing promotion on the website every time when consumers browsing, eBay also uses SMS and email to make sure the relevant prometon or discount information could reach the audience on time (Suzanne, 2019).

As the email prometon may contain personal information such as purchasing preference and interest, this email marketing will only happen when a user subscribes to, therefore could make sure consumer’s personal information won’t be leaking to someone else.

—Customer relationship management—

With the help of digital technology that can break down the big data, eBay could gain more insights about consumer buying behaviour (Michael, 2015), therefore, customer relationship management could through personalize the marketing to provide the individualized insight to increase consumer purchase intention, as well as achieve continuous growth. For example, when I searched for some product, eBay will base on my search history to recommend the relevant or similar product to me. This personalized promotion could help the seller to reach their target audience, at the same time it also rich buyer’s buying option.

However, collecting consumer buying data may cause privacy issues, so that, create trust and safe shopping environment could help eBay to reach their online brand proposition. eBay should run the data analysis within respect the consumer privacy. For example, after I searched one product on eBay and suddenly open my search engine, the same or similar product promotion will pop on the top of the website.

Reference

Dave, C. (2019). eBay case study. Retrieved from https://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/ecommerce-strategy/ebay-case-study-2/

Max, G. (2018). How to use social media to sell more on eBay. Retrieved from https://crazylister.com/blog/ebay-social-media-selling/

Michael, B. (2015). How eBay is leading the eCommerce marketing revolution. Retrieved from https://www.relevance.com/how-ebay-is-leading-the-e-commerce-marketing-revolution/

Suzanne, W. (2019). Email marketing services for eBay sellers. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/ebay-sellers-email-marketing-services-4142873

Digital marketing concept

Digital marketing is a trending marketing strategy, here just a short article about digital marketing with the academic explanation as well as my opinion.

—What is digital marketing?—

In the digital era, the digitalized information has changed the communication channels, such as my blog what you are reading right now is a way of showing digitalized information. With social networking tools such as Twitter, the brand can shorten the communication distance with their audience, and create an efficient two-way communication (Kung, 2008).

(image source: https://www.montana.com.br/Noticias/Marketing-de-produtos-quais-sao-os-segredos)

Therefore, compared with traditional marketing, digital marketing requires the brand has a mature understanding of using digital technologies. Rather than simply deliver the message to the consumer, digital marketing has the ability to create a deeper relationship with consumer (Wymbs, 2011).

—What are the elements in digital marketing strategy?—

When talking about digital advertising, what could you think of? LED screen with scrollable information? An interactive game on your mobile? New digital technology that could surprise the audience?

(image source: https://www.kumbhdesign.com/blog/how-digital-marketing-helps-your-business-grow/)

With the development of web 2.0, other interactive platforms have emerged base on the new technology. The most common platform that could be used by the online user every day is the mobile. Not mention, every APP that relevant to mobile could use in digital marketing strategy.

Therefore, the first digital element that comes into my mind is social media, which I believe many people has the same thought as me. Indeed, social media is one of the crucial technologies for rich the digital marketing landscape, but digital marketing is not only limit on this. In the e-business model, one of the biggest changes which have affected the communication channel is the development of web 2.0 (Day, 2011). Moreover, search engine and email marketing could also support the marketer to launch the digital campaign (Lucy, 2019).

—What are the advantages of digital marketing?—

In my opinion, cost-efficiency could be a suitable word to describe the advantage of digital marketing. As mentioned before, digital marketing allows creating a two-way communication, therefore it could increase the interactivity and get faster response (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). Sometimes, with the right channel and relevant message, earned media could add value to the brand more than they could expect.

Moreover, the cloud data about the market or consumer could reduce the strategy-making a barrier (Snijders, Matzat, & Reips, 2012), the technology allows the marketer to only pick out the useful information. With the help of the big data, the marketer could develop the insight from the target audience, therefore, the data-driven strategy could contribute to increasing the efficiency of the communication process.

(image source: https://www.astroexhibitions.co.uk/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-exhibitions-and-how-to-make-sure-yours-is-a-success/)

—What is the challenge of digital marketing?—

While web 2.0 has promoted a various digital platform for the marketer to choose, it also increased the difficulty for a marketer to make the right decision among all the digital platform (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). Over selected on the digital media may sending unclear message to the audience and waste the budget.

The digital message will spread faster with the internet, the consumer’s online common is not easy to control (Leeflang & Verhoef & Dahlström & Freundt, 2014). Once the brand put themselves into controversial, it may cause double as much effort as they put in to solve the problem.

For example, when Wendy’s got argue with the customer on Twitter, they use a meme with racial meaning as their response (Jeff, 2018). Even Wendy’s has deleted the images, due to it happened on social media, screenshot and retweet cause the wider influence.

Reference

Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Digital marketing (6th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.

Day, G. S. (2011). Closing the marketing capabilities gap. Journal of Marketing, 75(4), 183-195.

Jeff, P. (2018). 18 of the biggest recent marketing fails you can learn from in 2018. Retrieved from https://www.bluleadz.com/blog/10-of-the-biggest-marketing-fails-of-2017

Küng, L. (2008). Strategic management in the media: Theory to practice. Sage.

Leeflang, P. S., Verhoef, P. C., Dahlström, P., & Freundt, T. (2014). Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era. European management journal, 32(1), 1-12.

Lucy, A. (2019). What is digital marketing? Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-digital-marketing

Snijders, C., Matzat, U., & Reips, U. D. (2012). ” Big Data”: big gaps of knowledge in the field of internet science. International Journal of Internet Science, 7(1), 1-5.

Wymbs, C. (2011). Digital marketing: The time for a new “academic major” has arrived. Journal of Marketing Education, 33(1), 93-106.