UNIT 01-INTRODUCING TO DIGITAL MARKETING

Factors Impacting the Shift from Traditional to Modern Marketing Traditional

marketing techniques (more prevalent prior to the 1990s, before interactive technology
started making its impact) focused on elements which in the present age have undergone
significant shifts (for comparative estimate between traditional and modern marketing
areas, (see Table 1.1). Key reasons for such shifts include:
• Power shift from business to consumer attributed to availability of a wide variety of
product choices and saturation of key categories
• Growing amount of communication channels leading to clutter and brands moving away
from mass marketing to customized online marketing
• Consumers’ preference for interactive rather than traditional medium like newspapers,
magazines, TV, which had a one-way information fl ow
• Need to validate marketing with product and service recommendations from trusted
group of influencers/social interactions
• Need for comparison of product benefits to make informed decisions (multiple messages
need to be heard, understood, and trusted upon by target segment)
• Higher interaction with products and more avenues for such interactions facilitating
holistic messaging rather than the traditional practice of one-off marketing
• The emergence of marketing as a discovery-led immersive exercise for an
individual/group rather than forced messages targeted to large audiences
Advent of Modern Marketing Techniques Modern
marketing involves the following platforms and techniques:
• Search marketing: using search technology towards marketing
• Online advertising: placing ads across websites/digital platforms
• E-mail marketing: sharing commercial messages with people
• Social media marketing: using social media platforms/networks for marketing
• E-commerce: selling/trading goods and services on any online platform
• Digital on traditional mediums: integrating digital technologies with traditional marketing
mediums to improve interactivity (set-top box for TV can be integrated with internet-
enabled features to support digital sales)

Emergence of Digital Marketing as a Tool

To understand and appreciate the rapid rise of digital marketing over its preceding
concepts, it would help to gain an understanding of how the marketing function has
changed over the years in terms of the most important parameter—customer interaction.
We define customer interaction as the manner in which any potential lead or customer gets
to know or interacts with any product or service with the intention of gaining information or
to respond to the marketer’s goal of considering him/her as a consumer and finally
convincing the latter to buy its products. This leads us to a key question as to what does a
consumer really look for from marketing?
Any consumer, in a reactive or proactive mode, is typically looking to obtain information on
any specific area of interest. He/she might not be looking at a product or a service itself but
information which would solve any one of the problems at hand. He might also be just
curious to gain knowledge on any subject (academic or general interest) or might just
generally want to know what is happening currently around his neighborhood , city, or the
world at large
With this understanding, we would now put forth the two most important concepts which
define and differentiate digital marketing —Pull and Push marketing.
Pull and Push Marketing
Any type of customer interaction with any digital media can be most simply be divided into
two types depending upon where the contact is initiated:
(a) Medium-initiated contact (Push marketing): This is the traditional type of marketing
where marketing messages are packaged with information pre-configured for a
particular set of users. Take the example of a newspaper, which typically is current
information packaged across different verticals like politics, economics, sports, etc.,
and packaged along with large ad columns which bring in the revenue (along with
the classifieds). In contrast, let us understand what pull marketing entails.
(b) Consumer-initiated contact (Pull marketing): Pull marketing involves a consumer
placing his intent and specific interest for a particular type of information and being
offered that information along with relevant marketing messages suited to his
intent, query, or profile-based interests. In the same example of a newspaper, as
above, consider that the company decides to provide information in a way that each
article of the newspaper is tagged and categorized based on multiple criteria to be
searched upon a digital platform.

Media Consumption Drivers for New Marketing Environment

With the understanding of the pull–push concept, one would naturally tend to think
about the key drivers behind this change in marketing to digital platforms and the
reasons for shifting consumption patterns:
(a) Emergence of internet as discussed in the previous sections was one of the biggest
factors of the transition to digital marketing. With growing availability of the internet, it
became possible to access data and information as and when required.
(b) Rise of millennial generation or Generation Y (those born during the 1980s and
early 1990s) with their differing attitudes and aspirations and also the rapid rise of social
networking and collaboration concepts has led to the acceptance of digital as a major
buying platform.
(c) Technology advancements in devices and investments in hardware, infrastructure,
location positioning and device memory, have brought forth convenient and feature-rich
platforms like mobile, PDAs, tablets, etc., whose computational power and storage
options have made it possible to execute research, personal interactions, and
commerce, all on the go.
(d) Advancements in design/UI is becoming crucial. With Apple bringing design to the
fore and ease of access becoming important by the day, digital has the fillip over other
traditional platforms in being a slicker, more user-friendly platform where brand
experiences can be felt and shared in their tangible and intangible forms not possible
earlier.
(e) Consumerism/rising global economies in the context of emerging nations since the
past two decades and with the rise of discretionary income across many work sectors, it
has become easier for a large middle-class population to consume smartphones and
tablets at prices never thought before.

Digital marketing strategy

(a) Intent-based marketing -through messages placed in conjunction with information obtained
on search engine queries

(b) Brand marketing- Utilizing advertising across websites and digital media formats for
marketing

(c) Content marketing -Using story-based elements to share marketing messages in a targeted
fashion

(d) Community-based marketing-Utilizing social communities, networks, and platforms to

conduct marketing

(e) Partner marketing Includes involvement of affi liates, third party sites for marketing; also
includes sponsorship and PR activities

(f) Communication channel marketing Involves marketing on all communication lead platforms;
this is a more recent and upcoming digital marketing area

(g) Platform-based marketing Using new platforms and digitized traditional platforms to
integrate marketing in the device and medium itself

POEM framework
The POEM framework is a business methodology that you can use to develop your digital
marketing strategies. There are three parts of the POEM framework: paid, owned, and
earned media, all of which will affect every aspect of your digital marketing campaign.