Digital Marketing and Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Digital Marketing and Communications - Essay Example There may also be more financial capital invested into the physical distribution process in order to ensure that convenience is injected into the consumer decision-making process as a criterion for making future purchases. Digital marketing, however, makes use of technologies in order to maximise the return on investment for marketing activities. For example, online blogs, video streaming, text messaging on wireless devices, email and instant messaging provide new opportunities for marketers to reach their customers and build a solid brand personality (Reitzin 2007). Digital marketing makes effective use of a variety of electronic devices so as to better engage with important and profitable stakeholders in society. Websites, social networks and various mobile apps are yet three more examples of what constitutes digital marketing. Even though digital marketing differs from traditional marketing, there are some similarities as well. There must be focus placed on understanding the consu mer decision-making processes using various models of consumer behaviour, recognising the importance of the traditional 4Ps of the marketing mix, and acquiring valuable demographic data in order to properly target the most viable consumer segments. This report evaluates the role of information in helping to develop an online marketing strategy, discusses how competitive advantage is achieved through digital marketing objectives, and how digital marketing can better manage consumer behaviour processes in the online environment. Importance of online information In the digital marketing process, having access to online information is critical to building an effective marketing strategy that will bring significant return on investment for marketing. Online information provides a metric by which success in marketing can be measured or whether the marketer has failed in achieving objectives. Such metrics are referred to as key performance indicators which serve as an empirical medium to m easure marketing effectiveness (Stokes 2012). Quite often, marketers utilise websites as a means of engaging with consumer segments, offering opportunities to sign up to receive future offers and promotions or stay in contact with changes or innovations associated with a product or service. This creates electronically-stored data on customer demographics, including such characteristics as age, geographic location, or even income levels. This information, stored in the company’s server, with assistance from appropriate digital software, allows the company to segment their consumers more effectively, locate correlations to similar customer demographics, and thereby be able to better target consumers most likely to make future purchases in the online environment. Metrics are highly critical to digital marketers as it provides the foundation of knowledge about what types of consumers are actively seeking engagement with the company. Once this is understood, a business can create specialised offers or promotions that will best satisfy specific demographic groups. Some companies also utilise web-based surveys, research instruments online that allow a business to understand, in real-time, what consumers value and perceive about a particular product or service brand. Web-based surveys are being utilised in much higher volume today in order to improve the value-added