What is Digital Marketing


At the fundamentals, there is no difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing. It is all about facilitating the exchange of value between the seller and the right buyer. This is marketing 50 years ago. This is also the marketing now.
What has changed over the past 10-20 years? 



 
With the advances in technology, we are able to facilitate this exchange in a faster, cheaper and more measurable manner. The steps in digital marketing is exactly the same as traditional marketing. The differences is how we execute these steps, particularly finding who is the right buyers, and reaching out to them.
Finding the Right Buyers
In the past, we have to do focus group discussions and surveys in order to get a feel of who is the right buyer, and what value can we create that they desire. It is often a lengthy and expensive process. Yet, we might not get it right. We might get the wrong person in our survey and focus group.
Today, we can create buyer personas. We can look up their behaviors using Facebook Audience Insights. We can check what do they tweet or blog about in order to gauge their interests. Based on their activities, we will be able to foresee what kind of problems that they might be having. As a result, we will be able to better determine the correct buyer for the solutions we are having.
With this information, we can further understand them by using survey tools like Wufoo or SurveyMonkey. We can have Skype conversation or Google Hangout to understand more. We are also no longer limited by geography. An American can be a customer of a European business easily.
Reaching out to our audiences/customers
In the past, a common way of reaching out is through advertisements. It is an extremely expensive process where it can costs millions, especially through TV commercials.
Yet, there is no guarantee that it will work. Even if it does work, you do not know whether is the increase in sales due to which advertising campaign Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half. - John Wanamaker
Also, you treat all customers and audiences the same when they might be at a different stage in their buyers' journey. Some might already heard about your brand. Some might know they need to buy your product. While others might not even know that they have a need
Today, we can reach out to our target audience from as low as $5 per day. We will be able to track which advertising campaign brings in more visitors. Which campaigns brings in more leads and revenue.
We also can advertise our products based on the different stages of the buyers' journey. For example, you can advertise in Google Adwords to buyers who are already thinking of purchasing the product. It is just a question of who should they buy from. This is based on the commercial intent of the keywords that buyers will search in Google when they are at the consideration stage. You can also optimize your page for search engine (SEO) so that you will rank high when your prospective customer search for the keyword you want.
However, if buyers do not know that they might have a need for a certain product, Google Adwords work less well. This is where Facebook is a great platform for advertisers.
Digital marketing is no different from traditional marketing at the basic level. It is about facilitating the exchange of value between seller and the right buyer. Digital marketing has helped sellers achieved the exchange in a faster, cheaper, and more measurable way.












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