Digital Marketing Answer Book

© 2024 David Obatomi. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 979-8-8230-8887-9 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-8888-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024915118

Published by AuthorHouse   09/30/2024

Contents

Book Overview

Chapter 1     What is Digital Marketing?

1.1. Internet marketing

1.2. Internet marketing strategies.

1.3. Email Marketing

1.4. Search Engine Optimization

Chapter 2     Social Media Strategies for Success

2.1. The five P’s of marketing mix

2.2. Different steps involved in developing a social media plan.

2.3. What is a blog and how can you build a blog?

Chapter 3     Creating Digital Marketing Plan

3.1. The Role of Internet Marketing

3.2. Different steps of the marketing cycle

3.3.How Sharing Messages affect Sales

Chapter 4     Starting with the Website

4.1. Online Business Plan

4.2. Steps to follow to create a website for Online business.

4.3. Online Marketplaces.

Chapter 5     Using Google Ads

5.1. Ideal customer for planning a good Adwords strategy.

5.2. How you can get good with your key words

5.3. Long tail and Short tail keywords?

Chapter 6     Creating a PPC Campaign

6.1. Advantages of Setting PPC Budget

6.2. Note on the Quality Score.

6.3. How you can increase your quality score

Chapter 7     E Mail Marketing

7.1. E-mail and its need in Marketing

7.2. The role of email distribution services in E-mail marketing

7.3. Important features that a good email marketing service offers.

Chapter 8     Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

8.1. SEO and its importance in Internet Marketing.

8.2.What are spiders, crawlers and bots and how do they work?

8.3.The difference between organic and paid searches

8.4. Popular search engines.

8.5. The use of meta tags and keywords search in website ranking.

Chapter 9     Using Facebook For Business Marketing

9.1. Establishing clear, measurable and realistic objectives for a successful social media marketing.

9.2. User Generated Content’ and why it is considered high value.

Chapter 10   Using Twitter For Business Marketing

10.1. Types of inspiration Tweets from perspective of a business with examples.

10.2. Using Influencers to promote your business (or products) on your behalf.

Chapter 11   Using Instagram for Business Marketing

11.1. How to Build Social Media Marketing Strategy on Instagram - Tips and Examples.

11.2. How to Create Captivating Visuals, Grow Your Following,

and Drive Engagement on Instagram.

11.3. How to build a personal brand on Instagram.

Chapter 12   Content Writing for Social Media

12.1. Creating a social media style guide for your business.

12.2. The ‘social’ aspect of social media when creating quality content.

Chapter 13   Brand Building through Digital Marketing

13.1. What is Branding?

13.2. What are social media?

13.3. Social Media Branding.

13.4. The key ingredients of a branding strategy.

13.5. The most popular social networks at the time of publication

Chapter 14   Story Marketing for Small Businesses

14.1. Story marketing and the essential tools of story marketing.

14.2. What are the basics of good storytelling?

14.3. How to refine your company brand for story marketing.

Chapter 15   Promoting a Marketing Webinar

15.1. What is a Webinar and why use Webinars?

15.2. The Nine-Step Ideal Participant Profile Process.

15.3. What is a Lead Magnet and how do you create it?

15.4.What is a Joint Venture Promotion?

Book Overview

As digital technology advances so also is a move from traditional marketing to what is today known as internet marketing or digital marketing. Marketing is all about reaching your target audience at the right place and at the right time. Digital marketing is an all-inclusive term for marketing products and services online using various methods such as websites, email, social media, and online advertising.

This booklet is a collection of everything you need to know about digital marketing with materials provided carefully researched and with balanced arguments to support all the topics covered in the book.

I therefore commend it to all as I hope it’ll be useful and handy to read specially to help in building the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to become a capable and qualified digital marketing executive.

David Obatomi, PhD. April, 2023

1 What is Digital Marketing?

1.1. Internet marketing

1.2. Internet marketing strategies

1.3. Email Marketing

1.4. Search Engine Optimization

1.1. Internet marketing

Question: How would you describe and clarify the concept of Internet marketing?

As digital technology advances so also are a move from traditional marketing to what is today known as internet marketing or digital marketing. Marketing is all about reaching your target audience at the right place and at the right time (SEJ, 2020). According to Ward (2021), Internet marketing can be described as an all-inclusive term for marketing products and services online and using a variety of methods such as websites, email, social media, and online advertising.

It uses the internet as digital channel to power a marketing strategy that will enable a company to flourish. Internet marketing uses customers’ online activity to connect them with a business by reaching them in a variety of places on the internet. The types of internet marketing a business uses will depend on the business model, types of products, target customers, budget, and more (Ward, 2021).

The internet has brought a whole new market as evidenced from recent research which shows that there are 4.3 billion internet users in 2019. The number increased to about 9% from January of 2018. Looking at it will give you the idea that there are more people to reach out to when you practice Internet marketing (Ocampos, 2020). Thus, it provides a useful tool to reaching the right people at the right time with the right information for their needs. It allows you to show your customers what your business is made of and how you can help them with their needs.

Internet marketing is customer service. It gives your business a chance to establish a rapport and enables you to build brand recognition with your audience by keeping them engaged

and interested in your page. Increased brand recognition leads these consumers to choose your brand over the competition because they are more familiar with your business.

While internet marketing’s main aim is to sell goods and services, or advertising over the internet, it’s not the only reason a business will use it. It can be used as a means to conduct research, identify a target market, discover a marketing segment’s wants and needs, build long-term relationships with customers, or establish authority and expertise within an industry (Ward, 2021).

One major advantage of Internet marketing is that it can be used to check what your competitors are doing and take note of it. You can use what you know to create a better strategy to drive more customers to your website than your competitors.

Research did show that internet marketing is a winner, for instance, by the end of 2021, the global content marketing industry is expected to reach $412 billion and Consumers who read a piece of brand content are 131% more likely to buy from that brand versus consumers who read no content (SEJ, 2021).

1.2. Internet marketing strategies.

Question. What are different popular internet marketing strategies?

Digital marketing encompasses a wide variety of marketing tactics and technologies used to reach consumers online. As a form of online marketing, it allows organizations to establish a brand identity and has revolutionized the marketing industry (Gustavsen, 2021).

Dr. Jessica Rogers, associate dean of marketing programs at Southern New Hampshire University (Gustaven 2021) identified 8 most popular types of digital marketing strategies that are widely used. These include search engine optimisation (SEO); social media marketing; email marketing; pay-per-click; Mobile marketing; content marketing Affiliate marketing (programmes) and marketing analytics and to this web designs and strategy can be added.

Web designs & strategy:

A business website allows customers to find your business online, learn your business’s location or contact information; discover your products or services; sign up for your email list; request more information and make purchases. All these vital information is provided on your website. Therefore, a well design website will promote the success of your business. You can certainly build a content strategy on your website that will most effectively meet the needs of your target audience. Set some goals, decide where you’ll host your content (website, YouTube, social media), and begin mapping out your plan. It is important to note that the success of your internet marketing campaign hangs heavily on your ability to develop stellar content on your website. Websites often use search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure that their content will rank high on search engines and be easy for customers to find (Gustavsen, 2021).

Affiliate programmes:

Affiliate marketing also known as influencer marketing utilizes your website to recruit others to your sell your products or sell products for other companies from your website. It has become popular among many organizations in bridging the gap between consumers and organizations. In working with these third-party influencers, your organization will collaborate to promote your products or services for compensation. In collaboration, influencers will engage their audience with posts, blogs, or videos to bring in more business for your organization and create new leads (Gustavsen, 2021).

e-mail marketing:

e-mail is still one of the most effective marketing techniques. It can be part of a content marketing strategy, providing value to consumers and over time convert an audience into customers.

According to Gustavsen, 2021, there are many things’ marketers can do to make their emails more appealing to users and more likely to be opened. These include: Creating a Sense of Urgency by writing email copy that lets your recipients know that time is running out to get a special deal or that there are only a limited number of the offer available; Personalize Your Email by setting your emails and subject lines up to incorporate the recipient’s name, this is a proven way to increase open and click through rates and Let Recipients Set Their Preferences by allowing users to specify how often they want to hear from you as this can help keep some of your email subscribers subscribed to your list and clicking on your emails.

Social Media Marketing

This includes everything a business does via social media channels. It can allow you to connect with your customers on social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, & Twitter. Although it may be an effective method to reach customers, it takes a lot of very skilled marketing and patience in order to see a return to your investment. Most consumers use some kind of social media, though the type you will focus on will depend on the behaviour of your target market.

Data did show that more than 90% of 18 to 29-year-olds use social media of some kind, and while use decreases with age, it can still be used to reach consumers in all age brackets; more than 60% of those over age 65 use some kind of social media, and those numbers are likely to keep growing; older consumers are more likely to use a platform like Facebook, for example; millennials often use Instagram; and younger consumers are more interested in video platforms, such as TikTok or YouTube (Ward, 2021). Therefore, to use these medium as an effective marketing avenue, you have to find out where your ideal customers spend their time and focus your efforts there.

A crucial part of social media marketing is analytics: social media marketers must also be smart at analysing the performance of their posts, and creating strategies based on that data.

Pay-per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click refers to paid advertisements and promoted search engine results. This is a short-term form of digital marketing, meaning that once you are no longer paying, the ad no longer exists. It is a way to increase search traffic to a business online (Gustavsen, 2021).

Pay-per-click can refer to the advertisements you see at the top and sides of a page of search results, the ads you see while browsing the web, ads before YouTube videos and in ads in mobile apps.

One important aspect of pay-per-click marketing is that you only pay for the results. When someone clicks on your ad and lands on your website. You can spend just about any amount of money on pay-per-click advertising.

How much it costs to run an ad or promote your search results will depend primarily on how much competition there is for your keywords. High competition keywords (i.e., keywords that many people are searching for and that many sites are trying to be found for) will be more expensive and lower competition terms will likely cost less.

When you set up a pay-per-click campaign, you will also be able to choose whether you want your ad or promoted results to be shown to users all over the world, or only within a specific geographic area. If you are marketing a brick-and-mortar business, this ability to tailor by location helps you not waste ad dollars serving ads to users who don’t live anywhere near your business, according to Google (Gustavsen, 2021).

Content Marketing

Content marketing is about building a sustainable, trusting relationship with your customers that can potentially lead to many sales over time, not just making a single transaction. It uses storytelling and information sharing to increase brand awareness. Ultimately, the goal is to have the reader take an action towards becoming a customer, such as requesting more information, signing up for an email list, or making a purchase. Content can mean blog posts, resources like white papers and e-books, digital video, podcasts, and much more. In general, it should first and foremost provide value to the consumer, not just advertise the brand or try to make a sale.

Content marketing works in symbiosis with other types of digital marketing: It is a way to incorporate SEO search terms into fresh website content, and the content created can be shared as social media posts and in email marketing publications. Looking at the analytics for your content marketing can tell you a lot about your customers: what are they looking for when they land on your site? What kinds of content make them stay on the site longer and keep looking around? What kinds make them lose interest and navigate away? (Gustaven, 2021).

Mobile Marketing

Marketers know that you need to take your message to where your customers are, and it is very clear: your potential customers are on their phones.

This digital marketing type is this focused on reaching your target audience on their smart phone or tablet. Mobile marketing reaches people through text messages, social media, websites, email and mobile applications. Marketers can tailor offers or special content to a geographic location or time, such as when a customer walks into a store or enters an event.

Search engine optimisation:

This helps you to get strong rankings in a major search engine. It helps people to find you easily and for you to engage with them. It is very useful medium to understand what our customers want, how they look for it online (through analysing hat search terms and patterns of usage they use) and then we design our digital spaces so that they can find us easily.

Marketing Analytics

One of the major advantages of digital marketing is that it is highly trackable and measurable. Analytics allow marketers to track user behaviour at a highly detailed level: how many times they click on a link, how much time they spend on a web page, how often they open emails, and much more. Understanding all this data and using it to make strategic decisions is an important part of a digital marketer’s work, and one that sets them apart from their traditional counterparts (Gustavsen, 2021).

1.3. Email Marketing

Question: Briefly explain the term email marketing.

Email Marketing

When you want to grow your brand or sell your stuff, email marketing is used. It is a direct and powerful marketing channel, that uses email to promote your business’s products or services. It can help you to build a relationship with your customers and make them aware of your latest items or offers by integrating it into your marketing automation efforts. It can also play a pivotal role in your marketing strategy with lead generation, brand awareness, building relationships or keeping customers engaged between purchases through different types of marketing emails (Mailchimp, 2001-2021).

In the 90’s, as the internet had become commercially available to the masses. marketers discovered that email could be an effective way to advertise. The emergence of marketing emails also ushered in the need for regulatory updates; the U.K.’s Data Protection Act, for example, was adjusted to require an opt out option for all marketing emails (mailchimp, 2001-2021). Be aware of national (and international) email regulations and make sure you adhere to any legal requirements and applicable laws in your area when sending automated emails, like the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States, the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL), or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union for the treatment of personal information. The regulations are based on both your location and the location of your subscribers, and it’s your responsibility to know which laws apply to you. In the UK, you’re only allowed to send marketing emails to individual customers if they’ve given you permission (Gov.uk) while in the USA, it is legal to send an unsolicited commercial email. You do, however, have to comply with certain rules when sending those unsolicited emails, and if you don’t, the penalties can be very serious (The Pipeline, 2021).

Three important types of email marketing that you can use to earn the attention of your customers and prospects include email newsletter, transactional email & behavioural emails.

In summary, email marketing is also one of the most popular and cost-effective tools available, too. Email allows you to reach customers individually and personally. A 2019 retail study looking at more than one billion shopping sessions found that email marketing had a conversion rate of 2.5%, compared to only 1.1% for social media. (The highest conversation rate was direct referral, at 3.0%) (Episerver, 2021). In fact, a 2015 study by the U.K.-based Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found that for every $1 spent, email has an average return on investment (ROI) of $38. For more on the power of email marketing, check out our email marketing statistics by industry (Mailchimp, 2001-2021).

1.4. Search Engine Optimization

Question: Briefly explain the term search engine optimisation.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of getting traffic from free, organic, editorial, or natural search results in search engines. It aims to improve your website’s position in search results pages and is considered an essential marketing activity (Digital Marketing Institute, 2019).

Good SEO involves many different activities, such as: identifying relevant keywords with good search traffic potential; creating high-quality, useful content and optimizing it for search engines and for users; including relevant links from high-quality sites and measuring the results (Digital Marketing Institute, 2019).

The goal of SEO is to get a business to rank higher in Google search results, ultimately increasing search engine traffic to the business’s website. To accomplish this, SEO marketers research words and phrases consumers are using to search for information online and use those terms in their own content (Gustavsen, 2021).

According to leading SEO software company (Moz, 2021), SEO encompasses many elements, from the words on your web pages to the way other sites link to you on the web to how your website is structured.

So, what are some things that can improve a site’s SEO? It’s important to understand that one of the things that makes SEO challenging is that the answer to this question always depends on Google and its most current algorithm. Keeping that in mind, here are a few of the most important things for SEO strategists and marketers in general to understand about how SEO works today (Moz, 2021): Content indexing, this enables your search engines to clearly read what your site content is, by doing things like adding alt text for images and text transcripts for video and audio content; Good link structure which is important to allow search engines to crawl your site structure to easily find all the content on your site and Keywords and keyword targeting, a process by which your keywords are properly deployed, i.e., the search terms you want your site to be found for — in your content and headers is one of the fundamental building blocks of SEO. Writing high-quality content that uses keywords in the headers and a few times in the crawl-able page content is now considered better practice and will make pages rank better in search results (Gustavsen, 2021).

There are 3 core components or pillars of SEO that are worth getting familiar with (Digital Marketing Institute, 2019). They are: Technical Optimization, a process of completing activities on your site that are designed to improve SEO but are not related to content. It often happens behind the scenes; On Page Optimization, a process of ensuring the content on your site is relevant and provides a great user experience. It includes targeting the right keywords within your content and can be done through a content management system and Off-Page Optimization, a process of enhancing your site’s search engine rankings through activities outside of the site. This is largely driven by backlinks, which help to build the site’s reputation (Digital Marketing Institute, 2019).

References:

Digital Marketing Institute (2019). What is SEO and how does it work? Online: Available at: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-is-seo accessed on 28/12/21) Episerver (2021) B2C.Retail Benchmark Reoport, Q1 2020, pg 8 Accessed 28/12/21)

Gov.uk. Marketing and advertising: the law. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/marketing-advertising-law/direct-marketing accessed on 28/12/21).

Gustavsen, A (2021). What are the 8 Types of Digital Marketing? [Online]. Available at: https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/business/types-of-digital-marketing (accessed on 27/12/21).

Mallchimp (2001-2021).What is email marketing, and where did it begin? Online available at: https://mailchimp.com/email-marketing/ (accessed on 28/12/21)

MOZ (2021). The Beginner’s Guide to SEO. [Online]. Available at: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo (Accessed on 28/12/21)

Ocampos, J (2020). Why Digital Marketing is Important for Businesses?.[Online].Available at: https://www.mmmatters.com/blog/why-digital-marketing-is-important-for-businesses (Accessed 28/12/21).,

SEJ (2021). What is Internet Marketing? Your Guide to Today’s Online Marketing [Online]. Available at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/internet-marketing/230047/ (Accessed 27/12/21).,

The Pipeline, 2021). What is Spam? The Truth About Unsolicited and Cold Email. [Online] Available at: https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/is-cold-email-spam accessed 28/12/21)

Ward, S (2021). What Is Internet Marketing? [Online]. Available at: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/internet-marketing-2948348 [Accessed on 27/12/210]

2 Social Media Strategies for Success

2.1. The five P’s of marketing mix

2.2. Different steps involved in developing a social media plan?

2.3. What is a blog and how can you build a blog?

2.1. The five P’s of marketing mix

Question: What are the five P’s of marketing mix?

The Oxford dictionary defines marketing mix as a combination of factors that can be controlled by a company to influence consumers to purchase its products and Kotler (2001)

described it as the "set of marketing tools that the firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market.

It is a foundation model for businesses, historically centred around 4 Ps - product, price, place, and promotion (McCarthy, 1964). It is very clear that Marketing-mix components can be viewed as elements that are evolving all the time with some scholars even reporting up to 7 or 8 P’s (Booms & Bitner, 1981). Even Philip Kotler who coined the gospel of marketing, the four Ps (product, price, place and promotion), has added a fifth – Purpose (Anand, 2018). Nowadays, the marketing mix increasingly includes several other Ps like Packaging, Positioning, People, Process and even Politics as vital mix elements (Fabric, 2021; The Economic Times, 2022). In certain situations, the packaging and process are being described as part of the product mix (Kareh, 2021).

The 5 p’s that will be considered are product, price, place, promotion, and people which provide us with essential steps for a successful marketing.

Source: https://inhousemarketing.co.nz/the-marketing-mix-5-ps-helping-you-choose-the-right-strategies/

Product:

The product makes up the first element of the marketing mix and affects the other elements of the mix due to its nature and attributes. The product can vary in terms of its attributes and features based on the dissimilarity of the target markets in terms of the variance of the needs and wants that make up the market components and the marketing environment (Mathieu, 2001).

Kotler and Armstrong (2012) have described a product as anything offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want of a customer This encompasses the variety, design, packaging, quality, features and positioning of a product or service (Kareh, 2021).

Commodities are usually raw materials such as metals and agricultural products, but a commodity can also be anything widely available in the open market. In project management, products are the formal definition of the project deliverables that make up or contribute to delivering the objectives of the project (Wikipedia, 2022)

When thinking about your product consider the key features, benefits, and the needs and wants of customers. For example, if you are a food manufacturer you may decide to add some new flavours to extend your range (InHouse Marketing, 2021). It is also important to understand what makes your company stand out from the competition. For example, chosen a name that is attention grabbing and that people would remember or something that had appeal around the globe (CPD Course Handout, 2021) might just give you an edge over others.

You will need to pay particular attention to how those products and services appear in search engine results. Make a choice that is sensible paying particular attention to characteristics such capabilities; style; warranties/guarantees; service; labelling; size & packaging (CPD Course Handout, 2021).

Price:

Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services and may be part of the business’s marketing plan. In setting prices, the business will consider the price at which it could acquire the goods, the manufacturing cost, the marketplace, competition, market condition, brand, and quality of product. It is affected by the purchasing power of the customer and considered to be the critical element in the buying decision. As such, one of the pricing strategies used is that of psychological pricing, where prices are fixed to the nearest pence or cent e.g., an item priced at £49.99. The idea is that people will pay £49.99 for a product they won’t pay £50.00 for (CPD Course Handout, 2021).

Pricing is a fundamental aspect of product management and is one of the five Ps of the marketing mix. Price is the only revenue generating element amongst the five Ps, the rest being cost centres. Thus, pricing is the most important concept in the field of marketing, it is used as a tactical decision in response to changing competitive, market, and organizational situations (Wikipedia, 2021). For example, meeting or beating competition pricing is another type of marketing strategy often used in a competitive market to meet or beat a competitor’s price in order to gain (or regain) market share. You’ll often see this on a website or a flyer with the phrase, We will match any competitor’s advertised price and beat it by 5% on all our products,.

Pricing can be a manual or automatic process of applying prices to purchase and sales orders, based on factors such as: a fixed amount, quantity break, promotion or sales campaign, specific vendor quote, price prevailing on entry, shipment or invoice date, combination of multiple orders or lines, and many others. Automated pricing systems require more setup and maintenance but may prevent pricing errors. The needs of the consumer can be converted into demand only if the consumer has the willingness and capacity to buy the product (Wikipedia, 2021).

Whether you are a for-profit, non-profit, or not-for-profit company, you have to be making money in order for the business to flourish. This means that no matter who you are, you need to understand every aspect of your business when establishing price. If you forget to allow for certain costs and sell the product at a loss, your stakeholders won’t stand for it. Although in certain circumstances, some products are deliberately priced at a deal price (also known as a loss leader) to draw people into the store where they will be sold other products. For example, a car can be priced below cost, but by the time that the extended warranty, roadside service, fabric protection, and chrome package are added, there is no loss for the company any longer (CPD Course Handout, 2021).

Your pricing will also depend on your businesses position in the market, for example, if you advertise your business as a budget car rental service, your pricing should reflect that choice. Or if you are a premium food product then your price should be at a premium to lesser quality products to reflect the better packaging and quality of ingredients you offer. For example, this example of what is referred to as Penetration, whereby an introductory pricing of a product is deliberately low in order to gain market share. The idea is to price products at a low per unit amount and then sell a high number of units with the objective of gaining recognition in the market (CPD Course Handout, 2021).

Place:

The place is one of marketing mix elements and includes distribution channels, warehousing facilities, mode of transportation, location, assortment, convergence, logistics, and inventory control management (Singh, 2012), an avenue that provides customer access to your products. These channels help the organization to promote, sell, and distribute its goods to final buyers, such as resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing services agencies, and financial intermediaries (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012).

Place is defined as the direct or indirect channels to market, geographical distribution, territorial coverage, retail outlet, market location, catalogues, inventory, logistics, and order fulfilment (Blythe, 2009). It refers either to the physical location where a business carries out business or the distribution channels used to reach markets. It could also be a retail outlet or virtual stores such as "a mail order catalogue, a telephone call centre or a website. Example, firms that produce luxury goods like Louis Vuitton employ an intensive placement strategy by making their products available at only a few exclusive retailers. In contrast, lower priced consumer goods like toothpaste and shampoo, typically employ an extensive placement strategy by making their products available to as many different retailers as possible (Blythe, 2009).

The place element can also be described as to how you get your product or service to your customers at the right time, at the right place, and in the right quantity. It includes distribution channels (e.g., via a shopfront, online or a distributor), location, logistics, service levels and market coverage. For example, if you’re thinking of expanding your business online, you’ll need to think about how your customers use the internet, if they would feel comfortable purchasing your goods online and if they would be willing to pay shipping costs for your products (Goi, 2009).

If you’re looking to grow your business, you might consider changing or expanding the way you sell your products and services. For example, if you’re a homewares distributor, you might think about setting up a new store in a different location or offering franchises (InHouse Marketing, 2021).

Promotion:

Promotion is one of the key elements of the market mix refers to any type of marketing communication (verbal or visual) used to inform target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or issue, most of the time persuasive in nature (McCarthy, 1964; Blythe, 2009) either by personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing publicity, word of mouth and may also include event marketing, exhibitions and trade shows (Rajagopal, 2007). In the same context, Kotler and Armstrong (2012) defined promotion as human activities based on a communication process that can be directed via personal selling points or indirectly via advertising messages through the media.

The promotion concept includes all marketing activities used to inform, persuade, and remind the target market about a firm and its products or services, in such a way as to build a favourable image in the mind of the customer (Sidhanta & Chakrabarty, 2010).

It helps marketers to create a distinctive place in customers’ mind which can either be a cognitive or emotional route and to increase awareness, create interest, generate sales or create brand loyalty.

The main objective of the promotion process is to identify the firm and its products or services for the target market, and to increase the level of purchasing. Recognize how you will draw your potential purchasers’ attention e.g.; Pizza shops might send staff members to stand on the corner with a sandwich board describing this week’s deal. Cupcake stores might have someone dressed in a giant cupcake costume waving to passers-by coupons, flyers, newsletters, banner or pop-up ads on a website, and special deals are also part of a promotion strategy. (CPD Course Handout, 2021).

People:

Four Ps may have been all well and good in the 1960s, but to put it mildly, times have changed. Even back then, it was clear that people — their characteristics, behaviours, and preferences — were the through line across the four Ps of marketing. That’s what makes the fifth P the most important. To truly stand out, brands must make customers — and their long- term satisfaction — the heart of everything they do (Greene, 2022).

The people element refers to your customers, yourself, and your staff. You need to consider both your staff and customers if you’re thinking of growing your business. It includes understanding what your customers’ needs and wants are, setting targets and measuring your customer service levels so that you attract and keep loyal customers.

Remember, when it comes to branding and marketing, your company’s employees are the ones that deliver your service or product to your customer. if you want to be competitive, whether you’re recruiting for the sales desk, or the marketing team., you need to hire and train the right people, so they have the skills to offer the best experience and meet customer expectations (Fabric, 2021; InHouse Marketing, 2021). The primary messaging and competitive advantage are also important to communicate in order to ensure that the voice of the company stands united (Kareh, 2021). A diverse, goal-oriented and motivated workforce is the scarcest and most important advantage a company can have. Companies cannot afford to underestimate the value of company-minded team members."

In conclusion, in order to be successful and outperform the competition, brands needed to provide desirable products or services, sell them at an appealing price, position them in the right places and promote them using attention-grabbing tactics and have the right people to drive the whole price less.

Most marketers agree they now compete mostly based on customer experience, and 75% of consumers say they’ll spend more money to buy from brands that deliver better customer experiences than the competition. Customer centricity is essential to modern marketing — both for getting shoppers through the door and keeping them coming back for more — and high-quality customer data is what makes it possible (Greene, 2021).

Whether brands want to boost customer lifetime value, increase speed to market or simply enhance the operational efficiency of their marketing efforts, they need to put people at the centre of their strategies (Greene, 2021).

2.2. Different steps involved in developing a social media plan.

Question: What are different steps involved in developing a social media plan?

Introduction

Social media takes up a lot of our time. In 2020, users worldwide spent an average of 145 minutes per day on a social media platform. It is therefore very clear to most marketers that social media is an extremely important tool for building a personal connection with your target audience. Beyond that, social media is a powerful way to understand customer needs, improve brand recognition and loyalty, and even provide immediate customer service.

Making sure your business has a presence on social media is just a normal part of business as usual these days. If you want to be successful, you have to market yourself on social media.

You simply cannot set out to promote your brand or service on social media without first sitting down to lay out your strategy. A social media marketing strategy is essential to give your online marketing efforts a sense of purpose, helping you to define your goals, your target audience, and key targets for the year. Once you have defined your goals and objectives–and made a plan for how to achieve them–you will be able to measure the return on investment for your online marketing activity and improve your efforts in subsequent years (Hall, 2020).

The way you go about marketing online can have just as much of an effect on your business. In fact, make the wrong moves, and your online marketing efforts can actually impact your bottom line in a negative way! For this reason, it’s vitally important to develop – and then stick to – a social media marketing strategy.

Developing a strong social media marketing strategy will help boost brand awareness, increase followership, drive traffic to your website and generate leads for your sales funnel. In 2017, no brand should be without a plan that actively places their business on social media.

A good social media marketing strategy is one that is well planned and consistent. A number of steps have been proposed by a wide range of scholars ranging from 6 to 10 steps or guidelines (Zen Media, 2013; Huff, 2017; Bullocks, 2019; Hutchinson, 2019; Hughes, 2020; CPD Course Handout, 2021; US Chamber of Commerce, 2022) and for most cases, these steps are all valid. But for this discussion, I will try to integrate the different steps in a logical fashion to create a strong social media presence.

Here are the guidelines that set goals, draw inspiration from a wide variety of places, and above all, keep followers’ needs at the centre of your social media strategy.

Be a person:

Since most online activities are automated these days, it is important that you present yourself as a real person and not a robot. Make sure that some of your personality and character shines through the things that you say (CPD Corse Handout, 2021).

Clarify your social media goals

What is it exactly that you’re trying to accomplish with your presence on social media? To drive awareness? Increase website traffic? Boost engagement? Improve conversion rates? Huff (2017) pointed out that you won’t be able to create a useful game plan unless you know what it is you’re trying to do – simply throwing random content up on a blog or Twitter (X) feed without a specific purpose will not lead to positive results.

Every post that you publish and share on your social networks must have a goal, an intent.

The foundation of your plan is to specify what you’re trying to achieve through your social media campaigns. Having a clear goal in mind for each post helps you tailor your content in a way that focuses on meeting it. Without goals set in place, you won’t know what types of updates to post on your channels (Hughes, 2020).

While creating your goal, it’s important to remember the SMART acronym. That is, your goals must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound.

Watch out for social media experts.

If you are new to this business, before starting, it is wise to consult social media experts and following this, you can draw upon your social media plan.

Social media is constantly evolving, and it is one aspect of marketing, but this is fluid. Marketing consultants who are also specialists in social media understand its fluidity. They can help you navigate and establish your brand in the social stream as one aspect of your marketing plan. However, make sure that they can do what they say they can do. Ask for references and look at what they’ve done in the past.

If your usual marketing is not getting you the results that you need, make sure you increase your strength by bringing on expertise that gets you what you need. Don’t hire someone to be your social media marketer if they have no knowledge about the areas that you want to reach.

Define your audience and locate them.

When you conduct your market analysis, be very clear about where your customers are. Make sure you reach them and their friends so that they are able to talk about you.

Who is your ideal customer? Defining your audience is crucial to your online marketing efforts. If you are trying to reach women between the ages of 18 and 29, you’d be smart to focus most of your attention on Facebook. If, on the other hand, you’re aiming your marketing at men with graduate-level education, you’d be better off using LinkedIn. Your audience determines not only where you spend your time marketing, but also the type of content you will be providing, as well.

Knowing and understanding your target audience is the prerequisite to a working digital marketing strategy. It’s important to know who you’re aiming to reach in your marketing so you can focus your efforts on engaging and