Master of Business Administration

STREAM II – MARKETING (FUNCTIONAL ELECTIVE)

MBMD 1935
2135
DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA
MARKETING
Third Semester
Semester – III

DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

SRM Institute of Science and Technology,
Potheri, Chengalpattu District 603203,
Tamil Nadu,INDIA
Phone: 044 – 27417040 / 41
Website: www.srmist.edu.in / Email:[email protected]
 EXPERT COMMITTEE

S.N NAME DESIGNATION ORGANISATION

o.
1 Dr.R.Rajagopal Director DDE - SRMIST
2 Dr.V.M.Ponniah Dean - Management FOM - SRMIST
FOM – SRMIST, KTR
3 Dr.G.Venugopalan Academic Coordinator
FOM – SRMIST, KTR
4 Dr.T.Ramachandran Head of II year MBA
FOM – SRMIST, KTR
5 Dr.V,M.Shenbagaraman Head of I year MBA

Course Writer(s) Dr.EDWIN

Information contained in this book has been obtained by its Author(s) from sources believed
to be reliable and are correct to the best of their knowledge. However Publishers and the
Author(s) shall in no event be liable for any errors, omissions or damages arising out of this
information and specifically disclaim any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for
any particular.

DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

SRM Institute of Science and Technology,
Potheri, Kancheepuram District 603203, Tamil Nadu,INDIA
Phone: 044 – 27417040 / 41
Website: www.srmist.edu.in / Email:[email protected]
 SYLLABUS
MBAD1935 DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

UNIT I
Evolution of digital marketing–The digital consumer & communities’ online–Digital
marketing landscape– generation Y expectation and influence

UNITII
Search Engine Marketing–PPC and Online Advertising–Social Media Marketing–Social
Media Strategy– Site optimization– Key word advertising– internet marketing metrics

UNIT III
Customer engagement–Affiliate marketing & strategic partnerships–Email marketing–
Content strategies– Consumer segmentation, targeting and positioning by online tools.

UNIT IV
CRM & CX in digital marketing–Digital marketing, data, and analytics–Social listening–Web
analytics–Social media analytics– Electronic customer relationship– Key CRM applications–
Next generation CRM.

UNIT V
Mobile Marketing–Integrating Digital and Social.–Media Strategies– Social media analytics–
viral marketing – Inbound marketing.
LEARNING RESOURCES
1. Damian Ryan, Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Engaging
the Digital Generation Paperback – Import, Kogan Page 2014
2. Vandana Ahuja ,Digital Marketing Paperback Oxford University Press
3. Hanlon Annmarie , Akins Joanna , Quickwin Digital Marketing: Answers to Your Top
100 Digital Marketing Questions Paperback PHI 2012.
 CONTENTS
MODULE I INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MARKETING
1.0 Learning Objectives
1.1. Evolution of Digital Marketing
1.1.1 From Traditional to Modern Marketing
1.1.2 Rise of the Internet: The Dotcom Era
1.1.3 Post Dotcom: Creation of Internet Business Models
1.1.4 Growth of ‘E’ Concepts: from E-Business to Advanced E-
Commerce
1.1.5 Digital – The Next Wave of Marketing
1.1.6 Summary MBAD1935 Digital and Social Media Marketing

MODULE 2 THE DIGITAL CONSUMER AND ONLINE COMMUNITY

2.0. Learning objectives

2.1. Consumer Behaviour on the Internet
2.2. Evolution on consumer behaviour models
2.2.1. Impact of digital technology on consumer behaviour
2.2.2. Attributes of online buying behaviour
2.2.3. Influence of the Web Experience
2.2.4. Marketing Intelligence from user’s online data
2.3. Online Community
2.4. Summary

MODULE III DIGITAL MARKETING LANDSCAPE

3.0. Learning objectives

3.1. Digital Marketing – Global Landscape
3.1.1. Digital marketing overview – Global spend
3.1.2. Digital marketing overview – Advertising spend
3.1.3. Conceptualizing digital marketing landscape
3.1.4. Digital marketing technology/Tools landscape
3.2 Digital marketing – The Indian view
3.2.1. India digital spend overview
3.2.2. India digital advertising spend
3.3. Generation Y expectation and influence
3.4. Summary

MODULE IV SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

4.0. Learning objectives

4.1. Introduction – Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
4.1.1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) vs. Pay Per Click (PPC)
4.1.1.1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
4.1.1.2. Pay Per Click (PPC)
4.2. Online Advertising
4.3. Summary

MODULE V SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

5.0. Learning Objectives

5.1. Introduction to Social Media Marketing
5.1.1. What is Social Media Marketing?
5.2. Social Media Marketing Strategy
5.2.1. Approaches through Social Media Platforms
5.2.1.1. Social Media Marketing using Facebook
5.2.1.2. Social Media Marketing using Pinterest
5.2.1.3. Social Media Marketing using Twitter
5.2.1.4. Social Media Marketing using LinkedIn
5.2.1.5. Social Media Marketing using YouTube
5.2.1.6. Location-based Social Media Tools
5.2.1.7. Social Media Marketing using Reddit
5.3. Site Optimization
5.3.1. How to optimise website content for SEO?
5.4. Keyword Advertising
5.5. Internet Marketing Metrics
5.6. Summary
MODULE VI CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN SOCIAL MEDIA

1.0. Learning Objectives

1.1. Customer Engagement
1.2. Affiliate Marketing
1.2.1. Types of Affiliate Marketing
1.3. Strategic Partnership
1.3.1. What is Digital Partnership?
1.3.2. Why is this increasing?
1.3.3. New roles and opportunities
1.4. E-Mail Marketing
1.4.1. Types of E-Mail Marketing
1.5. Content Marketing Strategies
1.5.1. Content forms for Digital
1.5.2. Online Audience Optimization
1.6. Summary

MODULE VII CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

7.0. Learning Objectives

7.1. Customer Development Strategy (STP 2.0 Framework)
7.1.1. STP 2.0 Framework differs primarily from traditional STP
7.1.2. Elements of STP 2.0 Framework
7.2. Summary

MODULE VIII CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IN DIGITAL

MARKETING

8.0 Learning Objectives

8.1 Introduction to Customer Relationship Management
8.1.1 What is Customer Relationship Management?
8.1.2 Evolution of Customer Relationship Management
8.2 How to drive advocates through Customer Experience?
8.2.1 Stages of successful advocate marketing
8.3 Social Listening
8.3.1 What is Social Listening?
8.3.2 Why is Social Listening important?
8.3.3 How can Social Listening help my brand?
8.4 Electronic Customer Relationship Management
8.4.1 Components of E-Customer Relationship Management
8.5 Key Customer Relationship Applications
8.5.1 Customer service
8.5.2 Campaign Management
8.5.3 Sales Force Automation
8.6 Modules of Customer Relationship Management
8.6.1 Marketing Module
8.6.2 Service Module
8.6.3 Sales Module
8.7 Next Generation Customer Relationship Management
8.8 Summary

MODULE IX DIGITAL ANALYTICS

9.0. Learning Objectives

9.1. Digital Marketing Analytics
9.1.1. The difference between Digital Analytics and Digital Marketing Analytics
9.2. Web Analytics
9.3. Social Media Analytics
9.4. Summary

CHAPTER X INTEGRATING DIGITAL MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

STRATEGIES

10.0. Learning Objectives

10.1. Integrating Digital and Social Media Strategies
10.2. Mobile Marketing
10.2.1. How to create a Mobile Marketing Strategy?
10.3. Viral Marketing
10.4. Inbound Marketing
10.5. Summary
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1 Comparison of Modern Marketing Scoring over Traditional Techniques
Table 1.2 Key differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Table 1.3 A Timeline for the Development of E-commerce Globally
Table 2.1 Traditional Consumer Behaviour Models
Table 3.1 Global Marketing Spending by Category ($ in Million)
Table 9.1 Web Analytics
Table 9.2 Specific Set of Measures and Sources
Table 9.3 Examples of Core Influencer Analytics

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Value Chain Processes
Figure 1.2 Comparison of E-models Mapped to Porter’s Business Value Chain
Figure 2.1 The ‘Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (EBM)’ Model
Figure 2.2 Traditional Areas Impacting CDP (Consumer Decision Process)
Figure 2.3 Impact of Digital Technology on CDP (Consumer Decision Process)
Figure 2.4 Marketing Intelligence through User Data
Figure 3.1 Share of Global Advertising Spend by Medium (2016)
Figure 3.2 Global Digital Ad Spend by Format (Magna Global)
Figure 3.3 US Digital Ad Spend by Format (eMarketer)
Figure 3.4 US Digital Ad Spending Share by Industry (eMarketer)
Figure 3.5 The Digital Marketing Map
Figure 3.6 Indian Advertising Landscape 2013
Figure 3.7 India Internet Population
Figure 3.8 Internet Contribution to GDP
Figure 3.9 Share of Major Industry Segments (FY 2018)
Figure 3.10 Internet Users
Figure 3.11 Total Media, Digital and Mobile Internet Ad Spending in India, 2015-2020
Figure 3.12 Digital Ad Revenues
Figure 4.1 Paid Results in SERP
Figure 4.2 Paid Search Engine Marketing
Figure 4.3 Google Search Engine
Figure 4.4 Bing Search Engine
Figure 4.5 Yahoo Search Engine
Figure 4.6 Google Partner – AOL Search Engine
Figure 4.7 Types of Search Network
Figure 5.1 Measuring social media performance through Twitter Analytics
Figure 5.2 Popular Social Networks
Figure 5.3 Popular and best practices of social networks figures
Figure 5.4 Guide to Google AdWords Match Types
Figure 5.5 Difference between organic and paid results in Keyword Advertising
Figure 5.6 Website Traffic
Figure 5.7 Session and Average Session Duration
Figure 5.8 Page Views (PVs)
Figure 5.9 Traffic by Source
Figure 5.10 Bounce Rate Vs Exit Rate
Figure 5.11 Cost Per Conversion / Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Figure 5.12 Average Cost Per Click
Figure 5.13 Bounce Rate
Figure 5.14 Average Conversion Rate
Figure 5.15 Returning vs. New Visitors
Figure 5.16 Average Click-Through Rate
Figure 5.17 Social Metrics Map
Figure 6.1 The Social Feedback Cycle
Figure 6.2 How Affiliate Marketing works technically
Figure 7.1 Elements of STP 2.0 Framework
Figure 7.2 Nielson’s PRIZM Segmentation Framework
Figure 8.1 Visualizing the Next-Generation Enterprise
Figure 9.1 Google Analytics
Figure 9.2 Page Exit Rate
Figure 9.3 Reffering Websites
Figure 9.4 Difference between Digital Analytics and Digital Marketing Analytics
Figure 9.5 Web Analytics
Figure 9.6 A visual chart of correlation
Figure 9.7 Sentiment, Source, and Volume
Figure 9.8 Social Media Analytics: Trend charts
Figure 9.9 Buzzstream Dashboard - Influencer Identification
 MBAD1935 DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
UNIT 1 DIGITAL MARKETING

MODULE I INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MARKETING

1.0 Learning Objectives
1.1. Evolution of Digital Marketing
1.1.1 From Traditional to Modern Marketing
1.1.2 Rise of the Internet: The Dotcom Era
1.1.3 Post Dotcom: Creation of Internet Business Models
1.1.4 Growth of ‘E’ Concepts: from E-Business to Advanced E-
Commerce
1.1.5 Digital – The Next Wave of Marketing
1.1.6 Summary MBAD1935 Digital and Social Media Marketing

1.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

 Understand the evolution of digital marketing
 Shift from traditional to modern marketing
 Differentiate between e-business and e-commerce
 Describe how future of marketing is about adapting digital
technology

1.1 EVOLUTION OF DIGITAL MARKETING

The practice of marketing has been known for millennia, but the term
"marketing" used to describe commercial activities buying and selling
products or services came into popular use in the late nineteenth century. In
1450, Gutenburg’s printing press began its operation, eventually leading to
mass production of flyers and brochures, with the advent of technology in
today’s world made automated posting of online advertisements has become
very common. Therefore, with the changing technology we have moved from
print media to social media along with shifts like customers’ social
orientations towards buying and the humongous information available at
hand to compare multiple products and brands, ‘modern marketing,’ a
phrase coined recently, has emerged steadily marking a new phase.

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 To understand the continuing debate surrounds the orientations or
philosophies that might have informed marketing practice at different
NOTES
periods of time. An orientation may be defined as "the type of activity or
subject that an organisation seems most interested in and gives most attention
to". In relation to marketing orientations, the term has been defined as a
"philosophy of business management" or "a corporate state of mind" or as an
"organisational culture". Let us go through the various stages of evolution
termed as ‘Marketing Eras’-
Trade era: products were handmade; hence supply was limited.
Production era: Focused on production, manufacturing, and efficiency. Also
to attainment of economies of scale, economies of scope, experience effects or
all three.
Product era: focus moved from quantity to quality and consumers laid more
emphasis on quality, performance, and innovative features.
Selling era: Aggressive selling to push products, often involving door-to-door
selling. Aggressive promotion, commoditization of products, leading to
saturation of consumer demand.
Marketing era: Thorough understanding of the customer's needs, wants and
behaviours should be the focal point of all marketing decisions. Marketing
efforts like sales, advertising, product management, pricing got integrated in
tune with the customer expectation.
Societal marketing era: This concept adopts the position that marketers have a
greater social responsibility than simply satisfying customers and providing
them with superior value.
Relationship era: Focus of relationship marketing is on a long-term
relationship that benefits both the company and the customer, investment in
the lifetime of relationships rather than single transactions by calculating
customer lifetime value (CLV), orientation on product benefits and/or
customer value, better customer service, commitment, quality and contact.
Digital era: also known as social media/mobile era, the focus is on real-time
and social exchange-based marketing where communication and social
interactions play a prime role.

1.1.1 FROM TRADITIONAL TO MODERN MARKETING

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 To appreciate the evolution of marketing through its history, we need
to first understand how marketing as a discipline was applied in a traditional
sense to its modern avatar.
The definition of marketing according to AMA (American Marketing
Association) as the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing,
promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services in order to create,
exchange and satisfy individual and organisational objectives.
The classic definition of marketing according to AMA (American
Marketing Association) is ‘the activity, set of institutions, and processes for
creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have
value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.’
If we compare and elaborate these definitions to compare and contrast
traditional marketing activities with how they are being managed in the
modern sense, we will see that technology has played a big part in this
transition.
 Premise of Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing, by definition, includes platforms and
techniques which were used as one-way communication tool rather than
interactive ones. Some of the historical tolls are listed below.
a) Print marketing (newspapers/magazines/direct mailers/catalogues)
provided daily news, classifieds, local and interest-based
dailies/periodicals/flyers which were monetized through promotions
and local advertisements
b) Broadcasting (television/radio) provided entertainment, knowledge,
and live events, primarily supported by television advertisements
c) Home marketing (billboards) has had great impact over decades in
terms of influencing consumers
d) One-to-one marketing (telemarketing) had been effective though
expensive
 Factors affecting 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

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 (for comparative estimate between traditional and modern marketing
areas, see Table 1.1). Key reasons for such shifts include:
NOTES
 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, Television, which had a
one-way information flow
 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 message
targeted to large audiences
Table 1.1 Comparison of Modern Marketing Scoring over Traditional
Techniques
Area of Comparison Traditional Marketing Modern Marketing
Interactivity Customers do not have All channels can
choice to choose provide interactive
message of their interest messages based on
customer interest
Engagement Difficult to track results Focus is on consumer
and impact of satisfaction and
marketing building a relationship

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Agility Delivering though Efficiency in terms of
physical channels takes ‘agility of service’ is
larger fulfilment time much higher
Conversions Closer to product Activities targeted to
awareness and interest more towards ‘end of
stages the funnel’ relating
them with consumption
Personalization Mass marketing High potential to
techniques with low customize offerings for
personal touch each customer
Brand imagery Difficult to build brand With rich media/video
imagery because of gaining prominence
platform limitations strong imagery is
possible
Social Involvement Not able to involve Ability to socialize and
social integration build trust by
features leveraging social
networks
 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)
Although modern marketing is surging ahead, traditional marketing methods
have their own importance while targeting niche customers and high-end
groups who are more used to personalized and value-added targeting.

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 1.1.2 RISE OF THE INTERNET: THE DOTCOM ERA
NOTES
The transition from traditional to modern marketing has occurred
over a period of time on the basis of fundamental technological changes
impacting marketing. Most of them, undoubtedly, have been the invention of
the internet and its wide application to business marketing. The concept of
the internet which began with the development of electronic computers in the
1950s in the United States impacted the basic manner in which information
would be stored and distributed globally through the concepts of
communication protocols and internet networking (wherein multiple
separate networks could be joined to a network of networks).
More important were the advancements which led to the creation of e-
mail and World Wide Web (WWW), which brought out the power and
influence of the internet and related it to common man’s needs for
communication and information. E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple
users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate with each other.
In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at CERN, with his invention of the World
Wide Web ensured that the practical application of this technology would be
made available to all. This followed by the inventions of web browsers like
Mosaic and Netscape, made sure that sitting in any corner of the world one
would be able to access data and receive information from any other part of
the globe. It liberated the way information would be shared and marketing
would be promoted in the coming years.
 World Wide Web Leading to an Explosion of Information Share
The invention of the internet led to a large-scale economic boom that never
witnessed before. The evolution of WWW brought the development of HTTP
(Hypertext Transfer Protocol) which is the foundation of data communication
for the World Wide Web. HTTP functions as a request-response protocol in
the client-server computing model. Typically for any particular data to
appear on any web page, a request is placed by the client to the server using
an HTTP protocol. For example, a web browser like Netscape could be the
client and a music player running on a computer can be the server.

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 The emergence of Websites and the Concept of URL
World Wide Web started facilitating the display of text and images through
websites which were a set of static web pages containing information useful
for their target audience. A website is typically hosted on at least one web
server and is accessible through an Internet address known as the Uniform
Resource Locator or the URL. All the websites together constitute what we
call the World Wide Web. Websites contain web pages which are typically
documents in plain text with specified formatting instructions of Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML).
 Dotcom Era and the Phenomenon of Modern Marketing
Modern marketing began to create and use web pages to build virtual
information centers for their products and brands primarily for information
dissemination and also to become the first movers to adopt technology as a
part of their marketing activities. In that period, the entire scale of activities
and reach of the internet for marketing was still not well established, even
difficult to envision. A unique phenomenon that occurred with the rise of
WWW related to what we call the dotcom era or more popularly referred to
as the Dotcom Bubble.
With websites started to be developed at a rapid scale, each individual/firm
would need to create a unique name or URL which would become the
address for its online venture. Dotcom (.com), the last part of the URL and a
short form for commerce, indicated that the companies were engaged in
internet commerce. As it became clearer to companies, investors, and
speculators that internet was going to be the next biggest medium for selling
and marketing, several companies started setting up virtual shops in the hope
that a large part of their business would start functioning online through
these websites.
This led to multiple initial public offerings (IPOs) in succession wherein
businesses were throwing huge sums of money on a relatively new medium
for which they had little knowledge and no experience. The valuations of
these companies were based on nothing more than just business ideas
scribbled on a piece of paper. The basic principle was that investors did not
want to lose out on a chance to be a part of the gold rush, even when they had

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 no understanding of how or by when these investments would turn into a
profit.
NOTES
On 11 March 2000, Nasdaq, the key stock index for Wall Street witnessed a
tumble of technology shares’ valuation, following which the net worth of a
large of number of dotcom companies started to fall rapidly. Nasdaq
experienced big falls as the business community realized that most of these
technology companies were merely bubbles waiting to burst and blew away
billions of dollars with them. This led to the era which we now commonly
known as the dotcom bust, post which a lot of companies understood that
digital was to play a supportive role in marketing and sales would primarily
be driven through physical models, a thought that would eventually change
in the subsequent decade.
Throughout this mayhem, the biggest positive takeaway was that digital
marketing as it is known to be today got defined and established. Many
interesting business ideas came forth, which a decade later, would flourish to
actually become internet behemoths.

1.1.3 POST DOTCOM: CREATION OF INTERNET BUSINESS MODELS

As discussed in the last section, even while the dotcom bubble was
taking technology stocks down, a lot of positives were being registered on the
Internet timeline. In 1995, Amazon.com bookstore had appeared; Netscape
IPO was launched, and Sergey Brin and Larry Page were planning the future
Google. Microsoft Internet Explorer appeared in 1996 and Hotmail came up
as the first web e-mail site whereby internet started to impact the daily lives
of its consumers laying the foundation of the business to consumer (B2C) as a
prominent online business model.
By 1997, people in the United States were looking at more than one
million sites on their screens and blogging as an activity was beginning to
attain prominence. The next year saw Mozilla come up with an open-source
browser and Google answer more than 10,000 search queries a day. All of
these were positive and stable milestones which saw internet take its baby
steps in an environment of huge frenzy and over-hyped expectations.
The emergence of Microsoft as the most dominant browser along with
AOL’s purchase of Netscape were activities at the peak of the dotcom bubble
which had significant impact post-2000, with Microsoft and Google

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dominating the technology landscape. The biggest impact at this point of time
was the emergence of search as a broad area of research where rapid strides
led to the expansion of the web as a critical marketing platform and Google as
its most dominating player.
 Growth and Impact of Search Technologies
The biggest impact which the internet had on marketing can be clearly
attributed to the rise of search technologies. The main aim of a search engine
is to organize the internet and provide a coherent structure for easy access to
information on specific keywords. Research on search computing had begun
as early as 1990 with the launch of WebCrawler, the first full-text Web search
engine, in 1994. Before WebCrawler, only web pages were searched and this
was the first search engine which was ‘all-text’ crawler-based and allowed
users to search for any word on any web page. Also in 1994, Lycos was
launched and it became the first major commercial endeavor of its kind.
The following years saw the emergence of a lot of competing for
search engines including Excite, Infoseek, Inktomi, Altavista, Yahoo, the last
two becoming industry leaders in web directories and web search engines
respectively. Around 2001, Google with its proprietary ‘Relevancy Ranking’
approach was close to disrupting the search engine business and, in the
process, went on to create a commercial engine which made it the center of
internet activity. Google’s Page Rank patent was not only a technological
revolution but also a business innovation which changed the way marketing
could be approached and profitable business models developed on the
internet.
Post-2000, there have been multiple other technological advances,
apart from search, which has impacted businesses run on the internet. Key
ones of those include the impact of file-sharing technology, integration of
communication services, growth of design—user interface (UI) technologies,
and the emergence of social collaboration tools. We would touch upon a few
of these in detail to understand their right impact on the growth of digital
marketing.

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  From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0: The Changing Nature of Web
With the emergence of multiple technology streams beyond the dot-com era,
NOTES
it is important to trace how the nature of the web transformed over the years
and how it impacted internet commerce and marketing.
The term Web 2.0, which was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999, was
popularized by Tim O’Reilly at the O’Reilly Media Conference in 2004. It
came to signify the cumulative changes in the manner web pages were made
and built from their earlier avatar in the pre-dot-com era. Web 1.0 came to be
known as the era when a vast majority of users simply acted as consumers of
content and content creators were few (Cormode and Krishnamurthy, 2008).
Table 1.2 outlines the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
Table 1.2 Key differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Areas of Comparison Web 1.0 Web 2.0
Information Discovery Read-only web Read-write web
Search and browse Publish and subscribe
Stickiness Syndication
Information Retrieval Transactional Relationship
Information Commercial Micro-aggregators
Aggregation aggregators Web applications
Web forms Tagging (folksonomy)
Directories
(Taxonomy)
Marketing and Selling Push; Contextual Conversational;
Page views Personal
Low targeting Cost per click
Individual targeting
Content Control Publishers Content Authors
Singularity Collaboration
Portals Really Simple
Syndication
Content Structure Domain and pages Tagged objects
Static site Dynamic site

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The shift from Web1.0 to Web2.0 and now even extending to Version 3.0, has
had a major impact on how marketing through the internet has evolved and
continues to do so, thus opening newer avenues to reach out to and meet the
ever-changing demands of the consumer.

1.1.4 GROWTH OF ‘E’ CONCEPTS: FROM E-BUSINESS TO ADVANCED

E-COMMERCE

The rapid rise of the internet and its effects on business at large can only be
appreciated once we understand the influence, extent, and impact of multiple
technologies at the business value chain level. A value chain is a chain of
activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to
deliver a valuable product or service for the market.
Essentially, as defined by Michael Porter in his understanding of value
chains, there are five key primary activities, (as listed below), performed by
any firm towards reaching its goals of value and revenue creation.
(a) Inbound Logistics includes relationships with suppliers and all the
activities required to receive store, and to disseminate inputs.
(b) Operations refer to all the activities required to transform inputs into
outputs (products and services).
(c) Outbound Logistics includes all the activities required to collect,
store, and distribute the output.
(d) Marketing and Sales refer to activities that inform buyers about
products and services induce them to purchase, and facilitate their
purchases.
(e) Service includes all the activities required to have the product or
service work effectively for the buyer after it is sold and delivered.
To understand and trace the impact of technology on these stages, it is
imperative to map the processes enhanced by technology across each of them.
This would also help us appreciate the differences in the definitions of terms
such as e-business, e-commerce, e-marketing, online marketing, or the most
recently coined term, digital marketing. In all these cases, ‘E’ stands for
‘Electronic Networks’ and describes the application of electronic network
technology—including internet and electronic data interchange (EDI)—to
improve and change business processes.

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 The reason for application of Porter’s Value Chain model is that it
explains in a single consolidated view, the coverage of each of the e-models
NOTES
and why they are essentially different even though they are used
interchangeably in multiple contexts across business discussions and texts.
That said, there are variations in the way these concepts have been explained
across various standard marketing primers and one would benefit from
taking this explanation as an instance of such attempts.

Figure 1.1 Value Chain Processes

Source: Michael E. Porter (1985)

 Understanding E-Models
To understand what each e-model encompasses, we would need to map the
key physical process areas as described in Porter’s model and understand the
extent and coverage of technology on each of them in a holistic manner. To
understand, let us take an example of the most ubiquitous internet term ‘e-
business’ whose impact covers each of the four process areas outlined in
Fig.1.2 to appreciate how it impacted business in general and became the
pioneer of future e-models.
E-business: The term ‘e-business’ was coined by IBM’s marketing and
internet teams in 1996 and was looked at as a key differentiated market
offering. It involved the application of information and communication
technologies (ICT) to support all the physical processes and activities of any
business looking to go virtual.

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Here are some examples of the kind of processes that impact across the value
chain which form the basis of any e-business model.
(a) Impact on procurement function: management of physical
procurement through IT, for example, Supply Chain System
(b) Impact on production function: improvements in internal production
or resourcing, for example, production/knowledge portal
(c) Impact on delivery function: technology for internal logistics, for
example, intermediaries’ collaboration portal
(d) Impact on consumption function: integration with internal customer
management tools, for example, CRM platforms

Figure 1.2 Comparison of E-models Mapped to Porter’s Business Value

Chain
These examples illustrate the key objective of ‘e-business,’ which was set up
to help the transition of the physical processes of any business to make them
more technology-enabled and efficient. The key point to note here is that ‘e-
commerce’ as a concept has a more internal focus to transform internal
processes and tools and enable them for better external collaborations.

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  The Concept of E-commerce Follows E-business
E-commerce is considered to be the sales aspect of e-business and involves a
NOTES
wide variety of internet-based business models. Typically, an e-commerce
strategy incorporates various elements of the marketing mix to drive users to
a website or an online marketplace (like eBay) for the purpose of purchasing a
product or service.
Baourakis defines it as: ‘The trading of goods and information through the
internet’ (Baourakis, Kourgiantakis, and Migdalas, 2002).
The major difference between e-commerce and e-business is that while e-
business is aimed at improvements in efficiency and productivity, e-
commerce is a more revenue-oriented concept which focusses on bridging
internal and external systems through improved collaboration across all
commerce-oriented functions, from procurement to delivery.
As in the case of ‘E-business,’ let us go through some examples of e-
commerce implementation across the value chain which would clarify the
differences more clearly.
(a) Impact on procurement function: cross-business integration with
portals/systems of other suppliers, for example, portal-based
procurement
(b) Impact on production function: integration of common production
facilities, for example, value-added production chains
(c) Impact on delivery function: collaboration with external delivery
platforms, for example, web-based marketplaces
(d) Impact on consumption function: improvement in
transaction/sales/payment-focussed processes, for example, customer
payment platform
As can be seen above, e-commerce has a stronger orientation towards
technology investments for commerce and better collaboration with the
internal - external tools to carry out the sales process.
As can be seen in Table 1.3, e-commerce in India had started with the
launch of IndiaMART in 1996, almost during the same time as the rise of
the dotcom era. The recent growth in e-commerce had started with the
rise of Flipkart in 2007 by two ex-Amazon employees which gave Indian

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 customers the first taste of how orders, placed through a website, can be
fulfilled efficiently, in time, and of the expected quality.
Table 1.3 A Timeline for the Development of E-commerce Globally
1979: Michael Aldrich demonstrates the first online shopping system.
1981: Thomson Holidays, UK, is the first business-to-business online
shopping system installed.
1982: Minitel was introduced across the nation in France by France Telecom
and was used for online ordering.
1984: Gateshead SIS/Tesco is the first B2C online shopping system and Mrs
Snowball, aged 72, is the first online home shopper.
1984: In April 1984, CompuServe launches the electronic mall in the USA
and Canada. It is the first comprehensive electronic commerce service.
1992: 'Book Stacks Unlimited' in Cleveland opens a commercial sale
website (www.books.com) selling books online with credit card
processing.
1994: Netscape releases the 'Navigator' browser in October under the code
name Mozilla. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in the late 1994 with SSL
encryption that made transactions secure.
1994: Ipswitch IMail Server becomes the first software available online for
sale and immediate download via a partnership between Ipswitch,
Inc. and Open Market.
1994: 'Ten Summoner's Tales' by Sting becomes the first secure online
purchase.
1995: Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24-
hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio, started
it broadcasting. Dell and Cisco begin to aggressively use the internet
for commercial transactions. eBay is founded by a computer
programmer Pierre Omidyar as Auction Web.
1996: IndiaMART, a B2B marketplace was established in India.
1996: ECPlaza, a B2B marketplace was established in Korea.
1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for
printing from the web.

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 1999: Alibaba Group is established in China. Business.com was sold for $7.5
million to e-companies, which was purchased in 1997 for $149,000.
NOTES
The peer-to-peer file sharing software Napster was launched
2000: The dotcom bubble burst
2001: Alibaba.com achieved profitability in December 2001.
2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion. Niche retail companies like
Wayfair and Netshops are founded with the concept of selling
products through several targeted domains, rather than a central
portal.
2003: Amazon.com posts its first yearly profit.
2004: DHgate.com,China's first online B2B transaction platform is
established, forcing other B2B sites to move away from the 'yellow
pages' model.
2007: Business.com was acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million.
2009: Zappos.com was acquired by Amazon.com for $928 million. Retail
Convergence, an operator of private sale website RueLaLa.com,
was acquired by GSI Commerce for $180 million, plus up to $170
million in earn-out payments based on the performance through
2012.
2010: Groupon reportedly rejects a $6 billion offer from Google. Instead, the
group buying websites went ahead with an IPO on 4 November 2011.
It was the largest IPO since Google.
2011: Quidsi.com, the parent company of Diapers.com, was acquired by
Amazon.com for $500 million in cash plus $45 million in debt and
other obligations. GSI Commerce, a company specializing in creating,
developing and running online shopping sites for brick and mortar
businesses, was acquired by eBay for $2.4 billion.
2012: US ecommerce and the online retail sales were projected to reach $226
billion, an increase of 12 per cent over 2011.
2014: Overstock.com processes over $1 million in Bitcoin sales. India's e-
commerce industry is estimated to have grown more than 30 per cent
from a year earlier to $12.6 billion in 2013.
2014: Apple Pay, a prominent payment system in the form of a mobile
app that mimics a credit or debit card, launches.

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2014: Jet.com, an online marketplace, launches.
2015: Google launches Android Pay, a prominent payment system similar
to Apple Pay.
2015: Pinterest enters the e-commerce scene by adding Buyable Pins, a
feature that allows users to sell their pins to other users.
2016: Walmart announces it will be acquiring Jet.com for $3 billion.
2016: Alibaba announces it will be acquiring a controlling stake in Lazada
Group for around US$1 billion.
2018: Flipkart is acquired by Walmart.
2020: Increase in demand for Face Masks, Sanitizers and Gloves due to
COVID-19 across online shopping sites.

 Difference between E-Business and E-Commerce

While some use e-commerce and e-business interchangeably, they are distinct
concepts. In e-commerce, information and communications technology (ICT)
is used in inter-business or inter-organizational transactions (transactions
between and among firms/organizations) and in B2C transactions
(transactions between firms/organizations and individuals).
In e-business, on the other hand, ICT is used to enhance one’s business. It
includes any process that a business organization (either a for-profit,
governmental, or non-profit entity) conducts over a computer-mediated
network. Apart from the above-mentioned processes, from procurement to
sales, e-business can also include enhancement of internal management
processes like employee services, training, internal information-sharing,
video-conferencing, and recruitment which help improve internal
productivity.
Moving ahead from business and commerce, the most commonly used marketing term
to denote any form of internet operations is e-marketing. By definition, e-
marketing involves utilization of electronic medium to perform marketing
activities and achieve the desired marketing objectives for an organization.
This term is typically misused for e-business and e-commerce and, as per proper
definition, should also be used to denote and represent marketing-related activities.
The focus of e-marketing is to facilitate the transition of physical marketing
and sales-based activities to a more automated, technology-supported system

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 which can drive the product discovery process. Two examples which make
the concept of e-marketing clearer include:
NOTES
(a) Delivery of products/services through collaborations with external
partners, for example, logistics platform implementation
(b) Improvement of internal sales and marketing systems for stronger
customer connect, for example, loyalty automation platforms
Before we move on to explain ‘Online Marketing,’ we should understand
how it differs from e-marketing. Typically, e-marketing has a broader
coverage which includes not only online/internet marketing aspects but also
more enterprise-specific marketing areas like e-CRM, digital customer data,
which gives it a broader scope than both of them. This is also the reason why
in the e-models comparison diagram, e-marketing has been shown in the
traditional bucket along with e-business and e-commerce.

 The Concept of Online/Internet Marketing

Online/Internet marketing started with reference to the internet and e-mail-
based aspects of physical marketing and went on to grow and represent
activities aimed at transitioning all marketing activities to web and online
platforms—most primary of them being web-portals, e-mails, and blogs.
Along with the transition to the web, the other most crucial characteristic of
online marketing was the collaborations which started developing with other
top platforms/websites holding inventory for commerce including
Amazon/E-bay. These collaborations formed the basis of the growth of
online marketing to its present avatar called digital marketing whose
mainstay is deep technology and multi-platform marketing engagement.

1.1.5 DIGITAL – THE NEXT WAVE OF MARKETING

The growth of online marketing and the proliferation of new media platforms
and communication channels have led to the evolution of marketing to its
present form most commonly known as digital marketing.
Digital marketing if explained on the lines on the Porter Value Chain concept
would include consumer and data-based technology implementations which
aim at introducing and integrating newer technologies for a more data-
oriented highly targeted marketing which is personalized for every
consumer.

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Key examples which bring forth the power of digital marketing in the context
of the Porter model include:
(a) Delivery function: Collaboration with advanced technology
intermediaries, for example, Marketing Automation Tools for Lead
Generation/Reverse Auction Platforms
(b) Consumption function: Implementation of digital marketing
platforms, channels, and concepts, for example, Search Marketing,
Display Advertising, Social Media Marketing, etc.

 Definition of Digital and What It Means for Business

Digital by definition involves storing and transferring data in machine-
readable language by conversion into binary values of ‘zero’ and ‘one.’ It
involves a shift from the way data, be it audio, video, and images were stored
in the traditional mode (analog) to the manner in which it is presently stored
in the digital world.
For business verticals of all types, moving to digital helps improve the
efficiency of operations and support transfer of more data at lower costs and
bandwidths. It also optimizes the move to paperless processes, improves data
procurement and delivery functions, and helps better integration with end-
consumer technologies to enhance customer interaction and service.
(a) Automation: includes automation of various functions to enable faster
and cheaper ways of performing key business activities
(b) Digitization: involves the conversion of physical assets and processes
to port them on digital platforms to be utilized by stakeholders and
delivered to customers
(c) Collaboration: helps integrate and share knowledge through a set of
tools and practices to provide customers with a multi-channel digital
experience.
Apart from the above elements, other digital support functions, which are
essential to digital transformation, including analytics, cloud (infrastructure),
data management, and communication-related technologies.
Digital marketing typically corresponds to consumption function, wherein
the main scope of this book lies. The importance of explaining digital

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 transformation elements is to help visualize it as a part of the overall digital
transformation strategy.
NOTES
1.1.6. SUMMARY

We learnt about the evolution of digital marketing, how it grew from the
traditional to the modern era, passing the pre and post-dotcom phases. We
realized the role of the internet in supporting the internet-based business
models and the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. The above sections
also provided an in-depth understanding and differences between the often
confusing ‘E’ concepts and lead to an understanding of the core concept of
digital through the digital transformation model.
QUESTIONS
1. Which factors are responsible for the transition of Traditional
Marketing to Modern Marketing?
2. How does modern marketing score over traditional marketing
techniques?
3. What are the key areas of comparison between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0?
4. What are the difference between e-commerce, e-business, and e-
marketing?
CASE STUDY 1.1: Planning a Digital Campaign
‘Kafee Sari Coffee’ (A lot of Coffee) is a local start-up serving 100 different
types of coffees from around the world. The owner is a coffee connoisseur
(expert) in the coffee beverage sector, having exposure to coffee preparation
and selling in at least 18 countries across Europe, South America and North
America, as also the Middle East and parts of Africa. He has access to sources
of coffee varieties from around the world, and desires to deliver a superior of
coffee consumption experience in major cities of Gujarat. He does not want to
engage into traditional advertising tools, as he believes in the capability of
digital media to reach out to his target audience.
(a) Design the Digital Marketing Strategy and Plan for the venture.
(b) Which digital marketing platforms (do not include social media) would
you use, and for which purpose?
FURTHER READING
1. Vandana Ahuja, Digital Marketing, Oxford University Press, 2015

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 2. Puneet Singh Bhatia, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, 2 nd Edition,
Pearson, 2020
3. Dave Chaffey, Digital Marketing – Strategy, Implementation and
Practice, 7th Edition, Pearson, 2019
4. Philip Kotler, Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital, April
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
5. Ian Dodson, The Art of Digital Marketing, 2016, John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.,
6. Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry, Digital Marketing for Dummies,
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
7. Scott Anderson Miller, Inbound Marketing for Dummies, 2015, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
8. Stephanie Diamond, Digital Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, 2019,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
9. Seema Gupta, Digital Marketing Paperback, 2017, McGraw Hill
Education
10. Jennifer Grappone, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
Paperback, 2011, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,
11. Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated
Approach to Online Marketing Paperback, 2 nd Edition, 2019, British
Library
12. Swaminathan T.N and Karthik Kumar, Digital Marketing: From
Fundamentals to Future Paperback, 2019, Cengage Books

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 MODULE 2 THE DIGITAL CONSUMER AND ONLINE COMMUNITY
NOTES
STRUCTURE
2.0. Learning objectives
2.1. Consumer Behaviour on the Internet
2.2. Evolution on consumer behaviour models
2.2.1. Impact of digital technology on consumer behaviour
2.2.2. Attributes of online buying behaviour
2.2.3. Influence of the Web Experience
2.2.4. Marketing Intelligence from user’s online data
2.3. Online Community
2.4. Summary
2.0. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Understand the consumer behaviour on the internet.
 Explain the evolution of consumer behaviour models.
 Describe the impact of digital technology on buying patterns.
 Describe the attributes of online buying behaviour.
2.1. CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ON THE INTERNET
Consumer behaviour and related studies have formed an integral part of
marketing as it is crucial to understand the motivations and factors which
lead to a consumer buying any specific brand over another and choosing
certain websites, platforms, and channels over and over again for purchases.

First, it is important to understand the difference between two terms which

are often confused and substituted for each other—the consumer and
customer. In marketing parlance, the term customer refers to the purchaser of
the product whereas consumer refers to the end-user of the product or
service. The simplest example relates to baby products wherein a mother is a
customer while the actual consumer is the baby for whom the product has
been bought. In several cases, the consumer can also act as a customer, when
he/she is singularly involved in searching, evaluating, and buying the
product, and finally consuming it.

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Why is this distinction between the two definitions important? It is because of
the different strategies which need be applied by brands to know whom to
exactly market and who is the influencer (also termed as an advocate) to buy
the product on behalf of the consumer. In a lot of cases, the consumer would
leave the selection process to the customer and it is actually customer
behavior which marketers need to track and comprehend to target all
marketing activities towards him/her.
For ease of understanding and non-repetition, marketers typically use the
word ‘consumer behavior’ while making a holistic consumer targeting
strategy as it encompasses all intermediaries and influencers who might
affect the purchase decision.

2.2. EVOLUTION OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR MODELS

But even before all of this occurs, a marketer has to be completely clear and
focused on which consumer segments he/she is planning to target the
product portfolio and which consumer segments are the most important for
the product. And, to do that successfully, he/she needs to understand the
basic concepts of consumer behavior and how it varies across the emerging
digital channels.
According to ‘Schiffman and Kanuk’, the leading authority on Consumer
behavior, this marketing field is defined as “the behavior that consumers
display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of
products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs.”
It would be important here to understand that it is not only the consumer’s
personal thoughts and dispositions which matter during product selection
but also the influences and interplay of external forces like people, ideas,
environment (social, political, and economic), which impact a consumer’s
mindset towards a particular product interaction.
Over the years, there have been multiple models developed by different
researchers to explain consumer behavior process and factors impacting it.
Traditional consumer behavior models, which were developed, drew their
origins from varied disciplines.
Although the above models explained a generalist view of how consumer
behavior works, they were limited in their approach, composition, and lacked
a broader perspective.

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 This led to the development of the modern consumer behavior models, the
most influential of which included ‘The Howard Sheth Model of Buying
NOTES
Behavior,’ ‘The Nicosia Model,’ and the ‘Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard
(EBM)’ Model. The Howard Sheth model was pivotal in bringing forth the
‘Theory of Buyer Behavior’ which provided “a sophisticated integration of
various social, psychological, and marketing influences on consumer choice
into a coherent sequence of information processing.” The model though
revolutionary in its approach and construct was quite complex and included
variables which were not too well defined and difficult to measure. For this
reason, it underwent improvements in the form of new models, the most
applied among them being the EBM model which we would discuss in detail
(see Fig. 2.1).
Table 2.1 Traditional Consumer Behaviour Models

Traditional
Definition
Models

Economic Believes that man being self-interested, makes decisions based

Model upon his ability to maximize utility while expending
minimum effort

Learning Marketers develop an association of products with strong

Model drivers and cues which lead to positive reinforcement through
learning

Psychological Based on concepts of psychology, this view believes that

Model behavior is subject to instinctive forces or drives which act
outside conscious thoughts. The biggest contribution to this
model has been the theories of Sigmund Freud with his
concepts of Id, Super Ego, and Ego

Sociological This model believes that an individual is part of an institution

Model called society which influences his thoughts and actions and
he, in turn, also influences the society

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Figure 2.1 The ‘Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (EBM)’ Model

The ‘Engel, Blackwell and Miniard (EBM)’ Model encompasses all types of
need-satisfying behavior for a consumer, including a wide range of
influencing factors and different types of problem-solving processes. This
model has been influential since it has undergone multiple revisions and has
included works of other researchers too.
The model consists of four key stages:
1. Information input stage: This stage includes all the inputs and stimuli
from marketing (like advertisements in television, radio, newspapers,
internet, word of mouth, etc.) and non-marketing sources which form
the basis for information processing in the next stage.
The stage also includes additional external information search which the
consumer conducts, especially when not enough information is available
from memory or when post-purchase dissonance occurs.
2. Information processing stage: The information processing stage is
similar to the consumer funnel, which involves the consumer getting
exposed to the marketing message, paying attention to it,

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 comprehending its intent, proactively or subliminally accepting it, and
retaining in memory to make a decision the next time he/she is
NOTES
exposed to a similar message.
3. Decision process stage: Involves the following key stages which are
commonly looked at as the Consumer Decision Process (CDP)
Model steps. These have become quite important since, with the
advent of the internet, the way consumers perform the following
activities has been completely altered.
A. Need recognition: With the availability of multiple touchpoints to
various products through the internet, the need recognition stage
has expanded from being just a reactive need-based model to a
more proactive instant-purchase phenomenon.
B. Search: In contrast to search pertaining to a more physical context
of moving around and searching for a product, in the present
times, the focus has shifted to an all-pervasive information search
model which is accessible anytime and throws up amazing
amounts of data for pre-purchase evaluation.
C. Pre-purchase alternative evaluation: It involves the ability which
a consumer has in the digital age to compare multiple alternatives
before buying and also points to the opportunity marketers have
of influencing a customer towards their product, even seconds
before a customer is planning to complete the final purchase.
D. Purchase: It involves the act of finally purchasing the product.
Traditionally, trust has played a major factor for customers
purchasing online, a phenomenon which is undergoing rapid
change with consumers increasingly becoming more comfortable
with buying online (as is evident from the increased online
penetration of e-commerce sites and their rising revenues).
E. Consumption: Relates to the actual usage of the product bought
and includes important concepts like the lag time between an
online purchase and the actual time when a customer receives the
product at home/office and consumes it.
F. Post-purchase evaluation: It is the stage when the consumer
decides if he was satisfied with the purchase and the likeliness of a

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 second buy or a referral to others on a trial of that product. This is
a very crucial stage for the marketer as true brand loyalty
originates or dwindles in this stage.
G. Divestment: The final stage of the CDP model involves the
consumer divesting the product which is not dependent on the
purchase channel or buys a pattern.
4. Variables influencing the decision process: Includes two broad
categories
A. Environmental influences: It includes factors like culture, social
classes, personal influences, family, and other situations which impact
a consumer’s decision process throughout the CDP stages.
B. Individual differences: This includes more individual-driven
factors which differentiate one kind of consumer from another, based
on factors like consumer resources, motivation and involvement,
knowledge, attitudes, personality, values, and lifestyle all of which
could have a huge impact on a consumer’s final decision towards a
product or service.
With an understanding of the evolution of consumer behavior and key
models which have shaped it over the years, we move forward to understand
the impact digital technologies have had on decisions and motivations of
online buyers and how the internet has impacted consumer behavior and
changed the marketing landscape.

2.2.1. IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON CONSUMER

BEHAVIOUR

Before we move ahead to understand the impact of digital on consumer

behavior, it is important to know the difference between a regular consumer
and one who is online. What are the characteristics which separate these two
types of consumers and why is it useful for marketers to give importance to
digital consumers?
A digital consumer has the following characteristics which differentiate
him/her from the traditional (offline) consumer and helps support the
marketer’s cause.
Higher potential for profiling: Technology now provides the possibility to
map each move of the online customer, resulting in a much higher potential

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 to gather data points on consumer’s profile like location, number of visits,
type of products bought, time spent on different webpages, product browsing
NOTES
history (before final buy), etc., typically adding to the overall information on
specific customer sets.
Development of consumer personas: The concept of consumer personas has
become quite crucial and is widely applied across the advertising and
marketing industry in present times. It refers to creating fictional characters
to represent specific customer segments and their needs.
Consumer personas help marketers understand the kind of products and
services which can be targeted to specific personality groups wherein their
behavior towards purchase has already been tested and measured and
products are specifically developed to target to their tastes and likings.
Possibility to gather unsolicited feedback: With online customers sharing
comments and reviews across multiple social networking sites and with
advanced tools being developed to analyze consumer sentiment through text
analytics, marketers are now endowed with tools which can help them gather
feedback in an unsolicited manner to understand the real preferences and
attitudes of customers towards products which cannot be gauged even
through well-organized focus groups.
Availability of real-time expert/peer influence: Digital customers who in
their offline avatar have high difficulty to gather opinions and views of
experts and friends, can obtain these in a much more directed fashion online
and marketers can influence consumer decisions through investments in
content marketing and targeted messaging even during the last-mile steps of
a consumer who is about to convert a purchase.
Use online data to target loyal offline customers: With digital channels,
there is a high possibility to gather preferences and attitudes of consumers
who might already be loyal customers in the offline world.
With marketers now having the ability to track and map their traditionally
loyal customers and gather online data, they can use this knowledge to
provide customized experiences to customers who are buying products in
real stores.

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Knowing that online customers are distinctly important to marketers, let us
see how marketers are using multiple online elements to influence their CDP
(Consumer Decision Process), and thus, getting more leverage.
Let’s discuss a classic example of buying a pair of branded jeans, an activity
which is quite normal in the traditional marketing world but one which has
added a lot of consumer-influencing elements to it with the advent of online
channels.
We have divided the influences into two types—passive and active. Passive
influences are those on which the consumer does not have much control and
he receives them in an unsolicited manner, though he might be influenced by
them. Active influences, on the other hand, are the ones which a consumer
actively seeks out while he/she is evaluating or finalizing a purchase.

Figure 2.2 Traditional Areas Impacting CDP (Consumer Decision Process)

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NOTES

Figure 2.3 Impact of Digital Technology on CDP (Consumer Decision Process)

In contrast, if we look at the impact of digital technologies on CDP, we shall

see addition of multiple marketing channels which the marketer now has at
his/her disposal to impact a consumer’s behaviour and attitude towards
his/her brands. Some of these passive and active influences brought about by
digital technology can be explained as below.
Passive Digital Influences
Influencing through more marketing channels: With digital technology
providing far more targeting options, marketers can use a mix like a search
marketing, native content, e-mail communication, affiliate marketing, etc.,
which were not available traditionally.
Influencing through customized content: Marketers, with their knowledge
of consumer personas and individual data from previous buys of an
individual, have the ability to target through the use of customized content.
Such content may be based on consumer’s background, buying behavior, and
even, in certain cases, cultural and social affiliations which could be very
powerful.
Influencing through targeted/re-targeted advertising: By knowing the set of
customers who have visited the brand page/e-commerce listing, for example,

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of a particular jeans brand, one can set a retargeting campaign to try and
influence conversions in the next couple of days for customers who showed
an interest but did not follow thereafter.
Influencing through social networks: With the concept of customer
recommendations being inserted for every product available online,
marketers are making use of conversations and online relations which a
consumer might most respond to while purchasing the brand.
Influencing through real-time information: Marketers can follow and use
knowledge of customer locations to pass on real-time information based on
the stage where the customer might be in the consumer funnel.
Active Digital Influences
Influencing through social communities: A jeans brand which has its own
Facebook page and has built a loyal community around it has much more
chances of being able to provide relevant messaging and imagery to its large
socially driven audience.
Influencing through expert information: With the integration of quick chat
and ‘fashion guru’ features which a lot of brands are integrating with their
websites, consumers can actively interact, seek information, and get
influenced to buy a particular brand.
There are even sites available wherein consumers can compare products
across categories and marketers can sponsor such sites for stronger mind-
share.
Influencing through product customization: With technology
advancements, features have been developed by apparel brands wherein a
consumer can superimpose a picture to see how he/she would look in a
particular jean’s style and color, thus giving a high level of personalized
touch to the buying experience.
Influencing through data-driven promotions: Marketers can also avail of the
knowledge of their traditional customers to offer them discounts at the last
mile-stage of a product purchase, which is only possible with the use of
extensive technology.

2.2.2. ATTRIBUTES OF ONLINE BUYING BEHAVIOUR

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 With a good understanding of the impact of digital technology, let us now
study the key attributes of online buying behavior and what motivates
NOTES
customers to buy online.
We had looked at the key-value elements which create ‘digital value’ for any
online buying. Those included convenience, variety, cost, aesthetics,
communication, and customization. Lewis and Lewis (1997) in their studies
have spotted five different kinds of web users:
Directed information-seekers: These users look for information about
specific products. Their intention is not to buy but to search for information.
Undirected information-seekers: These users regularly browse and scan
websites by following hyperlinks. They are referred to as ‘surfers’ because
they look around the websites to find something interesting.
Directed buyers: These users visit a website with the intention to buy
products online. They search for specific products and make the transaction.
Entertainment seekers: These users visit websites that offer entertainment
features, such as quizzes, puzzles, and multi-player games.
Bargain hunters: This type of users search for special offers such as free
samples or discounts.
This classification helps us realize that although we might see a large number
of visits to certain websites, it is also very important to understand the
behaviors and motives of key consumer segments visiting those sites which
will eventually determine the success or failure of the business.
To understand better how to guide potential consumers who are always
present at the top of the consumer funnel and do not trickle to the conversion
stage, we would need to understand important influencing factors or
attributes which any online marketing activity must offer to be a success.
The three key attributes identified across major studies done in this area
include:
Price: Price is one of the earlier attributes for online buying. It has priority
even before convenience since for a long time buying online was not possible
because of the unavailability of broadband and the absence of the plastic card
culture—considerations which still hold true in developing counties like
India.

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It has been studied that consumers started going to internet primarily to
compare prices and see if cheaper versions of the product they intended to
buy were available online.
With a multitude of price comparison sites available today and several e-
commerce companies leveraging logistics-based savings, the price has
definitely become the key attribute for online buying.
It has also been responsible for another much-talked-about online trend,
impulsive buying, wherein shoppers who become quite comfortable with
online buying do not even check prices and at times overpay for products
and services they might not have even tried to look at earlier. This
unanticipated trend though has proved to be quite useful for marketers.
Trust: Monsuwe et al (in 2004) had concluded that because the internet was a
new way of shopping, initially it was looked at as being risky by consumers.
This was primarily because of the absence of a salesperson who was their
major source of trust, as well as because of the worry of payments going
through and goods (once paid for) reaching the consumer in delayed time.
But companies like Amazon (globally) and Flipkart (in India) changed this
perception to their advantage trying to assure customers that online could
also stand for trust.
This was possible through the relentless pursuit of perfection across all areas
of the consumer purchase lifecycle, from secure buying to warehousing, to
final delivery, replicating this experience over and over. Flipkart even went to
the extent of providing the ‘Cash on Delivery’ feature to show how the
medium can be trusted in nations which had never trusted online buying.
Initiatives like these have led to trust becoming one of the key attributes of
online buying.
Convenience: This much-discussed attribute truly has been the bedrock of
online buying, with customers taking advantage of being able to shop from
wherever they like, at a time most suited to them and in a way which requires
just a few clicks.
With companies nowadays even looking to supply essentials like grocery and
fruits through mobile applications, online companies have completely
redefined the concept of convenience to include categories and services which
could not have even been envisioned before.

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 These days, the growth and sustenance of online buying is attributed not just
to the above basic factors but also to constant innovations and efficiencies
NOTES
built in supply chain structures, wherein pure online retailers are even
looking at opening up offline spaces to provide maximum coverage and
convenience to their buyers, to supply products in a day with guarantee.

2.2.3. INFLUENCE OF THE WEB EXPERIENCE

According to Hofacher (2001), the information that is presented on a website

is processed by the human mind in five separate stages—exposure; attention;
comprehensions and perception; yielding and acceptance; and retention.
These are also the same stages as put forth in the EBM model.
Let us understand how these five stages are crucial to developing web
experience online and how firms are integrating these elements into their web
presence.
Exposure: The content must be presented for a long time in order to be
processed by the user. The user might not process messages that quickly
disappear off the screen or words that cannot be read easily.
Attention: People have a tendency to give attention to things related to their
expectations and needs. Attention is influenced by the visual appeal of the
information presented on a website. Users notice things that move or are
bright and loud.
Comprehensions and perception: The terms ‘comprehension’ and
‘perception’ are related to the process of understanding and observing an
element and connecting with the information stored in our memories.
When users look at a picture or a word they automatically relate this
information with the information stored in their minds.
Yielding and acceptance: The information must be up to date and truthful in
order to be accepted by the users. Users may not accept the content of the
website if it does not seem convincing.
Retention: The term ‘retention’ refers to the extent to which the information
on the website will be remembered by the user. It is accepted that information
from a website that is well organized will be easier to remember.
According to these five characteristics, websites should be developed to
cover, if not all, most of these aspects so as to gain the attention of the visitor.
Let us now look at the key building blocks of web experience. The building

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blocks and the factors mentioned herewith were a result of the review of 48
academic papers in the area of consumer behavior authored by Efthymios
Constantinides for the Emerald Group Publishing. The research came up with
three key classifications under which the following factors have been
bucketed:
Functionality factors: Factors enhancing the online experience by presenting
the virtual client with a good functioning, easy-to-explore, fast, and
interactive website. Functionality includes elements of ‘Usability’ and
‘Interactivity’.
Psychological factors: Websites must communicate integrity and credibility
in order to persuade customers to stop exploring them and interacting online.
Psychological factors play a crucial role in helping online customers
unfamiliar with the vendor or with online transactions overcome fears of
fraud and doubts regarding the trustworthiness of the website and vendor.
Content factors: Factors referring to creative and marketing mix-related
elements of the website. These factors exercise a direct and crucial influence
on the web experience. They are divided into two sub-categories ‘Aesthetics’
and ‘Marketing Mix.’
We would go through details of some of these impact factors, but for now it
would be important to understand how multiple factors help influence the
web experience and how consumer’s reaction to it would decide the fate of
related marketing activities.
The key here is to realize that deciding the right combination of web
experience elements is not an easy task. The specific buying conditions,
customer’s experience and needs can shift the importance among different
elements as influencers of the buying process.

2.2.4. MARKETING INTELLIGENCE FROM USER’S ONLINE DATA

Consumer behavior data typically resides across multiple repositories and
platforms and marketers need appropriate tools and technologies to gather,
integrate, and analyze that data.
This field, typically termed as web analytics across the marketing fraternity,
includes concepts drawn from large software implementation areas like data
warehousing (relates to data storage methodologies and structures), business

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 intelligence (methodologies to generate business insight from data), and
advanced analytics (much more in vogue these days and relates to advanced
NOTES
statistical analysis conducted to develop complex co-relations between
multiple sets of data often in real-time).
Although web analytics is the core terminology that is used to mention any
exercise towards gathering market intelligence online, these days’ usage of
terms like big-data is also quite prevalent as it pertains to combining large
sets of data to gather insights not only from online data sources but through a
logical combination of online and offline data.

Figure 2.4 Marketing Intelligence through User Data

Let us go through the key stages to understand how marketing intelligence is
derived from these multiple sets of data.
Stage 1—Online data collation: To explain this stage, we would use key
concepts of owned, earned, and paid media (introduced by Forrester
Research Group and used widely these days to classify interactive media)
and the type of user data they generate:
Owned media data: Owned media refers to all the channels that a brand
controls. This includes data gathered from user/visitor activity to company’s
prime online properties be it their website, blog, social media page, or mobile
applications.
Earned media data: Earned media refers to coverage obtained and customers
converted through non-owned media channels which are mostly social in

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nature. Data here would be about customers who post online comments,
share viral videos, re-tweet companies, Twitter posts, etc.
Paid media data: includes consumer data derived from actions users perform
on multiple paid channels which the brand uses for their marketing activities.
This includes data on visitors clicking a display ad or a search ad put up next
to Google search. It would also include third party audience data collated
from other companies generally known as data-management platforms.
Stage 2—Consumer data repository creation: This stage involves collating all
the data obtained from the first stage and integrating it into a consumer data
repository.
Once that is accomplished and duplicate data is refined/cleansed (for
accuracy and quality), this dataset is compared and merged with offline
datasets which consist of traditional databases, customer relationship
management (CRM) lists, product/service subscription, retail, events, and
promotions, etc.
With a combination of all these data sets, the firm is in a position to identify
each customer individually and build customer segments and personas
related to their area of products and operations.
Stage 3—Consumer segments development: This segmentation helps
understand the nature of customers who are interacting with the brand in its
various online forms and their attitudes towards these interactions.
Once these segments are built, it is much easier for firms to decide which
products to target to a particular nature of customers, at what price bands,
and across which channels.
Stage 4—Application areas identification: Finally, with the customer target
segment decided, marketers can use all the consumer data and intelligence
from their previous interactions to apply it to improve their digital marketing
initiatives and optimize campaigns in the most effective manner. Key
application examples of this marketing intelligence include:
Target channels/sites: Marketing intelligence on key customer segments
helps brand marketers decipher the most effective target channels/sites
through which they can push their marketing message, for it to be really
received and acted upon.

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 Customized messaging: With knowledge of likes/dislikes, attitudes,
influences and motivations of key consumer groups, marketers can customize
NOTES
their messages both across paid channels and earned media for higher
interaction.
Campaign intelligence: To run an effective marketing campaign, it is
essential that marketers understand the routines and patterns of consumer’s
purchase cycle and align/target campaigns with matched resources and
investments.
Sentiment analysis: Through advanced analytics tools, it is possible to
understand consumer sentiment across any property and channel to decipher
the impact of marketing messages received and products browsed.
Advertising exposure: Helps marketers decide the nature and extent of
marketing exposure needed for varied consumer segments.
Product optimization: Involves optimizing products based on consumer’s
previous buying patterns and comments/feedback across varied online
channels.
Data-driven promotions: Marketers can use technology in a real-time
manner to target promotions based on location and intent to help improve
conversions.

2.3. ONLINE COMMUNITY

An online community, also called an internet community or web community,

is a virtual community whose members interact with each other primarily via
the Internet. For many, online communities may feel like home, consisting of
a "family of invisible friends". Those who wish to be a part of an online
community usually have to become a member via a specific site and thereby
gain access to specific content or links. An online community can act as
an information system where members can post, comment on discussions,
give advice or collaborate. Commonly, people communicate through social
networking sites, chat rooms, forums, e-mail lists and discussion boards.
People may also join online communities through video
games, blogs and virtual worlds. The rise in popularity of Web 2.0 websites
has allowed for easier real-time communication and connection to others, and
facilitated the introduction of new ways for information to be exchanged.

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One scholarly definition of an online community is this: "a virtual community
is defined as an aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact
around a shared interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported
or mediated by technology (or both), and guided by some protocols or
norms".
 Categorization
The idea of a community is not a new concept. On the telephone, in ham
radio and in the online world, social interactions no longer have to be based
on proximity; instead they can literally be with anyone anywhere. The study
of communities has had to adapt along with the new technologies. Many
researchers have used ethnography to attempt to understand what people do
in online spaces, how they express themselves, what motivates them, how
they govern themselves, what attracts them, and why some people prefer to
observe rather than participate. Online communities can congregate around a
shared interest and can be spread across multiple websites.
Some signs of community are:
 Content: articles, information, and news about a topic of interest to a
group of people.
 Forums or newsgroups and email: so that community members can
communicate in delayed fashion. 
 Chat and instant messaging: so that community members can
communicate more immediately. 
(a) Development
There is a set of values known as netiquette (or Internet etiquette) to consider
as an online community develops. Some of these values include: opportunity,
education, culture, democracy, human services, and equality within the
economy, information, sustainability, and communication. An online
community's purpose is to serve as a common ground for people who share
the same interest(s).
Online communities may be used as calendars to keep up with events such as
upcoming gatherings or sporting events. They also form around activities and
hobbies. Many online communities relating to health care help inform, advise
and support patients and their families. Students can take classes online and
they may communicate with their professors and peers online. Businesses

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 have also started using online communities to communicate with their
customers about their products and services as well as to share information
NOTES
about the business. Other online communities allow a wide variety of
professionals to come together to share thoughts, ideas and theories.
(b) Blogs
Blogging involves a website or webpage that is updated in a reverse
chronological order on either a topic or a person's life.
(c) Bulletin boards
Bulletin boards or Internet forums are websites which allow users to post
topics also known as threads for discussion with other users able to reply
creating a conversation. Forums follow a categorised structure with many
popular forum software solutions categorising forums depending on their
purpose with multiple forums that can potentially contain sub-forums that
within contain threads. With time more advanced features have been added
into forums with the ability to attach files, embed YouTube videos and
private messaging now common place. Currently the largest forum Gaia
Online contains over 2 billion posts.
(d) Social networks
Social networks are platforms allowing users to set up their own profile and
build connections with like-minded people who pursue similar interests
through interaction.
Purpose of online community provides a platform for a range of services to
users. They allow for social interaction across the world between people of
different cultures who might not otherwise have met with offline meetings
also becoming more common. Another key use of web communities is access
to and the exchange of information. With communities for even very small
niches it is possible to find people also interested in a topic and to seek and
share information on a subject where there are not such people available in
the immediate area offline. This has led to a range of popular sites based on
areas such as health, employment, finances and education.
A 2001 McKinsey & Company study showed that only 2% of transaction site
customers returned after their first purchase, while 60% of new online
communities’ users began using and visiting the sites regularly after their
first experiences. Online communities have changed the game for retail firms,

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forcing them to change their business strategies. Companies have to network
more, adjust computations, and alter their organizational structures. This
leads to changes in a company's communications with their manufacturers
including the information shared and made accessible for further
productivity and profits. Because consumers and customers in all fields are
becoming accustomed to more interaction and engagement online,
adjustments must be considered made in order to keep audiences intrigued.

2.4. SUMMARY

We learnt about the basic concepts of consumer behaviour and the evolution
of consumer behaviour models, especially the EBM model and its four key
stages. We also looked at the impact of digital on Consumer Decision Process
(CDP) in an active and passive manner. This was followed by an
understanding of the key attributes of online buying behaviour and the
building blocks of an effective web experience. We also looked at utilizing
market intelligence to gather customer data to build segments and resulting
marketing application areas.
CASE STUDY 2.1:
Knorr has been making cooking easy since 1838. Its ready-made sauces and
stock pots are available in nearly 90 countries worldwide and with annual
sales over $3 billion, it is parent company Unilever’s biggest-selling brand. In
Poland, Knorr’s best-known product is Bulionetka; a stock used in soups and
braised dishes. Even well-known brands can’t stand still in the hyper-
competitive FMCG category, especially when busy lifestyles mean that fewer
and fewer Polish people take the time to cook at home. Knorr’s new TV
campaign was designed to raise awareness among women aged 25-49, but
Knorr also wanted to reach a younger audience to drive sampling and sales.
Questions
1) Knorr approached you to prepare a suitable and multi-channel digital
marketing plan to attract the younger audience to its products.
2) Prepare a digital add to promote Knorr products and services in social
media of your choice. Justify your choice of social media.
3) Analyse how Knorr influence consumer digitally on consumer decision
process in an active and passive manner.

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 FURTHER READING
1. Puneet Singh Bhatia, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, 2nd Edition,
NOTES
Pearson, 2020
2. Stephanie Diamond, Digital Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, 2019,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
3. Seema Gupta, Digital Marketing Paperback, 2017, McGraw Hill
Education
4. Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated
Approach to Online Marketing Paperback, 2 nd Edition, 2019, British
Library

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MODULE 3 DIGITAL MARKETING LANDSCAPE

STRUCTURE
3.0. Learning objectives
3.1. Digital Marketing – Global Landscape
3.1.1. Digital marketing overview – Global spend
3.1.2. Digital marketing overview – Advertising spend
3.1.3. Conceptualizing digital marketing landscape
3.1.4. Digital marketing technology/Tools landscape
3.2 Digital marketing – The Indian view
3.2.1. India digital spend overview
3.2.2. India digital advertising spend
3.3. Generation Y expectation and influence
3.4. Summary
3.0. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Explain global marketing spend by category as well as compare the
share of global advertising spend across all traditional and digital
media types.
 Analyse the break-up of global and digital advertising spend by
format along with the ad spending share by industry.
 Understand India specific digital marketing statistics with break-up of
media and entertainment industry segment numbers and percentage
division of key digital advertising categories.
 Gain exposure to India specific Digital Marketing/Advertising Tools
Landscape.
3.1. DIGITAL MARKETING – GLOBAL LANDSCAPE

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 With digital marketing growing in size and operations globally, we will start
the discussion with an analysis of the global spend buckets for overall
NOTES
marketing activities by category and narrow it down further according to
digital ad-spend format.
We will gain an understanding of the global digital marketing landscape
through the Hallam Digital Marketing Tube Map and have a look at the
digital marketing tools landscape to study the host of vendors that have
emerged across the ecosystem.

3.1.1. DIGITAL MARKETING OVERVIEW – GLOBAL SPEND

To calculate the overall size of the global digital marketing business and its
growth pattern, we will need to size the global marketing spend across key
categories like advertising, marketing services, ad agency/marketing BPO
fees, data/intelligence, and software/technology. This would help us clarify
the difference between impression and non-impression-based spends.
The table shows data picked up from a 2012. This data was culled from
various sources like GroupM, DMA, Winterberry/Acxiom/Teradata, IDC,
DemandTec, AdAge Data Center, and provides an estimate of 2020 numbers
for all key categories of marketing spend.
Table 3.1 Global Marketing Spending by Category ($ in Million)

Absolute 2009 2010 2011E 2012E 2020E

Advertising 439.5 468 491.1 522.2 661.2

Marketing Services 279.9 300.1 315.5 329.8 468.4

Total Paid Impressions 719.4 768.2 806.6 851.9 1129.6

Ad Agency 58.5 62.3 67.6 71 109.4

Data/Intelligence 47 46.8 48.2 49.6 53

Software/Technology 9 10.3 11.2 12.1 20.3

Total Marketing 834 887.5 933.6 984.6 1312.4

Source: Daniel Salmon, BMO Capital Markets

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As of 2012, the report estimates that the total marketing spend has been $ 1
trillion. This amount can be classified as impression-based and non-
impression-based spend, wherein impression spend denotes the total of
advertising spend (including TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, internet
impressions) and marketing services spend (including content-based
impressions—direct mail, email, sponsorships, promotions, public relations).
The non-impression-based spend is covered by categories like ad
agency/marketing BPO fees, data/intelligence, and software/technology. If
we add up the numbers, around 87 percent spend is impression-based while
13 percent is spent across the multiple categories of non-impression spend.
With an understanding of the overall marketing spends numbers, let us look
at the global advertising spend forecast for 2016 (Source: Zenith Optimedia).
The division of Global Advertising Spend is represented by all traditional and
digital media types. Here, the digital advertising numbers are covered by the
categories of desktop internet and mobile internet. Since 2015, digital
advertising has surpassed print media (includes newspapers and magazines),
as the second biggest advertising category after television.
Though television still reigns supreme (with a 38.3 percent share), the rapid
rise of mobile internet is poised to give the top medium a tough fight.
At present, the combined share of desktop and mobile internet numbers
stands at 28.3 percent, which is a good 8 percent rise over 2013 numbers
(which stood at 19.7 percent).
In terms of the fastest-growing ad markets in absolute terms (2013–16), the
top three countries for global advertising spend include the Unites States
(grew at 22.7 Mn), China (grew at 15.8 Mn), and Indonesia (grew at 6 Mn).
India, with a total spend growth of 1.9 Mn, stands at the tenth position, just
behind South Korea.

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NOTES

Figure 3.1 Share of Global Advertising Spend by Medium (2016)

Credits: CISAC – 2015 Global Collections Report

3.1.2. DIGITAL MARKETING OVERVIEW – ADVERTISING SPEND

Having looked at the global figures for digital marketing and the share of
digital advertising in the total advertising spend, we would study the break-
up of global advertising spend by format, as well as digital advertising
numbers for the largest spending country, US, along with figures for US
digital ad spending share by industry.
Magna Global (Dec 2014) estimates $80 billion to be spent on search
advertising around the world in 2015, which makes it the largest ad spend
format followed by display marketing at $31 billion.
By 2019, a projected $118 billion will be spent on search marketing which
would still be the largest category while the display is projected to grow only
to $35 Bn.
In comparison, social and video are two categories which will witness the
strongest gains, with video starting from a much smaller base. Online and
mobile video are slated to become increasingly popular

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Figure 3.2 Global Digital Ad Spend by Format (Magna Global)
Credits: Magna Global: Perspective on US Global Media
We move on from global numbers to digital ad spending data specific to the
US (since it has the largest digital ad spend of all countries).
According to eMarketer, the search continues to be the leading digital ad
spending format, although its share has dropped in 2016 (compared to 2010)
as the shares of rich media, sponsorships, and video increase.
Display ad spending, which includes banner ads, video, rich media, and
sponsorships is expected to rise to 45.6 percent of the total in 2016. Search’s
share of total digital ad spending has decreased from 47.1 percent in 2012 to
44.2 percent in 2016.
Between 2010 and 2016, classifieds and directories category rose a bit, lead
generation augmented by around 70 percent while mobile messaging
remained almost stable showing only a slight increase.
We look at the US digital ad spending share based on industry type and, as
evident, retail leads the pack with a good stable share (around 22 percent)
which is expected with the global rise of the e-Commerce industry. By 2017,
the US digital retail industry is expected to grow to $ 13.5 billion,
representing a 10.5 percent compound annual growth rate (in comparison to
2013).
eMarketer reports that the retail industry will keep its lead during the four-
year forecast period, but lose a small portion of its share of total US digital
advertising dollars, dropping from a 22.3 percent share in 2013 to 22 percent
share in 2017.

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NOTES

Figure 3.3 US Digital Ad Spend by Format (eMarketer)

Sources:eMarketer
Note: This includes advertising that appears on desktop and laptop
computers as well as mobile phones and589 tablets on all formats mentioned;
data through 2011 is derived from IAR/PWC data.

Figure 3.4 US Digital Ad Spending Share by Industry (eMarketer)

Sources:eMarketer
Note: This includes advertising that appears on desktop and laptop
computers as well as mobile phones and tablets and all various formats of
advertising on those platforms; data through 2012 is derived from lAB/PwC
data; numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
With the largest portion of retail digital ad dollars going to direct-response
campaigns, online and multi-channel retailers, along with catalog retailers

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and restaurants, typically spend two-thirds of their paid digital budgets on
direct response and the remaining one-third on brand-focused campaigns

3.1.3. CONCEPTUALIZING DIGITAL MARKETING LANDSCAPE

With an understanding of the global marketing and advertising spend, let us

look at the overall landscape for global digital marketing services that
multiple vendors are delivering to clients across industries and functions.
To understand and explain this classification, we will take the support of ‘The
Digital Marketing Tube Map’ by digital marketing agency ‘Hallam,’ which
has developed a visually striking way of looking at these areas and services.
This map lays down almost all possible digital marketing implementation
areas through the use of a subway-station styled map which lays out these
services in the form of stops and stations. Let us study this map in more
detail.
We can look at the complex landscape of digital marketing as showcased in
terms of a tube amp.
The map according to Hallam can be better understood as a mesh of stations
and stops with stations that are representing individual campaigns or
platforms and stops representing the areas that need to be considered for any
online campaign to be a success.
As we can see in the diagram, there are a total of 14 stations that encompass
all key areas of digital marketing. These include:
 Mobile
 Social Media
 CRM
 Paid Search
 Social Paid
 Email Marketing
 Social Media
 Local SEO
 Content Marketing
 Emerging Technology
 Technical SEO
 Analytics
 Website

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  Inbound Links

NOTES

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Figure 3.5 The Digital Marketing Map

3.1.4. DIGITAL MARKETING TECHNOLOGY/TOOLS LANDSCAPE

With multiple functional and technology areas gaining prominence to cater to
upcoming digital marketing activities, a host of vendors have emerged which
provide services across each of the point areas.
To make sense of the digital tools landscape, Lumapartners (a strategic
media, marketing, and technology advisory) has launched multiple

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 infographics by the name Lumascapes which aim to provide a well-classified
view of key emerging tools/technology vendors present in the advertising
NOTES
and marketing sectors
Let us look at one of the most prominent of Lumascapes which lists key
marketing technology areas and top tools across each of them.
The main areas included in each of the key sectors in the infographic include:
Sales and marketing sector: Marketing Modeling; Integrated Marketing
Management; Social Marketing Management; E-mail Optimization; E-mail
Service Providers; Marketing Automation; Database Marketing;
Visualization; DMPs; Marketing Data; and Data Warehouses
Website ‘personalization and optimization’ sub-sector: SEO
Platforms/Tools; Real-time Message/Offers; Landing Pages; AB/MV Testing;
and Recommendation Systems.
Website ‘e-commerce technology’ sub-sector: Platform/Storefront; Social
Referral; Merchandising; Payments; and M-commerce
Website ‘creation and management’ sub-sector: WCM (Content
Management Systems); Web Analytics; DAM (Digital Asset Management);
Online Video Players; Tag Management; Site Performance;
Feedback/Surveys; Community; Social Content/Forums; Mobile Web; Social
Login/Sharing; Translation; and Gamification

3.2. DIGITAL MARKETING – THE INDIAN VIEW

With an understanding of the global landscape for digital marketing, we

would now look at India-specific digital statistics which would reveal
trends quite differentiated from the global markets.

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 
Figure 3.6 Indian Advertising Landscape 2013

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 3.2.1. INDIA DIGITAL SPEND OVERVIEW
NOTES
The overall internet penentration numbers and the diversity of the Indian
consumer (in terms of urban/rural divide) has had a major impact on digital
marketing and advertising trends and the overall adoption of digital services
in India.
Figure 3.7 showcases the rise in total number of internet users in India to over
555 Million in 2018. It also depicts the urban/rural divide, wherein we see the
number of rural internet users increasing upto 40 per cent by the year.

Figure 3.7 India Internet Population

In Fig. 3.8, we can look at the key areas of the contribution of internet GDP,
the most important among them being e-commerce products, online content,
and advertisements and classifieds. It is estimated that internet’s contribution
to GDP is set to grow at 23 per cent compared to overall GDP growth of 13
per cent.

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 Figure 3.8 Internet Contribution to GDP

Figure 3.9 showcases the percentage break-up of all media segments. It is

quite evident that TV will rule the media segments and sit share will
increase further in the coming years. Also, digital advertising as a category
having 8 per cent in 2018.

Figure 3.9 Share of Major Industry Segments (FY 2018)

Figure 3.10 showcases the percentage Internet user with more than 507M+
users in 2020 and expected to grow 590 Million in 2022, internet
penetration in India is relatively low and the growth potential is huge
considering the total population.

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NOTES

Figure 3.10 Internet Users

3.2.2. INDIA DIGITAL ADVERTISING SPEND
With an understanding of the overall digital media spend, in this section, we
would look into the specific numbers for advertising, their shares, forecasts,
and classification in more detail.
Figure 3.11 depicts the total media, digital, and mobile internet ad spending
numbers in India from 2015 to 2020. As we can see, total spending on
advertising across all media is decreasing and expected to touch $ 11.8 Billion
in FY2020. The share of digital advertsing revenue as a percentage of total
media spending is expected to increase to 20.2 per cent with a total value of $
2.3 Billion in 2020. Also, the mobile internet ad spending is projected to grow
rapidly to 10.2 per cent of the total media ad spending.

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 Figure 3.11 Total Media, Digital and Mobile Internet Ad Spending in
India, 2015-2020

In fig. 3.12, we look at industry-wise classification of advertising revenues in

terms of market share of total ad spends (in terms of per cent). In the year
2010, print industry was at 47.5 per cent and TV industry was at 38.8 per cent
but in the year 2020, print industry was at 28.8 per cent and TV industry was
at 36.7 per cent. TV ad revenues were decreased marginally but Print ad
revenues decreased drastically. In the same time period, digital ad spending
has grown exponentially from 3.8 per cent in 2010 to 25.7 per cent in 2020.

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NOTES

Figure 3.12 Digital Ad Revenues

3.3. GENERATION Y EXPECTATION AND INFLUENCE

This section explores the characteristics and traits of Gen Y, the challenges
they pose for organizations, and their evolving expectations.
Organisations that have succeeded in engaging with Gen Y know that,
along with accelerating the adoption of new digital technology, this
generation also pose additional challenges due to their evolving expectations.
This Generation is best perceived not only as a uniform group but also an
evolving mind-set. The demands and expectations of this group are trending
upwards to older generations, which makes them all the more important to
take note of. Generation Y, today, is the catalyst and the incubators of change,
and each day their influence is growing in consumer and corporate
environments implying that the organizations must learn to engage
effectively now, or risk being eliminated the game.
To attract this young generation, both as consumers and as employers, a
company cannot look good–it has no good. This generation want it all, but
above all, it seeks transparency.
It is no longer practical for organizations to state one thing and be another
as the digital data trails provides this generation with the methods and tools
to spread their opinion about a brand reputation management and customer
loyalty. This generation wants to ensure that the organizations it engages
with are genuine and not a hologram or mirage with a marketing ‘front’ that

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belies their reality. Authentic, direct, and personal engagements are even
more important than advertising to reach this generation. Above all,
Generation Y is no9 longer content with the old corporate and political
model. It demands transformational change, and where they cannot find,
they took invent it themselves.
According to research conducted by Ernst and Young, other Gen Y
expectations include the following:
 Collaborative, networked learning The average user spends 55 minutes a
day on Facebook
 Fast, easy, and un communication Gen Y adults spend 15+ hours a week
on the Internet
 Visible peer recommendations in decision making 80% of the consumers
believe peer recommendations, but only 14% trust advertisements
 Immediate feedback 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and
brands
 Environmentally aware 96% of Gen Y want an environmentally aware
workplace
 Flexibility A total of 56% of Gen prefers to work flexibly and chooses
when to work, and 79% prefers to be mobile rather than static
workers. Gen Y already represents over a quarter of the world’s
population and the proportion is growing.
Not only will the members of Gen Y be among the powerful consumers
in history; as they enter the workforce, their impact there will be equally
impossible to ignore. They display the same lack of patience as
employees as they show as consumers, and companies must address
their evolving expectations to avoid high recruitment and churn costs.
What is more, this generation has significant ideas and is willing to share
them company-wide; they represent a useful resource every company
should listen to.
3.4. SUMMARY

The first part began with an overview of the global digital marketing
landscape where we looked at the global marketing spend by category,
comparing the share of global advertising spend across all traditional and
digital media types. Further, we looked at the break-up of global and digital

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 advertising spend by format and the ad-spend share by industry. Next, we
provided a conceptual understanding of the digital marketing landscape
NOTES
through the Hallam Digital Marketing Tube Map. In the last section we
looked at Lumascapes and Chiefmartec’s Marketing Technology infographics
which provided a well-classified view of the most prominent and emerging
technology vendors in the advertising and marketing sectors.
In the second part, we focussed on Indian digital marketing statistics and
studied the break-up of segment number India’s media and entertainment
industry along with the share, size and future projections of digital business.
We looked at the total media, digital, and mobile internet ad spending
numbers in India followed by percentage-wise division of key digital
advertising categories. Next, we studied key advertising trends in India
which was followed by the last section on India’s digital marketing,
advertising, and mobile tools landscape, which are used the most by Indian
marketers.
QUESTIONS:
1. Mention a few key statistics of global marketing spending by
category, as shared in the chapter.
2. What are the key components of global digital ad spend by format?
3. List the digital marketing stations as shared in the Hallam Digital
Marketing Tube Map and describe a few of the stops they depict.
4. Describe the key components of digital marketing technology/tools
landscape, as discussed in the chapter.
5. Provide an overview’s of India digital spend as per
population/contribution to GDP.
6. Describe key industry numbers of Indian media and entertainment
industry.
7. Share an overview of India’s digital advertising spend as per the
details shared in the chapter.

CASE STUDY 3.1: Akamai Technologies: Attempting to Keep Supply

Ahead of Demand
In 2016, the amount of Internet traffic generated by YouTube alone is greater
than the amount of traffic on the entire Internet in 2000. Because of video

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streaming and the explosion in mobile devices demanding high-bandwidth
applications, Internet traffic has increased over 500% since 2010 and is
predicted to nearly triple by 2019. Internet video is now a majority of Internet
traffic and will reach 82% by 2020, according to Cisco. Experts call services
like YouTube, Netflix, and high definition streaming video “net bombs”
because they threaten the effective operation of the Internet. Mobile platform
traffic grew by almost 75% in 2015 and may soon push cellular networks and
the Internet to their capacities.

Growth of Internet Traffic

Cisco estimates that annual global Internet traffic will be around 2.3
zettabytes in 2020: that’s 2,300 exabytes, or, in other words, 23 with 19 zeroes
behind it! In today’s broadband environment, the threshold of patience is
very low. Increased video and audio customer expectations are bad news for
anyone seeking to use the Web for delivery of high-quality multimedia
content and high definition video. Akamai is one of the Web’s major helpers,
and an overwhelming majority of the Web’s top companies use Akamai’s
services to speed the delivery of content. Akamai serves more than 30 terabits
of web traffic per second.
Slow-loading web pages and content sometimes result from poor design, but
more often than not, the problem stems from the underlying infrastructure of
the Internet. The Internet is a collection of networks that has to pass
information from one network to another. Sometimes the handoff is not

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 smooth. Every 1,500-byte packet of information sent over the Internet must be
verified by the receiving server and an acknowledgment sent to the sender.
NOTES
This slows down not only the distribution of content such as music, but also
slows down interactive requests, such as purchases, that require the client
computer to interact with an online shopping cart. Moreover, each packet
may go through many different servers on its way to its final destination,
multiplying by several orders of magnitude the number of acknowledgments
required to move a packet from New York to San Francisco. The Internet
today spends much of its time and capacity verifying packets, contributing to
a problem called “latency” or delay. For this reason, a single e-mail with a 1-
megabyte attached PDF file can create more than 50 megabytes of Internet
traffic and data storage on servers, client hard drives, and network backup
drives.
Akamai Technologies was founded by Tom Leighton, an MIT professor of
applied mathematics, and Daniel Lewin, an MIT grad student, with the idea
of expediting Internet traffic to overcome these limitations. Lewin’s master’s
thesis was the theoretical starting point for the company. It described storing
copies of web content such as pictures or video clips at many different
locations around the Internet so that one could always retrieve a nearby copy,
making web pages load faster.
Officially launched in August 1998, Akamai’s current products are based on
the Akamai Intelligent Platform, a cloud platform made up of over 216,000
servers in 120 countries within over 1,500 networks around the world, and all
within a single network hop of 85% of all Internet users. Akamai software on
these servers allows the platform to identify and block security threats and
provide comprehensive knowledge of network conditions, as well as instant
device-level detection and optimization.
Akamai’s site performance products allow customers to move their online
content closer to end users so a user in New York City, for instance, will be
served L.L.Bean pages from the New York Metro area Akamai servers, while
users of the L.L.Bean site in San Francisco will be served pages from Akamai
servers in San Francisco. Akamai has a wide range of large corporate and
government clients: 1 out of every 3 global Fortune 500 companies, the top 30
media and entertainment companies, 96 of the top 100 online U.S. retailers, all

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branches of the U.S. military, all the major U.S. sports leagues, and so on. In
2015, Akamai delivers between 15% and 30% of all web traffic, and over 3
trillion daily Internet interactions. Other competitors in the content delivery
network (CDN) industry include Limelight Networks, Level 3
Communications, and Mirror Image Internet.
Accomplishing this daunting task requires that Akamai monitor the entire
Internet, locating potential sluggish areas and devising faster routes for
information to travel. Frequently used portions of a client’s website, or large
video or audio files that would be difficult to send to users quickly, are stored
on Akamai’s servers. When a user requests a song or a video file, his or her
request is redirected to an Akamai server nearby and the content is served
from this local server. Akamai’s servers are placed in Tier 1 backbone
supplier networks, large ISPs, universities, and other networks.
Akamai’s software determines which server is optimal for the user and then
transmits the “Akamaized” content locally. Web sites that are “Akamaized”
can be delivered anywhere from 4 to 10 times as fast as non-Akamaized
content. Akamai has developed a number of other business services based on
its Internet savvy, including targeted advertising based on user location and
zip code, content security, business intelligence, disaster recovery, on-
demand bandwidth and computing capacity during spikes in Internet traffic,
storage, global traffic management, and streaming services.
You can see several interesting visualizations of the Internet that log basic
real-time online activity by visiting the Akamai website. The shift toward
cloud computing and the mobile platform as well as the growing popularity
of streaming video have provided Akamai with new growth opportunities.
As more businesses and business models are moving to the Web, Akamai has
seen its client base continue to grow beyond the most powerful Internet
retailers and online content providers. In 2014, Akamai made a push to
encourage Hollywood studios to use the cloud for feature films, touting its
ability to handle uploads and downloads of large video files, to quickly
convert files from one format to another, and to apply DRM protections.
Establishing partnerships with movie studios represented big business for
Akamai, with an increasing amount of media consumption taking place on
mobile devices through the cloud. Akamai has also made agreements to

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 become the primary content delivery platform for cloud service providers
like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
NOTES
However, the growth of streaming video has also created new challenges for
Akamai, including increased competition from Comcast and Amazon, which
have built competing content delivery services. Amazon’s Cloudfront content
delivery network is already bringing in $1.8 billion in revenues. Larger clients
like Apple and Facebook are also increasingly shifting their content delivery
operations away from Akamai’s platforms and onto in-house content delivery
networks. Reducing carbon emissions and energy expenditure as demand
grows has been another challenge for Akamai. In response, the company has
undertaking sweeping efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to
below 2015 levels by 2020 despite significantly higher demand.
Akamai is also acutely aware of the increase in cybercrime as more traffic
migrates to the Internet. Growth in Internet traffic is good news for Akamai,
but the company must also now deal with politically motivated cyberattacks,
organized crime online, and state-sponsored cyberwarfare. Akamai has
continued to improve its Kona Site Defender tool, which offers a variety of
security measures for Akamai clients. The tool protects against Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and includes a firewall for web applications.
In 2016, Akamai rolled out new improvements to Kona’s web application
firewall and analytics features. Akamai also upgraded Site Defender’s Web
Application Firewall feature and developed modifications to the tool that
make it easier for its users to use. With so many businesses now dependent
on the uninterrupted flow of content over the Internet, Akamai is in a very
strong position to sell security services to its customers. In 2015, Akamai
partnered with top information security firm Trustwave to cross-sell each
other’s services and products, expanding their offerings and reaching even
further. Akamai made a similar agreement with China Unicom, a provider of
cloud services in the fast-growing Chinese market. Akamai has also set itself
up for future growth by moving into areas of the world with less developed
broadband infrastructure, such as the Middle East. In 2015, Akamai opened
an office in Dubai, hoping to bolster its presence in an area where the
adoption rate for broadband is skyrocketing.

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In 2016, experiencing rapidly increasing demand from its clients for security
tools, Akamai announced it would restructure its business into two distinct
units, one focusing on content delivery and media, and the other on website
security. The improvements in Akamai’s security businesses have offset any
slowdown in their content delivery business, as the company registered
earnings well above analyst estimates in 2016 despite increased competition
in content delivery. Akamai has plans to increase its suite of security tools
going forward, with tools designed to protect employees from phishing and
malware due to be released in 2017. While the future of its content delivery
business is cloudier due to increased competition and the challenges of
Internet growth, the company is still very profitable.
Questions
1. Why does Akamai need to geographically disperse its servers to deliver its
customers’
web content?
2. If you wanted to deliver software content over the Internet, would you sign
up for
Akamai’s service? Why or why not?
3. Do you think Internet users should be charged based on the amount of
bandwidth
they consume, or on a tiered plan where users would pay in rough
proportion
to their usage?
FURTHER READING
1. Vandana Ahuja, Digital Marketing, Oxford University Press, 2015
2. Puneet Singh Bhatia, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, 2nd Edition,
Pearson, 2020
3. Seema Gupta, Digital Marketing Paperback, 2017, McGraw Hill
Education
4. Jennifer Grappone, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
Paperback, 2011, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,
5. Swaminathan T.N and Karthik Kumar, Digital Marketing: From
Fundamentals to Future Paperback, 2019, Cengage Books

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 MODULE 4 SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

STRUCTURE
NOTES
4.0. Learning objectives
4.1. Introduction – Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
4.1.1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) vs. Pay Per Click (PPC)
4.1.1.1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
4.1.1.2. Pay Per Click (PPC)
4.2. Online Advertising
4.3. Summary

4.0. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 The chapter is focused on defining search engine marketing and the

most important terminology related to SEM, as well as the difference
between SEO and PPC, and differences between white hat and black
hat SEO.

 In order to fully understand search engine marketing you have to

learn how search engines work and how they index and position
website.
 Google AdWords is most commonly used PPC program for online
advertising. In this chapter you will learn about types of search engine
advertising and types of campaigns that can be organized with this
program.
 Besides Google, you can also use advertising through Bing / Yahoo!
network. In this chapter you will read about creating account, the
main features that are available, how to choose keywords, target ads
and monitor the success of the campaign.
 We also focused on the topic of SEO with information about how SEO
works, the elements of on-page and off-page SEO, link building,
suggestions on how to improve positioning of the website and which
SEO tools can help you with certain tasks in the process of
optimization.

4.1. INTRODUCTION – SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

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Having a website has become one of the most important ways to successfully
present your company and to reach customers who are most likely to use the
internet to find information about a certain product and ultimately buy it.
Nonetheless, creating a website is the easier part, as your website must
appear at the top of search results in order for users to be able to find you (not
including the searches when a user types the name of your company, when
you are most likely to appear first).
When users look up a word or phrase using the search engines, they get a
displayed list of search results. They go through this list and try to find the
result they need, the result that is actually related to the word or phrase that
has been used in the search query. However, based on the researches, more
than half of users will only scan through the first couple of results, and they
are most likely to click on the first one. This is the reason why being
positioned at the top of the search result page is an important goal if you
want to reach the users.
The discipline that explores different strategies in order to help you get better
positioning in the search engines, and thus promote your business online, is
called search engine marketing.
Definition of SEM Search engine marketing, or to use a shorter phrase, search
marketing, is defined as a series of actions that are aimed at increasing
visibility of a website in the search engines through both paid and free
processes. The main goal of these processes is to increase the visibility of a
website and gain traffic, in order to increase sales and conversions. Search
engine marketing should be an inseparable segment of the marketing
department in a company, as it can significantly promote a company, as well
as collect relevant data about the customers, which helps with market
analysis.
As such, search engine marketing requires a comprehensive strategy which
will include the goals, as well as planned actions that should be conducted in
the purpose of achieving those goals. The actions in the process of realization
of the strategy will differ, depending on the type of search marketing that is
used.
Besides different strategies involved, various tools are used in the purpose of
analyzing the performance of the website and the efficiency of the strategy

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 that is being implemented. Tools are required with both free and paid search
marketing, as they enable realization of different sets of actions that will help
NOTES
with realization of the goals.
The goal of this book is to explain the importance of search marketing, as well
as the main strategies and tools that will help with ranking higher in the
search engines.
The SEM terminology
Before we continue with the topic, it is essential that you understand some
basic terms that are used in search engine marketing.
SEM – Search engine marketing represents a part of the internet marketing
which uses search engines result pages to promote a website, using both
organic and paid reach.
SEO – Search engine optimizations a process of improving visibility of a
website in the search engine result pages through organic reach.
PPC – Pay per click is the part of paid reach in the search engine marketing
where you need to pay each time someone clicks on your ad.
CPC – Cost per click is the amount of money you pay for one click on your
ad, which is specified in the advertising campaign settings.
CPM – Cost per mile represents cost per thousand impressions. It is one of
the advertising payment plans, where you pay the price per thousand views.
Search query or keyword query is the word or phrase that the users type into
the search engines in order to find more information about that specific topic.
SERP – Search engine result page is the list of results displayed by the search
engines as the response to the search query.
ROI – Return on investment is a ratio used to help calculate profitability. ROI
compares investment and results in order to determine benefits from the
marketing campaign. Conversion usually means converting a website visitor
to customer, but occasionally, websites may use metrics other than sale as
conversion, such as sign up for a newsletter, visiting a certain page, etc.
Landing page, also called lead capture page, is a page which appears after
the user has clicked on the link displayed in the search engine result page,
regardless of that being organic listing or paid ad.

4.1.1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) vs. Pay Per Click (PPC)

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SEO (Search engine optimization) and PPC (Pay per click) are the two types
of search engine marketing. These two represent two different approaches
which both have the same goal, how to increase the position, i.e. visibility of a
website in the search engines. The main difference between SEO and PPC is
the type of reach you want to achieve.

4.1.1.1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization increases so called organic reach. This means that
working on search engine optimization you try to increase the number of
users who will find your website "naturally", through the search engine.
The main goal with search engine optimization is to use a set of strategies and
tools, while following the best practices and recommendations, in the
purpose of improving the position of the website in relation to specific
keywords or keyword phrases. It is essential for these keywords to be related
to your business, so the selection of keywords is one of the first tasks in the
process of search engine optimization. In this case, your goal is to increase the
position of your website in the search results, which is based on the keywords
you suppose the users would search for.
For example, if you specialize in renting bikes in Paris, you want to be ranked
as higher as possible when someone uses a search engine to look for a bike to
rent in Paris. Have in mind that organic results are displayed below the paid
results in the SERP.

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NOTES

Figure 4.1 Paid Results in SERP

Search engine optimization is a comprehensive process that requires a lot of
work which will pay off in the increased visibility of your website in the
search engine result pages. This process is also considered to be long-term,
since the benefits of the website optimization are long-lasting as opposed to
paid reach.

White hat Vs. Black hat

When it comes to SEO, it is important to differentiate between the so-called
white hat and the black hat SEO. White hat SEO uses the best practices and
recommendations for conducting an optimization of a website. It includes
actions recommended by the search engines as things out of which your
website can benefit, and that is why you should apply those practices.
Webmaster guidelines represent the best practices that help search engines to
find, index and rank a website. The guidelines are comprised of three major
sets of guidelines, which include:
• Design and content guidelines
• Technical guidelines
• Quality guidelines
Black hat SEO includes the practices that are designed for the purpose of
misguiding and manipulating search engines’ algorithms, in order to increase
positioning. Black hat SEO uses the practices that are not recommended by

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the search engines, which is why they could have negative effect on your
website, and they may even result in penalization by the search engines.
Penalty represents a negative impact on a website’s ranking. Search engines
strive to provide quality users experience and they try to find spam through
algorithm updates and manual actions. Penalty can result in the drop of
rankings, decrease in traffic, conversions, etc. Occasionally, the website might
not even be displayed in the search result page.
Some of the reasons for penalties include:
• Not following search engine guidelines
• Hacked website
• Spammy structured markup
• Hidden text
• Keyword stuffing
• Cloaking
• Unnatural links to or from your website
Even though search engine optimization is often referred to as free search
engine marketing, it does require a lot of time from your part or even hiring
an expert to help you with some of the tasks. Therefore, saying that SEO is
free is not entirely true. SEO also requires a certain period of time to optimize
a website and then to get indexed by search engines, which will prolong the
time necessary for you to get ranked, while paid reach will help you with this
task much faster.

4.1.1.2. Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC, on the other hand, uses paid reach to help you reach online customers.
Although paid search marketing is most often referred to as PPC (pay per
click), it actually includes other types of paid marketing, such as CPC (cost
per click) and CPM (cost per thousand impressions).

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NOTES

Figure 4.2 Paid Search Engine Marketing

Paid search engine marketing requires paying for ads that will be displayed
in the search engines. In this case, there is no need to look for the ways to
improve the position of your website organically, but instead, all you have to
do is to set up a campaign through an advertising program. This way, your
website will be displayed as the paid result every time a user searches for a
certain keyword that is related to the keywords you have provided when
creating a campaign. For example, if a user looks for bike rentals in Paris, the
paid results will appear above all other results. Since these results are ranked
at the top of the search results, this increases the chances for users to find
your website. Paid results are displayed above the organic results, on the
right side in the search result page, and they can also be displayed at the
bottom of the search result page.

You can also compare the reach between several search engines. For example,
we can use the same keyword phrase (“best budget restaurants in Chennai”)
in three search engines.

Google Search Engine

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Figure 4.3 Google Search Engine

Bing Search Engine

Figure 4.4 Bing Search Engine

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 Yahoo! Search Engine

NOTES

Figure 4.5 Yahoo Search Engine

As you can see, Google, Bing and Yahoo! show paid search results at
the top of the search result page, which are then followed by organic
reach.
Comparing the results in several search engines can help you find out
how your website is ranked in different search engines, as well as
which websites are shown as paid results for the keywords that are
relevant to your website.
Changes on the internet
You should have in mind that situation on the internet changes
constantly. There are numerous websites being created every day, and
people are starting to use search engine marketing to compete on the
internet. At the same time, there are those who give up or turn to
different projects instead. This is why it is essential to monitor the

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 situation on the internet, to monitor your competitors and to stay up
to date with recommendations and best practices that can help you
increase the visibility of your website.
Regardless the type of search engine marketing you decide to use, you
need to monitor your work and the performance of your efforts in
order to evaluate the efficiency of SEM. With paid search engine
marketing you will be able to monitor the performance of the
campaign through the advertising program used to create the
campaign, while with SEO you will need to use external tools for
monitoring the performance of the website and organic reach.
No matter how situation develops in the future and regardless how
search engine algorithms change, the fact remains that websites will
be competing with one another for the top position in the search
engine result pages. The tools and the best practices might be
changing, as they have been over the years, but search engine
marketing remains a part of marketing, a part of the activity that will
certainly help you promote your business.

4.2. ONLINE ADVERTISING

SEARCH ENGINE ADVERTISING

Each search engine has its own program for advertising, which usually
includes campaign manager through which the advertising is being set up.
When you explore your options, and choose one of the search engines you
want to use for advertising, you should visit the website and learn how to do
so. You will usually be required to create an account, which will enable you
to access the campaign manager for creating and publishing search engine
ads. Google AdWords Google enables search engine advertising through
Google AdWords platform. You will have to create a Google account first,
and then visit the website to sign up for Google AdWords. Since Google is the
number one search engine, processing over 3.5 billion searches a day, it is
natural that its advertising program is the most popular one when it comes to
search engine advertising. Bing Ads Since 2009, all of the Yahoo! searches are
conducted through Microsoft’s search engine Bing. The advertising
opportunity now enables marketers to take advantage of both of these
platforms for organizing a search engine marketing campaign. Bing / Yahoo!

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 network now provides joint advertising option. With up to 30% of searches
being conducted through these two search engines, depending on the region,
NOTES
Bing Ads represents an important source for search engine advertising.
A. Google AdWords
Google AdWords is an online advertising program offered by Google which
allows advertising through Google’s search engine. The program was
introduced in the year 2000, and it has become the main source of revenue for
this company.
Specially designed to determine the relevance of search query in relation to
the possible ad, this program places the ads on the search result page. The ad
can be placed at the top or at the bottom of the page, as well as on the right
side of the search result page. The ordering of the paid ads is determined by
AdWords program, based on the relevance, keywords matching as well as
based on the budget of the campaign.
Google AdWords allows pay per click (PPC) advertising, i.e. cost per click
(CPC), as well as cost per thousand impressions, also called cost per mile
(CPM). Google AdWords program also offers site-targeted advertising, which
includes text, banners and rich-media ads, and remarketing.
The great potential of Google AdWords program is that you can reach a large
number of online users, due to the large number of searches conducted on
Google every day. However, the program itself offers several possibilities for
advertising, which are suitable for different types of campaigns, which is why
you should understand how Google advertising works before you are ready
to create a campaign and run ads.
B. Google Search, Google Partners and Google Display Network
Apart from the ads displayed in the search results, the AdWords program
offers advertising with Google Search Partners and Google Display
Networks, which will allow you to expand the reach of your ads. This way,
you maximize the chances of reaching users by taking advantage of different
platforms that are available as a part of Google AdWords. Choosing the
network where you will run your ads depends on both your business and the
type of campaign you want to create, as each network has its own distinctive
features and it is better than some other in achieving certain goals.
C. Google Search advertising

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The main type of advertising associated with Google AdWords is search
engine advertising. When a user types a certain phrase in the Google search
bar, the user is displayed a list of search results, together with the ads that are
in relation to that phrase. This is Google Search Advertising (Figure 4.3).
D. Google Partners
However, besides this type of advertising, Google offers advertising through
Google Partners. Google Partners are the websites that use Google search
engine on their website, so they present both organic and paid results on their
website. This means that you can expand the reach of your campaign that is
being run through Google AdWords. Probably the most famous Google
partner is AOL.com, but there are a lot of smaller companies that use Google
search on their websites.

Figure 4.6 Google Partner – AOL Search Engine

When you create a campaign through Google AdWords, you are
automatically opted in for Google Search Partners, and you can track the
conversions from your account. If you notice that Google Partners are not
providing enough conversions, and thus they might be wasting your budget,
you can always opt out. You should have in mind that it is not possible to
separately optimize the campaign for Google Partners, but instead, the

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 campaign that is optimized for Google Search is the same one used in Google
Partners advertising.
NOTES
E. Google Display Network
The third part of Google advertising is called Google Display Network, and it
represents advertising with banners through the websites that use Google
AdSense. Google AdSense provides websites possibility to create a space on
the website where Google ads will be displayed, next to the content of the
website. So when a user visits a website, an ad is displayed in the place
assigned by the website’s owner.
While it is possible to create a unique campaign for Google Search and
Google Display Networks, these two require different optimization elements,
which is why it is recommended that you set up different campaigns for these
two types of advertising. When creating a campaign with Google AdWords
you will have the option to opt in for both of these, and while it seems easier
to use the same campaign for both networks, you should have in mind that
these networks require different approaches. So if you want to optimize your
campaigns and maximize the effect of each campaign, you should customize
campaigns for two networks separately.
There are several differences when it comes to choosing on which network to
advertise, and those are primarily based on the place where your ad will
appear.

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Figure 4.7 Types of Search Network
Search Network including Search Partners tries to match search query with
the relevant ads. The type of ads available with this type of advertising is in
the form of text ads. This type of campaign is recommended for the cases
where you want your ad to appear in the search results only, when users look
for a term that is related to your business.
With Google Display Network, ads are being matched with the content of the
website. Targeting options with this campaign allow you to target specific
demographic group, pages about specific topics where you want your ad to
appear, etc. The formats of the ads that are available with Display Network
include: text, image, rich media, and video ads. This type of advertising is
recommended for advertisers with more experience in using AdWord
program, as well as in case you want to increase interest of the online users
and improve the position of you brand. Therefore, product placement is a
type of campaign that would benefit from Display Network.
Choosing all options for advertising, Google Search (including Search
Partners) and Display Network, is usually advised to beginners, who are not
completely aware how and if they would benefit from a certain type of
advertising. This allows you to completely maximize the reach of your

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 campaign and target both the users who use online search tool, as well as
those users who are just browsing the internet and visiting different websites.
NOTES
If you choose both options, the budget is being distributed across both
networks. You can use text, image, rich media, and video ads.
F. Campaign subtypes
When creating a campaign, you will also have to choose between different
subtypes of the campaign. Have in mind that Google Search and Google
Search with Display Network have two subtypes, including “Standard” and
“All features”, while Display Network only campaign has only “All features”
subtype.
Standard subtype is an option that is more suitable for beginners as it shows
less options and settings. This subtype of the campaign includes basic
location targeting, basic bidding and budget settings, location targeting, and
common ad extensions.
On the other hand, if you want to completely customize the campaign and to
be able to choose more advanced options and campaign settings, you should
choose “All features” campaign subtype. With this option you get access to
advanced social and experimental settings, ad scheduling and ad delivery
methods, advanced location options, advanced keyword matching, etc.
Specialized campaign types
There are additional campaign subtypes, that are used for a specific purpose
and they are called specialized campaign types.
• Dynamic Search Ads – Available with Search Network only, this type of
advertising uses your website content, instead of keyword to target the ads.
These ads are displayed as text ads with headline, content and landing page
chosen dynamically from your website.
• Mobile apps – This type of campaign is available with Display
Network only and it allows displaying images and text ads in mobile
applications.
• Remarketing – If you want to show your ads, in the form of text,
images or video, to the people who have already visited your website,
you should use remarketing subtype of the campaign, which is
available in Display Network only. Using this type of advertising you

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 basically show your ads to the people who have already visited your
website in the purpose of increasing the influence of your brand.
• Engagement – Allowing interactive, rich media ad formats, this type
of campaign is shown with Display Network only campaign. It is
useful if you want to use different media formats to promote your
brand, instead of text ads.

4.3. SUMMARY

 We have learnt about the search engine marketing and important

terminology related to SEM. We also identified the difference between
SEO and PPC, and differences between white hat and black hat SEO.
 The above section also provided how search engine works and how
they index and position website.
 We also understood Google Adwords were most commonly used PPC
program for online advertising. We learned how different types of
search engine advertising and types of campaigns that can be
organized with this program.
 Besides Google, we also used advertising through Bing/Yahoo!
network.

QUESTIONS:
1. Describe some of the terminology listed in the chapter.
2. Explain the difference between Search Engine Optimization(SEO) vs
Pay Per Click(PPC).
3. Differentiate White Hat Vs Black Hat.
4. Describe in detail Search Engine Advertising.
5. List the types of search networks.

CASE STUDY 4.1: Programmatic Advertising: Real-Time Marketing

The holy grail of advertising and marketing is to deliver the right message to
the right person at the right time. If this were possible, no one would receive
ads they did not want to see, and then no advertising dollars would be
wasted, reducing the costs to end users and increasing the efficiency of each
ad dollar. In the physical world, only a very rough approximation of this
ideal is possible. Advertisers buy television and radio spots, newspaper ads,

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 and billboards based on broad demographics and interests of likely potential
customers.
NOTES
The Internet promised to change this by gathering personal information on
consumers and targeting ads to just the desired group of people based on
their personal characteristics, interests, and recent clickstream behavior.
Consumer personal information was gathered through the use of cookies
placed on the user's browser, which tracked their behavior and purchases
online and could be matched with offline information as well.
From the beginning, e-commerce was a trade-off between privacy and
efficiency: let us know more about you, and we will show you only the
advertising and products you are interested in seeing and would be likely to
respond to. E-commerce was supposed to end the mass advertising that
began in 19th century newspapers, 20th century radio, and exploded with the
growth of television.
But contrary to this rosy scenario, most of the display ads shown to site
visitors are irrelevant, sometimes hilariously so, to visitors’ interests. For this
reason, the click-through rate for banner advertising is stunningly low, well
under 1%, and the price of generic display ads is only $1.26 per thousand
because of their low response rate. Check this out: visit Yahoo (the largest
display advertiser on earth) on a desktop or laptop computer, look at the
prominent ads shown on the right, and ask yourself if you are really
interested in the ad content at this moment in time. Chances are slim you are
interested at this moment, even if the ad is somewhat appropriate to your
demographics. Often, it is an ad for something you have recently searched for
on Google, or even already purchased at Amazon. These ads will follow you
for days. Researchers have found that only 20% of Internet users find that
display ads on websites are relevant to their interests. Programmatic
advertising promises to improve the targeting of ads, decreasing costs for
advertisers, and making the Web less annoying to consumers by showing
them ads that really are of interest to them.
Digital display advertising has progressed through three eras. In the early
2000s, a firm with a website interested in ad revenue (a “publisher”) would
sell space on its site to other firms (advertisers), usually through an ad
agency. These were primarily manual transactions. By 2005, ad networks

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emerged. These networks aggregated thousands of publishers' supply of ad
space into a single network where advertisers could buy ad space on
thousands of sites in a single purchase, and publishers could sell to hundreds
of advertisers more efficiently. By 2011, even larger ad exchanges emerged,
which provided advertisers access to an even larger pool of publisher ad
spaces. The result today is an extraordinarily complex ecosystem of players,
and sophisticated technologies (called a technology stack).
With so much supply available, and so many buyers, automated methods
were developed to allocate ad space to ad buyers. These methods are
collectively called programmatic advertising. Programmatic advertising is an
automated method that publishers use to sell their inventory (empty slots on
their web pages) to advertisers who want to buy ad space for their customers
(brand and product owners looking to market their products and services).
There are two kinds of programmatic advertising: auction-based real time
bidding (RTB), and programmatic direct, where advertisers
deal directly with publishers who have developed their own supply side
platforms. Programmatic advertising platforms use big data repositories that
contain personal information on hundreds of millions of online shoppers and
consumers; analytic software to classify and search the database for shoppers
with the desired characteristics; and machine learning techniques to test out
combinations of consumer characteristics that optimize the chance of a
purchase resulting from exposure to an ad. All of this technology is designed
to lower the cost, increase the speed, and increase the efficiency of advertising
in an environment where there are hundreds of millions of web pages to fill
with ads, and millions of online consumers looking to buy at any given
moment. Programmatic advertising allows advertisers to potentially show
the right ad, at the right time, to just the right person, in a matter of
milliseconds. To the extent this is true, display advertising becomes more
effective, and perhaps could become as effective as search-based advertising,
where it is much more obvious what the searcher is looking for, or interested
in, at the moment of search. In 2016, advertisers are expected to spend over
$25 billion (almost three-quarters of all total display ad spending, including
on banners, videos, and rich media) on programmatic advertising.

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 This amount is expected to grow to over 80% by 2018. Programmatic
advertising is roughly split between RTB and programmatic direct sales.
NOTES
Direct sales offer advertisers more control over ad display, location on the
screen, and frequency than RTB. Currently, just one-third of online display
advertising is still done in a non-automated, traditional environment that
involves marketers using e-mail, fax, phone, and text messaging. Traditional
methods are often used for high value ads, say, the top screen, expanding ads
seen at major newspapers, magazines, and portal sites, and native ads
appearing alongside organic content. This is the world of the traditional
insertion order: if you want to advertise in a newspaper or magazine, call the
ad department and fill out an insertion order. In this environment, firms who
want to sell products and services online hire advertising agencies to develop
a marketing plan. The ad agencies learn from the firms what kinds of people
they would like to contact online. The ad agencies pay data brokers or
advertising networks like DoubleClick to help them identify
where the online ads should be placed given the nature of the product and
the specific characteristics the producer firms are looking for. For instance,
let’s say a firm wants to market a new mountain bike to men and women,
ages 24–35, who live in zip codes where mountain biking is a popular
activity. Ad networks traditionally would direct the agency to direct
purchases of ad space from websites that attract the mountain biking
audience.
This traditional environment is expensive, imprecise, and slow, in part
because of the number of people involved in the decision about where to
place ads. Also, the technology used is slow, and the process of learning
which of several ads is optimal could take weeks or months. The ads could be
targeted to a more precise group of potential customers. While context
advertising on sites dedicated to a niche product is very effective, there are
many other websites visited by bikers that might be equally effective, and
cost much less.
The process is very different in a programmatic environment. Ad agencies
have access to any of several programmatic ad platforms offered by Google,
Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, and many smaller firms. Working with their clients,
the ad agency more precisely defines the target audience to include men and

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women, ages 24–35, who live in zip codes where mountain biking is a
popular activity, have mentioned biking topics on social network sites, have e-
mail where mountain biking is discussed, make more than $70,000 a year, and
currently do not own a mountain bike. The ad agency enters a bid expressed in
dollars per thousand impressions for 200,000 impressions to people who meet
most of the characteristics being sought. The platform returns a quote for
access to this population of 200,000 people who meet the characteristics
required.
The quote is based on what other advertisers are willing to pay for that
demographic and characteristics. The quote is accepted or denied. If accepted,
the ads are shown to people as they move about the Web, in real time. As
people come on to various websites they visit, the automated program
assesses whether they meet the desired characteristics, and displays the
mountain bike ad within milliseconds to that person. The programmatic
platforms also track the responses to the ads in real time, and can change to
different ads and test for effectiveness based on the platform’s experience.
Once the system learns from experience, it will focus on showing the most
effective ads on the most productive websites. Programmatic direct (or
premium) advertising uses the same platform, but publishers sell blocks of
inventory to ad agencies rather than single impressions. This stabilizes their
income, and puts them in closer contact with advertisers who can also
exercise greater oversight over the publishers.
The auto industry is a large user of programmatic advertising. Car brands are
highly focused on specific demographic groups, income levels, and
aspirations. A programmatic campaign begins with the advertiser picking a
demographic target, establishing a total budget for the campaign, and then
choosing an RTB platform and competing for the delivery of an ad to that
audience against other advertisers who may be other auto companies,
retailers, or telecommunications providers. The ads are awarded and served
automatically in millisecond-quick transactions.
Despite its clear advantages, there are also several risks involved for all
parties. Programmatic advertisers lose some control over where their ads will
appear on the Web. This is a threat to a brand if its products are shown on
inappropriate sites. Advertisers lose some accountability for their

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 expenditures because they cannot verify that their ads are actually being
shown, and they must take the ad platform’s word that indeed the ads are
NOTES
being shown to real people. This is a transparency issue. Ghost sites and ad
fraud complicate the picture as well. There are thousands of ghost sites on the
Web that do nothing but attract clicks using various ruses. Ad networks
record this traffic and have little capability to determine if it is legitimate, and
may show ads on these sites, which will generate fraudulent clicks that are
paid for by the ad network and the advertising firm.
Given the risks, many of the largest advertisers initially did not use
programmatic advertising, but that is rapidly changing. It was first used by
publishers to sell inventory that was left over after the major ad campaigns
had purchased the premium slots on web pages. Programmatic platforms
were inexpensive places to sell excess inventory. However, that is beginning
to change as advertisers gain confidence and the platforms themselves
improve their abilities to avoid inappropriate websites, purge ghost sites, and
learn how to detect click fraud. In addition, a number of firms have stepped
into the market with tools that address these concerns.
For instance, in 2014, Procter & Gamble announced that, going forward, it
planned to buy 70%–75% of its U.S. digital media using programmatic
methods. P&G is the largest advertiser in the country, spending about $4.3
billion on advertising in the United States in 2015. In the past, P&G purchased
premium online inventory at the top 100 comScore sites through several
different ad agencies and tracked performance using its internal staff.
According to P&G’s Chief Marketing Officer Marc Pritchard, programmatic
advertising has allowed P&G to more precisely target its advertising at a
good price, reportedly producing three to five times greater return on
investment than through traditional methods. Other companies are following
suit. Cleaning supply company Clorox devoted about 50% of its entire digital
budget to programmatic advertising in 2015. However, some upstart web
publishers aimed at the millennial demographic are trying to buck the trend.
Vox Media, Refinery29, and Mic have all rejected programmatic advertising
and will only sell advertising space directly to advertisers. These publishers
object on the ground that programmatic advertising can degrade website
functionality by slowing down how fast web pages load in browsers while

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also cluttering the site with ads that will annoy their visitors. Whether other
web publishers will follow this lead remains to be seen.
Case Study Questions
1. Pay a visit to your favorite portal and count the total ads on the opening
page. Count how many of these ads are (a) immediately of interest and
relevant to you,
(b) sort of interesting or relevant but not now, and (c) not interesting or
relevant. Do this 10 times and calculate the percentage of the three kinds of
situations. Describe what you find and explain the results using this case.
2. Advertisers use different kinds of “profiles” in the decision to display ads
to customers. Identify the different kinds of profiles described in this case,
and explain why they are relevant to online display advertising.
3. How can display ads achieve search-engine–like results?
4. Do you think instant display ads based on your immediately prior
clickstream will be as effective as search engine marketing techniques? Why
or why not?

FURTHER READING
1. Dave Chaffey, Digital Marketing – Strategy, Implementation and
Practice, 7th Edition, Pearson, 2019
2. Ian Dodson, The Art of Digital Marketing, 2016, John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.,
3. Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry, Digital Marketing for Dummies,
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
4. Seema Gupta, Digital Marketing Paperback, 2017, McGraw Hill
Education
5. Jennifer Grappone, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
Paperback, 2011, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,
6. Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated
Approach to Online Marketing Paperback, 2 nd Edition, 2019, British
Library
7. Swaminathan T.N and Karthik Kumar, Digital Marketing: From
Fundamentals to Future Paperback, 2019, Cengage Books

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 MODULE V SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

STRUCTURE
NOTES
5.0. Learning Objectives
5.1. Introduction to Social Media Marketing
5.1.1. What is Social Media Marketing?
5.2. Social Media Marketing Strategy
5.2.1. Approaches through Social Media Platforms
5.2.1.1. Social Media Marketing using Facebook
5.2.1.2. Social Media Marketing using Pinterest
5.2.1.3. Social Media Marketing using Twitter
5.2.1.4. Social Media Marketing using LinkedIn
5.2.1.5. Social Media Marketing using YouTube
5.2.1.6. Location-based Social Media Tools
5.2.1.7. Social Media Marketing using Reddit
5.3. Site Optimization
5.3.1. How to optimise website content for SEO?
5.4. Keyword Advertising
5.5. Internet Marketing Metrics
5.6. Summary
5.0. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 Understand the difference between traditional online marketing and

the new social mobile-local marketing platforms.
 Understand the social marketing process from fan acquisition to sales
and the marketing capabilities of social marketing platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
 Identify the key elements of a mobile marketing campaign.
 Understand the capabilities of location-based local marketing.
 To optimize website content using Search Engine Optimization
through keyword advertising.
 To measure the social media performance using internet marketing
metrics.

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5.1. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Something strange is happening. Your advertising doesn’t work anymore, at

least not like it used to. You used to be able to buy some TV time or put an
ad in a newspaper, but nowadays everyone has TiVo or a DVR and gets their
news online. The conversations that took place under industrial broadcast
media about your products happened in small groups, and their words
disappeared as soon as they were spoken. Now the conversations happen in
front of millions of people, and they’re archived for years to come. Not only is
your brand no longer the host, most of the time you’re not even a welcome
guest.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. You don’t have to try to outspend the
biggest companies anymore; now you can outsmart them with viral videos.
You don’t have to spend thousands on sterile focus groups; you’ve got your
market’s pulse at your fingertips with quick Twitter searches. And you don’t
even have to do all the work yourself; the stuff that your fans create will blow
you—and your competitors—away.
More than 250 million people are active Facebook users. More than 346
million people read blogs, and 184 million people are bloggers themselves.
Twitter has more than 14 million registered users, and YouTube claims more
than 100 million viewers per month. More consumers are connected than ever
before, and every second your company is not engaging them in social media
is a wasted opportunity. So, get on board.
5.1.1. WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

Social media is best defined in the context of the previous industrial media
paradigm. Traditional media, such as television, newspapers, radio, and
magazines, are one-way, static broadcast technologies. For instance, the
magazine publisher is a large organization that distributes expensive content
to consumers, while advertisers pay for the privilege of inserting their ads
into that content. Or you’re sitting down, watching your favorite sitcom, and
suddenly you’re interrupted by commercials (luckily, you have a DVR, so
you can fast-forward through them). If you disagree with something you read
in the newspaper, you can’t send the editorial staff instant feedback. And
good luck connecting with your morning radio on-air personality.

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 New web technologies have made it easy for anyone to create—and, most
importantly—distribute their own content. A blog post, tweet, or YouTube
NOTES
video can be produced and viewed by millions virtually for free. Advertisers
don’t have to pay publishers or distributors huge sums of money to embed
their messages; now they can make their own interesting content those
viewers will flock to.
Social media comes in many forms, but for our purposes, I’ll focus on the
eight most popular: blogs, microblogs (Twitter), social networks (Facebook,
LinkedIn), media-sharing sites (YouTube, Flickr), social bookmarking and
voting sites (Digg, Reddit), review sites (Yelp), forums, and virtual worlds
(Second Life).
Social Media Marketing (SMM), is a form of internet marketing that
involves creating and sharing content on social media networks in order to
achieve your marketing and branding goals. Social media marketing includes
activities like posting text and image updates, videos, and other content that
drives audience engagement, as well as paid social media advertising.
Before creating social media marketing campaigns, consider business’s goals.
Starting a social media marketing campaign without a social strategy in mind
is like wandering around a forest without a map—you might have fun, but
you'll probably get lost.
Here are some questions to ask when defining social media marketing goals:
 What are you hoping to achieve through social media marketing?
 Who is your target audience?
 Where would your target audience hang out and how would they use
social media?
 What message do you want to send to your audience with social
media marketing?

5.2. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

Business type should inform and drive social media marketing strategy. For
example, an e-commerce or travel business, being highly visual, can get a lot
of value from a strong presence on Instagram or Pinterest. A business-to-
business or marketing company might find more leverage in Twitter or
Linkedin.

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Social media marketing can help with a number of goals, such as:
 Increasing website traffic
 Building conversions
 Raising brand awareness
 Creating a brand identity and positive brand association
 Improving communication and interaction with key audiences
The bigger and more engaged audience is on social media networks, the
easier it will be to achieve every other marketing goal.
Few social media marketing tools to start social media campaigns.
 Social Media Content Planning —Building a social media marketing
plan is essential. Consider keyword research and competitive research
to help brainstorm content ideas that will interest your target
audience. What are other businesses in your industry doing to drive
engagement on social media?
 Great Social Content — Consistent with other areas of online
marketing, content reigns supreme when it comes to social media
marketing. Make sure to post regularly and offer truly valuable
information that ideal customers will find helpful and interesting. The
content that shared on social networks can include social media
images, videos, infographics, how-to guides and more.
 A Consistent Brand Image — Using social media for marketing
enables business to project brand image across a variety of different
social media platforms. While each platform has its own unique
environment and voice, businesses core identity, whether it's friendly,
fun, or trustworthy, should stay consistent.
 Social Media for Content Promotion — Social media marketing is a
perfect channel for sharing best site and blog content with readers. To
build a loyal following on social media, you'll be able to post all new
content and make sure readers can find new stuff right away. Plus,
great blog content will help to build more followers. It's a surprising
way that content marketing and social media marketing benefit each
other.
 Sharing Curated Links — While using social media for marketing is a
great way to leverage your own unique, original content to gain

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 followers, fans, and devotees, it’s also an opportunity to link to
outside articles as well. If other sources provide great, valuable
NOTES
information you think your target audience will enjoy, don’t be shy
about linking to them. Curating and linking to outside sources
improves trust and reliability, and you may even get some links in
return.
 Tracking Competitors — It’s always important to keep an eye on
competitors—they can provide valuable data for keyword research
and other social media marketing insight. If competitors are using a
certain social media marketing channel or technique that seems to be
working for them, considering doing the same thing, but do it better!

Figure 5.1 Measuring social media performance through Twitter Analytics

 Measuring Success with Analytics — You can’t determine the
success of your social media marketing strategies without tracking
data. Google Analytics can be used as a great social media marketing
tool that will help you measure your most triumphant social media
marketing techniques, as well as determine which strategies are better
off abandoned. Attach tracking tags to your social media marketing
campaigns so that you can properly monitor them. And be sure to use

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 the analytics within each social platform for even more insight into
which of your social content is performing best with your audience.
 Social Media Crisis Management — Things don't always go
swimmingly for brands on social media. It's best to have a playbook in
place so your employees know how to handle a snafu.

5.2.1. APPROACHES THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Brief overview about how to use social media for marketing according to each
platform’s unique user base and environment. Different social media
marketing sites require different approaches, so develop a unique strategy
tailored for each platform.

Figure 5.2 Popular Social Networks

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NOTES

Figure 5.3 Popular and best practices of social networks figures

5.2.1.1. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING USING FACEBOOK

Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active social media

marketing strategy. Start by creating a Facebook Business Fan Page. You will
want to pay careful attention to layout, as the visual component is a key
aspect of the Facebook experience.
Facebook is a place people go to relax and chat with friends, so keep your
tone light and friendly. And remember, organic reach on Facebook can be
extremely limited, so consider a cost-effective Facebook ad strategy, which
can have a big impact on your organic Facebook presence as well!

5.2.1.2. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING USING PINTEREST

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media marketing trends.

Pinterest’s image-centered platform is ideal for retail, but anyone can benefit
from using Pinterest for social media purposes or sales-driving ads.
Pinterest allows businesses to showcase their product offerings while also
developing brand personality with eye-catching, unique pinboards. When
developing your Pinterest strategy, remember that the social network's

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primary audience is female. If that's your demographic, you need a presence
on Pinterest!

5.2.1.3. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING USING TWITTER

Twitter is the social media marketing tool that lets you broadcast your
updates across the web. Follow tweeters in your industry or related fields,
and you should gain a steady stream of followers in return.
Mix up official tweets about specials, discounts, and news with fun, brand-
building tweets. Be sure to retweet when a customer has something nice to
say about you, and don’t forget to answer people’s questions when possible.
Using Twitter as a social media marketing tool revolves around dialog and
communication, so be sure to interact as much as possible to nurture and
build your following.

5.2.1.4. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING USING LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is one of the more professional social media marketing sites.

LinkedIn Groups is a great venue for entering into a professional dialog with
people in similar industries and provides a place to share content with like-
minded individuals. It's also great for posting jobs and general employee
networking.
Encourage customers or clients to give your business a recommendation on
your LinkedIn profile. Recommendation makes business appear more
credible and reliable for new customers. Also browse the Questions section of
LinkedIn; providing answers helps to get established as a thought leader and
earns trust.

5.2.1.5. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING USING YOUTUBE

YouTube is the number one place for creating and sharing video content, and
it can also be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Many
businesses try to create video content with the aim of having their video “go

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 viral,” but in reality those chances are pretty slim. Instead, focus on creating
useful, instructive “how-to” videos. These how-to videos also have the added
NOTES
benefit of ranking on the video search results of Google, so don't under-
estimate the power of video content!

5.2.1.6. LOCATION BASED SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Social media platforms like Yelp and FourSquare are great for brick and
mortar businesses looking to implement marketing on social media. Register
on these sites to claim your location spot, and then consider extra incentives
such as check-in rewards or special discounts. Remember, these visitors will
have their phones in hand, so they will be able to write and post reviews. A
lot of good reviews can significantly help sway prospective visitors to come
in and build your business!

5.2.1.7. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING USING REDDIT

Reddit, or similar social media platforms such as Stumble Upon or Digg, are
ideal for sharing compelling content. With over 2 billion page views a month,
Reddit has incredible social media marketing potential, but marketers should
be warned that only truly unique, interesting content will be welcomed.
Posting on Reddit is playing with fire—submit spammy or overtly sales-
focused content and your business could get berated by this extremely tech-
savvy community.
If you have content you believe the Reddit community (majority is young,
geeky, liberal, and internet-obsessed) would enjoy, you could reap
tremendous benefits and earn valuable traffic.
Using social media in marketing does more than improve site traffic and help
businesses reach more customers; it provides a valuable venue for better
understanding and learning from your target audiences.

5.3. SITE OPTIMIZATION

Search engine optimization (SEO), or website optimization, is the process of

making changes to your website so that it will appear higher in search engine

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results pages (SERPS). Based on a number of factors, search engines evaluate
your website's relevance and readability before assigning it a position or
ranking on the search engine results page. The more relevance the search
engines determine your website has for a given search, the higher the website
will rank. When you consider that more than 60% of Internet users will not
look beyond the first page of search results, it's important to use search
engine optimization to push your ranking as high as possible. SEO services
for website optimization address a variety of factors, including: keyword
selection, adding and refreshing content, creating search-engine friendly
design, building links, and resolving technical issues that may drive search
engines away.

5.3.1. HOW TO OPTIMIZE WEBSITE CONTENT FOR SEARCH ENGINE

OPTIMIZATION?

Having a website without optimized content for search engines is like

cooking your soup without adding salt. The clarification behind improving
content for SEO is to have the web crawler bots discover your website page
and just as to expressly rank the page significance with the goal that it shows
up at the highest point of the web search tool results. So many websites
owners make costly error when they think a one-time SEO process is enough
to make their websites rank and stay on top of search engine results forever. I
can completely state it to you that the procedure of website optimization is
definitely not a one-time process. It however requires support, tweaking,
ceaseless website design enhancement, webpage review and checking.
There are 6 major ways we can follow to have an optimized web content
that’ll make search engine spiders constantly attracted with website.
1. Perform a Keyword Research
Keyword research is the way toward finding and breaking down genuine
search terms that individuals input into web search tools. The
understanding you can get into these genuine search terms can help
advise a good content methodology, just as your bigger marketing
strategy. While investigating keywords that are getting a high volume of
searches every month, you can recognize and sort your contents into
themes that you need to make content on. At that point, you can utilize
these themes to manage which keywords you search for and target. In

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 case you’re thinking that it’s hard to concoct more keywords individuals
may be inquiring about a particular point, go to Google.com and
NOTES
investigate the related inquiry terms that show up when you plug in a
keyword. At the point when you type in your search query and look to
the base of Google’s results, you’ll see a couple of proposals for look
through related to your one of a kind information. These keyword
phrases can start thoughts for different catchphrases you might need to
mull over.
2. Make sure your Page Title and Meta Descriptions are SEO friendly
The first thing you need to do is to go through every page on your
website and ensure you add a meta-page title and meta description. In
technical terms, page titles are HTML elements or tags which let search
engines know the title of a webpage. A page title is a critical element for
ranking in search results, it is important as Google and other search
engines use page titles to help it understand the content of your page. In
the event that you don’t utilize the right page title, it can’t do this. You
can without much of a stretch recognize page titles on each query items
page. They are the interactive feature for each query output. Therefore,
page titles are important for content optimization and user experience.
Subsequently, page titles ought to be short and exact impression of the
substance on the page. The general guideline is to keep page titles
somewhere in the range of 40 and 70 characters. With respect to Meta
descriptions, they’re short depictions which outline the substance of your
page to assist web crawlers and the end-client. In particular, Meta
descriptions help urge internet searcher clients to tap on your site as
opposed to one of your competitor. This is on the grounds that the
principle capacity of a meta description is to show a short snippet of data
underneath the title in internet search results.
3. Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3, etc)
Just like the Meta titles and Meta descriptions, using relevant keywords
to name your header tags will form great benefits for your website search
results ranking. The Header tags are used to recognize headings and
subheadings inside your content from different kinds of content. H1 is
the fundamental heading of a page and it’s unmistakable to users. It is

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 the most conspicuous tag demonstrating what the page is about. H2-H6
are discretionary tags to structure the web content such that is anything
but difficult to explore for search web crawlers. A decent SEO propensity
will be to give each page a novel H1 tag mirroring the point the page
covers, utilizing your essential keywords in it. H2 & H3 tags are to be
used where appropriate, using secondary keywords relevant to
paragraphs on the page.
4. Image Optimization
We’re living in an increasingly visual world. That’s why the value of
image optimization can’t be overlooked. Image optimization creates
many advantages for your content optimization techniques, including
better client experience, quicker page load times, and extra positioning
chances, both inside the conventional and picture indexed lists. It might
interest you to note that web index bots can’t recognize the content of a
picture. Rather, they depend on the content related with the pictures to
fully understand what the image is and how it relates to your content or
the topic of your page. However, you should ensure not to stock your
website with very large sizes of images. The larger the file size, the longer
it takes your page to load, and the higher your bounce rate will be, which
isn’t good for your website search engine rankings. Try to settle for JPEG
image format. It provides the best options for maintaining a quality
image when compressed or resized. Because of its capacity to be
compacted significantly, the JPEG forms quality pictures in little record
sizes. When it comes to SEO, making clear, keyword-rich names is
completely pivotal. Picture document names alert Google and other web
index crawlers with regards to the topic of the picture. If you’re using an
image you took with your camera, the file name will typically look like
“IMG_354845” or something similar. Rename the file name from the
default to help the search engines understand your image and improve
your SEO value. Another way to properly optimize your image for SEO
is to add appropriate alt tags to them. This can help your website achieve
better rankings in the search engines by associating keywords with
images. Furthermore, try and create an image sitemap to house all of
your images in one place. Doing this will make it easy for Google and

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 other search engines to discover the images on your site. This increases
the chances that your images will be displayed in Image Search results.
NOTES
You can create a brand new sitemap solely for images, or add image
information to an existing XML sitemap.
5. Tweak existing text content with strategic search phrases on pages
Integrate selected keywords into your website source code and existing
content on designated pages. Make sure to apply a suggested guideline
of one to three keywords/phrases per content page. Ensure that related
words are used as a natural inclusion of your keywords. It helps the
search engines quickly determine what the page is about.
6. Develop an internal linking strategy
A good internal content linking strategy gives search engines like Google
an idea of the structure of your site. A good strategy can be to give the
most important pages more link value that the less important ones. It
might interest you to note that Google crawls websites by following
inward and outer link connections, utilizing a bot called Google bot. This
bot arrives at your website’s homepage and starts to scan the page and
follows the first link. Through this, Google can work out the relationship
between the various pages and other content. This way Google finds out
which pages on your site cover similar subject matter it was searching for
in the first place. In conclusion, we should note that alteration of
keywords and site content are important to ceaselessly improve web
crawler rankings so development doesn’t decrease from neglect.

5.4. KEYWORD ADVERTISING

Keyword advertising is a form of online advertising in which an advertiser

pays to have an advertisement appear in the results listing when a person
uses a particular phrase to search the Web, typically by employing a search
engine. The particular phrase is composed of one or more key terms that are
linked to one or more advertisements. The most common form or keyword
advertising, focused on payment methods, is pay-per-click (PPC), with other
forms being cost-per-action (CPA) or cost-per-mille (CPM).
Google Ads is the most well-known keyword advertising platform. Google
displays search ads specifically targeted to the word(s) typed into a search
box on the results page, and these keywords cause targeted ads also appear

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on content sites based on Google's system's interpretation of the subject
matter on each page of the site. This is known as contextual advertising.
Other search engines offering keyword advertising include Yahoo Search
Marketing, Bing Ads, and Looksmart, along with many others.

Figure 5.4 Guide to Google AdWords Match Types

Source: Duct Tape Marketing

Figure 5.5 Difference between organic and paid results in Keyword

Advertising

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 The above figure shows the difference between organic results (unpaid) and
paid results of mobile phone in Google search engine.
NOTES
A less common type of keyword advertising hyper-links individual words
within the text of a page to small pop-ups displayed by mouse over.
Advertising of this type is offered by Kontera, Vibrant Media, and
LinkWorth. Kontera's version is named ContentLink, Vibrant Media's version
is called IntelliTXT and LinkWorth's version is called LinkWords. They refer
to their product as in-text placement. Advertisers choosing to test this type
will want to exercise moderation to increase Internet user acceptance.

5.5. INTERNET MARKETING METRICS

The dictionary meaning of metric is a system or standard of measurement.

According to Investopedia.com, Metrics are measures of quantitative
assessment commonly used for assessing, comparing, and tracking
performance or production. Generally, a group of metrics will typically be
used to build a dashboard that management or analysts review on a regular
basis to maintain performance assessments, opinions, and business strategies.
KPIs/Metrics in digital era are used to evaluate the organization’s
performance & success across all digital channels whether it is Social Media
Marketing via social network channels such as YouTube, Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., Mobile Marketing via auto-calling, SMS or
WhatsApp etc, Search Engine Marketing via SEO (Public Relations, Collateral
Material, Guest Blogging, Direct Mail), Google Advertising, E-mail
Marketing, or Content Marketing (It could be video, poster, blog, story or any
other relevant content on digital form for self, companies or any affiliates via
social media platforms or websites) etc. In other words, Digital marketing
KPIs are used to measure & evaluate the performance of digital marketing
goals.
Digital KPIs/Metrics are nothing but the similar kind of KPIs/Metrics with
same goals to evaluate & monitor the success of the business. However,
digital KPIs/Metrics as name suggests are 100% rely on digital channels such
as social media, SEO etc. Industrial revolution 4.0 has been started and most
of the businesses have started to adapt them sooner to compete in the market
place. It is very essential for all industries and companies to have presence on
digital market place some form or other. It could be website to optimize it

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through SEO, social media presence etc. It helps to monitor your business
objectives quick & instant.
List of Internet Marketing Metrics
1. Website Traffic
According to yourdictionary.com, the definition of a website is a page or
collection of pages on the World Wide Web that contains specific
information which was all provided by one person or entity and traces
back to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL). It could be treated as
a virtual office & information center where prospective customer could
visit and interact with your products & services and hence all your efforts
through digital marketing should be focused to drive traffic here. The
traffic could be brought by running individual campaigns or through by
ads, digital banners etc. Website Traffic metric may provide insights such
as how is your campaign performing, on what channel and at what time.
In case, you see a steady decline in traffic while conducting steady
marketing efforts, think troubleshooting your website. You may find
broken links, a Google algorithm penalty, or any other technical issues
which discouraging visitors to reach on your website. Few guidelines
which may encourage traffic to your website:
SEO: Optimise website pages with relevant keywords
Promotion: Promote your content through social media channels
Blogging: Constantly publish your blog with depth & relevant content for
your target viewers
Offers/Discounts: Create targeted ads to a landing page with some offer
or discounts

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NOTES

Figure 5.6 Website Traffic

2. Website Visits Per Marketing Channel
Let us understand what is Website Monitoring? And why do you need it?
Website monitoring is the act of tracking the availability and performance
of websites to minimize downtime, optimize performance and ensure
smooth user experience. Maintaining website uptime is essential to any
business and website application monitoring is a thus a serious challenge
for most businesses. Applications Manager website application
monitoring service enables businesses to keep up with the health,
availability and performance stats of your websites and get notified
before it's too late.
Why do you need Website Monitoring Tools and how does it work?
Response time of three seconds or lower is an indicator of ideal website
performance and any downtime may directly lead to loss of profit &
customer disappointment that is why a real time website monitoring tool
is absolutely essential for business. Website monitoring tools measure
response times of all important dealings on the website and tracks the
elements accountable for the delays to help troubleshoot issues much
faster before it affects end users. Website monitoring tool such as
Applications Manager helps to:
 Monitor the health & availability of a single webpage or an entire
series of web pages.

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  Use synthetic transaction monitoring to analyze end user
experience with your website.
 Monitor critical page workflows and test application
 Track unauthorized changes, if any, made to the content elements
of the website.
 Measure web application performance from anywhere.
3. Session and Average Session Duration
Sessions refer to the number of visits your websites receives. Google
specifically counts this in 30-minute increments, meaning it triggers this
website traffic metric only once every half hour for each individual user.
Think of as an example: Users may trigger a session in the morning to
shop, and then visit again later in the day to add something new to their
cart. Each of those are considered unique sessions. Depending on your
website’s function (informational, ecommerce, etc.) or the industry, the
time on site metric can vary in its relevance to your campaigns.
Average Session Duration is a general indicator of how long visitors
spend on your site entirely. This helps you to understand how your site
performs from a user experience standpoint.
Is your website easy to navigate?
Are users finding what they’re looking for quickly?
Is the content valuable and worth reviewing at length?

Figure 5.7 Session and Average Session Duration

4. Page Views (PVs)
This is the total number of pages viewed. A user who repeatedly visits the
same page will trigger this metric, so it’s the broadest of all page-related
measurements for digital marketing success. However, it’s one of the
most important website traffic metrics. It’s relevant to know how many

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 pages are visited on your website in a given time period. This helps you
to understand if your entire site is of value or if only certain pages are.
NOTES

Figure 5.8 Page Views (PVs)

5. Traffic by Source
This metric tells precisely where your website visitors are coming from.
Being huge no of digital marketing platforms and limited time &
resources, it is important to monitor „Traffic by source metric‟ as it helps
to decide which source is doing well as desired and which one needs a
little more concentration. It also helps to narrow down where you will
spend your important time & money creating content.
 Organic Search: These users clicked a link on a search engine
result that brought them to your website.
 Direct Visitors: These users typed your URL directly into the
search bar, or perhaps have it bookmarked and returned to visit.
 Referrals: These users were sent to your website when they clicked
a link from another website.
 Social: These users came to your website after finding your social
media profile or content posts.

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 Figure 5.9 Traffic by Source
Source: Firstfoot Digital
6. Highest Visited Pages
To further determine which areas of your website are most valuable, look
at this metric. You can find it in the “Behaviors” section of Google
Analytics. The Most Visited Pages metric uncovers all sorts of information
about exactly where your site’s visitors are going and for how long.
7. Exit Rate (ER)
Here’s a metric that is very specific and reveals quite a bit about your
website design and user experience. If your campaign is meant to drive
new users to your website for a more general “learn more” branding
effort, the Exit Rate metric will show you exactly where they left after
they reviewed your content.
Unlike Bounce Rate which triggers when someone views only one page,
Exit Rate tells you where the user lost interest after spending some time
exploring. Make sure they don’t lose interest in your brand!

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 Figure 5.10 Bounce Rate Vs Exit Rate
Source: AdLift
NOTES
8. Cost Per Conversion / Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Acquiring leads and customers through cost-per-click advertising may be
quite expensive, it is extremely imperative to monitor the return on
investment (ROI). You can also monitor the cost per acquisition, but it is
cost-per-conversion that reflects the actual profitability of paid
campaigns. Understanding the lifetime value of a customer helps you
back into the proper amount you should spend to acquire a new one. This
marketing KPI shows how much it cost to acquire a lead that also
converted to paying customer. While an advertising campaign can
generate hundreds of leads for you, often only fewer than 2% of them
turn to a client. If the cost-per-conversion is lower than your customer
lifetime value, your marketing strategy is wasting resources instead of
generating profit. Evaluate the number of cost-per-conversion with
customer lifetime value to ensure campaigns are profitable in long term.

Figure 5.11 Cost Per Conversion / Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Source: WordStream
9. Cost Per Click

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 Cost per Click applies to both pay-per-click marketing and a number of
social media platforms that offer the clicks-to-site ad type. These online
metrics reflect the amount you pay for each individual click a user
performs. This is relevant as it directly relates to your overall marketing
budget in this area. Your budget can only go so far; the lower your CPC
that farther it goes.

Figure 5.12 Average Cost Per Click

Source: WordStream
10. Cost Per Lead (CPL)
Every single marketer should monitor this lead generation KPI. Cost-per-
lead shows the cost of acquiring a new prospect. Complemented with
cost-per-conversion metric, you can evaluate whether various marketing
activities pay off the effort, time, and resources spent to attract new leads.
11. Bounce Rate (BR)
Different from Exit Rate, the Bounce Rate metric is the percentage of users
who leave (bounce away) from your website after viewing only one page.
This metric can help reveal that visitors may be leaving because a) The
site takes too long to load; b) They did not immediately find what they
were looking for; c) They found relevant content but were not compelled
to click further; and d) An error page loaded.
Unless your website is set up to send users to a separate URL for
conversion, you should look to the Bounce Rate number to determine if

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 your campaign is effective. If you are marketing a new product but your
link sends users to the website’s Home page, you’re likely to have a high
NOTES
bounce rate. Therefore, combat this by sending them to a page that is
highly relevant to the path you want them on.

Figure 5.13 Bounce Rate

Source: FreshSparks
12. Conversion Rate (CR)
Google Analytics can help measure the number of conversions made on
your site. However, conversions may mean different things depending on
the campaign. For example, conversions might be an actual sale, a
subscriber, a completed download, a lead entry etc. Oftentimes, the
number crunchers only look to this digital marketing metric to determine
if your campaign is effective. However, it’s only one piece of the puzzle
and should be part of your overall digital marketing strategy. Guess what:
there are even more digital marketing metrics you need to measure.
Below, take a look at some other related to your online strategy such as
Social media metrics, Advertising metrics, and Email marketing metrics

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 Figure 5.14 Average Conversion Rate
Source: WordStream
13. Average time of conversion
Monitoring the time for leads to convert into paying users shows the
effectiveness of your sales process. In case, the conversion time is too
long, your prospects might lose interest in your products or services, and
you might end up losing them to a competitor.
14. Retention rate
This key performance indicator shows the number of customers who keep
using your product over an extended time period and makes repeat
purchases. Retention rate provides the information about customer
engagement with your products and services and hence it is important to
measure it. Furthermore, you can evaluate whether your customer
support and user experience help to build and maintain customer loyalty.
Here is a formula to calculate the Retention Rate:
Retention Rate = ((CE-CN)/CS)) X 100
CE = number of customers at end of period
CN = number of new customers acquired during period
CS = number of clients at start of period
15. Attrition rate / Churn Rate

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 This metric shows the percentage of customers no longer buying your
products or services. Increased churn rate could be a sign of poor user
NOTES
experience or slow service performance.
16. Returning vs. New Visitors
By measuring the percentage of returning visitors, you see how engaged
your audience is. For example, a low return rate on a blog page might
indicate that your content isn’t compelling enough for people to come
back for more.
The value of this dual metric is that it helps you determine how relevant
your website content is over time. Multiple visits can indicate you are
providing information that people find so valuable, that they keep coming
back. As you release new content on a regular basis (think: blogs), you can
review your New vs. Returning Visitors metric to see how any given
content piece is performing. Simply put:
If you’re looking to drive more organic traffic to your website, New
Visitors may be of importance to you.
If you would like to measure how many people come back to browse and
consume info, the Returning Visitors website traffic metric is important to
note.

Figure 5.15 Returning vs. New Visitors

Source: FreshSparks
17. Visits per channel
Understanding your inbound traffic sources helps to determine the most
profitable marketing channels. If you have recently run a paid ad
campaign, you can assess it is performance by looking how much traffic
(and leads) it has brought.
18. Average time on page
This metric is especially important for organic search traffic as Google
ranks pages based on their relevance. If a visitor leaves your website

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 immediate after appearance, search engines will know that the content
they saw was not as per his/her expectations. The higher your website’s
average time on site, the more likely you rank well on search results and
convert more visitors to leads.
19. Website conversion rate
A web page might be visited hundred times. But if it does not convert,
there is no use in directing paid traffic to this site.
20. Conversion rate for call-to-action content
In case, you have created web pages or content with a clear call-to-action,
you should measure whether these convert. This marketing metric is
especially useful if you are using pay-per-click campaigns to drive traffic
to specific pages. By comparing the price per conversion and customer
lifetime value, you’re able to evaluate the sustainability of your CTA
content.
21. Click-through rate on web pages
CTR shows how effectively your website’s call-to-actions attract user’s
attention and make them click for more information. It may be a CTA
button or a link to another piece of content that’s click through rate to be
increased. CTR metric may be applied to email marketing and paid
advertisements as well. Clicks on email blasts are often some of the
highest conversion drivers across the board. CTR relates to pay-per-click
helps to determine relevance score and affects Cost per Click.

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NOTES

Figure 5.16 Average Click-Through Rate

Source: WordStream
22. Traffic from organic search
This SEO metric shows the number of monthly website visits that come
through search engine results from Google, Bing, etc. Organic search is
highly beneficial as it’s free and generates targeted leads.
23. Conversions from organic search
See how many leads from organic search convert into paying customers.
This KPI shows whether your keywords that rank high in search engine
results are linked to your value proposal Low organic conversion rate
indicates that you might have high ranking keywords that confuse the
audience and deliver wrong messages about your service or product
offer.
24. Leads & conversions from paid advertising
Monitor the number of monthly leads and conversions from cost-per-click
advertising as a percentage of overall results. It gives an overview of your
non-paid marketing performance.
25. Social Reach
The posts you make on your social media platforms are meant to reach a
wide number of users. This social media metric tells you exactly how
many people were reached (i.e. saw your content). Now, the number of

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 people reached is always much larger than the number who engage. A
benchmark aim is to see 2-5% engagement based on your overall reach.
Social media reach may be increased using below tips:
 Fully brand all your social media profiles
 Post curate and original content consistently
 Engage with your formed community.
 Be active in the community.
26. Email Open Rate (EOR)
Email Open Rate measures the number of users who open your email
campaign as compared to the overall number of those who received it.
High open rate indicates that proper segmented list; subject line might be
attractive, and time of sending the mail was appropriate.
27. Impressions
Sometimes confused with reach, an impression is the larger overall
number of views your content or advertisement receives. Your content on
social media or a pay-per-click ad may be shown multiple times to the
same person. Each time is counted as an individual impression. This
number will always be higher than reach because the reach metric is only
triggered once per user.
28. Social Engagement (SE)
Social Engagement reflects the total number of interactions made on any
given social media post. Engagement could be in any form such as likes,
shares, clicks, comments, etc. To track & analyze social engagements are
important as user directly chooses to interact with your content. Because
of this, you can easily rank your content types based on how much
engagement they receive. It helps to guide your upcoming content
creation
29. Cost Per Click (CPC)
CPC applies to both pay-per-click marketing and a number of social
media platforms that offer the clicks-to-site ad type. These metrics reflect
the amount you pay for each individual click a user performs. It is
essential as it directly relates to your overall marketing budget in this area

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 Take a look at the sample below from Sprout Social. It shows five distinct
social media metrics and a detailed plan for how the company intends to
NOTES
achieve them. Your digital campaign will have more than just a social
media element. However, this template offers a nice overview of how you
can set goals for anything—and during any point of your marketing
funnel.

Figure 5.17 Social Metrics Map

Source: freshsparks.com

5.6. SUMMARY

From the above chapter, we have learnt the difference between

traditional online marketing and new social mobile-local marketing
platforms. The new social marketing process help us to gain fans to
sales using Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest platforms. Also we
identified the key elements of a mobile marketing campaign along
with the capabilities of location-based local marketing.
Now, we also know how to optimize website content using Search
Engine Optimization through keyword advertising and to measure
the social media performance using internet marketing metrics.

CASE STUDY 5.1: Cadbury Facebook Brand Pages

It’s no surprise to find out that Cadbury has established separate
Facebook pages for each of its most popular products, including Dairy
Milk, Wispa, Crème Egg, Bourneville and Hot Chocolate. Each one publishes
its own content and competitions making it difficult to condense it all into a
single blog post, so I'll just focus on the key highlights. The first thing to note

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is that all the pages are updated on a daily basis with brand-related content,
ranging from straightforward product promotions to recipe ideas. In general,
each post attracts thousands of likes and tens of comments, which the social
team does a good job of responding to. Cadbury clearly sees value in
maintaining an active Facebook presence and interacting with customers,
probably because it has already achieved a great deal of success in nurturing
its fans as brand advocates.
This is a departure from the more casual approach adopted by
Starbucks and McDonald’s, which make very little effort to maintain their
social communities but still achieve massive levels of engagement on their
Facebook walls. Looking specifically at the Dairy Milk page, most of the
content is currently about promoting the Joyville brand with a strong focus
on its competition to find a ‘Joyville Taster’. The winner receives a trip to the
Cadbury factory, a year’s supply of Dairy Milk and the chance to be the first
to taste new products. To be in with a chance of winning you have to come
up with a word to describe Dairy Milk chocolate then enter it either on a
dedicated minister or within a Facebook app.
It’s a really smart competition as the prize is positioned as a ‘sweet
benefits package’ that comes alongside the fictional job. It’s a great way of
rewarding fans with a prize that can’t really be won anywhere else. The
Wispa page is also running a promotional campaign to celebrate reaching
two million ‘likes’. The social team has researched its fans and has begun
publishing random stats about them. Again, it’s a clever way of celebrating
the community and the posts make a nice change from the usual product
promos. The current Wispa campaigns follows a brilliant campaign that the
Dairy Milk team ran last year to celebrate reaching one million ‘likes’.
Cadbury realised that despite having so many fans, only 16% of them
ever saw content that the brand posted on Facebook. The challenge was to
increase the engagement among its fans, as well as reaching friends of fans
and the wider Facebook community. To test what content users would
engage with, Cadbury decided to build a giant Facebook ‘like’ thumb out of
pieces of Dairy Milk.
Questions

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 1. How Cadbury can increase the engagement of the fans and other
communities in the Facebook?
NOTES
Critically analysis the advantages and disadvantages of Cadbury
having separate page in Facebook for each of its brand?
FURTHER READING
1. Dave Chaffey, Digital Marketing – Strategy, Implementation and
Practice, 7th Edition, Pearson, 2019
2. Dan Zarrella, The Social Media Marketing Book, 2010, O’Reilly Media,
Inc.,
3. Ian Dodson, The Art of Digital Marketing, 2016, John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.,
4. Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry, Digital Marketing for Dummies,
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
5. Stephanie Diamond, Digital Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, 2019,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
6. Seema Gupta, Digital Marketing Paperback, 2017, McGraw Hill
Education
7. Jennifer Grappone, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
Paperback, 2011, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,
8. Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated
Approach to Online Marketing Paperback, 2 nd Edition, 2019, British
Library
9. Swaminathan T.N and Karthik Kumar, Digital Marketing: From
Fundamentals to Future Paperback, 2019, Cengage Books

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MODULE VI CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN SOCIAL MEDIA

STRUCTURE
6.0. Learning Objectives
6.1. Customer Engagement
6.2. Affiliate Marketing
6.2.1. Types of Affiliate Marketing
6.3. Strategic Partnership
6.3.1. What is Digital Partnership?
6.3.2. Why is this increasing?
6.3.3. New roles and opportunities
6.4. E-Mail Marketing
6.4.1. Types of E-Mail Marketing
6.5. Content Marketing Strategies
6.5.1. Content forms for Digital
6.5.2. Online Audience Optimization
6.6. Summary
6.0. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To understand customer engagement in the virtual world
To understand the importance and types of affiliate marketing
To learn how strategic partnership with digital world helps social media
performance and what are the new roles and opportunities
Get familiar with the type of e-mail marketing that can be used to drive
customer engagement
Get acquainted with the content marketing strategy of online customer
engagement

6.1. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

A conceptual starting point in understanding how the critical activities of
engagement and response are enabled through the adoption of social
technology and supporting processes. Beware: It’s a different viewpoint than
that which applies to “engagement” in traditional media. Engagement is
redefined by consumers when acting in an open, participative social
environment. This is a very different context than the “read-only” setting in

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 which traditional media defines “engagement,” so take the time here to
understand the four stages of engagement.
NOTES
Engagement on the Social Web means customers or stakeholders become
participants rather than viewers. It’s the difference between seeing a movie
and participating in a screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The
difference is participation. Engagement, in a social business sense, means
your customers are willing to take their time and energy and talk to you—as
well as about you—in conversation and through processes that impact your
business. They are willing to participate, and it is this participation that
defines engagement in the context of the Social Web.
The engagement process is, therefore, fundamental to successful social
marketing and to the establishment of successful social business practices.
Engagement in a social context implies that customers have taken a personal
interest in what you are bringing to the market. In an expanded sense, this
applies to any stakeholder and carries the same notion: A personal interest in
your business outcome has been established. This applies to customers, to
partners, to employees, to anyone and everyone who can express and share
an opinion or idea somewhere along your path to market.
Consider the purchase funnel shown in Figure 1.1. As customer
conversations enter the purchase cycle in the consideration phase of the sales
process, there is a larger implication: Your customer is now a part of your
marketing department. In fact, your customers and what they think and share
with each other form the foundation of your business or organization.

Figure 6.1 The Social Feedback Cycle

The impact is both subtle and profound: Subtle in the sense that on the
surface much of “social business” amounts to running a business the way a

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business ought to be run. Businesses exist—ultimately—to serve customers
through whose patronage the founders, employees, shareholders, and others
derive (generally) an economic benefit as they are ensured a future in running
that business. At times, however, it seems the customer gets dropped from
that set. The result can be seen on Twitter most any day by searching for the
hashtag #FAIL.
It’s also a profound change, however, in the sense that the stakes in pleasing
the customer are now much higher. Customers are more knowledgeable and
more vocal about they want, and they are better prepared to let others know
about it in cases of over-delivery or under-delivery. On top of that, not only
are customers seeing what the business and the industry is doing, they are
building their own expectations for your business based on what every other
business they work with is doing. If Walmart can quickly tap Bazaarvoice and
put ratings and reviews on any product it sells, the expectation is that
American Airlines will prominently place customer ratings on every flight it
flies. Think about it: If flight attendants, by flight, were rated according to
service and demeanour by past fliers and that information was used to make
future flight choices in the same way as on-time performance, how would the
flying experience overall change? It happens in restaurants: We all have a
favorite waitperson. If this seems a stretch, consider that Southwest, Alaska
Airlines, and Continental have all placed emphasis on exactly this service
point, and they enjoy higher than average Net Promoter scores partly as a
result.
Social business, therefore, is about equipping your entire organization to
listen, engage, understand, and respond directly through conversation and by
extension in the design of products and services in a manner that not only
satisfies customers but also encourages them to share their delight with
others. If social media is the vehicle for success, social business is the
interstate system on which it rides into your organization.
Share their delight? What scares a lot of otherwise willing marketers is the
exact opposite: sharing dismay, or worse. The fact is, negative
conversations—to the extent they exist, and they do—are happening right
now. Your participation doesn’t change that. What does change is that those
same naysayers have company—you. You can engage, understand, correct

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 factual errors, and apologize as you address and correct the real issues. Watch
out for what Paul Rand has labeled “Determined Detractors.” See the sidebar
NOTES
“Respond to Social Media Mentions” for a response flow chart. It’s simple,
and it works. Be confident, Grasshopper.
“Engagement on the Social Web,” and “Social CRM,” are the other basic
principle of incorporating the customer directly into the marketing process
extends throughout the product lifecycle. Now, let us focus only on the
supporting concepts and techniques by which you can build these
principles—now—into your business processes. For example, encouraging
participation in discussion forums, or helping your customers publish and
rate product or service reviews can help you build business, and it can put in
place the best practices you’ll need to succeed in the future. Social business
includes product design, pricing, options, customer service, warranty, and
the renewal/re-subscription process and more. All told, social business is an
organization-wide look at the interactions and dependencies between
customers and businesses connected by information-rich and very much
discoverable conversations. So what is it that gets talked about, and why does
it matter? Simply put, anything that catches a consumer or prospective
customer’s attention is fair game for conversation. It may happen between
three people or three million. This includes expectations exceeded as well as
expectations not met, and runs the gamut from what appears to be minutiae
(“My bus seems really slow today…”) to what is more obviously significant
(“My laptop is literally on fire…right now!”). How do these relate to
business? The bus company, monitoring Twitter, might tweet back “Which
bus are you riding on right now?” and at the least let its rider know that it
noticed the issue. At most, it might discover a routing problem and improve
its service generally. As for the laptop on fire, if I was the brand manager and
it was my product line, I’d want to know about this as soon as possible and
by whatever means. That most certainly includes Twitter. News travels fast,
and nowhere does it travel faster than the Social Web. In his 2009 Wired
article “Twitter-Yahoo Mashup Yields Better Breaking News Search,” writer
Scott Gilbertson put it this way: “Whenever there’s breaking news, savvy web
users turn to Twitter for the first hints of what might be going on.” What’s
important in a business context is this: In both the bus schedule and laptop

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fire examples, the person offering the information is probably carrying a
social-technology-capable, Internet connected mobile phone. It is very likely
that Twitter or a similar mobile service is also this person’s first line of
communication about any particular product or service experience! The
respective service and brand managers could easily track this using real-time
social media analytics tools and thereby become immediate, relevant
participants in these conversations. This kind of participation is both
welcomed and expected to be present by customers. The great part of all of
this is that by connecting, engaging, and participating, as a business manager
you tap into a steady stream of useful ideas.
The Social Web (aka Web 2.0) revolves around conversations, social
interactions, and the formation of groups that in some way advance or act on
collective knowledge. Social media analytics is focused on understanding and
managing specific attributes of the conversation: sentiment, source, and
polarity, for example. Social business takes it a step further and asks “How or
why did this conversation arise in the first place?” For example, is the
conversation rooted in a warranty process failure? The practice of social
business is helpful in determining how to fix it. Is a stream of stand-out
comments being driven by a specific, exceptional employee? Social-business-
based processes will help your organization create more employees like that
one. From the business perspective— and Marketing and Operations are both
a part of this—understanding how conversations come to exist and how to
tap the information they contain is key to understanding how to leverage the
Social Web and to move from “So what?” to “I get it!”
Social business processes and technologies share insights generated by
customers, suppliers, partners, or employees through collaborative
applications in ways that actually transform a conversation into useful ideas
and practical business processes. Social business is built around a composite
of technologies, processes, and behaviors that facilitate the spread of
experiences (not just facts) and engender collaborative behavior.
An easy way to think about social technology and its application to business
is in its conveyance of meaning and not just attributes such as “polarity” or
“source” or “sentiment,” and in what a business can do in response to this
information. Social business is built around collaborative processes that link

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 customers to the brand by engaging them as a part of the Product
Development Cycle. Consider the social business framework now in place at
NOTES
Dell.
Dell, hit hard by Jeff Jarvis’s August 2005 “Dell Hell” reference in his Buzz
Machine blog posts, needed to become a brand that listened and engaged
with customers, employees, and suppliers across the Web. Dell employees
like Bob Pearson, now CEO of The Social Media Business Council and Sean
McDonald, now a principal with Ant’s Eye View, believes that people spent a
lot of time on the Web, but not necessarily on your domain buying your
product. So, the engagement strategy has to begin with going out onto the
Web and meeting them on their terms and on their turf. In other words, it’s
better to fish where the fish are, not where you wish the fish were.
The team at Dell built on the strength it found in its customers: There were
750,000 registered users in the Dell Community at the time, with a good
portion “highly engaged.” These customers wanted Dell to participate. Dell
quickly realized that engaged users were stronger contributors and more
vocal advocates of the brand. This realization was the breakthrough for the
wide range of social media programs that Dell offers today. Dell’s programs
are built around its customers (not just the brand), and they actively pull
customers and their ideas into Dell where Dell employees collaborate and
advance the product line, completing the customer-business information
cycle.
Social business includes the design of an external engagement process in
which participants are systematically brought into the social processes
surrounding and supporting the business. This is achieved within the
communities frequented by stakeholders through the implementation of the
community and associated software services presented throughout this book.
These social applications include the internal business processes that link
across the organization and connect consumers and employees with the
business as a whole and facilitate the process of customer engagement.

6.2. AFFILIATE MARKETING

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Affiliate Marketing is the practice whereby a digital publisher or website
promotes an online retailer and earns a commission based on the sales or
leads that the advertising generates for that online retailer.
We term this payment metric CPA – Cost Per Action. Typically, an ‘Action’ is
a sale of an online good or service, but it can also be a lead or registration, a
call, a download or any other trackable action that is desired of the end
customer. In recent years this has grown to even include offline sales —
provided they can be tracked back by a coupon or barcode.
There are two ways the CPA are set:
Flat rate: For every action a fixed fee is paid. This is typically used for
registration type actions with no cost, such as a credit card sign-up or for a
fixed price product like a mobile phone contract.
Revenue Share: The price of the item purchased is tracked and a percentage of
that price is then paid to the affiliate. This is generally favoured by
advertisers selling a range of tangible goods at varying prices, such as fashion
retailers. Affiliate Marketing is part of the performance marketing family,
meaning the return on investment is guaranteed and the advertiser is only
paying for advertising that has succeeded. It’s a versatile channel and is very
effective at driving actions for merchants selling consumer products or
services across a wide range of verticals, including apparel, travel, electronics,
health and beauty, telecommunications, finance and groceries. It should be
considered as a key part of an advertiser’s marketing mix in an integrated
campaign, specialising in turning brand awareness and interest into
conversions towards the end-of-purchase funnel.
We use the terms ‘Affiliate’ or ‘Publisher’ to define the website that is
promoting the brand or products. In later chapters we’ll look more in-depth
at the business models that affiliates employ to drive actions for the
advertiser. For now, let’s just dispel a common misconception: Affiliate
Marketing isn’t just banner advertising, in fact, most campaigns will get less
than 10% of their sales as a result of banner advertising. Consumers have
learned to ignore these banners, so successful affiliates employ smarter, more
engaging tactics to generate sales for the advertisers they work with, with
most sales coming from ‘text links’ often hidden behind ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Shop

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 Here’ type buttons. A ‘text Link’ in the affiliate world is just a trackable URL
that redirects to the relevant page of the advertiser’s website.
NOTES
Whilst the majority of affiliates still generate actions for their advertisers by
promoting on their own website or blog, there’s now many other ways they
generate customers. This includes email marketing, mobile apps, paid search,
remarketing widgets or campaigns, offline promotions and social campaigns.
The scope is almost unlimited. Any publisher or partner paid to promote on a
CPA metric could be considered an affiliate.
How does it work technically?
Most advertisers will employ an Affiliate Network to administer the tracking
of their Affiliate Campaign. The network will provide a set of tracking links
to the affiliates that sit behind the banners and text links on the affiliates’
websites. When the customer clicks on that link a cookie is dropped onto their
computer and that click is registered by the Affiliate Network. When that
customer then completes a purchase and reaches the advertiser’s
confirmation page, the Affiliate Network’s tracking tag is fired. That tag
checks for the relevant cookie and if the customer has come from one of the
Affiliate Network’s publishers, the sale is recorded by the Affiliate Network
in their platform. Via that platform both the advertiser and affiliate should be
able to see that the sale has tracked and a commission can be awarded.
The advertiser populates the tracking tag with all of the information relevant
to the sale, typically the price and order ID are always included, then
additional fields such the product stock keeping unit (SKU) or promotion
code can be added and tracked to assist with analysis of the campaign’s
performance.
Again, there’s a wide range of complications and options to improve on the
basic tracking model. The more advanced networks are able to provide
cookie-less tracking, so that sales can still be attributed to affiliates when the
user has blocked or deleted the affiliate cookie. This is becoming increasingly
important as some browsers automatically block third-party cookies. More
complex tracking can utilise unique promotional codes or block non-affiliate
codes to record sales. Affiliate tracking pixels can be conditionally fired to de-
duplicate against other traffic sources — though complex programming is

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needed around the rules for this, given that cookie lengths are typically much
long than a single session.

Figure 6.2 How Affiliate Marketing works technically

6.2.1. TYPES OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

When we talk about Affiliate Marketing, it is important to note that there are
different types of affiliates. The method chosen by the affiliate to promote the
advertisers’ products is the key differentiation. Each affiliate type fulfills a
different role in terms of value, volume and reach. By understanding affiliates
on an individual basis, advertisers will have the knowledge of who is best
positioned to deliver in certain industries or to promote particular products.
1. Reward sites
With online shoppers becoming increasingly savvy, reward sites have seen a
surge in popularity. This type of affiliate drives sales by rewarding its
members through a share of the commission it earns from an advertiser. If
provided with a competitive offer, reward sites can generate significant
volume. They provide brands with an effective way to increase its exposure,
especially if products are not strongly positioned on aggregator sites. If used
strategically, reward websites can drive incremental growth (e.g. reward to
increase average order value, higher commission for purchase of new
customers). It is important to have a sophisticated validation process in place
in order to avoid paying commissions on cancelled bookings or return
purchases.
2. Content sites and blogs

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 These types of websites are often focused on a niche interest and feature
unique content. A few examples are product review sites, blogs and online
NOTES
forums. Often, Content Affiliates form part of an Affiliate Program’s long-tail
strategy and are rarely large volume drivers. Regardless of their contribution
to overall sales, they are valued partners. The reason for this is that unique
content suggests editorial credibility and often has a positive impact on an
advertiser’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Content sites can also help reach a new audience. This audience might not
necessarily be looking for your brand in particular but could come across it
through a feature in a newsletter as the affiliate reaches an audience that is
actively looking for the topic around your brand. A great way to engage and
optimise activity with content sites is by providing fresh content or an
exclusive offer. Recently we have also seen an increase in integrated content
pieces as well as affiliates who are using video to monetise a product.
3. Email
An Email Affiliate sends targeted emails to its own (or third-party) data base
to drive conversions on behalf of a brand. In order to drive volume, a strong
and time-sensitive offer is required and creative should be refreshed
regularly. It is important to always consider the size and source of the data to
ensure it is compliant with local and brand regulations and to avoid over
promotion or database exhaustion.
4. Comparison websites
These sites offer consumers the opportunity to compare products of different
advertisers (like credit cards or phone plans). Through a compelling offer,
comparison websites can generate large sales volumes. They vary a lot on
how they structure their rankings, which is not always based on best product
but often earnings per click (EPC).
5. Retargeting Affiliates
Affiliates retarget most commonly through tags that they place on the
advertiser’s site and try to re-engage with consumers who have not
completed their purchase. This could either be via an overlay when a
consumer is about to leave a website, trying to persuade them to stay, or via
email if they have abandoned their shopping cart, making it easy for them to
return and to complete their purchase. The advertiser has full control over

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traffic source and targeting options. It is recommended to trial different
creative and messages and not to rely too heavily on handing out incentives.
6. PPC Affiliate
A PPC (pay-per-click) Affiliate is a search specialist who drives traffic to an
advertiser’s site by bidding on relevant keywords via a custom-built landing
page. They generally work on a CPA basis but sometimes require hybrid
commercial agreements. PPC Affiliates are not for every client but can be
great strategic partners if:
• Competitors are cannibalising advertisers’ ads
• Limited budgets don’t allow for an ‘always on’ approach, leading to lost
exposure
• Aggregator ads are appearing on advertisers’ search terms and directing
brand traffic to competitor products
The key to a successful trial with a PPC Affiliate is to set up strict guidelines
which help ensure affiliates are compliant.
7. Voucher and Deal Sites
These types of sites generate sales by offering their users a discount code that
can be redeemed online against their purchase. They also often promote
generic deals in a designated section. An exclusive code will usually increase
exposure on the site, where a quick expiry date will create a sense of urgency
for consumers and can be used as a strategic tool to drive quick sales.
8. Social Affiliates
This type of affiliate works via highly targeted posts on social networks or
sponsored tweets, which can help to drive awareness and assist in generating
need. It is important to keep the creative relevant, with a strong call to action.

6.3. STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Digital and strategic partnerships between complementary companies
are on the rise. I believe it’s beneficial both from a customer and
company perspective. The ways we market and do business are
changing and the emerging opportunities quite exist for creative
collaborations.
6.3.1. WHAT IS DIGITAL PARTNERSHIP?

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 A digital partnership is the collaboration between two companies or
an influencer where the two parts share a target audience as well as a
NOTES
service or product that benefits each other. That said a partnership
between two companies are not only a sportswear company teaming
up with a fitness centre brand it can be with influencers such as
bloggers or Instagram stars.
To advertising agencies adding a service to their portfolio by adding
partner agencies in another field such as production. To companies
teaming up to share messages or develop new services.
A great example that digital partnerships can look different and vary
are for example NHS teaming up with Tinder to raise awareness
about organ donations.

6.3.2. WHY IS THIS INCREASING?

Strategic partnerships are on the rise for a number of reasons.

Personally I think this is because the advertisement space has
changed as well as the increased power of the consumers.
With the customer getting an increased power with internet and rise
of social media brands need to be useful, inspire and create value and
experience for the customer.
Joining forces with either other companies or a lifestyle or niche
blogger is a way to elevate the experience for your customers. From a
business perspective this is really clever as you can join forces to
reach brand new target audiences or solve other challenges with a
partner to bounce solutions with.
New Roles and Opportunities
The rise of these types of services is creating new roles within the
digital industry. The rise of a specific new role as Digital Partnership
Managers or just Partnership Managers with the purpose to identify,
pitch collaborations, set them up and evaluates and keeps the
momentum. It’s an exciting role which mixes strategy, business skills,
creativity and sales.

6.4. EMAIL MARKETING

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Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a
group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a
potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It
involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales
or donations. Email marketing strategies commonly seek to achieve one or
more of three primary objectives, to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.
The term usually refers to sending email messages with the purpose of
enhancing a merchant's relationship with current or previous customers,
encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers
or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and
sharing third-party ads.

6.4.1. TYPES OF E-MAIL MARKETING

1. Transactional E-Mails
Transactional emails are usually triggered based on a customer's action with
a company. To be qualified as transactional or relationship messages, these
communications' primary purpose must be "to facilitate, complete, or confirm
a commercial transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter
into with the sender" along with a few other narrow definitions of
transactional messaging. Triggered transactional messages include dropped
basket messages, password reset emails, purchase or order confirmation
emails, order status emails, reorder emails, and email receipts.
The primary purpose of a transactional email is to convey information
regarding the action that triggered it. But, due to their high open rates (51.3%
compared to 36.6% for email newsletters), transactional emails are an
opportunity to introduce or extend the email relationship with customers or
subscribers; to anticipate and answer questions; or to cross-sell or up-sell
products or services.
Many email newsletter software vendors offer transactional email support,
which gives companies the ability to include promotional messages within
the body of transactional emails. There are also software vendors that offer
specialized transactional email marketing services, which include providing
targeted and personalized transactional email messages and running specific
marketing campaigns (such as customer referral programs).

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 2. Direct E-Mails
Direct email involves sending an email solely to communicate a promotional
NOTES
message (for example, a special offer or a product catalog). Companies
usually collect a list of customer or prospect email addresses to send direct
promotional messages to, or they rent a list of email addresses from service
companies.

6.5. CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIES

What’s your content marketing strategy? In truth, that’s just another way to
pose the questions and approaches. But the alternative vantage point can be
helpful food for thought. Also, it is the question more immediately raised by
a web or social copywriter than an SEO.
We can begin with an assumption that a traditional SEO might not make—
that we have the complete capability to produce any great content.
Therefore, what content should we produce, and where should we put it?
Definitely serve the content that the customers are looking for in the channels
they want. But we also have more opportunities to think strategically on
behalf of our company: What content, where, can best represent our brand
and move customers to our goals?
We can achieve the essentials of giving the customer what the customer
wants, and accommodate the luxury of producing brand, product, or
company-centric messaging. And just because it might be company-centric
doesn’t mean it can’t be optimized.
What if your brand messaging is your search strategy, such as with
reputation management or brand awareness goals? You have the means to
the end.
6.5.1. CONTENT FORMS FOR DIGITAL

With content marketing we have some additional considerations, such as

increased opportunities for link baiting; we want to bait web users to help us
market ourselves with social share and conversation. And the sites we use,
such as PR and online article sites, we want to ensure will not be off-topic to
our own brand or be red flags to the search engines.
So we go back to our research tools and research these relevant sites for
credibility and link authority.

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Here are some forms of digital content we can consider for content publishing
or recycling:
 Newsletter/email. 
 Press releases.
 Placed articles. 
 Writing in Wikipedia, About.com, and other content sites.
 Guest blog posts.
 Videos and podcasts in audio/video sites.
 Alternative, more niche social channels, such as Tumblr or Vine—maybe
not the first choices for your business or customers, but if you have the
content and can try some testing, what’s to lose?
As with so much, analytics is key and should drive your strategic digital
plans. So what analytics can inform your best use of content production
capabilities? You can create content to serve the drop-off points within your
funnel for the total sales cycle or even total customer life cycle.

6.5.2. ONLINE AUDIENCE OPTIMIZATION

I’ve talked about the issues of ever-changing SERPs and the myth of the
number-one Google result. So what replaces it? Perhaps Online Audience
Optimization, or OAO.
Just as we’ve mentioned that there has been a growth in search engine
importance for social content, as well as customized results, we can label this
under the concept of OAO—the latest blog buzz among SEOs.
Think about it this way: “Number one SERP position” relies on the
assumption that it will be number one for a broad base of searchers,
excluding individual search habits, social interests, and search engine
bookmarks.
After all, remember the old-world way of proving the number one results
was by deleting cookies to neutralize the browser prior to the search. It’s a
myth because nobody searches from a neutral browser with neutral results
anymore. There is a new path for Google.
We have to put more emphasis on the marriage of specific digital web users
and their behavior, media, and content desires.
After all, if you are selling pet rocks, and you have a great social presence
with Joe Blow as a “Like” and social follower, when Joe Blow alternatively

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 goes to Google to search for pet rock content, you want to be the one who
comes up.
NOTES
And when you do, it will be because of one-to-one relevance, history, and an
overall digital context as opposed to “neutralized search engines.” I’ve
already seen a number of online articles about OAO titled “SEO is Dead.” I
have a good hunch there will be more.

6.6. SUMMARY

We started with the basic understanding from social feedback cycle how
customer engagement happens in the virtual world.
Learned how customer get engaged through affiliate network and important
types of affiliate marketing.
We looked at how e-mail marketing can be used for effective utilisation for
customer engagement in social media
Learned about online audience optimization and it could replace search
engine optimization in the future.

QUESTIONS:
1. What do you mean by customer engagement?
2. Describe affiliate marketing and explain the different types of affiliate
marketing.
3. Explain strategic partnership and why this is increasing in social
world?
4. What is E-Mail marketing and explain the types of E-Mail Marketing?
5. Describe the content marketing strategies and its forms in digital
world.
6. How online audience optimization going to replace search engine
optimization?

CASE STUDY 6.1: TfL’s community managers engage with London’s

cyclists
Alex, Online Community Manager for Cycling, Transport for London
(TfL), so essentially involved in anything cycling-related that happens on
social media - from initial strategy through to the day-to-day execution of
tactics. That might mean launching a Facebook campaign for Santander

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Cycles, responding to reports of a problem on a Cycle Superhighway on
Twitter, or sharing user-generated content on Instagram. Ultimately though,
I’m here as part of a big team helping to get more people cycling in London.
Expectations from customers vary wildly across platforms and we try
to play to each platform strengths. Twitter is certainly our busiest platform in
respect of queries and we respond as quickly as we can, whereas the pace on
Facebook is somewhat slower and we can be a little more creative in the type
of media we use. For Santander Cycles we’ve recently started to ramp up our
efforts on Instagram which provides a really positive platform to inspire
people to ride with beautiful images and the sharing of user-generated
content. Our tone of voice generally stays the same but we are able to play
around a little more with the creative across different channels.
A great community manager can’t stand still. We need to be executing
every day to ensure our practical knowledge and skills stay relevant.
Competition for consumer attention between the major platforms is intense
right now, with updates being rolled out on an almost weekly basis, so we
need to be aware of these changes as soon as they happen and switch our
tactics appropriately. Online reputation management is important but if
you’re consistently providing your audience with value then they’ll be much
more forgiving when things do go wrong. We’re doing a lot more work with
influencers, partners and involving the community to help us spread the
message more widely. Not that any of that is particularly new - it’s just the
way we can do this with new platform features keeps it really relevant and
interesting for the community.
Questions
1. Analysis how different virtual platforms helps in engaging London
cyclists to interact and to create user generated content?
2. Understanding the ROI of your content is fundamental to success.
How will you measure ROI using online reputation management tool
in this case?

FURTHER READING
1. Vandana Ahuja, Digital Marketing, Oxford University Press, 2015

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 2. Dave Chaffey, Digital Marketing – Strategy, Implementation and
Practice, 7th Edition, Pearson, 2019
NOTES
3. Philip Kotler, Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital, April
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
4. Ian Dodson, The Art of Digital Marketing, 2016, John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.,
5. Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry, Digital Marketing for Dummies,
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
6. Stephanie Diamond, Digital Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, 2019,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
7. Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated
Approach to Online Marketing Paperback, 2 nd Edition, 2019, British
Library
8. Swaminathan T.N and Karthik Kumar, Digital Marketing: From
Fundamentals to Future Paperback, 2019, Cengage Books

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MODULE VII CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

STRUCTURE
7.0. Learning Objectives
7.1. Customer Development Strategy (STP 2.0 Framework)
7.1.1. STP 2.0 Framework differs primarily from traditional STP
7.1.2. Elements of STP 2.0 Framework
7.2. Summary

7.0. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Understand the customer development strategy and concepts of STP 2.0
Framework
7.1. CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (STP 2.0 FRAMEWORK)
With an understanding in the last section on how firms can align their core
competencies to suit and serve changing customer value functions, we would
look at the most important element of digital strategy which is defining and
developing the target customer. We would examine how the classic functions
of STP have evolved to STP 2.0 and the elements which constitute its
formation.
The key characteristics of digital platforms is that they provide firms with not
just a broad-based segmentation of their customers, but gives the ability
(through technology) to narrow those segments into like-minded customer
groups, business-oriented customer personas, and the knowledge and
identification of customers at an individual level.
Angus Jenkinson in his essay 'Beyond Segmentation' (Journal of Targeting,
Measurement and Analysis for Marketing), presents his views on how a
'grouping' approach on segmenting customers helps create customer
communities' or clusters which support creation and preservation of loyalty
within these groups, thus helping firms target micro-communities within the
broader segments which used to be defined traditionally.
This chapter aims at developing the next advanced level of STP which we
term as STP2.0 Framework and discusses new approaches to all the three
elements of segmenting, targeting, and positioning. It involves looking at
how concrete customer action data (derived through analytics) and
knowledge of customer's buying intent and final action (through search and

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 conversion keywords and data) can help marketers develop highly refined
target segments, and position them through personal communication and
NOTES
channels which could never be deployed earlier because such data was never
available in the first place.
This refined STP Version 2.0 is depicted in Fig. 7.1 which showcases a new
approach to developing each of the three components. The framework has
been developed keeping in mind the latest approaches to market segment
creation, consumer, and buyer persona development, mapping the consumer
journey in real time and creating multiple positioning strategies to target
customers uniquely across each of the consumer funnel stages through a mix
of channel and communication approaches.
We would like to state here that with advances in technology, both
quantitative and qualitative data is being accessed, interlinked, and applied
in multiple ways by companies and it is not possible to cover all of those
newer techniques and advancements in detail here. The intent of the
framework is to provide a base on top of which marketers can use data from
multiple channels to feed information, refine their segments, and position
themselves real time in the most customized fashion.

7.1.1. STP 2.0 FRAMEWORK DIFFERS PRIMARILY FROM

TRADITIONAL STP

At a broad level, STP 2.0 Framework differs primarily from traditional STP as
follows:
a) Segmentation 2.0:
The key difference between traditional and online segmentation relates to the
kind of data that was available, collected, and the manner in which segments
were developed. All these three aspects differ primarily with the online
channels, as not just basic demographic, psychographic, and behavioural data
but also data at each customer transaction level can be analysed with
sophisticated technologies to yield highly refined and actionable audience
clusters.
b) Targeting 2.0:
Earlier, once the customer segments were created, marketers had limited
options to choose from the segment mix and even media planning for

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traditional channels only allowed targeting to such broad-based
classifications. Targeting 2.0, on the other hand, deploys the concept of user
personas which involves defining audience clusters and making use of more
authoritative and quantitative data available across multiple online elements.
c) Positioning 2.0:
With digital marketing providing the possibility of understanding audiences
at an individual level (for each of the chosen target clusters) and segregating
them across the marketing funnel, marketers have the power to position
differential, customized messages in real time across each of the funnel stages
depending upon the customer type and conversion metrics being targeted for
that channel.

7.1.2. ELEMENTS OF STP 2.0 FRAMEWORK

To understand STP 2.0 Framework, we would need to understand the

analysis behind each of the three key elements in Fig. 7.1:

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NOTES

Figure 7.1 Elements of STP 2.0 Framework

a) Data Segmentation Matrix (Segmentation 2.0): To understand the kind of
extended customer transaction data which can be used to develop segments
in present times, we have developed a data segmentation matrix with data
origin and data type mapping all data collated across internal / external or
offline / online generated data. The four quadrants which emerge from this
matrix include:
 Traditional data: Involves data sets which are internal to the company
and derived from traditional (non-online) data sources. These include
company’s CRM, internal systems data, subscription / retail sales transaction
data, and other qualitative data like customer survey, focus groups,
interviews, etc.

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 External data: Includes other offline data collated from external sources
like market analyst, trade publications, competitor, and third party data, etc.
 Data from brand’s owned media: Includes all data collated online from
firms’ owned properties only. Examples include websites, microsites, blogs,
social channel pages, mobile apps, etc.
 Data from earned and paid media: Takes stock of all other customer
transaction-related online data channels, which could range from search
keywords, social listening data, and transaction data from customer’s journey
across the funnel stages, e-commerce site visits, etc.
The data segmentation matrix provides an easy-to-classify framework for all
data which can be collated across online and offline presences to integrate it
and develop clarified, meaningful, and actionable segments which customers
can further target.
Traditionally, consumer segments were generated using key variables of
demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data, but with the present set of
advanced online and transactional data available, market segmentation has
turned into a highly sophisticated and data-intensive exercise. With
companies like Nielsen, Experian devising customized segmentation
techniques for different clients based on their needs, firms can make use of
such predefined micro segments to discover which segments are best suited
and most probable to respond to marketing efforts targeted to them. To share
an example of how Nielsen segmentation system helps customers customize
their segmentation exercise, let us look at Fig. 7.2 which provides a screenshot
of one of the segmentation types – Nielson PRIZM, based on consumer
lifestyle, shopping behaviors, and media preferences.
Apart from this, Nielsen P$YCLE Nielsen ConneXions, Find MyBest
Segments, etc., which provides firms with interactive tools that they can slice
and dice to arrive at top segments most suited to their market and product
strategy. For effective segmentation, the five key aspects which firms should
always keep in mind include:

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NOTES

Figure 7.2 Nielson’s PRIZM Segmentation Framework

Source: Michael King, ‘Personas for SEO in 2012 (PubCon)’, 16 October 2012
 Measurable: The size, purchasing power, characteristics of the segments
should be measurable.
 Substantial: Segments should be large and profitable enough to serve. A
segment should be the largest possible homogeneous group worth going
after with a tailored marketing program.
 Accessible: The segments can be reached and served effectively.
 Differentiable: Segments are conceptually distinguishable and respond
differently to different marketing mixes. If two segments respond
identically to a particular offer, they do not constitute separate segments.
 Actionable: Effective programs can be formulated for attracting and
serving the segments.
The second element of the STP2.0 Framework discusses the concept of
clustering and persona development to target the set of buyer groups that a
company chooses to serve.
b) Clustering and persona creation (Targeting 2.0): By definition, ‘User
Personas’ is a representation of the goals and behaviors of a hypothesized
group of users. Persona development as an exercise involves building
archetypes of the members of a target audience to create reliable
representations of them. The chosen segments are referred to as clusters since
their members share a common set of needs and display similar buying

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characteristics which the brand has willingly chosen to target. Persona
creation has become common for large marketing companies and there are
multiple ways in which marketers can attempt to create them depending on
the information available and specific outputs companies are seeking through
the exercise.
Once a firm has a clear idea of the high-level demographic, psychographic,
and behavioural variables it wants to include as a part of its segmentation
strategy, it would look at analysing some of the following key factors stated
below, to finalize its target segments and develop representative personas
related to each segment:
 Segment size and growth
 Company’s strategic direction
 Product mix and product life cycle stage
 Competitor’s market strategy
 Emerging marketplace and consumer trends
With marketing activity increasingly moving away from addressing broad
segments to targeting micro segments, it becomes imperative for firms to
develop these target clusters in the form of individual personas which are
well defined with all their characteristics well understood, at a level akin to
understanding an individual’s personality. Persona creation typically helps in
the development of customized marketing material, optimized websites,
responsive landing pages, consumer funnel-based navigation and features,
etc. Personas are different from segmentation as they help marketers target
different content to consumers coming with varied goals to the website. How
marketer positions that content across the consumer funnel though would be
covered in positioning 2.0 section.
 Target segment identification: To being with persona development, firm
must have identified multiple segments/clusters for which they would want
to develop detailed personas. The initial inputs towards building personas
would be basic demographic data, along with a clear assessment of the needs
and pain points which drive them. At this stage, it would really help to know
typical interactions and perceptions of identified segments with the brand,
their value expectation from product/service, and specific engagement needs
of the segments.

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  Understanding values, behaviors, and interests: The next stage involves
going deeper into customer’s purchase patterns, their motivations and
NOTES
driving factors, key sources of influence, their role in decision making,
specific interest area related to a firm’s product set, common values they
exhibit during their interactions and other such information. For companies
launching new products, it would also hold good for firms to research
competitor’s customers to understand their behaviors and buying
motivations.
 Research Site analytics, search keywords, social media listening: The
biggest advantage which digital channels provide is the capability to gain
insights from multiple consumer touch points and channels to understand
intersection and consumer preference across all the funnel stages right from
intent to credible historic purchase patterns. With the previous reporting
available through the site analytics, providing details on the sites referred,
content consumed, keywords searched, social interactions undertaken, etc.,
firms can now overlay and use all this data to understand and extract chunks
of micro text and develop personas in ways which were not traditionally
possible.
 Qualitative data-audience interviews/focus group/affinity mapping:
Once the basic historical research and quantitative inputs have been mapped,
firms also conduct multiple qualitative assessment techniques including
specific technique interviews, focus group, use-case scenario development,
affinity mapping, etc, to graft the finer elements of the personas. Affinity
mapping which involves taking representatives from different teams and
brainstorming on persona-building exercise, the specifically useful, as it binds
together the experience of multiple stakeholders to arrive at more actionable
personas.
With this research conducted through the steps mentioned here, firms can
start to develop identified user persona in the following manner:
 Naming the persona: A persona should have a name so that it feels like a
real person. It is generally suggested to have between three to seven personas
to relevance and practicality of the exercise.
 Developing the persona: Apart from name, others section could include:
 Demographic details like age, education, income, job, role, company;

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  Personas goals and challenges, pain-points, motivations, values, and
fears;
 Type of product experiences they desire, main sources of
information/influences;
 A day in the life of persona, key activities they perform online;
 Types of sites visited, social media usage and content preference, etc,
 Refining the persona: Once a profile has been created, it is repeatedly put
to test to check what holds true and valid for that persona and whether it
really represents the needs of that group (from that viewpoint) post which is
refined accordingly.
Companies that create personas regularly have developed pre-built templates
which are specific to their objectives of identifying and targeting only and
those customer profiles which are most profitable to them in the long run.
The third and last element of the STP 2.0 Framework involves positioning the
brand across multiple funnel stages where the customer is present across the
marketing funnel.
c) Positioning across consumer funnel scenarios (Positioning 2.0): Once
marketers have identified key consumer segments and developed personas to
target, they need to develop messages and actions to complete the objectives
set for each of the customer interaction stages. In this aspect, it is important to
develop an appreciation of customer journeys across the funnel stages to
understand the specific positioning which firms need to develop. A customer
journey involves the path a customer must take in order to fulfil a particular
need or goal. Personas are typically developed by marketers in order to know
the customers better to help fulfil their goal across the funnel stages. The
typical flow of actions from ascertaining the need to fulfilment follows the
path.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY (Need Definition across Funnel Stages) ->
PERSONA
CREATION –> POSITIONING (Need Fulfilment for each
Cluster/Individual)

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 Let us look at examples of positioning for identified personas and their
customer journeys across a firm's key product site through application of
NOTES
consumer funnel stages:
(a) Intent: In the first stage of the funnel, a typical example could be:
CUSTOMER JOURNEY—Customer has heard of a brand a lot and has visited
the site for the first time by searching Google with a specific set of keywords.
There is no specific need which the customer intends to fulfill at present.
PERSONA CREATION-A persona by the name 'Curious Customer' is
developed for this segment of new consumers enquiring about the brand
with no specific intention to buy on their first visit to the brand site.
POSITIONING-Marketer's task is to make the experience of a prospect's first
landing on the firm's website an impactful and experiential one where he/she
gets to take away a positive opinion of the brand and its imagery.
(b) Awareness: Typical example includes:
CUSTOMER JOURNEY—Customer has interacted with the brand and looked
through two-three key pages of the website, identified brand's social media
page, discovered and read a couple of articles on its blog. There is passive
interest shown by customer which points to a possibility of converting it into
a lead.
PERSONA CREATION-A persona by the name 'Passive Prospect' is
developed for this segment of new consumers who have shown more than
just intent to touch-base with the brand, though still at a passive level.
POSITIONING A marketer would want to make sure that the design, layout,
first-touch content on the site, blogs, social channels is developed in a way
that positively showcases the core attributes and brand values. Positioning
here should focus on more emotional aspects to develop consumer connect.
(c) Interest: To cite an example:
CUSTOMER JOURNEY-Customer shows active interest in the brand and has
a definite need which he/she wants to fulfill, hence, spends considerable time
on the brand site, performs searches, views demos, fills enquiry forms, etc.
PERSONA CREATION- A persona by the name 'Active Lead' is developed
for this segment of new/returning consumers who like the brand and are
close to the conversion stage, provided their clarifications have been well
addressed.

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POSITIONING-With a prolonged sales cycle for consumers at this stage,
marketers need to position their messages in an informative manner and
focus on functional aspects so that consumers know the value of the brand.
(d) Action: An example of this stage:
CUSTOMER JOURNEY-Customer has conducted all the necessary research
and comparison with competitors and is completely sure that he/she wants
to buy a product from the marketer.
PERSONA CREATION-A persona by the name 'Last Mile Purchaser' is
developed for this segment of new/returning consumer whose main
objective is the ease with which he/ she can conduct transactions most
efficiently.
POSITIONING-Marketer's task is to optimize the site heavily around not just
getting the new visitor to place an order, but also increasing the average
order size of the returning customer by reinstating post-purchase benefits.
(e) Follow: A typical example would be:
CUSTOMER JOURNEY-Customer has become a strong supporter of the
brand or has fallen out to another competitor. The needs of both kinds of
groups are completely opposite and need to be devised accordingly.
PERSONA CREATION-A persona by the name 'Brand Loyalist' or 'Brand
Estranged can be developed for these two distinct segments. The interaction
objectives of the estranged group would have to be re-assessed.
POSITIONING-Marketer's task is to make stronger post-purchase connection
with loyalists to further develop them as brand referees and for those who
have fallen out, they need to devise a completely new positioning strategy.
With the above examples we learn that the objectives of each firm should
follow the customer journey across funnel stages and position accordingly. In
the next section, we shall look at how marketers develop their strategic
positioning for customers across the funnel with the help of traditional 4Ps
and the extended Ps.

7.2. SUMMARY

With the thorough look into the elements of customer development including
the revised STP 2.0 (Segmenting, Targeting, Positioning) Framework and how

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 with the help of advanced technologies marketers can position their offerings
across the funnel stages.
NOTES
QUESTIONS:
1. Why customer development strategy is important?
2. How STP 2.0 framework differs from traditional STP?
3. Explain in detail the elements of STP 2.0 framework.
4. According to Nielsen P$YCLE ConneXions, what are the five key
aspects for effective segmentation?
CASE STUDY 7.1: EBay Evolves
When you hear someone mention online auctions, the first site that comes to
mind is likely eBay. Founded in 1995 as an offbeat, quirky place to buy and
sell almost anything via auctions, eBay now derives the majority of its
revenue from traditional e-commerce.
As the company continues to model its business after competitors such as
Amazon and Alibaba, eBay has banned the sales of quirkier services like tarot
card readings and magic spells, and has instituted a rewards program with
prominent retail chains like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Toys “R” Us.
The transformation began in November 2007, when former CEO Meg
Whitman exited and was replaced by John Donahoe. The company had
already begun to stall, and the trend continued through 2009. For many
buyers, the novelty of online auctions had worn off, and they were returning
to easier and simpler methods of buying fixed price goods from retailers such
as Amazon, which, by comparison, had steady growth during the same time
period. Search engines and comparison shopping sites were also taking away
some of eBay’s auction business by making items easier to find on the Web.
Donahoe quickly found that dramatically altering the business model of an
Internet company is never easy, particularly when that company is one of the
most recognizable sites on the Web. His three-year revival plan moved eBay
away from its origins as an online flea market, and at first it began to
resemble an outlet mall where retailers sold out-of-season, overstocked,
refurbished, or discontinued merchandise. From there it was a
straightforward progression to partnering with retail chains to simply serve
as another channel for current merchandise.

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Small sellers were encouraged to shift away from the auction format and
move toward the fixed-price sales model. The fee structure was adjusted,
listing fees for fixed-price sales were lowered, improvements were made to
the search engine, and rather than displaying ending auctions first, a formula
was devised that took into account price and seller reputation so that highly
rated merchants appeared first and received more exposure.
Unsurprisingly, the growing pains during this period included increasing
complaints from sellers about excessive fees and eBay’s favoritism toward big
retailers. The hundreds of thousands of people who supported themselves by
selling on eBay and many millions more who used eBay to supplement their
income often felt slighted.
With its stock continuing to drop, analysts’ faith that Donahoe could turn
things around dwindled. This pessimism failed to account for eBay’s history
of sensible growth marked by a number of canny purchases. Its signature
purchase was, of course, PayPal, whose payment services enable the
exchange of money between individuals over the Internet. This acquisition
was the key to eBay’s endurance through the lean years, protecting it from
weakness in its auction business, and the propeller that pushed it towards the
future. PayPal has accounted for over 40% of eBay’s revenues at its peak, and
was a significant factor in eBay’s growth.
eBay recognized the coming mobile revolution even before the first iPhone or
the establishment of the App Store, according to Olivier Ropars, senior
director of Mobile Commerce. This prescience resulted in eBay achieving its
100 millionth app download and 100 millionth mobile listing relatively early
on, in 2012. Dating back to 2010, eBay has been actively acquiring companies
specializing in mobile technologies, such as barcode scanning app RedLaser,
mobile app developer Critical Path, mobile payment and billing firm Zong,
and mobile payment startup Fig Card. In 2013, eBay acquired mobile
payment gateway Braintree for $800 million. Braintree’s technology allows
eBay consumers to more easily make payments on smartphones and tablets,
and the acquisition also eliminated a major competitor in that space for
PayPal. In 2015, eBay introduced an app for the Apple Watch that allows
users to see an overview of their notifications and bid statuses. The company
also rolled out more updates for their iOS and Android apps that improve the

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 quality of search results. In 2016, eBay remains on the cutting edge of online
retail, redesigning its core mobile platform and adding biometric touch
NOTES
identification support, launching its Marketplace app for Android Wear
wearable devices, and releasing a virtual reality feature on StubHub that
allows customers to see their prospective seats from any angle. Over 50% of
eBay’s business
now involves a mobile device, and the company continues to make
improvements to the mobile experience across all of its different services.
While many other acquisitions through the years have also helped to
transform eBay from an online garage sale to a mainstream competitor with
Amazon, its adoption of the “social, mobile, local” driving theme has been
central to its survival. Positioning itself at the center of the online—offline—
mobile triangle by offering a wide variety of services that enable merchants to
more easily integrate their cross-channel retailing has been the key to eBay’s
resurgence and to its continued success.
In 2016, the company has also started the process of modernizing its platform
with analytical tools. First, the company has started to convert its catalog of
items from its traditional unstructured “listing” format, where two identical
items can appear totally different to shoppers, to a structured data format.
This will allow eBay to more easily gain information about different items
and about purchasing trends. eBay is also using machine learning to
customize, update, and generally improve its product pages, as well as to
fine-tune its search capability beyond simply matching search terms with
keywords and tags. To support these efforts, in 2016, the company purchased
machine-learning startup SalesPredict, whose technology helps businesses
predict consumer buying behavior and sales conversion. Finally, the
company’s revamped Seller Hub will offer many of these analytical tools and
metrics to individual sellers, including inventory, order, and listing
management, performance insights, and streamlined business process
management.
However, eBay’s return to prominence is not without continuing challenges.
In 2014, eBay was the victim of a hacking attack that compromised the
information of nearly 150 million of its customers. Paypal was unaffected,
and the company doesn’t believe that any financial information was stolen,

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but the incident underscored the need for eBay to remain vigilant with its
security measures. eBay sales decreased steeply in the wake of the breach,
dropping 5.4% in 10 days. Competitors are also ramping up their efforts to
battle eBay, with Amazon continuing to focus on third-party sales and
Alibaba announcing a U.S.-based site to compete with eBay called 11 Main.
What’s more, Google rolled out an update to its search algorithm, reducing
eBay’s search traffic by as much as 33%. eBay hopes that standardizing its
product pages will also help improve its rankings in Google searches.
In 2015, eBay elected to spin off PayPal as its own separate company, leaving
eBay with its Marketplaces segment, its StubHub ticket sales segment, and a
handful of other business units. Although Donahoe and the rest of eBay’s
leadership had resisted a spinoff for years, the move was prompted by a
desire for PayPal to distinguish itself from eBay and become more agile
within the rapidly-developing marketplace of online payments. Donahoe also
stepped down as CEO of eBay to mark the transition, with the former head of
its Global Marketplaces unit, Devin Wenig, taking his place. As part of the
split, eBay has agreed to route 80% of its sales through PayPal, but PayPal is
free to pursue deals with other merchants, potentially boosting its market
share even further.
Many investors believed that PayPal had been the true driver of eBay’s
bottom line. But while analysts had prepared themselves for disappointing
earnings, the company has instead posted several straight quarters of sales
growth under Wenig as of 2016. This includes a 5.7% increase over its
earnings from the previous year in the second quarter of 2016, with $2.23
billion in revenue, up from $2.11 billion in 2015. The company also reported
that it expected continued growth for the upcoming quarters.
Despite Amazon’s ongoing dominance in online retail, eBay remains one of
the most trusted online brands and e-commerce leaders, and it has worked
hard to improve its marketplace design and offerings for dedicated users,
including eBay Now, its new same-day delivery program. Will eBay be able
to respond to these new challenges as well as it has to those in the past
without PayPal to bolster it? After some ups and downs, eBay appears to be
on a winning trajectory once again.
Case Study Questions

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 1. Contrast eBay’s original business model with its current STP 2.0.
2. What are the problems that eBay is currently facing? How is eBay trying to
NOTES
solve these problems?
3. Are the solutions eBay is seeking to implement good solutions? Why or
why not? Are there any other solutions that eBay should consider?
4. Who are eBay’s top competitors online, and how will eBay’s strategy help it
complete?

FURTHER READING
1. Vandana Ahuja, Digital Marketing, Oxford University Press, 2015
2. Puneet Singh Bhatia, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, 2nd Edition,
Pearson, 2020
3. Philip Kotler, Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital, April
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
4. Seema Gupta, Digital Marketing Paperback, 2017, McGraw Hill
Education
5. Swaminathan T.N and Karthik Kumar, Digital Marketing: From
Fundamentals to Future Paperback, 2019, Cengage Books

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MODULE VIII CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IN
DIGITAL MARKETING

STRUCTUE
8.0. Learning Objectives
8.1. Introduction to Customer Relationship Management
8.1.1. What is Customer Relationship Management?
8.1.2. Evolution of Customer Relationship Management
8.2. How to drive advocates through Customer Experience?
8.2.1. Stages of successful advocate marketing
8.3. Social Listening
8.3.1. What is Social Listening?
8.3.2. Why is Social Listening important?
8.3.3. How can Social Listening help my brand?
8.4. Electronic Customer Relationship Management
8.4.1. Components of E-Customer Relationship Management
8.5. Key Customer Relationship Applications
8.5.1. Customer service
8.5.2. Campaign Management
8.5.3. Sales Force Automation
8.6. Modules of Customer Relationship Management
8.6.1. Marketing Module
8.6.2. Service Module
8.6.3. Sales Module
8.7. Next Generation Customer Relationship Management
8.8. Summary

8.0. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

In this chapter we will learn about introduction and evolution of customer
relationship management. Learn how to drive advocates through Customer
Experience and stages of advocate marketing. Importance of social listening
to improve brand performance. The advancement of e-customer relationship
management and its components. In the final part of the chapter we will learn
about new applications, modules and next generation of customer
relationship management.

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 8.1. INTRODUCTION TO CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT (CRM)
NOTES
Essays, UK. (November 2018). Success Guide to CRM from Information
Technology Perspective.
Information Technology has made a huge impact on how a business operates;
thereby it is being seen as an important area of commerce which needs to be
tapped. Despite the large scale investments in trying to automate a business
entity, many businesses have failed to attract customers. The factors such as
time frame of response, understanding customer needs and new ways to
attract customers are making it difficult for the businesses to cope up with.
Customers pose a key role in success of an e-business and it has called for
extensive research in understanding the key areas of Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) in the field of Information technology. Customer
Relationship Management from the Information Technology perspective is
called as Electronic Customer Relationship Management (ECRM).
Information Technology has made a huge impact on how a business operates
and Customer Relationship Management from the Information Technology
perspective is called as Electronic Customer Relationship Management
(ECRM)
8.1.1. WHAT IS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT?

In today’s market trend, customers are more educated, better informed, more
technology aware and hence demanding more in the service they buy. So, the
task becomes more challenging for business managers in attracting the
profitable customers. Hence, small as well as big Information technology
companies are working hard for maintaining good customer relationships
and reaching customer satisfaction. To improve business strategy and plans,
firstly, companies need to emphasis more on customers’ needs and behaviors
in order to develop stronger customer relationships. The very first approach
comes in this methodology is CRM. CRM stands for the customer
relationship management. It is the process or methodology used to interact
with customers, which will help bring together lots of information about
customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, and customer responses and
market trends. It helps businesses use available technology and resources to

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gain behavior and value of the customer. It broadly covers concepts used by
companies to manage their customer relationships very effectively by
capturing, storing and analyzing customer information. For example, by
having such database created with customers need, matching customer needs
and product plans and offerings, knowing what other products customer had
purchased, etc. can improve product quality, indirectly improving customer
relationships. Thus, CRM is the one of the important aspect in the business
industries.

8.1.2. EVOLUTION OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

CRM must start with an industry business strategy, which will offer positive
changes in organization and work processes, which are then enabled by
Information technology. In 1960s, academic researchers found that the 4Ps
marketing framework i.e. product, price, place and promotion was less
valuable than ongoing business relationships. By 1980s, marketing teams
used to describe his new focus on understanding customer segment and
achieving high customer satisfaction. In 1990s, CRM became the umbrella
term; computer systems were deployed to support sales and service
processes. By late 1990s, the real impact of these systems was outside the
corporate world. Explosive growth in the internet usage broadened the
concept as e-CRM to manage online customers. Now, multi-channel systems
are available to support direct, internet and partner channels to allow user to
use whatever mode of communication, they pleased.
These systems could typically answer many of the questions such as:
 How can oneself improve sales activities to have better idea of business

improvement?
 How one can improve capability for leading the generation, account

management and opportunities?

 How to make meaningful decisions on measuring the results from

marketing campaign?
 How to resolve customer service troubles, make queue time shorter, make

customer happy by offerings?

 All in all, how one can improve customer relationship?

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 To answer these questions, CRM was developed to provide best operating
practices in sales, marketing and customer services. This is where, companies
NOTES
started using CRM to store customer history, real time activities
accumulation, which each department could bring up a record and see all
customer interactions.

8.1.3. WHY IS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

IMPORTANT?

Everyone faces with the products and services at every single turn. But in
reality, many of the product and service providers do actually not know the
persons those using them. Major corporations failed to realize that it is the
customer who is their biggest ally. Several millions of dollars are lost yearly
because they failed to make profit, beat their competitors and stay ahead in
this race. They wasted their money in marketing and endeavouring to gain
the customers. They all are prone to make same mistake at some point of
time. The main reason behind this failure was the attitude of companies
towards their customers. The customer is the real king, who makes decision
on failure and success of any service or product company. Many of the
companies are not open to customer’s suggestions and more often that they
do not provide the customer with a proper avenue and expel their ideas. This
often leads to customer’s unhappiness and eventually their loss. Here comes
the real need of the CRM.
CRM take into consideration the customer’s need and behavior towards
services and products provided by companies. Companies can define their
business strategy that primarily focuses on the customer, their ideas and
suggestions. Benefits of CRM are listed below as business perspective:
 Increased sales through better timing by analyzing needs based on historic

databases.
 Identifying improvement areas by understanding specific customer

requirements.
 Increasing business, by highlighting and suggesting alternatives or

enhancements.
 Identifying profit making customers.
 Better marketing of products.

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 Enhanced customer satisfaction and retention.

 Enhanced customer loyalty.

 Improved quality communication and networking.

 Increased overall efficiency with reduction of total cost of sales. 

 Better stand against global competition. 

Once business starts to look after existing customers effectively, effort can be
made to gain new customer thus expanding market value.

8.2. HOW TO DRIVE ADVOCATES THROUGH CUSTOMER

EXPERIENCE (CX)?

With an understanding of the ladder of customer loyalty, we would take a

deeper look into who the advocates are and how loyal customers can be
turned to brand advocates whose interactions can lead to new revenues
through positive word-of-mouth and proactive reach-out to communities
they are a part of.
Customer advocacy here should not be confused with a similar coinage
which involves the latest trend of marketers helping prospects become
customers by guiding their buying process and advocating for their real
benefit, hence, in the process, earning their trust.
Rather, it refers to utilizing the power of customers, partners, employees, and
key stakeholders to gather public support, endorse, or recommend a
company, its products, and its services.
According to TapInfluence (It is the name of a firm), which is a marketplace
of social media influencers, advocate marketing differs from influencer
marketing as marketing through influencers is more around partnering with
individuals who have a significant influence and audience, while advocate
marketing attempts to engage advocates to support sales and marketing
objectives by sharing their positive experiences.
According to Influitive, which is one of the top B2B advocate marketing
software firms, any company looking to improve its lead generation process
to get newer customers would need to involve dedicated advocates of all
types to improve conversions and earn higher revenue.
In one of the whitepapers they explained that of all the leads sources, referral
leads generally generate the highest conversions. Hence, on average, leads

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 generated by B2B advocates are 4 to 10 times more valuable than regular
leads, resulting in shorter sales cycles, increased win rates, and larger order
NOTES
sizes.
Apart from revenue, advocates can also support a firm’s intangible objectives
including product design, market positioning, social media initiatives,
content marketing, etc.

8.2.1. STAGES OF SUCCESSFUL ADVOCATE MARKETING

For any company to engage in successful advocate marketing here are the
five key steps.
1. Developing a strategic plan
Development of an advocate marketing program involves deciding on the
following key elements:
A. Program objectives: This refers to thinking about key marketing
objectives based on a firm’s specific goals.
Objectives could include increased revenue, customer engagement,
brand recognition, etc. Typical end outputs could be references, case
studies, testimonials, etc.
B. Developing personas: This involves defining the advocate persona to
target.
C. Creating a process: This includes developing the process of running
marketing campaigns.
D. Identifying people: This refers to the creation of program owners
across the various divisions of the firm which would be responsible
for engaging multiple stakeholders.
A central marketing committee may also be set up to review the
implementation of each of such campaigns.
2. Identifying and on boarding advocates
It is crucial to involve the right advocates as they would be the flag-bearers of
the advocacy program and their efforts would count a lot in setting up the
basic tone of how engaging the activities would be. To achieve this, we can
use the following tactics:
 Using personalized outreach to invite advocates
 Developing a program to engage advocates

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  Presenting a clearly defined set of campaigns to them
 Gathering early feedback to fine-tune engagement
 Scaling the program to additional advocates and campaigns
3. Engaging advocates with campaigns
Once advocates have been identified and on-boarded, it is important to assign
the right kind of campaigns to specific advocates to make use of their
expertise, experience, and interest for optimal success. Key steps for engaging
advocates include:
Specifying high-level business and tactical objectives
Targeting tasks to specific target segments
Engaging with advocates for conversion
Using urgency as a tactic to complete conversions
Mixing high-value campaigns with engaging ones to maintain advocate
interest
4. Recognizing and rewarding advocates
It is important for companies to have specific rewards and recognition
programs for advocates which are not only material based but also have
strong intangible components attached. Four levels of rewards and
recognition include:
 Status—Programs should help increase status of advocates. Ideas
include putting up advocate names on the website, at customer
events, mention in content, titles, etc.
 Access—Special accesses like a new feature or version preview,
opportunity to buy early event tickets, reserved seating at conferences,
etc., should be provided
 Power—This denotes that advocates should have a say in building the
firm’s products, being a peer-mentor to new customers, crafting
campaign messages for the firm, organizing their events, etc.
 Stuff—Tangible rewards like gift cards, merchandise, office supplies,
discounts, and other giveaways of products that the company sells for
a price should be shared.
5. Analyzing and optimizing efforts
It refers to quantifying advocate marketing programs through pre-defined
metrics that measure their efforts towards attaining objectives like revenue

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 generated, influence created, referrals, converted leads, average revenue per
campaign, etc. There are three key types of marketing metrics which can be
NOTES
measured and reviewed:
 Strategic metrics: It looks at business-oriented metrics related to lead
generation (peer referred leads), revenue influence, renewals, and
upsells.
 Tactical metrics: It includes measurement of the end results
generated, for example, references, case studies, reviews, testimonials,
recommendations, social shares, etc.
 Operational metrics: It studies the overall efficacy of the advocate
marketing program which can be tracked as waterfall metrics, all
related to each other across the campaign funnel stages.
8.3. SOCIAL LISTENING

Social media measurement, social media monitoring or social listening is a

way of computing popularity of a brand or company by extracting
information from social media channels, such as blogs, wikis, news sites,
micro-blogs such as Twitter, social networking, sites, video/photo sharing
websites, forums, message boards and user-generated content from time to
time. In other words, this is the way to calibre success of social media
marketing strategies used by a company or a brand. It is also used by
companies to gauge current trends in the industry. The process first gathers
data from different websites and then performs analysis based on different
metrics like time spent on the page, click through rate, content share,
comments, text analytics to identify positive or negative emotions about the
brand.
8.3.1. WHAT IS SOCIAL LISTENING?

Social listening is the process of monitoring social media conversations to

understand what people are saying about a brand or industry. It goes beyond
the @mentions, comments and other notifications you receive for your
company’s social media accounts and encompasses social media platforms as
a whole. Going beyond social monitoring, where you are simply looking at
what is being said and responding accordingly, social listening also involves
analyzing the larger trends around social conversations.

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8.3.2. WHY IS SOCIAL LISTENING IMPORTANT?

For many years, businesses – particularly B2B brands – could get away with
not having a social media presence. But those days are now long gone. Social
media is no longer a nice-to-have for businesses; it is a must-have. People
turn to social media in many aspects of their lives, and connecting with and
discussing brands is a part of that activity.
8.3.3. HOW CAN SOCIAL LISTENING HELP MY BRAND?

A tremendous amount of customer data is generated by all the active users on

social media today, and without social listening you don’t have access to that
data, which can help you:
1. Create better content. Quality content is an essential part of any social
media strategy. And the more relevant the content to your audience, the more
engaged they will be. But how do you determine what content will be the
most engaging. Instead of throwing different types of content out to see what
sticks with your audience, utilize social listening. It can help you better
understand the hashtags and language people use when discussing your
brand or industry, as well as trends in content popularity.
2. Track brand sentiment. Over time, social listening can help you see
changes in the sentiment around your brand and what influences those
changes. For example, if you suddenly see an uptick in positive sentiment,
what caused it? Did you release a new product or service? Or did your
company recently receive some positive press coverage? The longer you
listen and understand, the more you can help reverse the negative or
capitalize on the positive.
3. Improve customer experience. Thanks to the power and popularity of
social media, the customer experience is more important than ever before.
Social listening can help you improve your organization’s customer
experience. By responding to conversations about your brand, you assure
customers that you hear them and care about both their compliments and
complaints. You can also start to see patterns in conversations and respond
accordingly. For example, is a problem affecting just one customer or shared
by many? This intelligence can help you drive smarter business decisions.

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 4. Focus. Social media today is a noisy, crowded place. It’s easy to get caught
up in irrelevant and unimportant distractions. Social listening helps you to
NOTES
focus on the conversations, mentions, keywords and competitors that truly
matter and will give you the most valuable business intelligence.

8.4. ELECTRONIC CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Electronic Customer Relationship Management (ECRM) is the current trend
with most business organizations be it small or large. The companies are
hesitant in using the traditional strategies for running its businesses. The
customers are treated as the most important part of the implementing a
business strategy. That is the reason why ECRM has gained a lot of
importance in the past decade. Romano (2001) defined ECRM as, “ECRM is
concerned with attracting and keeping economically valuable customers and
eliminating less profitable ones”.
This aspect of the CRM which deals with the customers over its online
business portals helps to identify the key customers and by spending more
resources on them to make the business run better. The solutions offered to
these businesses are of wide range and they are often sold as a package at
very high prices. The nature of a business plays a vital role as adopting these
CRM packages is not only waste of money but also huge waste of time. This
could even lead to loosing customer base which are absolutely essential for
running business.
It is highly important to retain customers for a business as a recent study by
McKinsey & Co. revealed that if there is gain of 10% repeat customers then it
will add about a profit of 10% to the company (Sims, 2000). It is highly
obvious that a successful business should try and retain customers even
though it is at a cost of their own terms. It is important to understand the
three requirements that a CRM must address to be successful from IT point of
view.
 Front-end Systems
The front-end systems constitute the key aspects of the business such as sales
force & market automation, customer service automation and application
software. In case of online business or retailer, sales force and market
automation is totally dependent on how the website looks and what features

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does it provide in order to attract and retain customers. Tracking all the
customers and identify the potential customers will help the managers to take
important decisions and capture the market. Customer service automation is
a must as it the only place for a customer to reach out if they need any help. It
includes setting up of call centers, communication technology infrastructure
and websites. As these represent the face of a business it is important to
automate these technologies.

 Data-Handling technologies
The number of customers who shop increase day by day and it is impossible
to keep track of them. As a result, it has become obvious that one has to
employ software tools which can manage the customer information and also
be able to provide a proper links between them to help serve the customers.
The techniques of data warehousing, data mining and knowledge
management helps by making the CRM a better choice. The important
modules which are part of data-handling technologies are shown.
Data warehousing manages the company’s data which is stored on a backend
system and maintains the records regarding the data such as extracting,
loading data in the repository and also managing the metadata. Data
warehouses consists of business intelligent tools, tools to retrieve and manage
data. Alex (2000) defines, Data mining as a tool that automates the detection
of relevant patterns within a database. The term explains how much a tool
like this would help a business prosper; it gives the business, time to focus
on the long term customers of the company and address various other issues.
It helps in building strategy close to how the patterns reflect. Knowledge
management uses the data warehouse and works as an intelligence tool by
trying to establish new links within the data. For example, if a person
searches for an item and if it is not found on the database then a tool like this
could help the business by recording the information and possibly the
customer. This improves the efficiency of business and customer satisfaction.
These technologies are evidently a mark of the high standards a business can
establish in order to survive their competitors within the global market
 Back-end Systems

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 It is the backbone of the business without which everything else goes in utter
vain. The data integrity is often considered a major player in getting all the
NOTES
acts together i.e. by bringing together the front-end systems and data
handling technologies. It is important to integrate technologies into CRM as it
forms a good strategy to work along with all the applications within the
system.
The hierarchy present at the back-end systems depicts the non-sales
departments such as application software, enterprise wide applications, and
ERP and supply chain management. In first stage, organization starts to
analyze the Information systems available in place to suit their needs. The
application software is deployed across the platforms they feel necessary and
then it is important to establish a link between these applications which are
called Enterprise Wide Applications (EWA). These help in interchanging the
data between the application software and the systems. This could help the
business establish all important background work as it highly important to
maintain synergy between them and also update them whenever necessary to
increase the speed with which they work. ERP forms the next stage of
hierarchy wherein it integrates the EWA with the supply chain management
which is a part of the front end and also data handling technologies.
The technology is considered to be the key player for any organizational
success as it can be seen from the above literature. ‘IT infrastructure generally
has been described as a set of IT services, including communications
management, standard management, security, IT education, service
management, application management, data management and IT research
and development’
ECRM is in short, the customer relationship management which is
implemented electronically across the organizations. As CRM is mostly
implemented as web based applications, the systems mentioned above play a
crucial role in the management of CRM from small and medium businesses to
very large scale organizations. Proceeding further, we will see various
approaches in the implementation of CRM or ECRM.

8.4.1. COMPONENTS OF E-CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT

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  Operational CRM
 Analytical CRM
 Sales Intelligence CRM
 Campaign management
 Collaborative CRM
 Consumer Relationship CRM
 Operational CRM
Operational CRM provides support for front end business processes, which
includes sales, marketing and services. Interactions with customers are
generally stored in customer’s database history and company staff can
retrieve information as and when required. So, the need for direct contact
with customer for his requirement details will be eliminated and reaching to
the customer at right time and right place will be more preferable.
Operational CRM processes customer’s data for various purposes such as
managing campaign, marketing automation, sales force automation, sales
management system, etc. Few of the benefits of the operational CRM systems
are as follows:
 It delivers personalized and effective sales, marketing and service
through multiple channels.
 Enable 360-degree view of the customer’s details while interacting
with them.
 Sales or service department can easily access history of the all
customers’ interaction, without referring directly to customer.
In sales source automation, company can automate their critical sales and
sales force management tasks. Few of the examples include account
management, contact management, forecasting, and sales administration
keeping track of customer preferences as well as performance management.
In customer service and support, many companies automate some service
requests, complaints, product returns and information requests. Key
infrastructure requirements of CSS include volume processing capability and
reliability, multiple channels support such as web, phone/fax, face-to-face,
etc.

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 In case of the Marketing Automation, information regarding business
environment, industry trends macro-environment variables is stored. And
NOTES
then business strategy is defined. Predictive business model is defined.
 Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM includes the process of understanding the behaviors of
customers, analyzing this data for marketing effectiveness and planning
strategies of cross-selling, up-selling, etc.
The process of analytical CRM starts with analyzing the customer profiles by
targeting various categories of customers and evaluating their responses.
These responses can be tracked using customer complaints or through
transactional data or by direct customer contacts through satisfaction survey.
This data of attitudinal and behavioral responses of customers is input for the
next process which is nothing but customer behavior modeling. This includes
building of predictive models according to the analysis data for various set of
customers. The customer behavioral modeling helps to understand the
homogenous customer segments. Also the methods like association discovery
which is nothing but understanding the associations between the customer
needs.
Here only Operational CRM and Analytical CRM are discussed as they are
different from the other approaches. The other approaches of CRM namely,
Sales CRM, Campaign management, Consumer relationship CRM
explanations are not furnished here as they are presented in very much
details in the subsequent section, modules of CRM.

8.5. KEY CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS

There are different applications to CRM implementation and it is presented in
different packages focusing on different aspects. In general Customer Service,
Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Campaign Management are considered as
core aspects of the CRM system.

8.5.1. CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer service is the provision for the customers before, during and after
the purchase. “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance

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the level of customer satisfaction that is, the feeling that a product or service
has met the customer expectation.”
Its importance depends on the product, industry and customer. Customer
service provided by a person or by automated mean as self-service (for
example, Internet service). In book Rules are to break and Laws are to Follow,
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. wrote that “customers have
memories. They will remember you, whether you remember them or not.”
Further, “customer trust can be destroyed at once by a major service problem,
or it can be undermined one day at a time, with a thousand small
demonstrations of incompetence.”
From the point of organization view, customer service plays important role in
generation of income and revenue. From this perspective, customer service
must be included as part of the overall approach to the systematic
improvement.

8.5.2. CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT

It may happen that company may not always require all the details
pertaining to particular customer’s history. In such cases to avoid large
sending of data and insecurity, many of the organizations prefer campaign
management. Enterprise campaign management solutions allow customer to
provide centralized databases to send one or multiple dialers. Rather than
sending down all the record, part of the record will be send as and when
required. This simplifies the management of the complex dialing campaigns.

8.5.3 SALES FORCE AUTOMATION

These are the information systems, which automatically records all the stages
in a sale process. Such systems keep track of the all contacts that has been
made with the customer, purpose of the contact, and any follow up that
might be required. This ensures that sales efforts will not be duplicated,
reducing the business risks. It also lists potential customers of related
products. It might happen that different department may contact same
customer number of times for same purpose. To avoid such a risk, SFA must
be fully integrated in all the departments that deal with customer service
management.

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 8.6. MODULES OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

The key functionality of a CRM solution can be studied under 4 basic

NOTES
modules. They are Marketing, Service, Sales and Call centre. All these
modules are Collaborative, Analytical and Operational.

8.6.1. MARKETING MODULE

The marketing module of CRM comprises of functionalities regarding short

term execution of marketing related activities and long term planning within
the company. It also helps in activities like planning, Campaign Management
and lead management. Marketing module enables different communication
channels to run marketing campaigns by the company, which targets
potential buyers in using a product or a group of products as a message. One
positive way to increase marketing effectiveness is to get better the way leads
are captured and acted on.
The old method is when an investigation is presented to the organization’s
web site; an email is generated and delivered to the department of marketing.
Novel way is, a new prospect record is automatically formed in the master
database which presents the lead source and campaign, assigns it to a sales
representative, and emails the prospect with information or instructions
scores the lead. Leads can be allocated upon product curiosity, region, or any
additional defined criteria. Automated processing is defined by quicker
routing and the facility to scrutinize the lead progress on a real time basis as
leads are qualified and converted. The whole lot is processed and followed
up in the CRM database, but more importantly such types of workflow
improvements effects in greater conversion rates.
CRM marketing tools afford the infrastructure to prop up a huge variety of
lead generation strategies which may be by email marketing, through
advertising, direct mail, or trade shows. CRM also facilitates the marketer
with metrics which validate financial plans and establishes the worth of
marketing to management and sales.
1. Target Marketing
Attaining the correct message at the correct time from the right people is
vital. Wish to aim only the decision makers those with a practical role of
engineering for technical illustration at trade fare? In order to win over,

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organizations need to elevate consciousness among their most accessible
objectives, at the appropriate time with less cost and endeavor. CRM enables
an institute to manipulate the valuable knowledge captured through
accessible customer relations. As CRM is in place as infrastructure, setting up
and maintaining an effective route for getting customer support CRM and
sales customers to enter required knowledge into the database is simple.
Have a glance at marketing, the sales and support business processes and
workflows, and then categorize communication and marketing opportunities.
Mixed with a focus on marketing targets and tactics, now have a map to yield
the value in CRM by target marketing.
2. Campaign Management and Effectiveness Tracking
The CRM solutions have incorporated marketing tools to support complete
campaign management to conduct the webinars, the marketing campaigns,
seminars, trainings, events etc. Choose targets, give invitations, obtain
registrations through the web, deliver automated replies and reminders,
create attendee lists, and carry out satisfaction surveys. Each detail, offline
and online, may be watched, measured, and administered as part of the
operation. Every movement that has been made with each of the individual
analysis and clientele is captured.
Outcome is radically improved marketing administration effectiveness and
efficiency, along with a current, shared, and a complete picture of every touch
which is made with each client and viewpoint. Icing on the cake is that
marketers can obtain benefit of the data obtained to observe real-time
campaign metrics, and gauge the efficacy of individual campaigns by kind,
time period or medium.
3. E-Mail Marketing and Communications
E-Mail marketing plan is the core of marketing success today. E-Mail
marketing is timely, cheap, and when done exactly, effectual. Along with
CRM, the sales and customer support staff capture and update email
addresses in the main CRM repository during their usual tasks. It’s vital to
confine and keep up an updated email database of clientele and scenarios.
Modules of CRM have complete email marketing facilities built in. A lot of
them do have the capability to send batch emails and trace the reads.
However, there is a big market of well-known on demand email marketing

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 attributes which “plug in” to CRM functionality and offer considerably better
features to make generating professional email interactions better and perk
NOTES
up the deliverability. In addition, email programs also help to tackle the
intricacies of government regulations, tracing, and delivering. If used jointly
with CRM, it will have a totally fledged email marketing solution which is
professional, acquiescent and effectual.
 Marketing Administration

CRM can supervise marketing administration activities, which in numerous

cases are time intense, not possible, and pricey to administer devoid of
automation.
 Newsletter List Management

Saving and continuing supporting the lists of subscribers for alerts and
newsletters may be a full time activity, but the task may be automated by
combining a web page to the CRM repository where lists are followed up.
The integration allows the subscriber to check current preferences, modify
and append to their subscriptions, the login, and authenticates requests and
one can send the customer an email to corroborate and thank them.
 Literature Fulfilment

CRM modules can track supplies and rearrange points and direct orders for
dispensation. Moreover, the user wants the ability to follow up fulfilment
requests and check their order records. In few cases, literature fulfilment
requests are required to come from associates, prospects, or clients via web
site, all of which can be contained.
 Event Management

Events managing require lots of dexterity. A site must be booked,

salespersons contracted, presenters scheduled, fund-raisers signed,
broadcasts sent, registrations noted, fee processed, and of course the affair
must be held. By making the most of CRM for event management, marketing
department can with no trouble and efficiently carry out far more events,
whilst building a record of sources concerned that may be required in the
prospect.
 Customer Surveys

CRM systems can carry survey administration and consecutively can get
better end results for both the corporation and the consumer. Survey

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invitations may be sent by email from the CRM system, provoking the
member to click on a link which guides them to a web survey on organization
site. The email address or an approved identifier rooted in the link can
combine the study to the member’s details in the CRM record, where it can
get details and also reported about. The CRM workflow may also send
announcements as soon as a survey is received.

8.6.2. SERVICE MODULE

The service module of CRM focuses on how effectively the system is
managing customer service which is either planned or unplanned. It helps in
activities like Service Contract Management, Service Order Management, and
Planned Services management, Installed Base (Equipment) Management,
Warranty Management, Service Level Agreement Management, Scheduling,
Resource Planning and Knowledge Management.
 Service Contract Management
 Maintain a variety of service contracts, including labor contracts,
standard parts and usage-based contracts.
 Administer service contracts, manage service-level agreements,
automatically verify entitlement, and alert agents when a customer’s
contract is about to expire.
 Claim and Warranty Management
 Synchronize with third-party logistics providers to avoid unnecessary
goodwill allowances and ensure timely customer credits.
 Handle the entire warranty and claims process, from RMA (return
merchandise authorization) to receipt and inspection.
 Maintenance and Installation
 Minimize downtime with planned protection service.
 Predict impact of new product installation for accurate and fast
service.
 Track customers’ installed base of products and their pattern with
graphical hierarchical demonstration.
 Customer Support and Service

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  Access data on the service histories, the service entitlements and
contracts, the installed base, service levels, and the warranties by an
NOTES
easy-to-use communication centre screen.

8.6.3. SALES MODULE

This Module of CRM Solutions focuses mainly on the sales team of the
company to execute the pre-sales process and manage, making it more
organized. The sales teams in most companies are responsible for capturing
customer interaction, capturing any leads or opportunities, the CRM helps
them to process this data and monitor it in the future. This helps in
organizing all relevant data captured and received for a deal to be put into
one place, it could hold data as expected budget, prospective customers, total
spending, key players, important dates, products interested in and expected
closing dates of a deal.
Each of these can be stand only applications depending on organizational
need. It is important that the right software is selected at the right time and
more importantly implemented correctly for any CRM to be effective.
Important key sales procedures include;
 Sales Forecasting and Planning
 Anticipated sales volume over time and provide a total picture of
predictable revenue. Augments the precision of sales forecasts and
demand plans.
 Increase performance with coordinated planning and implementation
of sales actions across all channels.
 Territory Management
 Gets better resource utilization with apparent visibility into
accessibility and assignments.
 Consign the right sources at the correct time in the exact locations to
optimize team performance.
 Maximize distribution of sales sources and account reporting across
clearly defined areas.
 Accounts and Contacts Management
 Present a single, inclusive view of all data required to supervise sales
accounts.

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  Capture, monitor and track all vital information about prospects,
customers, and partners.
 Access key contacts, detailed customer profiles, critical relationships,
critical relationships, and the position of all recent communications
from any place and at any time.
 Activity Management

 Seamlessly synchronize e-mail, calendar entries, contacts, and tasks

with important groupware solutions.
 Handle customer visits, account profiles and activity-driven sales
activities.
 Focus on the combined energy of sales team events to proven to
promote money-making business.

8.7. NEXT GENERATION CUSTOMER REALTIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

A next-generation enterprise describes organizations that are proactively
moving into the present by changing how they assimilate, architect, apply,
and maintain their technology solutions in the context of updating and
transforming their processes, structure, and business models to effectively
align with and work natively in today’s networked and highly digital
economy. While that may be a mouthful, it also accurately describes what
most organizations must do to ultimately avoid disruption in the marketplace
as technology increasingly defines how our businesses engage with and
provide value to the world.

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 Figure 8.1 Visualizing the Next-Generation Enterprise

NOTES
Top 10 digital strategies for the next-generation enterprise are follows;
1. Mobile Customer Self-Service. This is an official company mobile
app that lets your customers engage in (at least) the top ten most
frequent customer service activities. The best of these won’t copy the
features from your web site but enable new models of customer
interaction made possible by mobile device capabilities. Example: The
financial services firm USAA turned every one of their customer’s
smart mobile device into a mobile bank branch, allowing customers to
deposit checks by taking a picture of them inside their app and
transmitting it, saving them a trip to the bank.
2. Open Supply Chains/APIs. If you aren’t strategically opening up
your business for the world to build break-out new products and
services on top of, then you should start and start this year.
Organizations like the World Bank, Best Buy, and many others are
doing what the Internet giants are doing: Building ecosystems.
3. Employee Social Network. There are many genuinely potent ways to
apply social media to significantly improve outcomes across any
organization — see the detailed case studies in Social Business by
Design (Wiley, 2012) for game-changing examples — but it’s now clear
that every company is getting its own social network. While some will
not be strategic to the business or have low levels of use, the data
increasingly shows that most organisations get value from them. We
already see that organizations are finding social networks
proliferating with Chatter, Yammer, Socialcast, SharePoint, and many
others. Enterprises much take charge, provide clear leadership, and
anoint official social network(s) as appropriate. Bonus points for
understanding where ROI in social business comes from and focusing
on it with this effort.
4. Gamified Business Processes. Perhaps the least important sounding
of all of these next-gen enterprise trends, yet I’ve been surprised at
how fast some Fortune 500 companies have adopted this. I spoke with
the CEO of Badgeville recently and he indicated that nearly 150 of the

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 Fortune 500 were using their gamification platforms. I recently wrote
a detailed breakdown of the enterprise gamification space as well that
explores some truly impressive results.
5. Community-Based Customer Care. Organizations like SAP, Intuit,
American Express, and others have all demonstrated that customers
can support other customers (in general) far better than a company
can. Companies have limited resources, customer care is considered
overhead, and other customers with similar backgrounds and needs
already have better insight they can share. While Social CRM is the
official buzzword for this approach and is the industry where you can
find the most applicable technology support, you really only need
some community software, a simple strategy, and some community
managers. Don’t wait, start now. This is where some of the easiest and
quickest returns are on this list.
6. Unified Communication. After years of languishing and with market
penetration hovering around 30%, unified communication is set to
explode this year to help address the channel proliferation problem
today. UC is also incorporating social media and otherwise moving
beyond the telephony and IM space to become much more strategic.
While I’ll be exploring the intersection of UC and social business soon,
the latest data from IDG shows that 90% of organizations are looking
at unified communications in 2012, a huge leap and one that should be
on everyone’s next-gen roadmap.
7. End-User Led IT and Competitive #CoIT. Users are going to help
lead the technology adoption for next-generation enterprises.
Collectively, they have the resources and bandwidth to explore,
evaluate, and apply new forms of IT. These include SaaS, disposable
apps, mobile devices, and much more to their local technology
problems. IT departments will become the curators and enablers,
collecting and disseminating best practices across the edges of
organizations. As part of this, IT organizations will deliberately put
themselves in a competitive position with outside suppliers and 3rd
parties. They’re already facing stiff competition from app stores and

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 outsourcing firms, and now they must demonstrate they can
effectively compete.
NOTES
8. Mobile IT Reinvention. You must be mobile-first for most of your
future IT deployment. Mobile is also going to require rethinking IT.
Most organizations already know this now, so I don’t need to belabor
this point, other than simple translations of legacy IT to tablets will be
woefully insufficient and will drive users to 3rd party apps.
9. Migration to The Cloud. I currently see less focus on moving to the
cloud these days. Part of this is because it’s just happening and being
baked into many of the services we now use in the enterprise. But I
also see a lack of understanding of how strategic the cloud can be.
Start moving the edge of IT into the cloud to reap the benefits that go
far beyond cost containment and into business agility and innovation.
The cloud really does enable entirely new solutions to old problems.
10. Digital Business Leadership and Transformation. Start laying the
groundwork to drive the business when it comes to moving to digital
business models, where the future of most companies lies. CIOs and
other IT leaders should be moving away from an infrastructure focus
and to a business innovation focus as quickly as possible. While this is
far easier to say than do, the very future of IT is at stake as CFOs
increasingly focus on moving infrastructure out to the cloud. The
future of IT is digital leadership, and less in technical plumbing, even
though that will remain vital at a strategic level.

8.8. SUMMARY
We learned Information Technology has made a huge impact on how a
business operates and Customer Relationship Management from the
Information Technology perspective is called as Electronic Customer
Relationship Management (ECRM) and discussed about components of
ECRM. Also understood the importance and evolution of customer
relationship management.
In the next section we learnt about driving advocates through customer
experience and stages of successful advocate marketing.

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 We identified the importance of marketers listening to social
opinions/feedbacks to improve their brands.
We discussed about the key applications and modules of customer
relationship management along with Top 10 digital strategies that the next-
generation enterprise should follow.

QUESTIONS:
1. What is Customer Relationship Management?
2. Briefly write about evolution of Customer Relationship Management.
3. Why Customer Relationship Management is important?
4. How to drive advocates through Customer Experience?
5. Explain the stages of successful advocate marketing.
6. What is Social Listening? How can Social Listening help my brand?
7. What is Electronic Customer Relationship Management? Describe the
components of E-Customer Relationship Management.
8. Describe the Key Customer Relationship Applications.
9. Explain the modules of Customer Relationship Management.
10. Explain the top 10 digital strategies for the next-generation enterprise.

CASE STUDY 8.1: NESTLÉ MUNCH Social Media Campaign Management

NESTLÉ Munch launched its new campaign on digital platforms
followed by television. The brand urges its target audience to claim their
stage, to sport and embrace their flaws and their passions and be
unapologetic about whom they are. The Longer version of the TV ad was
posted on the NESTLÉ MUNCH Facebook page, YouTube
channel and Twitter on the 10th of January and has received an enthusiastic
response from consumers. With over 3 million views on Facebook and
YouTube, this ad will definitely start a new trend amongst the youth. The
music has been a great hit, with over one lakh downloads within two weeks
of its launch.
The protagonist in this new film by NESTLÉ MUNCH is the confident,
happy-go-lucky College Student played by Sushant Singh Rajput. From a
street scene, talking to tourists in ‘Broken English’, to trying to impress a girl
in the college library with the same ‘tootaphoota English’, the film showcases

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 this common angst among a large section of our country’s youth in a light-
hearted and comical manner. All of this culminates into a big fail at the
NOTES
‘Romeo and Juliet’ audition, where the lines that he utters are obviously ones
that Shakespeare never wrote.
A dejected hero walks out of the theatre, crunches loudly into a NESTLÉ
MUNCH 4X4, which gets everyone’s attention. He now has a ‘Manch’ (stage)
to showcase his talent; he uses this to fantastic effect by breaking into the very
catchy ‘MUNCHification’ song in ‘Broken English’, catapulting himself to
stardom in the process. This new commercial inspires us to embrace the
beautiful little flaws and imperfections within all of us by parading them out
in the open- Simply put, Nestlé MUNCH khao, Apne Manch pe Aao!
The campaign extends to Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag
#MUNCHification. Soon after the launch the conversations around the
campaign have exploded on both Facebook and Twitter. Consumers tweeted
about the Brand Message ‘Embrace who you are, you’re a superstar!’ and the
catchy jingle of the ad. Facebook users loved the idea of Broken English
becoming the next cool thing for the young generation, with many humming
the lyrics of the jingle across Facebook posts. A new trend, Facebook also saw
a lot of consumers updating their status to ‘Eating Nestlé MUNCH’ while
posting about the campaign.
The jingle of the ad or the ‘MUNCHification song’ has been sung by Mika
and can be downloaded from the YouTube and Facebook video by clicking
on the download button. It is also available on digital music platforms like
the mobile Gaana app. The #MUNCHification song has seen over one lakh
downloads, just two weeks into the campaign.
Questions:
1. How on Earth a chocolate brand could be promoted on social media
platform? What do you think about Nestles’ strategy?
2. Can you recommend any other food products to promote across social
media?

FURTHER READING
1. Puneet Singh Bhatia, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, 2nd Edition,
Pearson, 2020

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 2. Dave Chaffey, Digital Marketing – Strategy, Implementation and
Practice, 7th Edition, Pearson, 2019
3. Philip Kotler, Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital, April
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
4. Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry, Digital Marketing for Dummies,
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
5. Stephanie Diamond, Digital Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, 2019,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
6. Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated
Approach to Online Marketing Paperback, 2 nd Edition, 2019, British
Library
7. Swaminathan T.N and Karthik Kumar, Digital Marketing: From
Fundamentals to Future Paperback, 2019, Cengage Books

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 Module IX DIGITAL ANALYTICS

STRUCTURE
NOTES
9.0. Learning Objectives
9.1. Digital Marketing Analytics
9.1.1. The difference between Digital Analytics and Digital Marketing
Analytics
9.2. Web Analytics
9.3. Social Media Analytics
9.4. Summary

9.0. LEARNING OBEJECTIVES

In this lesson we will learn, what is digital analytics and how it is different
from digital marketing analytics
In the later part we have discussed other types of analytics like web analytics
and social media analytics.

9.1. DIGITAL MARKETING ANALYTICS

One of the biggest advantages of doing business in the digital era is having
the ability to track and analyze your results with the help of digital analytics.
However, digital analytics is different from simple web analytics metrics we
see in Google Analytics Tool Figure 9.1.
Web analytics is only a part of digital analytics. Web analytics are more on
the website’s metrics while digital analytics allows you to have a more
comprehensive view of your marketing strategy as a whole. What is working
and what is not, thus giving you the chance to improve your marketing plan.
It gives you the needed vision to see where you’re going and if your efforts
are paying off. This is a luxury that you do not enjoy with traditional
marketing because there simply isn’t an option.
Whether it’s running email marketing campaigns or just analyzing website
visits, there is a vast array of information that you can decode to understand
your success rate.
When it comes to building and running a successful business in any niche,
there are certain elements that become more of a necessity than a mere need.

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Having a website is one of these elements because it has become an integral
part of the modern day marketing ecosystem.
Without a proper website in place you would not have access to critical
analytics data. Which would in turn result in lost business that cannot be
regained.
“No Website = Lost Sales, because 81% of the customers look online before
buying and 54% of businesses have a website”
Gone are the days when customers only used to visit business websites to get
in touch with a company or learn more about it. Today, people are using
websites to converse with brands, do product inquiries, purchase needed
products while consuming targeted and relevant content.
A business website has become a digital marketing tool that is hard to ignore.
Because it helps not only deliver information but also engagement of a high
level. And in exchange of this, what your business receives is crucial data and
insights that can be used to enhance your own marketing efforts and grow
your business.
Google Analytics
When it comes to digital marketing analytics, there are a few things that lay
the foundation for it. And one of them is Google Analytics. The kind of insight
that you derive from Google Analytics may not be too extensive, but it does
set the path for understanding data and making sense of it.
Although there are many different type of data collection tools out there (both
advanced and basic), few are as robust as Google Analytics. Which is exactly
why it happens to be a commonly used data collection method.

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NOTES

Figure 9.1 Google Analytics

The good thing about Google Analytics is the fact that the set of tools it offers
are unlike any other set. Whether you are a novice or an expert, you can look
into the data found in it to not only understand your target demographics but
also figure out the best way to reach out to them.
Now, if you are new to Google Analytics, the platform may not seem as
simple as it sounds. The data you get to access can be particularly
overwhelming and may look little confusing at first. However, given that
your website is not that old, you can do some surface-level evaluation to
understand their customer needs with the help of some basic metrics that
throw light on your website’s performance. Or if analyzing data just isn’t
your thing, then you can always hire a digital marketing professional to help
you understand what your data is telling you and what to do about it.
Dashboard Metrics
Understanding the performance of your website starts with looking at key
metrics that are displayed on your application’s dashboard. It gives you a
bird’s view of how your website is growing and a basic understanding of
what you can do to improve your numbers.
Out of all the statistics that you see on your dashboard, there are three in
particular that you should focus on:
 Pages Per Visit
This is the metric that lets you know how many pages of your website were
viewed by an average visitor before they left. Your aim should be to increase

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this number by improving your content and on site value. By keeping things
relevant and high quality on your site, you should see a high number.
 Average Visit Duration
When someone visits your website, they are basically looking for something
that they are interested in. Whether it is more information about your product
or content related to your industry. Increasing this number should be on your
daily to-do list because having a low number shows that you did not offer
enough value to visitors. Getting your visitors to spend more time on your
site can directly impact how much business you do.
 Bounce Rate
People may land on your website from different points of entry. They may
find your homepage or your blog post. But once they have found your site,
it’s your job to ensure they explore further and take some action. Your bounce
rate shows the percentage of people that left your website after visiting only
page. While having a high bounce rate isn’t necessarily bad, you should aim
at lowering it by improve the internal navigation of your site and by offering
better content.
By looking at the three metrics we discussed above, you can learn more about
how your visitors interact with your site and if there are things that you can
improve to make it more appealing.
Most Viewed Pages
It’s easy to get into the head of your target audience and find out what
appeals to them most by analyzing the “Most Viewed Pages” metric. It takes
out the guesswork and gives you a clear understanding of the topics or the
subjects that you should be focusing on.
For example, you may think that a particular piece of content is going to be
helpful to your visitors. But upon looking at the most viewed pages’ metric,
you realize that is not the case. So whether you want to brainstorm new
topics for your blog or see what product appeals the most to your visitors, the
most viewed pages’ metric is a good place to start.
Page Exit Rate
This is the metric that gives you a clear idea of pages that are not performing
well. Because when your visitors leave a page, it means that they were unable
to find what they were looking for. By getting access to a list of most exited

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 pages, you’ll know what to improve to enhance the overall user experience
ofyour website.
NOTES

Figure 9.2 Page Exit Rate

For instance, if you find that one of your product sales pages has a high exit
rate, then you may want to tweak the sales copy or look if there are any
technical problems. Or else your site’s conversion rate may get affected. If this
exit rate is between 75 to 100 percent, then there is something definitely
wrong that you need to analyze.
Remember, the key to find success with digital marketing analytics is to try
and look at areas that your competitors may not be looking.
Referring Websites
Unless you are a popular site like Facebook and Reddit, you won’t have a ton
of type-in traffic coming in. In other words, most of your visitors will come to
your website after finding and clicking on a link to it on another website.
Your referral traffic can tell you a lot about the kind of sites linking to you
and what kind of traffic they are sending your way. Which by the way is
another reason to create quality content so that more and more relevant
websites link to you.

Figure 9.3 Reffering Websites

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When you have a clear idea of who your referring sites are, you’ll know why
they are linking to you. Which can help you achieve two important goals:
1. You will be able to create content based on the pages that are
receiving the most referral traffic.
2. You will come to know what type of link partners to reach out to and
build a link building relationship with.
For example, if you find that a particular blog in your industry (with decent
traffic) is repeatedly linking to your website as a resource, you will come to
know of this in your stats. After which you can take your relationship to the
next level by asking for better contextual links on their blog. Having an
understanding of your referring websites is an important part of
understanding your overall digital marketing analytics.

9.1.1. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DIGITAL ANALYTICS AND

DIGITAL MARKETING ANALYTICS

If you think that businesses have a lack of data when it comes to analyzing
their performance, then you are wrong. In fact, there are so many data points
available to look into that it can get confusing, especially for new businesses.
So the problem is not that there is not enough data. The real problem is the
most businesses fail to analyze the right data. They lack the clarity on what
data they should focus on to improve the results that they are getting. This
primarily happens due to three common reasons:
1. Having goals but not knowing how to match them with the available
numbers/stats. By not connecting goals with measurements,
businesses risk not reaching to the right conclusion.
2. Not having a complete understanding of various data points that are
necessary. In order to truly get the most out of your digital marketing
analytics, it is crucial to know certain data point’s measure and how
they are calculated.
3. Trying to dumb down or simplify the important analytics by focusing
only some of the data points.
If your brand wants to find success with digital marketing, it needs to
properly measure the effectiveness of each campaign. Because when you are
clear about the ROI derived from your marketing activities, you’ll know what

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 methods/tactics to focus on. This will continue to be a challenge to all those
businesses that don’t work with the right data.
NOTES
Every digital marketer needs to understand to go beyond digital analytics
data such as bounce rate and unique visitors. There is no doubt that your
analysis will always start with the basic web analytics that we discussed
above.

Figure 9.4 Difference between Digital Analytics and Digital Marketing

Analytics
However, your business needs to work with rich data in order to truly
understand why your marketing campaign is or isn’t converting. Analyzing
the surface-level web analytics metrics is only the first step. The next step is
go deeper so that you know what your customer’s journey looks like and
how you can improve your sales funnel.
Digital marketing analytics allows you to get a detailed and a comprehensive
understanding of how your marketing efforts are faring. It gives you an
insightful view into what you can improve to get real-world results from
your marketing.

9.2. WEB ANALYTICS

In the prior sections the basic metrics relating to the Social Web were defined.
Social media analytics help frame the conversations in a quantitative context.
Influencer metrics do the same for the source of the conversation. Between
these you have the basis for success determination according to the business

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objectives you have set and the KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) that you
have established. The next step is to tie these to your business, beginning with
its online presence.

Website Performance
Web analytics—a representative look at Google Analytics is shown in Figure
9.5—is concerned largely with the performance of your website or online
applications. By “performance” what is generally meant is how well your
website converts visitors into customers, people supportive of your cause into
donors or enlisted volunteers, or some similar transition that carries them all
the way through your purchase or acquisition funnel.

Figure 9.5 Web Analytics

Web analytics offer a number of measurement points. Table 9.1 lists a
representative set of the more popular metrics associated with the
performance of a website in a business context. The key to getting the most
out of your web analytics program understands the individual measures
shown in Table 9.1 and then moving beyond them. Far too many firms track
the basics—bounce rate, time spent, page views—but then fail to move
beyond these basic counts and into the actual analytics of what drives them
and why they matter.

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NOTES

Table 9.1 Web Analytics

Beyond the Basics
What’s beyond the basics? Although simply “counting and reporting” is an
important first step, understanding what is driving the measurements you
collect is essential to running your social media program and connecting
what you learn to your business. The application of web analytics to your
business should provide insights into how your online assets—your website,
blog, or community site, for example—are driving your business and
contributing to the achievement of business objectives. In turn, understanding
these business drivers should inform or connect to your internal intelligence
processes.
By connecting the measurements to business processes, and by
understanding how the process results drive the measurements themselves,
you can use the trends you observe to steer your business or organization in
ways that ensure success with regard to your business objectives. The
necessary requirement here—especially as teams that span functional areas of
a business or organization are brought under the increasingly large umbrella
of social business and Social CRM—is a quantitatively based understanding
of how processes translate into results. The measurements you observe are
indicators of results but are not themselves the results. By taking the steps to
connect the measures to the business objectives, you ensure that you are tying
what you’ve observed or learned through listening, for example, to the
processes that create the conversations in the first place. In this way the Social
Web efforts—whether outreach, listening, participation, or other forms of

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engagement—become measurably tied to the ongoing operation of your
business or organization.
Don’t Overcomplicate
Note here that “going beyond the basics” doesn’t necessarily mean moving to
advanced or exotic measurements, but instead combining core metrics in
ways that provide deeper insights and that show you how to tie actions and
results to your business objectives. Again, the key insight in measurement is
taking the time to understand how relatively simple measurements can be
combined, trended, and reinterpreted to provide useful information. This
means that it is important, especially in the early stages of any social business
program, to measure aggressively. Measure everything you can. Sure, you
may end up discontinuing the collection of some items, but you will surely
discover others that are surrogates or even direct indicators that provide the
data you need to make sense of newer Social Web-based consumer behaviors.
Consider a metric like bounce rate, the relative measure of visitors who land
on your site and then leave immediately, without looking at anything else.
Dig into bounce rate, slice it by source, slice it by date, trend it over time, and
run correlation analysis against it. What’s driving it? Do adjacent trends in
blog activity or conversations on Twitter correlate strongly with the trends in
bounce rate that you observe? These are the questions you really want to
answer, because when you know what is driving your bounce rate rather
than knowing only the number itself, you can actually develop a plan to
reduce it—or to understand why further reduction has a diminishing
economic payback.
Connect the Dots
Moving beyond the basics of data collection is the difference between “12
people visited last week, up from 8 the week before” and “qualified visitors
to our site increased following the release of the latest podcast program.”
Counting visitors is important, no doubt about it. Studying the ways in which
people traverse your site, for example, before they choose to make an actual
purchase gives you a way to spot “qualified” visitors earlier in the process
and thereby the ability to implement specific practices that drive these
conversions further. Connecting the next step—connecting the changes in
qualified traffic to specific Social Web-based programs—enables another level

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 of understanding. This is, of course, the path to understanding ROI, and in
the larger sense being able to make the case across your organization for
NOTES
meaningful spending on social business efforts.
It’s all about connecting the dots. Like the silos that exist inside organizations,
data that is collected in isolation is less useful than data that is connected and
thereby reflects holistically across processes. This leads to the larger question
of “How are web analytics related to or indicative of interactions originating
on the Social Web?” The connections between the two are found by linking
the sources of Social Web conversations, influencers, and the incoming traffic
to your website, support forum, or community application.
To see how the data collected through a Social Web listening program is
connected to the data collected in a web analytics program, consider the
application of basic correlation. Figure 9.6 shows a visualization of
correlation. The data represented by Data Set 1 (solid squares) appears to be
correlated—note how it falls along a common line—whereas there appears to
be no relation in the data compared between Data Set 2 (depicted by the
dots), whose data is scattered all over the chart. Correlation is the study of sets
of observations, with the end goal being the deduction of a possible
connection between the sets of data. There is a big caveat here, and it’s an
important one: Correlation and causation are two different things.

Figure 9.6 A visual chart of correlation

Correlation is the more general of the two. Correlation implies that whenever
A is observed, B is also observed. An example of correlation is the

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observation that “People who bought dog food on the Petco website also
bought dog leashes.” Purchasing one does not in itself cause the purchase of
the other. However, the two tend to occur together more often than, say,
people buying dog food and a bowling ball, something that may well be
observed on occasion in the checkout line at a physical department store like
Walmart.
Causation, by comparison, is a direct cause-effect relationship between A and
B. When A happens, B results. Acquiring a dog, for example, fairly certainly
causes the purchase of both the dog food and the dog bowl. Cause and effect
can be seen in things like the increased checkout basket size that results when
online shoppers are prompted to consider additional items based on what
they have currently placed in their shopping carts: When people are told
“others who bought dog bowls also bought dog leashes…,” they tend to go
look for a new leash.
Correlation has an application in connecting social media analytics and other
web and business analytics. First, it’s easy to do: Collect your listening
results, clean them to remove noise and irrelevant results, and then attempt to
correlate the listening results volume and sentiment with web traffic. If the
patterns match—if the correlation is high—you’ve got an indication that some
deeper connection is at work. This is not proof of such a connection! But it is an
indication that looking further might be worthwhile, that what happens on
the Social Web might be impacting what you observe at your website. The
connection in this case is fairly intuitive, to be sure, but consider how this
technique might be used to uncover relationships that are not immediately
obvious,
Try shifting the dates, too: Lag the website traffic by a day or two days or a
week and see if the relative measure of correlation improves. If so, you are
seeing an indication that what happens on the Social Web has a lifetime, or a
transit time, across the Social Web. This is certainly the case with brand
advertising, for example, where a build-up time in awareness is observed.
This is very different from, say, TV-based direct response or impulse buying
(think QVC) where running a spot immediately triggers a known (or certainly
knowable) buying response. It makes sense that these same conditions apply

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 between the Social Web and your online purchase points or conversion
funnels: It’s worth your time to sort out the relationships.
NOTES
If correlation is important, causation is the Holy Grail. When you nail down
causation, you’ve got real power as the implication is that you can actually
drive a particular outcome. The test for causation is tougher, and rigorous,
systematic A/B testing should be at the core of your analytics practices
because of it. This is as applicable to your use of the Social Web as it is to your
use of any other marketing technology that can be optimized. By testing and
comparing, you’ll separate cause from correlation and identify the key
activities and practices that will drive your business.
Take the time to examine the “usual suspects” in the context of web
analytics— bounce rate, page views, time spent, and unique users—and
connect these to your social media program by selectively changing elements
of the social media program and noting the results. Building on what you
learn, add your conversion results to the mix: Using Google Analytics, for
example, set up conversion goals and then compare the results of your A/B
testing around your social programs with your conversions. The result will be
a quantitative understanding of your business, and the way in which your
social programs support your overall business objectives.

9.3. SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS

Social Analytics
The previous chapters have provided a basis for understanding how social
media and Web 2.0 technologies are reshaping the relationship between
Marketing, where the promise is created, and Operations, where the promise
is kept. Building on the basics of managing conversations through decided
behavior rather than attempts at control, this chapter presents the
fundamentals of actual measurement.
Measurement is critical to building social media acceptance within an
organization beyond the marketing department. Facebook pages and Twitter
profiles are useful as marketing extensions, no doubt about it. However, at
this point in the book it is my hope that the really big levers of social
technology (reshaping products and services; creating a robust, two-way,

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collaborative relationship with customers; and using what is learned
throughout your organization) are starting to become apparent.
Throughout this chapter is an underlying theme of the value of measurement
and its role in determining a return on investment (ROI). As you work
through this chapter, consider that asking “How do I measure ROI?” is
preceded with questions like “What is ROI?” and “Does ROI even apply to
this activity?” Don’t overly focus on ROI unless you’ve first established that
ROI is actually the appropriate end measure for your intended use of social
technology. For example, a key performance indicator, or KPI may be more
appropriate and more informative if there is not a clear “investment” or
financial return in the form of new, incremental revenue or costs avoided as
an expected outcome of your project. ROI is important, but determining why
(and when) ROI is the appropriate measure can make even more difference to
your success.
Quantitative Measurement
What should be clear at this point is that without meaningful and
quantitative measurement you stand essentially no chance of ever seeing
social media and Web 2.0 technologies adopted through your organization.
Why not, and why the central role for metrics? Think back to the Good
Guide— a customer-driven, handheld social application that directly
empowers consumers, “The Social Business Ecosystem.” When your core
customer—take the “advocate Mom,” for example—has an application like
the Good Guide and scans your product with her iPhone, comparing your
company’s carbon footprint and hiring practices with your competitor’s,
what will your marketing program do to ensure that your brand wins in this
type of comparison? Without the coordinated, committed help of the entire
organization you stand no chance of winning, and without quantitative
measurement—the universal language throughout most organizations—
you’ll face an essentially undoable job in trying to rally your larger team to
understand why their participation—beyond marketing—is essential.
Social media analytics are at the core of putting the Social Web to work in
business. When time is taken to understand the quantitative tools and
measurement points, the Social Web is transformed from a source of largely
unstructured qualitative data to a conversational framework that can be

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 viewed and tracked quantitatively. It is this quantitative discipline that
enables two essential best practices when it comes to applying social media to
NOTES
your business or organization:
• Making sense of what people are talking about in a way that leads to
prioritized insights in the context of competing capital efforts
• Connecting these conversations and the results of your programs designed
to change these conversations for the better by addressing adverse
conversations and building on beneficial ones
In traditional communications, the activities that parallel the study of
conversations via social media analytics include press clipping and reporting,
focus groups and consumer research, so-called pre- and post-campaign
marketplace surveys, and similar. In each of these, there is a specific
collection/identification/result process that underlies a fundamental learning
process. This learning process is designed to anchor the brand, product, or
service in the desires, needs, and reactions of customers, influencers, and
others whose opinions matter with regard to what is talked about in the
marketplace. In each of these measurement practices, there is a distinct set of
metrics or an accepted method of stating a learned or observed outcome.
The New Media Sings the Old Media
Social media analytics is built around many of the basic practices applied to
traditional media—who’s talking, what are they saying—now applied to the
(digital) conversations happening on the Social Web. So what’s different? For
starters, because social media is defined in some way as leveraging the
massively scalable publishing capabilities afforded to each Social Web
participant—in simple terms, recognizing that it is easy for reasonably well-
connected people to command a reach that rivals’ TV within local markets or
to reach more accurately defined niches and social circles. This means that the
well- connected homemaker, or the hobbyist blogger, or anyone else with a
defined passion and a basic command of social media publishing can amass a
real audience and can exert real influence within it. Quantitatively measuring
this reach and impact is just as important on the Social Web as it is any place
else. Further, because each conversation is literally time and date stamped,
signed by what is more often than not a real person and associated with a
specific URL that is forever discoverable, these conversations form a robust

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body of information that is very useful in managing your business. This is
what social media analytics is all about.
As a starting point in social analytics, consider sentiment, source, and
volume, an example of which is shown in Figure 9.7. Sentiment is the
measure of the polarity of the conversation—positive versus negative with
regard to the subject—and is useful in understanding not only the immediate
issue of “Do people like ?” but also the degree to which they feel this
way. This is helpful, for example, in refining a brand advocate/brand
detractor-centric tactical initiative.

Figure 9.7 Sentiment, Source, and Volume

Source analysis has two facets: the identification and understanding of the
author—covered in detail in the next section, “Know Your Influencers”—and
cataloging and tracking the location of posts. The latter—understanding what
is being said on Twitter versus Orkut or Facebook versus a blog—leads to an
understanding of where you should be par ticipating on the Social Web,
information that is essential in planning, for example, a brand outpost
program.
Volume measures are used to assess the overall conversational level with
regard to your brand, product, or service: How many people are talking
about a particular topic or picking up and reposting information? Volume
analysis is most typically associated with conversational trends—the relative
levels of positive versus negative over time, the number of conversations over

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 time, or the sudden spiking of an adverse rumor. A typical trend chart is
shown in Figure 9.8.
NOTES

Figure 9.8 Social Media Analytics: Trend charts

By building on the basic measurement of sentiment, source, and volume, a
more practical and defined set of metrics can be established. In a post on
Social Times, a blog published by Nick O’Neill that follows social media’s
technical tools and skills, Raj Dash lists the essential metrics, examples of
which are shown in Table 9.1. As you work through this list, notice how they
are built on the selected fundamental measurement areas, which are then set
in a business context. The complete table can be found at
http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/02/social-media-metrics/.
Even more importantly, rather than just accepting the examples in Table 9.2,
use them as a starting point in developing a specific set of measures and
sources that apply to your business. Always cite your own business
objectives, your existing metrics, and then build off of those to develop your
specific set of key performance indicators and related quantitative
guideposts.

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Table 9.2 Specific Set of Measures and Sources
Setting your measurements into your business context is an obvious first step;
yet for the most part, businesses and organizations sometimes fail to formally
recognize and measure the impact of social media on business. Without such
measurement, it is a stretch to think that a social business program will ever
take hold, let alone thrive, inside a run-by-the-numbers business. Because
most businesses and organizations are in fact run by the numbers, this does
not bode well for an effective connection between the Social Web and the
inner workings of business, effectively relegating social media to outbound
marketing applications.
This is really unfortunate, as purely outbound marketing is probably the least
effective application of social media and social technology. Remember, the
Social Web—unlike TV and American Football, both essentially built for use
as an advertising platform—is not fundamentally a marketing channel.
Rather, it is more of a forum or place for conversations, some of which may
be of interest to you as they impact your brand, product or service. This
creates the opportunity to talk, participate, and gain influence that can be
helpful in marketing and more general business applications. Measurement
forms the basis for quantifying this work.
The Need to Measure More
The significance of the lack of a formal measurement mindset around social
media becomes clear when you consider that too many professionals using
social media in business do not measure its effectiveness. eMarketer(2009)
study found that 16 percent of the professionals it surveyed measured the

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 effectiveness of their social media programs. The other 84 percent? It’s
unclear why they are even doing the work they are doing, and likely less
NOTES
clear to their CFO that they should be doing it at all. Without a measurement
program, social media marketing and its application to business is at best an
experiment; at worst, it’s a costly diversion.
If this sounds harsh, consider that nearly any business or organizational effort
undertaken represents an opportunity forgone someplace else within that
same business or organization. Every choice in business has an economic
component and an associated opportunity (and time) cost. Failing to associate
some sort of realistic, relevant metric with an economic business decision is a
path to suboptimal performance.
In a Bazaarvoice study on measurement and expectations of social media, the
majority of those businesses studied found that across a range of social
channels and applications the CMOs either didn’t know what they were
getting from their social media marketing program, or had actually
concluded that there was no ROI (meaning positive economic contribution to
the business) associated with social media. The one clear exception to this
near-universal lack of measurement and understanding? Ratings and
reviews, which are the focus of the Bazaarvoice social commerce platform.
Compared with programs launched on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook,
ratings and reviews (followed by a variety of implementations of brand
platforms and corporate blogs) stood out as being expected to make a
positive contribution to the business, and in many cases from a sales
perspective. By comparison, and illustrating the importance of being clear as
to the basis for ROI calculations, note that the focus of the Bazaarvoice
offering is commerce. The ROI is derived not out of incremental revenue but
out of cost avoidance (lower support costs online versus phone center costs,
for example) in return for the platform investment. Whatever your program,
it is essential to understand what is being measured and how the
measurements will be used to guide performance.
What is most interesting—and most telling—with regard to the Bazaarvoice
study is that when the measurement is clear and the social application is
directly tied to the business, the expectation of CMOs is that their use of
social media will make a net positive contribution. Further, the expectation is

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that the contribution made can be measured. This is at least in part a result of
the focus and attention that Bazaarvoice has placed on its platform and its
connection to business: Bazaarvoice goes to great lengths to educate its
customers and ensure an understanding of the value of its platform. It is also
in part a result of Bazaarvoice’s dominance in its market segment. Because of
the significant presence of large brands within Bazaarvoice’s client roster, and
given the direct and measured connection between the platform and the
businesses it serves, it is no wonder that a large proportion of leading CMOs
recognize the value of ratings and reviews as applied to commerce. More
platforms, and more CMOs, need to be looking more intently at quantitative
measures of social media.
The takeaway is this: Apply the same sort of critical assessment to your social
media program as you would apply to the running of any other aspect of
your business or organization. Always begin by connecting your proposed
social media effort to your business, and only then begin the process of
evaluating specific tools or social applications. Like any measurement-driven
program, the choice of tools follows the business objectives and the
establishment of numerical goals.
Source and Sentiment Analysis
“The New Role of the Customer,” case tools like Buzzstream and the
Grasshopper business example. Buzzstream provides a view into the sources
of influence within an area of interest—defined through keywords such as
the name of your product or a competitor’s—so that you can create
relationships with the people talking about you. Your active listening
program takes this one step further by connecting these sources with the
actual business impact of the conversations in which they are a part.
Knowing who is talking is an important part of understanding the meaning
of what is being said and then applying this in a useful manner within your
business or organization. Combining the sources of the conversation—
especially when the sources are actual (or potential) customers—with your
listening data provides insights into how you can evolve your product, how
you can reshape the customer experience, and where you and your
competitors have points of relative vulnerability. As you consider specific
listening tools and listening programs, consider how the data provided

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 facilitates connecting the source of the conversation along with the actual
conversation and what it means to your business processes that are driving
NOTES
the conversations in the first place.
One aspect of listening—known as sentiment analysis—deserves specific
mention. Sentiment analysis is one of the meaning-related processes by which
conversations are categorized. It’s also one of the most talked about and one
of the most troublesome. Without belaboring the point, human
communication is complex: Anecdotal examples of the issues around
sentiment analysis can be summed up in two words: “Dyson sucks!” Is this a
positive comment—perhaps an expression of joy by a new customer of these
amazing vacuum cleaners? Given the reputation for the Dyson brand, it’s
more than likely the case that this is a positive comment.
Sentiment analysis, important enough in its own right, is not an end in and of
itself, though many would love it if it were. How great it would be if instead
of actively listening all you needed to do was read a report and respond to
eight negative posts or send “thank you” notes to a dozen loyal fans.
Unfortunately, there’s more to it. A lot more. Like the tip of an iceberg,
sentiment analysis—and more specifically tracking and trending sentiment—
gives one an indication of what is happening below the surface. Unlike the tip
of an iceberg—which is a good indicator that there is more ice underneath
that is otherwise just like the ice you can see above the surface—in the case of
sentiment analysis, you generally have to go back to the original posts, to the
original context of the conversations, to sort out what is really happening:
you may find more ice, or you may find rocks. A strong negative comment
may originate from a dedicated fan, or a dedicated detractor. You must dig in
and understand these kinds of differences in addition to simply following the
sentiment score.
The challenge with automated sentiment—and one of three primary
motivators for the consideration of workflow tools as a part of your listening
program (the other two being data conditioning and noise elimination, along
with scalable and trackable routing and follow-up) is that “meaning” is
almost entirely context driven. One of the shortcomings of the automated
listening tools is that they tend to consider the post—in which keywords of

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interest were embedded—in isolation: In other words, they see the immediate
conversation, but not the back-story.
Consider Twitter as a channel: Because of its highly fluid and distributed
nature, the short posts that define Twitter are actually interlinked
conversations. One person says, “I bought a new Dyson—I love it,” and
another, seeing that post, replies “Dyson sucks!” as a humorous affirmation
of the product, resulting in the “negative” post referenced earlier. Because
replies are not always linked (in the technical sense) to their originating posts,
the listening tool sees “Dyson sucks” in isolation and then applies its rule
base accordingly. Somewhat humorously—or maybe by design—with the
launch of the new Dyson bladeless fan referenced in the prior chapter, a
whole new round of sentiment issues arises for Dyson as posts like “Dyson
really blows!” start circulating. Oh well.
More seriously, none of this is a knock on sentiment analysis as an idea, nor is
it intended as commentary on listening tools that include sentiment analysis
in particular. The fact is that the current generation of tools—with all their
attendant shortcomings— still provide more value than not using them at all.
The challenge—and your responsibility—is to ensure that you are, at some
level, tying the conversations you discover back to their original context so
that you can actually deduce the intended meaning. This is also important
from the perspective of workflow: the elimination of “noise,” those results
that while they match your keywords are not related to your actual search.
Referencing the Dyson products example, conversations mentioning Esther
Dyson are probably unrelated. The effort required to winnow the results to
those which are relevant to your specific interests must be considered as an
integral part of any listening program.
Here’s a twist on sentiment analysis: You can, if you’re savvy, get your fans
to do at least some of the work for you. Jake McKee, while at LEGO, often
turned to key people within the communities he worked with for insights
into “brand sentiment.” Fans would often let Jake know—via IM, where Jake
maintained an active, open presence with fans—that there was something or
other that he needed to pay attention to, adding within their posts whether
this was a good thing needing more attention, or otherwise. This is one more

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 reason, as if you needed one more, to actively build a base of loyal and alert
supporters.
NOTES
Know Your Influencers
Parallel to traditional PR and the associated marketing and advertising
concepts relating to “influentials,” there are metrics related to the social
graph—the connective links, profiles, and updates connecting people on the
Social Web—that define the sources of the conversations you are tracking
with your social analytics tools. Just as with any other communications
channel measurement, understanding how a particular source (typically an
individual) fits into your overall intelligence and outreach program is
essential in getting the most out of it.
From Journalists to Connected Enthusiasts
In traditional PR in particular, there is an established practice of identifying
and developing relationships with key journalists and industry experts. These
media connections are useful, for example, when rolling out a new product.
By communicating in advance with these contacts, you can seed the general
market awareness with comments from these individuals as they begin
writing about your product launch. Sometimes this is done confidentially—
for example, you may “embargo” a press release when you want your closest
contacts to have this information and be aware of what is coming but not
actually talk about it before a certain date. Or, you may want these advance
recipients to talk about it first, conveying to them a certain “scoop” value. As
a tip, include in your press releases a 140-character statement intended for re-
use on Twitter, what Brian Solis calls a “Twitter Pitch.”
However, you do it, the basic process involves identifying and building
relationships with the journalists and experts that write about your product
or service, or who focus on issues relating to your markets. The same process
applies on the Social Web, with one big difference: The people you want to
reach and build a relationship with quite often don’t wear nametags.
For any specific interest, cause, lifestyle, product or service there are people
who blog about it, who post about it on Twitter, and who convey this
information to those who “follow” or subscribe to the blogs, for example, of
these people. This includes the wider public audience that extends beyond
media professionals and specific analysts and influencers.

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The challenge, of course, is picking out the influencers that are of interest to
you using tools like Buzzstream and Sysomos, now part of Marketwire, and
then measuring your progress in building a relationship with them. Table 9.3
shows a selected set of core metrics related to influencer relations and
relationship development.

Table 9.3 Examples of Core Influencer Analytics

Metrics like “social influence” are returned directly through tools like
Buzzstream. Figure 9.9 shows the Buzzstream dashboard and the social
influence ranking that is applied. Tracking this type of metric over time, as
well as across influencers, allows you to develop a profile of the people likely
to be helpful to you as you go about the task of quantifying what is being said
and affixing a numerical score to the likely impact of who is saying it. This
helps you in two ways: You can build relationships with your influencers,
and you can better understand the larger social graph that is connecting
participants in the conversations around your brand, product, or service.

Figure 9.9 Buzzstream Dashboard - Influencer Identification

Identify Your Influencers

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 Understanding your influencers requires more than simple tracking: You will
need to know who specifically is influencing others in your markets. By
NOTES
identifying them and then building an actual relationship with them, you can
get into the subtleties of what drives the commentary they produce. This is an
important insight, but it raises a question: How do you go about building
these relationships? You meet them.
As you discover influencers, you can talk with them or interview them. You
can dig in to their conversations and understand in detail what they like
about your brand, product, or service and what they don’t. You may not like
what you hear, but that’s OK. By understanding the subtlety of the
conversations, the dynamics over time—is the negative sentiment rising or
falling, is it cyclical, is it driven by your firm, or driven by your industry? —
you can intelligently craft an overall business strategy. In short, you can learn
a lot from your influencers, and it goes way beyond and is more valuable
than simply enlisting them to push your message (as if they’d actually do
that).
The first step in identifying influencers is to sort out who is connected to
whom, who is influential, and who is not. It’s not a fully automated process,
so your gut instinct and skill as a marketer will pay off as you sort through
the quantitative information that is available, and then combine that with
your own industry knowledge, for example. Take advantage, too, of personal
relationships that you may be able to build: if a conversation in a particular
community is of interest to you introduce yourself (in the real world sense,
for example through email or Twitter) to the webmaster or community
manager in charge. Share your point of interest, and see if this person or team
will help you understand the other influencers within that community. More
information is better, and if nothing else you’ll build a nice connection with a
community manager that may pay off later.
Building on what you’ve learned or the knowledge gained from community
managers you’ve met, tools like Buzzstream or Sysomos, or retaining a
services firm like Oxyme will help you to quickly dig deeper so that you can
then take the steps of building relationships with those individuals within the
community who are relatively more influential or more connected. Look back
at Figure 9.9, which shows a typical view of influencers through Buzzstream.

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Buzzstream gathers this information by crawling the social graphs of the
people identified as the sources of specific conversations. What is presented
to you is a summary of all of the possible publishing points associated with
this person. You can then quickly scan these publishing sites for the people
you are interested in and refine the list. Then, you drop the information
you’ve gathered into a contact database and begin building an actual
relationship.
The Role of Trust
Creating the role—and sources—of trust in consumer transactions. This
concept applies across all business transactions and is bound up in what is
now called social capital. Social capital, briefly, is to social media and the
reputation of your brand (and you!) what economic capital is to your CFO
and your organization. Social capital plays a role in influencer relations: For
example, by understanding who your likely influencers are, and by then
taking a genuine interest in understanding their points of view, not only do
you learn more about how your brand, product, or service is perceived in the
marketplace but you also create the opportunity to gain social capital.
How? As an industry participant, for example, you very likely have general
domain expertise. If you share this openly—and not from the point of self-
interest— you will increase your social capital. Here’s an example: An
influencer contacts you about a speaking date, but you are busy. You can
rearrange your schedule, you can simply and politely decline, or you can
refer a competitor who you know will also do a very good job. If you can
rearrange your schedule, that’s great. If you can’t, the best social option is to
refer someone else who is qualified, because it is this act versus the simple
declination that actually helps the person seeking your assistance. It’s like the
old retail cliché: “Do you have this shirt in blue?” A response like “We don’t,
but I know where you can get it…” is the one that is remembered and
appreciated. Building social capital works the same way, and it most
definitely applies to influencer relations.
Apply Your New Influencer Knowledge
Once you understand—quantitatively—the people in the marketplace or
stakeholders who matter to your firm or organization you’ll want to do
something with this information. Much of what can be done with influencer

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 knowledge involves the use of the social graph and applications that navigate
it. Tools like Buzzstream and Sysomos MAP are examples of how the social
NOTES
graph can be used to provide information that defines the people talking
about your brand, product, or service. You can combine this with information
that highlights the interconnections between people to create an assessment
of how influence actually flows. This can be tracked over time and tied back
to your social-media-based marketing efforts.
Influence ranking further allows you to prioritize your efforts. Like any other
program, there is a cost to undertaking it that can be measured in terms of
other opportunities foregone. The same applies to building relationships,
with one caveat. When using influencer scores to prioritize your efforts, it’s
important to use more than the numerical influence score. While it’s good to
have highly influential people in your contacts database, it’s also important to
recognize that influence doesn’t necessarily flow from the most influential
directly to your prospects or others in whom you have an interest in reaching,
Instead, a significant amount of influence actually flows along what are called
weak ties.
Weak ties are the casual bonds that exist across members of a community.
Think of weak ties as “knowing someone who knows someone who….” For
example, in a typical Facebook or LinkedIn network, there are people you
know directly and people who are connected to the people you know. These
types of bonds are extremely important in understanding how information
passes through a network, and ultimately how the information that relates to
your product or service, or your brand, company, or organization, gets to the
people who are considering some aspect of an offer.
Community tools like Ripple6 utilize weak ties, as do platforms like
LinkedIn. Ripple6 creates connections between community members by
facilitating the transfer of information between people (profiles) who are not
themselves directly connected. It does this by making it easy to pose
questions, for example, to people with whom you are connected and who in
turn can post these questions to others in their networks who might have an
answer for you. LinkedIn uses this methodology when it assists in
introductions. LinkedIn very clearly shows the social graph as it applies
between people: When a LinkedIn member wants to be introduced to

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someone specific, LinkedIn shows the member the chain that connects people
he or she knows to the people he or she ultimately wants to reach, and then
sets up the intermediate “pass along” process.
Influence flows across the Social Web in exactly the same way. By taking care
to understand not only who your influencers are but also how they are
connected to pockets within your market that you may not otherwise have a
direct connection to, you can significantly increase the likelihood that the
conversations you participate in will ultimately involve these people. This
kind of quantitative information is especially useful in tuning an outreach
program: Whether the goal is spreading your message further—think blogger
outreach efforts—or building up your customer-driven intelligence program,
knowing who is talking about the issues that matter to you and how these
people are connected to others is vital.

9.4. SUMMARY
Now we know about digital analytics and three common reason how it is
different from digital marketing analytics.
From the above section we came across digital dashboards and what are the
important metrics available for us to monitor social performance of our
website.
Also we have discussed in depth about web analytics and social media
analytics.

QUESTIONS:
1. What is digital marketing analytics?
2. Write a short note on Google analytics.
3. Explain the difference between digital analytics and digital media
analytics.
4. What is Web analytics and explain its measurement models?
5. Describe in detail social media analytics.
6. How to identity your influencers?

CASE STUDY 9.1: Programmatic Advertising: Real-Time Marketing

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 The holy grail of advertising and marketing is to deliver the right message to
the right person at the right time. If this were possible, no one would receive
NOTES
ads they did not want to see, and then no advertising dollars would be
wasted, reducing the costs to end users and increasing the efficiency of each
ad dollar. In the physical world, only a very rough approximation of this
ideal is possible. Advertisers buy television and radio spots, newspaper ads,
and billboards based on broad demographics and interests of likely potential
customers.
The Internet promised to change this by gathering personal information on
consumers and targeting ads to just the desired group of people based on
their personal characteristics, interests, and recent clickstream behavior.
Consumer personal information was gathered through the use of cookies
placed on the user's browser, which tracked their behavior and purchases
online and could be matched with offline information as well.
From the beginning, e-commerce was a trade-off between privacy and
efficiency: let us know more about you, and we will show you only the
advertising and products you are interested in seeing and would be likely to
respond to. E-commerce was supposed to end the mass advertising that
began in 19th century newspapers, 20th century radio, and exploded with the
growth of television.
But contrary to this rosy scenario, most of the display ads shown to site
visitors are irrelevant, sometimes hilariously so, to visitors’ interests. For this
reason, the click-through rate for banner advertising is stunningly low, well
under 1%, and the price of generic display ads is only $1.26 per thousand
because of their low response rate. Check this out: visit Yahoo (the largest
display advertiser on earth) on a desktop or laptop computer, look at the
prominent ads shown on the right, and ask yourself if you are really
interested in the ad content at this moment in time. Chances are slim you are
interested at this moment, even if the ad is somewhat appropriate to your
demographics. Often, it is an ad for something you have recently searched for
on Google, or even already purchased at Amazon. These ads will follow you
for days.
Researchers have found that only 20% of Internet users find that display ads
on websites are relevant to their interests. Programmatic advertising

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promises to improve the targeting of ads, decreasing costs for advertisers,
and making the Web less annoying to consumers by showing them ads that
really are of interest to them.
Digital display advertising has progressed through three eras. In the early
2000s, a firm with a website interested in ad revenue (a “publisher”) would
sell space on its site to other firms (advertisers), usually through an ad
agency. These were primarily manual transactions. By 2005, ad networks
emerged. These networks aggregated thousands of publishers' supply of ad
space into a single network where advertisers could buy ad space on
thousands of sites in a single purchase, and publishers could sell to hundreds
of advertisers more efficiently. By 2011, even larger ad exchanges emerged,
which provided advertisers access to an even larger pool of publisher ad
spaces. The result today is an extraordinarily complex ecosystem of players,
and sophisticated technologies (called a technology stack).

With so much supply available, and so many buyers, automated methods

were developed to allocate ad space to ad buyers. These methods are
collectively called programmatic advertising. Programmatic advertising is an
automated method that publishers use to sell their inventory (empty slots on
their web pages) to advertisers who want to buy ad space for their customers
(brand and product owners looking to market their products and services).
There are two kinds of programmatic advertising: auction-based real time
bidding (RTB), and programmatic direct, where advertisers deal directly with
publishers who have developed their own supply side platforms.
Programmatic advertising platforms use big data repositories that contain
personal information on hundreds of millions of online shoppers and
consumers; analytic software to classify and search the database for shoppers
with the desired characteristics; and machine learning techniques to test out
combinations of consumer characteristics that optimize the chance of a
purchase resulting from exposure to an ad. All of this technology is designed
to lower the cost, increase the speed, and increase the efficiency
of advertising in an environment where there are hundreds of millions of
webpages to fill with ads, and millions of online consumers looking to buy at
any given moment. Programmatic advertising allows advertisers to

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 potentially show the right ad, at the right time, to just the right person, in a
matter of milliseconds. To the extent this is true, display advertising becomes
NOTES
more effective, and perhaps could become as effective as search-based
advertising, where it is much more obvious what the searcher is looking for,
or interested in, at the moment of search. In 2016, advertisers are expected to
spend over $25 billion (almost three-quarters of all total display ad spending,
including on banners, videos, and rich media) on programmatic advertising.
This amount is expected to grow to over 80% by 2018. Programmatic
advertising is roughly split between RTB and programmatic direct sales.
Direct sales offer advertisers more control over ad display, location on the
screen, and frequency than RTB.
Currently, just one-third of online display advertising is still done in a non-
automated, traditional environment that involves marketers using e-mail, fax,
phone, and text messaging. Traditional methods are often used for high value
ads, say, the top screen, expanding ads seen at major newspapers, magazines,
and portal sites, and native ads appearing alongside organic content. This is
the world of the traditional insertion order: if you want to advertise in a
newspaper or magazine, call the ad department and fill out an insertion
order. In this environment, firms who want to sell products and services
online hire advertising agencies to develop a marketing plan. The ad agencies
learn from the firms what kinds of people they would like to contact online.
The ad agencies pay data brokers or advertising networks like DoubleClick to
help them identify where the online ads should be placed given the nature of
the product and the specific characteristics the producer firms are looking for.
For instance, let’s say a firm wants to market a new mountain bike to men
and women, ages 24–35, who live in zip codes where mountain biking is a
popular activity. Ad networks traditionally would direct the agency to direct
purchases of ad space from websites that attract the mountain biking
audience.
This traditional environment is expensive, imprecise, and slow, in part
because of the number of people involved in the decision about where to
place ads. Also, the technology used is slow, and the process of learning
which of several ads is optimal could take weeks or months. The ads could be
targeted to a more precise group of potential customers. While context

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advertising on sites dedicated to a niche product is very effective, there are
many other websites visited by bikers that might be equally effective, and
cost much less.
The process is very different in a programmatic environment. Ad agencies
have access to any of several programmatic ad platforms offered by Google,
Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, and many smaller firms. Working with their clients,
the ad agency more precisely defines the target audience to include men and
women, ages 24–35, who live in zip codes where mountain biking is a
popular activity, have mentioned biking topics on social network sites, have e-
mail where mountain biking is discussed, make more than $70,000 a year, and
currently do not own a mountain bike. The ad agency enters a bid expressed in
dollars per thousand impressions for 200,000 impressions to people who meet
most of the characteristics being sought. The platform returns a quote for
access to this population of 200,000 people who meet the characteristics
required.
The quote is based on what other advertisers are willing to pay for that
demographic and characteristics. The quote is accepted or denied. If accepted,
the ads are shown to people as they move about the Web, in real time. As
people come on to various websites they visit, the automated program
assesses whether they meet the desired characteristics, and displays the
mountain bike ad within milliseconds to that person.
The programmatic platforms also track the responses to the ads in real time,
and can change to different ads and test for effectiveness based on the
platform’s experience. Once the system learns from experience, it will focus
on showing the most effective ads on the most productive websites.
Programmatic direct (or premium) advertising uses the same platform, but
publishers sell blocks of inventory to ad agencies rather
than single impressions. This stabilizes their income, and puts them in closer
contact with advertisers who can also exercise greater oversight over the
publishers. The auto industry is a large user of programmatic advertising.
Car brands are highly focused on specific demographic groups, income
levels, and aspirations. A programmatic campaign begins with the advertiser
picking a demographic target, establishing a total budget for the campaign,
and then choosing an RTB platform and competing for the delivery of an ad

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 to that audience against other advertisers who may be other auto companies,
retailers, or telecommunications providers. The ads are awarded and served
NOTES
automatically in millisecond-quick transactions.
Despite its clear advantages, there are also several risks involved for all
parties. Programmatic advertisers lose some control over where their ads will
appear on the Web. This is a threat to a brand if its products are shown on
inappropriate sites. Advertisers lose some accountability for their
expenditures because they cannot verify that their ads are actually being
shown, and they must take the ad platform’s word that indeed the ads are
being shown to real people. This is a transparency issue. Ghost sites and ad
fraud complicate the picture as well. There are thousands of ghost sites on the
Web that do nothing but attract clicks using various ruses. Ad networks
record this traffic and have little capability to determine if it is legitimate, and
may show ads on these sites, which will generate fraudulent clicks that are
paid for by the ad network and the advertising firm.
Given the risks, many of the largest advertisers initially did not use
programmatic advertising, but that is rapidly changing. It was first used by
publishers to sell inventory that was left over after the major ad campaigns
had purchased the premium slots on web pages. Programmatic platforms
were inexpensive places to sell excess inventory. However, that is beginning
to change as advertisers gain confidence and the platforms themselves
improve their abilities to avoid inappropriate websites, purge ghost sites, and
learn how to detect click fraud. In addition, a number of firms have stepped
into the market with tools that address these concerns.
For instance, in 2014, Procter & Gamble announced that, going forward, it
planned to buy 70%–75% of its U.S. digital media using programmatic
methods. P&G is the largest advertiser in the country, spending about $4.3
billion on advertising in the United States in 2015. In the past, P&G purchased
premium online inventory at the top 100 comScore sites through several
different ad agencies and tracked performance using its internal staff.
According to P&G’s Chief Marketing Officer Marc Pritchard, programmatic
advertising has allowed P&G to more precisely target its advertising at a
good price, reportedly producing three to five times greater return on
investment than through traditional methods. Other companies are following

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suit. Cleaning supply company Clorox devoted about 50% of its entire digital
budget to programmatic advertising in 2015.
However, some upstart web publishers aimed at the millennial demographic
are trying to buck the trend. Vox Media, Refinery29, and Mic have all rejected
programmatic advertising and will only sell advertising space directly to
advertisers. These publishers object on the ground that programmatic
advertising can degrade website functionality by slowing down how fast web
pages load in browsers while also cluttering the site with ads that will annoy
their visitors. Whether other web publishers will follow this lead remains to
be seen.
Questions
1. Pay a visit to your favorite portal and count the total ads on the opening
page.
Count how many of these ads are (a) immediately of interest and relevant to
you,
(b) sort of interesting or relevant but not now, and (c) not interesting or
relevant. Do this 10 times and calculate the percentage of the three kinds of
situations. Describe what you find and explain the results using this case.
2. Advertisers use different kinds of “profiles” in the decision to display ads
to customers. Identify the different kinds of profiles described in this case,
and explain why they are relevant to online display advertising.
3. How can display ads achieve search-engine–like results?
4. Do you think instant display ads based on your immediately prior
clickstream will be as effective as search engine marketing techniques? Why
or why not?

FURTHER READING
1. Puneet Singh Bhatia, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, 2nd Edition,
Pearson, 2020
2. Ian Dodson, The Art of Digital Marketing, 2016, John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.,
3. Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry, Digital Marketing for Dummies,
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,

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 4. Scott Anderson Miller, Inbound Marketing for Dummies, 2015, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
NOTES
5. Stephanie Diamond, Digital Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, 2019,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
6. Seema Gupta, Digital Marketing Paperback, 2017, McGraw Hill
Education
7. Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated
Approach to Online Marketing Paperback, 2nd Edition, 2019, British
Library
8. Swaminathan T.N and Karthik Kumar, Digital Marketing: From
Fundamentals to Future Paperback, 2019, Cengage Books

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MODULE X INTEGRATING DIGITAL MARKETING AND SOCIAL
MEDIA STRATEGIES

STRUCTURE
10.0. Learning Objectives
10.1. Integrating Digital and Social Media Strategies
10.2. Mobile Marketing
10.2.1. How to create a Mobile Marketing Strategy?
10.3. Viral Marketing
10.4. Inbound Marketing
10.5. Summary
10.0. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this final chapter, we will learn about integrating digital marketing and
social media strategies.
To understand the importance of mobile marketing strategies by creating
personas for each brand.
Describe viral marketing strategies, creating viral campaign, and techniques
and tools of viral marketing.
In the final section, how to create earned media and its importance. Explain
the new concept inbound marketing helps to bring organic search results?
10.1. INTEGRATING DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES

The world has become increasingly connected by technology, requiring

companies to develop marketing campaigns in multiple media channels.
Consumers are constantly plugged into their mobile and PC technology,
which has enabled companies to be wherever they are. Building and
maintaining a profitable online social and digital platform has become crucial
if you prefer to grow your business. This includes leveraging the social
networks, creating content, launching blogs, making social media profiles,
building communities around your brand, and the list goes on. If you’re a
small business owner, and you’re not sure where to begin, we are here to help
you find the right way when it comes to marketing your product or service.
What is Integrated Digital Marketing?
Integrated digital marketing puts the spotlight on the importance of a
consistent, seamless, multidimensional brand experience for the consumer.

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 This means that each branding effort is presented in a similar style that
reinforces the brand’s ultimate message.
NOTES
Take Apple computer for an example. It’s a fairly simple strategy – showcase
a modern product that has surpassed its competitors by design and
functionality, all packaged in tiny, white, minimalistic boxes. By branding
their products as elite, intuitive, and futuristic, Apple was able to charge
prices above those of their competition and dominate the market.
Consistency does not mean lack of creativity, though. Integrated marketing
doesn’t mean to only use a single palette for all marketing efforts and spam
one tagline over and over again, so you need to keep balance. The focus of
integrated digital marketing is reaching the largest number of customers in
your target audience and streamlining your messages to them across all
channels in a way that makes the most sense for them (through data
measurement and analysis).
What does a Social Media Plan Does?
A social media marketing plan is the summary of everything you plan to do
and hope to achieve for your business using social networks. It should be
comprised from audits on where you stand today, to your future goals, and
tools you’ll use to reach that goal. If you want your social media marketing
efforts to have the biggest impact, it’s super important that they’re aligned
with your overall company goals and values.
Goals and objectives guide your social media strategy to help you
successfully connect with your customers. Look closely at your company’s
overall needs and decide how you want to use social media to contribute to
reaching them.
If you’re not sure about the goals you’re supposed to reach, here are some
examples that align with your marketing efforts:
 Increasing brand awareness
 Driving more traffic to your website
 Generating new leads
 Boosting brand engagement
 Building a community
 Growing revenue
 Increasing press mentions

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  Social listening
How can I use both to my advantages?
It’s common knowledge that implementing a social media strategy requires
knowledge of your customers. When you know your target audience’s age,
occupation, income, interests, issues, obstacles, habits, and goals, then it’s
easier and cheaper to target them on social or any other media. The more
specific you are; the more conversions you’re going to get out of every
channel you use to promote your business.
The second step to having a successful strategy is to know your competition.
You can do research by yourself and get to know your competitors in the
market by searching for social networks they’re using and gathering
information about their content strategy. The most important activity to look
at is engagement. Even though page admins are the only ones who can
calculate engagement rate on a particular update, you can get a good idea of
what they’re seeing.
Many businesses create accounts on every popular social network without
researching which platform will bring the most return. You can avoid
wasting your time in the wrong place by using the information from your
buyer personas to determine which platform is best for you.
As for integrated digital marketing – you can create wonders for your online
presence. People usually make use of online channels to research about
brands, products, and services. According to Harvard Business, they would
go through an average of 6 touch points or channels before they make a
purchasing decision. That means that your business has to have a presence in
multiple channels in order to connect and engage with your targeted
customers.
Consumers also constantly look for fresh and new content. With an infinite
amount of information available each day, your customers need to get
answers and solutions that are reliable and established. By providing new
content, not only do you give your marketing campaign more chance of
connecting with potential customers, you’re also building a better rank for
your website and brand.
There are many ways in which you can induce more traffic to your website,
but there’s nothing better than original, helpful and informative content.

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 Research showed that as much as 80% of online traffic comes from natural
search engine and other organic means. According to GWM SEO experts,
NOTES
that’s because original content is valued more by Google and other search
engines.
An integrated digital marketing campaign can help you increase the
possibilities of all applicable channels, which means that better and bigger
results that you couldn’t possibly get from a single channel will be delivered.
Marketing your business nowadays can seem hard and like a daunting task,
but if planned correctly, you can also create a perfect strategy for your small
business. Here are some last tips that can kick you into gear:
 Align your social media goals to your company goals
 Break each goal into detailed tactics
 Prioritize your plan
 Assign tasks and set a time goal
 Be on the lookout the whole way through and adapt

10.2. MOBILE MARKETING

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at
reaching a target audience on their Smartphone’s, tablets, and/or other
mobile devices, via websites, email, SMS and MMS, social media, and apps.
Mobile is disrupting the way people engage with brands. Everything that can
be done on a desktop computer is now available on a mobile device. From
opening an email to visiting your website to reading your content, it's all
accessible through a small mobile screen. Consider:
 80% of internet users own a smartphone.
 Mobile platforms, such as smartphones and tablets, host up to 60% of
digital media time for users in the U.S.
 Google anticipates search queries on mobile devices to surpass
desktop searches by the end of 2015.
Effective mobile advertising means understanding your mobile audience,
designing content with mobile platforms in mind, and making strategic use of
SMS/MMS marketing and mobile apps.

10.2.1. HOW TO CREATE A MOBILE MARKETING STRATEGY?

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As with any marketing effort, every brand and organization will develop a
unique mobile strategy based on the industry and target audience. Mobile
technology is all about customization and personalization, which means
mobile marketing, is, too.
Step 1 – Create Mobile Buyer Personas.
Understanding your audience is the first step to any marketing strategy, and
buyer personas does a valuable tool to aid in that understand? Buyer
personas are simply fictional representations of your various types of
customers. Create a profile that describes each one’s background, job
description, main sources of information, goals, challenges, preferred type of
content, objections, and/or role in the purchase process. It is easier to
determine a channel and voice for your marketing messages when you have a
clear picture of your target audience.
Make a specific point to detail your target audience’s mobile habits as well.
How much of their web usage happens on mobile devices? Are they
comfortable completing a purchase on a smartphone? A simple way to start is
to research big data reports on mobile usage. Some interesting observations
include:
 65% of all email is first opened on a mobile device.
 48% of users start their mobile internet sessions on a search engine.
 56% of B2B buyers frequently use smartphones to access vendors’
content.
 95% of adults primarily use their smartphones to access
content/information.
To better understand your specific target market, monitor Google Analytics
for your site’s mobile traffic numbers. You can also ask or survey clients and
prospects about their mobile web usage.
A/B testing—which compares two versions of the same campaign on a
certain channel—can also be informative for developing any aspect of buyer
personas. When all other factors are the same, do your email campaign
landing pages get more views when you send a related email on weekends or
on weekdays? In the mornings or in the evenings? Which title or email
subject gets more click-throughs?

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 Both the general and specific data will help develop audience personas that
include mobile usage.
NOTES
Step 2 – Set Goals
The key to defining any effective strategy is to first decide what success looks
like. Get the key stakeholders together to map your mobile marketing
strategy. Identify goals by asking your team some of these questions:
 What are we currently doing for mobile? This will define your starting
point, and make sure everyone is on the same page as you begin.
 If you are already doing mobile marketing, how are those initiatives
performing? This conversation will identify what is already working,
what is not, and what’s not even being measured.
 What are your main objectives for including mobile marketing in your
overall strategy? Discuss why you’re considering mobile now, what
conversations have led up to this point and what you expect from
mobile marketing.
 Who are your key audiences for mobile marketing? Talk about your
customer personas in light of mobile usage updates. How similar or
different is each persona’s mobile usage?
 How are you engaging your mobile audience cross-channel? This
discussion will help analyze how the channels you’re currently using
can be included in your mobile marketing strategy.
Step 3 – Establish KPI’s
Just like your other marketing efforts, mobile marketing needs to be
tested and optimized. Determine which realistic, measurable KPIs
define your mobile campaign’s success. For example:
 Engagement—Provide mobile-friendly content for potential
customers who are searching for information about your industry or
product. Make sure your website is mobile-responsive to improve
mobile SEO.
 Acquisition—Make sure lead nurturing emails are mobile-friendly
with clear calls-to-action. Buttons in emails should be near the top of
the message and be big enough to easily tap in order to facilitate click-
throughs. Then make it as easy as possible for someone to fill out a
form on your mobile-optimized landing page.

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  Customer Service—In a connected, social marketplace, customer
service is very much a marketing opportunity. Allow your customers
to easily reach you through any platform they want, including simple
click-to-call buttons for smartphone users.
In order to identify the right KPIs for your mobile marketing campaign, ask
yourself:
 Do I want to increase conversions from email messages?
 Am I trying to improve traffic to sales pages?
 How important is it that I generate more qualified prospects?
 Does our brand need to improve sales by converting more traffic on
certain pages?
Step 4 – Monitor Mobile Metrics
Google Analytics can help monitor mobile usage of your site:
 Mobile behavior data reveals how well your mobile content engages
your audience.
 Mobile conversion data will indicate whether or not some of your key
landing pages still needs to be optimized for mobile browsing.
Adding the Device Category field to the Site Content dashboard will display
the quantity and quality of much mobile traffic to each individual page on
your site.
The table on the Site Content dashboard includes metrics like pageviews and
bounce rate. Add the Device Category by clicking the “Secondary dimension”
menu above the first column and selecting “Device Category” from the
“Users” submenu. The table will then display the most-viewed pages on your
site, per device, so you can see how mobile actually affects your web traffic.
That information can hint at which search queries may be leading mobile
traffic to your site, what content your mobile audience is most interested in,
and which pages to optimize for mobile browsing first.

 Mobile-Friendly Website
A mobile-friendly website is no longer an option—it’s a must. The rise in
mobile traffic coupled with Google’s mobile-friendliness ranking factor
means a brand’s site must adapt to mobile devices in order to stay
competitive.

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 For search engines, “mobile-friendliness” means that:
 Content fits on the screen without side-to-side scrolling or zooming.
NOTES
 Content loads quickly.
 Site returns no mobile-specific errors.
Google has even provided a free mobile-friendliness tool to help marketers
determine how to best improve their sites.
The most important reason to maintain a mobile-friendly site is to create a
consistent and engaging user experience. Mobile UX has a dramatic effect on
every stage of the buying cycle:
 64% of mobile web users abandon pages if they don’t load within 10
seconds.
 35% of executives could not make an intended purchase because the
website they visited wasn’t mobile-friendly.
 90% of the C-suite uses mobile devices to research business purchases.
Making sure your mobile user experience is as easy and seamless as possible
should be a primary marketing goal.

 Mobile Advertising for Email

With 57% of email opened on mobile platforms and 69% of mobile
users deleting email that isn’t optimized for mobile, it’s clear that your
audience is engaging with email campaigns on mobile devices.
Most email marketing providers will use responsive design—a strategy that
automatically formats web page content for optimal viewing on any device—
but there are still some key considerations for designing email CTAs with
mobile users in mind:
 Place the CTA early in the message (above the fold whenever
possible).
 Make buttons at least 44x44 pixels, so they are easily “tap-able.”
Email sends should optimize what is displayed in the mobile inbox— “From”
fields max out at 23 characters, and subject lines at 38 characters.
Finally, don’t forget about those landing pages. If your email is mobile
friendly, but the click-through goes to a landing page that isn’t optimized for
mobile, that visitor will likely become frustrated and bounce from the page.

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Creating a unique landing page for an email campaign is a great way to
optimize for the mobile user. A unique landing page also allows you to create
a range of metrics that will help monitor the mobile success of the campaign.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you design this unique, mobile-
friendly landing page:
 Remember that readers are using their fingers to select items. Use
pronounced image buttons and keep the layout simple.
 Keep forms minimal. The fewer fields, the better.
 Make sure your images are re-sizable for different devices.
 Verify that the page looks as good vertically as it does horizontally.

 SMS and MMS Marketing is Personal

SMS, also known as “short messaging service,” really puts into context how
personal mobile marketing can be because you are sending a message directly
to a customer or potential customer’s personal device.
SMS and MMS are very powerful channels for mobile marketing. Over 3.6
billion people are able to receive SMS messages, and 90% of those messages
are opened within three minutes (compared to 90 minutes for the average
email). Consider:
 The open rate of SMS is 98% compared to 22% for emails.
 Text messages can be 8x more effective at engaging customers.
 Almost 50% of consumers in the U.S. make direct purchases after
receiving an SMS-branded text.
It’s important to remember that marketing directly to mobile devices is more
personal than targeting an audience through other channels. When reaching
someone on a mobile device either through email, SMS, or MMS, you are
reaching that person in his/her pocket or purse. Be personal, respectful, and
clear:
 Keep the text under 160 characters.
 Don’t use slang or abbreviations.
 Offer the recipient something of value.
 Make it clear who is sending the message.
 Craft a clear call-to-action.

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 A similar way to reach your audience on mobile devices is MMS, or
multimedia message service. The difference is that MMS is a multimedia
NOTES
message that can be sent peer-to-peer, from a mobile messaging service
provider or from a website to a mobile phone. MMS messages can include
text, photos, videos, audios, or GIFs. Expanded media options allow for a
more branded message and create a better tie-in to other marketing
campaigns.

 Why should you use MMS marketing to reach your mobile audience?
 MMS texts have a higher customer engagement with a 15% average
CTR (click-through-rate).
 MMS increases campaign opt-ins by 20% over SMS.
 Subscribers are eight times more likely to share MMS content on social
networks.
Because MMS offers a richer media experience than simple SMS messaging,
you should make the most of those extra media options:
 Include engaging visuals.
 Tie the MMS send to a multi-channel marketing campaign.
 Make the message easily shareable via social media buttons.
It’s important to take privacy regulations into consideration with SMS and
MMS marketing. Because these messages are considered automated calls,
they fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991. That
means there are three privacy principles that should govern how you
implement SMS and MMS into your marketing:
1. Adequate notice—you should inform consumers that they will be
receiving SMS messages from a concrete short code-based program.
2. Opt-in consent—You must get opt-in confirmation before sending
marketing SMS and MMS messages. Online forms to enter your SMS
or MMS program requires a double opt-in.
3. Opting out—It should be very clear how someone can opt out of your
program.
SMS and MMS are very personal, and thus very powerful, mobile marketing
options. Make sure to handle them with tact and detailed strategy.

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  Adding Mobile Apps to the Mix
Mobile apps can support many business goals, including extending your
product, driving engagement, and even supporting e-commerce. To
maximize an app’s impact on your marketing, you will want to be involved
in the entire process, from app development through implementation.
Just like any other marketing channel, it’s important to consider how the app
can be used for acquisition. You may offer extra features or more mobile
content in exchange for a user’s contact information, similar to how you
would gate content on your website for the same purpose. You will also want
to make sure the app encourages user engagement in order to build
relationships and loyalty, and—of course—drive conversions.
Those conversations are driven by two types of messages: push notifications
and in-app notifications.
 Push Notifications
Push notifications are messages or alerts delivered by your app to the user.
These messages appear on the home screen of a user’s mobile device
regardless of whether the user is engaged with the app or even has it open.
For a push notification to work, the user needs to have already downloaded
your app and agreed to allow push notifications. Luckily, 70% of mobile users
allow push notifications.
Examples of push notifications include:
 Reminders
 Promotional messages
 Calls-to-action for specific events or goals
 Messages that are highly personalized based on user profiles

 In-App Notifications
In-app communications direct your user’s attention to specific actions,
messages, and features within the app, and are opportunities for you to
engage your users. These messages give you the chance to be more personal
and creative than with SMS or push notifications, because the user is already
in your app and you aren’t limited by space constraints or message volume
issues.
Here are three ways you can take advantage of in-app notifications:

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  Introduce new app features to your users.
 Send messages to promote engagement with specific content pieces.
NOTES
 Drive conversions by delivering targeted CTAs at specific levels of
engagement.
Both push and in-app notifications can be powerful ways to reach your
audience, particularly because they’ve already taken the time to engage with
your brand by downloading your app.

 Putting It All Together

A mobile marketing strategy is not a stand-alone effort, but it is a large
chunk of any long-term or short-term marketing campaign—and its
importance is only growing. From email, to PPC, to SEO, to content, to social
media marketing, there is a mobile marketing channel to reach every part of
your audience where they are most comfortable.
Optimizing your website and email sends for mobile devices, taking
advantage of the SMS and MMS channels, and building a native app for your
most highly engaged audience are all big projects. So, start by updating
your buyer personas to get a better idea of where the majority of your
target audience spends its mobile time. That will give you your start
line, and the rest will fall into a logical order.
Mobile technology is not a fad that’s going away any time soon. Optimizing
your marketing strategy for mobile will give your brand an edge over the
competition. Don’t wait—go mobile today!

10.3. VIRAL MARKETING

What is viral marketing? How to get the brand-boosting bug?
Viral marketing is one of those terms that almost everyone has heard of, like
SEO or influencer advertising. However, few people know what ‘going viral’
actually means. Much like a virus, a viral campaign is something that spreads
fast and affects a lot of people. Viral marketing can come in the form of viral
content, videos, email marketing strategies or social media posts. The idea is
that no matter which channel you use, your promotional plan takes on a life
of its own, spurred by influencer mentions and word of mouth.

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For most companies, a viral marketing strategy is a dream comes true. After
all, campaigns that go viral take a lot of the stress of finding and engaging an
audience off the shoulders of your marketing team. If the video or social
media campaign you publish is naturally infectious, then you don’t have to
worry about investing endless time and money into it to make it work.
The only problem? Viral marketing strategies are inherently unpredictable.
There’s no guarantee that your promotional practices will ‘go viral’. Even
with a viral marketing company by your side, you need to understand how
your audience consumes and shares content to increase your chances of
success.
Today, we’re going to give you the ultimate viral marketing definition, along
with the tips you need to create successful viral campaigns.
Definition of viral marketing
The term ‘viral marketing’ was a term coined by Harvard Business School
graduate Tim Draper. The phrase refers to how marketing campaigns can be
so relevant and engaging that people can’t help but share them or talk about
them with their friends.
To define viral marketing for your company, all you need to do is finding or
create material that’s so compelling; it demands to be shared. Once you’ve
got the right content, you provide your followers with the tools they need to
help your message spread like a virus, such as social sharing buttons or
referral links.
Depending on your brand’s identity, and the promotional plans that resonate
best with your audience, your viral marketing techniques may include: Video
clips, Podcasts, Email marketing campaigns, Social media, Newsletters,
eBooks, Blogs and Guides.
Of course, while the idea of creating ‘infectious’ content is simple enough,
anyone who has attempted a viral campaign in the past will know how
complicated it is. Even with a comprehensive marketing plan, most
campaigns go viral by accident, making it difficult to plan for success.
However, if with the help of viral marketing services, you can create a
strategy that works, the benefits of viral marketing techniques speak for
themselves:

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 Brand awareness: Viral marketing strategies generate a buzz for your
company. The more people talk about your business, the more you create
NOTES
awareness among markets that may not have heard of you before.
Greater credibility: As more people continue to talk about and recommend
your brand, new customers begin to trust you, and the services or products
you have to offer. Your credibility grows even more if influencers are affected
by the virality of your campaigns.
Strong ROI: As a form of word of mouth marketing, viral marketing ideas
require very little investment, but have a massive return in value. Even if
you’re working with a viral marketing agency, the ROI should be
phenomenal.
Create brand loyalty: Successful viral campaigns are often highly emotional.
Often, these emotional campaigns are excellent at building deep, lasting
connections with your target audience. A viral campaign might start by
raising awareness, but eventually, develop loyalty among your new
followers.

How to create a viral marketing campaign: The key principles?

As you work on finding your viral marketing definition, you’ll quickly
discover that it’s all about focusing on the customer. If you don’t understand
your audience, then there’s no way that you’ll be able to create the kind of
content that compels people to share.
Successful viral campaigns depend on your company’s understanding of:
Why your audience shares content?
What kind of material they’re most likely to share?
How you can create content that engages your target market?
While viral marketing companies can help with giving you the clarity you
need, you can also work on building your knowledge of the fundamental
principles in viral marketing yourself, such as:
Viral promotion principle 1 - Originality and value
Research suggests that people share content for various reasons. One
common idea is that your consumers will share the content that they find
helpful because they want to give that value to others. If your videos or blogs

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provide your customers with something useful, like the answer to a common
problem, then they’re more likely to be shared.
However, it’s essential to ensure that the value you’re offering is unique and
original too. Even valuable ideas lose their worth when your customers have
already seen or heard them before. Make sure that you’re either looking at a
new idea or exploring an old concept from a novel angle.
Viral Promotion Principle 2 – Emotion
Emotional impact is another reason why people share content. If you see
something that makes you feel something – even if it’s a negative emotion,
you’re far more likely to discuss that thing with your friends, loved ones, and
even strangers.
Experts say that both positive and negative emotions can receive an equal
amount of attention. Just look at the impact that the #PuppyMonkeyBaby
campaign had (below). The key is to make sure that you’re generating the
right emotions to suit your brand. After all, your viral marketing techniques
need to support any existing promotional campaigns or brand building
strategies you have in place.
Viral promotion principle 3 - Shareability
Finally, a lot of people like the content that they see, but they don’t feel the
need to share it. The best viral marketing examples work because of a potent
combination of emotional arousal, and an external trigger, such as a call to
action that invites someone to share.
Ultimately, it’s crucial to remind your audience that they can share their
thoughts and feelings instantly with their network in today’s digital world.
You can do this by:
 Asking questions that get people talking. 

 Using a branded #hashtag to spark discussions (and track them). 

 Reminding customers to share content on social media or providing social

media buttons.
Make it as easy and exciting as possible for people to start talking about your
campaigns, and the impact of your viral marketing techniques is sure to
increase.
What is viral marketing? Viral marketing strategies

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 Now that you know the answer to “what is viral marketing?” it’s time to dive
a little deeper with our viral marketing definition and look at the strategies
NOTES
you can use to bring your campaign to life.
Viral promotion is straightforward enough on the surface. All you need to do
is create a video, email campaign, blog, or social strategy that appeals to your
target audience, and promote the heck out of it. From that point, it’s a matter
of waiting for the fuse to light and the plan to explode.
While there’s no concrete guide for the best viral marketing strategy, most
plans will include the following things:
1. Research
The first step in any good viral marketing strategy involves finding out what
kind of content resonates best with your consumers. Use your Google
analytics spreadsheets to determine which of your blogs, videos, and
podcasts have gathered the most traction up to now. If you’re starting from
scratch and don’t have a lot of information about your user personas, you
can look at the #trending topics on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for
inspiration.
The idea is to learn as much as you can about the content that your customers
love and the topics they’re currently talking about. It’s much easier to come
up with viral marketing ideas when you’re piggybacking on a pre-existing
trend in the marketplace.
2. Choose Goal and Message
All great promotional strategies start with a goal. Importantly, your target for
your viral marketing techniques shouldn’t just be to get as much attention as
possible. You’ll also need to share some specific information with your
audience, reach a new marketplace, or generate engagement too.
Thinking carefully about the message you want to send when you define
viral marketing helps you to avoid dangerous mistakes. For instance, in 2016,
Mountain Dew launched their freakish #PuppyMonkeyBaby campaign with
the desire to get people talking. The monkey-puppy-baby hybrid the brand
created got people talking, with about 100,000 hashtag mentions, but more
than half of the comments were negative. Make sure that people will be
talking about you for the right reasons.
3. Find the right type of content

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Once you understand your target market, what kind of content they’re
talking about, and what sort of message you want to send, it’s time to begin
designing content with emotional resonance.
The question “what is viral marketing” can have many answers at this point,
because there are so many different channels available to explore. For
instance, if you’re connecting with a younger audience that prefers visual
content, you might focus your campaign on Instagram and video content.
Alternatively, if you want to raise awareness for your brand’s authority in a
certain space, you might use an article and case study. Look at your target
market carefully and decide which channel will speak best to them. Options
include: Email Social Media, Video, Podcasts, Articles/blogs, case studies.

Viral Marketing Tips and Techniques

So, what’s the secret to creating a viral campaign? It’s challenging to predict
which campaigns are going to go viral, and which will struggle. For most
companies, it’s all about making the right connections with the correct
people, at the perfect time. All the elements need to align just right to make
your campaign a smashing success. That being said, there are things you can
do to improve your chances of incredible results. Here are just some of our
best viral marketing tips.
1. Make it Visual
Viral promotion is all about making emotional connections. Though the right
words and phrases can help build those all-important brand connections,
human beings naturally respond better to images than we do to text. People
follow visual instructions around 323% better than written guides.
Even if you’ve chosen an eBook or article to take viral, make sure that you
have compelling images stitched throughout the content. Ideally, you’ll need
to stay away from standard stock images here. While the pictures might not
be the main focus of your viral content, they still need to be share-worthy.
2. Be Provocative
As mentioned above, it’s important to understand your brand identity and
the image you’re trying to create when you’re investing in viral marketing
techniques. One of the main reasons for this is that you need to be bold with
your campaigns. Viral marketing isn’t about trying to please everyone at

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 once. You need to provoke strong reactions from your viewer or reader, and
that often means taking a stance.
NOTES
Bring your team together and make sure that everyone is clear on the values
and mission of your brand before you begin looking into other viral
marketing tips. While your provocative campaign may spur some negative
backlash, proper research into your target market should ensure that most of
the responses are positive.
3. Don’t Overcomplicate It
Like any marketing strategy, viral campaigns need to give your audience
something to take away from their experience. For instance, a comedic
campaign could help you to appeal to a younger audience or get rid of a
negative stigma.
When you’re planning your viral marketing ideas, make sure the message or
‘goal’ you choose is as simple as possible. Remember that the idea is to create
something that’s easy to consume, and even easier to share. Get to the point
quickly and try not to pursue any overly complicated ideas.
4. Don’t Push Too Hard
Finally, there’s only so much you can do with viral promotion. Your role is to
create compelling, valuable content that your audience wants to share and
give them the means they need to talk about it. Beyond that, viral content
can’t be forced.
The most unusual things can become viral sensations overnight – particularly
in this era of memes and social media. If your campaign doesn’t grow
naturally, then you may need to go back to the drawing board and start
again. The good news is that the more you work on your viral marketing
techniques, the better your campaigns will become.

10.4. INBOUND MARKETING

Inbound marketing is a marketing methodology that is designed to draw
visitors and potential customers in, rather than outwardly pushing a brand,
product or service onto prospects in the hope of lead generation or customers.
In terms of digital marketing, this means using a combination of marketing
channels – most commonly content marketing, search engine optimization
(SEO), and social media – in creative ways to attract people’s attention. The

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aim of a successful inbound marketing campaign is to increase reach and
drive quality traffic, engagement and conversions using ‘earned’ and ‘owned’
media.
Inbound marketing software provider HubSpot coined the phrase ‘inbound
marketing’ back in 2006. HubSpot defines inbound marketing as the process
of attracting, converting, closing and delighting customers. Through using
various types of content at different stages of the buying cycle, the ‘inbound
methodology’ is “the best way to turn strangers into customers and promoters of
your business.”
Inbound Marketing Vs Outbound Marketing
The clue to understanding the differences between inbound and outbound
marketing is in the name. Inbound marketing focuses on drawing potential
customers in, while outbound marketing is about outwardly pushing a
business’s offering. Inbound marketing is about earning attention, while
outbound typically involves buying it.
Inbound Marketing: Owned and Earned Media
Inbound marketing uses owned and earned media to engage potential
customers in creative ways.
 Owned media are those channels that a business has control over. For
example, your website, blog, brand social media profiles, product
landing pages and YouTube channel. You choose what to publish,
how to publish it, and when.
 Earned media is the coverage you earn as a result of your hard work.
Offline, this includes traditional coverage in newspapers and
magazines. Online, it’s things such as coverage on news sites often
gained through digital PR, but also mentions on social media, use of a
campaign hashtag, conversations in online forums, and online
reviews. You have less control over earned media, but it should be a
reward for the work you’ve put into your inbound marketing
campaign.
Outbound Marketing: Paid Media
On the other hand, outbound marketing is more readily associated with paid
media. This could be traditional offline advertising, PPC and display
advertising, or paid emails.

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 Paid media also encompasses social media advertising, for example Facebook
advertising or Twitter promoted posts.
NOTES
Although typically associated with outbound marketing, it’s worth noting
that social media advertising is often an effective way to boost the
performance of inbound marketing campaigns. Advertising on Facebook, for
example, allows you to promote your content and campaign to your target
audience, no matter how niche it might be.
Benefits of Inbound Marketing
 Reach the right audience in the right place to generate quality traffic
By focusing your inbound marketing strategy on reaching the right audiences
in the right places, you can attract your target customers in order to meet
your digital marketing objectives. This is instead of spending money
attracting traffic from people who are unlikely to ever convert.
 Increase trust
Inbound marketing is all about giving potential customers the information
they are looking for – even if they don’t know it – in a creative and engaging
way. It’s not about pushing unwanted sales at every opportunity. By using
inbound marketing as a way to present your brand as a useful and reliable
resource, the hope is they’ll come to you when the time to purchase does
arise.
 Protect from over-reliance on one channel
By pursuing quality traffic from a variety of sources – organic search, social
media referrals, referrals from other websites talking about your amazing
work – you reduce the reliance on one channel alone, and therefore the
associated risk.
 Measurement
Measuring the impact of inbound marketing in a way that demonstrates
understandable ROI has always been a tricky one. The key is to be clear from
the beginning.
It may be that you can’t track the number of leads generated as a direct result
of your campaign, but you can track how many downloads your resource has
had, the average duration people watched your video for, how many new
social media followers you gained, etc.

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When you’re planning your campaign, be clear about what it is you’re trying
to achieve and measure that appropriately and honestly. That way,
everyone’s expectations are set – and therefore, are more likely to be met.
 Long-term strategy
Successful inbound marketing campaigns don’t happen overnight. They take
time to plan, implement and refine. It can be labor-intensive too – you might
need content creators, designers, developers, outreach specialists, social
media marketers and a campaign manager to even get the thing off the
ground. That said, if you put your time and effort into the right evergreen
campaign, you should have something that continues to provide value for the
foreseeable future.
Examples of Inbound Marketing
 Content hubs offering how-to video guides, blogs, case studies,
webinars, white papers and related product information
 User-generated content and social media marketing campaigns, such
as photography competitions or review collation
 Interactive online content pieces created in partnership with related
business to increase digital PR and promotional opportunities
 Creating quality content for your target audience via blogging on
your company blog.
The Importance of Analysis and Refinement
If there’s one thing you remember about inbound marketing, it’s the
importance of tracking performance and refining your approach accordingly.
This is where testing comes in too – discover what messaging, types of
valuable content, imagery, calls to action etc. work best for your target
audience and ensure you implement these on a permanent basis, or in your
next campaign.

10.5. SUMMARY

In this final chapter, we began with an understanding of integrating digital

marketing and social media strategies. We then understood the importance of
mobile marketing strategies by creating personas for each brand.
Further, we discussed the strategies of viral marketing along with creating a
viral campaign and learnt about tools and techniques of viral marketing.

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 Finally, we learnt about creating an earned media and how it helps the brand
to grow organically (unpaid) using the concept inbound marketing.
NOTES

QUESTIONS
1. What is integrated digital marketing?
2. What does a social media plan do?
3. How can you use both digital marketing and social media to my
advantages?
4. How to create mobile marketing strategy?
5. How should you use MMS marketing to reach mobile audience?
6. What is viral marketing and what are its benefits?
7. Describe the fundamental principles of viral marketing.
8. Explain the best viral marketing strategies.
9. Difference between Inbound and Outbound marketing.
10. What are the benefits of Inbound marketing?

CASE STUDY 10.1: Diamond Candles

Diamond Candles launched in 2011 to offer scented, soy-based candles with a
twist: each one has a ring at the bottom. The excitement of claiming the
prize, worth from $10 to $5,000, helped the company grow. The company's
marketing strategy is largely based on ad-free social media marketing and
word-of-mouth, said Justin Winter, Co-Founder and CEO, Diamond Candles.

According to Winter, the average Diamond Candles customer tells three

people about the brand. Even if they have never heard of the company before,
he said, those customers will actually end up making a purchase. Customer-
contributed photos are a central part of the company's marketing. Adding
them to product pages increased conversion rates by about 13%. They also
helped the company attract a jaw-dropping 293,000 Facebook fans since 2011
without using ads. Last Update: 969,661 Facebook fans as of October 7, 2017.
Questions:
1. If you are Winter, what would be your social media marketing tactics
to grow Diamond Candles?

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 2. How do you strategically integrate social media into digital marketing
to push results even better?

FURTHER READING
1. Scott Anderson Miller, Inbound Marketing for Dummies, 2015, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
2. Puneet Singh Bhatia, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, 2 nd Edition,
Pearson, 2020
3. Ian Dodson, The Art of Digital Marketing, 2016, John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.,
4. Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry, Digital Marketing for Dummies,
2017, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
5. Seema Gupta, Digital Marketing Paperback, 2017, McGraw Hill
Education
6. Jennifer Grappone, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
Paperback, 2011, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,
7. Simon Kingsnorth, Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated
Approach to Online Marketing Paperback, 2 nd Edition, 2019, British
Library

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