Chapter 3:

Marketing communications
using digital media channels

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Chapter 9 Marketing Communications using
digital media channels
Main Topics:
• Search engine marketing
• Online public relations and influencer relationship
management
• Online partnerships including affiliate marketing
• Interactive display advertising
• Opt-in email marketing and mobile messaging
• Social media and viral marketing
• Offline promotion techniques

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 Introduction
➢Digital media channel: Online communications technique such as
search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and display advertising
used to engage web users on third-party sites, encourage them to visit
an organisation’s site or purchase through traditional channels such
as by phone or in store.

➢Digital marketing managers use many

different digital media channels, such as
affiliate, email, and search engine marketing,
to attract visitors to their websites.

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 Introduction
➢Traditional communications disciplines such as advertising
remain important in generating awareness and favourability
about brands and in encouraging visits to a business’s online
presence.
➢Choosing the most cost-effective digital communications
techniques and refining them to attract visitors and new
customers is now a major marketing activity, for both online
and multichannel businesses.

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 Search engine marketing
➢Search engine marketing (SEM): Promoting an organisation through
search engines to meet its objectives by delivering relevant content in the
search listings for searchers and encouraging them to click through to a
destination site.
➢Search engine marketing is a key technique for generating quality visitors to
a website.
➢We all now naturally turn to a search engine when we are seeking a new
product, service or entertainment.
➢Navigational (or brand) search Searchers use a search engine such as
Google to find information deeper within a company site by appending a
qualifier such as a product name to the brand or site name.
➢Organisations need to check that relevant pages are available in the search
results pages for these situations.

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➢Search engine results pages (SERPS):
The page(s) containing the results after a user
types a key phrase into a search engine.
SERPS contain both natural or organic listings
and paid or sponsored listings.
➢Natural or organic listings: The pages
listing results from a search engine query,
which are displayed in a sequence according
to relevance of match between the keyword
phrase typed into a search engine and a web
page according to a ranking algorithm used by
the search engine.
➢Universal search: The natural listings incorporate other relevant results
from vertical searches related to a query, such as video, books, news, real-
time social media recommendations, site links and images.

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➢There are two main types of SEM that are quite distinct in the marketing
activities needed to manage them
1. Search engine optimisation (SEO) A structured approach used to
increase the position of a company or its products in search engine natural
or organic results listings for selected keywords or phrases.
2. Paid search (pay-per-click) marketing (PPC) A relevant text ad with a
link to a company page is displayed on the SERPs when the user of a
search engine types in a specific phrase. A fee is charged for every click
of each link, with the amount bid for the click mainly determining its
position. PPC may involve advertising through a display network of third-
party sites.
➢Although many searchers prefer to click on the natural listings, a sufficient
number do click on the paid listings such that they are highly profitable for
companies such as Google, and a well-designed paid-search campaign can
drive a significant amount of business for companies.

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Figure 9.3 Popularity of different Google Search features for a
selection of 10,000 keywords

Source: MozCast (http://mozcast.com/features)

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 What is SEO
➢Improving positions in the natural listings is dependent on
marketers understanding the process whereby search engines
compile an index by sending out spiders or robots to crawl around
sites that are registered with that search engine
➢Robots or spiders: Spiders are software processes, technically
known as robots, employed by search engines to index web pages
of registered sites on a regular basis. They follow or crawl links
between pages and record the reference URL of a page for future
analysis.

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Search engine ranking factors
➢Google has stated that it uses more than 200 factors or signals
within its search ranking algorithms.
➢These include positive ranking factors that help boost position,
and negative factors or filters that are used to remove search
engine spam from the index where SEO companies have used
unethical approaches such as automatically creat-ing links to
mislead the Google algorithms.
➢The importance of ranking factors are much disputed by SEOs,
since with so many factors it is difficult to isolate their impact to
prove a correlation or, more importantly, a causative relationship
between.

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➢At a top level, the two most important factors for good ranking
positions in all the main search engines are:
1. Matching between web page copy and the key phrases searched.
2. Links into the page (inbound or backlinks): Google counts each
link to a page from another page or another site as a vote for
this page. So pages and sites with more external links from
other sites will be ranked more highly.
➢Backlink: Hyperlink that links to a particular web page (or
website). Also known as an inbound link.

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Paid search marketing
Although SEO has proved a popular form of digital
marketing, paid search marketing is still of great relevance
since it gives much more control on the appearance in the
listings, subject to the amount bid and the relevance of the
ad.

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 What is paid search marketing
Retailers have an
additional option for paid
search known as Product
Listing Ads (PLAs),
which are ads showing
product images and prices
that you may have seen
when searching for retail
products.

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Paid search content network
➢Paid listings are also available through the display network of the
search engines such as Google AdSense and Yahoo! Content
Match.
➢These contextual ads are automatically dis-played according to
the page content.
➢They can be paid for on a CPC or CPM basis and include not
only text ads but also options for graphical display ads or video
ads.

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 What controls position in paid
search
➢In early pay-per-click programs, the relative ranking of sponsored listings
was simply based on the highest bided cost-per-click (CPC) for each
keyword phrase.
➢Since only a small proportion of visitors to a site clicking from the ad
will convert, it is difficult to generate a positive return-on-investment for
these generic terms.
➢Contrary to what many web users may believe, today it is not necessarily
the company that is prepared to pay the most per click that will get top
spot.
➢The search engines also take the relative click-through rates of the ads
dependent on their position into account when ranking the sponsored
links, so ads that do not appear relevant, because fewer people are clicking
on them, will drop down or may even disappear of the listing.

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Online public relations & influencer
relationship management
➢Public relations (PR) The management of the awareness,
understanding and reputation of an organisation or brand,
primarily achieved through influencing exposure in the media.
➢Digital media have become a very important element of public
relations (PR) and the Internet has influenced PR practices.
➢Online PR is relevant for businesses and relatively cost-effective
and so appeals to small businesses and start-ups who can
potentially make a big impact with online PR, coupled with
content marketing if they harness it effectively

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➢From a practical marketing communications and traffic building
perspective, the main PR activities are media relations or managing
influencer outreach with different types of online influencers or Key
Opinion Leaders (KOLs), which can be used to reach and influence
potential customers.
➢Online influencers or Key Opinion Leaders Online influencers can
include any type of person who publishes online who has a significant
following. They can include journalists, bloggers or celebrities.
➢Online public relations (e-PR) Maximising favourable mentions of
your company, brands, products or websites on third-party websites that
are likely to be visited by your target audience. Online PR can extend
reach and awareness of a brand within an audience and will also generate
backlinks vital to SEO. It can also be used to support viral or word-of-
mouth marketing activities in other media.

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➢The main element of online PR is maximising favourable mentions of an
organisation, its brands, products or websites on third-party websites that
are likely to be visited by its target audience.
➢Online influencer outreach Identifying online influencers such as
bloggers, media owners or individuals with a large online following in the
social networks and then approaching them to partner together to
communicate with their audience.
➢Minimising unfavourable mentions, for example monitoring and
influencing conversations in blogs and social networks through online
reputation management, is also an aspect of online PR.
➢Influencer relationship management (IRM) A structured process to
continuously manage and measure influencer outreach as a programme of
campaigns based on content-assets and ‘always-on’ activities against
defined goals. Today, online PR and influencer outreach are often managed
as a continuous, year-round process.

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 Differences between online PR
and traditional PR
➢For a marketer the main differences are:
1. Less easy to control.
2. More options to create their own stories.
3. Need for faster response.
4. Opportunities for proactive real-time campaigns.
5. Easier to monitor.

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Online partnerships including
affiliate marketing
➢Resources must be devoted to managing your online partners. Many
large organisations have specific staff to manage these relationships.
➢In smaller organisations partnership management is often neglected,
which is a missed opportunity.
➢There are three key types of online partnerships that need to be
managed:
1. Affiliate marketing.
2. Online sponsorship.
3. Co-marketing and influencer outreach.

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 Affiliate marketing
➢Affiliate marketing A commission-
based arrangement where referring sites
(publishers) receive a commission on
sales or leads by merchants (retailers or
other transactional sites).
➢Commission is usually based on a
percentage of product sale price or a fixed
amount for each sale, but may also
sometimes be based on a per-click basis.

➢There is no doubt that affiliates can generate more sales at a controlled cost,
the question is whether these sales would have occurred anyway if a brand is
well known.

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What is affiliate marketing
➢Affiliate marketing is the ultimate form of marketing communications
since it is what is known as a ‘pay-per-performance marketing’ method
and it’s a commission-based arrangement where the merchant only pays
when they make the sale or get a lead.
➢It’s not so suitable though for business products or lower-priced
consumer products since it will not sufficiently profitable for the
affiliates, and it may be difficult to recruit sufficient affiliates.
➢Increasingly, affiliate marketing is known as Performance Marketing
(PM), so it is a broader term including other online paid media such as
display advertising and biddable media including pay-per-click and
programmatic advertising.

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Figure 9.9 The affiliate marketing model (note that the tracking
software and fee payment may be managed through an
independent affiliate network manager)

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Online Sponsorship
➢Online sponsorship is not straightforward. It’s not just a case of
mirroring existing ‘real-world’ sponsorship arrangements in the ‘virtual
world’, although this is a valid option.
➢There are many additional opportunities for sponsorship online that can
be sought out, even if you don’t have a big budget at your disposal.
➢For the advertiser, online sponsorship has the benefit that their name is
associated with an online brand that the site visitor is already familiar
with. So, sponsorship builds on this existing relationship and trust.
➢Co-branding is a lower-cost method of sponsorship and can exploit
synergies between different companies.

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 Co-branding
➢Co-branding an arrangement between two or more companies that agree
to jointly display content and perform joint promotion using brand logos,
email marketing or banner advertisements.
➢The aim is that the brands are strengthened if they are seen as
complementary.
➢Co-branding is often a reciprocal arrangement, which can occur without
payment as part of a wider agreement between partners.

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Co-branding & contra-deals
➢Contra-deals A reciprocal agreement in the form of an exchange where
payment doesn’t take place. Instead services or ad space to promote
another company as part of co-branding occurs.
➢These contra-deals typically occur where there is an association
between two brands, and they are complementary but not competitive.

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Interactive display advertising
➢Display advertising Display ads are paid ad placements using
graphical or rich media ad units within a web page to achieve goals of
delivering brand awareness, familiarity, favourability and purchase
intent.
➢Many ads encourage interaction through prompting the viewer to
interact or rollover to play videos, complete an online form or to view
more details by clicking through to a site.
➢Ad serving The term for displaying an advertisement on a website.
Often the advertisement will be served from a web server different from
the site on which it is placed.
➢Display advertising is still colloquially known as banner advertising.

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Purchasing ad placements
➢When media is purchased, it is either
purchased on a specific site such as
The Times or New York Times, or it is
purchased across several sites, which
are known as an ad network.
➢Traditionally, the most common
payment is according to the number
of customers who view the page as a
cost-per-thousand (CPM) ad or page
impressions.

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Opt-in email marketing
Email marketing
➢When devising plans for email marketing communications, marketers
need to plan for:
1. Outbound email marketing: Emails are sent to customers and
prospects from an organisation, where email campaigns are used as
a form of direct marketing to encourage trial and purchases and as
part of a CRM dialogue
2. Inbound email marketing, Management of emails from customers
by an organisation, such as service enquiries

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Opt-in email options for
customer acquisition
➢For acquiring new visitors and customers to a site, there are three main
options for email marketing. From the point of view of the recipient, these
are:
1. Cold email campaign List rental is not practical today under privacy
laws since permission hasn’t been sought. Instead, co-branded emails
are used.
2. Co-branded email. Here, the recipient receives an email with an offer
from a company they have an affinity with and from whom they have
agreed to receive ads.
3. Third-party e-newsletter. In this visitor acquisition option, a company
publicises itself in a third-party e-newsletter. This could be in the form
of an ad, sponsorship or PR in a publisher newsletter.

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Opt-in email options for
prospect conversion
➢Email is most widely used as a prospect conversion and customer
retention tool using an opt-in house list of prospects and customers who
have given permission to an organisation to contact them.
➢Successful email marketers adopt a strategic approach to email and
develop a contact or touch strategy that plans the frequency and content
of email communications.

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Some options for in-house email marketing include:
1. Conversion email. Someone visits a website and expresses interest in a
product or service by registering and providing their email address.
Automated follow-up emails can be sent out. Similarly, retailers will
follow-up with ‘abandoned basket’ emails.
2. Regular e-newsletter type. These are commonly used to update
consumers on the latest products or promotions, or business customers
on developments within a market.
3. House-list campaign. These are periodic emails to support different
objectives such as encouraging trial of a service or newly launched
product, repeat purchases or reactivation of customers who no longer use
a service.
4. Event-triggered or behavioural emails and sequences. The marketing
automation services send out a series of emails, with the interval between
emails and messages determined by the marketer. Examples include
welcome or reactivation sequences.
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Social media & Viral marketing
➢Social media marketing Monitoring and facilitating customer
interaction and participation throughout the web to encourage positive
engagement with a company and its brands. Interactions may occur on a
company site, social networks and other third-party sites.
➢Social media marketing is an important category of digital marketing
that involves encouraging customer communications.
➢It can be applied as a traditional broadcast medium, However, to take
advantage of the benefits of social media it is important to start to
participate in customer conversations.
➢These can be related to products, promotions or customer service and
are aimed at learning more about customers and providing support, thus
improving the way a brand is perceived.

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Viral marketing
➢Viral marketing Online viral marketing, or buzz marketing, is a form
of electronic word-of-mouth marketing. Brands and promotions are
discussed and awareness of them transmitted in two main forms, either as
pass-along email or discussion in a social network.
➢Social media marketing is closely related to viral marketing since social
media naturally involves ‘social media amplification’, where content is
shared.
➢Viral marketing is a specific approach that involves harnessing the
network effect of the Internet and can be effective in reaching a large
number of people rapidly as a marketing message is quickly transmitted
to many people in the same way as a natural virus or a computer virus.
➢When planning integrated campaigns, it is important to note that the
online viral affect can be amplified through offline media mentions or
advertising either on TV and radio or in print.

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WOM
➢Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing According to the Word-of-Mouth
Marketing Association (WOMMA) it is giving people a reason to talk about
your products and services and making it easier for that conversation to take
place. It is the art and science of building active, mutually beneficial
consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications.
➢It is an established concept closely related to viral marketing, but broader in
context.
➢In an online context, word-of-mouth marketing is important since there is
great potential for facilitating electronic word of mouth.
➢It is very important for online marketers to under-stand how WOM can be
generated and influenced since research, shows that recommendations from
friends, family or even other online consumers are trusted and are a major
consideration in product and supplier selection.

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➢WOMMA explain that all word-of-mouth marketing techniques are
based on the concepts of customer satisfaction, two-way dialogue and
transparent communications.
➢The basic elements are:
▪Educating people about your products and services;
▪Identifying people most likely to share their opinions;
▪Providing tools that make it easier to share information;
▪Studying how, where and when opinions are being shared;
▪Listening and responding to supporters, detractors and neutrals.

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 WOMMA identifies different approaches for facilitating WOM. The ones that are most
relevant to online marketing are:
1. Buzz marketing. Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about
your brand.
2. Viral marketing. Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be
passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.
3. Community marketing. Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share
interests about the brand and providing tools, content and information to support them.
4. Influencer marketing. Identifying key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to
talk about products and have the ability to influence the opinions of others.
5. Conversation creation. Interesting or fun advertising, emails, catchphrases,
entertainment or promotions designed to start word-of-mouth activity.
6. Brand blogging. Creating blogs and participating in the blogosphere, in the spirit of
open, transparent communications.
7. Referral programmes. Creating tools that enable satisfied customers to refer their
friends.

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Offline promotion techniques
➢The importance of offline communications in driving visitors to a
website is well known by site owners, who find that greater levels of
investment in offline advertising using TV, print or radio results in a
greater number of direct visitors to websites.
➢Multi-screening enhances this effect, since simultaneous use of devices
such as TV, smartphone and tablet is so common.
➢If someone sees an ad on TV, they can easily search via their mobile
device for a brand or the category.
➢The influence of TV can be tracked by web analytics, which shows an
increase in searches containing the brand or campaign name or the web
address, or direct visitors who enter the site URL into the address bar.

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➢Research has identified that there is a clear correlation between
investment in offline advertising and visits to a website.
➢Online website promotion techniques such as search engine marketing
and banner advertising often take prominence when discussing methods
of traffic building, But we start with using offline communications to
generate site visitors since it is one of the most effective techniques to
generate site traffic and the characteristics of offline media are such that
they often have a higher impact and are more creative, which can help
explain the online value proposition.
➢Offline promotion refers to using communications tools such as
advertising and PR delivered by traditional media such as TV, radio and
print in order to direct visitors to an online presence.

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➢Despite the range of opportunities for using new online communications
tools, traditional communications using offline media such as TV, print and
direct mail and others remain a significant form of investment in marketing
communications for most.
➢Even organisations that transact a large proportion of their business online
continue to invest heavily in offline communications.
➢When the web analytics data about referring visitors are assessed, for
most companies that are not online-only businesses we find that over half
the visitors are typically marked as ‘No referrer’.
➢This means that they visited the site direct by typing the web address into
the address bar in response to awareness of the brand generated through
real-world communications.

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 Online promotion techniques

Source: The Hitwise UK Media Impact Report, September 2006

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 Incidental & Specific advertising of
the online presence
➢Two types of offline advertising can be identified: incidental and specific.
1. Incidental offline advertising Driving traffic to the website is not a
primary objective of the advert. Reference to the website is incidental
offline advertising if the main aim of the advert is to advertise a
particular product or promotion and the website is available as an
ancillary source of information if required by the viewer.
Traditionally, much promotion of the website in the offline media by
traditional companies has been incidental, simply consisting of
highlighting the existence of the website by including the URL at the
bottom of an advertisement.
2. Specific offline advertising Driving traffic to the website or explaining
the online proposition is a primary objective of the advert. The advert
will highlight the offers or services available at the website, such as sales
promotions or online customer service.

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