RAMESHWARAM INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
AND MANAGEMENT(RITM)
DIGITAL MARKETING AND E COMMERCE
ASSIGNMENT
SUBMITTED TO: MISS SHAILJA SINGH
SUBMITTED BY: SHIVA SRIVASTAVA
COURSE: MBA
BATCH: 2023-2025
YEAR: 1ST
SEMESTER: 2ND
UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
Introduction
A digital marketing strategy is a plan or application of digital marketing or online trends that can
help companies increase their profits by producing qualified leads and sales. An effective digital
marketing campaign combines data-driven philosophies and technology-focused strategies with a
team of highly qualified and educated digital marketers and leadership. Simply, a digital
marketing strategy involves a collection of measures that marketers may take to assist businesses
in obtaining their marketing objectives with the help of digital media and promotions. In order to
take the advantage of increasing opportunities provided by digital marketing, digital marketing
strategies are essential. This will help to face competition and gain a better market position.
A social media campaign that includes partnership with influencer, a content marketing strategy
that uses online guides to drive leads, or a growth marketing strategy that uses social media and
email to create customer loyalty are all examples of digital marketing strategies.
It is critical to establish digital marketing strategy. If a marketer works with a full-service digital
marketing agency like WebFX, they can rest assured that WebFX will help them in building a
smart and competitive strategy for their company.
Marketer's company would be unable to achieve its objectives without the use of Internet
marketing strategies.
Marketer know want to do, but they don't know how to achieve. This sometimes results in the
introduction of a digital marketing campaign that yields no results. Marketer must invest in a
digital marketing strategy if they want to invest in digital marketing.
Features of Digital Marketing Strategy
Following are the features of digital marketing strategy:
1) Digital marketing should be aligned with marketing and business strategy.
2) Digital marketing should include clear objectives.
3) It should create a channel-specific value proposition that is convincing and exclusive.
4) It should indicate the combination of online and offline communication methods that will be
used.
5) It should be supportive in regards to customer's journey.
6) It should manage the lifecycle of online customer.
Crafting Digital Marketing Strategy
Activity having a specific end goal should have a plan that must be followed by everyone in the
organisation. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to digital marketing; each company
must develop its own strategy.
A plan should address who marketers are, what they are offering, and to whom they are offering
it, as well as why and how they are doing it. The steps and questions below outline what an
organisation should consider when developing and executing a marketing plan that meets its
goals and addresses its challenges:
1) Context: Examining the context of organisation and stakeholders is the first step in crafting
successful strategy. In order to understand the needs of the organisation, following question
should be considered:
i) What is the organisation's operating sense, and how is it likely to evolve in the future?
ii) Who is the company, why is its brand important, and what makes its brand useful and
valuable?
iii) Who are the customers and what are their wants, needs and desires?
iv) Who are these competitors? These organisations can also be the organisations that not only
compete on the basis of price and product but also on the basis of mindshare and time.
Market research will help in revealing answers to these questions.
2)Value exchange: Examining value proposition or promise is the second step in crafting
digital marketing strategy. It evaluates what value can be added by the organisation in that
market. It is critical to recognise the brand promise's supporting value-additions that are specific
to the digital environment.
Many channels are offered by internet for value creation. However, since the concept of what is
'valuable' varies greatly depending on the target audience therefore in order to gain insight into
what is needed and wanted by audience conducting consumer research is critical. A gardening
video for a hardware manufacturer, a research report for a business analyst, or a humorous
infographic for a marketing firm are all examples of value-based material.
3)Formulating Marketing Goals: Following are the four key aspects to consider while
setting digital marketing goals:
i) Objectives: Deciding objectives is essential for every kind of marketing efforts. Without
objective, marketing will neither have any direction nor will it succeed. Examining why the
organisation is setting such objective is important. What goals, purpose or outcomes organisation
is looking at?
ii) Tactics: Tools or approaches used by organisation to achieve these objectives are known as
Tactics. A retention-based e-mail newsletter, a Facebook page, or CRM implementations are
some examples of tactics. More complex strategy forces an organisation to develop strategies
that operate together to accomplish the same goal. There can be change in tactics but the focus
should not change.
iii) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): The specific metrics or pieces of data that an
organisation uses to examine whether or not their tactics are working as expected and achieving
its goals are known as KPI (Key Performance Indicators). For example, a marketer will examine
a variety of data points to decide if a particular strategy is effective. KPIs are decided per
strategy, with the ultimate goal in mind.
iv) Targets: Specific values that an organisation's KPIs must achieve within a certain time
frame are known as targets. Athletes must achieve goals in order to succeed in their career
4) Evaluation: When the company has established its digital marketing goals, there are various
digital toos and strategies are available for them. Each tactics has its own advantages, for
example, search ads can be the most effective tool for acquiring new customers, whereas e-mail
is one of the most effective tools for selling more items to current customers.
5) Ongoing Optimisation: When it comes to online marketing, it is important for brands to
become versatile, scalable, and agile. Every week, new tactics and platforms are emerging,
consumer behaviour is shifting over time, and people's expectations and desires from brands are
changing as their relationship develops The challenge is to communicate with customers in a
unique and meaningful way. Therefore, marketers must optimise their strategy and techniques to
meet such changes.
Understanding digital marketing strategy involves grasping how businesses leverage various
online channels to achieve their marketing objectives. Here's a breakdown:
1. Market Research: Just like traditional marketing, digital marketing begins with
understanding your target audience, their preferences, behaviors, and pain points. This
includes analyzing demographics, psychographics, and understanding where your
audience spends time online.
2. Setting Objectives: Define clear and measurable goals for your digital marketing
efforts. These could be increasing brand awareness, generating leads, driving website
traffic, boosting sales, etc.
3. Choosing the Right Channels: Digital marketing encompasses a wide array of
channels such as social media, search engines, email, content marketing, influencer
marketing, and more. Select the channels that align with your target audience and
business objectives.
4. Content Strategy: Develop a content strategy tailored to each chosen channel. Content
can include blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, etc. Ensure that your content is
valuable, relevant, and engaging to your audience.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Enhance your website's visibility in search
engine results by optimizing for relevant keywords, improving website structure and user
experience, and earning backlinks from reputable websites.
6. Social Media Marketing: Engage with your audience on social media platforms by
sharing valuable content, participating in conversations, running ads, and leveraging
influencer partnerships.
7. Email Marketing: Nurture leads and build relationships with your audience through
personalized email campaigns. Segment your email list based on demographics, interests,
or past behavior for targeted messaging.
8. Paid Advertising: Utilize platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or LinkedIn Ads
to reach your target audience with paid advertisements. Set specific targeting criteria to
ensure your ads are seen by the right people.
9. Analytics and Measurement: Track key metrics and KPIs to evaluate the
performance of your digital marketing efforts. Use tools like Google Analytics, social
media insights, and email marketing analytics to gather data and make data-driven
decisions.
10. Optimization and Iteration: Continuously optimize your digital marketing strategies
based on insights from analytics. Test different approaches, analyze results, and refine
your tactics to improve performance over time.
11. Compliance and Ethics: Ensure compliance with relevant regulations such as GDPR
for data privacy and ethical standards in digital marketing practices.
By understanding and effectively implementing these components, businesses can develop
robust digital marketing strategies to achieve their goals and stay competitive in the digital
landscape.
Knowing if Digital Marketing is Right for Business
It is confusing for small and medium business to decide whether to go traditional or digital.
Splitting between traditional and digital marketing is difficult for small and medium businesses
when they have limited budget.
Finally, most companies opt for traditional marketing due to a lack of appropriate tools for
calculating return of investment from digital marketing.
It takes a lot of effort to shift from transition from traditional to digital. This entails not only a
new approach to campaign development and measurement, but also a shift in attitude.
Only by comparing digital marketing to traditional marketing an understanding related to true
benefits of digital marketing can be determined by the business. Following are the reasons due to
which a company can gó digital:
1) Geographical Expansion: Using traditional marketing to expand into a new
geographic region is a complex process. A marketer can reach new areas easily with the
help of digital marketing.
2) Cost Effective: Small and medium companies do not have a large marketing budget.
Reaching maximum number of audience with lowest possible cost is the main objective
of these companies. A one-time 30-second TV commercial will cost a company more
than $350,000 but small business does not have such big budget. Print ads and billboards
cost a lot of expense whereas, with the help of digital ads, ads a marketer can reach a
super-targeted audience.
3) Measurable Analytics: This is the best advantage of digital marketing, aside from
cost effectiveness.
Unlike traditional marketing, the marketer will actually see which channel brings most
revenue. Traditional marketing can be a bit of a guess game if marketer does not know
which channel is giving them the best return on investment. Every click of audience and
their behaviour and purchasing habit can be measured with the help of digital marketing.
4) Higher Revenue: The revenue generated from digital marketing is higher than
traditional marketing.
Expanding business with digital marketing is three times better than traditional
marketing.
5) Super Targeted Audience: Digital marketing can more precisely target the
audience as compared to traditional marketing. For example, it is easier for marketer to
target women between the aged 25-30 years in Mumbai for cosmetic product. Digital
marketing enable marketer to conduct marketing in real time which means marketers can
customise the product as per changing demand and behaviour of customers.
This lead to customer satisfaction as well as increase in revenue. Digital marketing
generates a consistent flow of targeted traffic that gets converted into leads and sales.
Digital Marketing Strategies and its ROI/ROI of Digital
Strategies
Both qualitative and quantitative metrics for measuring digital ROI are required to be
developed and linked clearly to the overall strategy and goals of the company by the
marketers in order to know the performance of digital strategies. Any business should
develop a framework and governance frameworks for organising and assessing their
digital ROI and innovation - the strides they are making in digitisation and the value they
are capturing to that end. Customers, staff, procedures, protection and soundness,
technology, and disruption and creativity are six core strategic priority areas where this
process can be carried out throughout the organisation.
However, a good method and good governance are not enough to ensure progress.
Digitisation has the power to completely rethink jobs and radically alter how businesses
operate. Focusing on both consumer and employee digital interactions, rapidly exploring
solutions early and rewarding the ability to take chances, balancing the transformative
impacts of digitisation on marketers' processes and society, and taking an all-
encompassing perspective on how digitisation can affect their enterprise are all key
aspects of digital transformation.
Measuring the digital ROI every step of the way is the only way companies can
significantly manage the process and reach their strategic goals.
Since the online world is automated, virtually everything can be tracked and measured,
including site visits, duration of stay, amount of pages viewed, inbound and outbound
sites, requests for additional content, and actual buying orders. Marketers have been
focusing on attempting to accurately determine the Return on Investment (ROI) of their
online marketing efforts as a result of this new wealth of data. The return on investment
(ROI) compares the expense of constructing and managing the site and its cost-generating
marketing elements to the amount of money or activities that would contribute to profits
(such as promotions or offers).
Determining ROI
Following are the number of steps involved while determining ROI:
1) Developing the Digital Marketing/Internet Marketing (IM) Payoff
Model: Digital or Internet Marketing Payoff Model is a standard system model
comprises inputs, processes, output and feedback. The model depicts the corporate
and environmental drivers of internet marketing (inputs), the main practises of
internet marketing administrators (processes), and the possible implications of these
activities for consumers and the organisation (outputs). This model can be used
effectively to allocate resources and evaluate the results of internet marketing
expenses by the marketing and internet marketing managers, financial professionals
and general and business unit managers.
2) Identifying Linkages: Internet marketing managers must consider a view that
identifies the relationships among the different elements of the model in order to
effectively evaluate the performance. By considering the following things, these
relationships are being explored by the marketing managers:
i) Contribution made by the internet marketing managers to the organisation's
strategic goals.
ii) Knowing the desired results for digital marketing.
iii) Identifying the process used to attain these results.
iv) Identifying the effects of these results on the organisation's long-term financial
performance.
3) Defining Metrics: Clear, logical and consistent metrics are among the most
prevailing tools available to successful internet marketers when instructed by a well-
defined and clearly articulated strategy.Marketers are able to execute plans, link
actions to results and compare the impact of various marketing choices with the help
of these metrics. Performance of internet marketing can be effectively measured with
help of both financial and non-financial metrics. Companies often avoid to measure
come of the non-financial items such as marketing research activity as these items are
difficult to measure. But, an attempt must be made in order to measure these items if
it has an important role in delivering the company's value through internet marketing.
4) Calculating Return on Investment: Finally, marketers must be able to display
expanded revenues as a direct result of any internet marketing (IM) programme in
order to support organisational investments in IM. Today, the most effective approach
in the marketing manager's toolbox for showing IM's financial payoffs is return on
investment (ROI).
Calculation of ROI for internet marketing is found to be challenging by many of the
companies. There have not been any comprehensive models for measuring ROI, and
the simplistic models that have been used are often incomplete, vague, or deceptive.
Figure: Internet Marketing Payoff Model - Antecedents and Consequences of
Investments in Internet Marketing
Calculating the ROI
The following are the components to be considered while calculating ROI in digital
marketing:
1) Average Revenue per Sale (or Average Sale Value): The number of
transactions dividing total revenue gives average revenue per sale.
Average Revenue per Sale = Revenue ÷ Number of
2) Profit Margin: Revenue minus expenditure gives profit margin.
Profit = Revenue - Expenses
3) Lifetime Value of a Customer: The expenses spend by each customer with
the company over the lifetime of their patronage us defined as customer lifetime
value. It can be calculated as:
Lifetime Value of a Customer = Lifetime Transactions x Lifetime Revenue - Lifetime
Expenses
4) Allowable Acquisition Cost: Allowable acquisition cost can be defined as the
price paid to the market for acquiring new customers.
Example
The average sale value of Widgets & Co. is $1,000. Usually purchase made by new
consumers is 10 times over the course of their lifespan, resulting in lifetime revenue
of $10,000. The margin of profit is equal to 30%, implies that each new client is
worth $3,000 in profit over the course of their relationship. For a potential buyer, the
organisation is ready to pay $500 (acquisition cost).
Now, acquiring 20 customers per month or 240 customers in a year is the only aim of
the marketers. Marketers are looking for an extra $240,000 in sales, and they realise
that their clients only buy from them once a year, for an average of $1,000 per
purchase. Since the company's web presence is so poor, they would expend $110,400
on digital ads per year. Suppose, marketers have acquired 10 new customers for the
total of 250 customers in a year. Are marketers succeeded in their efforts?
New customers = 250
Lifetime value per customer = $3,000
Total lifetime value = 250 x $3,000 = $750,000
Acquisition cost (price paid to market + find new customers) = $110,400
Grand Total: $750,000 - $110,400 = $639,300
Return on Investment (ROI) = $639,300/110,400 = 5.79 times, or 579%
Suppose it takes them 10 years to a marketer to get their lifetime value of a client
back, that works out to 57.9% return on investment per year (non-compounded). This
means that they got $5.79 back for every $1 invested in their marketing.
ROI Tools
Following are the various tools that marketers can use to calculate
ROI:
1) HubSpot: HubSpot facilitates marketers to attract customers, transform leads and
close customers and is an inbound sales and marketing platform. Marketers are able
to build, automate, assess and optimise all of their internet marketing activities with
the help of HubSpot marketing software. HubSpot's tools help marketers to get a
better understanding of their consumer's activities and tailor content development to
meet their needs. Their Content Optimisation Technology (COS) is part content
management system, part personalisation engine, and the world's first fully developed
website, forum, and landing page system that is mobile-friendly right out of the box.
It adapts to any marketing platform and is fully incorporated. It has proven to be a
highly effective marketing platform for a variety of markets, including business
providers, technology, applications, and industrial websites all around the world.
2) KISSmetrics: KISSmetrics is a strong data analytics platform that provides
crucial insights and user engagement on the website of marketers. It creates a simple
image of visitor's interactions on marketer's website and records any visitor's
acquisition info. This service is available for a month at no cost. After that, one can
choose a suitable paying schedule. KISSmetrics assists in increasing purchases by
identifying items that have been discarded in shopping carts. By watching the repeat
buyer transaction slot, it is possible to determine when to follow up with consumers.
Landing page conversion rate, Customer bounce points, Customer occurrence before
making a purchase, Cart size, Customer activity on the portal, and Customer lifetime
value, etc., can be identified by the marketers with the help of this metrics.
3) Google Analytics: It is a Google-provided free paid web analytics tool that
monitors and records website traffic. After acquiring Urchin in November 2005,
Google launched the service. It is now the most used web analytics tool available.
Google Analytics allows marketers to monitor shop, customers and produce data that
are useful to them.
4) Free CRM: Free CRM is a customer relationship management and sales force
automation web-based tech solution. Contact and lead monitoring, sales and contact
control, sales pipeline management and planning, customer support, and market
management are all made easier with free CRM. Close more transactions by
automating distribution procedures, forecasting earnings, and sharing sales results.
5) SumAll: It integrates and visualises both social media and e-commerce data in a
single, dynamic map. It helps users to calculate and track over 30 common services in
one place, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. All of marketer's social media
accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, are in one place. A great
choice for small to medium-sized companies that want to keep track of all their
outlets in one location and get regular e-mail updates to keep them up to date.
6) Oracle Eloqua: Oracle Eloqua helps customers to access insights from
dashboards and surveys to better appreciate the health of their company and
marketing strategies using multiple marketing analytics.
Marketers are allowed to visualise promotional success to see the sales effect of their
marketing campaigns in real time. Email interaction, click-through rates, bounce
backs, transfer, and abandonment can all be tracked.
Instagram
Instagram is now proud owner of above 500 million monthly users and enjoys the
highest rate audience engagement in the arena of social media. It has 58 percent more
user than Facebook and 2000 percent more user than Twitter. Instagram calls brands
with visual content to formulate and post their content in customers' zone-out time.
When 65 percent of the topmost posts on Instagram consist of products, marketers
can proudly sell their products through visual content. It will not be wrong to say that
Instagram is the best place for encouraging user-generated content and for getting
connected with the customers.
Online Marketing Campaign on Instagram/Channel
Advertising and Campaign on Instagram
One of the most rapidly growing social media platforms is Instagram. This is because
it allows its users (both individual and businesses) to showcase what they are all
about via a visual story. No doubt, that with the visually oriented group of consumers
it has been gaining huge success. Across the globe, there are over 400 million active
users on Instagram, and of those users almost 60% users are active on a daily basis. It
is important to utilise every feature offered in order to get the full impact with the
marketing efforts; however, the platform of Instagram seems pretty straightforward.
It can also be good for the businesses. While creating brand awareness, it can help
business owners further grow their reach. Every month there are over 800 million
active Instagram users as shown by the statistics. There are over 60 million photos
posted on Instagram of which a whooping 1.6 billion 'likes' are given to these photos.
Business can make use of the above statistics to build a brand following on a single
day.
Importance of Using Instagram for Marketing
With a huge number of active monthly users and counting, Instagram is one of the
largest social networks in existence. It is highly likely that a good portion of the target
audience can be found on the platform. The importance of using Instagram is as
follows:
1) Boosting Awareness through Hashtags: The marketer needs to use hashtags
to consistently generate new interest in the business. The way that users search for
photos of a specific type or relating to something of interest is represented by it. They
may take the time to explore the account further and may even follow the marketer if
one of the posts shows up during their search. There are a few things one needs to
keep in mind when choosing and using hashtags. It is advised to use at least a couple
on every post while one does not need to use hordes of hashtags per post. The
industry should be benefited by the majority of tags one chooses. Therefore, people
will actually be interested in what the marketer does and offers as more people who
stumble across the posts.
2) Building Content Pillars: The content is the foundation of any social media
strategy. Every business has a whole host of potential content that they can share
across Instagram, no matter of its size, industry or location. For example, one can
check out Saturday Night Live or Oreo's Instagram feed for inspiration.
These two brands are the great example of the Brands who are using Instagram for
their advantages.
3) Interacting freely with the Audience: There are numerous benefits of
engaging with others on Instagram.
In both customer satisfaction and brand advocacy, it is a key ingredient.
Moreover, the visibility, likability, memorability and credibility of businesses can be
increased by it. One would agree that the benefits are worth the time it takes to
interact and there is doubt in it. The followers, industry authorities and the followers
of those the marketer follows. Thus, the more people engage with others, the more
they get better the results.
4) Sharing User Generated Content: Sharing user-generated content is an
excellent way to engage and be engaged with going right along with the last point. To
get the customers to share their pictures, videos and positive experiences with the
business, the marketer can come up with fun and creative ways.
Others may become customers and share their enthusiasm in hopes of having the
same honour in turn. One of the best forms of social proof and one of the best ways to
create an air of excitement surrounding the brand is the user-generated content.
5) Utilising Geotagging: A new feature that is essentially equivalent to the
"checking in" at a location is geotagging. If it relates to the brand, Geotag as much as
possible and encourage the consumers to Geotag their location as well.
The marketer can think of Instagram as a free flyer to promote the event in this
regard. Not only bring offline events online but marketers are also allowed bring
online events offline.
Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms
globally,boasting over a billion active users. Its visually-driven interface makes it an
ideal platform for businesses to showcase their products and services through
compelling images and videos.
Social media marketing on Instagram involves leveraging the platform's features to
reach and engage with your target audience, build brand awareness, drive website
traffic, and ultimately, generate leads and sales.
Here are some key components of a successful Instagram marketing strategy:
1. Optimized Profile: Your Instagram profile serves as your business card on the
platform. Ensure it is complete, including a recognizable profile picture (usually
your logo), a descriptive bio that highlights what your business is about, and a link
to your website or a specific landing page.
2. Engaging Content: High-quality visual content is crucial on Instagram. This
includes photos, videos, stories, and now even reels. Your content should be
visually appealing, relevant to your audience, and aligned with your brand identity.
3. Hashtags: Hashtags are essential for increasing the visibility of your posts.
Research relevant hashtags that are popular within your industry or niche, and
incorporate them into your posts to reach a broader audience. Instagram allows up
to 30 hashtags per post, but it's best to use them judiciously and avoid overstuffing.
4. Consistency: Consistency is key to maintaining engagement and growing your
following on Instagram. Develop a posting schedule and stick to it. Whether you
post daily, a few times a week, or weekly, make sure your audience knows when to
expect new content from you.
5. Interactivity: Instagram offers various interactive features such as polls, quizzes,
questions stickers, and countdowns. Use these features to engage with your
audience, gather feedback, and create a sense of community around your brand.
6. Influencer Collaborations: Partnering with influencers can help you reach a
larger audience and build credibility for your brand. Identify influencers whose
values align with your brand and whose followers match your target audience, and
collaborate with them on sponsored posts, giveaways, or takeover events.
7. Analytics: Instagram provides insights and analytics that can help you track the
performance of your posts and campaigns. Pay attention to metrics such as reach,
engagement, impressions, and follower growth to understand what content
resonates best with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.
By incorporating these elements into your Instagram marketing strategy, you can
effectively promote your business, connect with your audience, and drive
meaningful results.
