Exploring the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing

Learn about the fundamentals of digital marketing through the perspective of customer experience in today’s dynamic digital environment.

The scope of digital marketing is growing. There are many new opportunities to overcome technological challenges. More and more businesses are joining the digital transformation bandwagon. And careers are booming with thousands of excellent, short-duration digital marketing courses. 

It is even becoming more accessible to make a career switch to digital marketing. Entry-level professionals learn on the job. Or, they take up post-graduate courses on digital marketing for more specialised roles. 

But there are a few key fundamentals of digital marketing to consider. You will also see that these basics revolve around improving the customer experience in the online medium. 

1. Knowing your customers and competitors
2. Reach your customers and grow your business

Knowing Your Customers and Competitors

Identifying your customer helps in creating better value for your customer and your business. 

Typically, marketers use an STP model to create maximum value from the customer. STP, or Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning is required for developing a winning marketing strategy. Though it is a traditional marketing tactic, it is applied in digital marketing too. 

Learn more about traditional marketing vs. digital marketing. 

Segmentation

1. Demographics –  These include age, gender, occupation, education, income, etc. 
2. Psychographics – Online behaviours, characteristics, etc. come under this category. Marketers put out survey forms online to focus groups on learning and taking decisions about it. 
3. Lifestyle – A niche customer group may have similar interests such as a music genre, books, etc. 
4. Behavioural – This is to see how and why customers use the product or service 

Targeting

Targeting involves determining whether the market is a good fit. This activity gives an overview of a product or service concerning the target audience. 

Marketers usually ask these common questions while targeting

1. Is there any potential for the customer base to grow?
2. Is the market too small for a niche?
3. Which type of customer will help your business earn the most revenue

Positioning

This step looks into how you should position your product to get the most from your customers. As a business, you have to chart out your USP (unique selling proposition). 

Doing so will help you answer the question, ‘Why your product or service is better than your competitor?’

The STP model is easier to implement in the online medium than in the offline medium. Internet marketers can look into search intent on Google or other search engines through keyword research. There are dedicated SEO tools for it. 

Reach Your Customers and Grow Your Business Online  

The digital environment is dynamic. The core marketing elements in this space revolve around search engines, social media, mobile apps, and eCommerce, among others. 

Online customers are constantly using them. They purchase, leave feedback, like or dislike social media posts from brands they know or follow, etc. 

Now, their behaviours are also changing as new technologies are emerging. You have cloud computing, artificial intelligence, IoT, etc. These are changing the entire ecosystem of the global online market. 

For instance, a customer would instead use a smart speaker such as Alexa to search a query through voice than typing it. 

Then there is Google’s LaMDA. It is an AI-powered conversational assistant that uses Quality metrics such as Sensibleness, Specificity, and Interestingness. It is far more advanced than the ‘pre-trained model’, according to Google. 

Understanding the Customer Journey

By now, you have an overview of identifying the customer and how the digital medium is evolving. You will find many types of digital marketing including social media, search engine optimization, paid ads, etc. All of them are used to make the customer journey smooth. 

The customer journey map is used to understand how a consumer interacts with a brand. This journey is charted through a sales/marketing funnel. 

Traditional Marketing/Sales Funnel

The first stage is the awareness phase. The customer here is made aware of the brand. Next comes the interest stage, where the customer explores the brand and its offerings. 

The third stage is the decision phase. At this point, the customer is comparing the brand with other competing brands. The fourth (and last) stage is known as action. Action usually describes closing a sale, converting a lead to a customer, and so on. 

Now, the sales funnel determines the customer journey map. You get to know the gaps where your marketing efforts are successful and at what stages they are not. 

These four stages of the customer journey also tell you what kind of marketing communication the customer expects. 

The Modern Digital Marketing Funnel

While you saw the four phases in the marketing funnel, the marketing efforts in the digital medium go beyond the buying stage. Let’s have a look. 

The modern digital marketing funnel includes a few more steps after the awareness, interest, decision and purchase stages. They include

1. Retention of the customer
2. Making the customer a brand advocate

Also, this digital marketing funnel does not necessarily rely on linear customer behaviour. The customer may not buy the product, but can be a fan of the brand. They can promote the brand on their own through word-of-mouth and other means online. 

Modern brands today retain customers through loyalty programmes that increase the customer lifetime value (CLV). 

Growing Your Business Through the Modern Digital Marketing Funnel

Using SEO

The most important aspect of building an online presence is a website. The website contains everything about the products or services a business offers. 

SEO best practices help a website become visible on search engines. They bring organic traffic. 

SEO blogging on the website can be a great way to reach the target audience in the awareness stage. You can use SEO tools such as SEMrush to understand the intent of the type of keyword. 

When your content follows keyword optimisation techniques with short- and long-tail keywords, your website can reach the first page of Google. Of course, you will have to keep an SEO checklist for that. 

Similarly, you can work on SEO during the decision stage. At this phase, the customer is looking for other options before making any decisions. They will compare your product with your competitors. 

Following SEO guidelines such as E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) is essential. If your content satisfies this Google algorithm, there are higher chances of ranking at the top of Google. And as we all know, the first three Google results receive 75% of clicks (Backlinko). 

For customers to find you on search engine results pages (SERPs), it is essential to stay on the first page of Google. And preferably above your competitors’ websites. 

Using Social Media

Social media marketing is the go-to choice to engage and retain customers. Have a look at the digital marketing strategy of Zomato. 

Social media works through all stages of the modern digital marketing funnel. 

Creative visuals, copies, and short videos can work wonders during the awareness and interest stages and for retention. For retention, many businesses post customer testimonials. On the other hand, sponsored social media posts are also great for the closing stage.  

You can use digital marketing tools such as Google Analytics. Here you can chart out the customer journey. Then you can take all the necessary steps to help your customer across all touchpoints. 

Using Videos

Videos have a higher retention rate than the written and static image forms. Customers of all demographics prefer videos as well. 

So that you know, video marketers also follow SEO practices. Find out how you can use videos across the different customer touchpoints. 

How-to videos are always educational and easy to create. Customers at the awareness stage can get all the information they need about a product and the brand selling it. 

They can always come back to the videos or recommend them to their friends after buying the product. And this shows retention and brand loyalty. 

Brand-oriented videos work in the decision stage. The customer wants to learn about the brand while comparing other similar businesses. Short videos that explain what the brand stands for or how the customers feel about the brand are more than enough for the potential customer to convert. 

Parting Thoughts

Whether you are a budding entrepreneur or looking for professional development, knowing these fundamentals of digital marketing will always come in handy.