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Archives for February 2014

Forget Digital Marketing think Digital Media

Posted on by in Digital Marketing, Digital Media | Leave a comment

Four Major Mass Media Types that interests a business:
• Outdoor media
• Print
• Broadcast – TV and Radio
• Digital Media

Other Minor Mass Media formats:
• Films
• Audio Recordings
• Video Games

Let’s have a look at some of the established Mass Media Forms:

Evolution of Mass Media

Digital Media is a broad Media Form and Digital Marketing is just a Business Function. Businesses used the Print and Broadcast Media for various Business functions including Branding, Marketing and Sales. Digital Media has more uses than just Digital Marketing. A lot of people actually list some of these other business functions as a subset of Digital Marketing. Like Digital Brand Engagement if often listed as a sub activity of Digital Marketing. There are some legacy reasons for this. Even a few years ago, Digital Media was very limited and not as mature. And there was a good reason for calling the whole group of Business activates as Digital Marketing.

The Digital Media is maturing very fast. In the last 2-3 years, with the popularity of Smartphones the Digital Media has attained new heights. The biggest challenge of Digital Media has been Access and Smartphones have expanded the consumer access to the Digital Media. It is predicted that in the next two years 500 million new smartphones will be added in China and India alone. That is almost 15% of the Humanity and a even more significant portion of the active age consumer group and active middle class consumer group.

The Digital Media is still at a very nascent stage. Consumer Behavior on Digital Media is still very undiscovered and undefined. Technology is changing so rapidly that there are new parameters being added to it. The list of Business Functions served by the Digital Media is still evolving.

Some of the distinct uses of Digital Media for a Business:
• Brand Engagement (PULL)
• Brand Communications
• Marketing (PUSH)
• Ecommerce and Online Sales
• Inside Sales (B2B and B2C)
• Outside Sales
• Customer Service and CRM
• Product Design & Engineering
• Market Research

Business Functions and Resources in Digital Marketing Space

Posted on by in Digital Marketing | Leave a comment

Digital Marketing is a lose term that now includes many different Business Functions. It started as a Sales and Branding tool. Today it has evolved to include even functions like Market Research, Customer Service and CRM.

Digirtal Marketing Business Functions and Resources

What are Business Functions? And how are they different from the Business Resources? I will do a post on this that will provide details on this subject. Here is a flow diagram that throws some light on this subject.

Business Functions

There are Business functions that are more popular than others. Like Sales is the most popular and widely used Function. It is very mature as well. Similarly the Web Development activity is a very mature area.

But many functions are not as well used and are still not very mature. A lot of large businesses are still not using a proper and defined Content Creation unit / team. The Content Strategy is catching up in popularity. There is a lack of Creative Service Providers for the Digital Marketing. A recent quick research I did showed how Lulu Lemon engages many times more fans on its Facebook page for its quality Video posts as compared to just Graphic posts. But still Lulu Lemon has not fully utilized this opportunity.

Tracking as a function is very crowded space. There are a lot of Tracking Service providers. But most of them are providing a very similar service. There is a lot of scope for new features that need to be integrated to enable the Big Data Marketing.

The increased use of Internet by consumers is making new Business Functions very viable and effective. Product Engineering, CRM, Market Research are some areas that are still not very mature. There is a space for new Innovation and Service Providers in these areas.

The prize for most neglected area of Digital Marketing should go to Digital Brand Engagement and Brand Communications. One can argue that Direct Traffic Drivers is a very well ignored area. I think both Digital Brand Engagement and Direct Traffic Drivers are the most neglected areas in the Digital Marketing space. Most executives and Managers dont have a clear vision for both these activities. They do some activities to support these functions but a clear vision and goal is lacking.

The whole Digital Marketing Industry is at a very initial stage. In terms of total dollars spent, the Digital Marketing space is still very small as compared to traditional Marketing and Advertising industry. The growth is Digital Marketing is directly liked to the increased usage of Internet Devices for Media Access and communications by consumers.

In my next blog piece, I will write on how different Website Traffic Drivers correspond to different Digital Marketing Business Functions and Activities. And some of their challenges.

Do you know there are seven types of Traffic to your website. Read more:
http://www.marketingwizards.ca/blog/strategy-for-all-the-different-type-of-web-traffic-to-your-website/