What is digital marketing?
All kinds of “digital marketers” who have appeared recently have started to create in people the completely wrong impression that digital marketing is some kind of activity of placing all possible forms of advertisements in the “virtual world of the Internet” and social networks.
Of course, marketing, in general, has something to do with advertising, but it is far from being limited to it.
Therefore, let’s first of all clarify …
What is marketing?
According to Philip Kotler, one of the most recognized experts in marketing, marketing is “a business function that discovers unsatisfied needs and wants, defines and measures their magnitude and potential profitability, and determines the target markets that can be best served by the organization”.
Let’s give one more definition. The American “Chartered Institute of Marketing” defines marketing as “the process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs in a profitable way for the company“.
It is clear that at least two things follow from these definitions:
The focus of all marketing (including digital) is the identification of customer needs and wants.
Marketing is precisely the activity that makes identifying and satisfying these customer needs profitable for business.
Let’s repeat again (because this is more than important), the basis of marketing is the needs of the customer, not the product itself. In other words, the fundamental marketing question IS NOT “how best to sell a product?” but “how to most profitably satisfy a need?”
What sets digital marketing apart?
The Internet is the new environment in which both the advertising market and commerce, in general, are increasingly being transferred. Today, most customers look for the goods they need via the Internet, and most merchants offer them there, and often only there.
Both in real life and on the Internet, marketing goes hand in hand with commerce. Researching the market, positioning the product in this market, building a marketing mix, advertising strategy, etc.
This new medium such as the Internet does not fundamentally change marketing. However, the Internet is significantly changing the methods used by marketing.
In other words, although digital marketing is essentially no different from “conventional” marketing, on the Internet all elements of marketing take on a new and different character.
New, previously unknown elements of marketing such as traffic development, search engine optimization, online promotions, social media marketing, etc. are also involved.
What exactly is digital marketing?
First of all, it is good to clarify WHAT DIGITAL MARKETING IS NOT!
Digital Marketing IS NOT A CAMPAIGN AND IT IS NOT A ONE-TIME ACT. It’s not about sending advertising emails to whoever you can and putting up banners wherever you can.
Digital marketing is the process of building and developing the positions of your product and your brand in the Internet space.
This primarily involves building the subjective perception of the company and its goods (or services) by consumers.
In other words, the digital marketing process starts from the selection and definition of the product and includes not only the actual planning, construction, and development of the website, but also the website’s positioning in search engines, the development of its traffic, the improvement of its usability, and last but not least, of course – the advertising and promotion by all digital means both of the company website itself and of the goods or services offered on it.
What does digital marketing involve?
Product definition
- Internet Market Research
- Internet Competition Survey
- Product selection/definition
- Development of a pricing policy for the Internet
- Development of an advertising policy for the Internet
Website design
- Defining site goals
- Defining the target group of customers
- Defining the active functionalities on the site
- Defining keywords and preparing the texts on the site
- Defining site navigation
- Development of color scheme, graphic original, and content structure
- Building, testing, and installing the site
Website optimization
- Establishing the current ranking of the site in the search engines
- Defining optimization evaluation criteria
- Optimizing the keywords and texts on the site
- Monitoring and analysis of site ranking in Google
- Changes to keywords and content as a result of the above analysis
Constant website improvement and maintenance
- Building a database of visitors – potential customers
- Conducting advertising and promotional campaigns on the Internet
- Monitoring and analysis of campaign results
- Changing the content and structure of the site as a result of the analyses
- Continuous monitoring and analysis of site traffic
- Changes in structure and content resulting from this analysis
In conclusion …
Digital marketing (web marketing) is a process of defining and positioning the product in a certain market, and for this positioning to be successful, the entire site needs to be aligned with the goals set by the digital marketing strategy.
That’s why those who say “We’ll first make a nice website, then we’ll think about marketing” are deeply mistaken.
Digital marketing begins with the selection and definition of the product to be offered online and continues throughout the process of planning, building, developing, maintaining, developing, and promoting your website.
