Nowadays, digital marketing is the focus of every brand. The first place a customer looks for a product is online. If a brand is not online, the customer might buy from a competitor that is online. Also, the website of a company is its identity. This is where a brand can show its personality. It can show the best content to the customer and engage them. One of the best kinds of content marketing is social media. Every brand needs to be on Facebook and Twitter because social media is a great place to engage with consumers. Content is not the only thing to think about in digital marketing strategy. Mobile is a new and important part of digital marketing and brands need to make a unique website for smartphones. But first, brands need to know that digital marketing is like print and broadcast advertising and all brands need to know that disclosures are important.
Disclosures
Disclosures are important to make sure that advertising is truthful and not misleading, advertisers have evidence to backup claims, and advertisements are not unfair.
Here is an example of a disclosure for the drug Crestor. The disclosure is in the middle of the main page. It's not small or hidden. It's clearly visible and there's also a link "Important Safety Information" in the upper left. It shows that Crestor is trying to make the disclosures so clear that customers can easily find them and there's no way someone can miss it.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the content that brands put on their webpages and their social media pages. It's not paid advertising. It should focus on a customer's needs and values.
This is an example of content marketing for Vans shoes. It's a shoe design contest and the wining high school will win money for their art department. The focus is not really on the shoe, it's about the value of community. The winning designer gets money but the money goes to the art department and not to the individual.
Social Media
As David Meerman Scott said in his interview on the Roye Productions website, "Prior to the web there where 3 ways to get noticed, one way was you could advertise to buy attention, the second way was that you could convince the media to talk about you and a third way was that you could use direct selling. Those are what I call the old rules of marketing and pr. Not that those are going away, many people use them. The new rules are about understanding your audience and then creating content on the web (videos, e-Books, webinars etc) that appeals to them."
Coca-Cola did a good job appealing to their audience through Facebook. They are trying to engage their customers for example by having them fill out a sentence with something funny. They're not posting the same advertisements that they're using on TV and in magazines.
User Experience on Different Platforms
Digital marketing strategy should not ignore mobile marketing. Mobile use is growing dramatically. It's critical to give customers a good experience on different platforms (computers, tablets, and smartphones). Each platform should have a different version.
After looking at the Walmart web page on a desktop computer and on a smartphone, the customer can see that they have a specific version for each platform.
The mobile version is very simple and easy to use. The design is nice with large bars that the customer can click with their finger and they don't need to zoom in to click. The customer can find what they need quickly.
Personality
User Experience is important and all companies need to pay attention to it. Each website should have its own personality and tone to it. People don't want boring webpages, They want interactive ones. Each website should be unique and specific to its own brand.
Here is Tiffany & Co.'s webpage. The personality of their webpage completely matches with the Tiffany & Co. brand. It has a sophisticated and chic feeling to it. This is the most important factor in digital marketing because without personality there's no appeal to the consumer.
Conclusion
Digital marketing is a great addition to a brand's overall marketing strategy but it's different from traditional marketing because engaging the customer is so important. The consumer wants to interact with the brand but only if the brand can show its full personality. The brand needs to create useful and interesting content. Social media is a great addition to webpages and will increase engagement. Disclosures are important to build trust and are required by the FTC. Also, all brand webpages should be easy to use on different platforms especially on mobile. If a customer is visiting the brand's website, they are already interested in the brand or want information. This is a great opportunity for any brand and if they don't take advantage of digital marketing, their competitors will.
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