Shivam Digital Marketing
Shivam Digital Marketing
Shivam Digital Marketing
ON
“DIGITAL MARKETING”
Submitted By:
SHIVAM SHARMA
ROLL NO. 21MSUMB028
Submitted To:
This is to certify that SHIVAM SHARMA bearing Roll No 21MSUMB028, is a bonafide student of Master
of Business Administration course of the Institute (Batch), affiliated to Bikaner Technical University, Bikaner,
Rajasthan.
Project Work report on “DIGITAL MARKETING” is prepared by him under the guidance of AMANDEEP SINGH,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Business Administration
of Bikaner Technical University, Bikaner, Rajasthan.
2
DECLARATION
I, SHIVAM SHARMA , hereby declare that this written submission of Project Work report entitled
“DIGITAL MARKETING ” under the guidance of PROF. AMANDEEP SINGH , faculty of M.B.A
Department, SURENDERA GROUP OF INSTITUTIONS SRI GANGANAGAR. I have
adequestly cited and refereced the original sources, I also declare that I have adhered to all
principals of academic honesty and integrity and have not misrepresented or fabricated or falsified
any idea/data/fact/source in my submission. I understand that any violation of the above will be
cause for disciplinary action by the institute and can also evoke penal action from the sources which
have thus not been propley cited or from whom proper permission has not been taken when needed.
Date:
Counter Signature by
Mentor/ Supervisor
Date:
3
CONTENTS
4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Project title:-
“
A study on digital marketing and its impact on revenue generation with reference to ODigMa.”
Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices (computers) such as personal computers,
smartphones, cell phones, tablets and game consoles to engage with stakeholders. Digital marketing applies
technologies or platforms such as websites, e-mail, apps (classic and mobile) and social networks.
ODgiMa consultancy solutions Pvt.Ltd has emerged as one of the best online media companies in the Indian
marketplace. The company offers a plethora of services in all online media platforms. The offerings include
marketing and consulting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, slideshare, YouTube, and Google. Though the
company was started only two years ago, it is way ahead of most of competitors through its relentless pursuit
of perfection and enormous amount of creativity which they put in their work. The firm worked with multiple
brands on social media and currently have 4 out of Top 30 brands in Facebook India.
The project was in the marketing department of ODigMa. The project was “A study on digital marketing and
its impact on revenue generation with reference to ODigMa”. This report will help to get an idea about digital
marketing and how the digital marketing has impact on revenue generation for digital marketing companies
and with reference to ODigMa. Through this study we will see how online media companies emerging how
they are generating revenue and how they are growing economically and revenue generation models of online
media companies particularly reference to OdigMa.
Main findings of this internship are given here. Indian customers are highly information seekers. They collect
more information about a product before buying it. Internet penetration in India is key player for this
phenomenon. Most of Indians are getting stimulus through advertisements, but they are not reaching to end
phase of customers purchase journey, mainly in high involvement purchases. Brands are getting more touch
point to reach their target group in this digital era. More details about findings are given this report.
5
1. INTRODUCTION
To begin with, as a part of the curriculum a summer internship programme was to be conducted for a period
of two months. Given a choice one was allowed to choose the field in which he/she was interested. As my
interest and curiosity was in online or digital marketing I choose to work with a start-up company named
ODigMa, I choose the start-up company because with start I can explore myself and why digital marketing?
Because it is booming industry, the growth of digital marketing is tremendous and expected to grow more.
Due to this summer internship, I learnt every aspect of digital marketing include (business development
process, content writing, social media) Marketing practices have dramatically shifted with the rise of social
media and proliferation of devices, platforms, and applications. Your prospective and current customers are
trying to communicate with you, and you can listen and respond faster, and with more personalization than
ever before. This shifting environment presents new opportunities and challenges for marketers. With digital
marketing, it's easy to fall behind. Digital marketing equips you with the tools you need to assess your
organization’s social media and digital marketing strategy and helps you identify areas of improvement. Useful
for individuals from small- to medium-sized businesses who want to use new media as a vehicle for growth.
Organizations are leveraging digital marketing methods for successful marketing strategy implementation
inbound marketing through publishing content online in the form of portals, podcasts, e-journals, online
campaigns, social media marketing, search services; and outbound marketing including email marketing, RSS
(Really Simple Syndication) feeds and others. A recent survey of 3300 business executives from various
industries indicates that on an average, 34% of a company’s leads come from inbound marketing verses 22%
through1 outbound marketing .
6
1.1.2 Web Site Designing
From the initial process of taking inputs from clients, planning on the basis of such inputs to final
implementation and testing – all are done using latest web designing techniques and skills. Our services
have the advantage of offering clarity in its design style, which is backed up with an easy and free flowing
content and latest technical know-how. Not only we provide affordable web site design and ecommerce web
development services but also search engine friendly designs. Our Service Includes
• Website Design
• Website Redesign
• Shopping Cart Web Design
• Detailed and Advanced Page Layout
• Custom Logo Design
• Banner Ads
• Custom Graphics Design using advanced design tools.
1.2 Digital Marketing Trends:
Organizations are implementing a wide range of digital channels so as to engage customers in a more
personalized way. Digital marketing trends that organizations are rapidly embracing include
1.2.1 Mobility:
Business Insider's recent report indicates that globally, one in every five people owns a smart phone, and one
in every 17 owns a tablet. That's an increase of nearly 1.3 billion smartphones in last four years. Therefore an
increased user base accessing the internet via smartphones has prompted many companies to optimize their
online content for mobile devices.
1.2.2 Social media:
Organizations are focusing on engaging with customers through social media to offer real-time interactions.
Social media helps organizations reach out to a vast pool of potential customers by supplying them with
medical and campaign-related information.
1.2.3 Social-Local-Mobile marketing:
The growing popularity of smart mobile devices, increasing location based social activities like experience
sharing, review reading via social media and the evolution of Global Positioning System (GPS) are helping
companies leverage Social-Local-Mobile marketing activities.
1.2.4 Personalized Content marketing:
Customer engagement, acquisition and retention have all taken on a new dimension with the delivery of
unique, personalized, and relevant messages through identified digital channels. Email is one of the most
preferred marketing channel to broadcast targeted organization messages and campaigns to existing and
prospective customers.
7
1.2.5 Advanced analytics:
Increased adoption of digital channels is generating large volumes of customer behavioural data. Advanced
actionable analytics can help organizations define targeted marketing strategies.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) / Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Organizations are focusing on SEO
efforts and paid search advertising for enhancing the visibility of their products and services.
One more trend that has been observed recently is the continually mounting costs of pay-per-click (PPC) that
has resulted in the increased disappointment with this form of search engine Advertising. According to experts,
the reason behind such high costs is the huge investments made by large business concerns. Consequently,
online business owners have now turned to the organic search results delivered through search engine
optimization to enjoy so many advantages. There is currently more emphasis given to user-generated content,
improved conversion rates, location- or language specific campaigns, and E-mail newsletters.
The future of online Advertising is going to be more interactive with elevated bandwidth and computing speed.
Viewing and transmitting videos will be a cakewalk for web surfers. There is also every possibility of
witnessing browser-specific results in the coming days. Social media will consolidate their dominance further.
They will not only make more revenues, but will grab the attention of more and more users as well. As far as
search engine optimization is concerned, the search engine algorithms and link determination factors will be
complicated.
Further, thereby giving a hard time to online Advertising companies. Websites will be a lot slimmer to enhance
user browsing experience. Last but not least, video search will grow in prominence with the potentiality to
dictate the terms in the world of Internet advertising.
8
TITLE:
A Study on digital marketing and its impact on revenue generation, with reference to
Odigma
➢ Creative agencies
➢ Specialized agencies
➢ In-house agencies
This report is completely discussing about digital or new media agencies. There was a time when Television
was the most popular medium for Marketer to promote, spread awareness and generate leads for their products
but now the trend has changed and Digital media has taken its place. Main reason for this change was
➢ Traditional methods are expensive. Compared to digital marketing channels, you could end up
spending lakhs of rupees more.
➢ Traditional marketing channels fail to provide instant feedback and reports about who saw or heard an
ad, and took action. This data is collected long after the initial ad impression is made (and still then,
the statistics are far from exact numbers).
➢ Digital marketing, on the other hand, refers to marketing methods that allow organizations to see
how a campaign is performing in real-time, such as what is being viewed, how often, how long, as
well as other statistics such as sales conversions.
The digital landscape is moving at a lightning fast pace. Every industry has been affected by the advances in digital.
Digital marketing is an essential part of this for companies who want to utilise the power of the internet in order to
boost business. The tremendous scope of Internet Marketing in India, we have to understand that marketing
through the internet can be an entirely different ball game. In fact it is a potent combination of technology
and marketing acumen.
9
Digital Marketing like traditional form of marketing is a highly result driven and set objective practice.
One can’t begin a digital marketing campaign without setting the campaign objectives. A digital marketer
understands the needs of the clients and visualizes their needs to deliver what they want.
Taking a look at last year’s figures, let’s see what AdAge discovered when looking at the statistics:
10
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
a) Primary Data.
b) Secondary Data.
11
3. COMPANY PROFILE
Odigma, a digital marketing firm with a performance-based pricing strategy, is Gearing up to serve clients in
over 150 cities in India, in addition to setting up shop in Singapore and the Middle East by the end of next
fiscal.
MISSION:
Customer Satisfaction is our primary objective and we strive for Excellence in it. End user Contact and
Immediate Problem Resolution is our Strength.
VISION
Our vision is to set the high standards for Digital marketing & Technology around the world, across all
industries through hard work, innovation and creativity until the preferred outcome is achieved.
WHAT THEY DO
Odigma’s services entail Facebook brand building suite, Twitter strategy planning and implementation, social
media platform connect, strategy on social media applications and SEO and Google AdWords PPC. Its
clientele spans across sectors and includes companies such as Myntra, Infibeam, Indus League, HI design,
MakeMyTrip and Toyota, to name a few. While 75 per cent of its clients are acquired through referrals and
online marketing.
From optimizing search campaigns to gain maximum leverage on media spends (SEM), to optimizing your
internet property for gaining a better rank in organic search results (SEO), we ensure that you reach your
objectives in the best possible way.
12
Plan companies social media campaigns to reach your exact target market with the right communication
message.
Understanding brand message and creating interactive videos to showcase your brand presence is our
speciality.
Creating custom mailer designs and execute them to drive your inbound marketing strategy.
Creating brand partnerships by leveraging an ecosystem with over 30,000 active partners.
13
Omni Channel Strategy and Business Solutions:
Designing and developing, visually appealing and functional websites which are accessible to your audience
across multiple platforms. We ensure that whatever we deliver has the highest quality of experience.
Creating integrated campaigns to create brand presence and recall in the mind of your audience.
We help understand the key pain areas of your CRM process and ensure the elimination of negative impression
of your brand across the web.
14
Mobile App Development:
Specially designed enterprise and retail apps to ensure that your buyers can easily find and purchase products,
leveraging technology in your favour to increase your revenues.
Our visualizers think out of the box every day, thus helping you to leverage on existing content through
innovative concepts to gain revenue.
Apps specifically conceptualized and designed to meet your business objectives. Our team of highly skilled
visualizers, designers and developers, ensure that your users will experience only the best.
15
Brand campaigns using a mix of media and marketing. We partner with some of the largest music labels
globally.
Distribution of music, videos & other digital content across devices. Our platform and analytics power some
of the largest labels globally.
16
4. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) Industry, one of the most vibrant and exciting industries in the
world, has had a tremendous impact on the lives and the Indian economy. As the M&E industry widens its
reach, it plays a critical role in creating awareness on issues affecting, channelling the energy of and building
aspirations among India’s millions. As it entertains and informs the country, the M&E industry has been a
catalyst for the growth of large parts of the Indian economy. M&E industry consist of TV, Print, Films, Radio,
Music, OOH, Animation and VFX, Gaming and Digital Advertising.
The FICCI-KPMG 2014 Report 'The Stage Is Set' showing the Indian media and entertainment (M&E)
industry has grown by 11.8 per cent in 2013 while comparing with 2012 and touched Rs 918 billion. It is
expected to touch Rs 1785.8 billion by 2018, with a CAGR of 14.2 per cent.
By the end of 2014, the industry is expected to stand at Rs 1039 billion. Additionally, digital advertising has
shown promising growth in 2013 while comparing with 2012, which is about 38.7 per cent, followed by
gaming which grew by 25.5 per cent. As for the 2018 prediction: Digital advertising is expected to lead the
CAGR with 27.7 per cent, followed by radio with 18.1 per cent. Gaming and television are expected to register
a CAGR of 16.2 per cent each, followed by growth rates of animation and VFX (15.9 per cent), music (13.2
per cent), films (11.9 per cent) and OOH with 9.2 per cent expected CAGR.
17
According to the annual advertising expenditure report from GroupM, The digital media advertising revenues
for the year 2013 is estimated at Rs 2,520.1 crore (around $405 million) , up 30% from Rs 1,938.6 crore in
2012,. Digital contributed to 6.5% of the total media advertising expenditure in 2013, up from 5.5% share in
2012.
The agency estimates that the digital media advertising revenues to reach Rs 3,402.2 crore ($546 million) in
2014, registering a 35% growth year on year. This will represent around 7.9% of the total media advertising
expenditure in 2014, which is estimated at Rs 43,065.4 crore. The company notes this will be driven by election
spending by the government and political parties across all media. GroupM made the prediction in the latest
edition of its annual report This Year, Next Year. Digital media were projected to increase 35%, with TV
slowing to 12% from last year’s 14.6% and print picking up to 8.5% from 4.6% in 2013.
Digital ad spends accounted for 8.3 percent of the total ad spends of Inr362.5 billion in 2013. Digital media
advertising in India is grown by 38.7 per cent in 2013, faster than any other ad category. With the dramatic
growth in mobile usage, content providers and advertisers are seeking opportunities to get their message across
on this preferred medium of the masses.
It is estimated that the total internet user base will reach 494 Million by the end of 2018 as against 938 million
TV viewers in the same year. This means that the internet user population will be approximately 53 per cent
of the total number of TV viewer in the country in 2018 compared to 27 per cent in 2013. This shift towards
the digital media is important for digital media strategists to consider, in order balancing their marketing
budgets between online media and traditional TV strategy.
IAMAI & IMRB report of March 2013 showing trends in breakup of Digital ad market among various ad
types like search ads, display ads, mobile ads, social media ads, email ads and video ads. By seeing this breakup
we can understand marketer are giving importance to all venues to place ads.
18
Some of the key players in the Digital advertising are Ogilvy & Mather, Web chutney, IBS, Isobar, Maxus, 22
Feet, Grey Digital, Mind Share, Interactive Avenues, Omnicom Media Group, Digital Law & Kenneth,
Pinstrom.
ATD- Agency Trading Desk DSP- Demand Side Platform SSP- Selling Side Platform
Clients would give authority to agencies, to wear the shoes of clients. Agency will create ads, which may be
banner ads or videos. After the creation and getting approval from clients, agency while find out the portals or
websites where the T.G is present. Later give the order to DSP or ATD, this order contains details regarding
where to place ads or which portal is requiring to placing the ad. This DSP/ ATD will bid in ad exchange for
that portal. Otherwise agency can directly approach to ad networks and give orders. These ad networks buy
the inventories from publisher and give to agency. From publisher view he can sell inventories through Ad
networks or through SSP. If publisher give to SSP, they will place those space in ad exchange for bidding.
Through ad exchange DSP/ATD will buy those inventories. Bidding will not only for space but also for T.G
which required for clients.
Ad exchanges are technology platforms that facilitate the bids for buying and selling of online media
advertising inventory from multiple ad networks. The approach is technology-driven as opposed to the
historical approach of negotiating price on media inventory.
A demand-side platform (DSP) is a system that allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage
multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface. Real-time bidding for displaying
online ads takes place within the ad exchanges, and by utilizing a DSP, marketers can manage their bids for
19
The banners and the pricing for the data that they are layering on to target their audiences. A supply-side
platform or sell-side platform (SSP) is a technology platform, web publishers of the world use a supply-side
platform to automate and optimize the selling of their online media space.
20
➢ Main competitor for Digital advertising is TVC, but trends are now changing FICCI-KPMG report
of 2014 showing growth of digital is very high while comparing with others media.
➢ But media consumption through radio is increasing now.
5) Rivalry by existing competitors
➢ At present competitors are low, but it can be increase in future. Because lot new players are coming
to the industry.
➢ Existing competitors have high profile clients and clients loyal toward them.
➢ Most of the traditional agencies are now concentrating in digital also.
➢ Existing firms in the Industry are creating variety and unique campaign for clients.
➢ Most of the firms have efficient backend support in technology.
➢ Existing firms have the expertise manpower and firms giving good remunerations to employees.
So employees are loyal towards employers.
➢ Some firms are popular due to execution of innovative campaigns.
21
5. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Neelika Arora 32has published research article entitled “Trends in Online Advertising” in advertising Express,
Dec2013.
The global online advertising revenues are expected to touch US $10bn by 2015. In India, the revenues at
present are estimated to be Rs.80 cr. and are expected to increase six times more within the next five years. In
India, Internet as a medium is accepted by a wider industrial segment that includes automobiles, telecom,
education, banking, insurance, credit cards, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), apparel/clothing,
durables, media, business services and tourism. Out of these, it is estimated that the banking, FMCG and
insurance sectors together account for 45% of the total advertising spend. In comparison to this, automotive,
travel and retail spend 37% of the total advertising revenue and financial service companies spend 12% only.
Some of the top spenders in India are automobiles, followed by brands like Pepsodent, Kelloggs, Cadbury,
HDFC (Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd.) loans and Sunsilk. In addition to these the early
adopters in the field of finance and IT are also increasing their spending. Globally, the trend is that almost
60% of the revenue goes to five firms- Goggle, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL(America Online Launchers), and
Overture. Approximately, 90% of the Goggle revenues come from advertising. In India, portals like
indiatimes.com, exchange4media.com, rediffmail.com, agencyfaqs.com etc are attracting major online
spender.
This article explains demographic profile of Indian users. It also gives the comparison between global trend
and Indian trend, which is useful for my research work.
2. Sumanjeet37 has published article on “On Line Banner Advertising” in Indian Journal of Marketing.
Online banner advertising has great potential as an advertising medium. It is easy to create, place and use. It
offers companies targeting well educated, innovative, affluent males/females or students with great potential
for success as their segments are highly represented.
3. Jaffrey Graham45 has published his article entitled “Web advertising’s future e-Marketing strategy” Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter published an equity research report analysing the Internet marketing and advertising
industry. The report studies research from dozens of companies and calculates the cost and effectiveness of
advertising across various media. Branding on the Internet works. For existing brands, the Internet is more
effective in driving recall than television, magazines, and newspapers and at least as good in generating
product interest.
4. Advertising in social media: How consumers act after seeing social ads. Adapted from Nielsen (2012: 10).
Social media has not only changed how people communicate online, but it has also changed the consumption
of other media too. Online social connections are used to filter, discuss, disseminate, and validate news,
22
entertainment, and products for consumption. (Ryan 2011: 15) The next chapters will explain more about each
of the world‘s current most widely used social medias. There are, of course, many other social networks and
applications (apps) available but considering the study, the focus is on the main Medias.
5. Vikas Bondar has published his article on “sales and marketing strategies” Internet is a really good thing.
The Internet gives people a greater amount of information as we need. It is the best way to get a comparison
of the products that we need. If we are interested in buying, it is best for us to check the Web sites. Also if we
would like to make our own Web page we can do this, without paying a lot of money. From where do we set
all this information? The answer is from advertising, which we see, everywhere: on TV, on the Internet, in the
newspapers and more. Year after year we get more and more new, interesting information and in the future
the Internet use will increase more than now. This article explains how internet is useful tool for advertisement.
6. According to Garder‘s survey (2013), the top priority in digital marketing investment will be to improve
commerce experiences through social marketing, content creation and management and mobile marketing.
Key findings also revealed that a company’s marketing success relies mostly on their website, social
marketing, and digital advertising, which are all parts of digital marketing. In addition, savings made by using
digital marketing can be reinvested elsewhere. Normally, companies spend 10 percent of their revenue on
marketing and 2.4 percent on digital marketing, which will increase to 9 percent in the future.
7. J Suresh Reddy26 has published article in Indian Journal of Marketing. Title of article is “Impact of E-
commerce on marketing”. Marketing is one of the business function most dramatically affected by emerging
information technologies. Internet is providing companies new channels of communication and interaction. It
can create closer yet more cost effective relationships with customers in sales, marketing and customer support.
Companies can use web to provide ongoing information, service and support. It also creates positive
interaction with customers that can serve as the foundation for long term relationships and encourage repeat
purchases.
8. Economic times published article on “Indian companies using digital marketing for competitive
advantage” in Oct 2014.
According to this article a growing number of marketers in India are leveraging digital marketing to increase
their competitive advantage, a research by Adobe and CMO Council has revealed. According to the study,
India leads in the confidence in digital marketing as a driver of competitive advantage. Ninety-six per cent of
the Indian marketers have high confidence in the ability of digital marketing to drive competitive advantage.
It is among the highest in Asia-Pacific APAC with only Australia leading with 97 per cent, the research said.
However, while Indian marketers believe that the key driver to adopting digital is a growing internet population
(70 per cent in India against 59 per cent in APAC), their belief that customer preference and digital dependence
drive the adoption of digital, and that digital can engage the audience, is lower than the APAC averages, it
added.
23
The 2014 Adobe APAC Digital Marketing Performance Dashboard was compiled through quantitative surveys
with over 800 marketers across the region.
Marketers from Australia, Korea, China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries were covered.
"However, while India is an emerging leader in Digital Marketing, it has dipped in its own performance this
year as compared to the previous year. It is important to note that India scored much higher than the APAC
average last year," it said.
Adobe Managing Director South Asia Umang Bedi said that customer preference and digital dependence
would increase along with the increase in penetration of internet in the Indian market. "Therefore, what would
matter is how the Indian marketers are able to increase engagement and activate audience through digital
marketing. This presents challenges in programme planning, execution and most importantly measurement,"
he added. The study also revealed that compared to their APAC counterparts, Indian marketers are receiving
lesser support from channel and sales teams for increasing digital spends. However they are doing better as
compared to last year suggesting that departments that have a customer interface are realising the importance
of digital marketing in augmenting their effort.
9. Andy mallinson in digital marketing magazine on Jan 23 2015 published article titles how social media
engagement will impact the retail space it says
Traditionally, social networks have not been used as a tool to directly drive e-commerce sales, but as Nielsen
reported in its Global ecommerce report in August 2014, an estimated 61% of people spend a considerable
amount of time researching products through online channels before making a purchase. And interestingly, a
significant 43% of consumers revealed that they specifically browse through outlets such as Facebook, Twitter,
Pinterest, Instagram and Google+ to seek inspiration for the types of products to buy.
This last statistic reveals just how powerful social media can be in terms of enticing shoppers to make a
purchase, both through its use of visual content and product descriptions. But while many consumers still have
reservations about purchasing items through social channels directly, the social shopping phenomenon is
clearly only going to grow and it’s apparent that this growth will eventually have a positive impact on a
retailer’s bottom line.
One retailer which enjoyed success by promoting its products via social media is ASOS. At the start of 2014,
ASOS previewed their summer sale through a Facebook application, allowing fans to play a series of games
to accumulate points, getting them to the front of the virtual shopping queue. The winners gained first access
to the sale, and through the support of sponsored ads ASOS was able to generate 1 million views through the
application, growing their fan base by 32%.
24
This example shows how much potential there is for brands to drum up organic publicity for their products
whilst engaging through fans across social media channels. Furthermore, it proves that social media outlets
have evolved not only as a tool for driving community growth, but also as a revenue driving commodity to
boost business performance.
Retailers mustn’t underestimate the power of social engagement as a method of generating sales. This was
proved by Wanted Shoes, who recently worked with us to design and integrate a ‘social catalogue’ onto their
site. The social catalogue depicted real-life images of products that customers had recently purchased. When
hovering over a post, users of the site were then directed to a link to buy the exact shoe displayed in the picture,
or alternatively, were able to shop for other shoes from that designer.
Supporting the concept that that social media engagement can facilitate purchase orders, according to Nielsen,
77% of shoppers say ‘social exposure’ and validation to a product is the most persuasive source of information,
and does indeed drive them to make more purchases. After all, we mustn’t forget how powerful the trust of
our peers can be, and this has a direct impact of driving revenue.
As Wanted Shoes experienced, by showcasing its products in a customer driven catalogue, they were able to
boost revenue and encourage more people to engage with their brand. Following this example as well as the
other retail giants that have enjoyed impressive results through social channels, the retailer that ignores the
power of social engagement in 2015 could potentially miss out on a substantial revenue stream – one that
could decide the difference between success and failure in an increasingly competitive retail landscape.
10. Avinash kaushik is an indian entrepreneur published an article in dec 2014 titled digital marketing and
analytics are two ladders of magnificent success.
25
6. DIGITAL MARKETING
Meaning:
Digital Marketing (also Online Marketing, Internet Marketing or Web Marketing) is a collective name for
marketing activity carried out online, as opposed to traditional marketing through print media, live promotions,
tv and radio advertisement.
The rapid growth of Digital Marketing Industry is a direct consequence of the global phenomenon that is the
Internet, and effectiveness of Digital Marketing channels in generating revenue and awareness. Compared to
traditional methods of advertising, Digital Marketing offers rather realistic costs (particularly important for
small- and medium-size businesses and start-ups), accurate targeting and excellent reporting.
In push digital marketing the marketer sends a message without the recipient actively seeking the content, such
as display advertising on websites and news blogs. Email, text messaging and web feeds with customized
26
Contents can also be classed as push digital marketing when the recipient has not actively sought the marketing
message. Push marketing allows you to target your demographics and use your marketing dollars to promote
your product to the people you know are interested in what you have to sell. A push marketing campaign can
be more expensive when it comes to upfront costs, so you really need to be sure that your marketing is going
to reach the right people at the right time. Behaviour targeting is good example for push digital marketing.
In Pull digital marketing includes blogging, email marketing, social media, info graphics and other forms of
visual messaging and search engine optimization (SEO). A pull marketing campaign also includes public
relations or other ways of reaching out to potential or already realized customers who you want to keep
engaged. While a pull marketing campaign can be less expensive to get started, you will incur costs in other
ways. For example, if you are running a social media campaign, you will need to hire someone to manage
your social media and respond to people who leave comments or ask questions. Social media gets people
talking and that has a major impact on sales. Pull marketing also requires a greater investment in time, but it
gives you more ability to entertain your customers and educate them about your company. But don't get
confused by seeing Email in push and pull, there is a difference. If marketer is sending emails with customized
content or banners to specific group of customers is push digital marketing. If marketer is sending emails with
the same content or banner to all customers is pull digital marketing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a
search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. SEO may target different kinds of search,
including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical
search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual
search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted
audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase
its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
Promoting a site to increase the number of back links, or inbound links, social book marking, directory
submission is the SEO tactic.
27
SEO OR
ORGANIC
1. Paid or Featured Web Listing: – In this type of Directories Submission the owner of Directories Site Will
Charge for Submission and your link will approved hand to hand or within 24 hours you will get fast back
links from this type of submission. Some sites offer this package for yearly or lifetime.
28
2. Free or Regular Web Listing: – It is free for Directory Submission no one charge for free or regular
submission but there is no guarantee for getting approved your link by Administrator and it will take lots of
time.
3. Reciprocal Regular Web Listing: – In this a reciprocal link must be submit to your site when you activate
Directory Link then Directory administrator will approve your link.
1. Automated Directory Submission: – In this way of submission many software and tools are used to submit
directories it will save time and with the help of automated huge amount of submission done in short time.
2. Manually Directory Submission: – It is done by manually and it will take lots of time to do directory
submissions.
30
1.2 Social bookmarking:
Essentially, a social bookmark is a link that people post to social websites for others to see because they find
it interesting, valuable or cool. In a way, social bookmarks are just like the bookmarks you already have on
your private computer. The difference between the two is that social bookmarks are saved to the web where
they can be easily shared while private bookmarks are saved to your own browser. The idea behind social
bookmarking is simple: post links on popular social bookmarking websites to increase your own traffic and
gain an ongoing stream of new readers and customers. Content that are openly shared with other Internet users
literally have unlimited growth potential. For example, one link can quickly multiply and reach thousands of
desktops across the world if one user passes it on to others, and those users in turn do the same, and so on.
Online marketing has gravitated away from true-and-tried ad and affiliate marketing toward the rapidly
growing world of global social networking. Social bookmarking is a great traffic-boosting search engine
optimization (SEO) strategy because it’s easy, effective and trendy.
31
2. SEM (Search Engine Marketing):
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by
increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through optimization and advertising.] SEM
may use search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content to achieve a higher
ranking in search engine results pages, or use pay per click listings.
SEM/PAID ADS
SEM/PAID ADS
There are four categories of methods and metrics used to optimize websites through search engine marketing.
1. Keyword research and analysis involves three steps ensuring the site can be indexed in the search engines,
finding the most relevant and popular keywords for the site and its products, and using those keywords on the
site in a way that will generate and convert traffic. A follow-on effect of keyword analysis and research is the
search perception impact. Search perception impact describes the identified impact of a brand's search results
on consumer perception, including title and Meta tags, site indexing, and keyword focus. As online searching
is often the first step for potential consumers/customers, the search perception impact shapes the brand
impression for each individual.
2. Website saturation and popularity, or how much presence a website has on search engines, can be
analyzed through the number of pages of the site that are indexed on search engines (saturation) and how
many backlinks the site has (popularity). It requires pages to contain keywords people are looking for and
ensure that they rank high enough in search engine rankings. Most search engines include some form of link
32
Popularity in their ranking algorithms. The following are major tools measuring various aspects of saturation
and link popularity: Link Popularity, Top 10 Google Analysis, and Market leap’s Link Popularity and Search
Engine Saturation.
3. Back end tools, including Web analytic tools and HTML validators, provide data on a website and its
visitors and allow the success of a website to be measured. They range from simple traffic counters to tools
that work with log files and to more sophisticated tools that are based on page tagging (putting JavaScript or
an image on a page to track actions). These tools can deliver conversion-related information. There are three
major tools used by EBSCO: (a) log file analyzing tool: Web Trends by NetIQ; (b) tag-based analytic tool:
WebSideStory's Hitbox; and (c) transaction-based tool: Tealeaf RealiTea. Validators check the invisible parts
of websites, highlighting potential problems and many usability issues and ensuring websites meet W3C code
standards. Try to use more than one HTML validator or spider simulator because each one tests, highlights,
and reports on slightly different aspects of your website.
4. Whois tools reveal the owners of various websites, and can provide valuable information relating to
copyright and trademark issues.
With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites
commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. PPC "display" advertisements, also
known as "banner" ads, are shown on web sites or search engine results with related content that have agreed
to show ads.
In contrast to the generalized portal, which seeks to drive a high volume of traffic to one site, PPC implements
the so-called affiliate model, which provides purchase opportunities wherever people may be surfing. It does
this by offering financial incentives (in the form of a percentage of revenue) to affiliated partner sites. The
affiliates provide purchase-point click-through to the merchant. It is a pay-for-performance model: If an
affiliate does not generate sales, it represents no cost to the merchant. Variations include banner exchange,
pay-per-click, and revenue sharing programs.
Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser's
keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called sponsored
links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to, above, or beneath organic results on search engine results
pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site.
33
The PPC advertising model is open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and others have
implemented automated systems to guard against abusive clicks by competitors or corrupt web developers.
Pay-per-click is calculated by dividing the advertising cost by the number of clicks generated by an
advertisement. The basic formula is:
With the bid-based PPC model, the advertiser is allowed to bid, to compete against similar advertisers in a
private auction. Each of the bidding advertisers lets the publisher know the maximum amount they are willing
to pay for a given ad spot or keyword. The winning advertisers then pay for each click on their advertisement,
based on the amount they bid. The common practice amongst bid-based PPC websites such as Google Ad
Words, is to charge a small amount more than the next highest bidder.As you can see, Pay per Click can be a
massively effective means of directing targeted traffic to your website, and is relatively inexpensive. While
there is the risk of click fraud, most of the major Pay Per Click providers such as Google or Yahoo, have
employed several automated systems to prevent abusive clicks by corrupt web developers or competitors out
to cost you additional money. If used properly, you can find new customers with ease using Pay per Click. It
might also be beneficial to find a reputable pay per click company to assist you with your campaigns.
34
3. SMM (Social Media Marketing):
Social media marketing is the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. Social
media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages
readers to share it across their social networks. The resulting electronic word of mouth (eWoM) refers to any
statement consumers share via the Internet (e.g., web sites, social networks, instant messages, news feeds)
about an event, product, service, brand or company. When the underlying message spreads from user to user
and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the
brand or company itself, this form of marketing results in earned media rather than paid media.
3.1 Engagement
In the context of the social web, engagement means that customers and stakeholders are participants rather
than viewers. Social media in business allows anyone and everyone to express and share an opinion or an idea
somewhere along the business’s path to market. Each participating customer becomes part of the marketing
department, as other customers read their comments or reviews. The engagement process is then fundamental
to successful social media marketing.
Facebook is the world's most popular social network for both businesses and individuals. With over one billion
users, your friends and fans are likely already using the platform and you should be too. In fact, people are
51% more likely to make a purchase after "liking" a brand on Facebook. Face book marketing requires
a good intellects and unique thinking to make the campaign effective.
35
In face book marketing in fact in visual /web marketing your content speaks a loud that is why make sure
your content should be relevant to your audience and business.
Pros:
Facebook is a low-cost marketing strategy
Marketing activities that would cost thousands of dollars through other channels can be used on Facebook for
a fraction of the cost. This makes it ideal for small to medium businesses with a limited marketing budget.
Larger businesses can also trial marketing concepts and themes through Facebook before committing to bigger
campaigns.
Share basic information about your business
Your Facebook page is a place where you can publicise your business name, address and contact details,
and briefly describe your products and services. You can also talk about your staff, history, or any other
aspect of your business that is likely to attract other Facebook users and create interest in what you do.
Facebook also allows users to 'tag' photos to indicate if a Facebook friend appears in them. This function
can be used to promote your business. For example, a tour operator could post a photo on their page of a
group going white-water rafting, then invite each participant to tag their image in the photo. Each tagged
image will show up as an update on the participant's Facebook account, where their friends will see it too.
This increases the level of interest in the picture, and your business.
36
If you do decide to use tagging, be careful. It can be a privacy issue, and some Facebook users are sensitive
about being tagged in photographs. For this reason, it is better to ask participants to do the tagging, rather
than doing it on their behalf. Talk to existing and potential customers
You can use Facebook to 'talk' to existing and potential customers by posting and receiving messages. But
don't use Facebook to aggressively promote your products or services. You'll have much greater success if
you share information related to your business that is actually useful or interesting to other users. This increases
your credibility and promotes your business by building long-term relationships with other users. For example,
a veterinarian could post tips for looking after pets, timing them according to when particular health issues
arise (e.g. ticks in summer).
You should also listen as much as you talk. Paying attention to what the market thinks about your business,
your industry, a product or a marketing campaign can provide valuable insights.
Provide customer support
Customers can post after-sales questions on your Facebook wall, and your staff can answer them there. This
is often more efficient than staff answering phone calls, and allows other customers to read common questions
and answers without having to approach you individually.
Raise brand awareness and promote positive word-of-mouth
You can increase your business's profile on Facebook by encouraging existing and potential customers to click
the 'Like' button on your Facebook page. Once they like your page, your customers will receive your updates
on their wall, where their friends will also see them. This helps to build awareness of your business, and to
associate your friends with your brand. Customers can also post positive messages about your products or
services, shared on their walls for all their friends to see.
Facebook can steer traffic to your website
You can include a link to your website on your Facebook page. Indeed, many businesses report that the greatest
benefit of Facebook is the extra traffic that it steers to their site. Visitors who come to the website can be
exposed to stronger marketing messages and, often, the option of buying goods and services. Customers who
come to your website from Facebook are likely to be more receptive than the average visitor, because they
already know something about your business and were motivated to click the website link.
Targeted advertising
Facebook can analyse all the information that millions of users enter into their profiles. As the owner of a
business page, you can pay to use this information to deliver targeted advertising to a specific group. For
example, an outdoor store could use Facebook to calculate how many men over a certain age in a certain
city have listed 'fishing' as an interest. Then they could develop an ad for new fishing lures, and pay for it
to appear only on the pages of those people. (Ads appear on the right-hand side pages in Facebook.)
37
Offer deals through Facebook Places
Facebook Places allows users to 'check in' on mobile devices at a particular place, so that their friends can see
their location on Facebook. Facebook Places also identifies popular places close to where a user checks in.
Businesses can use Facebook Places so that when a user checks in to a neighbourhood, street or business, they
receive a list of nearby businesses offering deals (e.g. discounts, freebies, loyalty rewards). Businesses that
have a Facebook page are automatically included in the Facebook Places directory.
Cons:
Loss of Control
Facebook was designed as an interactive online forum that encourages members to share information via
photos, video clips, links and written posts. While account owners ultimately have control of what remains on
their public profile, there is little control over who posts information or what those posts contain. It is relatively
easy for a competitor, angry customer or disgruntled employee to post accusatory comments that are
inflammatory, derogatory or otherwise slanderous to your business on your Facebook wall. Even well-
meaning posters may use language or photos that are not in line with the image you want to maintain for your
business. Maintaining vigilant control over the content that appears on your Facebook page takes the time and
effort of approved content monitors, which can be costly and time consuming for small business owners.
Cost of Maintenance
Content pages must continually be updated with new information that readers will find useful, beneficial or
interesting for Facebook marketing to be effective. This requires development of a detailed innovative social
media marketing strategy a costly investment for small advertising budgets. Facebook marketing strategies
include video product demonstrations, interactive forums and online contests, all of which must be created,
uploaded, monitored and maintained by a business owner, staff member or social media advertising agency.
Competition
Marketing platforms executed via Facebook are open to easy duplication by competitors. Rival business
owners can easily pose as “friends” or “fans” to gain access to your content. Photos, artwork and other
images posted to your site are easily accessed and reused by visitors and can show up in other places you
may not approve of.
Professionalism
Social media platforms like Facebook were created to facilitate the casual sharing of information that may not
mesh with the professional reputation you want to establish for your business. For example, Facebook
marketing of a nightclub needs to be vastly different from Facebook marketing of a doctor’s office or law
practice. Care must be taken to develop and maintain a Facebook presence that reflects your corporate
philosophy, or it could place your company at a disadvantage.
38
Advertising Costs
While basic Facebook pages are free of charge for personal users, business accounts that feature advertising
opportunities come with a price tag attached. This added promotional expense can be a disadvantage for small
business owners.
Negative Content
Communicating with your clients or fans over Facebook sounds friendly in theory, but some people may use
your Facebook page as a venue to write offensive comments or post spam. A user might even post false
allegations about your business on your page for anyone to see. As a result, your business needs to be
monitoring its Facebook page frequently, ideally checking each individual post. Even if you address these
issues quickly, you'll never know how many people saw the negative comments on the page and will associate
that memory with your business.
Subscriptions
Just because someone clicks "Like" on your page does not guarantee that she will see your updates in her
Facebook news feed. In an effort to give users more control over their Facebook experience, the social
networking site allows people to unsubscribe from a page's updates. When a user unsubscribes from your
updates, your new posts will be hidden from her news feed, so she will only see your posts if she actively
visits your page. This makes it impossible to know exactly how many people are actually viewing your posts
in their news feeds, so you cannot accurately measure impressions.
Time Consumption
Utilizing a Facebook page as a part of your digital strategy is very time-consuming if done right. In addition
to watching out for negative comments, a business should respond promptly to any questions or positive
suggestions posed by customers. Because Facebook is up and running 24 hours a day, posts may accumulate
quickly. If a business's Facebook engagement grows, it may even become necessary to designate an employee
strictly to social media duties. This might not be realistic for some companies, making it unreasonable to
properly manage a Facebook page.
Thumb rules:
• Emphasize on visualization. Rich visuals make the best content and the best timelines. ‘Highlight’
posts to give them the full width of the Face book container. To make it more attractive.
• ‘PIN’ posts, these posts stay at the top of the feed promoting posts.
• Ensure FB apps have relevant info, your audience is looking for.
• Analyse what works, and what doesn’t work: Face book Insight. Edge Rank. Social bakers.
39
3.3 Twitter marketing (A game of 140 characters)
Twitter’s flexible, real-time platform allows you to get creative and drive results at the same time. Whether
you’re looking to drive sales, increase brand awareness or launch a product. Twitter marketing is not much
popular than face book but still it has an impact on audience
The very first thing in twitter marketing you need to understand and learn the twitter terminologies well.
1. HASHTAG
A hashtag is any word beginning with the # sign. People use hashtags to organize conversations around a
specific topic. Clicking on a hashtag takes you to search results for that term.
2. MENTION
Sometimes you want to bring a Tweet to someone’s attention, but you still want all of your followers to see
the message. So instead of a reply, use a mention. Include the @username of whomever you want to mention
in your Tweet, and it will appear in the Mentions section (in the Connect tab). All @username mentions are
clickable and link back to the mentioned individual’s profile.
3. REPLY
You can respond to a Tweet by hitting the reply button. When you reply, your response is public, and will
show up in your home timeline and the timeline of the person to whom you are responding. The reply will
also be visible in the home timelines of people who follow both you and the person to whom you sent the
reply. Meaning, someone not in the conversation has to follow both of the people replying to be able to read
both sides of the conversation.
4. RETWEET
You can pass along someone’s Tweet by retweeting it. Just hit the retweet button to send the original message
to all of your followers.
5. LINKS
Twitter’s link- shortening feature allows you to paste a link of any length into the Tweet box and it will
automatically be shortened to 19 characters. This makes it easier to fit long URLs into the 140 character limit.
40
6. FAVOURITE
You can favourite the tweet for future reference. This is just like an archiving something that’s really
interesting to you.
7. DM (direct message)
You can send private messages to someone, just like an email. For DM, sender and receiver should be
following each other.
Pros:
The targeted market is most probably on Twitter:
Since a very large number of people use social network, there is a high probability that the interested parties
for the product you are advertising is in the virtual world. This is one great advantage every business should
try to make use of because if you are not using social networks for advertising, then you are missing a large
market.
Great way to research market:
With the growing popularity of the internet, market research has become easy. Instead of spreading
questionnaires or asking people oral questions, the use of social networks made it easy by making it easier to
create free surveys and posting the links so that people can participate. This is a very easy way of doing market
research, keeping in mind the fact that the setting up the surveys won’t cost money and people can finish those
surveys in less time than the hard copy one.
Growth of social networking:
There is no doubt that the use of social networks is rapidly growing. What this means to business is that, there
are audience on the virtual world than the business could ever reach through any other type of media. This is
in fact one of the main advantages of using Twitter and other social networks for businesses.
Easier way to pass info:
By just posting a 140 character tweets, a business would be passing more information than it can do anywhere
else. This costs less or almost nothing compared to other modes like sending a mail or making a phone call. I
also don’t know if this is true for everyone else, but I may read lots of stuff online that I may not read if they
were on a hard copy or somewhere else.
Cons:
Spams and viruses:
When the use of the internet world has increased, the potential risks that one can obtain from the internet have
increased as well. What this means is spammers could spam your site or worse than that, can find access to
your information through social networks. Social networks could be useful, but if not properly used, then they
could lead to more problems.
41
Using for business needs:
Twitter and other social networks are designed to be user friendly. On the other hand, there are also
applications and other aids that make it easier to use. One thing with social networks is that businesses and
individuals do not use it the same way. What this means is that businesses need to learn how to efficiently and
effectively use Twitter and other social networks so that they could make the use out of it.
Limited space:
I think everyone who used Twitter or paid a little attention to how it’s used knows about the 140 characters
thingy. This kind of space or limitation on character is not enough for most business and this is where learning
to effectively and efficiently twitter comes into place. On the good side, may be this is good, because otherwise
people won’t be in the mood to read a whole blog most of the time.
Streamline nature of twitter:
It’s a common expectation of anyone who follows others on twitter not to follow everything. One of the reasons
this happens is because the tweets in twitter are designed to stream really quickly and usually show the latest
tweets. So some of times, some of the tweets one makes or a business makes may lost in the long shuffle of
tweets. Like I said before, this calls for learning to use twitter effectively.
Thumb rules:
• Remember, you just have 140 characters to play around. Compose your message within 120 characters
or less and leave atleast20 characters so that others can re-tweet (RT).
• Utilization of # hash tags Tweets with hash tags get twice the engagement of those
Create a list of #Hash tags relevant to your brand Build a campaign around those #Hash tags and invite
followers to re-tweet.
• Posts with images have double the engagement of those without even though users can’t see them until
they click on them. It creates an interest among the audience.
42
3.4 Linked In Marketing:
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May
5, 2003 it is mainly used for professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million members. As
of June 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 259 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories.
LinkedIn allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network
and meet others. Through the use of widgets, members can promote their various social networking activities,
such as Twitter stream or blog entries of their product pages, onto their LinkedIn profile page. LinkedIn
provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners. Members can use
“Company Pages” similar to Facebook pages to create an area that will allow business owners to promote their
products or services and be able to interact with their customers. Due to spread of spam mail sent to job seeker,
leading companies prefer to use LinkedIn for employee's recruitment instead using different job portals.
Additionally, companies have voiced a preference for the amount of information that can be gleaned from
LinkedIn profile, versus a limited email.
Pros and Cons of social media marketing on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of today’s biggest social networks but it’s not exactly what you might call “strictly social.”
LinkedIn provides a great deal of exposure to businesses and can help find new partners, business
opportunities, or employees. Some might even call LinkedIn a social network for business as it’s used mainly
for “professional networking.” As a social platform LinkedIn incorporates many social aspects, but its main
focus is the business world. As a result, many small business owners join LinkedIn with the hopes of expanding
their ventures and creating new connections that might prove beneficial. But like most things, LinkedIn has
its pros and cons.
Pros
• The first, most obvious benefit from using LinkedIn comes from the algorithmic realm of SEO
(search engine optimization). It’s yet another avenue that search engines use to bring businesses in
search query results. It’s the perfect tool to give a business more exposure while also allowing it
to expose the most crucial parts of its business – the mission, the background, the members of the
team, etc. Increased SEO exposure leads to increased web traffic which, in turn, leads to an
increased conversion rate.
• LinkedIn is also a great way to stay up-to-date with the news from your industry or field of interest.
This is a major benefit it keeps you in the current loop, indicates upcoming trends or big ideas, and
provides a ripe stomping ground for sharing experiences and advice among experts surrounding
topics that are important to the business. These easily accessible resources are invaluable to a
company, particularly smaller ones, due to its low cost and high beneficial value.
43
• LinkedIn is also a great asset because of the amount of information it gives about a particular
company or business. Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn will tell you all the major data you need to
know about a company as well as give you the professional profiles of the individuals associated
with the business – from employees to investors. Access to this type of specific data and
information allows users to easily find potential partners or recruit new employees, saving you a
lot of time, energy, and resources.
• LinkedIn Answer also gives users the chance to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in their
respective field to establish themselves as credible experts with vast knowledge and expertise. In
turn, this is beneficial for LinkedIn users as it positions them as experts and boosts the company’s
credibility.
Cons:
• When looking at LinkedIn, it’s also important to be aware of and acknowledge its cons. One of the
major negatives is the way users use LinkedIn as an advertising megaphone via SPAM so brace
yourself for the slew of SPAM coming your way.
• Once established, LinkedIn is a major timesaver. But in the beginning, it requires a lot of personal
time and work version of LinkedIn, but that might not be an option for smaller companies with a
limited budget. to get your connections flowing and conversations started. Users need to constantly
ask others to be introduced to companies and individuals they are interested in connecting with,
which can be cumbersome at times. Always keep in mind that LinkedIn is a platform for
connections and conversations so approach these tasks with the outcome of building a business
relationship in mind. This task can be sidestepped with the paid
• Overall, LinkedIn is a solid platform for businesses and individuals. If you are just getting started,
keep these pros and cons in mind. If you do, your relationship and experience with LinkedIn will
prove beneficial.
• In our internship, we used LinkedIn to grow the professional network of Institute of Digital
Marketing. This institute not only provides knowledge but also do business with its skill sets.
LinkedIn helps in building great professional network and in getting new businesses. Apart from
the workshops and course classes, Institute of Digital Marketing has some set of people who
develops e-commerce websites and optimizes them. Hence, in order to get business we have used
LinkedIn as a major platform.
• In LinkedIn groups, there will be discussions going on every time. So, we have created a LinkedIn
group and started discussions on various topics on digital marketing. In the beginning the results
were very slow since LinkedIn is strictly a professional network and the targeted people might not
44
Show much interest here. As it goes on, our discussion has got a wide popularity with students
from different colleges asking questions and actively participating in the discussion.
With this growing popularity on LinkedIn, slowly business started coming in. in the beginning only small
projects used to come like landing page creation, content creation, blog postings etc. There were two big
projects came during my internship tenure from Dharani Computers and The Suntech Corporation for
developing and managing the website and do search engine optimization for them.
3.5 Pinterest:
It is a visual discovery social network. It is a way of sharing images of anything, from fashion to pets to pot
plants. You can create your own online pinboards to suits any theme and share it with likeminded people.
Pinterest completely revolves around the premise of being creative and visual. 70% users are female and aged
between 25 and 44. So if you are targeting women pinterest is the right platform. Pinterest is now one of the
top 10 social networking sites tracked by Hit wise.
culture and lifestyle related. You can create boards on trends, behind the scenes, preliminary sketches for
products.
45
3.6 Instagram:
Instgram, the new revolutionary photo-sharing program, making it easier than ever to share your best pictures
with the world. The social media program allow you to upload, add digital filters, and then post your pictures
on your Instagram-feed, as well as other social networking sites. You can connect your Instgram account with
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare and your email account. This makes it easy to share your
pictures on multiple platforms all at once.
When it comes to brands and businesses, Instagram goal is to help companies to reach their respective
audiences through captivating imagery in a rich, visual environment. Moreover, Instagram provides a
platform where user and company can communicate publicly and directly, making itself an ideal platform
for companies to connect with their current and potential customers.
46
3.7 Google +:
Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" that enhances many of its online properties, and that it is not
simply a social networking website, but also an authorship tool that associates web-content directly with its
owner/author. It is the second-largest social networking site in the world after Facebook. 540 million monthly
active users are part of the Identity service site, by interacting socially with Google+'s enhanced properties,
like Gmail, +1 button, and YouTube comments. In October 2013, Google counted 540 million active users
who used at least one Google+ service, of which 300 million users are active in "the stream".
Pros:
With most marketers comfortable with using Facebook for their primary social media marketing tactics they
quite often don’t see the other opportunities. Here are some compelling reasons to register and start using a
Google+ page to complement your Facebook page, your social media and digital marketing activities.
Google+ hangouts
Google+ hangouts have been an important part of the Google+ platform since day one. They allow you to
create online meetings that are limited to 10 active users but it allows you to stream YouTube video to an
unlimited number of viewers. Hangouts provide a way to engage with small groups of customers that you may
want to share important information and/or educate.
No update filtering
Google doesn’t need to make money from Google+ as its major revenue (over $30 billion) is from its Google
ad words and search advertising. It doesn’t need to force you to pay to be visible on Google+. Facebook has
increasingly applied its Edge rank technology that filters the updates that are seen by people that have liked
your brand’s “Facebook page”. Some research shows it at less than 15% and shrinking. This is so they can
force you to spend to advertise on Facebook to get attention. It has become “pay to play” Google plus does
not filter (censor) your updates to followers that are following your page.
No ads
Point two leads to another advantage. There are no annoying advertisements on Google plus. No distractions
and no one wanting to sell you weight loss or dating services.
47
Social signals
Google wanted to enhance its search engine capabilities by having humans vote on what content they liked.
(That is the Google+ button). This is now built into Google’s search algorithms to ensure that Google remains
relevant on the web. This makes certain that your content is receiving votes (social signals) when you are
participating on Google+.
Search visibility
By participating on Google plus you are increasing the visibility of your brand. Ever searched for a brand or
business and noticed what comes to the top of the rankings? It is all the major social networks that appear on
the first page. Also what should be considered is the importance of securing your brand name on Google+,
which is an important part of building your online digital assets.
It is the second largest social network
Google plus is no longer something to be ignored with over 600 million registered users and over 350 million
active monthly users. Many of your customers are now on Google+. That on its own should be enough to make
you motivated to participate. You do need to establish a marketing beachhead on this significant platform.
Local marketing
Google has removed “Google Places” and now has created a “Google+ Places Page”. This means that
customers who are on Google+ can leave reviews for your business there. This turns up on local search results.
Now that is something you shouldn’t ignore if local location marketing is vital for your retail store or business.
Integration with other Google properties
Google built Google+ from day one to be integrated into its other web properties. They consider it as being
“core” to its entire online strategy so it is woven into Gmail, the Chrome browser, Picasa and YouTube. This
integration will lead to more effective marketing over time.
Cons:
Google Plus still has Relatively Low Reach
Google Plus still serves a much smaller market than Twitter and Facebook, and it is not surprising that many
customers cannot be reached through Google Plus. As such, many potential customers will not see or be
interested in your company’s Google Plus content on your business page because they don’t want to use
Google Plus.
Google’s Poor Social Media Track Record
This is a legitimate risk factor. Many of Google’s past forays into social media like Buzz and Wave not only
failed, but failed with scandals and controversy. There is a fair amount of scepticism whether or not Google
Plus is just another house of cards waiting to collapse, even after several years of operation.
48
3.8 You tube
YouTube is a video Social Networking site, and the 2nd most popular search site on the Internet after Google,
who owns YouTube. YouTube video watching is a significant activity on the Internet, with over 1 billion visits
to YouTube daily and over 100 million videos watched daily. And it's easy for anyone who sees your video to
rate it and share it with his Social Network.
Pros:
Vast Audiences for your Video
The success of any business depend upon its visibility and youtube gives you that very much required exposure
with little or no effort at all. It is just the matter of selection of uploading your video under right place, under
right category. So it is very easy and more likely to reach masses when you use youtube for your videos, and
hence chances of clever video to grab viewers’ attention and go viral, is quite high on youtube, when self-
hosted videos(websites). Anybody can embed videos on their websites, blogs etc. and if good, your video will
also be approachable from outside of youtube. In case you want your video to be viewed by selected number
of people. You can do that by making it private.
Save Dollars with Free Video Hosting
If you are planning to host your videos on your own video hosting server or thinking about getting licence
from a video platform then you have to take in account, this extra burden of dollars on your wallet. Though
Google don’t promote commercial video sharing but has now made an amendment in the terms and conditions
for sharing original contents of brands. It is one time investment and you would be happy to upload your
content on YouTube as you are still saving the additional design and functional costs. Hence, if you compare
the current cost for licences of video platform YouTube brand channel is a smart bet.
49
The ease to use it
Though we all get motivated enough to cross all hurdles and do hard work, when we decide to do some serious
business but why to choose a harder path when similar results can be achieved with an easy and fair option.
This is the reason why YouTube is a favourite option. All you need is to follow some very basic and simple
steps to upload your video(s). Create an account, sign-in, upload and before you blink you are on YouTube.
You can easily upload a video via a flip video camera or your smartphone within minutes. In fact if user is
interested in just watching a video no registration is required. Yes! It is as simple as that.
Links and Web Traffic
Not only sales but web traffic for the video (actually website) is also very important for any business based on
web. You don’t have to bring people to visit your video instead YouTube brings them for you and if you are
lucky enough and your content go viral (i.e. your content liked by (exponentially increasing) high number of
people) then if you are on YouTube other website will embed your video to make themselves more optimized
for searches. As mentioned earlier YouTube is owned by Google who is Father of all search engines also
uses its owned sites for searches so definitely your network is quite strong, when you are on YouTube.
Large Bandwidth and sustainability
YouTube is a dedicated website from the well-established giant Google, and it has its own dedicated servers
to handle hell load of traffic (hundreds of thousands or millions of visitors over a short period of time).
Consider the case when your video goes viral and you start getting whooping number of hits, then will arise
the need of substantial amount of bandwidth to handle such a heavy traffic. So if you are not using YouTube,
you are in trouble, and unfortunately instead of being happy you would be in a panic situation due to the
potential low bandwidth of your website. Of course, it is wise to use YouTube when the whole world is
interested in your video(s).
Number, length, size of Videos
Today YouTube if the world’s dominant resource and repository for videos and luckily there is no limit on the
number of videos you can upload, which is not possible if you are using some other licenced video platform.
You may say 15 minutes which is the current allowed length of a video is less for your content. Is it really?
Anything effective can be presented even in lesser time but if you think otherwise then all you need to do is
to break your content in different videos logically and upload them in parts instead of a single video. Is it not
cool? For video, 2GB size is good amount and it is the current size you can upload on YouTube. Basically a
standard sized video will easily fit on YouTube.
Feedback is Important
If we don’t listen to others and analyse their suggestions or comments about our work, we can’t learn and
survive in this competitive environment. YouTube allows viewers to provide comments for the videos and
hence you are in direct touch with live audiences and potential customers. Importantly al the comments are
emailed to you and in case you want to delete any comment, you can do it easily.
50
Easy navigation and supported Formats
There are several ways one can search for videos on YouTube – by keyword, by topic or by simply scanning
the most popular video’s list. If you like the work of some producer, simply subscribe and no more searching
would be required for that producer. YouTube uses Adobe Flash to play back videos which is a standard format
supported by most browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, and Opera).
You can upload most popular video formats: .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, and .MPG files which are automatically
converted to flash. People can reach YouTube videos through their mobile devices as well. Point is, when a
popular service is easy and can be commonly used then it is wise to host your videos on that website.
Cons:
Concept overrides content
Good content is not as necessary as good concept in video-making. To get thousands of views and drive visitors
to your YouTube video, you have to inject a great concept that makes them almost forget how they were led
to the site. Learn how to remix videos and audios and create the element of surprise. Break down long clips to
shorter and bite-sized ones to appeal to a larger audience. Make your ads outright and amazing. You can use
title optimization by using intriguing headlines that would make them want to find out more about your topic.
Requires more attraction
Users of the Internet usually just scan text-based content to find the information and get to the core of the
content immediately. Realize that in videos, this cannot entirely be applied. Viewers watch videos from
beginning to end and not jump from one segment to another to find meaning in the video. Hence, the intro of
your video must be alluring enough to get them continue watching until the end or until you have made your
point get across.
Make it snappy and no longer than three minutes. Else, especially for those with slow Internet connection and
those with shorter attention spans, users will more likely to just press the X button and move on to the next
video.
Fresher uploaded videos result from the search hits
Typically in Google searches, the more aged the blog post is, the more it gets brought up to the top results
page. This is because the page has incurred more backlinks and has increased credibility rate online. In
comparison, YouTube searches don’t act that way. Rather, it considers the newest videos as the top-rated
hits. There is what’s called the “freshness” factor in every video. So in order for your videos to rank high
and produce the honors, you must either resubmit or re-upload them whenever you got the time and remove
the older video. Note also that in YouTube, videos only have a shelf life of two days before it is moved
out from the Daily Most Viewed list to the Weekly Most Viewed. So the key here is to make sure that it’s
getting viewed more and more each day, to stay on top. Marketing through YouTube videos can be one of
the effective ways on how to take advantage of the fact that people are visual. Videos can entertain your
viewers or followers than textual content. However, when done wrong, they will only be bored and may
hit on the Unsubscribe button.
51
4. ODA (Online Display Ads):
Display advertising is a type of advertising that is located on websites. It can be seen in a wide range of
different formats and contains items such as texts, images, flash, video and audio. The main purpose is to
deliver general advertisements and brand messages to the plus 40 million people connected to the Internet
each month.
It is important to choose the right format because it will help to make the most of the medium. It is also
possible to add:
• Video
• Expendables: flash files that expand when the user interacts on mouse over
• Overlays: ads that appear and that it is possible to remove clicking a close button;
• Sponsorship: including a logo or adding a brand to the design of a web site.
To help to better selecting the right format for type of ad, Interactive Advertising Bureau has realized a Display
Standard Ad Unit Portfolio that works as guideline that can be followed by the creative.
Standard size
IAB has also created a universal standard for display ad sizes Page text. There are four dimensions that have
been decided as universal and are respectively:
• Banner 728 x 90
• Rectangle 336 x 280
• Skyscraper 160 x 600
• Square 250 x 250
52
5. ORM (Online Reputation Management)
Online reputation management coined by the public relation. Basically ORM is a process include
▪ Undertake the comprehensive research and analysis the online content.
▪ Track your users’ actions and opinions about brand.
▪ Reduce your risk of featuring amongst the negative user sentiments.
▪ Enhance your web presence and create positive perceptions.
Good examples of mobile-originated MMS marketing campaigns are Motorola's ongoing campaigns at House
of Blues venues, where the brand allows the consumer to send their mobile photos to the LED board in real-
time as well as blog their images online.
Push notifications
Push notifications were first introduced to smartphones by Apple with the advent of the iPhone in 2007. They
were later further popularized with the Android operational system, where the notifications are shown on the
top of the screen. It has helped application owners to communicate directly with their end users in a simple
and effective way. If not used wisely it can quickly alienate users as it causes interruptions to their current
activities on the phone. It can be much cheaper if compared to SMS marketing for the long run, but it can
53
Become quite expensive on the short run, because the cost involved in application development. Once the
application is download and installed provided the feature is not turned off it is practically free, because it uses
internet bandwidth only. SMS and push notifications can be part of a well-developed inbound mobile
marketing strategy.
Brands are now delivering promotional messages within mobile games or sponsoring entire games to drive
consumer engagement. This is known as mobile advergaming or Ad-funded mobile game.
QR codes
QR codes allow a customer to visit a web page address by scanning a 2D image with their phone's camera,
instead of manually entering a URL. The resultant URLs typically include tracking features which would be
unwieldy if typed by the customer. Originally approved as an ISS standard in 1997, Denso-Wave first
54
Developed the standard for tracking automobile parts in Japan. QR codes have been growing in popularity in
Asia and Europe, but have been slow to be adopted in North America. Some high-profile QR campaigns in
the United States have included billboards by Calvin Klein in Times Square, QR codes for
every SKU in Home Depot and Best Buy stores, and a scavenger hunt promoting Starbucks and Lady Gaga.
Apple pass book Implemented as a native app for iOS6, has employed QR codes as one of the ways that the
iPhone (or iPod Touch) users can take a real world action. I.e. scan the Barcode on their Passbook Pass. In
addition to QR codes, the Passbook (application) also supports PDF417 and Aztec 2D Barcodes.
Bluetooth
The rise of Bluetooth started around 2003 and a few companies in Europe have started establishing successful
businesses. Most of these businesses offer "hotspot" systems which consist of some kind of content-
management system with a Bluetooth distribution function. This technology has the advantages that it is
permission-based, has higher transfer speeds and is also a radio-based technology and can therefore not be
billed (i.e. is free of charge). The likely earliest device built for mobile marketing via Bluetooth was the context
tag of the AmbieSense project (2001-2004). More recently Tata Motors conducted one of the biggest
Bluetooth marketing campaigns in India for its brand the Sumo Grande and more of such activities have
happened for brands like Walt Disney promoting their movie 'High School Musical'.
Proximity systems
Mobile marketing via proximity systems, or proximity marketing, relies on GSM 03.41 which defines the
Short Message Service - Cell Broadcast. SMS-CB allows messages (such as advertising or public information)
to be broadcast to all mobile users in a specified geographical area. In the Philippines, GSM-based proximity
broadcast systems are used by select Government Agencies for information dissemination on Government-
run community-based programs to take advantage of its reach and popularity (Philippines has the world's
highest traffic of SMS). It is also used for commercial service known as Proxima SMS. Bluewater, a super-
regional shopping Centre in the UK, has a GSM based system supplied by NTL to help its GSM coverage for
calls, it also allows each customer with a mobile phone to be tracked though the Centre which shops they go
into and for how long. The system enables special offer texts to be sent to the phone. For example, a retailer
could send a mobile text message to those customers in their database who have opted-in, who happen to be
walking in a mall. That message could say "Save 50% in the next 5 minutes only when you purchase from our
store." Snacks company, Mondelez International, makers of Cadbury and Oreo products has committed to
exploring proximity-based messaging citing significant gains in point-of-purchase influence.
Location-based services (LBS) are offered by some cell phone networks as a way to send custom advertising
and other information to cell-phone subscribers based on their current location. The cell-phone service
55
provider gets the location from a GPS chip built into the phone, or using radiolocation and trilateration based
on the signal-strength of the closest cell-phone towers (for phones without GPS features). In the United
Kingdom, which launched location-based services in 2003, networks do not use trilateration; LBS services
use a single base station, with a 'radius' of inaccuracy, to determine a phone's location. Some location-based
services work without GPS tracking technique, instead transmitting content between devices peer-to-peer.
Mobile marketing differs from most other forms of marketing communication in that it is often user
(consumer) initiated (mobile originated, or MO) message, and requires the express consent of the consumer
to receive future communications. A call delivered from a server (business) to a user (consumer) is called a
mobile terminated (MT) message. This infrastructure points to a trend set by mobile marketing of consumer
controlled marketing communications.
Due to the demands for more user controlled media, mobile messaging infrastructure providers have responded
by developing architectures that offer applications to operators with more freedom for the users, as opposed
to the network-controlled media. Along with these advances to user-controlled Mobile Messaging 2.0, blog
events throughout the world have been implemented in order to launch popularity in the latest advances in
mobile technology. In June 2007, Air wide Solutions became the official sponsor for the Mobile Messaging
2.0 blog that provides the opinions of many through the discussion of mobility with freedom. GPS plays an
important role in location-based marketing.
56
Transactional emails
Transactional emails are usually triggered based on a customer’s action with a company. To be qualified as
transactional or relationship messages, these communications' primary purpose must be "to facilitate,
complete, or confirm a commercial transactions that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the
Sender", along with a few other narrow definitions of transactional messaging. Triggered transactional
messages include dropped basket messages, password reset emails, purchase or order confirmation emails,
order status emails, reorder emails and email receipts.
The primary purpose of a transactional email is to convey information regarding the action that triggered it.
But, due to its high open rates (51.3% compared to 36.6% for email newsletters), transactional emails are an
opportunity to engage customers: to introduce or extend the email relationship with customers or subscribers,
to anticipate and answer questions or to cross-sell or up-sell products or services.
Many email newsletter software vendors offer transactional email support, which gives companies the ability
to include promotional messages within the body of transactional emails. There are also software vendors that
offer specialized transactional email marketing services, which include providing targeted and personalized
transactional email messages and running specific marketing campaigns (such as customer referral programs).
Direct emails
Direct email or interruption based marketing involves sending an email solely to communicate a promotional
message (for example, an announcement of a special offer or a catalog of products). Companies usually collect
a list of customer or prospect email addresses to send direct promotional messages to, or they can also rent a
list of email addresses from service companies, but safe mail marketing is also used.
57
7. AIDMA AS AISAS IN DIGITAL ERA
AIDMA widely accepted model describing the psychological process leading up to the consumer’s decision
to purchase a product. This model is similar to AIDA model. The AIDMA Model was first advocated by
Roland Hall, an American economist, around 1920.
According to this model, there are five key processes: Attention, in which the consumer first notices the
product or advertisement, followed by Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action. This model has been used
extensively in the advertising and marketing industries.
AISAS is a process model of consumers purchasing activities in the Internet age. AISAS is a consumption
behaviour model that has been advocated by Dentsu since 2004. It was developed to observe behaviours based
on the understanding that the Internet has become prevalent, and that consumers now have access to
environments in which they can obtain and transmit information themselves.
In this model, the key processes are: Attention, in which the consumer first notices the product or
advertisement, followed by Interest. After this, the consumer Searches for information, and then makes a
purchase (Action), after which information is shared with others. In comparison to “AIDMA,” the
psychological process has become more compact, and the Action process has expanded.
These changes are shown how presences in digital are important for brands. Brands can able to create
awareness and internet without digital. But it will not lead to action in current scenario. Customers need more
information in present era; they are information seeker and always search for best deal. Brands can’t sustain
without digital media.
58
Advantages of Digital Marketing
Digital Advertising is increasingly an inherent budgetary component of many organizations today.
Organizations of all sizes use the medium to promote their products and services. So well, why do so many
organizations use the medium? Simply put, it is due to the numerous advantages that online advertising offers.
These are discussed in the paragraphs ahead.
Reach
The ability of the online medium to target a certain demographic of users is one of the greatest advantages of
digital advertising. In addition, the geographical reach of the online medium is far greater than that of
traditional media. It’s not only cost effective to achieve a wider geographic area but the ads can also be targeted
to the desired audience. For example, if an advertiser is keen on selling his or her products targeted to a certain
demographic of people, it is quite possible through online advertising. Digital advertising has matured to the
extent that web publishers, media agencies and advertisers themselves know the optimal ways and websites
for a certain category of products or services.
Measurement
With various tools becoming available, tracking effectiveness of ad campaigns is becoming possible today. In
other words, measuring Return of Investment (ROI) is increasingly possible today. Organizations that were
previously reluctant to spend online, now realize that the online medium does offer means to alleviate any
such fears. Moreover, when properly designed online marketing campaigns generate the desired results,
advertisers are further encouraged to continue advertising online.
The Internet is arguably the most interactive and engaging medium among various others. Interactive
campaigns have become a norm with the power of the online medium. One such advertisement worth
mentioning is the campaign by AXE where the end user could alter the smile of a woman as he/she liked to
i.e. in an interactive framework. The advertisement struck an instant chord with the youth to which AXE the
brand is positioned for Customers are basically just a click away from the advertisers. In other words, direct
response between end users and advertisers is possible through the online medium.
Time
Through the Internet, an advertiser can reach a desired target group or demographic in a much shorter time
frame. For example, if an advertiser needs to plan some sort of ambush marketing, the online medium can be
an effective means of achieving it. Even otherwise i.e. for regular marketing campaigns, the total time
necessary to complete an online advertising campaign is less than that of traditional advertising methods.
59
Cost
When compared to traditional forms of advertising, digital advertising is cheaper. Various payment models
are available between the advertisers and publishers. Many a time, advertisers are charged only when visitors
click on their ads. The various payment models are discussed in detail in the next section.
➢ Cost- Per -Click (CPC): Cost of advertising based on the number of clicks received.
➢ Cost- Per-Thousand (CPM): The standard unit for buying or selling Internet advertising. The
thousand stands for ‘thousand advertising impression or views’.
➢ Pay- Per- Impression: Online advertising where an advertiser pays a pre-agreed price each time a user
clicks on their advertisement. The cost for the click is often negotiated through auction, with ad
placement determined by the relative size of the bid, as well as other factors.
➢ Pay-Per-Inclusion: Search engine marketing programs that guarantee web site listing for specific
keyword search term for a fee.
➢ Pay-Per-Lead: Paying to acquire leads from an outside party at a set rate or amount per lead.
60
8. DIGITAL MARKETING IMPACT ON REVENUE
GENERATION
Digital marketing is a new trend in marketing, unlike traditional marketing most of companies not use their
own marketing channels for digital marketing mostly it can be outsourced to third parties like digital marketing
agencies like odigma consultancy ltd. Companies like odigma generating revenue using digital marketing it
has great impact on revenue model of these companies. Spending’s of various companies on digital marketing
is a revenue for digital marketing agencies like odigma.
Agencies owned by large media or holding companies can provide the following benefits:
61
Working with a specialty or boutique agency offers unique benefits as well, including:
Various surveys showing that spending of companies on digital marketing is increasing every year, here is
survey says
8.3. Gartner Survey Reveals Digital Marketing Budgets Will Increase By 10 Percent in
2014
Digital marketing budgets will rise by 10 percent in 2014, following a double digit percentage increase in
2013, according to a survey of marketing executives by Gartner, Inc. The survey found that, on average,
companies spent 10.7 percent of their annual 2013 revenue on overall marketing activities, with digital
marketing spending averaging 3.1 percent of revenue.
These findings are included in Gartner's Digital Marketing Spending report that is based on a survey of 285
individuals but answering mainly for their entire organization. Respondents represent organizations with more
than $500 million in annual revenue (average revenue $4.4 billion) across eight industries: financial services
and insurance, high-tech, communications, manufacturing, media, retail, government and healthcare. The
survey took place from July through September 2013. The report examines how marketers are allocating their
budgets, what activities are contributing to marketing success and other factors.
"Marketing leaders are securing bigger budgets to define markets, develop offerings, and attract, acquire and
retain customers," said Yvonne Genovese, managing vice president at Gartner. "Digital marketing is taking an
increasing share of the marketing budget with annual digital marketing operating budgets totaling 3.1 percent
of a company's revenue in 2013, as compared with 2.6 percent in 2012, representing a 20 percent increase."
Eleven percent of respondents said they spent more than half of their marketing budgets on digital activities
in 2013 compared with only 3.0 percent in 2012. Digital marketing represented an average of 28.5 percent of
the total marketing budget in 2013, as compared with 25.5 percent in 2012.
A further survey finding was that 77 percent of companies have a chief customer officer (CCO) or the
equivalent. Customer touch points include websites, mobile apps, social profiles, directory listings, on-site
search, email interactions, communities, call center and more hence, the increasing popularity of the role of
the chief customer officer to help guide the customer right through the buying cycle and beyond.
Eighty-one percent of organizations were also found to have a chief marketing technologist in 2013, up from
70 percent in 2012.
62
When it comes to budget allocation, marketing leaders support a diverse, and increasingly complex, marketing
mix. The survey found that 12.2 percent the biggest share of their digital marketing budget was allocated to
digital advertising in 2013, just as in 2012. However, marketers continue to wrestle with digital advertising's
effectiveness. Industry associations, advertising agencies, media, technology, and metrics providers and brand
advertisers are all working to address this concern by improving attribution models and cracking down on
phony Web traffic. Design, development and maintenance of the corporate website account for the second-
largest share of digital marketing budgets as the increase of inbound marketing channels such as social
networks, customer forums and the blogosphere creates more traffic on the corporate website. Digital
commerce, social marketing and mobile marketing three activities that increasingly overlap are closely tied
for the third-largest share of digital marketing budgets.
In 2014, marketers plan to make long overdue expenditures for mobile marketing tools and techniques.
This survey report shows market share of digital marketing budget in marketing budget increasing every year,
we can make money by utilizing the need of digital marketing. By starting a digital agency you can generate
large amount of revenue with less amount of investment. Odigma also did the same, CEO Advit Sahadev
identified the opportunity and started odigma which stands online digital marketing consultancy which fulfill
digital marketing needs of various companies they charge as per their performance and based on fee structures
as I mentioned above.
Often used for smaller agencies, smaller brands and typically for agencies that do one specific part of the mix,
e.g. A digital agency. But even a large agency would have some clients on this basis. Normally there would
be a Scope of Work, this would come with an estimate to do that one set job. This estimate would normally
be based on the people, how many hours they work, and what their hourly rate is. But there would like be
63
Some pass through costs for physical goods, for services from other companies etc. The profit the agency
makes comes entirely from the gap between the hourly rates of what they pay people.
2. Retained agencies:
Sometimes there is a fee based on a percentage of media spend, but this is largely dying. Sometimes it's a
project team, where you buy a certain number of people, a certain percentage of their time, for a quarter or
year. These hourly rates work the same way as the team for the SOW above. Sometimes there is an amount of
money put aside for time and costs and the Agency manages this time and cost to serve the client. A sort of
pay as you go model. With all of the above, there is an increasing move towards pay for performance. So it's
likely that any of the sorts of agreements in a retained structure, will allow for a bonus to be unlocked.
This could come down to sales results, brand value, satisfaction levels, or other criteria, and often a mixture
of them.
• Fee-based or retainer-based models are quickly gaining traction, most often at the expense of
commission-based compensation among large brands and their agencies. The Association of National
Advertisers’ 2013 Trends in Agency Compensation Survey found that fee-based agreements have
grown to 81% of all compensation agreements, while commission-based compensation has fallen to
just 5% of all compensation agreements. The two compensation models have been on opposite
trajectories since 1994, according to the ANA survey, when commission-based models represented
61% of all agreements, and fee-based models accounted for 35% of agency compensation agreements.
• Fee-based models have become more attractive because they provide predictable expenses for
marketers and advertisers, particularly on long-term accounts that require ongoing maintenance, such
as monitoring SEO rankings or social media content. Retainers may also encourage agencies to test
new campaign strategies and tactics, knowing that they will be compensated for their time regardless
of results.
Digital marketing budgets total 2.5% of revenue and will increase 9% this year. Marketing leaders have
secured bigger budgets to define markets and attract, acquire and retain customers. Yet, increased funding is
a double-edged sword. It brings new opportunities but puts more pressure on marketers to deliver and prove a
return on the investments.
64
9. RESEARCH PROBLEMS
65
10. FINDINGS
1. Most of the real sector people actually understanding the value and opportunities of digital marketing.
2. With the study of digital marketing I came to its emergence and extreme growth in today’s scenario.
3. What I found in client servicing is convincing clients is bit complex as they too have complete
knowledge about the digital marketing and also explaining how we are better than others.
4. Most of the sectors initially opt for the digital marketing channels name search engine optimization,
search engine marketing and social media marketing and later they will think about other channels
which mean these three channel high acceptance.
5. It is easier to approach a company’s if you first send them an E-mailer to related sector and then call
them in fact sometimes the company itself call having seen the E-mailer.
6. Indian customers are highly information seekers. They collect more information about quality, price
and refer customer’s experiences before purchasing a product.
7. Advertisements have high impact for creating stimulus in Indian customers. But this stimulus will get
in to action only through opinion leaders.
8. Indian consumers have high tendency to go for online purchase. They have high affinity to go online
for electronic products and apparels.
9. One of the current trends in Indian youth and young Indians are watching the T.V programs via online
portals. May be the main reason is convenience of time, they can watch programs which they had
skipped due to some reasons.
10. The same thing is happening for the newspaper also, people have more affinity towards online news
portals. Here's the reason may be they can get news updates very early; they don’t need to wait for
daily newspapers.
11. In both of these cases, one opportunity is lost for marketer and one opportunity is emerging for them
to reach their T.G.
12. More than 90% of the samples have a mobile or Smartphone and laptops or PC. 96% of samples have
an internet connection is any of these gadgets, this showing the penetration of internet in India.
13. If we take tablet, penetration in Indian is low. But it doesn’t mean that no one is using tabs. More than
30% of samples have tablet. For brands they are getting three more platforms to reach their T.G and
engage them.
14. 33% of the samples are using these gadgets while they are with their friends, so just think about the
reach. If one person noticed something which is cool and awesome they will surely communicate to
others.
66
15. 25% of the samples are using these gadgets while watching T.V; it’s again a barrier for brands which
use TVC only. 21% of the samples are using this gadget for chatting and 16% are using for surfing.
What they are surfing? It can be about a product, local events or locations...etc.
16. In this situation, one opportunity is again losing to brands and one opportunity is emerging for brands
to reach their T.G.
17. More than 90% of samples are noticing ads, among them 35% of samples noticed ads through online
media, followed by TVC and Newspapers.
18. 48% of samples are telling they give more importance to online ads and 34 % of samples give
importance to T.V.C.
19. From the first part of this research itself, we know that customers are highly information seeker. It may
be the reason for high trust in online ads. They can search for more information after seeing an ad or
online is the only two way communication channel for customers.
20. 22% of the samples do research through their lap or PC before purchasing a product from the retail
shop and 21% do research via mobile.
21. Most of the Indians prefer to purchase from a retail shop only, but before going to retail shop they will
seek information about the product through an online platform. Here is actually change happens in
consumer buying journey, early times consumer belief a product only after seeing the product in a retail
shop.
22. But now Indian customers want to get conviction about a product before going to retail shop. So from
a marketers view they want to convince their customers before going to a retail shop.
23. Brands want to build a cool presence over digital platforms because the customer will do research
about the product after seeing an ad or after getting stimulated.
24. Brands are getting more touch points to reach target group in a cost effective manner.
25. How do you get information about new Products?
Other Sources 7%
News 13%
Advertisements 40%
Family 10%
Friends 30%
➢ Samples showing that 40% of people get to know about new products through advertisements and
followed by friends means reference group
67
26. Do you Collect information before purchasing the products?
5%
Yes
No
95%
➢ Survey results showing that 95% of people collect information before purchasing the products. Only
few people don’t bother about info before purchasing product.
Quantity 11%
Attributes 10%
Quality 32%
Price 26%
➢ Survey results showing that people who said they collect information before purchasing product they
mainly concern about the product quality and price least concern about attributes.
19%
Yes
81% No
68
➢ Question asked to most of young people and 81% people said they buy from online site and only few
people said they never purchased from online because of reliability issues.
29. If yes, then what type of product / services did you purchase online?
Electronic 22%
Books 11%
Toys 2%
Gifts 13%
Automotives 3%
➢ People who said they purchase products from online they purchase electronic products, followed by
fashion and travel accessories through online.
7%
YES
NO
93%
➢ Question asked to various age people and most of them said yes about 93% people said they watch
television only 7% said NO to television.
69
31. Do you watch television programs through online?
47% Yes
53% No
➢ Survey results showing that almost equal percentage of results.53% people watch TV programs
through online.
7%
YES
NO
93%
➢ Question asked to various age people 93% people said they read newspaper only few people said no
to reading newspaper
26%
YES
No
74%
➢ 93% people said YES to reading newspapers, 74% are reading newspapers through online portals and
only 26% people said NO to read newspaper through online.
70
34. Do you have mobile phone?
1%
YES
NO
99%
➢ Question asked to various age people maximum number of people said yes that they have mobile phone
99% answered YES that they have mobile phone.
6%
YES
NO
94%
➢ This survey sample collected from students and working professional and 94% people said they have
laptop or PC.only 6% don’t have laptop or PC.
71
36. Do you have a tablet?
30%
YES
NO
70%
➢ Question asked to same students and working professionals and collected results that 70% people have
tablet only 30% people don’t have tablet.
37. Do you have an internet connection in any of the above mentioned gadgets?
4%
YES
NO
96%
➢ Question asked to people who said YES to above asked questions and 96% people have internet
connection to any of those gadgets only 4% people using gadgets without internet connection.
College 26%
Office 16%
72
➢ Survey results showing that 33% of people using gadgets when they are with friends and while
watching TV.
Chatting 21%
E- books 6%
Blogging 6%
Shopping 12%
Surfing 16%
Games 14%
➢ Survey results showing that 21% use these gadgets for chatting, 16% for surfing and 14% for watch
videos & games.
3%
YES NO
97%
➢ 97% of the samples are seeing ads, among them 35% of samples noticed ads through online media,
22% on TVC and 17% on Newspapers
73
41. If yes, from where?
Radio 6%
OOH 6%
Magazines 14%
Newspaper 17%
TV 22%
➢ 35% People notice advertisements from online ads and TV and OOH takes less part.
42. Mention one from of media, which you give more importance?
Radio 4%
OOH 3%
Newspapers 11%
Online 48%
TV 34%
➢ 48% of the samples are saying they have trust in online ads, 34 % are saying they have trust in T.V.
74
43. How do you normally purchase a product?
➢ 22% of samples will do research on online and purchase from retail shop, 21% of the samples will do
research in mobile and purchase from retail shop. But 19% of the samples will purchase directly from
a retail shop only.
44. After purchase, what type of experience will you share with others?
Bad experience 2%
➢ 67% of the samples will like to express their experience with others; it may be a nice deal, good
experience or bad experience with product.
75
45. How will you share your experience with others?
In company website 4%
Write a blog 3%
Messaging 24%
➢ 37% will share their experience through face to face talk, 32% through social networking sites and
24% through messaging.
76
Figure: Digital Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Company Revenue
➢ Data was gathered from responses to the following question: What percentage of your organization's total
marketing expense budget is allocated to digital marketing in 2014?
77
Figure: How Marketers Allocate Their Digital Marketing Budgets
➢ Data was gathered from responses to the following question: How much of the 2014 digital marketing
expense budget is your organization spending on each of the activities listed? This includes personnel
costs, software and externally purchased services.
48. 41% of Marketers Say That Savings from Digital Marketing Are Reinvested.
We asked marketers to identify how they're funding their digital marketing activities. We found that digital
marketing's effectiveness helps stretch digital marketing budgets. Below Figure shows that two in five marketers
are realizing savings from digital marketing compared with traditional techniques. And they're taking that money
and reinvesting it into more digital marketing. Fifty-nine percent of the marketers in retail organizations report
that this is happening compared with only 28% in manufacturing.
On average, 28% of marketers say they've reduced their traditional advertising budget to fund digital marketing
activities. Thirty-four percent of the marketers at high-tech companies are more likely to take this approach
compared with only 19% of the marketers at financial services and insurance firms.
Reinvesting savings into digital marketing activities is a smart move. And it's a relatively new activity in a
corporate culture where technology has primarily been used in recent years to cut costs. We don't recommend
chasing shiny new objects unreservedly. Rather, we suggest supporting a culture that is agile and keeps an open
mind to testing new techniques and underlying technologies. It's okay to fail as long as you fail fast in a program
with a limited scope and budget, and you intend to learn from these early failures.
78
Figure: Marketers flow Savings Back into Digital Marketing
➢ Data was gathered from responses to the following question: In order to fund digital marketing, which
of the following statements are true?
49. Up to 50% of Digital Marketing Activities Are Outsourced.
The pace of change and needs for specific skills force marketing to seek services from external providers. We
asked marketers to estimate what percentage of the work is performed internally by employees or contract labour,
and what percentage is performed externally or outsourced.
Culturally marketing is accustomed to outsourcing. Working with agencies, data providers and external
technology providers are an intricate part of marketing processes. This hasn't changed and may be increasing.
The responses reveal that digital marketers need help lots of it with specialized tasks such as search marketing,
online advertising and mobile marketing. For the most part, marketers outsource one-third or more of their work
to an agency, digital services organization or other external provider. Below Figure shows that, on average,
marketers outsource one-half of their search marketing the highest proportion of any marketing activity. Media
companies, financial services firms and retailers keep a majority of their search marketing work in-house.
Digital marketers are more likely to maintain social marketing in-house, with one exception: Marketers at
manufacturers outsource 53% of their social marketing activities. We find that social analytics, and content
creation and management are areas of focus for outsourcing. Monitoring and analysing social activities require
time and new technologies. And keeping customers interested through social channels requires constant feeding
and nurturing with new content. As a rule, outsourcing your digital marketing activities is a smart tactic when
you don't have in-house resources to stay on top of quickly changing technologies and techniques, or need
specialized talent. But you need to monitor results, ensure these providers have a stake in your success, and
assume some risks.
79
Figure: Marketers Outsource This Portion of Digital Marketing Activities
➢ Data was gathered from responses to the following question: For the following list of digital marketing
activities, please estimate what percentage of the work is performed internally by employees or contract
labour and what percentage is performed externally by some type of digital marketing services
organization (agency, business process outsourcer, specialty firms?
50. 70% of Companies Surveyed Have a Chief Marketing Technologist 80% of Them Report to Marketing.
Marketing's dependence on technology results in new responsibilities and roles. We asked marketers whether
their companies have the equivalent of a chief marketing technologist and where that person reports. Figure 6
shows that two out of three organizations have such a role. Most of the chief marketing technologists report to a
senior marketing executive and only 13% report to the CIO.
Chief marketing technologists are familiar with marketing techniques as well as technologies. They need to
understand how to use technology to define markets, attract, acquire and retain customers. They often have
organizations that align this goal to areas such as marketing software, data and analytics, social and mobile
platforms, digital advertising networks collaboration and website design. This role may come under one of many
different titles, including CTO of marketing, chief digital officer, chief digital marketing officer, VP of e-business
or even the CMO.
80
What's driving the need for this role? Marketers are increasingly dependent on technology to:
• Design the customer experience across many channels social, mobile, commerce and website.
• Integrate data from an increasing number of sources, including internal data (such as transactions or on-
site search) and external data (estimated household income) to get a better understanding of customers.
• Support marketing campaigns and programs, such as a mobile app, paid search marketing and social
marketing.
• Hiring marketing technologists will help you achieve your tactics. But you need a senior-level executive
who can guide your customer experience strategy across many channels and match marketing
technologies to the organizational goals.
Figure: Companies Retain a Chief Marketing Technologist to Guide Strategies
➢ Data was gathered from responses to the following questions: Does your organization have the
equivalent of a chief marketing technologist today? If so, where does he or she report?
51. The Top 3 Digital Marketing Activities Key to Marketing's Success Corporate Website, Social Marketing
and Digital Advertising.
Marketers are focused on the marketing mix that will drive success. We asked digital marketers to identify the
three digital marketing activities that are most important to their success.
Below Figure shows that the corporate website and digital advertising share the distinction of being the No.1
digital marketing activities that are important to marketing's success. Social marketing emerged as the next most
important activity.
Our survey results suggest that the corporate website will not be displaced by a brand's social media presence
anytime soon. That's all the more reason for marketing leaders to continuously invest in testing and optimizing
their websites, paying attention to all aspects from customized landing pages to compelling content that
encourage visitors to be engaged with your brand.
81
Only 9% of respondents said that analytics is most important to their success. We believe this is an oversight.
You need to use analytics to support continuous improvement, understand your customers' requirements and
drive results.
Figure: What Activities Contribute to Marketing Success
➢ Data was gathered from responses to the following: Please prioritize which of these digital marketing
activities are most important to your marketing organization's success by choosing three and ranking
them most important, second most important and third most important.
82
11. LEARNINGS
▪ Get to know about challenges and opportunities for digital marketing in India.
▪ Gain basic understanding of SEO, SEM, SMM, ORM, etc.
▪ Fulfilling each and every requirement of client is very important regardless of whether that requirement is
small or big.
▪ I learned how to pitch the client while meeting.
▪ I experienced the corporate feeling which gives me a good exposure.
▪ I was able to put in practice what I have learnt in my first year of marketing management curriculum.
▪ Leadership quality, it’s all about the impact you have on other people. You need to have leaders within an
organization. Leaders will deal with the customer, project, etc. as a leader.
▪ Healthy Competition forced to do better job the trick is to learn from your competitors quicker than they
can learn from you. Always look for your competitors’ strengths.
▪ Digital marketing work is all about a team work and it always try to give best out of all.
▪ Time management is the big management lesson I have learnt as make individual more divert to words it
work.
▪ How to do a formal communication, the way how to communicate with each level of management to get
work done.
▪ Every day same task, but the situations are different
It’s not only from my experience, but also from my observation. All colleagues are doing the same type
of work, but the situation is different. Sometime they have problem with a client, but on the next day they
problems with vendors or with creative team. While coming to me, my first month was more concentrated
with pitch presentation. Industry or clients are different or requirements of the client are different, but
contents or the flow of pitch presentations are same.
▪ Observation is the best teacher
There are lots of situations where I am completely blank and I don’t know how to do some task. In those
situations I observed my colleagues to know how they are doing it and I understood the importance of
observation.
▪ Work life balancing
This is the most important learning for me. This internship thought me how to balance your personal
responsibility and professional responsibility together and how to enjoy life even after getting a job.
Working in an agency is not an easy task, the person wants to face a lot of stress and challenges. I am the
only person in my office leaving early, while comparing with others. Because my colleagues have lots of
work, sometime they will leave by late night only. But they are really enjoying all the moments in their
life. They don’t have any difference between professional life and personal life.
83
12. CONCLUSION
The successful completion of this internship indicates that the future of marketing is in the hands of digital.
Digital marketing is not only concerned with placing ads in portals, it consists of integrated services and
integrated channels. Marketers want to use these components in an effective way to reach target groups and to
build a brand. In this digital era marketer is not the custodian for a brand, people who are connected across the
digital platforms are the custodians.
Brands want to build their presence over digital platform, because customers have high affinity towards digital
media than other media’s. More than that customers are highly information seekers and digital media is the
only platform for two way communication between brands and customers.
Digital media is the best platform to convert a product to a brand. Because it is more cost effective and it
provide lot of touch points to marketer. Brands can able to engage their target group in an effective way
through digital platforms. Digital media is not only for engagement, brands can increase their customers or
they can retain their existing customers. Digital platforms help to increase the impact of brand recall in target
groups.
Importance of digital presence increasing importance of digital agencies, so they making money through
digital advertising raising of digital marketing consciousness making money for digital agencies by which they
are booming and making more money with small investments.
I honestly believe that this project report will be at most useful for marketers to understand the digital
marketing and also to plan for future strategies.
84
SUGGESTIONS
85