Rationale for Digital Marketing - Research Paper Example

The division will shift part of its promotional budget to digital marketing in order to help the division meet its marketing goals. The decision to shift a portion of the budget results from the effectiveness of digital marketing in covering a wide target market, and thus in developing brand loyalty. With digital marketing, the division can attract a specific, targeted audience that is likely to know more about their brands, and more knowledge increases a prospective consumers interest in purchasing a given brand (Royle & Laing, 2014). If the division delivers its brand promise, it will develop good relations with the targeted audiences, and this will help transition these audiences into regular visitors of the digital marketing platforms. Brand loyalty will also improve brand reputation because satisfied clients will talk to other prospective customers about their experience with the divisions brands or product offering. As satisfied customers talk about the divisions brands, the reputation of these brands will go viral, and this will create new opportunities for accessing larger markets.

Influence of Digital Media on Marketing Plan

Shifting a portion of the budget to digital marketing will certainly help the division reach its targets in a short time, and this is a good impact on the overall marketing plan. Research shows that at least eight out of ten consumers trust the information on a brand, product or service if they come across it on a digital marketing platform that they visit frequently (Holliman & Rowley, 2014). If there is at least an 80% chance that a consumer will trust the information that the division will disseminate through digital marketing efforts, it means spending some resources on digital marketing will help the division attain its marketing goals faster than it would have done if it were to spend the entire marketing budget on traditional channels.

Digital Media Types

The three main options for digital marketing media that the division will employ include social media, search engine optimization and content marketing. In social media marketing, the division will share brand information and engage prospective customers on social media platforms with an aim of increasing the market share. The division aims to leverage conversations on social media platforms to increase the awareness of its brands. Content marketing will take the form of providing valuable information to prospective customers with the aim of encouraging them to start buying the divisions brands. Through content marketing, the division will build profitable relationships with prospective customers; the division will partner with these customers to help them solve problems. The division will use search engine optimization to optimize its content and website so that they show up first whenever search engines return relevant search results.

Monitoring Digital Media

The division will monitor the effectiveness of different digital media using the metrics indicated in the digital marketing plan one important metric in this regard is the brand awareness. The division will map out the prospective customers that each digital media type will reach, and it will then estimate the level of brand awareness among those it will target. After estimating brand awareness in the target audiences, the division will then roll out the digital marketing activities. Periodic measurement of the brand awareness levels will help in assessing the effectiveness of different digital marketing media. If it turns out that some digital channels are more effective than others are in helping the division attain its marketing goals, the division will reallocate its digital marketing budget appropriately.

References

Holliman, G. and Rowley, J. (2014). Business to business digital content marketing: marketers perceptions of best practice. Journal of research in interactive marketing, 8(4), pp.269-293.

Royle, J., & Laing, A. (2014). The digital marketing skills gap: Developing a Digital Marketer Model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information Management, 34(2), 65-73.