This chapter provides a practical sketch of the fundamentals of digital marketing. The framework comprises an overview of digital marketing development. This research is based on secondary data collected from social networking sites and e-commerce (E-com) sites for various firms to explain how they are using E-com business models. The research explicates the (E-com) different business models and the techniques used for the development of web presence, web search marketing that focuses on search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), e-mail marketing which offers interesting content to develop a successful newsletter, as well as social media marketing that addresses planning and the most important tools used to maximize communication through social media. The chapter presents a synopsis of digital marketing concepts and examples of some successful as well as an effective Web presence of some online firms.
TopIntroduction
Digital marketing, also called online marketing, is the promotion of brands to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication (Filson, 2004). This includes not only email, social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and multimedia messages as a marketing channel. In the current scenario we are in the third wave which is about building trust and respect through more creative digital experiences tailored to individuals. Digital marketing can be broadly divided into eight core classifications which are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Classification of digital marketing
There are three main parts of digital marketing which are shown in Figure 2, and an entire digital marketing has three layered design as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 2. Parts of digital marketing
The data layer is necessary to digitize data sources by using technologies for easy-management. A business will implement transformative strategies for operational processes based on transformed data in the process and model layer (Castaneda et al., 2009).
Figure 3. Three-layered design for digital marketing
The 2 pillars of digital marketing are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is a driving traffic to the company’s website through free listings and organic, online visibility and Second pillar is Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which is a purchasing website traffic via paid search listings and ad words (Cetina et al., 2012; Choshin & Ghaffari, 2017; Naim, Alahmari, & Rahim, 2021).
Digital marketing is a career that combines traditional marketing, web design, SEO, social media marketing, content writing, and much more, so the traits required to succeed are many and varied.
For any strong inbound marketing plan to be effective, it must address the 3 stages of the buyer's journey as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Three stages of inbound marketing
Many firms especially post Covid: 19, opted for Digital marketing for the global reach along with the local coverage. Also the Digital marketing has provided low entry cost in the market, identify target customers, and develop multiple strategies and content and increase engagements (Chouhan, 2017; Forman, 2005; Naim, Hussain, Naveed et al, 2019; Naim, Khan, Hussain et al, 2019).
The Digital marketing focuses on Content, Community & Commerce for social media marketing depending on 5 Ds of digital marketing. Figure 5 shows the 3 Cs of Digital marketing along with the 5 D of digital marketing (Dai, 2012).
Figure 5. Three Cs parallel with 5 Ds of digital marketing