What It Is: Digital marketing channels are ways for businesses to communicate, engage, and sell their products and services to customers through digital means.Social media platforms, search engine optimization, and websites, among others, are examples of digital marketing tools. While digital marketing tools are relatively new approaches in marketing theory, they have proven to be a major marketing channel for businesses to increase revenues while reducing marketing investment. This is also a key reason why digital marketing can be an essential component of operationalizing a digital strategy.
Through digital marketing such as social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, for example, businesses are able to attract and communicate their products to consumers who are interested in these products and/or services more effectively than many conventional marketing approaches. Digital marketing focuses on social engagements to establish and strengthen relationships between businesses and consumers, which enhance customer loyalty as more consumers follow these engagements. Such platforms are not only cost-effective and free, but they also allow businesses to gather feedback quickly based on customers’ experiences and explore unanticipated new markets. These benefits accelerate businesses’ ability to test their products while expanding their target market and leveraging one of the most effective modes of marketing, digital word of mouth.
E-Marketplace: For many entrepreneurs, the growing number of digital marketplaces has been a blessing. Many platforms, like Shopee, eBay, and Amazon, have allowed factory-based businesses to reach their customers directly without a retail front. For many cottage industries that produce unique products, they are now able to sell and eliminate high distribution costs by leveraging such platforms that provide end-to-end supply chain support to reach their customers.
Omni-Channel Operations: For sectors like retail, the need to have both a conventional retail brick and mortar and a digital shop or marketplace presence could not be any more important. An omni-channel business model is the way forward as consumer purchasing methods evolve and environmental factors continue to pose a threat to operational resiliency and sustainability, such as the recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. Even large retail brands were not spared from the transformation in consumer spending habits as a result of the pandemic.
For SMEs: While these may seem like costly endeavors for businesses, SMEs should not shy away from expanding their potential revenue channels through such digital solutions. Microenterprises or small SMEs should explore the various e-marketplace options available to complement their existing stores.
Digital marketing strategies need not translate to heavy, costly investments. We have observed how fish farmers in Singapore have used Facebook during the pandemic as their marketplace to promote the various types of fish available for the day, clean the fish, and deliver the fish. Documenting simple processes like how to take orders, check digital payments received, and schedule deliveries, as well as the clear sharing of information required from customers via private messaging, will be key to effective management of orders and growing the number of returning customers. Food establishments should explore cloud kitchen platforms such as thecloud.ae to maximize kitchen capacity and expand their menu to meet food delivery demand. Many restaurants have seen their revenue improve as a result of using their underutilized capacity, especially during lull periods.
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