Marketers are always on the lookout to find ways that would assist them in coming up with a stronger front, this has become a necessity to keep up with the ever-evolving environment. We are all aware about how the technology plays in this process by providing an easy way out of most predicaments. Keeping in sync with the recent developments in the industry, marketers have nominated digital integration as the next big thing.
What is Digital Marketing and Digital Integration?
The information lord Google gives you the following definition:-
“Digital integration is the idea that data or information on any given electronic device can be read or manipulated by another device using a standard format.”
However, these words hold a more profound undertone attached to them which the marketers recognized and that are how the reign of integrated digital marketing began. The use of electronic forms to promote a product or service started gaining momentum when the powers of the internet were introduced to the world.
Since then, the digitalization has just expanded. The fact that most of the target audience is living on their phone screens and depending on it for information has challenged marketers to further innovate. The amalgamation of digital strategy with marketing strategy is the need of the hour but at the same time care has to be taken that the union is still led by the parent company that is the brand strategy.
Why Digital Marketing?
- Digital marketing helps in maximum exposure for the brand as majority
of media consumption is now screen based.
- Digital marketing brings flexibility to the campaign as there are free
entries and exits.
- Low cost of change gives an opportunity to the organization to test drive their marketing strategies.
- A digital marketing campaign does not depreciate at the same rate as
others and has more utility attached to it.
- Digital marketing is cost-effective.
- It provides a chance to customers to be linked with the campaign and
therefore the organization can utilize the power of social sharing.
Is there a “BUT”?
We live in an age where teenagers are becoming entrepreneurs solely based on their social media skills and therefore digital marketing is often confused with social media marketing. Even though this rapid growth in the use of social media marketing is a welcome move, it has its limitations. Any component operating alone away from its peers can be effective but for how long?
Thus arrived the need of integration of different components of digital marketing to make it effective as well as efficient for a longer term. Do not mistake this as a suggestion to use every single channel available to mankind but to use the ones that best fits your requirement.
The mixing of channels should be based on:-
- Target audience.
- Brand strategy of the organization.
- Past data and research.
- Long-term marketing objectives.
To conclude, the need of the hour is not digital marketing, it is INTEGRATED DIGITAL MARKETING.
