Chapter 9 Marketing communications using digital media channels

Learning objectives Distinguish between the different types of digital media channels Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each digital media channel for marketing communications Assess the suitability of different types of digital media for different purposes.

Questions for marketers Which digital communications media should we select for different types of market? What are the success factors for using digital media that will make our campaigns more effective?

Figure 9.1 Average percentage of traffic from different sources referred to a website Source: Smart Insights (2011a)

Figure 9.2 Percentage who consider different information sources as important when researching or purchasing a product or service Source: Nielsen (2013)

Figure 9. 4 Search engine results pages in Google (www. google. co Figure 9.4 Search engine results pages in Google (www.google.co.uk) illustrating the natural and paid listings Source: Reprinted by permission of Google, Inc. Google™ search engine is a trademark of Google, Inc.

Figure 9.5 Click-through rates depending on position in the natural search results Source: Optify (2011)

Which SEO ranking factors should I focus on? On page optimisation: <title> tag = 4.9/5 Keyword frequency and density = 3.7/5 Keyword in headings = <h1> = 3.1, <h2> = 2.8 Keyword in document name = 2.8 Meta name description = 2/5 Meta name keywords = 1/5 Off-page optimisation: More backlinks (higher PageRank)= 4/5 Link anchor text contains keyword = 4.4/5 Page assessed as a hub = 3.5/5 Page assessed as an authority = 3.5/5 Link velocity (rate at which changes) = 3.5/5 Social media signals (newer ranking signal). See http: //www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

Which factors affect returns from paid search? Distribution of daily budget Amount bid (Max CPC) Clickthrough rate Creative quality including creative testing Campaign structure Match types especially negative matches Use of content network Time-of-day (day parting) Landing page quality Click fraud! * In Google AdWords, Live Search and Yahoo! Quality Score especially important.

Online PR What it? ‘The management of reputation – the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.’ The UK Institute of PR (IPR) ‘The managed process of communication between one group and another … (it) is the method of defining messages and communicating them to target audiences in order to influence a desired response.’ Public Relationships Consultants Association (PRCA)

The key areas of online PR

Figure 9.3 Use of search engines for finding information related to product purchase Source: Performics (2010)

Figure 9.6 Stages involved in producing a search engine listing for the natural listings

Figure 9.9 AdWords campaign structures (a) Clothing retailer; (b) Restaurant chain

Figure 9.10 Gatorade social media command centre video

Figure 9. 11 Smart Insights blog (www. smartinsights Figure 9.11 Smart Insights blog (www.smartinsights.com) showing content available from within a category of ‘social media marketing’

Figure 9.13 The affiliate marketing model (note that the tracking software and fee payment may be managed through an independent affiliate network manager)

Figure 9.14 Distribution of length of time against purchase Source: Prussakov (2011b)

Figure 9.15 Ad buying ecosystem

Figure 9.16 Behavioural ad targeting process

Figure 9.17 Combination of touchpoints giving rise to sales Source: ecircle (2011)

Figure 9.18 Sky spend by medium compared with market share of UK internet searches, 5 June–6 March Source: The Hitwise UK Media Impact Report, September 2006

Table 9.4 Summary of the strengths and weaknesses of different communications tools for promoting an online presence