Course on digital marketing strategies
Introduction
Born in the so-called "Y" generation, I could almost say that I arrived with a computer in my hands. My generation is characterized by people born approximately between the 1980s and 1990s, at the beginning of the digital age. Over the years, we have learned to adapt and understand the evolution of new technologies. Today, we “digital natives” spend nearly 14 hours a week on a computer.
With the development of the Web, companies have found themselves obliged to review their strategies, whether in terms of distribution channels, organization, marketing, etc. Some companies have been able to understand and adapt to new information and communication technologies on the web, others do not yet realize the issues do not have the skills to adapt to this new wave of digital.
My company, JLR distribution located in Lyon 9th, started its activity as an IT service provider in 2002, with a first website that was both a showcase site and an e-commerce site. Today JLR has understood that the web is an environment brimming with opportunities that should not be missed. The site has therefore been refurbished with a new design, a new logo identity, and the showcase and e-commerce sites are now two separate sites in order to be more ergonomic and accessible for customers.
The sites were put online on January 27, 2014, and now the problem is to find the right technique(s) that will improve the sales statistics and visits to the sites. It is in this area that I intervene. In this dissertation, the reflection will therefore focus on digital marketing, also called webmarketing. We will first try to understand and explain where digital marketing comes from and what clearly is, then to study how to implement this type of strategy, and finally by highlighting the method of impact analysis.
I/ What is digital marketing?
1. History
According to Christiane Waterschoot “The web is a major technology of the 21st century. Its nature, structure and use have evolved over time, and it is clear that this evolution has also profoundly changed our commercial and social practices. » (From web 1.0 to web 4.0)
This growth consists of several phases: first there was Web 1.0 (or traditional Web), present between 1991 and 1999, "it is above all a static Web, centered on the distribution of information", then arrived the web 2.0 (or social web) present from 2000 to 2009, "it favors the dimension of sharing and exchange of information and content". Currently, we are in the phase of web 3.0 (or semantic web), which appeared in 2010, "it aims to organize the mass of information available according to the context and the needs of each user, taking into account their location, their preferences, etc. And this is not over ! Some are already talking about web 4.0 which will appear in 2020, “characterized as an intelligent web, it will aim to immerse the individual in an increasingly significant web environment.
In ten years, the use of the Internet has developed strongly, today there are more than 2.7 billion Internet users in the world. This universalization of the net has led the world towards a digitization of the economy and has reached all sectors of activity, which is forcing organizations to review their marketing strategies.
According to François Scheid, Renaud Vaillant and Grégoire de Montaigu, "marketing is one of the basic activities of an organization, just like sales or production, which, like all the activities of organizations, has been deeply affected by the emergence of New Information and Communication Technologies (NTIC)” (Digital Marketing). Hence the appearance of the term “ebusiness” coined by Lou Garner, president of IBM from 1991 to 2001.
E-business would therefore be defined as the use of NTIC in the marketing actions of a company. However, according to the three authors of Digital Marketing, “this definition is not enough to make the professional reality of this activity. […] The role of the e-marketer remains associated with the Internet and marketing tactics around a website […] whereas in just a few years, the field of action has broadened considerably. Today an e-marketer operates on a multitude of digital channels: website, email, social networks, mobile, tablet, etc.
To designate e-marketing, many terms are used: “in particular that of digital marketing, which could be translated as digital marketing. But it is used as such in French in the form of digital marketing” (Le Marketing Digital)
2. Importance
The web revolution is underway and as we announced earlier, there are over two billion internet users worldwide who are spending more and more time on the net. It has two major characteristics according to the authors of Digital Marketing:
- First of all the speed. “The one with which the internet was adopted by the world's population, the even greater one with which social networks became the first use of the web, […] the one with which new uses and new behaviors emerge. (Digital Marketing)
- The second is the universality of its impact on the “customer journey”. “Digital is not only about business communication, but also about marketing, sales and distribution. [….]. (Digital Marketing)
Beyond these major characteristics, digital has also brought new ways and new tools to better monitor and analyze Internet users. If a company has these specific tools called “web analytics”, it can, according to the authors of Digital Marketing, “analyze the characteristics, tastes, preferences, purchases, behaviors, […] of Internet users. »
Faced with this revolution, “every company must, strategically and culturally, strive to be ahead of its competitors, or at least not fall behind. (Digital Marketing). And yet, according to Hervé Kabla and Yann Gouvernnec, "understanding the Internet is still too often, in companies, considered as something apart and not as an extension of economic life" (La Communication Digitale Explication à Mon Boss ).
3. The weight of digital in the world and the economy
According to the authors of Digital Communication Explained to My Boss “Some communication experts announce […] that the future of the world, of marketing and communication, is digital. ". The majority of the population is not convinced by this, however this statement proves to be justified when we analyze certain statistics and figures which clearly demonstrate the weight that digital technology represents in the world and the economy.
In France today there are more than 40 million Internet users, or almost two out of three French people. We are also progressing in the “new screens” sector, with 50% of the population equipped with a smartphone in 2013, ie 27 million users; and 7.9 million tablets. (Fifth edition of the quarterly Mobile Marketing Barometer, produced by the Mobile Marketing Association, in partnership with comScore, GfKet Médiamétrie)
With regard to the average equipment in French households, a study carried out by the Institut Médiamétrie in its Screen360 study (end of 2012), shows that in each household there are no less than 6.3 screens on average (Television, computer, phone, tablet, etc.)
Moreover, if we compare the advertising investments made on the Internet compared to other media according to a study carried out by France pub and the IREP, the Internet therefore comes in fourth place and represents 11% of the advertisers' budget. (Digital Marketing). In short, when we gather this data, we understand that this increasingly massive equipment in connected screens is an indicator of the possibilities offered by digital marketing.
4. The opportunities and challenges of digital marketing
Digital creates extraordinary opportunities, and the field of possibilities is very vast. Many companies still work without a real digital strategy and only use it tactically, when there are real challenges and many opportunities to be seized!
According to Xavier Campo (Development Director of Factory NPA, Media Brands: the new challenges of digital), digital has generated new expectations and has profoundly changed the relationship between brands and their audience. “Today customers/prospects expect a brand to be in constant conversation with them, to respond to their messages […]”. This has been favored by the development of social networks and the ease of publishing content, expectations are now growing.
Media and players have also multiplied, which has “led to a specialization of Internet professions (social marketing, e-commerce, e-marketing, etc.) and a greater presence on the web for advertisers. Being present on social networks is an opportunity for e-commerce companies. This makes it possible to increase its image as well as to be close to the customers.
Likewise, content is at the heart of a web marketing strategy. It allows "to improve referencing, to engage fans, in order to trigger sales", but again, "few brands have a formalized strategy". The need for more and more content requires publication planning and a thoughtful strategy so as not to be trapped by the budget.
Still according to Xavier Campo, "to succeed in the face of these new challenges, companies must be able to reinvent themselves and regularly question their processes, systems and organizations". What he means by this is that the web requires new skills, and that you always have to be aware of what is happening because it is an ever-changing environment.
Digital has therefore transformed the way of doing marketing. From now on, we integrate dialogue, personalization, consideration of the customer journey, etc. into our strategies. The way of doing and thinking about marketing has changed. Now, the subject is to know how to set up and master the new techniques of digital marketing.
II/ How to define a digital strategy?
1. Specificities
Digital marketing differs from marketing in the physical world because it is mixed with new information and communication technologies.
First of all, according to the authors of Digital Marketing (François Scheid, Renaud Vaillant, Grégoire de Montaigu), the world of digital marketing is differentiated by “the multiplicity and additivity of actions”. What they mean by that is that on the internet, there are a multitude of media and formats. You can also go through a website with a specific design, an SEO technique, a video published on a dedicated sharing platform, emails, etc. unlike communication on traditional channels. To illustrate this, the same authors use the following example: "The marketer who says 'We are going to communicate on TV' immediately defines his medium, unlike the one who announces 'we are going to communicate on the Web' who has nothing said! ". With regard to the additivity of actions, it should be noted that on the Internet, actions do not replace each other, on the contrary they are added. For example, “natural referencing is one of the oldest digital marketing practices, and even today it is an essential action for an emarketer that has not been replaced by actions on social networks. »
Au-delà de la multiplicité et l'additivité des actions, le marketing digital se caractérise également par une évolution constante. En effet, du fait du changement des usages dans l'univers du numérique de nouvelles pratiques marketing apparaissent. « C'est avant tout la rapidité croissante des évolutions technologiques de l'écosystème "Internet" qui influe sur les usages numériques, et ainsi permet la mise en œuvre de nouvelles pratiques marketing ». Dans le métier d'E-marketeur, il faut donc rester informé des dernières technologies, pratiques ou outils en vogue afin d'adapter sa propre stratégie et de rester dans l'ère du temps.
Finally, the digital channel is a "hypermeasurable" channel. This characteristic is an opportunity because, unlike usual marketing, it makes it possible to measure the impact of each action carried out. “On the internet the model is more efficient.
By purchasing a banner advertisement on an online magazine, it is possible to know immediately how many times the banner has been displayed, how many people: have clicked on it; immediately made a purchase on the site, […] etc. And all this for a reduced cost! (François Scheid, Renaud Vaillant, Grégoire de Montaigu) Thus the role of an e-marketer differs from that of a traditional marketer in that now access to new data requires him to be versatile, it that is, successfully processing and facing data that has never been seen before with a new way of approaching it. These differences lead us to a specific marketing reflection: how to adapt a company's marketing strategy to deal with these new situations.
2. Position yourself on the web in order to adapt your strategy
In order to know which specific digital marketing techniques to use, we must first analyze what type of brand on the internet we belong to. Loic Moisand de Synthesio has made a reflection on the subject, which allows us to analyze the thing well.
According to him, there are 4 types of brands on the internet, which react differently to buzz. (Cf. appendix 1) We find this work in Digital Communication Explained To My Boss (Yann GOUVERNEC, Hervé KABLA) in which we distinguish:
- Sensitive brands: “These are the brands which fear for their reputation but which are also closely watched. For example the following sectors; health, childhood, security, banking, etc. In these sectors, the marketing strategy is based on building trust, explanations, and the management of media scandals. »