In last week's class we discussed about the future trends of strategy and how web data gathering can affect an organization's strategy. Data analysis has become a important tool for many industries as well as entrepreneurs and marketers with a website. The most popular analytical website used on the Internet is Google Analytics, which is generates statistics on a website's online traffic. Based on these statistical results, web owners can modify their strategy to get the most traffic. There are many different ways one can utilize this website when developing digital media marketing strategy. Digital media marketing has become an integral part of many companies and availability of detailed web analytics has given them the resources to make this a mainstream marketing tool.
This marketing approach uses incorporates different internet channels in a integrated fashion to spread the marketing efforts. The main platform in digital media marketing is the website itself and the traffic it gets from various other internet portals. Each search keyword or phrase is measured by Google Analytics to give insights on what type of words the customer associate your product or service. These searches are based on the content of the website and by modifying the website content by including certain keyword, phrases and other links, the probability that your website showing up in the search result will increase. Paid ads are another way to market a website, in this approach the website would pay certain daily budget to Google to show the ad links on the top of the website based on keywords it is linked to. These practice are called Search Engine Optimization and companies are forming specialized SEO to monitor the online traffic and consistently change it to drive in more viewers. This is very new strategy and has shown tremendous potential in finding customers through targeted search results and rerouting these users on your platform website.
Social Media is the next major phenomena changing the way marketing is done completely. Mass marketing used to be through either phone calls or mass mailing, but social media is the next generation for mass marketing. Millions people are on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and others where personal information such as interests can be accessed. Based on your customer's interest you can place ads on their social pages and target specific populations. Facebook has a advertisement tool in which you can filter the search criteria on the different types of characteristics such as age, gender, interest and etc. While social media can market to specific individuals, it can also reach a large mass audience. Social media has been a tool for public relationship and companies are consistently engaging them with posts, campaigns, tweets, likes and etc. PR requires reaching to mass media to increase one's website or brand awareness and also maintain customer relationships. Some of the giant corporation such as Coca Cola or Target has some the most robust social media activities.
Apart from laptops or desktops, mobile tools such as tablets and phones are another area analytics have helped websites. People are increasingly using their mobile tools as a substitute of computers and companies need to exploit this shift in marketing. Data analytics for phones and tablets were slightly different respectively since the metrics to measure were not the same. Videos on these mediums have become very popular and different types of applications are available. Website can be made into mobile applications to access this market segment and be monitored by either Google Analytics or analytical website for mobile applications.
The ability to gather web data and use statistical information to make informed marketing strategies will be a vital part for the success of a firm. These tools are utilized everyday to measure the trends of online traffic and is branching into its own type of marketing practice. The availability of multiple channels to send an integrated message is a valuable asset, but to wisely use it, data from analytical tools are needed to make the proper strategic move. I would like to ask the class - how do you think globalization will affect digital media and the marketing plans of organizations? With the government trying to pass bills regulating the internet, how can this influence digital media marketing and gather web data?