BUILDING DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNELS

Building of Marketing Channel: 

Today's world has become a world where technological possibilities are developed. Technology affects people positively and negatively in many areas. We can see the biggest example of this influence on “marketing area”. Societies are now making a rapid transition from traditional marketing to digital marketing. In this part of our study, we will share with you the information about “Building the Channel of Digital Marketing” and “Digital Marketing Channels”.

Digital Marketing and Web

HISTROY OF WEB:

There are many revolutions in world history such as finding fire, invention of writing, invention of money. It is undoubtedly among the biggest revolutions in the world history of internet invention. The main purpose of finding the internet was to send data to long distances in the shortest time. Wikipedia shares the following information about this issue with us.

“It starts with the development of computers in the 1950s. The first designs of packet networks were shaped in several laboratories in the USA, UK and France. One of the networking studies supported by the U.S. Department of Defense in the early 60s is ARPANET, the first network to use Internet Protocol (IP). The first message via ARPANET was sent from the lab of Professor Leonard Kleinrock at the University ofCalifornia (UCLA) in Los Angeles to a computer at the Stanford Research Institute (ISR).” (Wikipedia, 2020)

With this first data transfer on the Internet, data has started to be sent to very long distances in a short time in the world. The internet has been an important factor in data transfer in many sectors from the military to the economy thanks to this first step taken by the ARPANET. Thanks to this advantage, the Internet has reached an increasing number of users day by day. Due to the high number of users, a large amount of data pool created on the internet. These data are used in many sectors of our lives and directly affect our lives. Merve Ceren TÜRKER, “İzmir Institute of Technology” graduate student on this subject, shares the following information with us.

“Available resources, volume, availability and data diversity have increased exponentially over the past decade. This growth resulted in more use of the World Wide Web than ever, and an explosive growth in website traffic and the amount of user activity on pages and between pages.” (TÜRKER, 2018)

What is Marketing and Digital Marketing?

Many economic systems have emerged in the world. The only common point of all economic systems is that they all have marketing. As a result of the developing economic systems over time, different definitions about marketing have been introduced. While the definition of marketing may be different in traditional economies, the definition of marketing differs in today's modern world. As a generally accepted definition, Wikipedia offers us the following definition:

“Marketing is the process by which firms determine which goods or services are of interest to their customers and determine strategies for developing sales, communication and Business Administration.The marketing process is an integrated process through which companies create value for their customers and build strong customer relationships in order to get value from customers in return.” (Wikipedia, 2020)

Wikipedia is focused the relationship between companies and customers. Especially the process after the industrial revolution plays an important role in changing the perception of marketing. The increase of companies in the production area has led to new competition and new marketing policies. Selim Sinan GÜLERYÜZ, a graduate of Beykent University, shares the following information with us in his master's thesis:

“Although there are multiple definitions of the concept of marketing, it derives its definition from the approaches that have evolved on historically developing production-based strategy, on customer satisfaction and consumer preference. The product range, which has increased after the industrial revolution, offers the product to the consumer, but with low branding and firm diversity and no competition, the consumer has been in need of certain manufacturers.” (GÜLERYÜZ, 2019, s. 13)

Digital Marketing

The changing technology has affected our lives in many areas. This change has also emerged in the marketing sector. People living with technology now carry out many activities in digital media. Selim Sinan GÜLERYÜZ evaluates this subject in his master thesis.

“The technology revolution, which took place in the 21st century, had a great impact on consumption and purchasing behavior as well as its contribution to all areas of life.” (GÜLERYÜZ, 2019, s. 36)

The internet, which was initially used for military purposes, spread as a result of this revolution and became influential in the social sphere as well.Selim Sinan GÜLERYÜZ covered the subject in his master's thesis as follows:

“With the technology revolution that started in the late 20th century, the use of the internet and mobile access increased year by year. The internet, which was used only for military purposes in the 1960s, has been used in the social and commercial field as of the 1990s. The increase in the usage rate of these developing technologies and technological devices has shifted the companies to digital channels for communication purposes, and this has led companies to prefer this area. Digital channels have become the areas where the target audiences operate and the channels that can be measured by the brands, as they become channels that can be reached directly. The digital world has also changed the consumer perception. Now, the consumer has become directly involved with more conscious, more sensitive and tailor-made offers.” (GÜLERYÜZ, 2019, s. 36)

Now it has become much easier to reach people than before. With a single click, companies can reach people more easily thanks to Digital Devices. You can see the process between companies and businesses in the table below. (GÜLERYÜZ S. S.)

Source:  (GÜLERYÜZ S. S.)

I mentioned above that many people can be reached with a single click.Scientific research: focused on the major generations.The main target audience of digital marketing is called "C generation". Selim Sinan GÜLERYÜZ shares the following information with us in his master's thesis:

“This mass, which has been described as Generation C in many studies, was born in the 1990s and refers to the words C, computirised, consumer and consumer (clicking) used in English. The mentioned group has internalized being connected to the internet, it has features that provide active use not only from mobile devices but also through TV, computer and all kinds of devices, can make price comparisons, have more friends than usual and does not hesitate to share their experiences.” (GÜLERYÜZ,2019, s. 37)

In the light of this information, the world has experienced major changes in many areas with the development of technology and the internet.The largest of these changes occurred in the field of marketing and communication.Now companies are transitioning from traditional marketing to digital marketing. With this change, marketing channels have changed and digital marketing channels have emerged.

Channels Used in Digital Marketing

Today's world is a world that changes very quickly and can adapt to this change very quickly. Thanks to technology and internet, it is very easy to access the data, while data transfer has become extremely fast. While technology, letters, telephones, newspapers, etc. channels was used for marketing on the old days. Many new channels have emerged with digitalization in today's world. Selim Sinan GÜLERYÜZ shares the following information about this topic in his master's thesis:

“With the progress brought by the mass and the technological revolution, personnel, transportation, production, etc. By eliminating costs, it enables companies to reach the target audience quickly and effectively. The existing digital marketing channels can be listed as follows:

 - Television,                              - Radio, 

- Internet,                                   - Mobile devices,

- Game consoles,                       - Digital boards,

- All electronic devices” (GÜLERYÜZ,2019, s. 37)

The usage rates in the digital marketing channels mentioned above may differ according to the internet availability. For example, researches emphasize that mobile devices are very important for digital marketing since mobile devices are always with people and internet access is generally available on mobile devices. Selim Sinan GÜLERYÜZ shares the following scientific data with us in his master thesis:

“Most of the devices mentioned above from the digital marketing channels are widely used, and in this ranking, mobile phones hold 93.2% of the households according to TURKSTAT data.” (GÜLERYÜZ,2019, s. 37)

When we look at age rates in mobile phone use, we see that the younger age group purchases more through mobile phones.Selim Sinan GÜLERYÜZ gives the following information about the subject in his master's thesis:

“In addition to mobile phone data, the internet shopping rate of individuals between the ages of 19-74 was 29.3% and internet access was observed in 8 out of 10 households. At the same time, the fact that 8 out of 10 households have internet access proves that internet use is becoming a necessity rather than a luxury.” (GÜLERYÜZ,2019, s. 37)

In the light of all these data, it supports the conclusion that the development of our country in the field of digital marketing has responded to the consumer, and that digital marketing is a marketing channel suitable for our period as a way of lowering costs with the increase of internet purchases with the use of high internet access and smart device tools.

Digital Marketing Strategies

There are many strategies in traditional marketing worldwide. With the transition to Digital Marketing, new strategies have emerged. Two of the most important strategies are Pull and Push Strategies. Selim Sinan GÜLERYÜZ explains these two strategies in his master thesis as follows:

“Towing strategy: The main target of the pulling strategies, which are among the digital marketing strategies, is to deliver the content to the consumer with the permission of the customers. As well as providing the right content to the right audience, it is also among the essential factors to attract the customer to this area by directing this communication.

Push Strategy: The second one of the digital marketing strategies is the goal of the push strategy, as in the pull strategy, to reach the customer and promote. Differently, the push strategy also uses communication channels without customer consent. For example, spam e-mails, sms marketing etc. tools can be given. . In this way, although it seems to be reaching a large number of consumers, the appropriate socio-economic and demographic mass for the brand will be limited, and the access results will be below the brand's objectives. In addition, these information messages, which are directed without the request of the consumer, will cause negative perception of the brand in the eyes of the consumer.” (GÜLERYÜZ,2019, s. 39-40)

As can be seen, two strategies come to the forefront, but since the "Push Strategy" does not care about the sensitivity of the customers because of this reason companies are losing value in the customer.

Plan and Stages of Digital Marketing (Process)

The stages of digital marketing, which are important in the marketing process as a whole, are listed below:

- The Process of Identifying the Audience

- Differentiation from Competitors

- Competitor analysis

- Channels Planned to be used

- Evaluation of the results

Digital Marketing Tools

Some of these commonly used tools are listed below.

- Social Media Channels,

- SEO / SEM,

- CRM Management,

- Email Marketing,

- Remarketing,

- Mobile Marketing

(GÜLERYÜZ,2019, s.45)

Some Graphics for Web-Oriented Marketing

As can be seen from the graphics, the share of advertising in Mobile Marketing has been increasing worldwide over the years.

 (digital-marketing-statistics, 2017)

As this table shows:social media has the highest share of reaching customers.When we look at the other values in the chart, we can see how effective the digital world is in marketing.