Peter Drucker wrote: since the purpose is to identify and retain customers, the business has two – and only two – fundamental functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest represents a “cost”.

If it is true that communication represents the primary way to establish direct contact with the market and plays a essential role in the process of creating value, it is also true that modern information technologies represent the privileged tool for conveying it.

Hence the birth of digital marketing, communication based on new forms of information technologies, for new forms of communication, more captivating, personalized, and interactive.

Digital marketing is, therefore, communication between people, technology is simply the link that makes it possible: from social media campaigns to mail marketing, from the website to e-commerce, from search engines to social media advertising, from information totems to mobile apps, from big data to business intelligence. Today, in the digital era, information technologies play a fundamental role in presenting, analyzing, and promoting.

Information technologies to the service of digital marketing allow to create a stable and effective relationship between the market and the company, not only to reach and convince the consumers, but also to listen, learn, and guide. All these thanks to the joint use of all available tools.

Finally, and not negligible, the new technologies at the service of marketing are not seen by the users as an intrusion in their privacy but as a service from which to take advantage. There are multiple examples: informative newsletters, in-depth videos, apps for tracking products or consulting the article sheet, online surveys, configurators, influencers, videogames, … all tools now in common and daily use.

It should also be noted that digital marketing goes beyond the concept of the Internet and concerns a deeper concept such as the set of habits, behaviors, and expectations of a modern customer who lives and interfaces with this new dimension.

Section

• Blog
• Technology & Business

Document Index

• Digital Marketing
• Web Strategy
• Social Media Marketing
• Interactive Marketing
• Tools for Digital Marketing
• Covid-19 and Marketing

Wiki

• Peter Drucker
• Marketing

Revisions

• 07-2019 Giuseppe Rizza
• 03-2021 Maham Imsal

Not all companies are the same indeed, they all have different characteristics that change according to their business and communication style. The web strategy, therefore, must be customized according to one's characteristics, needs, and goals.

In fact, a company can decide to have a website and not be present on social networks or vice versa, or it can decide to dedicate itself to both: the best strategy is the one that best reflects its communication style and consistency with its history and activities.

The first step of the web strategy is to define the online presence, i.e., where, how, and how much to be present on the web.

While the how, when, and how much require analysis and planning, the where, at least to start, is very simple and involves:

• Website
  The website represents its own "image" on the internet and is essentially aimed at customers, for this reason, the site must primarily meet the needs of users. Hence the need to define the target or buyer persona and ask ourselves: what is our ideal customer looking for? What does it need? How can we help him solve a problem? The website, therefore, represents an important marketing channel but can also, and above all, be seen as an advanced tool to support company activities or procedures with dedicated services. Furthermore, the site must be optimized for search engines and mobile devices, under penalty of exclusion from the search results. A good way to check the quality is Lighthouse, a free tool offered by Google.
• Search Engine
  To be found on the internet, the website must first be registered on the main search engines, like Google and Microsoft's Bing. To be correctly indexed, the site must be optimized for search engines (SEO), for use with mobile devices (responsive), and have a digital certificate for the HTTPS secure connection.
• Google My Business
  Google My Business is a free service that allows you to create your company profile where you can report products and services, opening hours, contacts, images and publish posts. Combined with the Google search engine and the interactive geographic map Google Maps, it allows you to be easily found and users to get directions to reach us or make a call by clicking on the "call" button. Finally, from the Google My Business profile, you can consult the reviews left by other customers.

To strengthen the web presence, the following can be very useful:

• Blog
  A blog is a website or section of a website where articles usually related to a specific topic are published. The blog is very useful for gaining visibility as search engines reward active sites that regularly offer new pages and new content
• Newsletter
  Newsletters are part of the email marketing strategy and, as the name suggests, are emails that are sent out regularly to keep customers informed with new news, products, or promotions.

Section

• Blog
• Technology & Business

Document Index

• Digital Marketing
• Web Strategy
• Social Media Marketing
• Interactive Marketing
• Tools for Digital Marketing
• Covid-19 and Marketing

Wiki

• Web Strategy
• Web Presence
• Website
• Search Engine Optimization
• Responsive Web Design
• HTTPS
• Email Marketing
• Blog
• Newsletter

Example of Google My Business profile

Social Media Marketing is a form of digital marketing that uses social networks and networking platforms to promote products and services.

If someone hears about you and is interested, the first thing they will do after visiting the website is to look for you on social networks. In some cases, they may even search for you directly on social media instead of visiting the official website. For this reason, it is very important to be there, to be found, and to always have an updated and well-kept profile.

Nowadays, no one, a small business or a multinational, can therefore ignore the role that social networks play in the daily life of all people, regardless of age, gender, or interests. Most people, both in their free time and at work, surf social media and spend a lot of time there. For this reason, it is of fundamental importance to be present where our customers or potential customers spend time or seek information.

While all social networks are important, you do not need to be present everywhere. The right thing to do is to identify the main goals of your business and the most suitable communication strategy, and based on those, choose the social networks that best suit your needs and target.

The main social networks are:

• Facebook
  Facebook is the most used social network in the world. With your profile, you can share photos, videos, write posts and create pages. Facebook, in addition to offering an instant messaging service (chat) and video calling, also has a "Market Place" section where it is possible to publish sales announcements or make purchases, both with individuals and with companies.
  Facebook is certainly one of the most suitable social networks to create and manage communities and increase Brand Awareness. Facebook users are mainly adults, in fact, in Italy, 53% of users are over 35 years old.
• Instagram
  Unlike Facebook, Instagram focuses on images, it is only possible to publish photos and videos, while you cannot write posts. Instagram also has a messaging service and a Market Place.
  Instagram can be used to create and manage communities and to increase Brand Awareness, especially when the communication is based on the image of the products or services and is addressed to a young audience, 71% of Instagram users are under the age of 35.
• Twitter
  Twitter is a social network that allows you to publish photos, videos, and short messages (maximum 280 characters including spaces) and posts are visible to everyone. Twitter is a great marketing channel for driving web traffic and generating leads. 63% of users follow small businesses.
  Twitter is suitable for companies that prefer to have more direct and informal communication with their customers and that are aimed at a predominantly adult audience (63% of Twitter users are between 35 and 65 years of age).
• Linkedin
  Linkedin is the first social network dedicated to the world of work and aims to connect companies and professionals. Private users can show professional qualifications and skills to establish themselves in the world of work, while companies can promote their image and their products.
  Linkedin is especially suitable for B2B communications but is also used to search for professional figures.
• Pinterest
  Pinterest is a social network that is based exclusively on sharing photos and videos, which can be organized on virtual boards (for example music, fashion, art, etc.).
  Pinterest is, therefore, suitable for visual promotion, especially if addressed to a female audience (80% of users are women and are between 25 and 54 years old).
• Youtube
  YouTube is the first video-based social media platform and is the second most visited site in the world. Youtube allows you to share only videos, without any time limit and anonymously for viewing.
  Youtube allows you to upload videos of any type (music, movies, tutorials) and has a heterogeneous audience by age and gender.
• TikTok
  TikTok is a social platform based on short-duration video (max 60 sec.) and is particularly suitable for addressing a very young target (27% of users are between 13 and 17 years old, while 42% go from 18 to 24).

Section

• Blog
• Technology & Business

Document Index

• Digital Marketing
• Web Strategy
• Social Media Marketing
• Interactive Marketing
• Tools for Digital Marketing
• Covid-19 and Marketing

Wiki

• Social Media Marketing
• Social Network

Tweets by DataLaborCom

Compared to traditional marketing, which is a one-way communication from the company to the consumer, with Interactive Marketing we try to involve the consumer in a real conversation to make him feel part of a large community, to make him understand that his opinion is important and to ask him for suggestions on how the company can improve his experience.

This whole process gives added value to the consumer's experience with the company, which goes beyond the purchase: the consumer feels part of the company and feels listened to.

There are several strategies for applying Interactive Marketing on the web:

• Chat and Chat bot
  Having a chat on the company website can be very useful for communicating with potential customers and responding to all their doubts in real-time. The chatbot, on the other hand, is an automatic message system managed by artificial intelligence to answer the most common questions asked by users.
• Quizzes and Surveys
  Quizzes and online surveys are light and fun ways to communicate with consumers and interact with them to find out their opinions. They can cover any topic; it doesn't have to be related to the product.
• Personalized content and email
  Personalized content is a small touch that can make a big difference. The customer does not feel only a number but feels involved, so he will be more inclined to interact.
• Interactive videos
  Making a video and asking consumers to answer a question or give an opinion or comments is a great way to start a dialogue.

Section

• Blog
• Technology & Business

Document Index

• Digital Marketing
• Web Strategy
• Social Media Marketing
• Interactive Marketing
• Tools for Digital Marketing
• Covid-19 and Marketing

Wiki

• Chat
• Chat Bot

Managing a company's online presence requires time and skills, but above all dedicated tools that can facilitate the publication of content and the analysis of user behavior.

The tools allow you to automatically manage multiple social profiles and monitor users' interest in a specific initiative in real-time in order, if necessary, to make corrective or improvement actions.

At the base of every digital marketing, initiative is the communication of a message, like the publication of contents, which must be managed very carefully as all digital marketing activities have an immediate impact on the web reputation and potentially overwhelming, both positive and negative.

Finally, the emphasis is placed on the need to aggregate data, integrate marketing tools with your ERP or CRM management software, and analyze data with business intelligence tools.

The main tools to support digital marketing activities are:

• Lighthouse
  Lighthouse is a free tool offered by Google that allows you to check and measure the quality of a website's pages. It checks performance, accessibility, compliance with best practices, and SEO and returns a score from 1 to 100 for each one. The page only passes the test if every single measurement (performance, accessibility, BP, and SEO) gets a score equal to or greater than 90
• Google Analytics
  Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that allows you to monitor access to a website and know the characteristics of visitors. Among the many information, it provides the number of visitors, pages viewed, the average length of visit, device, geographical area of ​​origin, source of traffic, etc.
• Google Ads
  Google Ads llows you to create campaigns and publish paid ads on Google to drive traffic to the site, promote or selling products and services. Google Ads does not just run an ad, it monitors its progress and suggests changes to optimize it if necessary
• Canva
  Canva is the perfect tool for creating posts and photos for social networks. The main feature of Canva is the ability to use preset templates and modify them to your liking
• Hootsuite
  Hootsuite allows you to manage and monitor all social media from a single platform by automatically scheduling the publication of hundreds of posts at the same time
• Databox
  Databox is a business intelligence service that aggregates data from different sources (Google Analytics, social networks, ...) in a single dashboard to have an overall view of all the initiatives undertaken and the results achieved.

Section

• Blog
• Technology & Business

Document Index

• Digital Marketing
• Web Strategy
• Social Media Marketing
• Interactive Marketing
• Tools for Digital Marketing
• Covid-19 and Marketing

Wiki

• Web Reputation
• Dashboard
• Communication

Tools

• Google PageSpeed Insights
• Dr. Link Check

Example of test with Chrome Lighthouse (F12 DevTools)

«For many merchants, this crisis has proved to be an accelerator towards digitization, imposing a transformation that otherwise would have required maybe five or six years» comments Alberto Dalmasso, co-founder and CEO of Satispay.

If on one side the pandemic has caused a strong acceleration to the digital transformation process of Italian companies, on the other it has also contributed to changing consumer behavior, pushing even the most reluctant to use new digital tools and services.

First of all, e-commerce recorded the greatest growth, both in Italy and in all Europe. In Italy, the number of online consumers has even tripled, reaching 2 million users.

From research realized by Facebook in collaboration with the World Bank and OECD, it emerges that 31% of SMEs operating on Facebook have achieved over 25% of their sales online. In Italy, in June 2020, 88% of SMEs were present on Facebook. In July 2020, 93% (third edition of the “Global State of Small Business Report”). Similarly, it emerges that the sectors destined to grow the most worldwide will be e-Commerce (+ 55%) and "Modern food retail" (+ 23%).

In this contest, Marketing and Innovation make a difference and Digital Marketing proves once again to be an important key to growth.

Section

• Blog
• Technology & Business

Document Index

• Digital Marketing
• Web Strategy
• Social Media Marketing
• Interactive Marketing
• Tools for Digital Marketing
• Covid-19 and Marketing

Insights

• Effects of Covid-19 on digital marketing
• Top 20 Digital Marketing Trends of 2021 You Can't Ignore