Digital marketing is the concept in which the marketers or companies promote the products with the help of various tools of internet. Under this, the companies try to build up and maintain their relationship with the customers through electronic media such as social networking site, e-mail, and the wireless media which help the company in the various promotional activities. Digital marketing is considered as the combination of technical and creative aspect. Amazon is one of the leading companies which have been chosen for the discussion in this report (Reibstein, 2002).
Social media is the best way for the companies to build the relationship with the customers. In present time, social media can be used by the companies to engage with the customers. To maintain the strong relationship with the customers, there are many companies who are adopting social media strategy. Basically, social media is the big platform to get loyal customers for the business. Social media tools such as Facebook, and Twitter are the mediums by which the companies can get feedback from the customers. Along with this, these tools are also very helpful in complaints resolutions, update for new developments, and delivery of orders. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are important for Amazon to maintain the competitive advantage in the market. One of the main advantages of the Facebook and Twitter is that it enables the company Amazon to interact with the customers. By getting tweets and Facebook updates by the customers, Aamazon is able to identify the needs and requirements of the customers (Rudkova, 2015).
There is the biggest change in the marketing patterns which has happened during the recent years. Due to the internet and social media revolution, the online shopping has become popular among the customers. Due to famous social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the online shopping is growing continuously. So, Amazon is easily able to maintain the relationship with the customers as customers use the internet as the platform for the shopping for products and services. On the social media websites, the customers post their opinions about the products and services on future cooperation with the sellers. There are various platforms of social media by which Amazon can buildup good relations with the existing customers (Hemley, 2014).
There are some effective social media platforms by which Amazon can retain the customers in the market. Some of the effective social media marketing tools are as follows:
Facebook is the famous and popular social network in the world. In present time, there are more than 120 million people who are active on Facebook. This is the famous social networking website which connects the people across the country and the world. This social media tool builds and improves the social relations among the people who have common activities, interests and experiences. The Facebook is very beneficial for the online retailing companies as the companies can makes the pages of their own names on the Facebook and on those pages, they can display the wide range of products and services (Statista, 2014). Facebook provides effective results for the online retailers by the customer lifecycle. Through FaceBook, Amazon is able to connect with the customers regularly. By the Facebook, the company is able to achieve marketing goals. For Amazon, Facebook is the best platform to attract new customers. Amazon can target micro segments of more than one billion people by the Facebook (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Facebook enables the transparent communication between the specific brands and their customers. Facebook is beneficial for the customer service and customers relationship. By the Facebook marketing, companies increase the chances of re-visit and peer-to-peer recommendations. Along with this, Facebook page enables the companies to categorize themselves properly and creates an interactive space to engage the customers for business.
Instagram is also very famous social media platform to attract the customers. It is a photo and video sharing app which is used in the android phones. This app allows the retailer companies to attract the customers by posting images and videos of the products and services. Instagram allows the ecommerce and retail companies to show the prices and the description of the products by the posts. There are more than 5 million monthly active users and for these customers, Instagram has launched a “shop now” button. Through this button, retailers can directly connect with the followers who want to buy the product (Statista, 2014).
Twitter is the best platform for the online retailer companies to build up the effective relationships with the customers. Twitter is an information network which is made up of 140-character messages. Those messages are called Tweets. There are no groups and apps on the Twitter. There are only conversations among the people. Basically, Twitter is the best way to get the reviews from the consumers in the business. It is very helpful in building relationship with the target customers. Twitter does not have the products for the retailers. There are various promoted tweets which are run by online retailers during the advertisements, sales and discounts (Vlack, 2013).
In present time, Twitter is the simplest platform of social network. It can be used for personal and for brand engagement tool. So, twitter now is easier to retain the new users. Twitter offers the way to the people to stay connected with the desired company. To stay competitive in the market, almost every company is the part of Twitter. For the customer service, Twitter is also the important tool. It is the most popular tool among the marketers, executives and other brand controllers. Basically, in the customer management, twitter functions in the four ways i.e. problem resolution, positive brand energy, staff involvement and cost reduction. By using twitter as the customer service tool, customers can track the large brand-base conversation.
This social media platform is popular among the business professionals which enables them to be more successful and productive in the business. LinkedIn is the largest professional networking site in the world. This is one of the most important tool by which employers find out new employees for the business. There are some features in the LinkedIn by which such as endorsement, recommendations, and In-mail feature which support the consumers to choose right products and services for them. There are LinkedIn groups which allow the people to connect with others in the same industry (Maughan, 2007).
Social media is an effective and powerful tool for marketing the products and services. If the company uses it properly, company can be able to develop strong personal relations with the customers. To take advantage from the social media, there is the need to build a clear strategy to achieve competitive advantage in the market. There are some stages to develop the effective social media strategy for Amazon (Seong & Kun 2013).
It is important to understand the business goals and objectives for the company while developing social media strategy for the business. The first step of the social media strategy is to understand by the company where it wants to go and what is the purpose of the purpose of social media strategy. The Amazon is the online retailer company having the aim to provide best quality of retail products to the customers by the online platforms. The goals of the company are not manually exclusive but for the growth, company should focus on one or two goals (Bosomworth & Chaffey, 2012).
The aim of this step is to provide the information to the company about the future goals and targets in the market. If the company is seeking for increasing the sales then predetermined goals will be very helpful for the company. The set goals will be helpful to build customer loyalty and retention.
After identifying the goals and objectives, the company should set clear objectives based on those goals. Amazon can focus on the SMART strategy to set the goals. By using the SMART strategy, the company can make sure that the objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time based. If the Amazon wants to increase brand awareness of the company, then company must increase the number of times the brand is mentioned on social media.
The aim of this stage is to build effective objectives for the success of the company. Objectives should be directly connected with the business goals of the company. Along with this, they should be achievable otherwise they will be only wishful thinking. Further, the aim of this stage is to make the company understand that the objectives are time limited (Nail, 2009).
Customers are the important part for the success of any company. The successful social-media strategy is all about targeting right people with the effective and right messages. For this, it is important to understand the customers in the market. For Amazon, it is clear that there are many customers who love to do online shopping. For the shopping lovers, Amazon provides various products in different catagories. Amazon has developed Amazon app to target mobile young professionals who are technology enthusiasts.
Aim of this stage is to help the companies to identify the right customers for their products and services. To create buyer personas, it is important to understand the customers. Company has to create a detailed profile for the ideal customers including their income, age, name, likes or dislikes. If the company has more than one ideal customer, then it will be helpful for the company to create persona for each customer (Fagerstrøm & Ghinea, 2011).
There are lots of competitions when it comes to social media. Other companies are also targeting similar customers so there is strong competition in the market for the retail products. For the Amazon, there are many competitors such as ebay, Ikea etc who are operating in the similar industry. To do the research on the competitors, Amazon has to find out the social networks on which they are active and the kinds of cultural references they are using to attract the customers (Stringfellow, 2017).
The aim of this stage is to gather information about the competitors so that company can provide best products and services as compared to the similar companies. For this manner, company will see that how well every competitor is doing such as engagement, comments, shares and likes they are getting on the Facebook updates. That will let the company identify about the working and failed strategies (Okazaki & Romero, 2010).
At last, the company will focus on developing effective message and identifying the social media channels to attract the customers. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc are some bets platforms on which the people are mostly active. These channels are becoming obvious due to the presence of competitors.
Aim of this stage is to develop effective social media message to attract the customers. by having command on the social media platforms, Company will be able to gain trust of the customers (Foster, 2015).
Everybody knows about the Amazon and its marketing strategy to attract the customers. This is the popular online shopping website which has managed its marketing strategy effectively. The company has great control over its social media and traditional marketing tactics. The company has information about its customers who use social media for shopping. By the social media and traditional marketing, Amazon has attracted lots of consumers who love to do online shopping. Traditional marketing is considered as the marketing with traditional media i.e. radio, corporate gifts, television, corporate fairs and company’s webpage. In case of Amazon, the company is mainly focused on the marketing with television as compared to other channels. By the various ads on the television, company is able to attract women sector. The efforts of Amazon in the marketing of its products can be seen as follows:
Mobile marketing can be described as the multi-channel and digital marketing strategy which has aim to target the customers on the smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices through emails, websites, SMS, MMS, social media and the apps. In present time, mobile is connecting the consumers with the brands. The things which can be done on the computers now can be done on the mobiles. Basically, it is a two-way communication of the companies with the consumers (Gustafson, 2015). Mobile market is very useful for the online retailers in present time as the mobile marketing increases the perceived value for the customers. Along with this, it increases the outcome value for the retailers. Mobile with the internet makes the shopping easier and less costly for the customers. Consumers are empowered by the internet which improves the relationship with the purchased brand after purchase. For selling products and services, the online retail companies like Amazon has started the mobile apps. Consumers have to download those mobile apps and use for the online shopping. The recent data shows that the mobile apps are gaining some ground now. Amazon has large user base of more than 35.4 million customers on the mobile app. The mobile apps help the customers to find out the discounts on the unbranded items (Jopson, 2011).
Major retailers are investing in the mobile technology and mobile apps continuously. There are various ranges of opportunities by using the mobile in the online retailing. There is the big impact of mobile in retail industry. The mobile devices provide opportunities to the customers to get maximum information about the products. The mobile and its applications are developed for both retailers and sellers. They are proved to be highly effective for the marketing products and services that the retail companies are offering (Khaliq, 2017).
Mobile devices are becoming important for the online retail. Now days, shopping online are very popular among the customers. Online shopping may seem like people will love to do on the desktop computer rather than their mobile but it is continuously changing. By the research, it has observed that 58% of adults are using mobile phones and 55% of their time they are spending on the online shopping on mobile devices. The statistics of 2013 shows that rather than using tablets, the consumers use smart phones for the shopping. It is due to higher popularity of Smartphone usage (Gregory, 2013). Further, consumers use mobile devices for researching about prices and the locations of the stores while seeking for a particular product. Consumers use mobile devices to find out the coupons and compare the prices with other competitors. There are so many customers using mobile phones for online retail shopping and browsing and spend higher amounts when shopping online. Customers are now using mobile devices everywhere they go and they use mobile applications to advance their shopping experience. They can easily compare the products and their prices by registering and giving feedbacks (Chaffey, 2017).
Mobile devices are the effective communication tool for the companies. Mobiles allow the customers to reach the customers to anytime and anywhere, in real-time. By using the mobile devices, customers are now able to get the important source of information, entertainment and communication in the same way they do on their PCs. Basically, the mobile phones have increased the connectedness of the consumers with the companies. Along with this, mobile phones are the medium of two-way communication. The growth of the business depends upon its ability to improve the relations with the customers and build up the customer database. The mobile phones are very beneficial for the online retailers to develop effective marketing communication (NPFulfilment, 2014).
Basically, there are two ways of marketing communications i.e. push and pull. In the push strategy, marketers communicate with the customers by sending information directly to the customers. In this strategy, they send the information without any prior request. Push marketing generally includes SMS advertising. On the other hand, pull marketing includes short codes, quick response, and image recognition based codes which have the greater role in the marketing communication (Okazaki, Katsukura & Nishiyama, 2007). The mobile phones allow the retail companies to improve the quality of the products and services and also create new services for the mobile users. The advantage can be achieved by using mobile application for every company. Mobile phones are the efficient channels for the development of the product as it can attract large number of customers for the selling of products (Tvaneven, 2017).
The usage of mobile devices has changed the way of business in the retail industry. The mobile shopping apps are helpful in the retail industry to manage the customers and keep than well-informed about the products and services offered by the companies. By the mobile applications, companies are able to the keep the customers happy. Mobile devices can also provide the opportunity to the retailers to showcase their products by the mobile apps which can be viewed on the smart mobile phones. So, for the retailers, customers should be priority so that they can provide right information to them. Mobile devices help the users to save or bookmark the products that they wish to buy in future. The mobile devices can also help the companies to share the information effectively which will result in viral marketing (Appsbee Team, 2015).
Content marketing can be described as the use of words, images, interactive applications, forms and formats of audience-centric and engaging content to attain the market goals and objectives by the company. The aim of each and every company is to increase the profit in the business operations. Content marketing is not news in the market. According to the research, there are many companies who use content marketing by using content for any possible marketing. Basically, content marketing is the practice of creating and distributing the content which is informative, helpful and entertaining for the customers of the company. The successful content marketing creates positive impact on the customers without the hassle of product marketing. Content marketing is considered as the art of understanding and identifying the needs or requirements of the particular customer group in the market (O’Nill, 2015).
Content marketing is the combination of many options. Content includes blogs, articles, brand information, videos, and post or updates conversations, events and webcasts or podcasts. Amazon wants to develop its activity, gain new customers and build long term relations with the customers then the company has to adopt the defined marketing strategy. So there are two methods to implement the strategy i.e. informing the customers about products by generating valuable content or by generating entertainment content.
Content marketing attracts more customers as compared to the traditional marketing. In present time, traditional marketing such as press, television, radio, and magazines are losing the market of advertisers. On the other hand, it has been found that by the content marketing, customers feel more closure to the company. The content marketing is helpful for the customers to make right decisions. Customers basically do not remember the numbers, facts and statistics, but they keep remember the distributed stories. So, in present time, consumers want content in the promotional activities of the products or services. The content marketing is useful for the Amazon to attract the target customers and to build the effective relationship with them. For developing the long term relationship with the customers, Amazon has to develop the effective content marketing strategy. There are some ways to use content marketing for building effective relationship with the customers (Rayner et al, 2001).
Before targeting the customers, the company has to focus on the brand. Amazon is the famous brand as online retail company among the customers. Amazon has to provide all the relevant information to the customers and that will be helpful to build the strong relationship between the company and the customers. By telling the story, the consumers will connect with the company with honesty and openness.
Customers always respond to the honest and open communication with the company. By the social media, Amazon always communicates with the customers. Because of Social media, Amazon is the biggest name to communicate with the customers. Communication must be two way i.e. talking and listening. Amazon is the company that listens and gives response to the customers.
By using visual content, every company can be able to connect the customers. Amazon creates original work and uses the creativity for the customers. Those activities allow the customers for further interaction with the company (Williamson, 2009).
Use of SEO and keywords has the strong impact to attract the clients. The search engines are very helpful for the customers in finding the relative content. Under the SEO, the company can use various webmaster tools for the site of the company and can provide various useful data to the customers (I-scope, 2017).
There are various laws related to content marketing. If a company wants to grow the business with effective advertising and marketing strategies, it has to follow some rules and laws while developing the content marketing in the business. The advertising rules and laws are changing continuously. The online retail companies such as Amazon have to adopt various rules for the digital and content marketing. There are Self-regulation and good practices supplements laws which should be adopted by the companies while adopting content marketing. There are around hundred pieces of legislations which affect the content marketing. There are two main laws which are important for the online retail company such as Amazon i.e. consumer protection from unfair trading regulations of 2008 and the Privacy and Electronic communications Regulations 2011.
The consumer protection from unfair trading regulations of 2008 is related to unfair, aggressive and misleading marketing practices. This is regulated by trading standards in respect of advertising policy. There is one more code i.e. Code of Non-Broadcasting Advertising and Direct Promotional Marketing code which should also be adopted by online retail companies. This code is the combination of set of self-regulatory rules that can be applied in all advertising content. According to this code, all the marketing activities should be legal, honest, decent and truthful. They should not be the cause of mislead, consumers’ inexperience, cause of fear, unsafe practices and violence. So, there are three main laws of content marketing described above which should be adopted by the online retailers while adopting content marketing (IAB, 2017).
Conclusion
This report is focused on the digital marketing strategy for the online retailer company Amazon. From the above discussion, it is observed that there are various digital marketing tools which are important for the growth of online marketing. Customers like online shopping and they are spending lots of amount on that. So, it is important for the companies like Amazon to create effective digital marketing strategy to attract more customers. By using effective social media platforms such as FaceBook, Twitter, Google plus, Youtube, Linked in and Pinterest which are in trends. Customers are active on the social media continuously so it is necessary for the company to adopt social media strategies with the effective messages. With the social media, mobile marketing and content marketing is also very useful to attract the customers as it is observed that mobile devices are the first choice of the customers in online shopping. The companies are developing mobile applications with the brand name of the company which is very easy for the customers to access. Along with this, there are some laws and legislations which have to adopt the online retail companies while developing digital marketing for the business.
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