What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing can be defined as the act of using digital channels to attract, convert and engage potential customers to know about a brand. It is the practice of promoting products or services with the help of digital devices and technology. Simply put, Digital marketing means marketing businesses or products digitally.

In today’s age digital marketing has grown to be an important aspect in businesses. We live in a chronically online world and as such, it has become imperative for marketers to take promotion of businesses digitally. With the advent of a globalized world, digital marketing knowledge has become a must-have for every business owner.

The major goal of digital marketing is to connect with customers online-the place where people spend the most time seeking information or entertainment. It is taking information about a product or service to the people who really need them.

Digital marketing is a broad concept. This is because there are so many channels available online to market a product. Posting on social media for example, is a form of digital marketing. This explains the growth of the social media influencing business. Email marketing is another form of digital marketing, so is web design and blogging. Whatever form one decides to use, at its core, digital marketing involves leveraging online tools and strategies to reach potential customers, engaging with them, and driving sales or conversion.

The first thing to consider when promoting a business digitally is to get clear on who your ideal customer is. If the right people aren’t noticing your business online, it means you are not marketing your product correctly. As such, there is a need to have a strategic plan before any digital marketing campaign for a business is started. Who are my ideal potential customers? How do I find these potential customers and what do I do to convert such potential customers into actual customers? This is where a customer avatar comes in

Customer Avatar in Digital Marketing

A customer avatar is a digital marketing term that refers to a fictional profile that describes and details your ideal customer. A customer avatar which can also be referred to as a customer or buyer persona is a detailed description of a person who represents a specific target market for your business. It describes the specific characteristics, needs and behaviors of your target audience.

To get such detailed information of an ideal customer, proper research has to be carried out. Such research must answer the following questions, who is my ideal customer? What is the age range of my ideal customer? What social media platform does my ideal customer spend their time on? How do I sell my product and services to my ideal customer? Can I establish the pain point and desired outcome of my ideal customer? Once you have completed the research for all these questions, you can proceed to create a profile using the gathered details. This profile becomes your customer avatar.

With a properly researched customer avatar, marketing products and services digitally can be done effectively. This is because, a perfectly done customer avatar, helps you get a better understanding of your audience. You understand your ideal customers and what they truly need. This further helps tailor your marketing strategies instead of engaging in a one-shoe-size-fits- all strategy. With a tailored marketing strategy, money and time can be accurately dispensed. Another importance of a well-done customer avatar is that it builds better trust with customers as it becomes possible to address your customer’s doubt question.

Doubt question is another important variable to factor in when starting a digital marketing campaign.

What is a Doubt Question?

A doubt question in digital marketing refers to the question and doubt that a potential customer might have about a product or service. It refers to concerns that could stem from variety of reasons which could eventually prevent a potential customer from purchasing a product or service.

These questions often stem from a variety of reasons ranging from lack of information about a product, trust or even clarity about the product, service or brand. Preemptively addressing these questions is critical in converting potential customers into actual customers. Example of such questions/doubts include

1. Product/Service related questions; such questions include, How does this product work? Is it worth the price? What are its benefits?
2. Trust questions; is this a legitimate product/service? Are there real reviews or testimonials from other customers?
3. Support related questions; will there be help available if I face issues whilst using this product or service? Do they offer customer support?

It is important to address all these questions when marketing businesses or services online. Answering doubt questions contributes to effective digital marketing. For one, it reassures potential customers about your brand and builds credibility. It also removes obstacles that could prevent converting potential customers into actual customers. Answering doubt questions when marketing products/services online has a way of making customers feel valued as their concerns are anticipated and addressed. Also it reduces the eventuality of customers abandoning purchase due to unanswered questions or uncertainties.

Another crucial factor to consider before launching an online digital marketing campaign is a sales funnel.

What is a Sales Funnel?

Sales funnel can be defined as the steps to take on digital platforms to move a stranger, or potential customer into the category of a paying customer. It is a marketing term that refers to the visual representation of a customer’s journey, outlining the steps a potential customer go through from the moment they become aware of your brand to when they make a purchase. It is a strategic framework used in illustrating and guiding the journey of potential customers into becoming actual customers. It is called a funnel because the number of potential customers declines at each stage of this framework narrowing down to those who eventually convert to actual customers.

The importance of a properly done sales funnel in digital marketing cannot be overemphasized. It is advised to create a sales funnel before the start of any digital campaign. Some of its importance includes

1. It helps you to understand the customer’s journey. It ensures that the need of a potential customer is identified and included in each stage of the buying process.
2. It ensures the optimization of marketing strategies. It ensures that strategic marketing strategies are included in the marketing process to ensure that potential customers are lead down the marketing funnel effectively.
3. It improves conversion rates. Sales funnel often addresses the pain points and objections of a potential customer at each stage of the funnel and this increases the likelihood of conversion.
4. Often times, in a sales funnel, space is created for further marketing to customers even after purchase. This ensures that customers remain loyal and advocate for your brand.
5. Sales funnel also provides insight into the conversion rate of potential customers and the point where potential customers lose interest, enabling you to optimize weaker areas in your marketing strategies.

There are several stages involved in a sales funnel. Stages in sales funnel could be longer or shorter depending on the digital marketer. However, it is advisable to make sales funnel as short as possible and that involves reducing the stages a potential buyer has to go through before purchasing a product or service. This is because, the longer the stages a potential buyer has to go through before they purchase a product or service, the easier it becomes for that buyer to lose interest at a particular stage.

The major stages involve in a sales funnel include;

1. Awareness stage; this is the top most part of the sales funnel. It also is the stage populated with the largest number of people. It is the first interaction with your brand that potential buyers have. It is the stage where a potential customer first learns about your brand, product or service. The focus in this stage is to capture the attention of the right audience either through content marketing, social media, SEO, ads or events. For example, a person first sees an ad of your product on social media or a blog post.
2. Consideration/interest stage; If the first stage is captivating enough and appeals to the right people, it draws them into this stage. This is the stage where a prospective customer starts to consider your brand. They show interest and start to seek more information of what your brand offers. They might browse your website, read your blog or peruse reviews from past customers. The focus in this stage is to educate potential customers otherwise called leads about your product or service. In digital marketing, this could be done by building a landing page. A landing page is a dedicated page on you brand website that is built for the purpose of generating leads. It is also called a lead conversion page. It is used to collect contact information of clients. As such, the page often contains forms for clients to drop their contact details. The page could also take them through series of questions or quizzes.
3. Decision stage; This is the stage where the potential customer makes an informed decision on whether to move to an actual customer or discontinue the sales process. The focus in this stage is to instill as much confidence in your brand in the potential customer as you can. This can be done by inputting testimonials from past clients, giving free trials and demos of your product or service or giving discount for your product or service with a timer on it.
4. Action stage; This is the last stage of the funnel and has the fewest number of persons. It is the stage where the potential customer becomes a customer by purchasing your product or brand.

In conclusion, digital marketing involves getting your brand to the people who need it through digital funnels. For an effective digital marketing campaign, there are several factors that should be put into consideration. A customer avatar should be created to help in understanding your customer, doubts and concerns that a potential customer could have about a product or business should be addressed in the digital marketing campaign and a well descriptive framework of the processes involved in that digital campaign should be crafted out before starting such campaign.