• To identify the best practices in paid digital marketing. The research will be used to inform the launch of an online marketing strategy and would ideally include an overview of the biggest digital marketing projects worldwide.

Digital Marketing

• There are several types of digital marketing strategies. They include:

• Search Engine Optimization;
• Pay per click advertising;
•  Email marketing;
•  Social media marketing;
•  Affiliate marketing;
•  Mobile marketing;
•  Influencer marketing; and
•  Viral marketing.
• The best practice will depend on the type of digital marketing a company wishes to focus on.

Chaterbots and Conversational Marketing

• Conversational marketing makes use of AI technology, usually in the form of chaterbots, to engage with the potential customer and improve their experience. It can also be used for email campaigns, customer feedback, and online purchases.
• There is a wealth of information available online that discusses the importance of incorporating AI technology into any digital marketing strategy. In fact, the growth in this area of marketing has seen the number of users of the four top messaging apps surpass the number of users of the top four social networks.

Know Your Customers

• It is best practice to understand your target market and your limitations before initiating a digital marketing campaign. Before moving to an actual campaign, it is best practice for companies to know the following prior to thinking about their actual campaign.
• What is the buyer persona?
• Who are my competitors?
• Understand the market metrics.
• Cost per opportunity?
• Cost per lead?
• Customer customer acquistion cost?
• Return on deployed capital?

Harris Teeter

• Harris Teeter instigated a digital marketing campaign to boost their image on social media. The campaign utilized behavioral targeting to focus the campaign on the audiences that offered the best return. Extensive testing was completed using a range of creative to find the message most likely to succeed with their target audience.

Summary

• There is a huge amount of data available relating to this topic. It would be useful if some additional information regarding the type of digital marketing being considered and some basic market and audience data could be made available for any further research. This would enable us to better focus our research on the relevant area.