A colloquium on the topic ‘Digital Marketing: The New Marketing Tool’ was held at the Sri Krishna Hall of School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, on January 21, 2019. The session was handled by Dr. Luisa Agante, Professor (Assistant), University of Porto, Portugal.
In the session, Dr. Luisa Agante explained the mantra to succeed in the era of digital marketing. She added, “One ought to have a clear vision of what one wants. Second, the key importance of website as the centre for the entire strategy. Once the website is down, the customers would no longer know that we exist. Next, know everything about your customer.”
She further said, “To make a successful career in digital marketing, one ought to know his/her customers’ online buying behaviour. The online buying behaviour would be very different from the normal physical window shopping and store visits because the customer doesn’t get to touch and feel his product. The shop ambience would be replaced by the flexibility to move through the shopping site and its simplicity.”
She gave an idea of the importance of inbound marketing which has improved significantly where the customer is pulled to the purchasing process rather than pushing out our product for sale. She said, “The significance of zero moments of truth has risen by leaps and bounds owing to the tastes and perceptions of customers; ZMOT refers to the point in the buying cycle when the consumer researches a product, often before the seller even knows that they exist. We have to be found on Google all the time. Where can you hide a dead body? On the 20th page of the Google search. It is highly important that the search engines showcase our products and services in the top 2 pages of search. Only then would the ZMOT come into play effectively.”
She explained about Similar Web, the website which provides web analytics services for businesses. The company offers its customers information on their clients and competitors website traffic volume; referral sources, including keyword analysis; and website “stickiness”, among other features.
The session stressed the importance of social media marketing and Dr. Luisa Agante emphasized that the students need to know the customers better, and make use of all the social media platforms thoroughly to their advantage.
