A wave of new technologies exists today to aid marketers in reaching and researching existing and prospective customers. The newest trends in marketing are based on and around the use of new technologies. With resources such as QR codes, social media marketing and mobile marketing, consumers are directly involved in activities that require an interaction around the benefits offered by a brand.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing. refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media marketing involves using peer recommendations, building brand personality, and addressing the market as a group of individuals. It also uniquely encourages customers to create their own content and buzz around a product. In other words, programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. Hence, this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth; this means it generates results in earned media rather than paid media.
Some examples of popular social media sites are:
Twitter allows companies to promote products on an individual level. The use of a product can be explained in short messages that followers are more likely to read. Messages can link to the product’s website, Facebook profile, photos, videos, et cetera. This link gives followers the opportunity to spend more time interacting with the product online. This interaction can create a loyal connection between product and individual and can also lead to larger advertising opportunities.
Facebook profiles are more detailed than Twitter. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. These also can include testimonials, as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see.
Foursquare
Foursquare is a location-based social networking website where users can check into locations via their smartphones. Foursquare allows businesses to create a page or create a new venue or claim an existing one. A good marketing strategyfor businesses to increase footfall or retain loyal customers includes offering incentives like discounts or free food/beverages for people checking in to their location, or provides special privileges for the mayor of that location.
LinkedIn, being a professional business-related networking site, allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as allowing their business to network and meet others. Through the use of widgets, members can promote their various social networking activities, such as Twitter stream or blog entries of their product pages, on their LinkedIn profile page. LinkedIn provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners.
Viral marketing
Another type of innivation in marketing is Viral marketing. It involves the exponential spread of a marketing messages by online word of mouth (sometimes referred to as “word of mouse”). A major component of viral communication is the meme - or a message that spreads virally and embeds itself in the collective consciousness. Viral marketing is closely tied to social media, since social media platforms and their sharing functionality are the main way that a message is able to “go viral” online.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is marketing on or with a mobile device. More specifically, marketers use interactive wireless media to provide customers with personalized information that promotes goods, services and ideas - thereby generating value for all stakeholders. The most popular forms of mobile marketing include:
SMS Marketing
Over the past few years, SMS (short message service) marketing has become a legitimate advertising channel in some parts of the world. On average, SMS messages are read within four minutes, making them highly convertible.
SMS marketing services typically run off a short code. Short codes are five or six digit numbers that have been assigned by mobile operators in a given country for the use of brand campaigns and other consumer services.
MMS Marketing
Mobile content can also be delivered via MMS (multimedia message service). Nearly all new phones produced with a color screen are capable of sending and receiving standard MMS messages. MMS mobile marketing can contain a timed slideshow of images, text, audio, and video.
QR Codes
Also with the increase in smart phone usage, QR - or quick response - codes have become much more prevalent in marketing pieces both on and offline. Consumers can scan these images with their smart phones to instantly reach information or offer pages. Acting as a visual hyper-link, QR codes make it easy for someone to reach a mobile optimized offer page. As such, they represent a very powerful tool for initiating consumer engagement at the time when the marketing piece is likely triggering its most emotional response. Their potential for tracking offline sources and delivering the types of analytics previously reserved for online tracking makes another powerful reason that marketers are flocking to QR codes in droves.Figure 1
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Before evaluating some reasons why social media marketing has become so popular in today’s marketplace, what exactly does the buzz phrase social media marketing mean? A working definition for consideration has been provided by (Ward, 2012), “Social media marketing consists of the attempt to use social media to persuade consumers that one’s company, products and/or services are worthwhile.” By recognizing that social media is a powerful marketing tool to persuade or allure consumers, numerous companies like Pepsi, Starbucks, and Hyundai to name a few, have benefited and continue to benefit from it. Further evidence of this will be provided later on. Furthermore, many companies use social media sites or networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, LinkedIn, and others to generate a lot of…
- 5061 Words
- 21 Pages
Powerful Essays -
There are many ways to interact with customers and promote products/services using social media as it becomes more and more popular with the public across the world.…
- 1171 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
The impact on consumer behavior and marketing is huge. With the huge growth in ecommerce, the use of social media has become a great tool for companies to understand their customers like never before. Companies are monetizing this technology in many ways; whether it’s from crowd sourcing, receiving immediate feedback from customers, or simply using social media as an additional source for advertising. Companies are now use social media as a link to their customers and also a way to interact with them.…
- 430 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout the twenty-first century, social marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses; not matter the size. Marketing and technology have ultimately taken over the world, allowing individuals round the clock access to the Internet, music, emails, televisions, and video uploads all via their cellular device. Social media marketing as become remarkably popular among businesses such as Pepsi refresh project (Boone, L.E. & Kurtz, D.L. pg.354). This viral marketing launch became a year long initiative in which consumers created a short video that would benefit their communities. This particular marketing strategy was popular in the advertisement of Pepsi’s products without it costing anyone anything. When the videos went viral, Pepsi was able to save money on the cost of advertisements, and spend the money they saved elsewhere. Companies that evolve into social medical marketing will be able to increase exposure to their companies, gain additional web traffic, potentially increase sales and gain customers. Social media marketing is the new way of the world for companies interested in expanding their brands; therefore, more companies are investing more of their money in social media.…
- 1235 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.…
- 1724 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Crescordia is at a crossroads, trying to decide whether or not to adopt the disposable fixation device. This question has come about due to their market share erosion, as the company currently does not offer a resorbable product line. Innostat offers a resorbable product (albeit, in the early stages of development) and gaining market share in both product lines. The decision of whether or not to enter the resorbables market now is a crucial question we should address. This decision will not only impact the current line of business but also the well being of the company as a whole in the future.…
- 777 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Social media can also be a profitable sales and marketing tool. Through social media, business professionals now have the ability to advertise, promote, and publicize their products and services without ever having to leave their homes. There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again. In fact, the benefits in most cases exceed the cost. It would take you thousands of dollars to buy several links; social media has the ability to give you that for free.…
- 615 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Social Networks can be used to create Brand Awareness, used as an online reputation management tool, for Recruiting, to learn more about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead general tool to intercept potential prospects. There are some businesses and corporations that are currently leveraging social networks and online communities to their advantage. One way to create brand awareness is through the release of things such as widgets or companies can create some buzz about upcoming product releases. Also, using social networks to drive traffic to online web properties where businesses can entice users to engage with their sites and their products or solutions. Some businesses are even creating their own social communities to encourage viral discussions about their products, and to act like a feedback mechanism about their product/service (for business improvements). Many corporations are now beginning to use social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn as tools for recruiting new talent. By creating Facebook Groups some Human Resource departments are using social…
- 359 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
For example companies can now use market intelligence gained through these social media networks to launch new products and services into the market place at greater speed and at significantly lower cost. Social media opens ways to conduct market research more quickly and cheaply than ever before, and to engage in a real-time dialogue with a wide range of customers, replicating the insights traditionally provided from direct customer feedback or expensive and time-consuming focus groups. Electronics retailer Best Buy, for instance, engages in about 5,000 customer dialogues per week through online forums, and has more than 1.3 million followers on Facebook, with whom it interacts regularly. This direct interaction can also help companies benchmark themselves against the competition and gather valuable input on what shoppers like about them—and what they don’t.…
- 633 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
What we love about marketing is that it is a continually in a state of evolution. From email and mobile to the real-time web, to social acquisition and personalization capabilities, marketing technology innovates and improves.…
- 1133 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
This is the number one reason businesses will advertise via social media: their network of followers is already familiar with their business and products, additionally, they are likely to be users and supporters of the brand: what better pool from which to select the newest team member?…
- 396 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
3. We can use social media for advertising specials that we are offering to our customer base. This will let our followers know when we are having a special and make that purchase even if they were not thinking about making a purchase yet. We can also use social media for displaying our volunteerism we do as a company that may attracted even more consumers as our followers share our good deeds.…
- 470 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
A dynamic trend is sweeping the digital agency landscape and it involves people, processes and technology. Clients and brands are increasingly turning to their agencies for staff “in-sourcing”, creative and innovative experiences, and technology innovation. And the industry is responding. The 2013 SoDA’s Digital Marketing Outlook (DMO) survey results have been released and the findings are exciting for digital agencies. In today’s blog, we take a look at these newly released digital agency trends and find out what impact they’ll have in the coming year.…
- 500 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Social media – a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content, (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010), marketing – process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Therefore, social media marketing concept can be described as – the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.…
- 1936 Words
- 7 Pages
Best Essays -
Brompton which is the UK’s biggest folding bike manufacturer has used social media and word of mouth as their way of marketing their product they also use UGC ( user-generated content ) to show how happy their customers are with the product. throughout social media, they interact with their customers as well as updates on a regular basis creating lots of customer engagement. Another thing that Brompton do is use Twitter as a way of telling users about competitions and events as Brompton see Twitter as the fastest…
- 775 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays